Serious template problems!

[ebovine]

Hello!
I am having serious template problems that are really killing me. I have a DOT (created in a Windows Office product) I brought over from Office2004 which I have opened and re-saved with Office2008 (using DOT compatibility mode, not the new XMLish format). I can start a new doc from that template, but if I come back to the document later, table styles are gone, and I get random style changes in the document. We collaborate on Word docs all the time with Windows Office users, and the old version, Office2004, never caused any problems.
In addition, after I apply the custom styles, I get serious display corruption that requires me to scroll away and back in order to see the format I just applied.
Any ideas? I'm afraid that I am going to have to run the Win32 version in Parallels.. and seeing how they munged up the UI in the latest version, that gives me hives.
Thanks for the help!

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, I think you will find it's "one or the other". Either run the thing
as a Word 2008 template in .dotx, or run it in .dot.

If you do run in .dot, Word 2008 will drop back to compatibility mode.
Which means some table styles (Quick Tables) and themes and a few other
things will be stripped, because the format doesn't support them.

The Office 2007 interface is an acquired taste Believe me, I thoroughly
embarrassed myself by loudly and publicly hating it for about two months
until I got used to it.

(I am a Technical Writer, so I stretch Word to the limits of its ability on
a daily basis)

Once I got used to the Ribbon, I finally began to appreciate the thinking
behind it. They eye-opener for me was to watch a very unskilled user hit
it. I didn't say anything and just watched. At the end of a couple of
days, they were flying, navigating better than me!

So then I sat down and had a little talk to myself. I resolved to learn to
USE it. Once I did that, I was really blown away by just how slick and
productive it is, once you get used to it.

Now, your mileage may indeed be different, but I personally am now a
vigorous supporter of the Ribbon. It is simply a far slicker and more
precise way to drive Word.

The Mac Word 2008 equivalent is, to me, neither fish nor fowl. It seems to
have the worst features of both the old and the new interfaces, without any
of the redeeming features. It is, of course, a work in progress, and I
suspect it will improve in the next version.

Right now, for me, there is nothing useful on the MacRibbon, which means it
annoys me by taking up screen real-estate

Cheers

Hello!
I am having serious template problems that are really killing me. I have a DOT
(created in a Windows Office product) I brought over from Office2004 which I
have opened and re-saved with Office2008 (using DOT compatibility mode, not
the new XMLish format). I can start a new doc from that template, but if I
come back to the document later, table styles are gone, and I get random style
changes in the document. We collaborate on Word docs all the time with Windows
Office users, and the old version, Office2004, never caused any problems.
In addition, after I apply the custom styles, I get serious display corruption
that requires me to scroll away and back in order to see the format I just
applied.
Any ideas? I'm afraid that I am going to have to run the Win32 version in
Parallels.. and seeing how they munged up the UI in the latest version, that
gives me hives.
Thanks for the help!

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