Word 08 odd document stuff

[whitman]

In Office 2008, when I have a document open in Word and then click elsewhere, say on the desktop, to do something else, when I want to get back into the Word doc, I can only activate it by clicking ON THE TITLE BAR. Clicking elsewhere in the doc, as usual in other programs and indeed Word 04, does not activate it.

Also, whenever I click on the Word logo in the dock or on the desktop to reopen Word and there's no doc open in Word, it insists on always opening a new doc, which is not what you always want. Again, 04 did not do this.

No obvious way of sorting these probs out in Prefs or elsewhere. Anyone else find this and have a solution?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

In Office 2008, when I have a document open in Word and then click elsewhere,
say on the desktop, to do something else, when I want to get back into the
Word doc, I can only activate it by clicking ON THE TITLE BAR. Clicking
elsewhere in the doc, as usual in other programs and indeed Word 04, does not
activate it. <br><br>Also, whenever I click on the Word logo in the dock or
on the desktop to reopen Word and there's no doc open in Word, it insists on
always opening a new doc, which is not what you always want. Again, 04 did
not do this. <br><br>No obvious way of sorting these probs out in Prefs or
elsewhere. Anyone else find this and have a solution?

Can't help with the focus - mine always returns to the document...

When no document is open, using the application switcher shortcut
(CMD-Tab) or, if Word is *hidden*, selecting "Show" from the pop-up menu
that appears when you click and HOLD on the Word icon in the Dock,
don't open a new doc.

 

[John McGhie]

That's a "sheets" issue. The Word "application" has multiple different
"pieces" (sheets) on the screen, and somehow, these are getting disconnected
from the application.

It may be a missing update for OS X, or it could be a Haxie interfering with
the window management.

Are you running any haxies?

Cheers

In Office 2008, when I have a document open in Word and then click elsewhere,
say on the desktop, to do something else, when I want to get back into the
Word doc, I can only activate it by clicking ON THE TITLE BAR. Clicking
elsewhere in the doc, as usual in other programs and indeed Word 04, does not
activate it.

Also, whenever I click on the Word logo in the dock or on the desktop to
reopen Word and there's no doc open in Word, it insists on always opening a
new doc, which is not what you always want. Again, 04 did not do this.

No obvious way of sorting these probs out in Prefs or elsewhere. Anyone else
find this and have a solution?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[whitman]

Thanks JE and John.

Actually, the first problem resolved itself on a reboot of Word. Sorry to have wasted your time on that.

The second remains. JE, I don't want to use the method you mention to switch apps, as it's unfamiliar and unnatural to me. I usually use Dragthing to switch apps (I don't like Apple's dock). I'm kind of a mouse man. Any suggestions?

John, I've no idea what a haxie is, but it don't sound nice.

 

[aliquis]

I have a variation on the first problem. If a document is open but not active it won't become active if you click in the scroll bar on the right. You have to click further into the document. This seems rather odd behaviour. Anyone else got this?

On the second point about opening new documents, Pages does exactly the same and is therefore a constant source of irritation, so I was rather dismayed to find that Word 2008 seems to have copied it. Word 2004 did this on opening, but when you then picked a Recent document, the new document disappeared. Word 2008 behaves the same way on opening, but when you just activate and then pick a Recent doc, the the new document stays too. Very annoying. Ideally there should be a preference (like on web browsers) to set behaviour on opening or activation.

Not sure which problem the haxie suggestion was aimed at, but these both occur with no haxies.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi JE,

When I click and hold on the Word icon in the dock, I see a "Show in Finder"
option (which opens a Finder window) but no "Show". Same thing with either
right or left-click-hold. What am I missing?

Beth

 

[JE McGimpsey]

When I click and hold on the Word icon in the dock, I see a "Show in Finder"
option (which opens a Finder window) but no "Show". Same thing with either
right or left-click-hold. What am I missing?

"Show" appears in the contextual popup menu when Word is *hidden* (Word
menu/Hide Word, or system keyboard shortcut CMD-H) in the same place
"Hide" does when Word is not hidden.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

"Show" appears in the contextual popup menu when Word is *hidden* (Word
menu/Hide Word, or system keyboard shortcut CMD-H) in the same place
"Hide" does when Word is not hidden.

Oh! Didn't realize that's what you mean by "hidden".

Thanks,

Beth

 

[John McGhie]

"Dragthing" is a Haxie, and could well be the source of your problems

A "haxie" is any application that attempts to come between the system and
the other applications and change the way the system behaves to those
applications.

In a modern computer system, "everything" depends on "everything else".
Applications make a long series of complex assumptions as to how OS X is
going to behave, and they make requests of it depending on these
assumptions.

If a haxie comes between them and the system and changes the way the system
appears to behave, the application can get very confused

Cheers

Thanks JE and John.

Actually, the first problem resolved itself on a reboot of Word. Sorry to have
wasted your time on that.

The second remains. JE, I don't want to use the method you mention to switch
apps, as it's unfamiliar and unnatural to me. I usually use Dragthing to
switch apps (I don't like Apple's dock). I'm kind of a mouse man. Any
suggestions?

John, I've no idea what a haxie is, but it don't sound nice.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[JB]

I have a slightly similar problem - if Word is hidden and then 'shown' again, any open documents disappear. They're listed under the Window menu but can't be made to appear. I have to quit Word and start again...

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Exactly what version of Office and OS? Are you using Spaces?

 

[Guest]

Office 08 (Word 12.0.0) and Leopard 10.5.1. No Spaces

 

[JB]

I should add that I was using 'Spirited Away' to auto hide applications after a set amount of time. Not a Haxie so far as I know, just a simple app.
But getting it to exclude Word seems to have done the trick.

But... I just hid Word myself and the problem returned - no documents visible when I return to Word. When quitting Word in this state, any previously invisible documents with changes appear with a 'save changes' dialogue.

Doing all this without Spirited Away running makes no difference, so that is not the cause of the problem as far as I can tell.