How do you make return, return only 1 lineand future speed improvements?

[powerbook911]

In Office 2008 Word, when I hit the return bar, it returns two lines. Yes, I can hold shift and only go down one line, but how do I make return by default go down only one line?

Finally, is MBU working on the speed of Office 2008? It seems unfinished. My 2.4 GHZ iMac with 3 GB of memory runs the PowerPC Office 2004 substantially quicker than the new version which is universal binary.

 

[John McGhie]

1) Click the "Show all non-printing characters" button on your Standard
toolbar to turn on your paragraph markers, so you can see what you are
doing.

2) Use Format>Style>Modify to change the Paragraph properties of Normal
style to have the amount of space you desire.

3) Check the Add to Template box on the next dialog to write your changes
back to your Normal.dotm template so they will hold for all future
documents.

Be aware that you are making a global change here that will affect things
such as your Document Parts and Document Themes, and may also produce
peculiar results when pasting into other applications.

In a WYSIWYG typesetting applications such as Word, you should expect to see
spacing between paragraphs, because that's the way it's going to print.

In Word, it is not a good idea to use blank paragraphs for spacing. It will
make your long documents very difficult to paginate, and may lead to crashes
and other instability.

Yes, Microsoft is intending to issue a Service Release for Office 2008 next
week (March 11th). I am not sure how much of a speed improvement that will
give it.

I agree with you, it's a very rough beta quality currently

Cheers

In Office 2008 Word, when I hit the return bar, it returns two lines. Yes, I
can hold shift and only go down one line, but how do I make return by default
go down only one line?

Finally, is MBU working on the speed of Office 2008? It seems unfinished. My
2.4 GHZ iMac with 3 GB of memory runs the PowerPC Office 2004 substantially
quicker than the new version which is universal binary.

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Clive Huggan]

In Word, it is not a good idea to use blank paragraphs for spacing. It will
make your long documents very difficult to paginate, and may lead to crashes
and other instability.

If this point of John's interests you, ee8ff19 (how do I remember *you* when
next you post?), take a look at 'Appendix A: The main ³minimum maintenance²
features of my documents' starting on page 164 -- and 'The advantages of
including leading (blank space above or below) in styles' on page 176 -- of
some notes on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your
Will", which are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Cheers,

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

 

[CyberTaz]

Welllll, actually it isn't returning two lines It's inserting Space After
- 10 points to be exact - as a paragraph formatting attribute. It doesn't
happen on Shift+Return because that keystroke creates a line break *not* a
paragraph break. Technically speaking, Space Before & Space After is the
preferred way to adjust spacing between paragraphs rather than banging on
the return key a second time - it's just that MS finally decided it was
about time to implement it as the default... Unfortunately they didn't see
fit to provide any outfight, obvious notification of what's going on

You can change it on a per-paragraph basis by simply selecting the
paragraphs involved then going to Format> Paragraph> Indents & Spacing to
set the Spacing After to 0 (or whatever you prefer). If you want to make a
"permanent" change you'll have to modify the Normal paragraph style to
adjust the Spacing After it's currently set to, choose the option Add to
Template before clicking OK.

FWIW, I highly recommend that you try to get used to the current default -
you'll have far more control over the flow of your docs & learning to format
by using Styles will also provide you with better, more consistent, more
stable results overall. Post back with any questions that arise.

As to the second issue - My guess is that you're running Leopard (10.5.2)
which most likely is why the performance issue has arisen. As yet there is
no cure but it is hoped that the forthcoming Office update (expected March
11) will rectify the situation.

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

 

[MC]

Welllll, actually it isn't returning two lines It's inserting Space After
- 10 points to be exact - as a paragraph formatting attribute. It doesn't
happen on Shift+Return because that keystroke creates a line break *not* a
paragraph break. Technically speaking, Space Before & Space After is the
preferred way to adjust spacing between paragraphs rather than banging on
the return key a second time - it's just that MS finally decided it was
about time to implement it as the default... Unfortunately they didn't see
fit to provide any outfight, obvious notification of what's going on

Well, that is the MS way, innit? Though I do admire their software more
than a lot of people, I *don't* admire the way they assume and impose
the "we-know-best" formula.

This has proved to be the least understood and most disliked
"improvement" to Word, and although it is fixable by following the steps
you outline, it realy should be a whole lot easier to get at and
implement. I'm quite sure MS has received a lot of feedback on this --
maybe they'll get the message.

 

[powerbook911]

Thanks for the help. I really don't understand the terminology some of you use. ha-ha. However, I did understand how to change it both on an individually basis and permanently, if I wish.

For most of the things I use work for, I can see that it isn't a big deal how it works currently (after all usually you just type until it moves to the next line itself), but if you're just laying something out like a title with some categories maybe or something, it was just so easy to hit return than go into some setting and format each paragraph or whatnot.

I don't know if I'll change the setting or not, but at least I know how to now. THanks very much.

Yes, I'm on 10.5.2. I'll be looking forward to future updates to Office 2008. Also, is there no forum for the expression media?

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>
I *don't* admire the way they assume and impose the "we-know-best" formula.
<snip>

Well, that isn't really the case here MS didn't make the standard - it's
been established in the typesetting industry since a guy by the name of J.
Gutenburg. It's just that MS finally decided to implement what many believe
*should* have been the norm since the introduction of scalable fonts on
personal computers.

 

[MC]

<snip>
I *don't* admire the way they assume and impose the "we-know-best" formula.
<snip>

Well, that isn't really the case here MS didn't make the standard - it's
been established in the typesetting industry since a guy by the name of J.
Gutenburg. It's just that MS finally decided to implement what many believe
*should* have been the norm since the introduction of scalable fonts on
personal computers.

All I'm saying is... the change shouldbe more transparent to the
non-typo tyros, and the choice should be more accessible.