Help Please: Formatting problems, etc.

[Robert11]

Hello:

I feel really dumb in asking these, but have really tried to dope it out
myself; honest.
I can use Word, more or less, but some of the formatting stuff drives me
crazy.

I just use the most basic Word commands, and have avoided all the "fancy"
stuff.
Guess it's coming now to bite me.

Anyway, I received a document that a person (not available anymore)
generated, which I have to revise.
Apparently, it has a bunch of formatting stuff that they used which I have
no idea how to
change, or more important, just totally circumvent.

a. There is a small square with the up-down & horiz double headed arrows in
it before some lines.
What does it do ?
How do I get rid of what it is trying to do, or tell me, and revert to
the regular, simple, format ?

b. There is text enclosed by a box.
It does Not appear to have been generated by the rectangle drawing
options from the bottom taskbar that appears.
How might it have been generated ?

How do I get rid of it, but keep the text in it ?

c. A table was set in the document.
How can I delete the rows and columns, but keep the text that was in it
?

d. The lines are numbered.
If I go to a number to change it, the number turns black which shows
it was selected, but there is also a grey
(somewhat horiz) box around it. It won't allow me to change the
number.
If I delete the number, though, all the following numbered lines change
their numbering.

What does this greying signify ?

How do I get rid of this automatic numbering ? I simply want to put the
number I want in its place.

Much thanks. Really appreciate the help,
Bob

 

[Carol]

Sounds like you have some tables and borders and shading and automatic
numbering going on in your document. It's kind of hard for me to
answer your questions without seeing the document. If you want me to
look at it, I'd be happy to help you.

 

[Robert11]

Hi Carol:

Thanks for the offer of help; appreciate your time.

I have always had all the option boxes (I believe) in the basic Word I use
unchecked.

e.g., in Tools/Options, Everything is Un-checked
Aslo, in Tools/Auto Correct are all Un-checked

Do the settings that the document I have opened that was created elsewhere
override my default settings ?

If you could just tell me how to get rid of (any):

- Borders

- Tables

- Automatic Numbering

- and any automatic formatting that might be going on

that would be a great help.

There should be one option box labeled "Setup For elderly, simple minded
folk" !

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Carol]

First of all Bob, it doesn't sound like it's automatic formatting. It
sounds as if someone used specific styles to create the document. To
get rid of a page border, click on Format | Borders and Shading |
Borders and select None.

I'm not sure what you mean by automatic numbering, whether it's a
numbered list or outline numbering.

If you want to clear all formatting out of the document, copy it and
paste it into Notepad and then copy it from Notepad and paste it into a
new word document. That should get rid of most if not all formatting
for you and then you can start over from scratch.

Post back here if you need more help.

 

[Robert11]

Hi,

Thank you.

The Notepad idea is really good.

Bob

 

[Carol]

Glad I was able to help you Bob.