Word 04: formatting issues

[Shawn]

I am writing a dissertation using Word 04, and the program is starting
to get on my nerves. These are the problems I am experiencing:

1. When I highlight a block of text (e.g. a quote) and change the line
spacing from double to single, Word changes the WHOLE document, not
just the block that I selected. Does similar things for block indents
and centering selected sections of text, as well. If I press Command-Z
to undo, it undoes the action, leaving only what I wanted changed in
the first place. OK, I guess. However...

2. After undoing the action to "fix" the document, there are extra
lines in my headers, which pushes the text down and leaves a couple of
inches or more of blank space at the top of each page. Going and
deleting the extra lines from the header every time I have to change
spacing for a block quote, center a figure, or anything else is getting
very annoying.

I think that this may be caused by some kind of invisible formatting
marker that is mixed up at some place in the document. At the outset of
my project, I was cutting and pasting a lot of notes, and something may
have been transferred into my document that I am now working with that
is causing the issues. Other documents that I work with (for example,
my journal or other chapters of my work) do not experience this
problem.

Any suggestions on how to sort this out? Much thanks in advance.

Shawn

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Shawn,
I remember the same problem happening to me. Maybe you could give us a few
more details: are you using a specific template? And are you using styles?
If so, is one of these styles set to update automatically? I didn't know it
back then when I was experiencing the problem, but I think that switching
off the automatic update might be the solution.
To verify this, check the name of the style of your paragraph before you
apply the new line spacing, and then have a look at the style itself in the
Format>Style menu. Select the appropriate style, then click on Modify. See
if the "Automatically update" box is checked in thee window that shows up.
If it is, uncheck it and try applying the new line spacing after closing all
the menus. If the "autmatically update" is the culprit, then you shouldn't
be experiencing this problem anymore.
Let me know if it worked.

Michel

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Shawn-

I think Michel is correct re Styles being involved. That would also explain
the behavior of the Headers if the same styles are applied there. (These are
Headers, not just body text typed at the top of each page, right?)

Another thought came to mind when reading your post, just so there is no
conflict there, is that most of the formatting you referred to is Paragraph
formatting. Center alignment & indents will apply to entire paras and don't
require selecting any text unless you want to format multiple paras at the
same time. If concerned about the pasted material, make sure to turn on the
Show/Hide ¶ button to reveal the hidden symbols. Depending on what you
copied from you may have line breaks rather than para breaks that is
contributing to the problem.

HTH |:>)

Hi Shawn,
I remember the same problem happening to me. Maybe you could give us a few
more details: are you using a specific template? And are you using styles?
If so, is one of these styles set to update automatically? I didn't know it
back then when I was experiencing the problem, but I think that switching
off the automatic update might be the solution.
To verify this, check the name of the style of your paragraph before you
apply the new line spacing, and then have a look at the style itself in the
Format>Style menu. Select the appropriate style, then click on Modify. See
if the "Automatically update" box is checked in thee window that shows up.
If it is, uncheck it and try applying the new line spacing after closing all
the menus. If the "autmatically update" is the culprit, then you shouldn't
be experiencing this problem anymore.
Let me know if it worked.

Michel

-- (e-mail address removed)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'd say having Automatically Update set is almost guaranteed to be the
problem...and note that the Header style is based on Normal by
default--assuming the poster is typing in Normal, as is the default, that
would account for both the body text and the headers changing.

(to the original poster) What the "automatically update" checkbox does is
tell Word that every time you make a change to text formatted in Normal
style, you want Word to redefine the Normal style to include that change.
That's why it double-spaces everything. (You might need to check "add to
template" at the same time as you uncheck "automatically update, I forget.
What "add to template" does is transfer the changes you make in your
documents to the Normal template, which is used to generate new blank
documents).

If you are writing a dissertation in Word, you should learn about styles, if
you don't already know, as it's probably a good idea to set up a custom
template and some custom styles to help format the dissertation. For
instance, you can design a custom style BlockQuotation and apply it with
just one click or key command, instead of having to indent, then
single-space. Start at this site:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/
And read the four links under Styles in Microsoft Word, in the center of the
page.

Then you might also be interested in these links, which I found quite useful
when writing my dissertation:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NumberingFrontMatter.htm

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/toc/CreateATOC.html


DM