Left and right justified text on one line

[D7666]

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum of microsoft.public.word but
here goes anyway.

I am using Word 97 SR-1 updated to SR-2 on a ME windows machine.

What I am wanting to do is to take a single line of text with only a
few words - no more than half a dozen at the most - and split this so
some of the words are left justified and some of the words are right
justified. Example -

I want to alter the text string

AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE FFF

to look like

AAA BBB CCC <---- to the left ----- maximum space ---- to the right
------> DDD EEE FFF

all on one line.

Now, obviously I know I can do this by inserting tabs and spaces - but
is there a way I can do this as a format, so that the left hand text
always starts from the left, and the right hand text is always as far
to the right as possible ?

I've been fiddling with this for some time, can't seem to figure it
out.

Is there a way to do this in Word 97 ?

If it needs a macro to do it, I am OK with using these.

TIA.

 

[D7666]

AAA BBB CCC <---- to the left ----- maximum space ---- to the right
------> DDD EEE FFF

all on one line.

I just read over that , not sure if I made it clear.

AAA BBB CCC need to be fully to the left starting from the left margin
with no more than a single space between them, while DDD EEE FFF need
to be fully to the right with only a single space between them.

CCC and DDD need to be seperated by the biggest gap possible.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi

The normal way to do this is to set a right-aligned tab at the right margin.
Then, cick after CCC and press Tab.

If you were going to automate it in some way, you would still need to
identify, for each paragraph, what was to be to the left and what was to be
to the right. So at a minimum, you'd need to click in the appropriate spot
and 'mark' it in some way. Since that effort is no greater than clicking and
pressing Tab, I can't see any advantage in trying to automate it.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[D7666]

Shauna Kelly wrote:

Hi

The normal way to do this is to set a right-aligned tab at the right margin.
Then, cick after CCC and press Tab.

ahhh - right aligned tab, is that what it is called - this was part of
my problem, not knowing what to search for.

Let me give this a try early in a couple of days, when I'm back working
on it.

pressing Tab, I can't see any advantage in trying to automate it.

I have a 1.2 MB document in which it needs doing in about 400 locations
.... hence my interest in macros ... will have to figure out a way that
might help.

 

[D7666]

The normal way to do this is to set a right-aligned tab at the right margin.

Hi,

I have returned to the problem.

I get the idea of how this should work, once the right aligned tab is
set, that pressing the TAB key at the right point in the paragraph will
do it.

But I do not see how to set a right aligned tab at the right margin.

I do
Format
Tabs
check right alignment
but on press TAB the actual tab goes in the paragraph in exactly the
same way as if I had not checked the right alignment box.

Is there some other setting I should look at ?


TIA.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The easiest way to set tab stops is on the ruler. For an explanation, with
screen shots, see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/UsingRulers.htm and
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/SettingTabs.htm. If you use the Tabs
dialog box, you must enter a position setting for your tab stop before/after
selecting the type and before clicking OK (you can set multiple tabs in one
go if you click Set after each one). If you are using Word's default
margins, a tab stop at the right margin would be at 6".

 

[D7666]

The easiest way to set tab stops is on the ruler. For an explanation, with
screen shots, see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/UsingRulers.htm and
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/SettingTabs.htm. If you use the Tabs
dialog box, you must enter a position setting for your tab stop before/after
selecting the type and before clicking OK (you can set multiple tabs in one
go if you click Set after each one). If you are using Word's default
margins, a tab stop at the right margin would be at 6".

Hi,

Those are excellent clear links to follow ... and have advancing my
problem ...

.... but I am still not getting this to work as I think it should.

My understanding and use of tabs has always been exactly as in those
links - that one should never use multiple tabs or spaces to create
long gaps for exactly the reason if the document goes somewhere else
messes up. Following those hints, I can now set a right hand tab stop
on the right margin. In this case it is a special page set up - the r/h
margin is at 18.00 cm but I do not think this is relevant. I can set
it, and split the text in the paragraphs I need to, and it does what it
should, the right text is right justified.

Fine ... but the whole reason I need to do this correctly is the global
page set up is almost certainly going to be altered from the present
18.00 cm right margin to something else. If I set up a right justified
tab at 18.00 cm - and then change the page set up to either a wider or
narrower page, the tab stop is staying fixed at 18.00 cm. My right
justfied text is either beyond the margin if the page set up is
narrower, or no longer fully to the right if the page is wider.

This is the root of the problem - it needs to stay justified with
respect to the right margin, not fixed at 18.00 cm.

I hope I am not testing your patience too much here. I have been using
Word 97 for 8 years now - and never in all that time have I got so
bogged down with something like this.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi

The version of WordPerfect I used in about 1985 had what it called "Flush
Right". That is, text was aligned at the right margin, no matter where the
margin was. No version of Word has ever had that capability. It has,
however, been added in Word 2007.

Shauna


Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[D7666]

The version of WordPerfect I used in about 1985 had what it called "Flush
Right". That is, text was aligned at the right margin, no matter where the
margin was. No version of Word has ever had that capability. It has,
however, been added in Word 2007.

Now thats interesting.

Because I was using Word Perfect on DOS machines long before Windows
and Word. I was more into Word Star than Word Perfect and I am pretty
sure WS could do this but it might have been WP. I wonder if I have
grey cells lurking that are telling me I have done this before - but
from that far back. I am sure I have done it somehow, which is why I am
getting so bogged down with it, else I would have given up on it ages
ago.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That IS good news--something users have been asking for for many versions.

Hi

The version of WordPerfect I used in about 1985 had what it called "Flush
Right". That is, text was aligned at the right margin, no matter where the
margin was. No version of Word has ever had that capability. It has,
however, been added in Word 2007.

Shauna


Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[D7666]

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Shauna Kelly

Thanks for your help Suzanne and Shauna.

Quite apart from the technical know how, it confirmed I was not going
mad or suffering from memory loss.

And I know now too where I have done this before. In addition to Word
97, I have OpenOffice 2 here. I just tried this again very quickly in
OO Writer - and it seems to work - the right justified text appears to
move with changes in global page set up. It was a quick test, might not
be 100% in all cases, but it satisifed my sanity by doing what I was
trying in the Word doc.

I stopped using OO Writer for other reasons. I had gone from Word 97 to
OO 2 largely because it was free but also because it was getting rave
reviews. But OO has no ability to ''find and replace'' paragraph
marks. Where Word uses the term ^p in ''find and replace'' drop down
menus for this fiunction, there is no direct easy possibilty in Writer.
That is a real disadvantage with many of the files I handle.

Anyway OO is a digression.

Thanks again for the Word help.