Make headers not grayed out, keep imported text from changing set margins

[Sam]

I have created some templates for a client and am trying to find a way
to make the headers and footers appear normally when they send
documents to other electronically, rather than appear grayed out. Does
anyone know of a way to make this happen? An make sure it works on
their PCs?

Also, this client is baffled when imported/pasted text is dropped into
these templates because it changes formatting and margins. Is there a
way to lock margins etc so that other formatting doesn't overide the
formatting set in the template? They seem unwilling/unable to even use
styles I have provided so I'm hoping there's an idiot-proof command
somewhere that I can use. In most other app's i use there are ways to
lock in place and/or keep things from moving around.

Thanks.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Hmmmmm....

My guess is they are looking at the headers in Page Layout view. The headers
and footers are greyed out because they are not open for editing unless you
double-click on them or select Header and Footer from the View menu.

If they want to see the document as it would print, they should view it in
Print Preview, which is on the File menu, is the button just to the right of
the Print icon, and can be invoked from the keyboard with Cmd-opt-i. (and
you can use Cmd-. to get out of Print Preview and go back to whatever view
you had previously been using.

Training clients to use styles is probably a good way to lose the client ­
unless they have some patience for software and enjoy adapting to reality
rather than cursing it. I have actually lost friends by trying to get them
to calm down and explain their computer problems or sit quietly and allow me
to understand their problems and suggest a solution. Of course they were
idiots to begin with, but we did enjoy the same movies at least half the
time.

But I digress. Hope you didn¹t notice.

If they have any attention span at all, explain to them that when they copy
text to paste into your template, they should be very careful NOT to copy
the last paragraph mark. That is where Word stores all the formatting for a
document. When they paste that in along with the text, they change
everything about the template, including (I believe) available styles and
fonts.

Hope this helps. Did you like The Day After Tomorrow?


Best,


- Bill

I have created some templates for a client and am trying to find a way
to make the headers and footers appear normally when they send
documents to other electronically, rather than appear grayed out. Does
anyone know of a way to make this happen? An make sure it works on
their PCs?

Also, this client is baffled when imported/pasted text is dropped into
these templates because it changes formatting and margins. Is there a
way to lock margins etc so that other formatting doesn't overide the
formatting set in the template? They seem unwilling/unable to even use
styles I have provided so I'm hoping there's an idiot-proof command
somewhere that I can use. In most other app's i use there are ways to
lock in place and/or keep things from moving around.

Thanks.

Panther 10.3.6
Office 2004
Windows XP Pro SP2
Office 2003

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Tell them to send a PDF. The Headers/footers will be grayed out in any
version of Word, and it will not work on any PC. This is just a limitation
of Word, not anything related to cross-platform issues. It's not really
anything you can control, so far as I know.

One sorta workaround would be to include a macro in the doc that forces them
to view it in Print Preview--but people don't open documents with macros in
them, so that isn't really feasible.

There are a few issues with copying/pasting text, discussed in these pages,
which you might choose to forward to your client:
http://shaunakelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html
http://shaunakelly.com/word/styles/HowPasteOptionsWorks.html
If margins appear to be changing, they might be pasting section breaks:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)
They are aimed at WinWord, but I think you should be able to translate them.
You don't say what version you are using--Paste Options exists in Word 2004
but I think not Word X.

Since you are sending a template, conceivably you could include a
PasteTextOnly or PasteMatchDestinationFormatting command in it, and try to
get them to use that to paste text into your template. It's possible to
intercept existing Paste commands, but I'm not sure whether it could be done
*only* when they were using your template. Anchoring graphics in the
headers usually lets them stay in place, but it sounds like you know that
trick and it isn't applicable to what you are asking about. WinWord 2003 has
some sophisticated locking options, but I'm not familiar with them, and
don't have a clue whether they carry over to other versions of Word. You
might want to Help | Send Feedback to ask for what you want--to increase the
chances the features will be ported to the Mac.

Hope that helps,

--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:

PS. Newsgroups--always state version, and two separate questions are better
addressed in two separate posts.