White space in place of hidden text

[Elbert]

I'm writing a document that I'd like to use 3 ways:

1. I want to print it out as my lecture notes.
2. I want to print out a modified version to hand out to
students.
3. I want to project it on a screen in the classroom.

My lecture notes should contain everything in the
document.

The modified version should leave out parts that I choose
to leave out (expecially ink drawings, Visio drawings,
equations) and leave blank spaces (in place of the things
left out) where students can make notes.

The projected version should give me the option of
displaying the left-out parts or not.

I tried formatting the parts to be left out as hidden
text, which kinda works--I can print hidden text or not,
turn the hidden stuff on and off when projected with <ctrl
*> (although having all the formatting characters is
ugly). But if I say not to print hidden text, it removes
the white space when it prints, not leaving room for notes.

I tried telling it not to print drawings. Strangely, it
will leave white space in place of ink drawings, which is
what I want, but it prints the Visio drawings.

Can anybody think of a reasonable way to do what I need to
do?

TIA,

Elbert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As you've seen, Hidden text won't work because it doesn't take up space. The
same applies to omitting "Drawing objects," with the added disadvantage that
this covers only floating objects. Here's what will work:

1. For text, set the font color to White.

2. For graphics, set the brightness to 0%

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Elbert]

Thanks for the suggestions. I figure a typical course
might require 100-200 pages of handouts, with perhaps 2
hidden items per page, for around 200-400 things to be
hidden/revealed. Doing them one at a time is going to be
tedious at best, and the chances that I'll miss a few very
high. Any way to hide/reveal them all at once?

Thanks again,

Elbert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you have applied a specific style consistently to the text you want to
hide, then all you have to do to change the font of those paragraphs from
Automatic to White (or back) is to modify the style. The graphics are a bit
harder but much simpler if they're inline, because then you can use the
Browse by Graphic button to skip from one to the next. Once you've formatted
the first one as 0% (or 50%) brightness, you just browse to the next and
press F4 (repeat). I'm sure someone could run you up a nifty little macro to
accomplish this (and another to reverse the effect), but you might need to
ask about this in one of the Word VBA NGs.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Elbert]

Suzanne

Thanks again for the suggestions. I think I'm just going to use a one-cell table with a distinctive border, set initially to exactly 8 inches high, and with the cell content set to hidden (I'll record a macro to create the cell.) After I put whatever into it, it will be obvious to me that the cell is too big, so I'll grab the bottom and make it the right height. That will change the characteristics of the cell to "at least xxx inches." When I turn off display of hidden text, or print without hidden text, the cell will stay at xxx inches. The only risk is that I'll add some stuff to the cell, forget to manually adjust the bottom of it, then have too little white space. The other disadvantage is that when I hit <cntrl *> to display hidden text, what's projected will be kinda ugly. But I think this simple approach should be relatively trouble free

Thanks again
Elbert