Table of Contents and Reading View Issues

[yellowhouse1976]

Hi

Say you have a TOC in a Word document which you plan to email to someone,
when that someone opens the document MS forces them to look it in the default
Reading View. When you click escape to look at the document in a 'normal
view' the TOC page numbers all change to 3. Forcing you to update the TOC to
get the actual page numbers back. Is there any way to safe guard this not
happening when you send a document by email. I am unable to convert the
document to PDF as it is not an acceptable format for the person I am sending
it to. It seems very unprofessional to expect the person receiving the
document to update the TOC and if they dont know to do this then they will
assume the document is incorrect.

Any ideas please?

Thanks

Jude

 

[Graham Mayor]

You have no control whatsoever how a user views your document. Microsoft
does not force anyone to use the Reading layout. It may be the default, but
like a lot of defaults, it can be turned off - and many users do.

The document will reflow to the dictates of the current printer driver and
if the recipient has a different printer driver (which seems very likely)
and that changes the page order, then yes the TOC will require updating. If
you want a document to be viewed as you intend, then you need PDF format.
That's what PDF does.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Stefan Blom]

What you can do is ask the recipients to save the document to their hard
disks before opening it.

Alternatively, ask them to turn off the following options (which are
user-specific):

- "Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading view" in Office button |
Word Options, Popular category (Word 2007).

- "Allow starting in Reading Layout" in Tools | Options, General (Word
2003).

 

[yellowhouse1976]

Thanks for the suggestions but I don't really think it is ok to ask companies
you are submitting proposals to have to do this. I think it is a bad design
on the part of MS and I wish they would change it. I dont like the reading
pane view and dont know anyone who does.

Thanks anyway

 

[Stefan Blom]

Well, Reading Layout view aside, word processing applications give you
limited control over the look. Convert to PDF before sending the document.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As Stefan points out, you have no control over the way the document is
viewed by the recipient. You can only make suggestions:

1. You can suggest that the recipient disable Reading Layout view (Stefan
explains how). Many recipients may be grateful for this instruction, as
(judging from questions here), many would prefer to do this if they knew
how.

2. You can suggest that the recipient save the document to the HD before
opening. Reading Layout view is used only for attachments opened directly.

3. Failing either of the above, you can suggest that the recipient, after
opening in Reading Layout view and switching to a different view, update the
TOC with F9.

No matter how unhappy you may be with the situation, these are your only
options.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org