preventing docs from opening behind toolbars?

[Chris Watson]

Hi. I¹m working in Word 2004 (v11.3.8) and OS 10.5. Is there anyway to
prevent a document from opening behind the toolbars? Whenever I open a new
or existing document, the top portion of it is always behind the toolbars,
forcing me to grab the bottom, expand it until it¹s wider than the toolbars
and then move it down below the level of the toolbars.

It¹s pretty annoying and I¹d love any suggestions as to how to stop it from
happening. Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Your toolbars have become undocked. Grab one and float it around until
it drops into the "sweet spot" and the document jumps out of the way.
Once re-docked, they should behave for a good long time.

 

[Chris Watson]

Thanks, Daiya. That did the trick. They were already in what was apparently
the right place. I just had to move them away and then back again to
everything working properly. Thanks for that simple solution to an annoying
little problem.

 

[May]

This problem will remain annoying, however, as it will recur especially if you do a lot of work involving constant resizing. Here is a heartfelt plea to Microsoft: why can't you make it work like in the Windows version where there is an overall, outer frame to which the toolbars are "stuck" so that the relationship between toolbars, documents and the frame remain constant - any resizing or movements you make to the document (especially also if you open a second or subsequent document at the same time), makes all the other components of the window move in the same relation to the change - so you never ever have the problem Chris mentions.

 

[May]

This problem will remain annoying, however, as it will recur especially if you do a lot of work involving constant resizing. Here is a heartfelt plea to Microsoft: why can't you make it work like in the Windows version where there is an overall, outer frame to which the toolbars are "stuck" so that the relationship between toolbars, documents and the frame remain constant - any resizing or movements you make to the document (especially also if you open a second or subsequent document at the same time), makes all the other components of the window move in the same relation to the change - so you never ever have the problem Chris mentions.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Office 2008 does allow you to "dock" some toolbars in the window.

I resize and move my windows *all* the time, constantly, and I run into
this problem maybe once a year. When you move the windows, don't move
them too high or too close to the toolbar, or you will cause this
problem. There needs to be a very small gap between the toolbar and the
window.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You're welcome, glad to help.

Thanks, Daiya. That did the trick. They were already in what was apparently
the right place. I just had to move them away and then back again to
everything working properly. Thanks for that simple solution to an annoying
little problem.

 

[May]

Thank you for your reply. My annoyance is because I have to be constantly aware of the little gap you have to leave and inevitably, some of my actions push some documents under the bars, especially when I'm in too much of a hurry or doing too many complicated copy/pastes etc so haven't time to fiddle around with maintaining the gaps. I tried designing it into the Normal template so that new docs would open in the middle of the screen and below/above the toolbars - but that did not work. MS defaults new docs to the upper LHS of the screen. Anyway, I looked elsewhere in Mactopia forums and found a link to a macro to apply to the normal template so the toolbars are locked down in place and documents cannot be "pulled out of shape" so they fall under the toolbars. Can't remember the person who offered the link, but it led to McGimpsey & Associates who kindly donated the information.

 

[John McGhie]

I guess we should set some expectations here

1) The way this function works is part of Apple OS X

2) Microsoft has no control over how Apple builds OS X. There is a
suggestion in some quarters that "the fact that Microsoft wants it" is
treated as a "good reason not to do it" in Cupertino

3) If you "Dock" your toolbars correctly, there is no way to get a document
under them: they won't go there. So the mechanism exists for you to be able
to solve the problem for yourself.

You need to customise the "dockable" toolbars to have the functions you want
on them. You may want to remove some of the stuff you never use.

Then dock those toolbars to the top of the window. Voila! You will never
get a document under them again.

Yes, it would be nice if ALL toolbars could be docked. Maybe next version.

And Yes, it does mean that you have to customise built-in toolbars to do
this, which in turn means that you have to back up your Normal template.
Because if it gets damaged, you can't get customised standard toolbars back
from it.

However, you can get it to work the way you want.

Hope this helps

Thank you for your reply. My annoyance is because I have to be constantly
aware of the little gap you have to leave and inevitably, some of my actions
push some documents under the bars, especially when I'm in too much of a hurry
or doing too many complicated copy/pastes etc so haven't time to fiddle around
with maintaining the gaps. I tried designing it into the Normal template so
that new docs would open in the middle of the screen and below/above the
toolbars - but that did not work. MS defaults new docs to the upper LHS of the
screen. Anyway, I looked elsewhere in Mactopia forums and found a link to a
macro to apply to the normal template so the toolbars are locked down in place
and documents cannot be "pulled out of shape" so they fall under the toolbars.
Can't remember the person who offered the link, but it led to McGimpsey &
Associates who kindly donated the information.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[May]

Thanks very much, one and all