Page numbers in status bar broken

[pdx12]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Hi,

I've just noticed that since I downloaded the latest update to Word 2008 a few days ago, the current page number (eg, "Pages: 1 of 24") no longer shows in the status bar when I'm in Draft View. It'll show if I switch to Print Layout View and persist for a while in Draft View, but as soon as I close the file and open it again, there's no more page number in the status bar. Also, the page number will show if I do a word count, but disappear the next time I open the file. This is really annoying. Any ideas?

 

[pdx12]

Actually, let me add to this that Word 2008 is no longer automatically paginating at all in Draft View. Even if I do a word count and it shows 15 pages, it never flips over onto a 16th page as I type more. Pagination seems to be turned off somehow.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Draft View is not designed to paginate. Although, I generally see the
page numbers in the status bar here. But recently we had someone
complaining that it kept showing the page breaks when he didn't want to
see them, the exact opposite of your annoyance.

Anyhow, in Word | Preferences | General, check the box for "background
repagination" and see if the situation improves.

Also, check some other longish documents to see if you are seeing the
same behavior in all of them.

 

[pdx12]

Wow, that seems to have fixed it. I don't know how that setting got turned off in the update, but somehow it did. Thanks!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Glad that worked. You're welcome.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Daiya:

Now, *I* am really mystified.

What I was told is that that "setting" should have been disabled many years
ago. I was told it was no longer even connected to anything behind the
dialog box.

If they have now suddenly re-connected it so that it is in operation again,
I think we might have had a "reversion" in the code base. It wouldn't be
the first time a piece of former code has found its way back in to a product
by mistake during maintenance

I wonder if that's happened?

That checkbox is a legacy going back to 1995 or thereabouts, when Word had
two pagination modes. Now, the only pagination Word is capable of is
"background" pagination. The pagination engine is running all the time (it
has to be, for Word to function).

The main difference is that in Page Layout View, Word calls the pagination
engine for each change to the document, so you can see the result WYSIWYG.
In Draft View, it calls it only when it needs it, and only if the user is
not doing anything. This is a power-saving technique. Draft view is
designed for working on long documents where the power saving leads to much
faster response times and a much more pleasant editing experience.

They haven't removed the checkbox, because it's a major project to do so
(for zero benefit...). It's like the press-button on pedestrian traffic
lights; or the "close door" button on a lift: it gives you something to do
while you are waiting

Cheers

Wow, that seems to have fixed it. I don't know how that setting got turned off
in the update, but somehow it did. Thanks!

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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi John -

My understanding was different - the *setting* now is disabled if you go
into Prefs while in anything other than Draft or Outline View, but the
*feature* is still in effect. It just doesn't pertain to other Views. That's
what I understood the "change" to be.

It used to be that even in Page/Print Layout View the checkbox was active &
could be reversed, but it just didn't have any apparent effect while you
remained in those views that didn't support it... Thus it gave the
impression of not "working" at all.

Sounds like something worthy of further investigation

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

The description in the prefs says "repaginates docs automatically as you
work. always on in Print Layout and Publishing Layout"

 

[Phillip Jones]

Well don't report it to higher ups if its turned on a feature someone
wants. You don't want users upset at you do you. (not necessarily to
Diaya only)

Software is supposed to work the way the users wants it. Not the way the
Corporate BOD wants it. You sell it to the customer not the BOD. he /she
already gets it free of charge most likely. but customer is one paying
for it. So customer is the one that puts the doug in the pocket of the
BOD.

The description in the prefs says "repaginates docs automatically as you
work. always on in Print Layout and Publishing Layout"

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Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
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[pdx12]

Actually, it turns out the problem isn't solved after all. When I quit Word, the preference to enable background pagination gets unchecked somehow, so it's the same problem all over again when I open documents: I'd have to go into preferences every time I open the program and re-enable background pagination. What gives?

 

[pdx12]

One more thing: I tried trashing the preferences files for Office and Word in case they were damaged, but it didn't help. Word still won't save the background repagination setting as on in Draft View; it's unchecked whenever I open Word.

 

[CyberTaz]

You might try this;

Open the Normal.dotm template, switch to Draft View, then go into Preference
& restore. The check. Once you OK out of Prefs switch back to Print Layout
view, Save & close the file.

See if that makes any difference.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[pdx12]

No luck. Background repagination is still set to off when I reopen Word in Draft View. Why would it suddenly refuse to save this one preference?

 

[pdx12]

Hi Daiya,

Thanks for the Applescript; it seems to work well, though I wish I could set it to work automatically instead of having to turn on pagination every time I boot up. But I'll take what I can get.

Now, if anyone can figure out how to get the line and column numbers to show in the status bar again like in previous Word versions, I'd be truly impressed...

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Daiya,

Thanks for the Applescript;

You're welcome...

it seems to work well, though I wish I could set it to work automatically instead of having to turn on pagination every time I boot up. But I'll take what I can get.

How much do you want to mess with it? You can use a script that *both*
launches Word and sets the preferences (just add "activate" as the first
line after the "tell" line), but then you have to make sure that *every*
time you want to launch Word, you use that script instead. If you always
launch Word from the Dock, you should be able to save the script as an
application, use Get Info to copy/paste the W icon on it, and put that
app in the dock instead, and that should work. Not sure how launching
via Spotlight or Quicksilver or any of the other myriad options would
work, though I'm sure several of them could finesse the same approach.

Now, if anyone can figure out how to get the line and column numbers to show in the status bar again like in previous Word versions, I'd be truly impressed...

Sorry! Use Help | Send Feedback to complain to MS about that one (and
also demand Section numbers, which are really needed). It's a common
request, so I have some hope for it, but the more concrete data MS has
to prove people need it back, the more likely the change might get approved.

Might be possible to write a script that shows the line and column
numbers in a dialog, but it wouldn't be live-updating, you'd have to
pause and invoke it and dismiss the dialog, and that seems too annoying
to make it worth the trouble. It is also possible to turn on line
numbers for a document (Format | Document | Layout)--you'd have to turn
them back off before printing/distributing, though, so probably also not
that helpful.

Daiya