V
Valentina
Is it possible to launch Word on a Mac, without it automatically
opening a blank document?
opening a blank document?
D
Daiya Mitchell
If you open an existing document, it won't create a blank doc.
If you launch Word and then immediately open a doc, it will automatically
replace the blank doc (at least on my computer).
Why do you ask? Perhaps there is some other way to get at your ultimate
goal.
J
Jacques
If you open an existing document, it won't create a blank doc.
If you launch Word and then immediately open a doc, it will automatically
replace the blank doc (at least on my computer).[/QUOTE]
Not on mine, it doesn't (Word 2004 v. 11.2). Are you sure you don't have
a macro that's doing this?
My brain tends to work like this in the morning :
(1) Better do some work, I suppose.
(2) Better open Word, then.
(3) Right, now which document was I working on yesterday?
It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to be able to start a program
without the program making assumptions about what you want to do with it.
J
John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]
Hi Jacques:
I wish my brain worked as well as yours
Mine is not always operating
until the afternoon.
Anyway: If you open Word, then immediately open a document before doing
anything else, the document you just opened will replace the default blank
document.
If you do anything that might be interpreted as a "change" to the blank
document, Word will keep that and open your other document as a second
document.
On the PC, Word has a startup switch that enables you to suppress the
initial blank document. I think that's what the original poster was looking
for: Mac Word does not have startup switches, including that one.
Mac Word is built for less experienced users than some programs. So yes, it
does make a very large number of assumptions as to what you want to do.
However, the initial blank document is not necessarily an "assumption" on
Word's part.
It is also an essential part of the Application Environment. Word needs at
least two document files open in order to operate: the Global Template
(Normal) and the Active Document.
You can quickly investigate this for yourself: Close the default document,
and you will find that more than half the Word commands are missing or
greyed out. That's because the internal object structure depends on at
least one document being open for Word to operate.
I am sure they could have designed around this, but I guess there didn't
seem much point -- very few users would notice or care. Those who do are
sufficiently expert to easily arrange to handle the situation.
However, most users these days are "Double-clickers". They have no idea
that applications exist at all. Everything is opened in "My Computer" and
to work on anything, they double-click it. They are often blissfully
unaware of which application the file opened in. Some are unaware of
whether they're using a Mac or a PC! Which leads to a High Amusement Value
in here, and quite a bit of frustration, when they can't tell us what
they're using
Cheers
Not on mine, it doesn't (Word 2004 v. 11.2). Are you sure you don't have
a macro that's doing this?
My brain tends to work like this in the morning :
(1) Better do some work, I suppose.
(2) Better open Word, then.
(3) Right, now which document was I working on yesterday?
It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to be able to start a program
without the program making assumptions about what you want to do with it.[/QUOTE]
--
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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410
I wish my brain worked as well as yours
Mine is not always operatinguntil the afternoon.
Anyway: If you open Word, then immediately open a document before doing
anything else, the document you just opened will replace the default blank
document.
If you do anything that might be interpreted as a "change" to the blank
document, Word will keep that and open your other document as a second
document.
On the PC, Word has a startup switch that enables you to suppress the
initial blank document. I think that's what the original poster was looking
for: Mac Word does not have startup switches, including that one.
Mac Word is built for less experienced users than some programs. So yes, it
does make a very large number of assumptions as to what you want to do.
However, the initial blank document is not necessarily an "assumption" on
Word's part.
It is also an essential part of the Application Environment. Word needs at
least two document files open in order to operate: the Global Template
(Normal) and the Active Document.
You can quickly investigate this for yourself: Close the default document,
and you will find that more than half the Word commands are missing or
greyed out. That's because the internal object structure depends on at
least one document being open for Word to operate.
I am sure they could have designed around this, but I guess there didn't
seem much point -- very few users would notice or care. Those who do are
sufficiently expert to easily arrange to handle the situation.
However, most users these days are "Double-clickers". They have no idea
that applications exist at all. Everything is opened in "My Computer" and
to work on anything, they double-click it. They are often blissfully
unaware of which application the file opened in. Some are unaware of
whether they're using a Mac or a PC! Which leads to a High Amusement Value
in here, and quite a bit of frustration, when they can't tell us what
they're using
Cheers
Not on mine, it doesn't (Word 2004 v. 11.2). Are you sure you don't have
a macro that's doing this?
My brain tends to work like this in the morning :
(1) Better do some work, I suppose.
(2) Better open Word, then.
(3) Right, now which document was I working on yesterday?
It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to be able to start a program
without the program making assumptions about what you want to do with it.[/QUOTE]
--
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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410
D
Daiya Mitchell
Hi Jacques,
Not on mine, it doesn't (Word 2004 v. 11.2). Are you sure you don't have
a macro that's doing this?[/QUOTE]
Yep, I tested with shift-launch (which temporarily creates a new normal and
stops any add-ins from loading, so would wipe out my existing macros). I
haven't updated to 11.3 yet. So far as I remember, Word has always behaved
this way (Word 98, Word 2001, Word 2004).
I just checked, and it doesn't have to be *that* immediate, after all.
See John's post, also. It should work on your machine too.
It doesn't occur to mine to open Word until I remember I need to be working
on something specific.
No, not at all. But I figured she considered that blank document to be in
the way for some reason, and I thought it might be possible to address that
reason. If Valentina is just philosophically opposed to the program
assuming the user would want a blank doc, well, she'll have to switch to
Windows to fix that. Admittedly, when Pages gives me a blank doc everytime I
switch to it via the Dock, it drives me quite insane half the time, the
other half I find it a handy shortcut.
Not on mine, it doesn't (Word 2004 v. 11.2). Are you sure you don't have
a macro that's doing this?[/QUOTE]
Yep, I tested with shift-launch (which temporarily creates a new normal and
stops any add-ins from loading, so would wipe out my existing macros). I
haven't updated to 11.3 yet. So far as I remember, Word has always behaved
this way (Word 98, Word 2001, Word 2004).
I just checked, and it doesn't have to be *that* immediate, after all.
See John's post, also. It should work on your machine too.
It doesn't occur to mine to open Word until I remember I need to be working
on something specific.
No, not at all. But I figured she considered that blank document to be in
the way for some reason, and I thought it might be possible to address that
reason. If Valentina is just philosophically opposed to the program
assuming the user would want a blank doc, well, she'll have to switch to
Windows to fix that. Admittedly, when Pages gives me a blank doc everytime I
switch to it via the Dock, it drives me quite insane half the time, the
other half I find it a handy shortcut.
J
Jacques
Hi Jacques:
I wish my brain worked as well as yours
until the afternoon.
Ah, but when it's afternoon where you are it's morning here.
Sorry, this is not the case here. I've checked and re-checked.
I know, and that irritates me too. I quite often decide to change my
global preferences when I don't have a document open, but I can't.
Obviously Word can operate in a limited fashion without a document open,
or it wouldn't let you close the only open document. So why insist that
you must have an open document when you start up?
I am sure they could have designed around this, but I guess there didn't
seem much point -- very few users would notice or care. Those who do are
sufficiently expert to easily arrange to handle the situation.
However, most users these days are "Double-clickers". They have no idea
that applications exist at all. Everything is opened in "My Computer" and
to work on anything, they double-click it. They are often blissfully
unaware of which application the file opened in. Some are unaware of
whether they're using a Mac or a PC! Which leads to a High Amusement Value
in here, and quite a bit of frustration, when they can't tell us what
they're using
True, but it follows that someone who opens Word without double-clicking
on a document is probably not a novice user, and should be allowed to
decide what s/he wants to do with it! (I know, poor old Word can't do
anything without an open document. You feel kind of sorry for it.)
C
Clive Huggan
On 27/10/06 10:49 PM, in article (e-mail address removed),
For me it's:
(1) as in 1 above
(2) better look at the document I was working on yesterday
(3) click on it, or look via Word's File menu <== because I leave Word open.
On the rare occasions that I have my Mac shut down overnight, it's:
(1) as in 1 above
(2) as in 3 above
(3) double-click on the Word document in the Finder.
Personally, I can't see the point of opening Word via the Dock.
But we're all made differently...
Clive Huggan
============
For me it's:
(1) as in 1 above
(2) better look at the document I was working on yesterday
(3) click on it, or look via Word's File menu <== because I leave Word open.
On the rare occasions that I have my Mac shut down overnight, it's:
(1) as in 1 above
(2) as in 3 above
(3) double-click on the Word document in the Finder.
Personally, I can't see the point of opening Word via the Dock.
But we're all made differently...
Clive Huggan
============
J
John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]
Hi Jacque:
OK, further investigation is necessary: there's something funny going on
with your installation of Word. Would your Normal template by any chance
have a running header or footer with a date or page field in it? If it
does, that will update on document creation, causing the document to be
"dirty" (i.e. "unsaved" and cause Word to keep it.
One reason (not the only one...) is that until Word has a document open, we
cannot say whether or not there will be an "Attached Template". Most of the
commands that are disabled operate in the context of the "Document
Template". Until a document is open, we cannot tell whether that will be
the "Global Template" or the "Attached Template" or a "Global Add-In" or a
"Normal Add-in".
So the commands are disabled. Once the document opens, these four
references are instantly resolved and Word knows where to write the settings
the command may make.
Yeah, well most software tends to generally improve its behaviour if the
environment is complete and to its liking OS X itself can become a
little secretive if the console and display are missing
You're dealing with an architectural design that may well be older than half
its users This architecture was put together back in the days when
File>Open was the ONLY way to open a document The cost and risk of
fixing these decisions now is prohibitive.
In Mac Office Next, you will find there are substantial differences in this
particular bit of architecture. A lot of these settings have moved out of
documents or templates and into XML plists.
Cheers
--
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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410
OK, further investigation is necessary: there's something funny going on
with your installation of Word. Would your Normal template by any chance
have a running header or footer with a date or page field in it? If it
does, that will update on document creation, causing the document to be
"dirty" (i.e. "unsaved" and cause Word to keep it.
One reason (not the only one...) is that until Word has a document open, we
cannot say whether or not there will be an "Attached Template". Most of the
commands that are disabled operate in the context of the "Document
Template". Until a document is open, we cannot tell whether that will be
the "Global Template" or the "Attached Template" or a "Global Add-In" or a
"Normal Add-in".
So the commands are disabled. Once the document opens, these four
references are instantly resolved and Word knows where to write the settings
the command may make.
Yeah, well most software tends to generally improve its behaviour if the
environment is complete and to its liking
OS X itself can become alittle secretive if the console and display are missing
You're dealing with an architectural design that may well be older than half
its users
This architecture was put together back in the days whenFile>Open was the ONLY way to open a document
The cost and risk offixing these decisions now is prohibitive.
In Mac Office Next, you will find there are substantial differences in this
particular bit of architecture. A lot of these settings have moved out of
documents or templates and into XML plists.
Cheers
--
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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410
J
Jacques
OK, further investigation is necessary: there's something funny going on
with your installation of Word. Would your Normal template by any chance
have a running header or footer with a date or page field in it? If it
does, that will update on document creation, causing the document to be
"dirty" (i.e. "unsaved" and cause Word to keep it.[/QUOTE]
No, nothing like that. Don't worry, it's not important. I wish the rest
of Word's annoyances only annoyed me once a day.
J
Jacques
For me it's:
(1) as in 1 above
(2) better look at the document I was working on yesterday
(3) click on it, or look via Word's File menu <== because I leave Word open.[/QUOTE]
I close Word when I stop work for the day, because (a) I don't want to
be reminded of work, and (b) I use music software that needs all the
resources it can get.
But it takes time to navigate to the document you want. Once Word is
open, you can use the list of recent documents in the File menu.
Hang on a minute ...
D'oh! I now see that you can also do it via Apple>Recent Items!
C
CyberTaz
I've been lurking about here with interest but had a thought that may be
more mental exercise than anything else... Am by no means a scripter, but I
do like to 'poke & jab' a little and it looks to me that it would be quite
possible to use an AppleScript to launch Word while telling it to reopen
item #1 from the MRU list. Any takers?
Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
I close Word when I stop work for the day, because (a) I don't want to
be reminded of work, and (b) I use music software that needs all the
resources it can get.
But it takes time to navigate to the document you want. Once Word is
open, you can use the list of recent documents in the File menu.
Hang on a minute ...
D'oh! I now see that you can also do it via Apple>Recent Items![/QUOTE]
more mental exercise than anything else... Am by no means a scripter, but I
do like to 'poke & jab' a little and it looks to me that it would be quite
possible to use an AppleScript to launch Word while telling it to reopen
item #1 from the MRU list. Any takers?
Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
I close Word when I stop work for the day, because (a) I don't want to
be reminded of work, and (b) I use music software that needs all the
resources it can get.
But it takes time to navigate to the document you want. Once Word is
open, you can use the list of recent documents in the File menu.
Hang on a minute ...
D'oh! I now see that you can also do it via Apple>Recent Items![/QUOTE]
P
Phillip Jones
When I open word, it goes to the Window That shows open new document,
Template, Excel, Power point . etc. if you click on Word document then
Blank new window opens if you go to menu then you can choose recent file
and choose a recent file. Of Course I have the entire Office 2004
Package. works same way on OSX.3.9 on my Desktop unit. And on my
Laptop17" using OSX.4.8.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!
mailto[email protected]
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>
<http://www.vpea.org>
Template, Excel, Power point . etc. if you click on Word document then
Blank new window opens if you go to menu then you can choose recent file
and choose a recent file. Of Course I have the entire Office 2004
Package. works same way on OSX.3.9 on my Desktop unit. And on my
Laptop17" using OSX.4.8.
Hi Jacques:
I wish my brain worked as well as yours
until the afternoon.
Anyway: If you open Word, then immediately open a document before doing
anything else, the document you just opened will replace the default blank
document.
If you do anything that might be interpreted as a "change" to the blank
document, Word will keep that and open your other document as a second
document.
On the PC, Word has a startup switch that enables you to suppress the
initial blank document. I think that's what the original poster was looking
for: Mac Word does not have startup switches, including that one.
Mac Word is built for less experienced users than some programs. So yes, it
does make a very large number of assumptions as to what you want to do.
However, the initial blank document is not necessarily an "assumption" on
Word's part.
It is also an essential part of the Application Environment. Word needs at
least two document files open in order to operate: the Global Template
(Normal) and the Active Document.
You can quickly investigate this for yourself: Close the default document,
and you will find that more than half the Word commands are missing or
greyed out. That's because the internal object structure depends on at
least one document being open for Word to operate.
I am sure they could have designed around this, but I guess there didn't
seem much point -- very few users would notice or care. Those who do are
sufficiently expert to easily arrange to handle the situation.
However, most users these days are "Double-clickers". They have no idea
that applications exist at all. Everything is opened in "My Computer" and
to work on anything, they double-click it. They are often blissfully
unaware of which application the file opened in. Some are unaware of
whether they're using a Mac or a PC! Which leads to a High Amusement Value
in here, and quite a bit of frustration, when they can't tell us what
they're using
Cheers
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!
mailto
[email protected]<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>
<http://www.vpea.org>
C
Clive Huggan
Below.
Clive Huggan
=============
I close Word when I stop work for the day, because (a) I don't want to
be reminded of work, and (b) I use music software that needs all the
resources it can get.[/QUOTE]
If it wasn't for (b), you can just Command-h to hide Word.
;-)
CH
===
Clive Huggan
=============
I close Word when I stop work for the day, because (a) I don't want to
be reminded of work, and (b) I use music software that needs all the
resources it can get.[/QUOTE]
If it wasn't for (b), you can just Command-h to hide Word.
;-)
CH
===
P
Paul Berkowitz
tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
open recent file (first recent file)
end tell
(Has the advantage of opening the very most recent file that you _opened_ in
Word - same as the no. 1 item at the bottom of Word's File menu, as opposed
to the Apple menu/Recent Items, which appears to list
documents in the (reverse) order that they were _closed_.)
You could also open all the files in the File menu at once if you wished:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
open recent file (recent files)
end tell
BTW, it replaces the blank new document too.
Here's a way to open Word without any document, new or otherwise:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
launch
close active document saving no
activate
end tell
You can keep any of these scripts in the system's Script Menu. To create the
Script Menu, go to /Applications/AppleScript/AppleScript Utility, launch it,
and check "Show script menu in menu bar". (This is for Tiger OS 10.4. In
previous OS's, you double-click "Install Script Menu.menu" in the same
location.)
In the Script menu, select Open Scripts Folder->Open User Scripts Folder.
(That's again for Tiger; in earlier OS's there's just a single Open Scripts
Folder, I think, it will get the right one.) That creates a "Scripts" folder
in ~/Library/ (which you can do manually back in Jaguar).
That's where you should save these (and other) scripts to from Script Editor
(also to be found in /Applications/AppleScript/ ). Save them as 'script'
Format (the default).
There are ways to have scripts show up in the menu only when you're in a
particular application (such as Word). Ask if interested. In this case,
though, you specifically want them to show up from any application, when
Word is not open.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
activate
open recent file (first recent file)
end tell
(Has the advantage of opening the very most recent file that you _opened_ in
Word - same as the no. 1 item at the bottom of Word's File menu, as opposed
to the Apple menu/Recent Items, which appears to list
documents in the (reverse) order that they were _closed_.)
You could also open all the files in the File menu at once if you wished:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
open recent file (recent files)
end tell
BTW, it replaces the blank new document too.
Here's a way to open Word without any document, new or otherwise:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
launch
close active document saving no
activate
end tell
You can keep any of these scripts in the system's Script Menu. To create the
Script Menu, go to /Applications/AppleScript/AppleScript Utility, launch it,
and check "Show script menu in menu bar". (This is for Tiger OS 10.4. In
previous OS's, you double-click "Install Script Menu.menu" in the same
location.)
In the Script menu, select Open Scripts Folder->Open User Scripts Folder.
(That's again for Tiger; in earlier OS's there's just a single Open Scripts
Folder, I think, it will get the right one.) That creates a "Scripts" folder
in ~/Library/ (which you can do manually back in Jaguar).
That's where you should save these (and other) scripts to from Script Editor
(also to be found in /Applications/AppleScript/ ). Save them as 'script'
Format (the default).
There are ways to have scripts show up in the menu only when you're in a
particular application (such as Word). Ask if interested. In this case,
though, you specifically want them to show up from any application, when
Word is not open.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
C
CyberTaz
Hah!!! I knew I'd draw you out of hiding, Paul - Just couldn't resist it,
could ya?
could ya?