N
NJ Smith
I apologize in advance for the long note. It includes the problem and
several possible sloutions I have tried that did not work. The problem
is long-standing (years, not months) so there's a lot to summarize.
This is a problem wiht Word, in the Office X for Mac. I'm running Mac
OS X 10.2.6. However, this happens on my PC as well, and on the PC of
someone who lives down the block from me.
I'd say this happens about 1/3 of the time.
I use styles and templates heavily, and have done so for 10 years,
approximately.
The issue is that when I open some documents, the document map does
not reflect the paragraph level of the styles.
When I check the actual style (Format/Style), it says that style is as
it's supposed to be. (Including the Paragraph level I originally
assigned.)
This issue is NOT restricted to any particular template. It happens
with the Normal template as well as the templates I have developed
myself. I thought when I started using the Mac (acquired in Dec
2002), the problem would go away. (Brand new machine, brand new
software...) It hasn't.
I have been to the Microsoft web site to make sure I'm up to date on
all the patches, etc.
To try to be clear, here's a example of what I did to check to see
what happened to the paragraph levels.
When I opened a document, then look at the document map, every style
and heading is displayed as if it were at level 1. That is, far left,
no indentation.
Then, I go to the document and click on a paragraph. Then I go to
format/styles - modify, and check the paragraph formatting. It still
has the original paragraph level I gave it.
This is true for all the styles throughout.
So no style was excepted - they all were at the left margin of the
document map. And when looking at the Styles (using the modify view)
the paragraph levels were correct.
I spent ages looking for a solution. First on the PC side. Then when I
started on the Mac, and it happened on the Mac as well, I searched
again.
By "ages" I mean off and on for 3-4 years. Sometimes intensely,
sometimes just cruising BBoards to see if comes up.
What I ended up doing was to create a macro that searches the document
for each style and replaces that style with itself. So, find
formatting style "Comment" - Replace with formatting style "Comment."
The macro does this for all the styles I generally use in a document.
Once the macro has run, the document map reflects the styles and their
paragraph level properly. Without any other action. It just pops into
the correct indentation display. I do not go into the style and
reassign the paragraph level. Just find and replace each style with
itself. That's it.
At this point I have tried saving the document right away before I
make any changes.
Close it, open it, and the problem is back.
Then I've tried "save as" with a new name. Close it. Open the doc w/
new name. Same problem.
I've tried cutting and pasting into a clean new docuement made from
the same template. No go.
This is not a problem of templates, or at least of one particular
template. Some docs made from a particular template have this problem,
some don't.
This problem happens in most templtes I use - the Normal (which I
don't really change, after selecting my preferred font for Normal
style) and the self-made ones.
Possibly helpful info: I do alter templates sometimes, and resave
them. That is, I alter the document, Word asks 'save changes to
template' and I say "yes."
While it has not been predictable to me which documents will end up
with this problem, one thing has been consistent. Once a document has
this problem, it continues to have the problem no matter how many
times it is saved with a different name, or if I cut and paste it into
a new, clean document.
Changing the document template hasn't helped either. (That is,
Tools-Templates and Add Ins- Attach).
This problem has happened to me on several computers. 3 PCs - running
XP Home, Windows 2000 Professional, and Millenium Edition.
This has happened on my Mac PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.2.6. (It
also happened on other 10.2 versions, and on the 10.1.5 version).
This has happened to a friend down the street running Windows 2000
(not Professional). (She was glad she wasn't the only one. - But it
could have been a document I sent her, I don't know.)
I don't know how to reproduce this intentionally.
I have been in touch with Microsoft (having a recently purchased
retail version I qualified for access to tech support) and they have
not been able to figure it out yet. (Almost a month's worth of email
every couple of days - business days.)
I thought I'd try the wide world of users -
First - Have any of you had this problem? Or am I jinxed?
Second - anyone have any ideas?
Many thanks for any ideas,
Neva
several possible sloutions I have tried that did not work. The problem
is long-standing (years, not months) so there's a lot to summarize.
This is a problem wiht Word, in the Office X for Mac. I'm running Mac
OS X 10.2.6. However, this happens on my PC as well, and on the PC of
someone who lives down the block from me.
I'd say this happens about 1/3 of the time.
I use styles and templates heavily, and have done so for 10 years,
approximately.
The issue is that when I open some documents, the document map does
not reflect the paragraph level of the styles.
When I check the actual style (Format/Style), it says that style is as
it's supposed to be. (Including the Paragraph level I originally
assigned.)
This issue is NOT restricted to any particular template. It happens
with the Normal template as well as the templates I have developed
myself. I thought when I started using the Mac (acquired in Dec
2002), the problem would go away. (Brand new machine, brand new
software...) It hasn't.
I have been to the Microsoft web site to make sure I'm up to date on
all the patches, etc.
To try to be clear, here's a example of what I did to check to see
what happened to the paragraph levels.
When I opened a document, then look at the document map, every style
and heading is displayed as if it were at level 1. That is, far left,
no indentation.
Then, I go to the document and click on a paragraph. Then I go to
format/styles - modify, and check the paragraph formatting. It still
has the original paragraph level I gave it.
This is true for all the styles throughout.
So no style was excepted - they all were at the left margin of the
document map. And when looking at the Styles (using the modify view)
the paragraph levels were correct.
I spent ages looking for a solution. First on the PC side. Then when I
started on the Mac, and it happened on the Mac as well, I searched
again.
By "ages" I mean off and on for 3-4 years. Sometimes intensely,
sometimes just cruising BBoards to see if comes up.
What I ended up doing was to create a macro that searches the document
for each style and replaces that style with itself. So, find
formatting style "Comment" - Replace with formatting style "Comment."
The macro does this for all the styles I generally use in a document.
Once the macro has run, the document map reflects the styles and their
paragraph level properly. Without any other action. It just pops into
the correct indentation display. I do not go into the style and
reassign the paragraph level. Just find and replace each style with
itself. That's it.
At this point I have tried saving the document right away before I
make any changes.
Close it, open it, and the problem is back.
Then I've tried "save as" with a new name. Close it. Open the doc w/
new name. Same problem.
I've tried cutting and pasting into a clean new docuement made from
the same template. No go.
This is not a problem of templates, or at least of one particular
template. Some docs made from a particular template have this problem,
some don't.
This problem happens in most templtes I use - the Normal (which I
don't really change, after selecting my preferred font for Normal
style) and the self-made ones.
Possibly helpful info: I do alter templates sometimes, and resave
them. That is, I alter the document, Word asks 'save changes to
template' and I say "yes."
While it has not been predictable to me which documents will end up
with this problem, one thing has been consistent. Once a document has
this problem, it continues to have the problem no matter how many
times it is saved with a different name, or if I cut and paste it into
a new, clean document.
Changing the document template hasn't helped either. (That is,
Tools-Templates and Add Ins- Attach).
This problem has happened to me on several computers. 3 PCs - running
XP Home, Windows 2000 Professional, and Millenium Edition.
This has happened on my Mac PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.2.6. (It
also happened on other 10.2 versions, and on the 10.1.5 version).
This has happened to a friend down the street running Windows 2000
(not Professional). (She was glad she wasn't the only one. - But it
could have been a document I sent her, I don't know.)
I don't know how to reproduce this intentionally.
I have been in touch with Microsoft (having a recently purchased
retail version I qualified for access to tech support) and they have
not been able to figure it out yet. (Almost a month's worth of email
every couple of days - business days.)
I thought I'd try the wide world of users -
First - Have any of you had this problem? Or am I jinxed?
Second - anyone have any ideas?
Many thanks for any ideas,
Neva