palette, toolbar questions

[I should be doing housework]

1.any way to have the formatting palette on the left side of the
screen, and have documents open up in the center (not behind the
palette)? (I understand that documents will move to the side of docked
toolbars, but what about the formatting palette?)

2. anyway to make the toolbars longer - it seems that I can resize them
but not change their length?

 

[CyberTaz]

1.any way to have the formatting palette on the left side of the
screen,

The Formatting Palette can be dragged to any position on screen you prefer,
just click & hold on it's Title bar, put it where you want it, & that is
where it will (should) stay until you move it again.

and have documents open up in the center (not behind the
palette)? (I understand that documents will move to the side of docked
toolbars, but what about the formatting palette?)

This is a different story. The Formatting Palette, unlike the other
toolbars, cannot be docked, so the doc window will always treat it as a
floater. Someone may offer the option of controlling the window position
programmatically, but I don't use code for such things... IMHO, there are
enough things to interfere with each other without adding 8 or more lines of
code to do what a simple drag will accomplish

2. anyway to make the toolbars longer - it seems that I can resize them
but not change their length?

If you mean 'stretch' them to reveal the other commands that appear in the
list on the right end, no. Those commands are actually in a menu which
cannot be directly modified. However, most of the commands in those menus
can be added to any toolbar you wish (Customize Toolbars/Menus dialog box),
& as you add command to the main section of the toolbar it will
automatically adjust in length to accommodate the new items.

HTH |:>)

 

[JE McGimpsey]

1.any way to have the formatting palette on the left side of the
screen, and have documents open up in the center (not behind the
palette)? (I understand that documents will move to the side of docked
toolbars, but what about the formatting palette?)

The Formatting Palette (FP) doesn't dock, but there are at least a
couple of ways to fake this:

1) Create a new toolbar with a control that's as high as the P is wide
(this is somewhat problematic as the FP width changes, depending on
which panes you have open - for me, 230 px is as wide as the default FP
gets). Dock the custom toolbar on the left and drag the FP over it.

2) Create an add-in that uses With Events code to detect
new/opened/refocused docs and resize and position their windows
automatically. I do this with my normal Word configuration, but it's not
easily maintained if you don't know at least a bit of VBA. Post back if
you're interested.

2. anyway to make the toolbars longer - it seems that I can resize them
but not change their length?

Toolbars are automatically sized to contain their controls. If you want
to make a toolbar longer, you can add a blank control of the appropriate
width.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Someone may offer the option of controlling the window position
programmatically, but I don't use code for such things... IMHO, there
are enough things to interfere with each other without adding 8 or
more lines of code to do what a simple drag will accomplish

I, OTOH, believe that the computer should do the routine work and leave
me to the content - and leave my hands on the keyboard! Who wants to
drag a document every time you open or create one? <g>

On the third hand, while it would be rather straightforward to implement
an add-in that does what the OP wants (with what I suspect would be
considerably more than 8 lines of code!), unless the add-in also is
designed with a lot of customization built-in, maintaining it would take
at least a little knowledge of VBA.

 

[CyberTaz]

I, OTOH, believe that the computer should do the routine work and leave
me to the content - and leave my hands on the keyboard! Who wants to
drag a document every time you open or create one? <g>

I don't disagree at all... But on the 4th hand, that's why I leave the FP on
the right (traditionalist that I am).

On the third hand, while it would be rather straightforward to implement
an add-in that does what the OP wants (with what I suspect would be
considerably more than 8 lines of code!), unless the add-in also is
designed with a lot of customization built-in, maintaining it would take
at least a little knowledge of VBA.

Exactly why I prefer to avoid such machinations and reserve the use of code
for those processes that truly justify it

Happy Holidays |:>)

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Michael,

Re question 2 ­ further to the comments by CyberTaz, you may get something
useful from some of the ideas in the section titled 'Buttons, transferring
between toolbars' in some notes on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled
"Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a free download from the
Word MVPs' website (http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Bend/BendWord.htm).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. Be sure to read
the front end so you can use the document to best advantage and select the
right settings for reading it.]

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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