How useful are Word 5.1a menus in Office 2004?

[Zack]

Printing issues seem to be forcing me to upgrade from my beloved Word
5.1a to the current version of Microsoft Office. I tried this once
before, "upgrading" a few years ago to Office X. What a disaster;
after a week I sent Office back to Microsoft and ran screaming back to
5.1a in frustrated disgust.

Will I do any better now with Word 2004? I'm intrigued by the option of
selecting menus that match 5.1a. What drove me nuts last time was
having to spend literally hours digging around in the totally
unintuitive interface (with little help from the unintuitive
documentation) trying to figure out how to do little things (like
printing an envelope) that took a single obvious keystroke in 5.1a.

Will the '5.x menu' option really let me work with Word 2004 as though
it were 5.1a?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Zack

 

[matt neuburg]

Will the '5.x menu' option really let me work with Word 2004 as though
it were 5.1a

Mostly it will let you work with Worfd 2004 as though Word 2004 had one
head tied behind its back. m.

 

[Zack]

Well, that's one way of putting it. Basically, what I want is a word
processor with the intuitive functionality of 5.1a (style sheets!),
that can run under OSX and create documents which are compatible with
the Windows computers used by many people I work with. Word X had all
sorts of 'features' which only seemed to complicate tasks which were
simple in 5.1, and which made me feel I was working in a Windows
environment, not on a Mac. I'm trying figure out if Word 2004 offers
any improvement.

Zack

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi

Why not install the free test drive of Office 2004 and give it a whirl.
It doesn't cost anything to try it for 30 days:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=office2004td

Once you have installed Office, go to Word's TOOLS menu and choose
CUSTOMIZE. Click on the TOOLBARS tab (it will probably be the default
tab) and click the checkbox next to WORD FOR MACINTOSH 5.1 then uncheck
any toolbars you don't want. Then click OK.

Next go to the WORD menu and choose PREFERENCES. In the COMPATABILITY
section set the RECOMMENDED OPTIONS FOR drop down to WORD FOR THE
MACINTOSH 5x then click OK.

Word 2004 lets you set just about everything to keyboard shortcuts, so
if there is a command you want a specific keyboard shortcut to activate
you can probably do it. Help explains about keyboard shortcuts.

Doing these things will make Word 2004 look and behave a lot like Word
5.1. Not exactly, but very close - probably close enough to make the
adjustment to 2004 with only a slight amount of pain.

-Jim

 

[Elliott Roper]

I have yet to meet one person who denigrates Word 5.1 <nostalgic sigh>. But
the world moves on (not necessarily upwards).[/QUOTE]
<Waves.> What about me?
Well, I used to complain about its bloat at the time.
I'm an example of *not* moving on. I'm still compaining about the bloat
in the current version.

I agree with Matt's comment about using Word 5.1 menus in Word 2004, BTW.

I wondered whether it was a typo, and decided it wasn't.
(one head tied behind its back)
Word 2004 schizophrenic?

Oh, Zack. I was about to recommend Clive's "Bend.." to you, but then I
knew one would be along in a minute ;-)
It really helped me when I moved from 5.1.
PS
I was playing in the corners of the emacs editor last night. How about this for bloat?
It is right up there with remove red-eye.
(although I gotta say that emacs help is far more usable than Word's.
To get this gem from its help I typed "C-h a morse"
in the middle of an editing session.

morse-region M-x morse-region RET
Command: Convert all text in a given region to morse code.
unmorse-region M-x unmorse-region RET
Command: Convert morse coded text in region to ordinary ASCII text.

-.-./..-/-/. ---/.-. .--/..../.-/-/..--..

 

[Zack]

Clive - I'm familiar with "Bend Word to your Will" from my previous
foray into Word X. Glad to know you have a new version coming out in a
few weeks -- I look forward to seeing it closely! It encourages me to
know that you think Word 2004 is a significant improvement over Word X

Jim - Thanks for the replay. I've downloaded the Word 2004 demo, and
have a few questions:

1. Going to 'Customize toolbars/menus' and choosing 'Word for
Macintosh 5.1' opens up the 5.1 toolbar, but does not seem to change
the actual menus. I discovered elsewhere in this message group that
'control-5' can activate the 5.1 menus, but just wondered if I'm
missing something about the 'Customize toolbars/menus' command.

2. If I choose 'Word for Macintosh 5.1" under 'Compatibility'
preference, will I create any compatibility problems if a document is
opened using Word on a Windows computer? Is there any other downside
to choosing 5.1 compatibility?

3. While using 5.1 menus, is there any way to turn page numbering
on/off? In Word 5.1 this command would be under Format>Section, but in
Word 2004 with 5.1 menus page numbering is missing from the 'Sections'
screen.

3. I've set Word 2004 to open new documents by default in 'Normal
view'. I'd like new documents to open by default in 'Normal view' at
125% magnification. Is there any way I can do this?

I'm sure I'll have more questions down the line...

Zack

 

[matt neuburg]

Well, that's one way of putting it. Basically, what I want is a word
processor with the intuitive functionality of 5.1a (style sheets!),
that can run under OSX and create documents which are compatible with
the Windows computers used by many people I work with. Word X had all
sorts of 'features' which only seemed to complicate tasks which were
simple in 5.1, and which made me feel I was working in a Windows
environment, not on a Mac. I'm trying figure out if Word 2004 offers
any improvement.

Word 6 and so forth do have style sheets, and in fact they work a lot
better than in Word 5.1. Basically the answer to your question is, No,
choosing 5.1 menus in Word 2004 doesn't make the *functionality* of Word
2004 go backwards: it just changes the menus. So if you don't want to
learn how Word works now, don't upgrade. m.

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 17/11/05 11:13 PM, in article 171120051213425372%[email protected],

I wondered whether it was a typo, and decided it wasn't.
(one head tied behind its back)
Word 2004 schizophrenic?

Forgive me, Elliott; I did not spot Matt's undoubtedly deliberate error. I
have just come back from a conference with a high Tasmanian presence
(seriously).

CH
==

 

[Elliott Roper]

On 17/11/05 11:13 PM, in article 171120051213425372%[email protected],



Forgive me, Elliott; I did not spot Matt's undoubtedly deliberate error. I
have just come back from a conference with a high Tasmanian presence
(seriously).

How do you tell a level-headed Tasmanian?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

In line below...

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>

Clive - I'm familiar with "Bend Word to your Will" from my previous
foray into Word X. Glad to know you have a new version coming out in a
few weeks -- I look forward to seeing it closely! It encourages me to
know that you think Word 2004 is a significant improvement over Word X

Jim - Thanks for the replay. I've downloaded the Word 2004 demo, and
have a few questions:

1. Going to 'Customize toolbars/menus' and choosing 'Word for
Macintosh 5.1' opens up the 5.1 toolbar, but does not seem to change
the actual menus. I discovered elsewhere in this message group that
'control-5' can activate the 5.1 menus, but just wondered if I'm
missing something about the 'Customize toolbars/menus' command.

Glad you found out about Control-5.

When the Customize toolbars and menus dialog box is open you can move
every command to and from every menu and toolbar or to any menu or
toolbar that you make yourself. You can reset the built-in toolbars if
you make a big mess or drag things to or from them.

Just about every Word command is in the Commands tab of the Customize
dialog box. Drag commands to any tool bar or menu.

In short, you can customize the entire menu and toolbar setup to have it
any way you want.

2. If I choose 'Word for Macintosh 5.1" under 'Compatibility'
preference, will I create any compatibility problems if a document is
opened using Word on a Windows computer? Is there any other downside
to choosing 5.1 compatibility?

Choosing the 5.1 compatibility options affects only your computer's copy
of Word. The changes will not affect someone else's copy of Word.

3. While using 5.1 menus, is there any way to turn page numbering
on/off? In Word 5.1 this command would be under Format>Section, but in
Word 2004 with 5.1 menus page numbering is missing from the 'Sections'
screen.

When I want page numbers I use View > Header and Footer then click the
page number button.

In case you want it, there is a Word Field for page number you can get
at via Insert > Field. The page number Word Field can be placed
anywhere in your document text.

3. I've set Word 2004 to open new documents by default in 'Normal
view'. I'd like new documents to open by default in 'Normal view' at
125% magnification. Is there any way I can do this?

The default settings are kept in a file named Normal. Daiya explained
that you should open the Normal template and make adjustments then save
it. Once you have done that, all new documents will take on the settings
you saved.

I'm sure I'll have more questions down the line...

Keep 'em coming!


-Jim