D
Dan FANCHER
I want to understand how formatting of emailed documents behaves. Am willing
to pay for a reproducible set of actions that reproduces my problem and
demonstrates a solution. Do you understand the problem described below? Can
you help me solve it? How much will you charge to solve it and describe the
cause and effect to me so that I can communicate the same cause and effect to
my masters and then implement the solution (that I think centers around a
corporate template)?
I am a somewhat, self-taught Word Aficionado in my company. We use Word
2007. Although we have MOSS 2007 running, several members of staff continue
to email Word documents to colleagues as a method of collaboration. My
Cassandra cries go unanswered.
Recently, I was unceremoniously stripped of my ‘right’ to contribute because
anytime I retuned the document it the formatting was inconsistent with what
the author had sent. I ‘knew’ that the problem was related to templates
somehow.
His document was based on normal.dotx with lots of direct formatting. I
could see that his document included some corporate styles since
“ProposalNormal†was a style and was evident in his document. However,
whenever I opened the document, the heading numbering scheme changed along
with lots of other subtle changes. For clarity, the Author sent the document
to me and to my colleague. Whenever I opened the document, the formatting
was corrupt. Whenever my colleague opened the document, it displayed
‘predictably.’ The author based his document on another document that my
colleague provided.
As a self-taught Word guy, I, naturally, assumed that the problem centered
around the normal template and the style definitions embedded within. So I
wanted to test my hypothesis. I created a document based on the normal.dotm
template. I then proceeded to modify many of the styles (normal, body text,
Headings, etc.) within the document AND the template so that they would bear
no relation to anyone else’s normal template. On the developer tab, the
check box for updating the styles was selected. I emailed the document to
one of my colleagues confident that he would see the document in a totally
different way than how I was seeing it. Such was not the case. The style
definitions and the presentation were identically my definitions.
We both opened another document that we had received from a third party.
The check box was unchecked for update styles from the normal template. The
document displayed as the original author had intended (we think). When I
selected the “update styles from template†check box, Word responded
predictably and adjusted the formats to my settings.
I want to introduce a corporate template to the organization to alleviate
much of the frustration associated with collaborative reviews. I can’t sell
it unless I can explain it and recreate the behaviors that demonstrate that
the only viable way forward is a corporate template.
Tasks.
1) Explain the Word hierarchy of formats (specifically the precedence
of global and document templates and direct formatting interact) within
emailed documents
2) Does the behavior manifest itself in a similar way when using a
platform like MOSS 2007?
3) Develop a scenario that I can create on my computer that
demonstrates why we need to introduce a corporate template. The experience
that I describe above is what we want to AVOID; therefore, by explaining why
I could send a document that displayed correctly on my colleagues machine but
I couldn’t open a document from a third colleague without the formatting
going haywire is necessary.
I can handle template development and distribution.
to pay for a reproducible set of actions that reproduces my problem and
demonstrates a solution. Do you understand the problem described below? Can
you help me solve it? How much will you charge to solve it and describe the
cause and effect to me so that I can communicate the same cause and effect to
my masters and then implement the solution (that I think centers around a
corporate template)?
I am a somewhat, self-taught Word Aficionado in my company. We use Word
2007. Although we have MOSS 2007 running, several members of staff continue
to email Word documents to colleagues as a method of collaboration. My
Cassandra cries go unanswered.
Recently, I was unceremoniously stripped of my ‘right’ to contribute because
anytime I retuned the document it the formatting was inconsistent with what
the author had sent. I ‘knew’ that the problem was related to templates
somehow.
His document was based on normal.dotx with lots of direct formatting. I
could see that his document included some corporate styles since
“ProposalNormal†was a style and was evident in his document. However,
whenever I opened the document, the heading numbering scheme changed along
with lots of other subtle changes. For clarity, the Author sent the document
to me and to my colleague. Whenever I opened the document, the formatting
was corrupt. Whenever my colleague opened the document, it displayed
‘predictably.’ The author based his document on another document that my
colleague provided.
As a self-taught Word guy, I, naturally, assumed that the problem centered
around the normal template and the style definitions embedded within. So I
wanted to test my hypothesis. I created a document based on the normal.dotm
template. I then proceeded to modify many of the styles (normal, body text,
Headings, etc.) within the document AND the template so that they would bear
no relation to anyone else’s normal template. On the developer tab, the
check box for updating the styles was selected. I emailed the document to
one of my colleagues confident that he would see the document in a totally
different way than how I was seeing it. Such was not the case. The style
definitions and the presentation were identically my definitions.
We both opened another document that we had received from a third party.
The check box was unchecked for update styles from the normal template. The
document displayed as the original author had intended (we think). When I
selected the “update styles from template†check box, Word responded
predictably and adjusted the formats to my settings.
I want to introduce a corporate template to the organization to alleviate
much of the frustration associated with collaborative reviews. I can’t sell
it unless I can explain it and recreate the behaviors that demonstrate that
the only viable way forward is a corporate template.
Tasks.
1) Explain the Word hierarchy of formats (specifically the precedence
of global and document templates and direct formatting interact) within
emailed documents
2) Does the behavior manifest itself in a similar way when using a
platform like MOSS 2007?
3) Develop a scenario that I can create on my computer that
demonstrates why we need to introduce a corporate template. The experience
that I describe above is what we want to AVOID; therefore, by explaining why
I could send a document that displayed correctly on my colleagues machine but
I couldn’t open a document from a third colleague without the formatting
going haywire is necessary.
I can handle template development and distribution.