Initial view in Word

[NWFriend]

When I open a multipage document in Word (and the same is also true for
Excel), the default view is the multipage layout. This is NOT the view I
would like as a default. I would like instead to have a single page view
that fits the page into the width of the screen. I can't figure out how to
change this as the default. Please advise. Thanks.
Using Word/Excel for Mac Office 2004.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

If you reset it a few times, Word should eventually pick up that's what you
want. Every so often it might lose track.

A more systematic way to do this would be to open up the Normal template,
which carries the settings for new blank documents, and make the change
there. The Normal template, unless you moved it, is in
username/documents/ms user data/Normal. But after changing the View | Zoom
setting, space and backspace in the document so that Word knows a change has
been made in Normal that it needs to save.

And if you still have problems, you can write a macro to run on launch that
forces your preferred view. But that usually isn't necessary. I have one
only because I get attachments from a lot of people, and Word tends to wind
up swiping the view settings from those attachments.

 

[NWFriend]

I appreciate your suggestions and I wish this worked! I changed the
template, but no, it won't stay. Documents still want to open up in
multipage view, forcing me to rezoom them to page width. I could write a
macro, but that seems an unnecessary kludge. It should just be a setting
that one can easily toggle.
Things like this make me think that Office for Mac products are more like
nice shareware programs, cool and full of neat features, but sometimes
incomplete and awkward to use. Unfortunately, unlike shareware programs,
they're full-priced. We deserve better than this from Microsoft.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Did you do the space/backspace trick to make sure the template was "dirty"
and Word would know it needed to save it? But sorry, I think the template
will only affect new documents anyhow. Previously saved documents will
still carry what they were last saved in. If you are only reading, not
editing these other documents, you may also need to trick Word into saving
the view in each one.

Are these your documents? Because documents that people send you will carry
their settings, and only a macro will fix that.

Any chance you already have a macro forcing multi-page view? Tools |
Macros... Macro, see if anything in the list is called AutoOpen or AutoNew.

 

[NWFriend]

Thanks, yes, I followed your suggestions. I tried everything other than the
macro. The problem does surface when I am looking at documents that I
receive from others - which is a major part of my work in Word.
Appreciate your interest.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks, yes, I followed your suggestions. I tried everything other than the

macro. The problem does surface when I am looking at documents that I
receive from others - which is a major part of my work in Word.
Appreciate your interest.

Oh, well then, yes, you definitely need a macro. Sorry, I tried to imply
that first time around but I guess it was a little obscure. Basically,
window size and zoom is a per-document setting, not per-machine, so other
people's view settings travel with their document, to some extent.

Did you want suggestions on writing the macros?

Daiya

 

[NWFriend]

Oh, well then, yes, you definitely need a macro. Sorry, I tried to imply
that first time around but I guess it was a little obscure. Basically,
window size and zoom is a per-document setting, not per-machine, so other
people's view settings travel with their document, to some extent.

Did you want suggestions on writing the macros?

Daiya

Thank you for the kind offer. I already know how to do them. Again, I
appreciate your assistance.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

We should probably have mentioned that the View setting is stored in the
individual document when it is saved.

Which is why Daiya suggested a macro: it's the only way to absolutely hammer
the thing into shape. This macro zooms the display to the full screen
width, regardless of what is stored in the document:

Sub AutoOpen()
'
' AutoOpen Macro
' Macro recorded 1 May 2005 by John McGhie
'
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
End Sub

Note the name of the macro: that's one of the reserved macro names that is a
special case: in this case, it causes Word to run that macro each time a
document opens.

You must put the macro in your Normal template to be sure that it will run
automatically.

Hope this helps

Thank you for the kind offer. I already know how to do them. Again, I
appreciate your assistance.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[NWFriend]

We should probably have mentioned that the View setting is stored in the
individual document when it is saved.

Which is why Daiya suggested a macro: it's the only way to absolutely hammer
the thing into shape. This macro zooms the display to the full screen
width, regardless of what is stored in the document:

Sub AutoOpen()
'
' AutoOpen Macro
' Macro recorded 1 May 2005 by John McGhie
'
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
End Sub

Note the name of the macro: that's one of the reserved macro names that is a
special case: in this case, it causes Word to run that macro each time a
document opens.

You must put the macro in your Normal template to be sure that it will run
automatically.

Hope this helps

Do you know if the same is true for Excel? Every time I open Excel, even
when it's a document I've created and changed the view to single page, it
always open in multi-page view (I know Excel doesn't use "pages," but that's
my shorthand for it). Thanks.
Rick

 

[Rob Daly [MSFT]]

Window zoom settings are stored with the saved document. The documents you
are receiving/sharing must have been saved with in the two pages (or a small
zoom, or many pages or whatever it is you don't want) zoom. You may want to
ask those you collaborate with if they are saving to that view. A macro
would be a feasible option for to override this on open. There are also
appescript options you could consider. If you store all of your douments
that you share in one folder, you could write an applescript to change the
zoom to your preference on all of those documents in one fell swoop. If you
want to do this and don't know applescript (or the applescript syntax in
Word 2004), I can be of assistance.

As the others have mentioned, saving your zoom setting with the normal
template will set that as the defualt zoom setting. But that should not be
necessary. Any new document created in Word will take the zoom of the last
document that was opened. Try the following:
1. Launch Word
2. View | Zoom | Whole Page (or whatever you want)
3. Close the document
4. Open a new document

--the zoom in the new document should be whatever you set in the zoom
dialog. As for any saved document, as I mentioned, the zoom of that will be
whatever it was at last save time. There is nothing different about the mac
in this behavior - it is identical to the way the Windows product works and
is in fact by design. If you have a suggestion on how you would like this to
behave, I would be glad to pass it on for you.


--
Rob Daly
Macintosh Business Unit
Word Test

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