fraction formatting

[chiefkeith]

I am starting this new post in the hope of finding out how to turn OFF
the autoformating of fractions i Word 2004. I have just looked through
the past posts, in this newsgroup, of a search for 'fraction
formatting' and didn't seem to find an answer. My wife is trying to
type recipes and wants the full blown 1 then the slash then the 2 when
typing in 1/2. But autoformating or something kicks in and
automatically creates the itty bitty 1 over 2 fraction. I would like
to turn this off but can't find it in MS's Office Help, nor their FAQ
area on line. Thanks.

 

[Michel Bintener]

De-activating this is very easy in Word 2004: if you type a fraction and
Word autoformats it, you should see a blue line appear under the fraction.
If you hover the mouse pointer over that blue line, a smart tag with a
lightning appears, and you can click on that to be given several options,
one of which is "Stop Automatically Creating Fractions".

I am starting this new post in the hope of finding out how to turn OFF
the autoformating of fractions i Word 2004. I have just looked through
the past posts, in this newsgroup, of a search for 'fraction
formatting' and didn't seem to find an answer. My wife is trying to
type recipes and wants the full blown 1 then the slash then the 2 when
typing in 1/2. But autoformating or something kicks in and
automatically creates the itty bitty 1 over 2 fraction. I would like
to turn this off but can't find it in MS's Office Help, nor their FAQ
area on line. Thanks.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Do be ware that if you choose that "Stop Automatically Creating Fractions"
option, you can't turn it on again if you should ever want to. You can,
instead, choose instead the option to Undo the formatting (just that one).
Cmd-Z. immediately after you see the formatting change (when you type the
space or other next character after the fraction) should accomplish the same
thing and is quicker.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[CyberTaz]

....or you can go to Tools>AutoCorrect - AutoFormat As You Type, remove the
che

 

[Jacques]

I don't see this option in Word 2004. My first reaction to the OP's
question was that you could do it by deleting an AutoCorrect entry -- I
think that's how you would do it in older versions, anyway -- but I've
deleted all the standard AutoCorrect entries in Word 2004 and the
fractions thing still works.

 

[CyberTaz]

My mistake - you're absolutely right... That's what I get for relying on a
feeble memory :0 PC Word includes the Fractions checkbox but it is among the
missing in Mac Word. For some reason I was thinking that had been rectified
in 2004

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Clive Huggan]

No drama, then: just key Command-z after you type the fraction.

However, if you were inserting many fractions of the one type ­ say 1/2,
1/4, 3/4 etc ­ you could have a macro that inserted "1/2" and performed the
cancellation of the AutoFormatting for you (you wouldn't need to Command-z
each time, you would simply type 1/2 or whatever and it would stay as you
typed it). Post back if doing that by macro interests you.

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)
============================================================

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As far as I can see you can set it on/off using VBA if you absolutely have
to, e.g.

Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceFractions = True

Peter Jamieson

 

[Phillip Jones]

Ahh, but VBA will work in 2004 Mac version for now bur when the new
version comes on the scene VBA will be no more, We had a thread here
recently about VBA's demise

As far as I can see you can set it on/off using VBA if you absolutely have
to, e.g.

Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceFractions = True

Peter Jamieson

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[CyberTaz]

Ahh, but *when* that day comes the issue of fraction formatting [as well as
many other noxious issues] will be [hopefully] far more effectively
addressed, and such hacks as AutoFormat As You Type will be a thing of the
past... I have these little fantasies every now & then when the meds are
particularly active

 

[Phillip Jones]

What they will do is decide Applescript is far better and implement both

Ahh, but *when* that day comes the issue of fraction formatting [as well as
many other noxious issues] will be [hopefully] far more effectively
addressed, and such hacks as AutoFormat As You Type will be a thing of the
past... I have these little fantasies every now & then when the meds are
particularly active

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

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

Hi Phillip:

I admire your wishful thinking

I am not sure Microsoft will even decide to bring dot-Net to the Mac (it's
more likely than not that they *won't*).

But that would be a lot more likely than Microsoft deciding to pay Apple for
the licence to implement AppleScript in Office

Cheers

What they will do is decide Applescript is far better and implement both

Ahh, but *when* that day comes the issue of fraction formatting [as well as
many other noxious issues] will be [hopefully] far more effectively
addressed, and such hacks as AutoFormat As You Type will be a thing of the
past... I have these little fantasies every now & then when the meds are
particularly active

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

There seems to be an equivalent item in the Word Applescript dictionary.

Whether it has the same effect is another matter.

VBA's demise? Well, I don't know what the situation is these days, but until
a few years ago the vast majority of the world's commercial codebase was
written in COBOL. I wonder how much of it still is. Do you know?

In a hundred years' time, what will replace VBA? HTML? XML? and so on? If
you think 100 years time is a long way away, maybe you could suggest what
people should consider using for the next 20 years? 10? 5?

If I don't want to rely on VBA, what should I do?

Peter Jamieson

 

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

Hi Peter:

Oh, there was still a few thousand million lines of COBOL out there when we
came to try to fix it all for Y2K

We do not have a good answer about VBA on the Mac currently. If you are
constructing a Mac-only solution, you can of course do it in AppleScript.

On the PC, VBA is being replaced by the .NET technologies. We're vainly
hoping to get .NET on the Mac, but it won't happen soon. The other drawback
is that .NET is designed for a different purpose: to sit "outside" the
application and automate distributed solutions. It doesn't really have
VBA's ability to easily extend a single application.

Sorry

There seems to be an equivalent item in the Word Applescript dictionary.

Whether it has the same effect is another matter.

VBA's demise? Well, I don't know what the situation is these days, but until
a few years ago the vast majority of the world's commercial codebase was
written in COBOL. I wonder how much of it still is. Do you know?

In a hundred years' time, what will replace VBA? HTML? XML? and so on? If
you think 100 years time is a long way away, maybe you could suggest what
people should consider using for the next 20 years? 10? 5?

If I don't want to rely on VBA, what should I do?

Peter Jamieson

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

John,

What an awful message I posted! Sorry.

But thanks for replying anyway.

Since I dragged us into this area there are a couple of things that's it's
probably worth saying.

You may vaguely remember that I've always thought that VBA (and Wordbasic
before it) only solve one type of programming problem in Word and that what
the product could really do with is a thorough reworrking/upgrade of the
"field language." I don't suppose there has ever been much commercial
incentive to do that and the impression I get is software authors avoid
anything that smacks of "end-user programability" these days, probably
because of security concerns. But maybe the folks at MS could give that some
thought.

Also, I'm sure all the new XML facilities (assuming they will get to the Mac
eventually) will be extremely useful to anyone developing commercial
software for use with Mac Word, but as they stand I don't think the XML
facilities offer any real value to ordinary users - personally I found the
feature set diabolically difficult to work with when I had a go at creating
SmartTags & SmartDocuments last year, but one of the problems with XML
format is that you have to grasp an enormous amount of detail before you can
work with it successfully. For example, the idea that you can transform a
WordProcessingML document using XSLT is great, but then you actually have to
sit down and work out how on earth to do it. While I'm sure that there are
plenty of techies out there who live and breathe this stuff these days, I
can't help wondering whether what is needed is a slightly more "end-user"
oriented XML toolset, perhaps even one specifically geared to manipulating
XML format Word/Office documents (although I suppose you could argue that
Word /is/ that toolset). Or perhaps what is needed is simply a much larger
collection of samples of how to manipulate Office XML documents in useful
ways using XSLT. .

Is there stuff like that out there?

Peter Jamieson

 

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

Hi Peter:

Yes, XML is the proposed solution, and yes, Mac Office Next will have full
XML compatibility.

No, there are no end-user customisation tools out there yet. Yes, there
soon will be

Cheers

John,

What an awful message I posted! Sorry.

But thanks for replying anyway.

Since I dragged us into this area there are a couple of things that's it's
probably worth saying.

You may vaguely remember that I've always thought that VBA (and Wordbasic
before it) only solve one type of programming problem in Word and that what
the product could really do with is a thorough reworrking/upgrade of the
"field language." I don't suppose there has ever been much commercial
incentive to do that and the impression I get is software authors avoid
anything that smacks of "end-user programability" these days, probably
because of security concerns. But maybe the folks at MS could give that some
thought.

Also, I'm sure all the new XML facilities (assuming they will get to the Mac
eventually) will be extremely useful to anyone developing commercial
software for use with Mac Word, but as they stand I don't think the XML
facilities offer any real value to ordinary users - personally I found the
feature set diabolically difficult to work with when I had a go at creating
SmartTags & SmartDocuments last year, but one of the problems with XML
format is that you have to grasp an enormous amount of detail before you can
work with it successfully. For example, the idea that you can transform a
WordProcessingML document using XSLT is great, but then you actually have to
sit down and work out how on earth to do it. While I'm sure that there are
plenty of techies out there who live and breathe this stuff these days, I
can't help wondering whether what is needed is a slightly more "end-user"
oriented XML toolset, perhaps even one specifically geared to manipulating
XML format Word/Office documents (although I suppose you could argue that
Word /is/ that toolset). Or perhaps what is needed is simply a much larger
collection of samples of how to manipulate Office XML documents in useful
ways using XSLT. .

Is there stuff like that out there?

Peter Jamieson

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

No, there are no end-user customisation tools out there yet. Yes, there

soon will be

Believe it when I see it

Thanks,

Peter