Document Themes

[Inneedofhelp]

Every time that I try to use a document theme, it never shows up. I click the
themes button on the page layout and the page remains blank. Even after
typing the whole letter or message, the theme will never appear. I can get
the font to change as I scroll over the different themes but no background
color or effects display.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Themes in Word 2007 are completely different from Themes in earlier versions
of Word, and they do not include backgrounds, or effects in the same way at
all. Themes in Word 2007 are a new parallel set of formatting
characteristics that can be used in existing Styles, rather than a way of
directly changing a lot of Styles.

Old-style Themes can still be applied to documents via VBA but, although
Microsoft have not, to my knowledge, stated anything, that would seem to be
for legacy support only. If you want an equivalent facility, you may find
Quick Style Sets helpful, but I would recommend getting to grips with the
new feature, which is consistent across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

 

[Inneedofhelp]

Tony I appreciate your help. It would seem that maybe I didn't post my
question quite right. I'm not trying to change themes from an earlier version
in 2007. I'm starting with a blank 2007 document and while the font changes,
I'm unable to see the Theme on the computer screen. If you have any other
thoughts it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks....Inneedofhelp

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you saying that the theme doesn't appear to be applied or that you're
not getting a live preview in your document as you mouse across the themes
in the gallery? That is, by "unable to see the Theme on the computer
screen," do you mean the preview or the theme applied to your document?

Keep in mind that you must have some text in the document that uses the
styles to which the theme applies.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Tony Jollans]

Your reference to backgrounds made me think you were referring to old
Themes. As far as new Themes go, I think we need more detail of what you are
doing, as per Suzanne's post, but perhaps a little on the way they work
wouldn't go amiss.

You can set Fonts and Colors to be absolute (Arial, or Red, or whatever), in
which case they will be as you set them, or you can set them to be Theme
elements (Body (font), or Accent 1 (colour), say) in which case they will
reflect changes to the Theme. Theme effects apply to Art and Charts, and
backgrounds, as I understand it, are only relevant for PowerPoint.