How to keep Word from messing with me?

[Bill Weylock]

Is there a concise (really) manual, white paper, help file, or thread that
tells me how to disable all of the good ideas in Word and bring it back to a
program I can understand and manage?

I totally get styles. I hate macros. I hate multiple templates. I don¹t want
palettes.

I want one set of global styles that appear in new documents and which I
can modify for that document without changing the global styles. I know how
to overwrite global styles if I want to, but Word now messes with them
without my intervention.

70% of the styles I have kept in global styles for years are no longer
there. If all were gone, I¹d actually be happier. That would mean I should
just grab an archived Normal template. But 70%? It suggests that unseen
forces are at play.

Random stuff that mystifies and annoys me (Please forgive the raving. This
stuff is difficult to describe, and I¹m doing it from memory.):

I want Automatic heading numbering that doesn¹t go all black on me when my
cursor hits it. I¹m sure that is giving me a lovely option that they just
swoon for in Spain, but I want my old header numbers back. They were hard to
manage, but at least I could figure them out.

There have to be a number of options I have stupidly and innocently allowed.
I need help paring back.

It is completely exhausting to type all of the problems out. I need
comprehensive therapy.

If anyone else recognizes this general syndrome, will you please throw me a
bone? I¹m in the middle of projects, and the word processor I have trusted
for many years is now between me and getting my work done.

And the help system, which replaced what used to be wonderful manuals, is
bloody infuriating.

I don¹t even feel better after this rant. I have defended this program so
often and so faithfully. Now I find I am beginning to loathe it.

Maybe a list of ³things you should consider disabling?² Does that make
sense?

For starters, I never again, ever, want to be asked if I wish to save
changes to Normal template. If I do, I will go to the Normal template and
bloody change it. I know I¹ve seen the option somewhere, but I can¹t find it
now. And my little doggie helper won¹t tell me.

Thanks. Now I do feel a little better.

(Yesterday I learned I could turn off the little Paste helper icons that
have been making me homicidal. So there does seem to be a path to the fresh
air and light.)

I promise I¹ll help someone else with this in return if you take pity.


Best,


- Bill


Panther 10.3.5
Office 2004

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Is there a concise (really) manual, white paper, help file, or thread that
tells me how to disable all of the good ideas in Word and bring it back to a
program I can understand and manage?

I don$B!G(Bt know about concise, but you might check out this site:

http://word.mvps.org

Gene van Troyer

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Is there a concise (really) manual, white paper, help file, or thread that
tells me how to disable all of the good ideas in Word and bring it back to a
program I can understand and manage?

You might also check out Office 2004: The Missing Manual, by Nan Barber et.
al., from Pogue/O$B!G(BReilly Press:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/officemactmm

It$B!G(Bs $30, but the Missing Manuals series of boos is invariably a valuable,
practical resource.

Gene van Troyer

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Ah, well, even though Amazon and O'Reilly list Office 2004: The Missing
Manual in their catalogs, it hasn't been released yet. Sorry about that!

Gene van Troyer

 

[Bill Weylock]

I guess...

Thanks, Gene.

David Pogue is the real thing. I know 75% of it is going to be stuff I've
known since birth, but it may be worth it to get a clear exposition of how
to stay out of trouble.

I seem to be a mid-way user. I know a lot about Word (at least about the
stuff that hasn't been totally changed) but I've never had any particular
patience or faith in macros. I've used QuicKeys and customized keyboard
shortcuts to do everything that needs doing, and it has kept me from having
to learn something that always mystified me. Others, I know, find it child's
play and also essential to build and use macros for stuff.

Anyway, something about the assumptions underlying styles and style sheets
has changed when I wasn't looking.

For one thing, when I look closely, there seem to be dozens of built in
styles that I've never seen before and don't want to know about. I'm sure
they are very helpful to someone.

Thanks for answering the initial rave. I do appreciate it.


Best,


- Bill

You might also check out Office 2004: The Missing Manual, by Nan Barber et.
al., from Pogue/O¹Reilly Press:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/officemactmm

It¹s $30, but the Missing Manuals series of boos is invariably a valuable,
practical resource.

Gene van Troyer

Panther 10.3.5
Office 2004

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

You might also check out Office 2004: The Missing Manual, by Nan Barber et.
al., from Pogue/O¹Reilly Press:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/officemactmm

It¹s $30, but the Missing Manuals series of boos is invariably a valuable,
practical resource.

You'll also need a bit of patience. It does say "Jan 2005". And that's being
a bit optimistic, I think...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Is there a concise (really) manual, white paper, help file, or thread that
tells me how to disable all of the good ideas in Word and bring it back to a
program I can understand and manage?

First, download and read Clive Huggan's outstanding "Bend Word to your
Will":

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Bend/BendWord.htm

While it is not updated for Word04, 99% of it is still applicable.

Then explore the MacWord section of mvps.org:

http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordHomePage.htm


Couple of specifics:

And the help system, which replaced what used to be wonderful manuals, is
bloody infuriating.

Give Help another chance - unlike its WinWord counterpart, it's gotten
far better in recent versions. For instance, using "automatically
update" came up with "Have Word automatically update a style" - from
which you can figure out how to turn off your auto updating styles.

For starters, I never again, ever, want to be asked if I wish to save
changes to Normal template. If I do, I will go to the Normal template and
bloody change it. I know I¹ve seen the option somewhere, but I can¹t find it
now.

Choose Preferences/Save, uncheck the "Prompt to save Normal
template" checkbox.

And my little doggie helper won¹t tell me.

Personally, I find any of the assistant's infuriating. For me, it's far
better to turn them off and open a search window by default.

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

I guess...

Thanks, Gene.

David Pogue is the real thing. I know 75% of it is going to be stuff I've
known since birth, but it may be worth it to get a clear exposition of how
to stay out of trouble.

I seem to be a mid-way user. I know a lot about Word (at least about the
stuff that hasn't been totally changed) but I've never had any particular
patience or faith in macros. I've used QuicKeys and customized keyboard
shortcuts to do everything that needs doing, and it has kept me from having
to learn something that always mystified me. Others, I know, find it child's
play and also essential to build and use macros for stuff.

I don't use Macro's because of the dangers of the Macro viruses that can
not only damage PC files, but are as equally daging or more so of Mac
file versions.

I've been taught for years and years never to turn on Macro's nor to use
some of the sppecial scripting Laguages or components MS uses because
ther are virus carrries that affect any platform with equal Danger.

Anyway, something about the assumptions underlying styles and style sheets
has changed when I wasn't looking.

For one thing, when I look closely, there seem to be dozens of built in
styles that I've never seen before and don't want to know about. I'm sure
they are very helpful to someone.

Thanks for answering the initial rave. I do appreciate it.


Best,


- Bill







Panther 10.3.5
Office 2004

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[Ron]

Choose Preferences/Save, uncheck the "Prompt to save Normal
template" checkbox.

Copy your Templates folder out of the Office folder in Applications
into your home directory, then set your templates file to that one
under Word's preferences. You will never be asked to saved Normal
again.

 

[matt neuburg]

Choose Preferences/Save, uncheck the "Prompt to save Normal
template" checkbox.

No, just the opposite! If you uncheck that checkbox, then Word will just
save changes to the Normal template without telling you. Keep it
checked; that way, Word will *ask* if it can save changes to the Normal
template - and you can just say No.

If you know you will *never* want to save changes to Normal, lock it, as
I said in a different thread. m.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

No, just the opposite!...that way, Word will *ask* if it can save
changes to the Normal template - and you can just say No.

matt -

How does your suggestion meet the OP's requirement that

I never again, ever, want to be asked if I wish to save
changes to Normal template.

???

FWIW, I'd *never* put anything I wanted to keep in Normal. With Word
v.X, I had an applescript that deleted Normal ever time I started up. I
haven't had any corruption problem with Normal in Word04, however, I do
delete it every time I open the MUD folder for anything, just as a
prophylactic.

I also *never* base an important document on Normal. I keep a separate
template for every document type I generate. I keep autotext and macros
in add-ins. Therefore I never have anything to save in Normal.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I don't use Macro's because of the dangers of the Macro viruses that can
not only damage PC files, but are as equally daging or more so of Mac
file versions.

I've been taught for years and years never to turn on Macro's nor to use
some of the sppecial scripting Laguages or components MS uses because
ther are virus carrries that affect any platform with equal Danger.

As usual, I strongly disagree.

I've never had a macro problem in years and years of use. I've never,
*ever*, had a file containing a macro fail to be identified by Word's
macro virus protection. Of course, I disable macros for files that I'm
not sure of, until I have a chance to check them out.

Giving up the benefit of macros for a non-threat doesn't make any sense
to me. I use macros to completely configure Word for the way I like to
use it - including features that aren't available natively, and I use
different macros to provide different configurations for different
document types. Because I use macros, I can take a CD with me to client
sites and configure their machines so that I can use a familiar
configuration, while leaving their configurations alone.

FWIW, I think that Phillip's aversion to ActiveX controls as they are
implemented in WinWord is justified. Of course, that's completely
irrelevant to MacWord, since ActiveX controls don't do anything on Macs.

I don't know who taught Phillip, but they were, IMO, far more timid and
doctrinaire than necessary. "A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not
what ships are for."

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The first rule of teaching is to listen more deeply to the questioner
than his words; you must figure out what he *really* wants to know, for
that is the very thing he does *not* know.

I agree. But that's *only* a first rule. There are others, many of which
are more important.

That's why suggesting something that explicitly does *not* do what the
OP asks, is, based on *my* teaching experience, exceedingly likely to be
ignored, along with the rest of one's suggestions, no matter how deep an
insight one has gained into what the OP really needs. Hence my question.

FWIW, what is a "clear implication" to you in the follow-on, is not at
all clear to me. Perhaps that's because I read the sentence

I know I've seen the option somewhere, but I can't find it now.

as implying that the OP is competent to evaluate the effect of "the
option", rather than "express(ing) it clumsily".

Also, given the OP's

I totally get styles. I hate macros. I hate multiple templates. I
don¹t want palettes.

it's not obvious to me that the OP is maladroit, as it is
to you ("unless he is an adept...which, from the rest of his letter, he
obviously is not").

 

[Bill Weylock]

Good grief!

Am I to be flattered or insulted by this?

Could you guys argue over some other carcass?

Matt is exactly correct. Given a choice between being asked and being able
to prevent change on the one hand and not being asked and being unable to
prevent change on the other, I choose the one - probably maladroitly, but
sort of adeptly too, in a way, maybe.

In previous versions and in not too distant times, I do not think I was so
frequently presented with the question, and I do not remember corruption.

In fact, I was fishing for an option I thought I recalled from somewhere
that would allow me to talk Word out of saving changes to Normal altogether.
But I¹m not sure that makes sense.

Where in the word help files does it explain exactly what Word is asking and
what the implications are of the choices? It probably is in there somewhere.

The ins and outs of this stuff ceased to fascinate me when MS decided to
stop documenting and explaining features and functions. There was a time
when there was precious little about this program I did not understand.

The exception was macros, which I still don't trust. Except for ones others
have built and tested, like your great little add in that arranges the
windows vertically instead of horizontally.

I have a lot of customizations, but they are almost all designed to bring
buried functionalities to the surface. I whip in and out of a lot of styles,
and I've been doing it with impunity for a long time. Only in the very
recent past have things gone wonky.

First thing I noticed was that calling styles by the shortcuts appended to
the names (bullet,b) did not always work as expected. No one has yet been
able to explain that one fully. It just happens sometimes and sometimes not.

I take the point of having all documents based on specific templates. What I
have always done rather than mess with templates is simply open a document
like the one I want to create, save as, and start working. It¹s close to the
same idea, I think.

Leaving town for a couple of days, so this is my last post for a while.

I knew as I was asking the questions that I didn't know what to ask about.
I've been keeping long hours and short fuses. I was shaking with anger and
frustration when I jumped in here to see if help was available on something
so vague.

In fact, I've received more and better help than I could have expected. I
even refined the question to something that you guys could argue about. I¹m
sort of proud.

Thanks.

I guess I would just ask that if you are going to argue it would be a
kindness not to make my level of intelligence and expertise part of the mix.

Just figured out what OP means. Yeah, t'is I.

In all seriousness, I deeply appreciate the help you guys give. I know it
can¹t have been easy to follow the threads to a decently comprehensive
understanding of all of this stuff. I trust you both have business reasons
for doing so, but I¹m very glad you did, whatever the reason.


Best,


- Bill

I agree. But that's *only* a first rule. There are others, many of which
are more important.

That's why suggesting something that explicitly does *not* do what the
OP asks, is, based on *my* teaching experience, exceedingly likely to be
ignored, along with the rest of one's suggestions, no matter how deep an
insight one has gained into what the OP really needs. Hence my question.

FWIW, what is a "clear implication" to you in the follow-on, is not at
all clear to me. Perhaps that's because I read the sentence


as implying that the OP is competent to evaluate the effect of "the
option", rather than "express(ing) it clumsily".

Also, given the OP's


it's not obvious to me that the OP is maladroit, as it is
to you ("unless he is an adept...which, from the rest of his letter, he
obviously is not").

Panther 10.3.5
Office 2004

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Am I to be flattered or insulted by this?
neither.

Could you guys argue over some other carcass?

Don't assume that the discussion was about *you*. Nobody's arguing over
your carcass.

We both gave you answers. After that, you're out of it until you give
feedback (which you did, and I'm glad to see that matt was right and
your question was answered).

In this medium, interpretation of questions is based on many things, and
how to answer them depend on what factors are perceived, and how they're
weighted. Based on your post, along with many other posts you've made,
and the longevity of your participation in these groups, I read your
post differently than matt did. But my follow-up question to matt was
about the type of answer he gave, not about you. He in turn responded
with how he analyzed the question, not about you. I explained how I came
to a different conclusion based on my analysis of the text. Again,
nothing about you.

In this case, matt's analysis was better than mine. That's cool, I've
been doing this for 20 years, and I've been wrong more than a few times
before <g>.