Text vanishes

[R._Kevin_Hill]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel The file originally has unindented/untabbed paragraphs separated by one blank line. I want to eliminate the blank lines and indent/tab the first line of each paragraph .5"

I place the cursor immediately to the left of the first character of the paragraph and hit tab. The first two lines of text in the paragraph vanish. If I move the cursor through the area with the arrow keys, it moves smoothly as if the text has simply been deleted or cut. So I go into another similar document, copy the missing to lines, and try to paste them where they were.

Yup. The original text is back... in duplicate.

This is but one example, but I keep having the same problem, triggered by different acts: the first two lines of text in a paragraph disappear. In one instance, I emailed a document to someone, and they emailed it back; comparing the two, we find that the latter document has lots of paragraphs missing their first two lines (I couldn't say what he's doing, but the effect seems to be the same. It seems to only happen to him in files I create, and he's using a different version/platform of Word).

 

[John McGhie]

You haven't specified the update level of Word: check that you're up to
12.2.4.

I think this is a screen-redraw issue. And if it is, it means the format
you are using is mangled. Which style are you using?

If I were you, I would select the whole document and Edit>Clear>Clear
Formats to bust it all back to Normal style, then save, close, re-open, and
re-apply the correct styles.

That should fix it...

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel The
file originally has unindented/untabbed paragraphs separated by one blank
line. I want to eliminate the blank lines and indent/tab the first line of
each paragraph .5"

I place the cursor immediately to the left of the first character of the
paragraph and hit tab. The first two lines of text in the paragraph vanish. If
I move the cursor through the area with the arrow keys, it moves smoothly as
if the text has simply been deleted or cut. So I go into another similar
document, copy the missing to lines, and try to paste them where they were.

Yup. The original text is back... in duplicate.

This is but one example, but I keep having the same problem, triggered by
different acts: the first two lines of text in a paragraph disappear. In one
instance, I emailed a document to someone, and they emailed it back; comparing
the two, we find that the latter document has lots of paragraphs missing their
first two lines (I couldn't say what he's doing, but the effect seems to be
the same. It seems to only happen to him in files I create, and he's using a
different version/platform of Word).

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

 

[CyberTaz]

In order to even hazard a guess we need to know exact update levels of both
Office & OS X on your Mac as well as comparable info about the other user's
system ‹ "different version/platform" discloses nothing.

Additionally, what is the source of the document content? Did you type it
yourself? Was it copied/received from another source? If so, what is the
source?

Do you have the non-printing characters (¶) displayed in the document in
order to better see what's going on? What do they disclose? It's hard to say
how to remove the "blank lines" unless we know what's causing them.

Further, the Tab key is not the way to apply indentation despite what
Microsoft might lead you to believe... But that part comes later.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[R._Kevin_Hill]

(1) The Update level is 12.2.4
(2) The file was originally generated by an export from Omni Outliner. This is no doubt the source of the problem, but I do not have the option of not generating the files in this way because the data is in these files.
(3) I'm still in the process of trying to find how you show the non-printing characters--I've spent an hour researching this in Word's help files and on the internet, but to no avail.
(4) The other user is using Word for Windows 2003 under XP, but I have no further information about his system, and in any case the problem does not only occur with files we send back and forth. It also occurs at my end in files that never reach him.
(5) I do not as a rule use Word for my own work, I am compelled to in this case because of a new project that involves sharing files with the other gentleman. So please be patient with me if it seems that I have not been willing to invest the amount of time, training and learning people who use it regularly have, or do not know "obvious" things. For example, I can easily imagine that people might find it hopeless to advise me if I do not know something as simple as how to make hidden codes visible, but I don't, "Reveal Formatting" does not perform that function, and "Help" does not tell me no matter how many ways I try to think of to formulate the question.

 

[R._Kevin_Hill]

Thank you all for your assistance thus far.

(Perhaps) ignore all the preceding. I still need help, but I may have narrowed the problem down. In files generated in this way, it seems that in some places in the Word document, it sets a tab stop at 10 inches (!). Since the document is only 8.5" wide, as per usual, this would seem to suggest that it is trying to do something "off the page", which is impossible.

So I suppose my question would be: is there a way to get rid of ALL tab stops in a document at once? I was able to figure out how to clear the tabs in one line at a time, but, naturally, there are quite a few lines...

 

[R._Kevin_Hill]

I have tried selecting all the text in the file and then clearing all tab stops. That might do the trick. Apologies if I wasted people's time. I'm new to this.

 

[Patty Winter]

(3) I'm still in the process of trying to find how you show the
non-printing characters--I've spent an hour researching this in Word's
help files and on the internet, but to no avail.

Does Word 2008 still have the little paragraph symbol in the Standard
toolbar? (Or maybe in one of the other default toolbars?) If so, click
on that to toggle display on and off. Then, as John and Bob would say,
send a nasty note to Microsoft about those instructions not being in
the Word 2008 Help files.


Patty

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Kevin;

From the content of your last 3 postings it sounds like you're making
headway under your own steam ‹ kudos!

I tend to agree that the cause of the behavior is most likely in the
generation of the source file. Rather than clearing the tabs, though, it
might be better to simply reset them where you prefer them to be. To do so;

A- Command+A (Select All), then go to Format> Tabs
B- Click the Clear All button,
C- Type .5 into the 'Tab stop position' field, confirm Left is the selected
option, then click 'Set'

If you do want to actually remove the tabbing in the document, what may be
the simplest approach is to use one of these two methods:

Method 1
A- open the file in Word,
B- Command+A (Select All), then Command+C (Copy),
C- In a new blank document use Edit> Paste Special - Unformatted Text

Method 2
As an alternative you can use Replace... from the Edit menu to remove the
tabbing. Type ^t in the Find What: box, leave the Replace With box empty.

Either method will remove the actual tab characters (presses of the Tab key)
from the document. If you want to have a First Line Indent you'll have to:

A- Select All as above
B- Use Format> Paragraph, set First Line Indent to .5 (or whatever). As an
alternative you can move the First Line Indent marker on the Ruler (lower
triangular device) to the preferred position.

If that works out we can move on to removing the 'empty paragraphs'...
Assuming that's what they are To turn on the non-printing characters you
can either click the button bearing the paragraph marker symbol (¶) which is
on the Standard toolbar [It may be labeled with the word 'Show'.] or you can
use the Command+8 keystroke. Either method toggles the display of the
symbols on/off. Patty's right - Help throughout Office 2008 is all but
worthless for much of the information people need. For more information on
the symbols see: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

If the 'empty lines' display a ¶ character you can also use Replace... to
get rid of them by typing ^p^p in Find What: & type ^p in the Replace With:
box. That will replace 2 consecutive carriage returns with one.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[R._Kevin_Hill]

It is now clear that the tab stops were the problem: by chance I opened another file generated in the same way, and happened to have the zoom set at 75% instead of 150%. Way off to the right of the right edge of the page were the missing bits of text, tabbed 10 inches from where they should be. The text was unseeable, being outside the window, and so were the tab stop icons on the ruler. That also explains the action: when I made a paragraph break between the 10" tab and the text, the text was linewrapped form its hiding place back to the left margin, and visibility. Hit the delete key once when it was just ahead of the paragraph break, and the text would return to it's position after the 10" tab stop... and thus outside the visibility of the window. There was nothing you could see on the screen at 100% zoom that would've ever shown that there were 10" tab stops. Sheesh!

I now turn my attention to the good people at Omnigroup; perhaps they can explain why they are putting 10" tab stops in my export files! Thanks again to everyone.

And thanks also, Bob. As it happens, where I prefer the tab stops to be is *nowhere*! I don't need them.

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm assuming you are exporting into DOCX format? Instead, export in a
format which does not set tabs settings, e.g. Plain Text with tabs.
This way the tab settings are controlled by the Word doc to which you
imported that text.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

To kill Tabs, do command A to select all of the document, (per each
Document) go to Format menu > Tabs. When open choose remove all tabs.
That will clear every tab in the document.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Isn't the problem for the OP tab settings, not the tabs?


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Phillip;

That clears the custom tab stop settings but it does nothing to remove the
tabbing done in the document. It simply causes the tabbed text to align at
the corresponding default .5" tap stops.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

If there are any specially set tabs if you go to the tab menu you'll see
them in a list remove them and should correct the problem he should
right tab 10" or something similar. still need to select all the text to
see all the tabs though in the window.