Format Document-Columns-Breaks-Drop Cap Issues

[frank_fl]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Since installing Office 2008 (home edition) for the Macintosh I have not been able to select the format documents, columns, drop caps or insert section breaks in any of my documents. All of these choices are grayed out in the menu bar and the icons in the tool bars while appearing are not active.

These choices are not available in any of the print view choices. When I bring in an older document created in Word 2004 that has had columns created in it I can readily access and change them in any way I choose. Also, any document created in Word 2004 that is opened in Word 2008 will allow me to format the document or add section breaks or remove section breaks.

I have been working with this issue for a few days now and really do not know what to try next. I currently have a document created in Word 2008 that I need to get into a double column and no matter what I try I am unable to select and create them as well as not being able to format the document.

Under the Format menu all choices are available and usable with the exception of document,columns and drop caps. Hopefully there is something very simple to correct and bring these options back into service?

MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB ram

Frank

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Frank:

Check the file format of your document.

If you are working in plain text or web layout, those options are not
available because the file format won't support them.

You must be in .doc or .docx; and not in Notebook View or Web Layout View.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Since installing Office 2008 (home edition) for the Macintosh I have not been
able to select the format documents, columns, drop caps or insert section
breaks in any of my documents. All of these choices are grayed out in the menu
bar and the icons in the tool bars while appearing are not active.

These choices are not available in any of the print view choices. When I bring
in an older document created in Word 2004 that has had columns created in it I
can readily access and change them in any way I choose. Also, any document
created in Word 2004 that is opened in Word 2008 will allow me to format the
document or add section breaks or remove section breaks.

I have been working with this issue for a few days now and really do not know
what to try next. I currently have a document created in Word 2008 that I need
to get into a double column and no matter what I try I am unable to select and
create them as well as not being able to format the document.

Under the Format menu all choices are available and usable with the exception
of document,columns and drop caps. Hopefully there is something very simple to
correct and bring these options back into service?

MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB ram

Frank

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[frank_fl]

John,

Thanks for the reply. I am working in the .doc format (for compatibility issues with others I work with) and in the print preview mode for viewing the document. I failed to mention in my first posting that the Office 2008 program has all of the most current MS updates applied to it.

Here is what I have found so far. It seems that when I open Word to create a new document for some reason it is automatically creating a FRAME around all of the text I type (actually the frame is already there and when I start typing that is where the text goes). I have gone to FORMAT - STYLE - MODIFY - FORMAT FRAME and then clicked on REMOVE FRAME - hit the OK button - checked the ADD TO TEMPLATE button, closed all the dialog boxes with OK and then hit APPLY before closing the style dialog box. I then shut down Word and it asks me if I want to save the changes made to .dotm and I say yes. Once I remove the frame from around my text I am once again able to do everything I need, however Word will return to the frames setting when I restart Word to create a new document and I have to repeat the process. Is there any way to make this setting stick ? ? I would have thought that by doing what I did and then telling the program to accept the change to the template that it would hold. What am I missing or doing wrong here ? ?

I am going to continue to try and figure out what it is I am doing wrong with this program this evening but I am starting to get somewhat frustrated. Having used Word for the Mac for longer than I can remember this latest release seems to be a great deal different than the previous versions. Oh well, nothing like learning something new every day. Thanks again

Frank

 

[frank_fl]

John,

After I posted my reply I noticed that I said I was in the print preview mode when working on my document. I am actually in the PRINT LAYOUT VIEW. Sorry for the terminology error.

Is there any method for editing a note on this forum once it has been published? Thanks

Frank

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Frank:

No. We turned off "Editing" because it was causing merry hell with the NNTP
back-end, via which most of our volunteers access the forum.

I would say that your Normal.dotm template is not saving for some reason. I
suggest that you quit Word and drag Normal.dotm to the desktop. When you
restart, Word will rebuild a fresh new one.

Before you do this, check that you have the 12.0.1 update applied (check in
Word>About Word).

Also: If you had 2004 on that machine, find its Normal template (it's
usually in Microsoft User Data) and drag that up to the desktop too.
Otherwise, Word 2008 will try to import settings from it when it re-creates
its own Normal.dotm, and that can cause this kind of problem).

Which style are you using? There are some things that will break if you
down-convert them to .doc format. But I am not aware of anything that
down-converts to a frame

There's a Service Pack on the way (it's currently in test) after which this
release should behave a bit better.

Cheers

John,

After I posted my reply I noticed that I said I was in the print preview mode
when working on my document. I am actually in the PRINT LAYOUT VIEW. Sorry for
the terminology error.

Is there any method for editing a note on this forum once it has been
published? Thanks

Frank

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[frank_fl]

Hi Again John,

Thanks for the information regarding editing of the forum postings.

I do have the update version 12.0.1 of Office 2008 installed on the MacBook Pro and this particular machine has never had any other version of Word installed on it so I do not believe there should have been any issues with the Word 2004 normal template. I have Word 2004 on my other machine and will for the time being run these two machine with their own totally independant Office programs.

I was going to do as you suggested, remove the Normal.dotm file to the desktop and let Word build me another one or just reinstall the entire software package. After making several more attempts at trying to make the changes to the Normal.dotm file it all of a sudden took and seems to be holding - at least it has held all day today. I have no real sense of what it was that made it finally hold but I am very thankful that it has done so. You mentioned a hopefully soon to be released update again to Office 2008 that perhaps will help with this and several other issues of this current release - I look forward to the next update as no doubt many others do.

Thanks again for your assistance in trying to help me figure out what was going on and for all the suggestions you made. Sure would be nice to know exactly what did happen but for now I am once again a "happy camper".

Frank

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Frank:

Word can corrupt templates. Heavily-used templates such as the Normal
template are the ones most likely to suffer from this. Normal is Word's
private scratchpad for each user, and it stores thousands of settings. Word
writes or re-writes information to it several times a minute.

Most of the information in a template is stored in the OLE Property Store,
which is an invisible container stored below the last paragraph mark in the
document. This is why a Normal template can appear totally blank and yet be
a couple of megabytes in size

If a template corrupts, Word can lose the ability to write to particular
parts of it it, although it may be able to read those parts.

Files in the new XML format are substantially more robust than files in the
old .doc format. And Word performs an automatic test and fix on an XML file
each time it opens or saves it.

So it's likely that Word found the error on your Normal template and
silently repaired it

You are quite correct: if the computer has never had a previous version of
Word on it, there will be no old garbage hanging around to cause trouble.

Cheers

Hi Again John,

Thanks for the information regarding editing of the forum postings.

I do have the update version 12.0.1 of Office 2008 installed on the MacBook
Pro and this particular machine has never had any other version of Word
installed on it so I do not believe there should have been any issues with the
Word 2004 normal template. I have Word 2004 on my other machine and will for
the time being run these two machine with their own totally independant Office
programs.

I was going to do as you suggested, remove the Normal.dotm file to the desktop
and let Word build me another one or just reinstall the entire software
package. After making several more attempts at trying to make the changes to
the Normal.dotm file it all of a sudden took and seems to be holding - at
least it has held all day today. I have no real sense of what it was that made
it finally hold but I am very thankful that it has done so. You mentioned a
hopefully soon to be released update again to Office 2008 that perhaps will
help with this and several other issues of this current release - I look
forward to the next update as no doubt many others do.

Thanks again for your assistance in trying to help me figure out what was
going on and for all the suggestions you made. Sure would be nice to know
exactly what did happen but for now I am once again a "happy camper".

Frank

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]