Unlinking Section Headers

[robor]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I previously posted a question regarding my inability to unlink two adjoining sections. I discovered that I had "track changes" turned on. By turning it off and accepting all changes in the document the sections became unlinked and I could independently number each section.

That said, this is a bug in Word that Microsoft needs to address. I spent over an hour trying to figure this out and finally gave up and submitted my document to a client with the screwed up pagination in the appendices.

Not cool and not professional! Microsoft has to do better with Office for the Mac. Glitches like this are unacceptable for someone using it for professional work.

And the problem isn't over yet because when I reopened the file the damn "track changes" was reactivated - after I had unchecked all of the boxes before saving it.

 

[John McGhie]

I hope you feel a lot better now that you have solved the problem

You can of course choose to blame Microsoft if you like: why not? They are
a very tempting target!

Sadly, both of these problems were caused by user error. It's not a bug:
this mechanism works perfectly. But it is one of the "power tools" built in
to Word for people working professionally building long and complex
documents. The user does have to learn how to use it.

To use an analogy, a Boeing 747 is a wonderful device, but it pays to learn
how to fly before you try to use one

If you are interested in finding out what you did wrong, by all means post
back: we will be happy to tell you how to avoid this in the future: it's
just a couple of clicks.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I previously posted a question regarding my inability to unlink two adjoining
sections. I discovered that I had "track changes" turned on. By turning it off
and accepting all changes in the document the sections became unlinked and I
could independently number each section.

That said, this is a bug in Word that Microsoft needs to address. I spent over
an hour trying to figure this out and finally gave up and submitted my
document to a client with the screwed up pagination in the appendices.

Not cool and not professional! Microsoft has to do better with Office for the
Mac. Glitches like this are unacceptable for someone using it for professional
work.

And the problem isn't over yet because when I reopened the file the damn
"track changes" was reactivated - after I had unchecked all of the boxes
before saving it.

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

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[robor]

"Sadly, both of these problems were caused by user error. It's not a bug:
this mechanism works perfectly. But it is one of the "power tools" built in
to Word for people working professionally building long and complex
documents. The user does have to learn how to use it."

Really? It's supposed to ignore user input when told to not link to previous?

Exactly what is the secret power tool reason that Word won't allow changes to section linking when the the "track changes" tool is enabled? I fail to see the logic in this.

If this isn't a bug then that means the programmers went out of their way to make Word difficult to use.

And by the way, a word processing program isn't supposed to be as complicated to use as flying a 747.

For what it's worth, I also happen to be a licensed pilot.

 

[John McGhie]

"Sadly, both of these problems were caused by user error. It's not a bug:
this mechanism works perfectly. But it is one of the "power tools" built in
to Word for people working professionally building long and complex
documents. The user does have to learn how to use it."

Really? It's supposed to ignore user input when told to not link to previous?

Exactly what is the secret power tool reason that Word won't allow changes to
section linking when the the "track changes" tool is enabled? I fail to see
the logic in this.

When a tracked change includes a deletion or change to a section break, Word
must suppress the operation of the section breaks until the tracked change
is resolved.

If it tried to do otherwise, Word would have to crash, because the
definitions in the section break are inconsistent. If it deleted the
section break instantly, you would not be able to reject the change.

So it chooses to do neither. That's by design.

If this isn't a bug then that means the programmers went out of their way to
make Word difficult to use.

No: The Application Designers designed a mechanism to resolve a readily
anticipated contention. Few users know document structure well enough to
understand section breaks. And only a tiny fraction of those are willing to
learn enough about their tool of trade to understand why you should not
track changes to them. So the designers had to insert a work-around

Once you understand that a section break contains around 1,200 of the
fundamental properties that cause a "file" to become a "document", I am sure
you will immediately see that you need to either avoid spanning them with a
tracked change; or accept that the section break behaviour will change when
the tracked change is resolved.

And by the way, a word processing program isn't supposed to be as complicated
to use as flying a 747.

Says who? It depends on what you're trying to do. A "school project" will
indeed not provide you with much of an intellectual challenge. But
professional content creation for sale to customers, while not quite as
complex as flying a 747, is a good deal more complex than punching holes in
the sky with a clapped-out Seneca

If this was "easy", your customers would not need you

Cheers

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

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[robor]

OK John,

Point well made re the track changes issue. Now I understand the problem. But you must admit this is really getting down in the grass.

"Clapped out?" I haven't heard that term since I worked on the Australian National Electricity Market design in 1995.

My old flying club owned a clapped out Seneca. Not much fun to fly. Too heavy on the controls, especially the rudder.

 

[mdh]

Interesting tidbit to file away on the tracked changes. Any advice
for tracing changes (or comparing document) for a table-intensive
document?

Also, any insight on why the track changes came back on in his
document after he thought he saved it with track changes turned off?

Matt

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Matt:

There is another round of fixes to the Tracked Changes mechanism to come.

Word 2008 inherited the fixes done in Word 2002 (and the fixes to the fixes
made in Word 2003...) so the performance and stability of Tracked Changes is
a lot better than it was.

But the fixes to the fixes to the fixes that make the thing work properly in
tables did not appear until Word 2007, and thus landed to late for inclusion
in Word 2008.

Hopefully we will get them in 2010...

In the meantime, If you must track changes in a table-intensive document,
work with Track Changes turned OFF. There's a high possibility that change
tracking will corrupt the tables, so just don't use it.

When you have finished editing, save both the new and the old document to
"Text Only" format, and insert the tracking using Compare Documents. This
will give you character-level accuracy in the tracking of changes, without
breaking any tables.

If our original poster is dealing with a document that someone has "Locked
for Tracked Changes" in Word 2007, he may be unable to turn change tracking
off in Mac Word, even if it looks like he has.

The "Lock Document" function is part of the Information Rights Management
module that we didn't get either, on the Mac. So Mac Word can't always
correctly interpret or change the states that can be set, and because it
doesn't know about IRM, it can't tell you why...

Cheers

Interesting tidbit to file away on the tracked changes. Any advice
for tracing changes (or comparing document) for a table-intensive
document?

Also, any insight on why the track changes came back on in his
document after he thought he saved it with track changes turned off?

Matt

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

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

I understand that "any" Seneca owned by a flying club is "required" to be
clapped out I mean, how will these trainee commercial pilots ever learn
anything during their "hour building" if the aircraft is not falling to bits
around them

Our National Electricity Marketing arrangements continue to lurch from
crisis to crisis.

We once had a set of publicly-owned generating companies, publicly-owned
distribution networks, and publicly-owned retailers. All operating with
almost 100 per cent reliability to deliver cheap electricity because there
was no "profit" sucking money out of the system.

So our ex-government had the bright idea of selling it all to Private
Equity, which promptly asset-stripped it, cancelled the maintenance, sacked
all the staff who knew how, then doubled the price of electricity (at half
the reliability...)

Those who do not understand this should watch "The smartest guys in the
room". We have a mini version of it... {Sigh}

Cheers

OK John,

Point well made re the track changes issue. Now I understand the problem. But
you must admit this is really getting down in the grass.

"Clapped out?" I haven't heard that term since I worked on the Australian
National Electricity Market design in 1995.

My old flying club owned a clapped out Seneca. Not much fun to fly. Too heavy
on the controls, especially the rudder.

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

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]