Add page tabs to Word (like Excel)

[Mark Thompson]

Now that IE 7 has the concept of Tabs, and Excel has the concept of multiple
Sheets in one workbook, I'd like to suggest that Word incoroporate that same
functionality.

It would be really nice to be able to create tabs, or "chapters", in a Word
document, and to be able to move quickly and easily between chapters by
clicking on their tabs, just like clicking on the tab for an Excel sheet.
Chapters in a book, sections in a proposal, pages in a briefing book, I can
think of several uses. Each chapter, or section, or whatever you want to
call it, would have a tab across the top of the work area.

This could also help with paging during printing. Perhaps an option for
each tab/chapter could be "Always start printing the information on this tab
at the top of a printed page".

Thank you.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e6f2c6&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Mark

Now that IE 7 has the concept of Tabs, and Excel has the concept of multiple
Sheets in one workbook, I'd like to suggest that Word incoroporate that same
functionality.

It would be really nice to be able to create tabs, or "chapters", in a Word
document, and to be able to move quickly and easily between chapters by
clicking on their tabs, just like clicking on the tab for an Excel sheet.
Chapters in a book, sections in a proposal, pages in a briefing book, I can
think of several uses. Each chapter, or section, or whatever you want to
call it, would have a tab across the top of the work area.

Have you tried using the Document Map or OutlineView to achieve the
desired result?

This could also help with paging during printing. Perhaps an option for
each tab/chapter could be "Always start printing the information on this tab
at the top of a printed page".

Hmm, in a structured document, this would be taken care of by setting
the "PageBreakBefore" property in the necessary style(s).

2cents
Robert

 

[Mark Thompson]

Unfortunately, neither the outline view nor the document map really does what
I'm wanting.

The Document Map requires significantly more screen space than does a row of
tabs across the top of the screen. Also, the Document Map looks directly at
the heading-formatted text in the document, thus creating unnecessarily long
references. For example, the header on a particular page might say
'Observations and Recommendations', but really the tab need only say
something short and sweet (like on an Excel tab), such as 'Summary',
something that is under my direct control. Further, if this was a book with
chapters, the author might not title his chapters, but just have chapter
numbers at the top of the page. A tab would give the author the ability to
label his chapters for his own own navigation, while not cluttering up the
document itself with a lot of unwanted text.

The Outline View is good in its way as well, but it relies on drilling up
and down throughout the entire document. For long documents, it isn't easy
to use Outline View to bounce back and forth between sections, and its more
cumbersome because we're still expanding and collapsing sections in order to
keep it somewhat navigable. Much easier page navigation in Excel.

I'll take your word for the "PageBreakBefore" property in a structured
document. That phrase is not in the initial Help search for Word, and the
extended search shows that it isn't really something that an ordinary user
would get into in a typical scenario such as the one I'm describing. Yes, I
understand what you're saying, but only because I'm a geek too. My wife is
an administrative assistant who does basic word processing and Excel, and
that would be way over the top for her.

I'm just looking for basic functionality, in an already understood paradigm
such as Excel tabs, that enhances productivity.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Mark Thompson wrote:
[..]

I'll take your word for the "PageBreakBefore" property in a structured
document. That phrase is not in the initial Help search for Word, and the
extended search shows that it isn't really something that an ordinary user
would get into in a typical scenario such as the one I'm describing. Yes, I
understand what you're saying, but only because I'm a geek too. My wife is
an administrative assistant who does basic word processing and Excel, and
that would be way over the top for her.

I know what you mean. I'm not so sure that "tabs in Word" as you
describe them would be so easily understandable by "ordinary users"
(whatever that means ). I know a great deal of Excel "users" who
don't have an idea what those things there are in the first place. IIRC
every default Excel file has three of them; I would be very much
interested in seeing statistical data from MSFT indicating in how big a
percentage of all files there are still 3 tabs of which two are
completely empty.

I'm just looking for basic functionality, in an already understood paradigm
such as Excel tabs, that enhances productivity.

And I see your point. And both Document Map as well as OutlineView need
time to work with.

OTOH, for a spreadsheet application, it is often a lot better to
separate stuff in individual tabs indeed. As long as we look at a word
processor as something to create primarily printed text (read:
sequential text), I'm not sure this is readily adaptable.

2cents
Robert

 

[CyberTaz]

The missing piece to [solving] your dilemma is that the internal structure
of a Word document contains no reference to what the user thinks of as a
"page". Therefore, trying to reference one consistently is pretty much out
of the question. IOW, even if Chapter X starts on what is the 87th page
today doesn't even begin to suggest that it will start on the 87th page
after the next round of editing, reformatting, etc. You might like to take a
look at a short article that sums it up rather well:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/PagesInWord.html

There is no comparison to an Excel file... Worksheets are simply not
analogous to pages. Each sheet is in its own little world comprising
anywhere from zero to as many as hundreds of "pages".

There are any number of navigation tools in Word that are more directly
related to the manner in which the program is designed to work.
Unfortunately most users never seem to find the time to learn how to use
those tools and most of them are not blatantly obvious. As far as "way over
the top", I think you're selling your wife (and many other users) short.
There's nothing difficult about the concept of Page Break Before, and
applying it is nothing more than clicking a checkbox in the Format Paragraph
dialog. *Learning* that it is there to be used is where the challenge lies
for most folks simply because of the assumption that using word processing
software is nothing more than "using a typewriter with a TV attached".

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[J Hardy]

I agree to the tabs feature. Like Excel you would create Word books or
something similar. While there are other programs to prepare manuals, etc,
Word having such a big following, would allow a writer, or specifier or a
manual maker, ( Authors) to divide the manual into chapters, or create a Mail
Merge withoher programs to provide cover letters, etc...

I think this would be easier to teach than scrolling thru 200 plus pages of
text to find information, etc.

Great idea. i had an epiphany and I am glad some people are thinking the
same thing.

Thank you

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Not disagreeing with your request--but there are many ways to navigate 200
pages of text besides scrolling.

You can use the Browse Object to automatically jump to the next section.
http://daiya.mvps.org/browseobject.htm

If you have set your doc up efficiently and logically, then you can use
Outline View or the Document Map to jump anywhere in the doc.
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/UsingOLView.htm
http://shaunakelly.com/word/documentmap/index.html
Anyone managing 200 pages of text should certainly be using such techniques.

 

[James Woodward - Brisbane Australia]

I also agree with Mark Thompson and J Hardy's suggestions. Microsoft One
Note now has this ability which is fantastic but One Note does not allow the
insertion of Excel tables - which I use a lot in my word documents. I'd
like to have tabs at the bottom of a word document [like in Excel] to easily
split my documents up in to chapters, topics, sections etc.

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia

 

[Tony Jollans]

Most requests for tabs in Word are for Document tabs (rather than 'document
part' tabs) which are not analagous to Excel worksheet tabs at all - and
none of which, incidentally, I would support.

At least here you are suggesting something more potentally viable. There
are, however, already document navigation facilities - Document Map, Outline
View, Browse by Section, etc. What more do you want? Documents can be
constructed in many ways and, whilst there may be a sort of tab that suits
you in a particular circumstance, would it be the same as the sort of tab
that woud suit another user, or suit you in another circumstance?

It often seems to me that people want all programs to provide what they
perceive as being similar interfaces without appreciating the distinctions
between the programs and the objects they manipulate. Excel workbooks have
a relatively simple structure that lends itself to tabs. OneNote has
navigation aids all round but, its notebooks are structurally different
from - and, in many ways, more rigid than - Word documents, which are free
flowing amorphous entities, to which you apply different structures for
different purposes.

Just my twopenn'orth.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"James Woodward - Brisbane Australia" <James Woodward - Brisbane
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message

I also agree with Mark Thompson and J Hardy's suggestions. Microsoft
One
Note now has this ability which is fantastic but One Note does not allow
the
insertion of Excel tables - which I use a lot in my word documents. I'd
like to have tabs at the bottom of a word document [like in Excel] to
easily
split my documents up in to chapters, topics, sections etc.

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia

I agree to the tabs feature. Like Excel you would create Word books or
something similar. While there are other programs to prepare manuals,
etc,
Word having such a big following, would allow a writer, or specifier or a
manual maker, ( Authors) to divide the manual into chapters, or create a
Mail
Merge withoher programs to provide cover letters, etc...

I think this would be easier to teach than scrolling thru 200 plus pages
of
text to find information, etc.

Great idea. i had an epiphany and I am glad some people are thinking the
same thing.

Thank you

 

[James Woodward - Brisbane Australia]

Hi Tony Jollans [I assume that you are a Microsoft employee [are you?]] - In
reply to your comments:

- If Microsoft think that ‘document part tabs’ are a great idea in One Note
and Excel why do you not think that they would be a great addition to Word?

- The document navigation facilities in Word that you refer to [Document
Map, Outline View, Browse by Section, etc.] are not easy to use – simple tabs
[like in One Note and Excel] would be much better [these could be toggles on
and off and user defined].

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia

Most requests for tabs in Word are for Document tabs (rather than 'document
part' tabs) which are not analagous to Excel worksheet tabs at all - and
none of which, incidentally, I would support.

At least here you are suggesting something more potentally viable. There
are, however, already document navigation facilities - Document Map, Outline
View, Browse by Section, etc. What more do you want? Documents can be
constructed in many ways and, whilst there may be a sort of tab that suits
you in a particular circumstance, would it be the same as the sort of tab
that woud suit another user, or suit you in another circumstance?

It often seems to me that people want all programs to provide what they
perceive as being similar interfaces without appreciating the distinctions
between the programs and the objects they manipulate. Excel workbooks have
a relatively simple structure that lends itself to tabs. OneNote has
navigation aids all round but, its notebooks are structurally different
from - and, in many ways, more rigid than - Word documents, which are free
flowing amorphous entities, to which you apply different structures for
different purposes.

Just my twopenn'orth.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"James Woodward - Brisbane Australia" <James Woodward - Brisbane
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message

I also agree with Mark Thompson and J Hardy's suggestions. Microsoft
One
Note now has this ability which is fantastic but One Note does not allow
the
insertion of Excel tables - which I use a lot in my word documents. I'd
like to have tabs at the bottom of a word document [like in Excel] to
easily
split my documents up in to chapters, topics, sections etc.

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia

I agree to the tabs feature. Like Excel you would create Word books or
something similar. While there are other programs to prepare manuals,
etc,
Word having such a big following, would allow a writer, or specifier or a
manual maker, ( Authors) to divide the manual into chapters, or create a
Mail
Merge withoher programs to provide cover letters, etc...

I think this would be easier to teach than scrolling thru 200 plus pages
of
text to find information, etc.

Great idea. i had an epiphany and I am glad some people are thinking the
same thing.

Thank you

:

Now that IE 7 has the concept of Tabs, and Excel has the concept of
multiple
Sheets in one workbook, I'd like to suggest that Word incoroporate that
same
functionality.

It would be really nice to be able to create tabs, or "chapters", in a
Word
document, and to be able to move quickly and easily between chapters by
clicking on their tabs, just like clicking on the tab for an Excel
sheet.
Chapters in a book, sections in a proposal, pages in a briefing book, I
can
think of several uses. Each chapter, or section, or whatever you want
to
call it, would have a tab across the top of the work area.

This could also help with paging during printing. Perhaps an option
for
each tab/chapter could be "Always start printing the information on
this tab
at the top of a printed page".

Thank you.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e6f2c6&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Tony Jollans]

No, I don't work for Microsoft. I have been honoured with MVP status by
Microsoft, a prerequisite for which is independence, but have no other
connection with them.

I have no idea what Microsoft think on this issue; my comments are purely my
own opinion. Whilst I tend to agree that document navigation could be
improved I do not think tabs are the way to do it. Even if they could be
toggled on and off I suspect they would confuse as many people as they
helped.

It is not entirely clear from your original post how you would like to tab
your documents: you mention chapters, topics, sections. Of those, only
sections are structural components of documents and I emphasise structural
because often thay have more to do with layout than content. How would you
designate - and delimit - your individual components? How, when you'd done
it, would it really differ from a document map (other than in its
presentation as tabs)?

To put it simply: simple tabs are for simple structures; Word documents are
not simple structures.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"James Woodward - Brisbane Australia"

Hi Tony Jollans [I assume that you are a Microsoft employee [are you?]] -
In
reply to your comments:

- If Microsoft think that ‘document part tabs’ are a great idea in One
Note
and Excel why do you not think that they would be a great addition to
Word?

- The document navigation facilities in Word that you refer to [Document
Map, Outline View, Browse by Section, etc.] are not easy to use – simple
tabs
[like in One Note and Excel] would be much better [these could be toggles
on
and off and user defined].

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia

Most requests for tabs in Word are for Document tabs (rather than
'document
part' tabs) which are not analagous to Excel worksheet tabs at all - and
none of which, incidentally, I would support.

At least here you are suggesting something more potentally viable. There
are, however, already document navigation facilities - Document Map,
Outline
View, Browse by Section, etc. What more do you want? Documents can be
constructed in many ways and, whilst there may be a sort of tab that
suits
you in a particular circumstance, would it be the same as the sort of tab
that woud suit another user, or suit you in another circumstance?

It often seems to me that people want all programs to provide what they
perceive as being similar interfaces without appreciating the
distinctions
between the programs and the objects they manipulate. Excel workbooks
have
a relatively simple structure that lends itself to tabs. OneNote has
navigation aids all round but, its notebooks are structurally different
from - and, in many ways, more rigid than - Word documents, which are
free
flowing amorphous entities, to which you apply different structures for
different purposes.

Just my twopenn'orth.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"James Woodward - Brisbane Australia" <James Woodward - Brisbane
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message

I also agree with Mark Thompson and J Hardy's suggestions. Microsoft
One
Note now has this ability which is fantastic but One Note does not
allow
the
insertion of Excel tables - which I use a lot in my word documents.
I'd
like to have tabs at the bottom of a word document [like in Excel] to
easily
split my documents up in to chapters, topics, sections etc.

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia


:

I agree to the tabs feature. Like Excel you would create Word books or
something similar. While there are other programs to prepare manuals,
etc,
Word having such a big following, would allow a writer, or specifier
or a
manual maker, ( Authors) to divide the manual into chapters, or create
a
Mail
Merge withoher programs to provide cover letters, etc...

I think this would be easier to teach than scrolling thru 200 plus
pages
of
text to find information, etc.

Great idea. i had an epiphany and I am glad some people are thinking
the
same thing.

Thank you

:

Now that IE 7 has the concept of Tabs, and Excel has the concept of
multiple
Sheets in one workbook, I'd like to suggest that Word incoroporate
that
same
functionality.

It would be really nice to be able to create tabs, or "chapters", in
a
Word
document, and to be able to move quickly and easily between chapters
by
clicking on their tabs, just like clicking on the tab for an Excel
sheet.
Chapters in a book, sections in a proposal, pages in a briefing
book, I
can
think of several uses. Each chapter, or section, or whatever you
want
to
call it, would have a tab across the top of the work area.

This could also help with paging during printing. Perhaps an option
for
each tab/chapter could be "Always start printing the information on
this tab
at the top of a printed page".

Thank you.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to
the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e6f2c6&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi James,

As with many things, someones 'great' is someone else's 'what were they thinking' There's nothing wrong with a tabbed interface
(basically that's what the ribbon is <g>) and who knows, at this point, what the next generation might look like. Office for mac
2008 appears to have both a Ribbon and traditional toolbar and it has a tabbed 'Notebook Layout view' that you can see on the brief
silent movie at http://microsoft.com/mac/products/word2008

One of the reasons given by people for not liking OneNote is that it's interface is 'all over the place' (i.e. the interface is way
too busy for them )

Issues folks bring up for Word 2007 is that it has tabs instead of menus, and that the ribbon/UI already takes up too much space,
so that they don't want to give up even more of their screen to document tabs (document writers tend to be looking at more of a
document at a time than folks in Excel, when editing, as an example), others would gladly make space for tabs for documents or for
sections.

IBM/Lotus Wordpro had a tabbed interface and IBM has resurrected the Symphony name for an Office product suite you can try from
http://symphony.lotus.com
that IBM has said that with coming out with a product to 'add their weight' to using ODF (Oasys Open Document Format) in office
files

There isn't one 'Microsoft' team. It's more like General Motors products, similar base with unique features to each product to meet
different perceived market needs.

This is an interesting Microsoft download on using the Office 2007 application interfaces
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102572621033.aspx
for folks that have Office 2007 with One Note installed, but who may not have used it or done much with it (that interface can feel
'foreign' to many folks too <g>).

For earlier versions of Word there have been tab interface add-ins available.

If you have a fast connection you can watch the presentation here on how the Office/Word 2007 interface came about and various desig
ns that were rejected for this version (one of which looks a lot like the Office for Mac 2008 one <g>)
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx (you can also download the 'Story of the Ribbon'
(146mb <g>)

============
Hi Tony Jollans [I assume that you are a Microsoft employee [are you?]] - In
reply to your comments:

- If Microsoft think that 'document part tabs' are a great idea in One Note
and Excel why do you not think that they would be a great addition to Word?

- The document navigation facilities in Word that you refer to [Document
Map, Outline View, Browse by Section, etc.] are not easy to use - simple tabs
[like in One Note and Excel] would be much better [these could be toggles on
and off and user defined].

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I watched all the demos. Pretty impressive!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi James,

As with many things, someones 'great' is someone else's 'what were they
thinking' There's nothing wrong with a tabbed interface
(basically that's what the ribbon is <g>) and who knows, at this point,
what the next generation might look like. Office for mac
2008 appears to have both a Ribbon and traditional toolbar and it has a
tabbed 'Notebook Layout view' that you can see on the brief
silent movie at http://microsoft.com/mac/products/word2008

One of the reasons given by people for not liking OneNote is that it's
interface is 'all over the place' (i.e. the interface is way
too busy for them )

Issues folks bring up for Word 2007 is that it has tabs instead of menus,
and that the ribbon/UI already takes up too much space,
so that they don't want to give up even more of their screen to document
tabs (document writers tend to be looking at more of a
document at a time than folks in Excel, when editing, as an example),
others would gladly make space for tabs for documents or for
sections.

IBM/Lotus Wordpro had a tabbed interface and IBM has resurrected the
Symphony name for an Office product suite you can try from
http://symphony.lotus.com
that IBM has said that with coming out with a product to 'add their
weight' to using ODF (Oasys Open Document Format) in office
files

There isn't one 'Microsoft' team. It's more like General Motors products,
similar base with unique features to each product to meet
different perceived market needs.

This is an interesting Microsoft download on using the Office 2007
application interfaces
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102572621033.aspx
for folks that have Office 2007 with One Note installed, but who may not
have used it or done much with it (that interface can feel
'foreign' to many folks too <g>).

For earlier versions of Word there have been tab interface add-ins
available.

If you have a fast connection you can watch the presentation here on how
the Office/Word 2007 interface came about and various desig
ns that were rejected for this version (one of which looks a lot like the
Office for Mac 2008 one <g>)
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx
(you can also download the 'Story of the Ribbon'
(146mb <g>)

============
<<"James Woodward - Brisbane Australia"
message
Hi Tony Jollans [I assume that you are a Microsoft employee [are you?]] -
In
reply to your comments:

- If Microsoft think that 'document part tabs' are a great idea in One
Note
and Excel why do you not think that they would be a great addition to
Word?

- The document navigation facilities in Word that you refer to [Document
Map, Outline View, Browse by Section, etc.] are not easy to use - simple
tabs
[like in One Note and Excel] would be much better [these could be toggles
on
and off and user defined].

James Woodward - Brisbane Australia >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*