Can't delete from Work menu

[Jack]

All of a sudden I cannot remove documents from the Work pulldown menu.
Just as the Help file describes, this used to be a simple matter of
hitting Option/Command and the Minus Sign at which time the cursor
changed to a large Minus Sign itself. Then any document clicked on in
the Work menu would be taken off the list. Now, my Word 2004 on a new
Intel iMac G5 won't change the cursor at all, and therefore nothing
can be deleted from the Work menu. "Add to Work Menu", on the other
hand, functions fine.
Any idea what happened or a way to fix it?

 

[Michel Bintener]

The "remove from Work menu" shortcut may not work properly if the zoom
feature in the System Preferences' Universal Access section is enabled.
Check the System Preferences to see if this feature has not been activated
by any chance; if yes, disable it, and hitting Option+Command+- should
remove entries from the Work menu once again. I have just verified, and this
keyboard shortcut still works on Intel Macs.

All of a sudden I cannot remove documents from the Work pulldown menu.
Just as the Help file describes, this used to be a simple matter of
hitting Option/Command and the Minus Sign at which time the cursor
changed to a large Minus Sign itself. Then any document clicked on in
the Work menu would be taken off the list. Now, my Word 2004 on a new
Intel iMac G5 won't change the cursor at all, and therefore nothing
can be deleted from the Work menu. "Add to Work Menu", on the other
hand, functions fine.
Any idea what happened or a way to fix it?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[JE McGimpsey]

All of a sudden I cannot remove documents from the Work pulldown menu.
Just as the Help file describes, this used to be a simple matter of
hitting Option/Command and the Minus Sign at which time the cursor
changed to a large Minus Sign itself. Then any document clicked on in
the Work menu would be taken off the list. Now, my Word 2004 on a new
Intel iMac G5 won't change the cursor at all, and therefore nothing
can be deleted from the Work menu. "Add to Work Menu", on the other
hand, functions fine.
Any idea what happened or a way to fix it?

Take a look here:

http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/word/workmenu/workmenu2.html

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Jack,

Carrying on from Michel's comment (which is important): I experienced the
same problem as yours a while back. Don't know how it happened. Rather than
use macros to fix it, I added an item to the Work menu, the "Remove from
Work menu" command.

I started to describe this: Choose Tools menu » Customize » Customize
toolbars/menus » click the "Commands" button at the top » OK. Then scroll to
....

<Check notes>

<Check Google advanced newsgroups search>

I CAN"T FIND THE COMMAND!

I'm not imagining it, because the command is definitely still on the menu,
where I put it.

Anyone care to solve this for me? :-\

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)
============================================================

 

[CyberTaz]

Are you referring to:

ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut

by any chance?... It's in the All Commands Category.

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

 

[Clive Huggan]

Thanks, Bob -- it is!

The interesting thing is that it keeps the "Tools customize remove menu
shortcut" wording when I add it to one of the other menus, but appears as
"Remove from Work Menu" on the Work menu. Is that reproducible at your end?
(If not, there's something else missing -- I should have noted this, but did
not; maybe I had billable work to do at the time. ;-)

Cheers,
Clive
=======

 

[CyberTaz]

I think you must have modified it - here it reads the full command name -
plus spacing - regardless of which menu it appears in. I've edited mine to
read "Remove Menu Item"... Can't ever remember the d*mned keystroke

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

 

[Jack]

All of a sudden I cannot remove documents from the Work pulldown menu.
Just as the Help file describes, this used to be a simple matter of
hitting Option/Command and the Minus Sign at which time the cursor
changed to a large Minus Sign itself. Then any document clicked on in
the Work menu would be taken off the list. Now, my Word 2004 on a new
Intel iMac G5 won't change the cursor at all, and therefore nothing
can be deleted from the Work menu. "Add to Work Menu", on the other
hand, functions fine.
Any idea what happened or a way to fix it?

Guys,

I thank you for your responses, but none of them have solved my
problem posted 8/21/07 of not being able to remove individual items
from my Work menu.

It turns out that Zoom had indeed been turned on in the Universal
Access pane and I understand that would have intercepted the Option/
Command/- keystroke combination. So I have turned it off.

Still cannot delete individual items from the Work menu. Option/
Command/- does not do anything now, much less give me the desired bold
minus sign.

I have disabled Universal Access from the Keyboards pane of System
Preferences.

Still can't remove specific items (or any items for that matter) from
the Work menu. And, yes, I have tried quitting Word and restarting my
Intel iMac G5.

Please understand, I am not trying to remove the whole Work menu,
which seems to have been the suggestion about
"ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut" from CyberTaz.

And if I am reading the suggestion from Clive Huggan correctly, he
seemed to have lost the command he was looking for.

So does anyone else have any suggestions for removing specific items
from the Work menu?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

So does anyone else have any suggestions for removing specific items
from the Work menu?

Go to Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboard. Select

Categories: All Commands
Commands: ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuItem

is the Command+Option+- shortcut listed under Current keys? If not, add
it back (or just click Reset All if you don't have any other
customizations).

If that doesn't work, and you don't have any other macros that reset
that key combo, check that you didn't assign some other system-level
shortcut for CMD-OPT--

 

[Michel Bintener]

Go to Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboard. Select

Categories: All Commands
Commands: ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuItem

is the Command+Option+- shortcut listed under Current keys? If not, add
it back (or just click Reset All if you don't have any other
customizations).

If that doesn't work, and you don't have any other macros that reset
that key combo, check that you didn't assign some other system-level
shortcut for CMD-OPT--

In addition to the other comments: on my keyboard (Swiss French layout), the
"-" on the numeric block does not trigger the "remove from Work menu"
command; I need to use the "-" sign that's next to the right-hand Shift key.
I'm not sure if that key is the same in other keyboards layouts, though.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[JE McGimpsey]

In addition to the other comments: on my keyboard (Swiss French layout), the
"-" on the numeric block does not trigger the "remove from Work menu"
command; I need to use the "-" sign that's next to the right-hand Shift key.
I'm not sure if that key is the same in other keyboards layouts, though.

Good point!

 

[Jack]

Go to Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboard. Select

Categories: All Commands
Commands: ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuItem

is the Command+Option+- shortcut listed under Current keys? If not, add
it back (or just click Reset All if you don't have any other
customizations).

Yayyy! That worked. I would love to know what happened to change that
command combination to Command+Option+/ but that was what I found
under Tools>Cusomize keyboard.

Now Command/Option/- takes items out of my Work menu.

Many thanks.

 

[Clive Huggan]

See below.

Clive Huggan
=============

Guys,

I thank you for your responses, but none of them have solved my
problem posted 8/21/07 of not being able to remove individual items
from my Work menu.

It turns out that Zoom had indeed been turned on in the Universal
Access pane and I understand that would have intercepted the Option/
Command/- keystroke combination. So I have turned it off.

Still cannot delete individual items from the Work menu. Option/
Command/- does not do anything now, much less give me the desired bold
minus sign.

I have disabled Universal Access from the Keyboards pane of System
Preferences.

Still can't remove specific items (or any items for that matter) from
the Work menu. And, yes, I have tried quitting Word and restarting my
Intel iMac G5.

Please understand,

We did.

I am not trying to remove the whole Work menu,

We know that.

which seems to have been the suggestion about
"ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut" from CyberTaz.

No, it wasn't.

And if I am reading the suggestion from Clive Huggan correctly, he
seemed to have lost the command he was looking for.

Yes, but it was supplied by CyberTaz.

So does anyone else have any suggestions for removing specific items
from the Work menu?

You had it at that stage. But I wanted to ensure that what I had done
(because I had exactly the same experience as you, but had not documents it)
was reproducible. Then I was going to report to you and to others who, now
or in future, have the same problem. But I'm handicapped by being in the
southern hemisphere with a very different time zone; and your not reading
the other posts carefully enough, and perhaps having the patience of a newt,
are additional impediments. However, later in this thread I am posting the
full story.

CH
==

 

[Clive Huggan]

Yayyy! That worked. I would love to know what happened to change that
command combination to Command+Option+/ but that was what I found
under Tools>Cusomize keyboard.

Now Command/Option/- takes items out of my Work menu.

Many thanks.

For future reference (and with many thanks to CyberTaz Bob Jones, whose
encyclopaedic knowledge filled the gap for me in a discussion offline), here
is the full story, including how to re-name the menu item:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like some other people, I experienced an inability to remove items from the
Work menu via the keyboard shortcut even though I had re-configured the
Universal Access control [see footnote 1]. I overcame it by adding a "Remove
from Work menu" command to the Work menu:

€ Choose Tools menu » Customize » Customize toolbars/menus » click the
"Commands" button at the top » OK.

€ At bottom left, Save in: Normal. Scroll to "All commands" under
"Categories" and "ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut" under "Commands".

€ Drag the command from its position in the scrolling list to "Work" on
the temporary "customizing" toolbar and place it in the position in which
you want it to appear on the Work menu (a dark horizontal bar will help you
to place it accurately). I placed it so that it wasn't next to "Add to Work
menu", to avoid a wrong selection.

€ The command will currently read "Tools Customize Remove Menu
Shortcut", which is rather long and obscure [see footnote 2]. To change the
wording of the menu item -- e.g. to "Remove from Work menu" -- stay in the
"customizing" toolbar, select the item and right-click (Control-click) on
it, select "Properties" and type in the desired name. Finally, OK.

Footnote 1:
For a discussion of how the Universal Access control interferes with this
command from OS 10.3 onwards, see the green panel on page 71 of some notes
on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which
are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

Footnote 2:
However, the default wording of the menu item does reflect that (a) you can
put this command on any menu in Word and (b) having clicked on it you will
remove the next menu item that you select -- it's by no means confined to
Work menu items. However, I'm not keen on forgetting how "dangerous" that
can be, so I prefer to confine its use to the Work menu and to word it
accordingly.


If you like to use the Work menu regularly, you'll find some good ideas at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WorkMenu.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've amended the next edition of "Bend Word to Your Will" to include the
above. All that will teach me not to do anything obscure without documenting
it... :-\

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)
============================================================

 

[Jack]

your not reading the other posts carefully enough, and perhaps having
the patience of a newt,
are additional impediments. However, later in this thread I am posting
the
full story.

Gee, CH. I guess you felt you had to slap my wrist for some reason.

Was that really necessary?

I appreciate your help and fully admit to not understanding
everything. I will try to read all posts as accurately as possible but
if I am concerned about making a mistake should I not post to this
group?

Meanwhile, I have downloaded your "Bend Word to Your Will" document
and will try to read it very, very carefully after I open it. But when
I try to open it I get a warning message about macros and whether I
should enable them or not.

Can you give me a hint how to answer that? I'm sure you would not have
included anything dangerous, so why that warning message?

Patiently waiting...I am still very grateful for the input from this
group and wish there were some way I could return the favor.

The newt.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Meanwhile, I have downloaded your "Bend Word to Your Will" document
and will try to read it very, very carefully after I open it. But when
I try to open it I get a warning message about macros and whether I
should enable them or not.

Can you give me a hint how to answer that? I'm sure you would not have
included anything dangerous, so why that warning message?

That's not Clive's warning message, it is Word's. Clive's BWTYW
contains macros. They illustrate some of the techniques he describes in
there. So you can see him putting his money where his mouth is if you
like. ;-)

Word slaps the warning up for all prudent users who have their
preference set to do so. It gives you a moment to think whether the
sender is a spear phisherman intent on doing you a mischief by
including in his document a macro that will cripple your machine and
kill the firstborn of everyone who drives the same make of car as you.
Word's warning message is not a warning about evil macros, it is a
warning about macros. Back when the world was new and all, and everyone
was sweet and innocent, Microsoft thought it was a wonderful idea for a
document full of text to have the properties of an executable program.
Then e-mail happened, and before that, floppy disks. Naughty people
just couldn't let it lie.
Microsoft's response so far, in the intervening 15 years, has been to
include that feeble warning. (I bet a lawyer made 'em do it). To be
fair, it *was* fashionable at the time, and soon, the macro facility
will be made less virulent by first ditching the Visual Basic in Word
2008, and hopefully, by introducing a much safer managed environment
for the macros to execute in, probably with something related to .NET
or whatever the marketing idiots have renamed it to by the time it
becomes available to us Macintosh minority bumpkins.

Bend Word is well worth grabbing and dipping into whenever you can. Its
macros haven't broken anything here yet, but I drive a very unusual
car.

Patiently waiting...I am still very grateful for the input from this
group and wish there were some way I could return the favor.

The newt.

You have done it already. Keeping your pet Clive under control is a
tough job, but somebody has to do it.

If you must return the favour in a more tangible way, contribute an
answer next time you know something, keep coming back, and whip that
unruly Huggan into shape whenever he discriminates against newts.

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 24/8/07 2:17 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Jack"

I get a warning message about macros and whether I
should enable them or not.

Can you give me a hint how to answer that? I'm sure you would not have
included anything dangerous, so why that warning message?

Hello Jack,

A less poetic response than m'learned colleague E. Roper (who lives in the
wind-and-rain-lashed hills that so inspired Wordsworth et al -- it rubs off,
even after all these years), but just to mention what in "Bend Word to Your
Will" triggers the warning if you have the setting enabled:

If a document has ever had a macro, or -- I¹ve been told -- has ever been
attached to a template other than the Normal template (which this one has),
it will trigger this warning if you have set your preferences to be
notified. (This is discussed on page 36 of "Bend Word to Your Will", by the
way -- but it's not much use there if you need to resolve the question
before you open it, which prompts me to add an explanation to that effect on
the web page; thanks for triggering that!)

The warning can be useful, since a macro may or may not contain a macro
virus. All it checks for is to see if the container that might hold
customizations exists in the document; if so, the alert appears. The
trigger could simply be a customised keystroke, or there may be no
customizations at all.

So don't worry about it; the document was virus-checked before it was
uploaded.

But a warning about the *content* of "Bend Word to Your Will" -- it's more
of a dictionary than a novel, designed to be used electronically and most
subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. Be sure to read the
front end of the document, though -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can
select some Word settings that will allow you to use the document
effectively.

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)
============================================================

 

[Jack]

On 24/8/07 2:17 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Jack"





Hello Jack,

A less poetic response than m'learned colleague E. Roper (who lives in the
wind-and-rain-lashed hills that so inspired Wordsworth et al -- it rubs off,
even after all these years), but just to mention what in "Bend Word to Your
Will" triggers the warning if you have the setting enabled:

If a document has ever had a macro, or -- I¹ve been told -- has ever been
attached to a template other than the Normal template (which this one has),
it will trigger this warning if you have set your preferences to be
notified. (This is discussed on page 36 of "Bend Word to Your Will", by the
way -- but it's not much use there if you need to resolve the question
before you open it, which prompts me to add an explanation to that effecton
the web page; thanks for triggering that!)

The warning can be useful, since a macro may or may not contain a macro
virus. All it checks for is to see if the container that might hold
customizations exists in the document; if so, the alert appears. The
trigger could simply be a customised keystroke, or there may be no
customizations at all.

So don't worry about it; the document was virus-checked before it was
uploaded.

But a warning about the *content* of "Bend Word to Your Will" -- it's more
of a dictionary than a novel, designed to be used electronically and most
subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. Be sure to read the
front end of the document, though -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can
select some Word settings that will allow you to use the document
effectively.

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)
============================================================

Once again I am so incredibly grateful for the fullsome answers you
folks provide.

As a freelance writer I also "Live by the Word" and get frustrated by
its quirks.

As Elliot suggested, if the opportunity ever pops up I will gladly
provide any answer I might have stumbled across. Would that I could.

Meanwhile, outside of my writing for several magazines in the film/
video field, these days I am spending a lot of time teaching beginners
about home beer brewing. It's a hobby I have been very active with for
several years. Totally off this group's discussion, if any of you are
interested in learning how to brew the best beer you have ever tasted,
let me know. Perhaps that is one way I can return your very generous
and much appreciated input.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Once again I am so incredibly grateful for the fullsome answers you
folks provide.

As a freelance writer I also "Live by the Word" and get frustrated by
its quirks.

As Elliot suggested, if the opportunity ever pops up I will gladly
provide any answer I might have stumbled across. Would that I could.

Meanwhile, outside of my writing for several magazines in the film/
video field, these days I am spending a lot of time teaching beginners
about home beer brewing. It's a hobby I have been very active with for
several years. Totally off this group's discussion, if any of you are
interested in learning how to brew the best beer you have ever tasted,
let me know. Perhaps that is one way I can return your very generous
and much appreciated input.

Hello Jack,

That is a very regrettable offer for you to have made to the people in here,
in front of some thousands of witnesses... ;-))

Fortunately for you, many of the regulars here are too busy sampling the
hoppy or vinous product to have time for brewing as a hobby, I *think* I'm
qualified to say. Here in Canberra, we are spoiled with a magnificent
small-scale brewer (www.zierholz.com.au/Our%20Beers.html and
http://the-riotact.com/?p=2949). Deep in the wilds of the English
countryside, one E. Roper's pining for the product of his antipodean
homeland is hindered only by the quality of the amber fluid at the village
pub, a mere mile away. And the most spoiled of all is "Little Creature", who
lives in a country with the finest beers in the world.

But all things in moderation ............. including moderation.

You are most welcome to hang around here and certainly to contribute
answers. All of the regulars came here that way. We pride ourselves on
giving personalized, comprehensive answers, too -- often out of
self-interest, because the "answerers" will often end up gaining new
knowledge, as I did with the re-naming of menus in your thread and as a
couple of contemporaneous threads are showing. Often the experiences of
people who are newer to the discussion group are particularly valuable
because of their fresh approach (in answers or questions). So stick around!

Good tips about getting the best out of posting here are at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html and
http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari you may see a
blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current
page" -- two or more times).

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)
============================================================

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jack:

NOW you offer...

Somewhere there is an extraordinarily embarrassing not to say libellous
photograph of me in full motorcycle leathers, with crash-helmet and
gloves... But no motorcycle...

As a result of rather overly-thorough "testing" of the previous batch, I had
apparently managed to over-prime the bottles in the current batch. With the
inevitable result ‹ loud explosions...

So there was I, carefully loosening the caps in full battle regalia

Managed to get them all de-capped without any further explosions. But in
the past 20 years I still have not managed to extract that photo from the
clutches of the former housemate ...

Cheers

Once again I am so incredibly grateful for the fullsome answers you
folks provide.

As a freelance writer I also "Live by the Word" and get frustrated by
its quirks.

As Elliot suggested, if the opportunity ever pops up I will gladly
provide any answer I might have stumbled across. Would that I could.

Meanwhile, outside of my writing for several magazines in the film/
video field, these days I am spending a lot of time teaching beginners
about home beer brewing. It's a hobby I have been very active with for
several years. Totally off this group's discussion, if any of you are
interested in learning how to brew the best beer you have ever tasted,
let me know. Perhaps that is one way I can return your very generous
and much appreciated input.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]