Change default font

[Timothy J. Luoma]

I generally write in 18 Font (Times Roman) but prefer to print in Times
Roman 12 Font (yes I know I could change the zoom but I prefer this way)..

When the document is finished, is there a way to change the default (base)
font from 18 to 12 without losing the italics, etc that I have placed
along the way?

(If I do select all -> font and change it that way I lose all the font
formatted I had put in along the way)

WordPerfect has a feature like this, I assumed Word had copied it by now..

TjL

 

[Elliott Roper]

I generally write in 18 Font (Times Roman) but prefer to print in Times
Roman 12 Font (yes I know I could change the zoom but I prefer this way).

When the document is finished, is there a way to change the default (base)
font from 18 to 12 without losing the italics, etc that I have placed
along the way?

(If I do select all -> font and change it that way I lose all the font
formatted I had put in along the way)

WordPerfect has a feature like this, I assumed Word had copied it by now.

Good grief! How do you manage the line and page breaks and the layout?

If you really insist on making it hard for yourself, learn about
styles, especially character styles. Then have two paragraph styles one
big on screen, and one for printing. Use emphasis and strong character
styles for italic and bold.. They will live through paragraph style
changes.

Changing the zoom is *far* easier and better. Why don't you make a
macro to toogle the zoom?

My trick in that area is a sneaky macro to put it into page view and
make the view ''page width" From there, I can control how big the
on-screen text is. I can choose to see more of a page vertically, by
dragging the window narrower. I can choose to see bigger text by
dragging the screen window wider. It only works in page view of course,
but I hate normal view and my machine is fast enough to almost deal
with page view's sluglike performance.

Here it is. Copy and paste it into your macros.
Sub pageWidth()
'
' pageWidth Macro
' Macro recorded 05-01-2004 by Elliott Roper
'
If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPageView
Else
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPageView
End If
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
End Sub

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Good grief! How do you manage the line and page breaks and the layout?

Some people prefer to let Word handle these...<g>

I do some pretty complex technical manuals and reports, and through
judicious use of styles, almost never use page breaks, and absolutely
never break lines.

Changing the zoom is *far* easier and better. Why don't you make a
macro to toogle the zoom?

I have a visually impaired acquaintance that doesn't like to do this -
he'd rather set the zoom at 100% so that it's automatically presentable
when he sends it to others - he'd rather not advertise that he's almost
blind. He also doesn't want to futz with window widths (which I agree is
an easier solution).

I set up a different method for him. I created a template for his work
that uses 36 pt TNR. I copied this template and changed all the styles
to 12 point.

He creates his documents from the first template, then, when he's ready
to send it out, he uses Tools/Templates and attaches the 12-point
template, choosing to update styles. (Actually, he uses a macro to do
this).

When he gets the reviewed document back, he reverses the process and
everything lays out fine according to the style.

but I hate normal view and my machine is fast enough to almost deal
with page view's sluglike performance.

Huh...I can't abide page layout view. Normal lets me focus on the
content that I'm writing. If I try to work in page layout view, I'm
forever playing around with layout instead of getting work done.

De gustibus non est disputandum....

 

[Elliott Roper]

Some people prefer to let Word handle these...<g>

You are winding me up McGimpsey! What I meant was being able to see
where the final widows and orphans lie and which paras need a little
added keep with next. I would never force a page break. The MVP Stasi
would be knocking on my door at 3am (they all work in damn Australian
time)

I do some pretty complex technical manuals and reports, and through
judicious use of styles, almost never use page breaks, and absolutely
never break lines.


I have a visually impaired acquaintance that doesn't like to do this -
he'd rather set the zoom at 100% so that it's automatically presentable
when he sends it to others - he'd rather not advertise that he's almost
blind. He also doesn't want to futz with window widths (which I agree is
an easier solution).

I set up a different method for him. I created a template for his work
that uses 36 pt TNR. I copied this template and changed all the styles
to 12 point.

He creates his documents from the first template, then, when he's ready
to send it out, he uses Tools/Templates and attaches the 12-point
template, choosing to update styles. (Actually, he uses a macro to do
this).

When he gets the reviewed document back, he reverses the process and
everything lays out fine according to the style.

....which is exactly what TjL was after. I still can't see the sense of
it, but....

Huh...I can't abide page layout view. Normal lets me focus on the
content that I'm writing. If I try to work in page layout view, I'm
forever playing around with layout instead of getting work done.

Heh! me -- I let Word have *first* go at the layout. It does not make
too much sense to even consider layout until the whole piece is ready
to print. Nevertheless, there is no point in forcing yourself to look
at something indescribably ugly all day. I'm horrified when I see the
environment PC users have to work in. It's like visiting a Saigon
sweatshop from Harry Siedler's office.

De gustibus non est disputandum....

Yeah? Does not stop us though! I like to use the same tools to
navigate the *look* of a piece as the eventual reader will use -
eyesight with visual layout clues. I do use find-and-replace a lot just
to navigate (I was brought up on teco, the original YAFIYGI (you asked
for it you got it) editor) I'm also getting fonder of the keystroke
sequences for navigating paragraphs and sentences as I get older and
grumpier.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

You are winding me up McGimpsey!

Yeah? Does not stop us though! I like to use the same tools to
navigate the *look* of a piece as the eventual reader will use -
eyesight with visual layout clues. I do use find-and-replace a lot just
to navigate (I was brought up on teco, the original YAFIYGI (you asked
for it you got it) editor) I'm also getting fonder of the keystroke
sequences for navigating paragraphs and sentences as I get older and
grumpier.

I started with vi, so I got used to keystroke sequences for everything.
I haven't gotten back there yet with Word, but I tend to customize it
heavily.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I believe changing the size of the font in the Normal style changes
font sizes in all other styles based on Normal by the same amount.

Sort of. To a limited extent, styles "cascade" from least to most
specific.

For styles based on Normal that haven't had a font size specified, the
font size will reflect the change in Normal.

If the style had a specified size (the style description something like
"Normal + Font:8 pt"), that style's size will remain.

 

[Clive Huggan]

I probably shouldn't even respond to someone who disparages my Latin
teacher (even if correct he is).

Apologies -- I should have omitted "I can almost guess it" and "probably",
and said "very wrong".

[Thinks: must stick to Latin in future.]

One way:

Public Sub ChangeNormalFontSize()
Dim vResult As Variant
Do
vResult = InputBox("New Normal size:")
If vResult = "" Then Exit Sub 'user cancelled
Loop Until IsNumeric(vResult)
ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal").Font.Size = vResult
End Sub

Thanks indeed, JE! I will use that myself.

Clive

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I probably shouldn't even respond to someone who disparages my Latin
teacher (even if correct he is).


One way:

Public Sub ChangeNormalFontSize()
Dim vResult As Variant
Do
vResult = InputBox("New Normal size:")
If vResult = "" Then Exit Sub 'user cancelled
Loop Until IsNumeric(vResult)
ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal").Font.Size = vResult
End Sub

Or, somewhat wordier as an AppleScript:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
set done to false
repeat until done
display dialog "Enter a new Normal font size:" default answer ""
try
set newSize to text returned of result as integer -- prevent
intermediate decimals
set done to true
end try
end repeat
set NormalStyle to item 1 of (get every Word style of active document
whose name local is "Normal")
set font size of font object of NormalStyle to newSize
end tell


This can be saved as a Script (the default Format) in Script Editor, and
saved to ~/Library/Scripts to be run from the system's Script menu. To get
that menu, go (just once) to /Applications/AppleScript/ (same place as
Script Editor) and double-click Install Script Menu (in Panther. In Jaguar
it's called Script Menu.menu). You'll see a black Script menu on the right
side of your menu bar. The first item "Open Scripts Folder" gets you to the
right place. If you make a folder called "Applications" within it, and
within that a subfolder called "Microsoft Word" [exactly], then if you put
your Word scripts there they appear only when you're in Word, at the
bottom. of the menu If you have any Word scripts you want always available
form other applications or the Finder, just put them in the main Scripts
folder, or in a "Word" folder within it to organize them into a Word menu
item with script sub-items.

Anyway, once you've got that set up, you can call a script from the Script
menu. (At the moment, not with a keyboard shortcut, although I think there's
a 3rd-party gadget that can do it.)

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[matt neuburg]

Or, somewhat wordier as an AppleScript:

set NormalStyle to item 1 of (get every Word style of active document
whose name local is "Normal")

Wordier indeed. To get the style named "Normal" (i.e. to translate into
AppleScript the VBA expression ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal")) there is
no need to say:

item 1 of (get every Word style of active document whose name local is
"Normal")

Just say:

Word style "Normal" of active document

m.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Wordier indeed. To get the style named "Normal" (i.e. to translate into
AppleScript the VBA expression ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal")) there is
no need to say:

item 1 of (get every Word style of active document whose name local is
"Normal")

Just say:

Word style "Normal" of active document

I had a vague recollection that that should work (in fact I think it's
because I pushed for it), but I didn't see 'name' property of Word style in
the dictionary, so I didn't try. My loss. Evidently as an element of
'document', Word style 'by name' has been mapped to the name local property,
which is great. Yes, I'm pretty sure I asked for that. It had to be called
'name local' to correspond to the VBA, but it was mapped to element Word
style 'by name'. Thanks for the correction, Matt.

However, in the process of of getting the more cumbersome 'whose' version,
I discovered a bug, namely:

first Word style of active document whose name local is "Normal"
--> {}
which is wrong, That's why I came up with the roundabout 'item 1 of (get
every ...' workaround which works correctly. I've reported the bug already,
which was known.

Much nicer to see ' Word style "Normal"; for sure.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I had a vague recollection that that should work (in fact I think it's
because I pushed for it), but I didn't see 'name' property of Word style in
the dictionary, so I didn't try. My loss. Evidently as an element of
'document', Word style 'by name' has been mapped to the name local property,
which is great. Yes, I'm pretty sure I asked for that. It had to be called
'name local' to correspond to the VBA, but it was mapped to element Word
style 'by name'. Thanks for the correction, Matt.

A bit more:, as it's coming back to me:

I had actually hoped that we could get a whole set of enumerations - as
exists for 'base style' property, for example - for the built-in style, such
that you could get

Word style normal style of active document

no matter what the user's localized name for "Normal" is. If I remember
correctly, this was not possible because the object model puts user-created
styles, which might be called anything, on the same footing as built-in
styles. They're all in the same collection of styles, just as you see them
in your Styles list in the Format in the UI. (It might be nice to have a
special set of 'built-in styles' but that would have to be done in the
object model itself, and for VBA. They may be looking into something like
that. There is a 'built in' boolean property for checking which styles are
built in and which aren't.) ) As a sort of compromise, that mapping of
element 'by name' to 'name local' was done so it's possible to get

Word style "Normal"

if it exists by that name. I'd forgotten that (obviously). That works if
you're making a script just for yourself, or with error traps and warnings
to non-English users. (The same applies to JE's VBA macro, and for the same
reasons. Style ("Normal") won't exist for non-English-speaking users.)

Many of the most important built-in styles, such as Normal, are indeed base
styles, but I can't find any way to "cheat" and identify an actual Word
style of a document with one of these enumerated base styles. I.e.

every Word style of active document whose base style is style normal
--> {list of 158 styles}

works, but something like

every Word style of active document where it is equal to style normal
--> {}

doesn't get anything since a Word style can never equal a base style
property of a Word style.

I still think it would be good to have enumerated built-in styles. I can't
see any way to do this at present.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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[Paul Berkowitz]

I still think it would be good to have enumerated built-in styles. I can't
see any way to do this at present.

But that's only true for the (multiple) Word styles (elements) of a
document. text range, paragraph, sentence, word and character all have a
'style' property which is supposed to be enumerated, and the first
enumeration is 'style normal' - of course whatever "Normal" has been
configured to, not what Clive wanted to do here which is to reconfigure
Normal. But getting

style of paragraph 1 of active document

or

style of text object of document 1

--> "Normal"

gives the name local of the style, not the enumeration. Something's not
right here. I'll look into it.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
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