Vertical Alignment in Table Cells

[wideEyedPupil]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

Cannot find the control method for Vertical justification of text in a table cell. ie. Top, Centre, Bottom, Justified are usual options. Help doc is completely drawing blanks on search token "Vertical | Alignment" which is usual for Word anyhow (see rant)...

Any advise muchly appreciated in advance : )

<Rant>
I have queried about 5 issues today in the Word Help search field using various relevant words/descriptions and got NO relevant hits on any of the problems. But tons of irrelevant ones. Years ago Word help actually was usable. This is complete rubbish now. I can't believe how crappy the Help implementation is. I mean no hit for "Show Invisibles" or even "Show" searching for what (I now know through luck of seeing the toolbar button) which Word calls "nonprinting characters". You think "show" would give a hit or "show invisibles" which is what DTP software calls them (and the show invisibles idea started with DTP not word). So many more examples. I also hate the way Word has implimented text highlighting esp the way if you drag left it will grab characters to right of cursor as well — I mean WTF?? I could go on but I guess I'm spoiled used to Professional software made by employees that actually care.
</rant>

 

[wideEyedPupil]

Oh and when I opened the .doc in Pages I found the Vertical align tool button in less than three seconds without even using help. Now that's some software than has a decent GUI and a philosophy that is from 21C.

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello there,

Cannot find the control method for Vertical justification of text in a table
cell. ie. Top, Centre, Bottom, Justified are usual options.

There are at least two ways to do this:

1) You can do a right-click (Control+click) on the cell,
select Cell Alignment and choose the option
you want for aligning the text within the
cell. Select multiple cells to do the same thing
for a range of cells.

2) On the Formatting Palette, in the Table section
you'll see the Align button. Use this button to
select the alignment of text there.

I'm not familiar with how Pages does it, but Word 2008's
method seems intuitive enough to me.
If you want a custom button on a toolbar of your choice
to do the same thing, you can easily assign the command
whichever toolbar you prefer.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello again - I caught one more of your
questions here that I may be able to answer.

I also hate the way Word has implimented text highlighting esp the way if you
drag left it will grab characters to right of cursor as well — I mean WTF?? I
could go on but I guess I'm spoiled used to Professional software made by
employees that actually care.

This behavior can be changed in the Word -
Preferences - Edit dialog, "When selecting, automatically
select entire word" option. Uncheck the box and click OK.
The behavior should change to the way you prefer.

I'd also definitely agree that Word's help (even the
so-called "online help") contents leave much to be
desired. There is a feedback form at the bottom
of the help contents if you are in online mode -
be sure to send Microsoft feedback if you feel
that the contents are insufficient or that they
are not answering your question. I've done it
quite a few times, and am hoping (can only hope!)
that the Mac BU will take user feedback into account
when they release Word 2011 (?) next winter.

BTW, you mentioned DTP software. Word is definitely
not in the league of professional DTP software like
InDesign or QuarkXpress - it's more catered towards
home and business users who just need to crank out
basic documentation like letters, reports, simple
brochures and newsletters and so on.
There are many things in Word that you will find lacking
if you expect it to be in the league of the big boys.
It simply isn't designed for serious desktop publishing
and never was.

Also, keep in mind that this is a peer-to-peer user
forum and that Microsoft is probably not monitoring
the forum contents, so your best bet if you want to
elicit change is the user feedback form accessed
through the Word Help menu. The Mac BU's system of collecting
and processing user feedback is far from transparent
and can be frustrating, but it's pretty much all we have.

Jeff