Drawing Gridlines

[Tom]

The "View gridlines" option, in all versions of Word I have used so far
(including 2007 Beta 2), has the slight problem that you cannot restrict it
just to a drawing canvas - i.e. if I am drawing in a canvas, then set this
option, then deselect the canvas, gridlines appear over the whole document.

It would be helpful if there could be a drawing grid restricted to the
drawing canvas. Also, having major and minor gridlines (like graph paper)
would make drawing more techical diagrams easier.

----------------
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[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Tom,

Be sure to use the Office 2007 feedback tool from the link below to send your suggestions and comments on Word 2007 directly to the
MS Office product team.

As you noted the snap to grid choice is a document setting, that allows you to align items in the drawing canvas to those in the
document editing area.

If you have also installed MS Office Visio 2007 (beta 2) you may want to try working in that app for your drawings either directly
or as an inserted Object within Word to see if that's along the lines of what you'd like to have with major/minor grids.

=================
The "View gridlines" option, in all versions of Word I have used so far
(including 2007 Beta 2), has the slight problem that you cannot restrict it
just to a drawing canvas - i.e. if I am drawing in a canvas, then set this
option, then deselect the canvas, gridlines appear over the whole document.

It would be helpful if there could be a drawing grid restricted to the
drawing canvas. Also, having major and minor gridlines (like graph paper)
would make drawing more techical diagrams easier. >>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP

LINKS for the 2007 Office System

1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

2. Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/

3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007

a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit http://officebeta.iponet.net

 

[Tom]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply. I tried the feedback link, but it appears to be
broken. Is it just out of date, or is the feedback system currently broken?

I'm afraid I haven't downloaded Visio, but the impression I have is that
it's intended for business/network diagrams etc. By technical, I meant more
mathematically / mechanically oriented. The system I currently use (TeXmacs)
allows you to select 'graph paper' as a backing - with normal, polar and
logarithmic options. This program is Linux-only, but this particular feature
I find especially useful.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Tom,

There appears to be a problem with the Office Beta support servers at present. It affects the OfficeOnline Beta/Preview content,
online help files in Office 2007 and the 'Send a Smile' tool.

Visio's roots include code diagramming, and besides its native capabilities there are add-ons available that can reach further.
You may want to use the link below to the Office Visio newsgroup on specifics or just try the new beta <g>. Microsoft has focused
the product more on business flows since it became an 'Office' product.

Have you tried the new charting and SmartArt diagramming and Equation editors in Office 2007?

FWIW, there is a Windows ported version (1.0) of TeXmacs available.

========
Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply. I tried the feedback link, but it appears to be
broken. Is it just out of date, or is the feedback system currently broken?

I'm afraid I haven't downloaded Visio, but the impression I have is that it's intended for business/network diagrams etc. By
technical, I meant more mathematically / mechanically oriented. The system I currently use (TeXmacs) allows you to select 'graph
paper' as a backing - with normal, polar and logarithmic options. This program is Linux-only, but this particular feature I find
especially useful. >>
--
Please let us know if this has helped,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

LINKS
A. Specific newsgroup/discussion group mentioned in this message:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.visio
or via browser:
http://microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/?dg=microsoft.public.visio

B. MS Office Community discussion/newsgroups via Web Browser
http://microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
or
Microsoft hosted newsgroups via Outlook Express/newsreader
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[RN]

Along this same thread of being able to restrict gridlines to just the page
or graphic in question. If I have 3 documents open all documents will have
the gridlines turned on if I turn them on in one. I can turn on document
view or not for each document (and I think each view of it). Why should
gridlines function differently?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi R.N.,

A case could be made either way for document vs app setting. The grid setting is basically considered a 'preferred way of working'
setting (i.e. either session or 'always' wanted), with 'snap to grid, being something folks might want as a default or not want as a
default. The 'view' of the grids is just a reflection of that snap setting and can be spaced out differently than the actual 'snap'
points (i.e. some folks who are used to page layouts may want, for reference, to see a grid point every 1" or 2".

============
Along this same thread of being able to restrict gridlines to just the page
or graphic in question. If I have 3 documents open all documents will have
the gridlines turned on if I turn them on in one. I can turn on document
view or not for each document (and I think each view of it). Why should
gridlines function differently? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[RN]

I disagree. If it was a document setting I suspect I could open a window
with it or a window without it. Why is document map then allowed to be
documemt specific? The grid lines are overwhelm on text areas, but extremely
usefull when creating document. If you really wanted to make it application
specific then I am sure you could easily offer pressing the control key or
default setting to override single document behavior. Much more flexible.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi R.N.

For the most part, the folks here don't work for Microsoft so 'we' can't do much of anything to change the program As I
mentioned a case can be made either way and one of the cases was expressed as how it is now, so it's also not clear if you're
disagreeing that there can be other ways to look at it?<g>.

The underlying grid structure is tied to the use of specific language input as well. If, for example, you have an Asian language
enabled in Office then the grid settings are in File=>Page Layout=>Document grid (i.e. it's not just for graphics).

You can assign a keyboard shortcut to toggle the display of the drawing gridlines on/off
Tools=>Customize=>Commands=>Keyboard=>All Commands
and assign a keyboard shortcut to 'View Gridlines'
(in Word 2007
Office Button=>Word Options=>Customize=>Keyboard=>All Commands)

=============
I disagree. If it was a document setting I suspect I could open a window
with it or a window without it. Why is document map then allowed to be
documemt specific? The grid lines are overwhelm on text areas, but extremely
usefull when creating document. If you really wanted to make it application
specific then I am sure you could easily offer pressing the control key or
default setting to override single document behavior. Much more flexible. <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*