Trimming Word 2004

[Dave]

Does anyone have nominations for dispensable (either "turn-off-able"
or trash-able) items in Word 2004?

I want to be able to do ordinary word processing. No exceptional
requirements here.

Why bother? Well, just to clear the playing field so that the usable
menu items, tools, and "bars" stand out without being visually swamped
by extraneous stuff and are not hidden away in dark recesses.
Simplification of its appearance and accessibility of its main
features, that's the thing.

And if, through unpleasant experience, you've learned what *not* to
touch I'd like to know that as well. Thanks.

Dave

 

[Clive Huggan]

I deal with some of those topics on pages 29-33 of "Bend Word to Your Will",
some notes on how I use Word available free from
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm


Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Dave]

Thanks Clive. I'm overwhelmed. Upon a quick glance at some of the
material -- I suspect I'll be selectively dipping into it -- I noticed
that you've pretty well stopped at Word 2001. In a footnote on page 13
you go on to say that Word 2002/XP, which is not covered, "has some
quite radical new features". Word 2004 is yet a further departure in
several respects.

No doubt, as you write, there'll be things that with little or slight
adjustment will apply to 2004. It's got me a bit tense, though. I'm
thinking of times when some earlier Word customization if applied to
2004 may have unexpected and unpleasant consequences. But, then,
there's always the trusty (?) "undo" device to reestablish
equilibrium.

As I say, I'll be trying your work out a bit at a time. It's
magnificently comprehensive. Thanks again.


Dave

 

[Clive Huggan]

Thank you for your kind comments, Dave!

"Dipping into it" is the key -- i.e., individual topics. It took three years
of writing; three months to read sounds about right, since it's no novel!

Don't worry about forward compatibility to Word 2004 -- the file structure
has been the same since Word 98. I can't think of any such problems. There
are a few backward compatibility issues, but not many if one sticks to the
solid central path put out in this newsgroup. And Word 2004 has a useful
compatibility checker, too.

Word 2004 is very good, and a great improvement on Word X, which was brought
out on a beta version of OS X, which started changing profoundly soon after.
The early release seems to me to have been fairly altruistic on MS's part --
without it OS X would not have gained critical mass soon enough (maybe there
were other motives in there, but I can't see them).

Having said that, would I trade the advanced features of 2004 for the
rock-solid, no-nonsense 5.1a if it had cross-platform compatibility and a
couple of other features? It's a hypothetical question now. Suffice to say
that if one wants to make Word 2004 really sing, it requires a great deal of
step-by-step study. And most people are too time-poor to try.

In "Bend Word to Your Will", I will add more 2004 material but only matters
that are significant; if the difference can be inferred, I'll leave it. I'm
time-poor!

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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