Macros - Keyboard Commands

J

Janet

I am doing a lot of cutting & pasting from one WORD document to many new WORD
documents. I have made Macro to make the formating of the new documents
easier. However, the keyboard commands only sometimes work in the new
documents, but mostly do not. I can run the Macros from the Menu Bar - but
the keyboard would save a lot of time. Any suggestions?
Thanks
 
C

Charles Kenyon

First, you should be using styles rather than macros to control formatting
.... possibly macros using styles.
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.

Second, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to macros using the customize
dialog Tools > Customize and then click on the Keyboard button.

Using macros for this is Word Perfect thinking... Word and Word Perfect work
very differently from one another. Each program's methods have strengths and
weaknesses; but, if you try to use one of these programs as if it were the
other, it is like pushing on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra
work for yourself. If I'm right that you are coming from using WP, take a
look at the following. If not, feel free to ignore my pontificating.

See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordVsWordPerfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/TipsAndGotchas.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordPerfectConverters.htm
http://businesssoft.about.com/compute/businesssoft/library/blconvert.htm
for information on Word for Word Perfect users.

For more:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm


Function Keys

In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a
special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like
pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this.
Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys()
Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True
End Sub

Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing.


Formatting and Styles

Learn about Styles - really learn!
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and now
regret every day of those years because although that string was still very
hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important
projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of
organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead
of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful
text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your
work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you
just thought you did.


Converting documents Word / Word Perfect

Some special characters in Word Perfect documents don't convert well to
Word. There is a macro to assist with this described at
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/wptoword.html#macroword and can be found
at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/WPSymbolConv.bas.
This was prepared by Edward Mendelson.
Otherwise, look at the macro from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212396
Use these on _copies_!

As for converting documents from Word Perfect to _use_ in Word... In a word,
don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents long-term.
They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the worst
time. This is especially true of any documents containing automatic
numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the
following process:
In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as
text files.
Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your
formatting to look.
Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save
this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using
styles, not direct formatting. Save it again.
To use a template within Word, use File => New and pick your template. This
will create a new document for you.

Merge documents have special problems and should be recreated from text
files or retyped in Word. To convert data files, consider generating labels
in WP as a document, converting that to Word, and then using
http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels_into_mail_merge.htm to get a new Word
data file.

Note that conversions usually do create documents that look passable and
print OK; the problems I'm referring to have to do with editing / making
changes, that is, using the documents long-term. (See below on reusing
documents vs. using templates.)

Conversion back to Word Perfect: There is a problem (in addition to the ones
mentioned for conversion _to_ Word) with Version 2002 (XP) and later of
Word. The conversion file only works for conversion _to_ Word, not from Word
to Word Perfect! Earlier versions went both ways. To fix this, you need to
find the old conversion file WPFT532.CNV from a Word 97 or Word 2000
installation and copy it to your new installation, replacing the file of the
same name. Note, the change making the file one-way was done as a security
measure. While I don't know of any problems the old file causes, keep the
new installation's file somewhere as a backup just in case.


Boilerplate and Forms

In WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text - boilerplate. In
Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect, not
macros. Follow the links at
http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebresources.htm#AutoText for more
information on these tools.

You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For some
form documents, Word's "online forms" work very well. For more about online
forms, follow the links at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm especially Dian
Chapman's series of articles.


Reusing Documents vs. Using templates

General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to create
a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word, construct a
good, tight, template for your documents and use that template when
constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid embarrassing
"metadata" (http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm) and things
like surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents.

It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each
day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit
each day. In the (short) long run, it will save you both time and grief.
 
J

Janet

Thank-you for your detailed reply BUT firstly I don't know anything about
Word Perfect - I only use Word 2003, and obviously not at a very
sophisticaled level. When I compose a macro, I do in fact used the Customize
& Keyboard commoand, and this is what doesn't work in new documents. I also
used the term format very loosely - I created a macro, for example - to
select all text, to right justify, to single space, Arial, font 10 and used
the keyboard command Alt ff. The Alt ff will work in original document, but
not the new documents into which I have pasted cut text, from the original.
However, if I use the Menu Bar - Tools to Macros to RUN, the macro works
without any problems. I also created another macro to do a numbered list,
with the settings that I want, not the default. Again the same problem - the
macro won't run from keyboard shortcut, only from the Menu Bar. I have
another for creating tables - same thing. Why? What can I do to activate
the keyboard shortcut so I can use it in all Word documents?

Thanks again
Janet
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

What Charles was trying to tell you is that, irrespective of why your macros
won't work, you are using macros to do something that should be done with a
style. Both the macros you describe are applying formatting that can be
applied by a style. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to a style,
which would make applying it just as easy, plus you would gain all the
advantages of using styles instead of direct formatting. See
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/ApplyAStyle.html and
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/ModifyAStyle.html for a start.

To get back to your original problem, however, Alt+FF is not a possible
keyboard shortcut. Alt+F, F would be permissible, but it has the
disadvantage that by default Alt+F opens the File menu. In any case, it's
possible that you managed to save the macro in the document itself rather
than in a template or Normal.dot.
 
J

Janet

OK, Thanks - I'll read up about styles - I just hope that they're as easy to
record as a macro!
Janet
 
C

Charles Kenyon

A key to customization is the question "Where?" Like macros, keyboard
shortcuts can be stored in various places. It sounds like your macros were
stored in normal.dot and your keyboard customizations to trigger the macros
were stored in your original document or that document's attached template.
See http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for step-by-step
instructions on moving / sharing / copying / backing-up customizations
including AutoText, AutoCorrect, keyboard assignments, toolbars, macros,
etc.

I reiterate my advice to study styles, though. Creating them, changing them
and applying styles are far easier than making and using macros. Virtually
everything you are using a macro to do can be done by applying a style. (The
only thing a style won't do is select all text. However, if you apply a
paragraph style, it will apply to the entire paragraph unless you have
selected text.
 

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