Word 2004 for Mac-2 strange features?

[Basil_Silba]

Hi,
I have MS Office for Mac 2004 (student & teacher version). All is fine,
except for 2 curious features in Word.

I get by direct email (that is, not as attachments) newsletters
containing pictures and text. When I copy and paste the letter into a
new Word file, I notice 2 things:

1- In all paragraphs, the first line is moved one step towards right as
shown in the example bellow: (PS. after posting this, I noticed that I
cannot reproduce the effect visualy but maybe the explanation bellow
will be clear enough.)

This is the first line of text in the paragraph.
This is the second line of text.
This is the third line of text... and so on.

Because the first line of text is displaced towards right, the letter
"T" of the word "This" is positioned on top of the letter "h" of the
word "This" of the second line.

I do not know what causes this and have no idea what settings could
adjust the problem. This is an issue with long text because it involves
each and every paragraph.

2- The second problem concerns pictures. If the original newsletter
contains pictures, they will not be copied (none of them) but instead,
a link to that picture or product that it represents on the web pages
of the newsletter sender.

For comparison, with a PC with MS Office XP (that is 2002 version) and
the same mail account, the same letters copy to a new file of Word just
as they should. Based on that, I make the asumption that the culprit is
some setting in the Word for Mac. The question is, what
setting/settings?

On the Mac I use Mail as my mail client and on the PC Outlook Express.

Thanks for any and all the input.

Basil

 

[Clive Huggan]

I'll respond to Question 1, Basil.

A blank space before the first word of a paragraph is an unwanted
consequence of Word's "Smart cut and paste" feature.

Although "Smart cut and paste" greatly increases productivity by inserting
and removing spaces when dragging or pasting text, it will insert a space at
the beginning of a line after a pasted or dragged paragraph mark. Often
these redundant spaces aren't noticeable on the screen. Before printing,
it's best to go through the document in due course with a Replace command
(Find ^p[space], Replace with ^p).

Alternatively, "Smart cut and paste" can be turned on and off via Edit menu
-> Preferences -> Edit -> Use smart cut an paste.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

* A SUGGESTION ‹ WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
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============================================================

 

[Basil_Silba]

Hi Clive,
Many thanks for your answer. In my situation, though, it does not make
a diference whether the "Smart cut and paste" feature is turned on or
off. For whatever reasons, the above described problems still persist.
Could it be also something else? There are no problems of any kind
otherwise with the software or the hardware (PowerBook).
Again, many thanks to you and everyone who could provide more
suggestions or a solution.
Basil.

I'll respond to Question 1, Basil.

A blank space before the first word of a paragraph is an unwanted
consequence of Word's "Smart cut and paste" feature.

Although "Smart cut and paste" greatly increases productivity by inserting
and removing spaces when dragging or pasting text, it will insert a spaceat
the beginning of a line after a pasted or dragged paragraph mark. Often
these redundant spaces aren't noticeable on the screen. Before printing,
it's best to go through the document in due course with a Replace command
(Find ^p[space], Replace with ^p).

Alternatively, "Smart cut and paste" can be turned on and off via Edit menu
-> Preferences -> Edit -> Use smart cut an paste.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

* A SUGGESTION ‹ WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
and it gives you a blank page the first time, you may need to hit the
circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current page" -- a few times).

* AND ONE MORE ‹ AVOID SPAM: To avoid spam directed at contributors of
newsgroups, you can set up a "send-only" dummy e-mail account. Full
instructions are at http://www.entourage.mvps.org/tips/tip019.html

============================================================

Hi,
I have MS Office for Mac 2004 (student & teacher version). All is fine,
except for 2 curious features in Word.

I get by direct email (that is, not as attachments) newsletters
containing pictures and text. When I copy and paste the letter into a
new Word file, I notice 2 things:

1- In all paragraphs, the first line is moved one step towards right as
shown in the example bellow: (PS. after posting this, I noticed that I
cannot reproduce the effect visualy but maybe the explanation bellow
will be clear enough.)

This is the first line of text in the paragraph.
This is the second line of text.
This is the third line of text... and so on.

Because the first line of text is displaced towards right, the letter
"T" of the word "This" is positioned on top of the letter "h" of the
word "This" of the second line.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Interesting, Basil.

It has me stumped, and I can't replicate it in pasting some paragraphs from
Entourage into Word 2004 (either a simple Command-v paste or paste special
unformatted). Not that there is any significance in that -- I experience it
intermittently in other circumstances, seemingly identical to when the
phenomenon doesn't occur.

Maybe someone else can help. It might be beneficial if you could mention
what e-mail software you are using, whether the messages are plain text or
html, exactly what steps you take, etc.

But at least you have a cure! And if you have to do it often, you could
easily make a macro to do it for you.

Cheers,

Clive
=======

Hi Clive,
Many thanks for your answer. In my situation, though, it does not make
a diference whether the "Smart cut and paste" feature is turned on or
off. For whatever reasons, the above described problems still persist.
Could it be also something else? There are no problems of any kind
otherwise with the software or the hardware (PowerBook).
Again, many thanks to you and everyone who could provide more
suggestions or a solution.
Basil.

I'll respond to Question 1, Basil.

A blank space before the first word of a paragraph is an unwanted
consequence of Word's "Smart cut and paste" feature.

Although "Smart cut and paste" greatly increases productivity by inserting
and removing spaces when dragging or pasting text, it will insert a space at
the beginning of a line after a pasted or dragged paragraph mark. Often
these redundant spaces aren't noticeable on the screen. Before printing,
it's best to go through the document in due course with a Replace command
(Find ^p[space], Replace with ^p).

Alternatively, "Smart cut and paste" can be turned on and off via Edit menu
-> Preferences -> Edit -> Use smart cut an paste.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

* A SUGGESTION ‹ WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
and it gives you a blank page the first time, you may need to hit the
circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current page" -- a few times).

* AND ONE MORE ‹ AVOID SPAM: To avoid spam directed at contributors of
newsgroups, you can set up a "send-only" dummy e-mail account. Full
instructions are at http://www.entourage.mvps.org/tips/tip019.html

============================================================

Hi,
I have MS Office for Mac 2004 (student & teacher version). All is fine,
except for 2 curious features in Word.

I get by direct email (that is, not as attachments) newsletters
containing pictures and text. When I copy and paste the letter into a
new Word file, I notice 2 things:

1- In all paragraphs, the first line is moved one step towards right as
shown in the example bellow: (PS. after posting this, I noticed that I
cannot reproduce the effect visualy but maybe the explanation bellow
will be clear enough.)

This is the first line of text in the paragraph.
This is the second line of text.
This is the third line of text... and so on.

Because the first line of text is displaced towards right, the letter
"T" of the word "This" is positioned on top of the letter "h" of the
word "This" of the second line.

 

[Basil_Silba]

Hi Clive,

I use Mail 1.3.11 (v.622).
When I receive the newsletter (html), I select the section of it that I
whish to copy, then ctrl-click on it and select copy. I then open Word
(v.11.1) and click the "paste"-button.
Because of the problem nr 1, I have to select the whole document then
click the "AlignLeft button" (cmd+L) to align all the lines. For the
pictures (problem nr.2), I used to click the links (which appear
instead of the real pictures), go to the web page displaying them, copy
the pictures and then paste them into the word document. Quite a
lenghty process. I therefore decided to print the newsletter directly
as PDF and subsecvently to edit the PDF file if/when needed. It is much
faster and straightforword, for me at least.

Thank you again for your time.

Regards,
Basil

 

[Basil_Silba]

Hi John,

Thank you for your suggestions.
It could be that it is exactly as you say, that the text is comming in
with First Line Indend set.
I did notice that as soon as I paste the copied newsletter into the
Word file, the red toolbox starts blinking and informes me that the
fonts have been changed. Other than that, I did not notice anything
diferent.
Very interesting info about the html pages, thank you. However, it does
feel a bit too complicated if I have to deal with large volumes of
letters, especially that I am not conected always to the Internet. As I
already mentioned in my answer to Clive, because of time constrains I
decided to copy and store the relevant newsletters as PDF files since
Word for Mac seems to be a bit more complicated/limited compared with
its PC version. Of course, it is very possible that I am the culprit
since I am so new to the Mac platform. Whatever the case, for the time
being I will go with the fastest and easiest solution.
As my experience with Mac/OSX/Office for Mac increases, I hope to be
able to find ways to better exploit your solution. Again, thank you.

Best whishes,
Basil

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Your welcome:

Just remember the simple bit for now: "Word can't PASTE HTML, you have to
OPEN the HTML file in Word."

Later you can worry about the niceties. What is really happening is that
when you "copy" something on a modern computer, most times what goes on the
clipboard is a "marker" that tells the clipboard what area you had selected.

When you get to the destination application and "Paste", the destination
application then asks the clipboard what formats are available. The
clipboard (Mac OS or Windows) queries the source application "What languages
do you speak?". It then offers the destination application a menu, from
which the destination application chooses the one it likes best.

Many applications on the Mac (and Word is one...) have not yet figured out
how to ask for something they like from an HTML source application. The ask
for "Text" and get sent just that -- no formatting...

In Word, there's a work-around. Use the Web toolbar to open the source as a
file in Word. Word will open a web page. When it does, it natively brings
it in as rich HTML, from which you can copy and paste most of the
formatting.

Cheers

Hi John,

Thank you for your suggestions.
It could be that it is exactly as you say, that the text is comming in
with First Line Indend set.
I did notice that as soon as I paste the copied newsletter into the
Word file, the red toolbox starts blinking and informes me that the
fonts have been changed. Other than that, I did not notice anything
diferent.
Very interesting info about the html pages, thank you. However, it does
feel a bit too complicated if I have to deal with large volumes of
letters, especially that I am not conected always to the Internet. As I
already mentioned in my answer to Clive, because of time constrains I
decided to copy and store the relevant newsletters as PDF files since
Word for Mac seems to be a bit more complicated/limited compared with
its PC version. Of course, it is very possible that I am the culprit
since I am so new to the Mac platform. Whatever the case, for the time
being I will go with the fastest and easiest solution.
As my experience with Mac/OSX/Office for Mac increases, I hope to be
able to find ways to better exploit your solution. Again, thank you.

Best whishes,
Basil

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Basil_Silba]

John,
please forgive my ignorance but I simply cannot figure how I can go
about using your advice.

In Word I do get the web bar but how do I open a certain letter from
Mail into it?
If I click the Web icon, it asks for address, where do I want to go? If
I click open, I get a list and Mail is not accesible. Where do I go
from here?
Thanks again
Basil

 

[Basil_Silba]

This is an update.

I downloaded from the server the e-mails in question and opened them in
Entourage. If I copy them into Word, the problem number 1 is gone. In
other words, all lines in all paragraphs are aligned just as they
should. The resulting Word document is ok in every respect except that
the pictures are not transfered and neither any link.

The same is true when I copy the mail to clipboard and then paste it
into WordPad (in Windows 2000 Pro in Virtual PC 7.01). Text alignament
is normal but the pictures do not transfer.

When I will have time I will install Office for XP into Virtual PC and
see if Word for PC will be able to capture the pictures as well.

I will be able to do that in the comming weekend and will let you know.

Regards,
Basil

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

You need to Save As from Mail first, then open the file from your hard
drive. One application can't look "inside" another application, you have to
save out of one before you can open in the other.

John,
please forgive my ignorance but I simply cannot figure how I can go
about using your advice.

In Word I do get the web bar but how do I open a certain letter from
Mail into it?
If I click the Web icon, it asks for address, where do I want to go? If
I click open, I get a list and Mail is not accesible. Where do I go
from here?
Thanks again
Basil

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Basil_Silba]

Hello,

I promised to update you on my experience with Word whithin Virtual PC
7.01 + Win 2000 Pro.
Well, probably because of the limited capabilities of clipboard/certain
apps (as underlined above by John) the content of the newsletter gets
copied into Word (Office XP=2002) for Windows in Virtual PC, but the
pictures are still missing. The alignament of text is corect if I
export from Entourage and incorect (misaligned one step towards right)
if I export from Mail.
In conclusion, Word+Win2000Pro+VirtualPC7 did not improve anything in
regard to my problems. I obtain corect alignament if the content is
exported from Entourage and misalignament if the content is exported
from Mail.
In regard to pictures, John´s suggestion might be the only hope,
although for large volumes of documents it requires extra time.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. Hopefully further releases
of Office for Mac will address this problem.

All the best,
Basil.