Dual inheritances for styles?

[saddingt]

Is it possible for a new style to be based on two others?

In particular, I'd like footnotes and certain table and list styles to
be based on a body text style I have defined (following advice in Bend
Word to your Will). However, if the style is "based on" the body text
style, it doesn't inherit any of the footnote properties, and vice
versa.

I'm using Word 2004 v. 11.2 on Mac OS 10.4.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

One approach:

Try creating a BaseStyle, and base both the body text and the footnote style
on that.

That's what I do to control font in one step, but not get confused over
double-spaced text and single-spaced footnotes, etc.

If that doesn't work for you, you might mention which characteristics you
want shared among these styles.

 

[saddingt]

That sounds like what I need; how do I make a Base Style?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

You can do it either from the Format menu (Style> New) or from the
Formatting Palette (Styles> NewStyles). When the New Style dialog box comes
up, name the style "Base Style" (or anything else you like) and proceed to
define it. The Format button at the bottom left will get you to the various
Style characteristics.

Alternatively, type a line of text in a document and format it the way you
want the Base Style to look. With the cursor inside that line somewhere,
click on New Style, name your style and click okay. If you want Base Style
to look pretty much like Body Text, start there and then make your
modifications (otherwise you'll be starting in Normal style by default).

Also, if you want Base Style to be available to all new documents based on
the same template (which will be the Normal template unless you've specified
otherwise), not just the current document, check Add To Template in the
Styles dialog box. Don't check Automatically Update or every formatting
change you make (like italicizing a single word) will be picked up and
applied to all text in that style.

HTH

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Small notes inline--

Alternatively, type a line of text in a document and format it the way you
want the Base Style to look. With the cursor inside that line somewhere,
click on New Style, name your style and click okay. If you want Base Style
to look pretty much like Body Text, start there and then make your
modifications (otherwise you'll be starting in Normal style by default).

I pretty carefully make BaseStyle control nothing but language and font, I
think, as those are about the only things that are consistent for *all*
styles used in a 370 page document. Everything else is specified in the
individual styles. And I never apply BaseStyle to any text, it's really
just a holder style to let me switch the font in one fell swoop.

And after creating, don't forget to go back and change the "based on" for
your other styles.

Daiya

 

[saddingt]

That's what I already did for my body text; I based it on nothing. I
don't see how this procedure is different; how does the font get
inherited by footnotes, etc., if I don't make a footnote style based on
whatever I call the base style?

 

[saddingt]

Slight clarification (to both Beth and Daiya):
When I am defining my new footnote style, I have to base it on an
existing footnote style so that it does footnotes. I can change the
font there to Comic Sans 11 (or whatever), but I should be able to use
whatever font the base style has. My question is still: how can I
_also_ base my footnote style on my base style so that it inherits the
font?

 

[saddingt]

Sorry I'm being so dense, but it's still not working. By "working" I
mean that all footnotes I insert using the template I stored it in will
come out in this style, and not in Times font. I _can_ insert a
footnote, apply my base style, and have it converted, but this is an
extra step (I'm writing a book with formatting galore.)

Here's what I have:
Base style is csbody: comic sans font 11 pt, no other attributes.
I make a footnote, select the text, then Format > Styles > New
Then I change Based on to csbody. However, the font window still shows
Times 12 pt, and footnotes come out that way.
When I save the style, its description says csbody, with no reference
to footnote text.

Since I have your collective ears, here's a related question.

I have set up headings that are based on csbody, and when I change the
font, they change appropriately. However, I changed the sizes to
specific sizes, and now when I change the font to something big, the
headings stay at the sizes I specified. Is there a way to have a font
size something like base size + 4 pts?

(The mathematical formatting language TeX has something like this built
in, though it's base size * 1.1, or something like that.)

Thanks for your continued help.

 

[John McGhie [MVP -- Word and Word Mac]]

Hi <Whatever your name is>

Hmmm... I wonder if the confusion is around the style NAME. When you
create a Footnote, Word automatically assigns two styles: Footnote Reference
and Footnote Text. Footnote Reference is the Character style that sets the
reference mark in superscript. Footnote Text is a Paragraph style that sets
the properties of the footnote text itself, including the spacing.

If you wish, you can base Footnote Text on your base style, and if you do,
it will inherit from it. But if you try to use a different pair of styles
you will get into trouble because Word is hard-wired to apply the built-in
styles to each footnote.

Unless you correct them, both Footnote Reference and Footnote Text will be
based on Normal style, and if they are, and you have not corrected Normal
Style, it will be set in Times New Roman.

Hope this helps


--

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer, Microsoft MVP (Word, Word for Mac)
Sydney, Australia +61 (0)4 1209 1410

Sorry I'm being so dense, but it's still not working. By "working" I
mean that all footnotes I insert using the template I stored it in will
come out in this style, and not in Times font. I _can_ insert a
footnote, apply my base style, and have it converted, but this is an
extra step (I'm writing a book with formatting galore.)

Here's what I have:
Base style is csbody: comic sans font 11 pt, no other attributes.
I make a footnote, select the text, then Format > Styles > New
Then I change Based on to csbody. However, the font window still shows
Times 12 pt, and footnotes come out that way.
When I save the style, its description says csbody, with no reference
to footnote text.

Since I have your collective ears, here's a related question.

I have set up headings that are based on csbody, and when I change the
font, they change appropriately. However, I changed the sizes to
specific sizes, and now when I change the font to something big, the
headings stay at the sizes I specified. Is there a way to have a font
size something like base size + 4 pts?

(The mathematical formatting language TeX has something like this built
in, though it's base size * 1.1, or something like that.)

Thanks for your continued help.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Just for info, my specification for footnote text style is [style]=> bt
(essentially 11 point Times New Roman), font 10 pt, raised by 3 pt, indent
left 0 cm, hanging 0.53 cm, line spacing at least 12 pt, space before 6 pt.
This is formatted to allow a tab to follow the footnote reference number,
not a space.

My base style "bt", standing for body text but not using that default name,
is the equivalent to Daiya's BaseStyle, except that it's quicker to type
Command-Shift-s => bt => Return to apply it.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Is there a way to have a font
size something like base size + 4 pts?

Nope. Been requested before, but not available at present.

Re the other confusion--sorry, I just checked, I think I ran into this same
problem as well. I didn't change the names/styles for FootnoteText or
FootnoteReference, but just the based on, although the rest of my
dissertation is formatted as DissText, DissBlockQuote, DissTable, etc.

I don't recall that this caused any problems.

Thanks for the info that Word will use a custom footnote style if it's based
on FootnoteText, didn't realize that.

Since you are writing a book, you might be interested in some references
here about doing a book in Word.
http://daiya.mvps.org/

Daiya

 

[saddingt]

Thanks, everyone, for all the useful information.

Yes, Word is pretty chaotic compared to TeX. However, Word offers much
more in terms of fonts, and the WYSIWYG/drag and drop interface is
faster for writing on the fly. (It's a textbook, and lots of it gets
written the night before, rushed to duplicating, and handed out to the
class. I don't have a lot of time to look for missing backslashes and
brackets.) Anyhow, I guess I'm stuck with Word for the rest of this
project.

I'd better get back to actually writing, and stop obsessing about
formatting so much.

Thanks again.
Susan Addington

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thanks, everyone, for all the useful information.

Yes, Word is pretty chaotic compared to TeX. However, Word offers much
more in terms of fonts, and the WYSIWYG/drag and drop interface is
faster for writing on the fly. (It's a textbook, and lots of it gets
written the night before, rushed to duplicating, and handed out to the
class. I don't have a lot of time to look for missing backslashes and
brackets.) Anyhow, I guess I'm stuck with Word for the rest of this
project.

Wahey!

Word is definitely the right tool for that!

Reminds me of the famous Douglas Adams quote
"I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound as they fly by"