Inactive window brought forward

[howarty]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi All, newbie on this forum with a bizarre and frustrating problem.

If I have two or more docs open in Word and I switch to another program and then switch back, Word rearranges the open documents so that an inactive window comes to the front. To get back to the first doc, I have to click on the inactive front doc to make it active and then click on docA.

It gets even weirder with more than two open docs. If I am working in docA, then switch out and back, docB appears at the front (inactive) and when I click on that, docC comes to the front(!), so then I have to go back through the Window menu to get to docA.

It only happens in Word, so I don't think it's an OSX issue. I can't see any options that I have clicked or a preference that might cause it. It's beginning to drive me nuts because I have to constantly switch between Word and Acrobat for the work I'm oing

Any hints gratefully received!
thanks.

 

[CyberTaz]

My guess would be that you may be clicking the Dock icon to "switch back" to
Word, although that shouldn't cause a new blank doc to be created as long as
files are already open. And using Spaces doesn't seem to cause that behavior
with Office 2004. So...

Since you don't mention specific upgrade levels that's the first direction
to head Office 2004 should be at 11.5.1 & OS X should be at 10.5.4, so
if that's not where you're configuration is take care of that first.

If you need to update OS X I strongly recommend using the 10.5.4 COMBO
updater from the Apple Downloads site:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

In fact, even if you're already at 10.5.4 it might not be a bad idea to
apply the Combo as well as any hardware/firmware updates pertaining to your
model of Mac.

For updates to Office simply use Help> Check for Updates in any of the
Office programs once OS X is current.

Repair Disk Permissions after any updates & see if that resolves the issue.

If the problem continues you'll need to provide a bit more information:

What type of Mac?
How much RAM?
What other programs/utilities are you using at the time?
How are you "switching back"?
What additional details can you supply?

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

 

[Francois]

Hi,
Got the same problem. Running Office 2008 Leopard 10.5.5 on a 2006 macbook. In addition sometimes I have to close the inactive window to access the active window, clicking on the inactive window does not always make it active and using the widows menu and selecting the active window does not bring it to the front either. I have also experienced where trying to sort all this out I get send back to the "space" I just came from.
It is so frustrating that when I have a major project to do using Office, I turn off Spaces just so i don't waste time with this issue.
Why won't office play nice with Space? Is it because I have assigned a space for each of the office programs?
Can you do something about it?
Thanks.

My guess would be that you may be clicking the Dock icon to "switch back"
to Word, although that shouldn't cause a new blank doc to be created as
long as files are already open. And using Spaces doesn't seem to cause
that behavior with Office 2004. So...





Since you don't mention specific upgrade levels that's the first direction
to head Office 2004 should be at 11.5.1 & OS X should be at 10.5.4,
so if that's not where you're configuration is take care of that first.





If you need to update OS X I strongly recommend using the 10.5.4 COMBO
updater from the Apple Downloads site:





<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/>





In fact, even if you're already at 10.5.4 it might not be a bad idea to
apply the Combo as well as any hardware/firmware updates pertaining to
your model of Mac.





For updates to Office simply use Help> Check for Updates in any of the
Office programs once OS X is current.





Repair Disk Permissions after any updates & see if that resolves the issue.





If the problem continues you'll need to provide a bit more information:





What type of Mac? How much RAM? What other programs/utilities are you
using at the time? How are you "switching back"? What additional details
can you supply?





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

Version: 2004 > Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) > Processor:

Intel > > Hi All, newbie on this forum with a bizarre and frustrating
problem. > > If I have two or more docs open in Word and I switch to another
program and > then switch back, Word rearranges the open documents so
that an inactive > window comes to the front. To get back to the first
doc, I have to click on > the inactive front doc to make it active and
then click on docA. > > It gets even weirder with more than two open docs.
If I am working in docA, > then switch out and back, docB appears at the
front (inactive) and when I > click on that, docC comes to the front(!),
so then I have to go back through > the Window menu to get to docA. >

It only happens in Word, so I don't think it's an OSX issue. I can't

see any > options that I have clicked or a preference that might cause
it. It's > beginning to drive me nuts because I have to constantly switch
between Word > and Acrobat for the work I'm oing > > Any hints gratefully
received! > thanks.

 

[Guest]

I actually have the same problem, and all of my word documents are assigned the same Space.

 

[howarty]

Brilliant! Spaces!

I turned Spaces on for the first time the other day just to see what it's all about.... then realised I just don't get it and promptly forgot about it.

If you turn it off, the Word problem goes away.

I did a bit of playing around to see if I could get spaces to work without the windows problem. It seems if Word is *not* assigned to any space in the pref. pane (which as far as I can make out means that it is available in all spaces) the problem doesn't recur. But I suppose that doesn't help if you want to assign word to a space. Dunno... as I said, I don't really get it anyway.

Thanks all... saved what's left of my hair.
David.

 

[CyberTaz]

Will you folks **please** try to understand the following points:

Why won't office play nice with Space? Is it because I have assigned a space
for each of the office programs?
Can you do something about it?

The Spaces feature of Leopard and MS Office 2008 are *incompatible*, Period.

Nobody in this newsgroup knows why - we aren't the programmers, nor do we
work for Apple or Microsoft in any capacity, Period.

Likewise, nobody here can do anything about it. We are **users** of Macs, OS
X & Office. We have no more say about what gets fixed or when it gets fixed
or *if* it gets fixed than you do, Period.

Until Apple & MS get the matter straight the **only** alternatives are to
*not* run Office 2008 apps in Spaces - OR - Don't use Office 2008 apps at
all - OR - Don't use OS X at all, Period.

When the fix is found it will be made available - nobody has any intention
of withholding it from you, Period.

If there is any more to say contact Apple & contact MS directly - beating a
dead horse here will not resolve anything, Period.


I apologize in advance if anyone is offended by this message, but this is
something that has been an issue since Office 2008 & Leopard were introduced
to one another - nearly a year. The subject has been discussed at length in
this forum as well as everywhere else, as would be obvious to anyone who
does a modicum of research before posting... And the answers to all those
questions are readily available & *consistently* the same.

 

[CyberTaz]

Congratulations, David - and I do mean that in the most sincere way... You
seem to be one of *damned few* people on the planet who "gets it" At
last count I think there were about a dozen of us... Perhaps we have the
makings of a new TV reality show.

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

 

[Francois]

Dear Bob,
Thanks for your explanation. It's helpful although I think your tone could be a little more collaborative.
Excuse my ignorance but I thought this was a Microsoft site since i got redirected to it from a Microsoft site. Anyways I had a problem
with office for mac so i came to this site for help.
If you type "spaces and word" in the search box on this site, you end up at this thread not to the other threads and sites you mentioned. There is not mention of other threads until your post.
So please be patient with us newbies and don't take your frustrations about the website's lack of clarity for new users. Rather take it as a suggestion that the first reply from your team should have linked to all those other posts for the next reader to research.
So, if you don't work for MS or Apple, who do you work for? And who do we contact at MS about our questions?
Thanks

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Francois:

Let me pick this up, since Bob will be getting some beauty sleep (and trust
me, he really needs it...)

I have my own consultancy company, and I believe Bob also has. That's who
we work for. I am currently performing a contract for Rio Tinto Alcan in
the far north of Australia.

I can well understand Bob's frustration We have had literally hundreds
of questions on this issue, and everyone tries to blame "us" for Microsoft's
problems

The bottom line on this issue is "I suspect it never will be fixed". Apple
did not tell Microsoft about Spaces until after the design of Office 2008
was finalised. It would require an architectural change (i.e. A major,
structural change) to Word to make it work with Spaces. And you can't do
that after a product has been shipped.

I assume that the next version of Microsoft Office for the Mac will work
with Spaces.

If you have comments for Microsoft, you can use the Help>Send Feedback item
on the menu of any Microsoft application to make your comments. Any
reasonable comment will be read by a human being (I know, I have spoken to
the Useability Engineer whose job it is -- I remember this because she's an
attractive young lady!!).

Abusive comments will, of course, be automatically discarded by the machine
before she gets to see them, so keep them clean if you want them read! You
will not get a response, but your comment or complaint will go into the
database for consideration for fixing in this or the next versions.

Help>Send feedback takes you to a web page: that is the ONLY way you can
comment to Microsoft on CHANGES you would like made to the software. There
is no point in raising issues in here: Microsoft people do not have time to
read this group.

Or you can spend your $49.00 and ring the Microsoft support line. There you
can ask questions. If you are really lucky, you will get one of the guys
who has seen a Mac once before. While you can ask questions there, you
cannot give feedback. They do have statistics running on the number of
calls they get each day for each issue, so they will find out that way if
something has suddenly broken.

But if you want highly knowledgeable assistance with problems using the
software from people with real expertise, the folks in here do this kind of
stuff all day for a living: in my case for 30 years, in Bob's, for a bit
longer than that because he is REALLY ancient ....

{Ooops... He'll read this, won't he...}

This is a very long-winded way of saying that you are asking your questions
in the correct place. You hit a raw nerve. Just so you know, the "Won't
open some file types" bug is another one, as is "PDFs are broken"

I hope you will hang around in here, take whatever you can use, and put back
whatever you can.

Hope this helps

Dear Bob,
Thanks for your explanation. It's helpful although I think your tone could be
a little more collaborative.
Excuse my ignorance but I thought this was a Microsoft site since i got
redirected to it from a Microsoft site. Anyways I had a problem
with office for mac so i came to this site for help.
If you type "spaces and word" in the search box on this site, you end up at
this thread not to the other threads and sites you mentioned. There is not
mention of other threads until your post.
So please be patient with us newbies and don't take your frustrations about
the website's lack of clarity for new users. Rather take it as a suggestion
that the first reply from your team should have linked to all those other
posts for the next reader to research.
So, if you don't work for MS or Apple, who do you work for? And who do we
contact at MS about our questions?
Thanks

--

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, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Francois -

Since my apology was in that same message I won't restate it, but for your
benefit please know that I only quoted the text from your message as an
example of the type of redundancy on this issue... There was nothing
personal - that's why I didn't include a full quote (containing your
identity) in the message & started it off with the generalized salutation.

By way of further explanation, the post to which you Replied - stating that
you have the *same* problem - was from someone using Office 2004, whereas
you're using Office 2008. Therefore, the problem *can't* be the same. This
is what is referred to as "hijacking" a thread & accomplishes nothing but
confusing the matter for all involved.

BTW - I'm not sure where you did the search so your results could have been
different, but out of curiosity I used your phrase: [spaces and word] in the
Word group from the Mactopia web interface. It returned nearly 200 hits
albeit not all of them pertain to this specific issue. The post you replied
to came up as the 88th hit with at least 4 others on the issue appearing as
#36 or lower. I didn't bother to look any further.

As John explained, we are not MS employees nor do I have a "team". The
responders here are independent users who volunteer their time & expertise
to assist other users of the software. We are more than willing to help in
any constructive way, but doing simple Google or group searches on behalf of
posters in order to supply links to questions that have been answered dozens
of times isn't what we're here for... We have neither the time nor the
resources to provide such a service.

There's no doubt that the "tone" of my response was *emphatic*, but there
was nothing demeaning, derogatory or otherwise offensive about it. The
points were stated clearly & precisely providing the facts.

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