Newbie's outlining questions

[Paul Hoberg]

I am an experienced WordPerfect user trying to become proficient
in Word 2002, and am having difficulties with "outline". I must
have a 5 or 6 page document, using an outline format, and blending
digital pictures and text throughout, finished today - at least
the first version. I may have to give up and use WordPerfect. I
do not want to! Maybe Word is the wrong tool, and I should be
using a presentation package? However, I am where I am.

o How can I reduce the number of spaces between the outline number
and the start of the text?

o How can I cause the 2nd, third, etc. lines of the text to be
indented like the first line, instead of being aligned with the
number?

o I have two columns, landscape, on the page. I have a picture
anchored at the start of the 2nd column. I inserted a column
break at the end of the first column. The 2nd column text is in
outline format. The first roman numeral "I" does not show. If I
remove the column break so the outline begins in the first column,
it looks correct. Have I encountered a bug. or is there a
work-around?

o I looked in "help" and in a third party book I have on Word
2000, and could not find anything about these issues. Should I be
able to solve this kind of thing myself, without bothering any of
you?

Thanks for any hints.
Paul

 

[Gilles Desjardins]

Paul "outlining" is used when you want to write a huge proposal. This
feature helps you collapse paragraphs into the titles when you wish to
transport a large amount of text to another chapter. Each number in the
toolbar represent an indentation level. You expand or collapse the "tree" by
clicking on the plus or minus symbols. Outline in Word is NOT outline in
PowerPoint. If you are trying to create a business presentation, go for
PowerPoint.

On the other hand, if I did not understand your predicament, try me again.

HTH

 

[Martha]

o How can I reduce the number of spaces between the outline number
and the start of the text?

You mean horizontally? Simply move the tab stop to where you want it.
Look in the horizontal ruler for the black L-shaped thingy, click it
and drag it to the left. If there is no L-shaped thingy, then you're
using the default tab stops (spaced every half inch). You can add a
tab stop by clicking in the horizontal ruler. You may also need to
move the left/hanging indent; see below.

o How can I cause the 2nd, third, etc. lines of the text to be
indented like the first line, instead of being aligned with the
number?

You need to align the left indent/hanging indent with the tab stop. On
the left edge of the horizontal ruler, there are two triangles, one
pointing up and the other pointing down. The latter is the first-line
indent, the former the hanging indent. There's also a little
rectangle, directly below the hanging indent's marker; that's the left
indent. Select the paragraph(s) you want to change, then drag the
hanging indent's triangle until it's aligned with the first line's
text. (If you drag the left indent, all the other markers will move
along with it.) You can also move the first line indent, to change
where the paragraph number is displayed.

Note that this is all direct formatting, which is the easiest for
beginners, but isn't the ideal way to achieve things in Word. It is
especially fraught with danger when dealing with numbered lists.
Unfortunately, that's not a topic that can be explained in a newsgroup
post. See http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
for a more comprehensive explanation (which will probably confuse you
completely upon first reading; I'd suggest coming back to it after
you've had some more experience using Word).

o I have two columns, landscape, on the page. I have a picture
anchored at the start of the 2nd column. I inserted a column
break at the end of the first column. The 2nd column text is in
outline format. The first roman numeral "I" does not show. If I
remove the column break so the outline begins in the first column,
it looks correct. Have I encountered a bug. or is there a
work-around?

Is the picture floating or inline with text? If floating, what's the
text wrap set to? I tried to reproduce what you're doing, but couldn't
get the I to disappear, no matter what I did.

o I looked in "help" and in a third party book I have on Word
2000, and could not find anything about these issues. Should I be
able to solve this kind of thing myself, without bothering any of
you?

You seem to be jumping in at the deep end, without having acquired any
experience with the basics that most of us take for granted. This is
probably not the easiest way to learn anything, but sometimes
deadlines require us to do things that we wouldn't otherwise do. In
any case, you're welcome to ask whatever questions you'd like to ask,
that's what these groups are for. If someone is bothered by your
questions, they can feel free to ignore them.