Background Repagination

[CyberTaz]

Found this in the PPt group, thought it would be addressed more
appropriately here:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brilliant Pebble" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 5:24 PM
Subject: Background Repagination going on and off

 

[CyberTaz]

I can see how you may have drawn some of your conclusions, but here are some
points to consider:

1. Background Repagination isn't doc-specific, it's an application
preference setting.

2. Turning it off (clearing the check) only affects Normal & OutlineView. It
can't be turned off in Print/Page Layout View -- it's always active there
even if you've cleared the check. If the doc isn't repaginating while you're
in Print/Page Layout View and you *know* it should be doing so, something
definitely is not right.

3. I don't think this setting is stored in Normal - IIRC, it should be
stored in Word's prefs file. That doesn't mean that Normal isn't guilty, it
just lessens the suspicion

4. I'm a bit unclear as to what you are looking at on the "bottom of the
screen" - The page number info on the Status Bar?

So... my guess -- based on your other info -- is that the behavior is most
likely:

a) A corrupt preferences file, or

b) Not being fully updated with permissions repaired.

My suggestion would be to follow the guidelines here:

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

starting with The Basics & moving on to Damaged Preferences & Settings Files
(General Troubleshooting) as need be. If you still have any problems post
back with an indication of what you've tried & what the results are, as well
as specific OS & Office version info.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Just to add a snippet to Bob's comment, although it sounds like your
documents are over-ridden by the problem for Bob which has suggested a
solution: in the usual course of events, in Normal view Word only
repaginates when it feels like it, and in some documents I find this can
result in failure to repaginate for some considerable time. If I want to
force repagination while I'm working in Normal view (which is the view
usually work in), I just key Command-Option-p, then when repagination stops
I key Command-Option-n.

And I'd think the OP's reference is to the page number area of the status
bar, where a "repaginating" message will sometimes appear in long document
repagination.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Daiya Mitchell]

If you run Word Count (which I have on my toolbar), it will also force
repagination. Suddenly all the dotted lines show up in the right place.

 

[Brilliant Pebble]

I'm the original poster of the message that CyberTaz was kind enough to
forward to the appropriate group (I thought when I was writing it that I
was putting it in the wrong place...), and I just wanted to answer some
of the questions that have come up in the responses from Taz, Clive, and
Daiya.

First, I am talking about the Normal view situation. 99% of the time I
am looking at documents in Normal, and what I am observing is that the
"Background Repagination" checkbox is changing from checked to
unchecked, seemingly at random. That is, I will be working on a doc,
notice that it isn't automatically repaginating in the status bar (yes,
the bottom of the Word window), go check the prefs, see that "Background
Repagination" isn't checked, check it, and then it works fine; but then,
after quitting and opening another doc, it is back to being unchecked.
In short, everything is working as it is supposed to: when
"Repagination" is checked, it works, and when it isn't, it doesn't. But
I want it to be checked all the time.

Second, everything is up to date. I am running OS X. v. 10.4.9 on a
MacBook Pro 17" 2.16 GHz, with Office 11.3 (061213). I always install
all updates from Mac or Microsoft, so I don't think updating is a
problem.

Third, the permissions issue. Granted, I haven't checked my permissions
around this issue, but I have recently been doing permissions repairs on
a totally unrelated issue, so I think I would have found anything having
to do with Word. I will, however, do it again and report back. But
this has been a persistent problem through the six months I've had this
computer, so I don't think it is a temporary, recent problem.

Fourth, there are various ways to force a repagination/word count (both
Clive and Daiya's suggestions). Yes, either choosing "Word Count" in
the menu or doing Com-Opt-P/Com-Opt-N works to give me an accurate
count, but as I said, what is strange is that if I check the prefs and
the "Repag." box is checked, it will work, and when it isn't, it won't.
I don't think anything nefarious is going on here -- as I said, Word
seems to work exactly as it promises, but the problem is that it just
keeps changing the prefs on me.

I will try the permissions and prefs rebuild suggested here and report
back. Thanks for taking the time to respond and to dig this message out
of the wrong forum. If you have anything else based on this new
information, let me know.