Stacking docking windows

[Ed Brey]

Is is possible to stack docking windows in Word 2007? If so, how? For
example, I'd like to have the "Styles" and "Apply Styles" docked one on top
of the other on the right side of Word.

 

[Beth Melton]

Unfortunately no. Is there are reason you need them both open? (Yeah, I know
you wouldn't be asking if you didn't. ;-) ) IOW, is there something one will
do but the other won't?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Ed Brey]

An example of when both docking windows would be helpful is dealing with
heading levels. For example, from a new document, if I press Shift+Alt+Right,
the style Heading 2 is applied. I can tell what the style is from either the
Quick Styles control or the Styles window. Now, if I press Shift+Alt+Right
again, it becomes difficult to tell that I'm on Heading 3. I'd have to
remember what depth I am at or tell from the font, both of which are
unreliable when working in a complicated document. Otherwise, I have to
manually customize the list of visible styles in the Quick Styles or Styles
list, but this takes effort and wastes screen real estate on styles that are
easily keyboard selectable.

The Apply Styles (or Style Inspector) window is convenient because it always
shows the current style. Adding the Style command to the Quick Access Toolbar
helps sometimes, but it doesn't appear to be resizable. This makes it work
for headings, but for styles with longer names, it would still be helpful to
have a way to always be able to see the current style and be able to select a
new one, but without giving up too much horizontal space.

 

[djprius]

In Word 2007, one can size the two panes you mention and dock them at
the right margin. I have sized them so both can be open, and viewed, at
the same time (one is in the upper part of the screen and the other is
in the lower part of the screen, both on the right side).

However, if one wants to use less real estate, one can do the
following: Make one pane just a bit higher than the other; for the
shorter pane, make it just a bit wider than the other. (You can make the
size difference less than 1/8"[3mm].) These two panes are ALMOST the
same size and, effectively, sit on top of each other. One can toggle
back and forth by using the cursor on the title bar of the pane you want
to bring in front -- if it's not already there.

Is this satisfactory, or have I missed something in your need?

David

*************************************

 

[Ed Brey]

For floating windows, I can resize and place them at will. However, for
docked windows, I am only able to change the horizontal size, and I can only
dock one window to the right edge of the main frame. Is your experience
differet?

Floating windows don't work well for me, since they don't move with the main
frame, e.g. when I move a Word window between monitors.

 

[Beth Melton]

I suspect your primary interest was seeing the current style and thought the
Styles combo box designed for the QAT would help but I see that's something
you've already tried.

For your longer style names, perhaps an alias would help?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[djprius]

Ed,

I didn't realize you meant to distinguish between pane windows which
are fixed versus floating. I realize now you used "docked" in a very
precise way. The floating panes work fine for me, but I understand
why they don't work for you.

It would be nice to have a tool in the title bar of docked panes
that allows one to choose from available panes -- and to bring the
selected one to the front.

David

*******************************************************************

 

[Ed Brey]

I'm borrowing the terminology "docked" and "floating" from Visual Studio. VS
2005 has excellent docking support - very flexible and intuitive. It's too
bad that the VS docking code didn't make it into Word, which pales by
comparison.

 

[woj]

This issue was solved in 2003 with the task pane, but appears to have been
dropped with the move to 2007.

Obviously, docked windows that stack either by tab stacking, drop-down box
stacking or back button stacking are more desirable than multiple adjacent
docked windows that absorb all the real estate on either side of the window
regardless of the size of displayed content.

Not the first time a new version of MS Word has sacrificed useful
functionality from earlier versions, (that's why I still have 2003 installed,
and selected elements of 95, 2000 and XP