Automatic formatting

[Rick]

I'm using Word X for Mac, and I have converted a rather long document
(288 pages) to Word from Appleworks 6.0. In the Document Map pane,
Word automatically has picked up my chapter headings. This is good.
However, it also has put in several other divisions that were not
meant to be dividers. I got rid of them by hand by demoting the
associated text.

My problem is that now, whenever I call up the document, I get a box
that says Word is automatically reformatting the document, and when
it's done, all my bad headings are back in the document map.

is there a way to keep Word from automatically reformatting this
document every time I call it up?

Thanks.

-- Woody

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Woody,

Doesn't sound like a familiar problem so I'm brainstorming..

When you say "call up the doc" do you mean opening it or going to the Doc
Map? If using File | Open, what is the Show set to?

Does the box say that Word is re-converting the doc from Appleworks? Is it
that same box? Have you done a Save As... In Word format?

What are these "divisions" and the associated text that keep reappearing?
That does make it sound as though you are re-opening the same Appleworks doc
every time.

AutoFormat options are controlled from the Tools | AutoCorrect dialog, but
this doesn't sound like any of them.

Some general explanation:
Word operates in terms of styles--every piece of text is in a certain style,
and the style definition controls font, size, formatting, alignment, and
many other properties, including outline level. Word uses outline level to
do things like generate the Doc Map or Outline view, or a table of contents,
etc. So when Word converted the doc from Appleworks, it assigned styles to
all the text. It may or may not have assigned styles in a way that will
work for you, I'm not familiar with converting from appleworks.

If you have to do noticeable formatting or editing with this 288 page doc
(is this a thesis?) in Word, then it will probably benefit you in the long
run to learn about styles and to reformat your document using styles in a
way that works for you. For instance, you might format all your chapter
titles as Heading 1 and then tell Word to automatically generate a TOC with
page numbers from all text formatted in Heading 1. This would require some
investment of time reading a bunch of links to webpages I could give you,
and experimenting with applying styles to a copy of your document, but you
would gain much greater control over your doc and over Word.

The Doc Map does assign styles to your text--the short answer is avoid using
it. The long answer (I think) is only use the built-in heading styles
(modified of course) and make sure the doc doesn't have anything Doc Map
will try to "interpret" as a heading, for instance, a very short paragraph
set off by space gets interpreted as a chapter heading. Even then I'm not
totally sure it's controllable. Doc Map leans on outline levels, which are
usually part of a style definition.

Post back with questions or answers...

DM

PS. Just in case the doc has corrupted: the first way to check for a corrupt
document is to copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark,
into a new document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information
which can get corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh
one keeps your formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a gray ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further info:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

 

[Rick]

Dayo,

Thanks for your help. I copied everything but the last paragraph
symbol to a new document. The new one works fine. Must have been some
sort of corruption.

I had been using the old document for several months, before it
started reformatting on its own, so I don't think the conversion from
Appleworks was the issue.

The unwanted divisions were lines of song lyrics that I had set in
italics. It would take the first line and make it a heading, I guess.
I was calling up the file by double-clicking on the file's icon, with
Word closed. The box said, "Word is reformatting the document" -- It
said nothing about reconverting from Appleworks.

Well, the problem seems to be solved. I appreciate the help.

-- Woody

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Glad you solved it. Yes, Doc Map wouldn't do well with things like song
lyrics.

Dayo

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Rick:

If you format the document with Word's built-in Heading Styles, Document Map
will accept them and use them. If you use other-named styles, Document Map
will change the styles so that it can work with them.

Document Map works best for structured documents such as corporate reports.

I recommend against using it for most documents because it does change the
formatting of the document.

If you want, you can run through and assign an Outline Level to the
paragraph definition of each style you use. If you get these right,
Document Map will then leave your document formatting alone. If you get the
outline levels set to a hierarchy Document Map doesn't like, it can be quite
destructive

Cheers


This responds to article <[email protected]>,

Dayo,

Thanks for your help. I copied everything but the last paragraph
symbol to a new document. The new one works fine. Must have been some
sort of corruption.

I had been using the old document for several months, before it
started reformatting on its own, so I don't think the conversion from
Appleworks was the issue.

The unwanted divisions were lines of song lyrics that I had set in
italics. It would take the first line and make it a heading, I guess.
I was calling up the file by double-clicking on the file's icon, with
Word closed. The box said, "Word is reformatting the document" -- It
said nothing about reconverting from Appleworks.

Well, the problem seems to be solved. I appreciate the help.

-- Woody

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]