What happened to context-sensitive Help in Word 2007?

[GMc]

If you clicked a Help (?) button in a Word dialog box in 2003 (& earlier),
you would get help for that dialog box, including a listing of all the
options, etc. in the dialog box and what they were for/how to use, etc. In
2007, many (most) times, clicking the Help button takes you to a generic
"Browse Word Help" page. Searching for the name of the dialog box or any
specific option name most often yields a ludicrous list of topics.

Is this a bug in 2007, or is Microsoft turning away from context sensitive
help?

 

[Stefan Blom]

Indeed, context sensitive help seems to be getting worse with each new
version of Word. It is also increasingly difficult to locate the relevant
help topics when you look for assistance on a particular feature.

 

[Beth Melton]

It should work. Those that don't aren't finished yet. One of the "good
things" about online Help is the content can be updated at any time. This
includes the content that is displayed when you use a Help button (?) or
press F1 when instructed to do so for more information in a ScreenTip.

You noted that most of them take you to the general Help and not the
specific content. Those I just took a look at, Word Options, Font,
Paragraph, Footnotes, Themes, and SmartArt appear to be functioning
correctly. Which ones are not working?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[GMc]

Beth,
Thanks for the response. This is a long reply, so be forewarned.

You mention that ? works in the Font dialog box. When I am puzzled about
something in a dialog box, it's a specific option. I liked the prev. Word
help, in which all dialog box items were listed with info about ea. item. The
? in the Font dialog now offers user actions, e.g. "Apply or remove
highlighting" (the first topic - you can't even apply highlighting from the
Font dialog box, can you?).

The fourth item in that list is "Font," which in fact, offers a discussion
of the options in the Font dialog box. It starts with a discussion of Latin
text options. Hmmm... is that the most prevalent kind of text out there?
(Guess it might be. ) But the Help is there - it's just that I, the user, had
to hunt for it and within it. Not as it used to be.

Another example of yours is the Paragraph Help button. When I click that I
get two suggestions, "DRAFT: Adjust the spaces between lines or paragraphs,"
and "Indent paragraphs." If I have a question about, say, what the Mirror
Indents does, I have to experiment. I'd like that list of items/explanations
in the Help for the dialog box. (Mirror is not covered in the "Indent
paragraphs" topic, by the way.)

Now, as to the specific areas that prompted me to post this comment - it
took me (figuratively speaking) forever to find the Links dialog box in Word
2007. Being stuck in the Prepare menu was not exactly intuitive. Also the
fact that items in the Prepare menu are not all visible (you must click the
little down arrow) was not intuitive. But that is off topic. Once I found it,
I had a question about the Lock option for linked items. Clicking ? took me
to the "Browse Word Help" page in the Help. I also had a question about
making linked items relative, but... ( a search for "relative links" (no
quotes) in the Help yielded "Get featured links from Office Online" and
"Family holiday newsletter" as the first two help topics, followed by three
topics on various "requests for genealogy records"...) (BTW, searching for
"relative links" (with quotes) yielded no results.)

I also had a question about the Mark Citation options. Pressing F1 (as
instructed by the Mark Citation tooltip) yielded the "Browse for Word Help"
page. Guess it's a new feature and the Help's not finished, as you mentioned.
But clicking ? in the Table of Authorities tab/dialog box (not a new feature)
went to "Create a table of contents" topic, with no mention of authorities.

These experiences while trying to get up to speed with this new interface,
caused an audible "gr-r-r-r" and thus my post.

 

[Beth Melton]

Thank for the explanation, I understand where you are coming from
completely.

I do know Help isn't quite finished yet, there's a LOT of content that is
still missing, and not too long ago Help accessed from the dialog boxes
resulted in what you found when you tried Help in the Create Source dialog
box so it does appear they are making progress.

As for finding commands, here are two resources you might find helpful. One
is an Interactive Command Reference Guide you can use to navigate to a
command in the old UI and it will show you where the command is found in the
new UI:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

The second is a Ribbon mapping workbook for Word. It's an Excel workbook you
can download that contains the break out of each menu and command (the link
for the download is at the bottom of the page):
http://office.microsoft.com/client/helppreview.aspx?AssetID=HA100625841033&ns=WINWORD&lcid=1033

Note that both of these resources are available in Help under the What's New
section.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

It should work. Those that don't aren't finished yet. One of the "good
things" about online Help is the content can be updated at any time.

Indeed, this is good news. Personally, I tend to turn off the setting to
retrieve online help topics, though, which means I'm unlikely to see any
updates unless I'm explicitly looking for them at
http://office.microsoft.com.

However, the problem is that even help topics that have been identical, or
almost identical, for years seem to be missing. I'm thinking of the "Field
codes: TOC (Table of Contents) field" topic, which I have been unable to
locate in Word 2007 Help. Fortunately, if I need to refresh my memory,
there are other resources. I find the Field Options dialog box most useful
(but Word 2003 Help online can also be used).

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

This
includes the content that is displayed when you use a Help button (?) or
press F1 when instructed to do so for more information in a ScreenTip.

You noted that most of them take you to the general Help and not the
specific content. Those I just took a look at, Word Options, Font,
Paragraph, Footnotes, Themes, and SmartArt appear to be functioning
correctly. Which ones are not working?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That particular Help topic is hard to find even in Word 2003. If you type
"Field codes: TOC (Table of Contents) field" into the "Type a question for
help" box, that topic is the third of three hits (they're in alphabetical
order). If you type "TOC field," it's the fifth in a long list.

in message

It should work. Those that don't aren't finished yet. One of the "good
things" about online Help is the content can be updated at any time.

Indeed, this is good news. Personally, I tend to turn off the setting to
retrieve online help topics, though, which means I'm unlikely to see any
updates unless I'm explicitly looking for them at
http://office.microsoft.com.

However, the problem is that even help topics that have been identical, or
almost identical, for years seem to be missing. I'm thinking of the "Field
codes: TOC (Table of Contents) field" topic, which I have been unable to
locate in Word 2007 Help. Fortunately, if I need to refresh my memory,
there are other resources. I find the Field Options dialog box most useful
(but Word 2003 Help online can also be used).

 

[Stefan Blom]

Well, in Word 2007 Help I am unable to see the topic at all when searching
for it. The same is true for the online version at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/FX100649251033.aspx.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

How very inconvenient! That's one of the topics I refer to frequently.

 

[GMc]

Beth,
I am remiss in not thanking you sooner for the excellent info on moving to
Word 2007. I've passed your tips on to everyone in my dept. Thanks again for
pointing us to the spreadsheet and interactive ref. guide. They are
lifesavers!

 

[Beth Melton]

You're welcome. I'm glad you found them useful.

Another useful resource (still in the stages of completion) is the training
found on the Help and How-To page:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR100654561033.aspx

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Beth Melton]

All I know about this is that Help is still incomplete.

I'm not sure if you noted this but you can easily switch between Online and
Offline Help in the Help UI. It's in the bottom right corner. You'll see
Offline or Connected. If you first search Offline Help and want to see if
there are updates for your search you can click the Offline/Connected button
and then click "Show content from Office Online" to use Online Help.

So for example, you can set your default to Offline Help but switch to
Online if desired. It's great when you are viewing a Help page or Search
results. When you make the switch the content automatically changes
accordingly and you can quickly see if any updates have been made.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Stefan Blom]

I'm not sure if you noted this but you can easily switch between Online

and Offline Help in the Help UI. It's in the bottom right corner. You'll
see Offline or Connected.

No, I hadn't noticed. Thank you.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

All I know about this is that Help is still incomplete.

I'm not sure if you noted this but you can easily switch between Online
and Offline Help in the Help UI. It's in the bottom right corner. You'll
see Offline or Connected. If you first search Offline Help and want to see
if there are updates for your search you can click the Offline/Connected
button and then click "Show content from Office Online" to use Online
Help.

So for example, you can set your default to Offline Help but switch to
Online if desired. It's great when you are viewing a Help page or Search
results. When you make the switch the content automatically changes
accordingly and you can quickly see if any updates have been made.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Beth Melton]

No, I hadn't noticed. Thank you.

You're welcome. Actually, the MVPs are who to thank. This was on our Help
Wish List that we presented to MS panel shortly after Office 2003 was
released and they made the switch to Online Help.

As a matter of fact, a lot of our wishes were implemented.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Stefan Blom]

You're welcome. Actually, the MVPs are who to thank. This was on our Help
Wish List that we presented to MS panel shortly after Office 2003 was
released and they made the switch to Online Help.

As a matter of fact, a lot of our wishes were implemented.

That is good news. For the next release, we'll see the effects of the
*current* wish list.

 

[LongtimeUser]

I've just migrated from Office 97 on Windows 2000 to Office 2007 on Vista.
Although I've found some nice things on Vista (eg searching), I have to say
I'm appauled at the state of Help, especially in Office, and the loss of most
context sensitive help. (Beth, in Word, paragraph dialogue box help only
works on the first tab, and then only about 'spacing' and 'indenting' topics,
not a proper intro to the function as a whole). The whole Office 2007 help
thing looks like it only began development AFTER the release of the product
suite, and then has been so thinly resourced, you are STILL going backwards
today.

Please, Microsoft, commit to your users (millions out there who are wasting
vast amounts of time working out how to do basic things) and implement the
following help infrastructure, AND have the content ready BEFORE you release
the product! Don't you know you can actually contribute to World Peace?!?

I learned most of what I know about Microsoft applications from Help, and I
know that if it worked as reliably and had as much care in its organisation
as it used to, then it would be a more attractive first-port-of-call for
users instead of bothering colleagues and help-desks everywhere.

BACK TO BASICS - A Clearer Vision

* Briing back control-sensitive help (content fully local to machine) via
little "?" buttons in proximity to each control and/or right-click shortcut
menus (I'll call this 'level-1') - implemented as fast, small tooltip text
with potential for hyperlinks to the help infrastructure

* Bring back dialogue box sensitive help, to the Tab level (content fully
local to machine) via F1 AND a "Help" button in each box (I'll call this
'level-2') - implemented in a separate window that can access the rest of the
help infrastructure.

* Help from the Application help button on the Application ribbon/toolbar:
the help infrastructure window opens with TOC (content fully local to
machine) and general topics list for that application visible, and can access
the rest of the help infrastructure (I'll call this 'level-3').

* Help Infrastructure:
- Help window layout to provide for:
+ application TOC (turn on/off/alternate space with keyword index)
+ applicatioin keyword index (sorted list) with each term hyperlinked
(turn on/off/alternate space with TOC)
+ Search box and options (always visible)
+ Search results list area can be kept separate from content viewing
area (or in the same space, by option)
+ Plenty of useful hypertext cross-referencing in the help content area
+ Link drop-down tool to 'search for related topics' that is populated,
by currently displayd topic, with significant keywords
+ Place to comment on help, sends back to Microsoft
+ Useful Microsoft on-line support links
+ home, printer, back/forwards, stop, refresh, font, keep-on-top, and
any other browser gismos that are expected
- The help window to offer TOC, and when opened via 'level 2' call, shows
the TOC open at the topic, as well as the topic content.
- Dialogue/Tab context sensitive help (level-2) to always present a
single, well presented topic that offers conceptual info on feature as well
as duplicating level-1 type help on each control; never to simply return a
search results list.
- Search results to be returned first from local machine, there should be
no delay as the screen fills up waiting for on-line content. As on-line
articles are found, these to arrive later in list, and show in a different
colour so the user knows which articles would be slow, and can look at local
topics first, to save time.
- Local help content to be pre-indexed so that the new, fast Vista search
capabilities apply
- Natural language search be an option to turn on/off, and then it will
wait for you to type the whole phrase and click 'search' before searching
- If MS want to have an area reserved for their random tips or 'marketing'
then this should be able to be turned off - help should only help the user
and not be used to distract the user!
- We appreciate the up-to-dateness of on-line content, and the
speed/accessibility of off-line content. There is no reason why off-line
content can't be kept fairly up-to-date, as more people use the Microsoft
automatic updates, and off-line help content can be included in updates.
- Modular design of off-line content, to facilitate automatic updating.
- Microsoft to improve resourcing of Help development. Needs people with
librarian skills, especially with thesaurus authorship skills.

I now recommend to my acquaintences who inquire about upgrading their
end-user technology that Microsoft's products are becoming problematic and
harder to use, and to get something else if they feel comfortable enough to.
I will probably continue to do so until I stop seeing things going backwards.

 

[debbie]

Thank you!

Word 2007 is the most confusing set up I've ever seen. The ribbon sucks and
I ican't seem to put together a usable toobar.
What do you do for help if you are not on line? There are places I have to
work where there is no WiFi and no way to hook into the web.

I regret getting this version. Anyone have any ideas re: help or custom
toolbars? (also the mini toolbar they give has icons so small, I can't figure
out what they are and there is apparently no way to increase their size)

Help!

Debbie

 

[Graham Mayor]

See http://ribboncustomizer.com/
and
http://www.gmayor.com/Toolbars_in_word_2007.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Beth Melton]

I can imagine how Help appears to you if you switched from Office 97 to
Office 2007. Trust me, you'd be appalled at the state of Help if you
upgraded from Office 97 to Office 2000. Even worse if you jumped from Office
97 to Office 2003. Believe it or not, they fixed Help in Office 2007. It was
worse in previous versions. If I'm not mistaken, Office 97 was the last of
its kind when it came to great context-sensitive Help. :-(

Another item you might find amazing is many of us are thrilled with the
changes they made in Help for Office 2007. (Keep in mind after 97 Help
started to go down hill). We presented a large "wish list" to Microsoft
(we=MVPs) and MS actually did take a LOT of our feedback into consideration
in the 2007 version.


You've got a great wish list. To cover a few of them:

- What you are calling "level 1", the context-sensitive Help tool
(Shift+F1 - the first item in your list), is likely to never be implemented
again in most of the Office applications. There are two reasons behind this,
one, it can't be integrated with the Online Help functionality and updated
when needed. Two, it uses a functionality they migrated away from a few
versions ago. Instead, the ? Help tool will be tied to displaying Help pages
instead of a tool tip. Now, some of this functionality has been added back
in the Enhanced Screen Tips but that's currently limited to the commands on
the Ribbon.

-What you are called "level 2", the ? in the dialog boxes, this should
currently be available in all dialog boxes. (They actually took this away
from the majority of dialog boxes prior to 2007). If there are dialog boxes
with a missing ? Help tool then I'd consider that a bug. (Note that the
Paragraph dialog box you noted, I suspect content will be added if viewing
the Line and Page Break options will come at some point. As noted before,
I've noticed they actually are updating this type of content and it's not
finished. (Which, of course, the fact that a lot of content is missing is a
problem.)

- There is a TOC available. If when you open Help, you click the closed
purple book on the Help toolbar it will open the TOC. Once opened it will
remain open for subsequent visits to Help.

As for the other items, I do see a lot of what you want is to add the same
functionality as we had in Office 97. Sadly, I suspect if this were going to
happen then we'd have seen those changes by now.) There are others that I
think would be great improvements. If you don't mind, I'm going to swipe
those items and use them as feedback the next opportunity I get.


Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/