W07: How to turn table gridlines on or off _without_ there being atable present ...

[StargateFanNotAtHome]

The ribbon is really a pain in the .... I tried very briefly to
explain to a colleague how to turn gridlines on. He really needs this
and I'd like to let him know how gridlines would help with the grief
he has re certain portions of text in some templates he is required to
use regularly. But I'm not near him to go and do this for him. I
need to find an easier way to explain by phone or email.

I haven't been able to figure out how to turn them on when there isn't
a table present. See, with most users, their first response is,
'well, how can I look for tables if I can't see them'? And if you
can't see the tables to put your cursor is so that the dang ribbon
changes and _then_ shows option to turn them on ... well, sheesh ...
We can figure out; we powers users know tricks to get around 2007's
stupidities.

In Word 2003, whether or not tables are present, you can turn them on
or off very easily; the option is there for all the world to see:

TABLE > SHOW GRIDLINES
or
TABLE > HIDE GRIDLINES
depending on what the case might be.

What's the backdoor or alternate way without going the vb route in
07? The "usual" way that is all that google is bringing up is
atrocious - find a table in Word 2007 (which you can't see if the
gridlines are off), put your cursor somewhere inside it, then find the
new Table Tools option that only then comes up, and _then_ click on
LAYOUT and _then_ click on VIEW GRIDLINES under the first section
labelled TABLE???!! <arggghhhh>

Thanks.

 

[Pamelia Caswell via OfficeKB.com]

I'm glad you wrote in about this. Early on, I missed being able to togggle
table gridlines without being in a table too, but got used to it. Your
question has resulted in a new icon on my QAT: View table gridlines. It's
in the all commands list.

Pam

 

[Jay Freedman]

The QAT button is, of course, the best answer. For completeness,
though, you can find a table even if you can't see it. Click the
little circle between the double up/down arrows at the bottom of the
vertical scrollbar, and choose to browse by tables.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Terry Farrell]

I never work without the Show Text Boundaries enabled. This options shows
table gridlines by default.

I never understood how users manage to use Word with any success without
being able to see boundaries and non-printing characters.

 

[StargateFan]

I never work without the Show Text Boundaries enabled. This options shows
table gridlines by default.

I never understood how users manage to use Word with any success without
being able to see boundaries and non-printing characters.

Thank you, that is definitely the easiest answer. Engineers and
Microsoft just don't understand what it's like to try to explain
things to the average user. Compared to a lot of people on these ngs,
I'm the one with less knowledge, but out in the real world, I'm the
wiz wherever I work. The QAT is also not an answer. Do you know how
blank people's gazes get when you try to explain these types of
things? The QAT is for advanced users. And trying to walk someone
through setting one up via email or phone is just so a no-go! I've
given up doing so in person never mind remotely! I didn't even
mention it in this thread because it's a very impractical solution for
the most part. Great for us power users but pretty useless for the
average one. Worse than trying to walk them through turning on table
gridlines when they can't see tables in the first place!

I tell you, dumb dumb dumb. These are the types of things that are so
annoying in Office 2007!

Thanks. I didn't even think of turning on marks and symbols. I'll
give that a try. That's in the HOME button, if memory serves, and
it's present all the time. This I can use if it works. I can walk
him through turning that on, then when he can see the tables and
therefore can cursor into one of them, then I can tell him how to turn
on table gridlines, then turn off showing marks (he definitely won't
like that on all the time). The changes to some templates I made will
make his life easier esp. if he can see the tables.

Thanks Terry! Best solution though it's still so dumb that we're
having to go through hoops all the time. Thank god I've got my own
workarounds esp. via an add-in. Still, I never had to do so much
clicking even in the early days of Office since I developed my own
Normal.dot, etc., pretty early on that I carried around with me. This
contract is ending and I'll have seen the last of 07 for a while.
Never thought I would feel glad that our government takes so long in
switching OS's or Office suites! Most of my work contracts are with
govt departments so I'm due for a rest from the ugliness that is 07.
Even lost my Excel commandbars for crying out loud! I was still
getting contracts on Windows 2000 and Office 2000 until recently.
Hopefully my next one will be on Office 2003! <g> A bit of a
reprieve for a while. 07 is so damned slow with that ribbon even with
the QAT. Only one little row of so-called customization but I can't
even put my own icons there or anything. Oh, I'm sure if I learn some
sort of fancy coding I'd be able to do it but nothing beats the
easiness of what we had up until 07. Yech!

Thanks much. Really appreciate it. D

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Same for me, although I often work in Normal/Draft view, in which text
boundaries are not displayed, so I have table gridlines on all the time,
too.

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

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, "text boundaries" is buried in Word Options, not toggled by the Show All
command, though at least that will cause the end-of-cell markers to be
displayed. As for adding things to the QAT, how hard can it be to
right-click on a button or menu item and choose Add to QAT?

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

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In Word 2007, the text boundaries check box is at Office Button | Word
Options | Advanced: Show document content. I am still unable to figure out
how some items made it onto the Display tab, and these did not. The content
of the Display tab doesn't even fill the Word Options window (even though
they included "Printing options" that have nothing to do with display).
Surely they could have added the "Show document content" options below the
existing ones?

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

 

[StargateFan]

No, "text boundaries" is buried in Word Options, not toggled by the Show All
command, though at least that will cause the end-of-cell markers to be
displayed. As for adding things to the QAT, how hard can it be to
right-click on a button or menu item and choose Add to QAT?

Yes, that didn't work, I found out. I'll have to look at the Word
Options and try to figure out where this "text boundaries" thingie is.

How can you ask that question? Don't you deal with regular users
every day? Suspect, if you do!! No-one wants to take the time to
figure things out and the very instant something smacks of extra
effort, they don't want to do it. Are you not an MVP who deals with
the public on a regular basis? Geez, you should be used to things like
this by now.

We power users always go the extra mile and the QAT is the pits esp.
with the superior customizations we could do before but it's easy for
us and then you just copy the .QAT files and carry them with you.
Regular users do not care to do anything like this ... which is why I
guess they never move beyond the level they're at ... but you can't
even lead a horse to water, oftentimes, let alone make drink ...

 

[StargateFan]

Same for me, although I often work in Normal/Draft view, in which text
boundaries are not displayed, so I have table gridlines on all the time,
too.

Likewise. Since Word is such a difficult program in many ways, for
years I've gotten around its limitations with tables so showing table
gridlines is one of the first thing I do when going onto someone
else's system to help them out. It's a default that in my own
normal.dot that seems to always have worked no matter the upgrade.
Believe it even kept gridlines on when I used it for first time in
Word 2007.

 

[Stefan Blom]

I must say that it was easier to understand the logic of the Options dialog
box in Word 97-2003.

Categories such as "Popular" (with whom?) and "Advanced" (to whom?) in the
Word Options dialog box really don't help.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I find Popular especially ironic. The Developer tab is evidently considered
an "advanced" tool, so it isn't displayed by default. But instead of the
check box to display it being on the Advanced tab of Tools | Options, it's
on the Popular tab. A good thing, too, but still...

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

 

[Stefan Blom]

Indeed. I guess the Developer tab is popular, although it is advanced.

By the way, I'm not sure I would call all of the commands on the Developer
tab advanced.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, much of what is on the Developer tab is actually in quite frequent
demand, which makes you wonder why it isn't just displayed by default.

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