Pop-up lists and Normal style

[John in Riverbank]

I need help with pop-up lists. I’ve got excellent instructions from Bill
Coan on how to create them. It works like a champ. Different sized and
fonted values dropping into my report is my problem:

In the instructions, Step 3 says to choose Normal style for the area where
the new values will be listed. That action changes my font and size from
Times New Roman/12 pt. to CG Times/10 pt. Resetting the font and size will
change the Style. If I do the complete exercise this way, my values will not
match the rest of the paragraph. Changing the font and size changes the
style and I seem to have problems later on.

Second, step 6 has us defining the new values with a style called
“ProductStyleâ€. Since I have pop-up lists for garage size, the weather,
water heater size, etc., can I create styles called “WeatherStyleâ€,
“GarageStyleâ€, “WaterHeaterStyleâ€, and so on? They also tend to reset the
font and size when renamed…

Likewise, in step 10, the default value “product†is used. In my document
would that be substituted for “garageâ€, “weather†and “water heaterâ€?

I could experiment all day and still not have the best answer.
Many thanks,
John

 

[Bill Coan]

John,

I'm a little uncertain about what is going wrong for you, but it sounds as
though you're fighting two problems:

1. Your existing documents seem to be formatted with a mix of style-based
formatting (the kind of formatting that gets applied when you select a style
from the Style dropdown on the Formatting toolbar or from the Formatting and
Styles taskpane) and direct formatting (the kind of formatting that gets
applied when you choose font and paragraph properties from the Format>>Font
and Format>>Paragraph dialog boxes or the font and paragraph tools on the
Formatting toolbar). Yes, I know that this is a rather Wordy description,
but read this over a few times. I'll return to this problem shortly.

2. Some of the styles in your existing documents might be set up to
"Automatically Update," which means that any direct formatting applied to
text is immediately and automatically incorporated into the style
definition, thereby affecting all text of that style throughout your
document.

One way to check for Problem #1 is to press Ctrl+A to select all of the text
in your document and then press Ctrl+Q to remove all direct-formatted
paragraph properties and then press Ctrl+<Spacebar> to remove all
direct-formatted font properties. After doing this, all remaining formatting
in the document will be the product of styles rather than direct-applied
formatting.

If the remaining formatting doesn't please you, then select each style in
the Formatting and Styles taskpane and choose Modify.... and then change the
properties to better suit your needs. At a minimum, you should select each
style and choose Modify... and then in the Modify Style dialog box remove
(if present) the checkmark next to Automatically Update. This will protect
each style from being redefined when direct formatting is applied to text of
that style.

With these changes completed, you might find better success with your
AutoTextList fields.

Bill Coan
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John in Riverbank]

John,

I'm a little uncertain about what is going wrong for you, but it sounds as
though you're fighting two problems:

1. Your existing documents seem to be formatted with a mix of style-based
formatting (the kind of formatting that gets applied when you select a style
from the Style dropdown on the Formatting toolbar or from the Formatting and
Styles taskpane) and direct formatting (the kind of formatting that gets
applied when you choose font and paragraph properties from the Format>>Font
and Format>>Paragraph dialog boxes or the font and paragraph tools on the
Formatting toolbar). Yes, I know that this is a rather Wordy description,
but read this over a few times. I'll return to this problem shortly.

2. Some of the styles in your existing documents might be set up to
"Automatically Update," which means that any direct formatting applied to
text is immediately and automatically incorporated into the style
definition, thereby affecting all text of that style throughout your
document.

One way to check for Problem #1 is to press Ctrl+A to select all of the text
in your document and then press Ctrl+Q to remove all direct-formatted
paragraph properties and then press Ctrl+<Spacebar> to remove all
direct-formatted font properties. After doing this, all remaining formatting
in the document will be the product of styles rather than direct-applied
formatting.

If the remaining formatting doesn't please you, then select each style in
the Formatting and Styles taskpane and choose Modify.... and then change the
properties to better suit your needs. At a minimum, you should select each
style and choose Modify... and then in the Modify Style dialog box remove
(if present) the checkmark next to Automatically Update. This will protect
each style from being redefined when direct formatting is applied to text of
that style.

With these changes completed, you might find better success with your
AutoTextList fields.

Bill Coan
(e-mail address removed)



Bill,

Thanks for the explanation. Your explanation of the two definitions of
formatting make sense. I did try the Ctrl+A,Q,Spacebar routine, but I have a
document that looks like a generic report - do I have to apply styles/format
to every section again? Would that include hidden text, pop-ups, AutoText -
speaking of which, the 1,200 plus codes that I input in a separate, blank
document - do I need to make changes to those too?

Here's where my lack of knowledge shows: what you suggested will fix my
problems, but I still don't make the connection between the different styles
for my pop-up lists and the style/format changes you've suggested above.
I'll be plugging away...
Thank you,
John

 

[Bill Coan]

John,

In order to use AutoTextList fields, you have to create and temporarily
apply styles as described in my original procedure. The styles enable Word
to associate each AutoText entry with a particular AutoTextList field. If
this isn't clear, feel free to ask specific follow-up questions on how this
works, or else review the original procedure (and for confirmation, test the
procedure on a new, blank document without a volatile combination of
style-based and direct formatting).

I suspect the relationship between styles and AutoTextList fields is fairly
clear to you. Your real problem, at this point, is how to use styles in a
document where much (if not most, indeed if not all) of the text is
formatted with a mixture of style-based and direct formatting and where some
styles might be set to Automatically Update. The answer to this is to turn
off the Automatically Update property for all styles, and then to remove any
direct formatting that's interfering with the AutoTextList fields. Ctrl+A,
Ctr+Q, Ctrl+<SPACEBAR> is the simplest way to do this, but you might find
that you can get away with a less drastic action. For example, you might
find that your problems will go away by selecting each individual paragraph
where you need an AutoTextList field, and then pressing Ctrl+Q,
Ctrl+<SPACEBAR> to remove direct formatting just from that paragraph.

Don't give up. You're probably a lot closer to a solution than you realize.

Bill Coan
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John in Riverbank]

John,

In order to use AutoTextList fields, you have to create and temporarily
apply styles as described in my original procedure. The styles enable Word
to associate each AutoText entry with a particular AutoTextList field. If
this isn't clear, feel free to ask specific follow-up questions on how this
works, or else review the original procedure (and for confirmation, test the
procedure on a new, blank document without a volatile combination of
style-based and direct formatting).

I suspect the relationship between styles and AutoTextList fields is fairly
clear to you. Your real problem, at this point, is how to use styles in a
document where much (if not most, indeed if not all) of the text is
formatted with a mixture of style-based and direct formatting and where some
styles might be set to Automatically Update. The answer to this is to turn
off the Automatically Update property for all styles, and then to remove any
direct formatting that's interfering with the AutoTextList fields. Ctrl+A,
Ctr+Q, Ctrl+<SPACEBAR> is the simplest way to do this, but you might find
that you can get away with a less drastic action. For example, you might
find that your problems will go away by selecting each individual paragraph
where you need an AutoTextList field, and then pressing Ctrl+Q,
Ctrl+<SPACEBAR> to remove direct formatting just from that paragraph.

Don't give up. You're probably a lot closer to a solution than you realize.

Bill Coan
(e-mail address removed)



Bill,

Thanks again. I go on a 13 day working vacation on Friday so I hope to have
it figured out by tomorrow. If not, I might be asking questions in July...
John