Word 2008 love of the left

[patrick j]

Hi

If I create a new document in Word 2008, position it where I want and save
it then when I re-open it the document window will be right up against the
left side of the computer screen regardless of where I positioned it.

If I reposition it again, make changes in the document, then save it on
re-opening I find it has forgotten that new position and is back to the
extreme left of the screen.

If I open a document created with Word 2004 it will remember the window
position that it was saved in by Word 2004. However any editing of the
document in Word 2008 and it will when saved forget that position and on
re-opening it will be at the extreme left of the screen.

I'm wondering if anyone else has this behaviour?

Maybe there is something I'm missing about Word 2008, I don't know.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Have you installed the 12.0.1 update? This had been reported to MS, but
no idea whether the update should have fixed it--not listed, but I'm not
sure that's definitive.

If not, letting MS know this affected you may help raise the priority on
the bug--send feedback here:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx
or by using Help | Send Feedback in Word.

 

[patrick j]

Hello Daiya

I installed 12.0.1 shortly after my posting but it doesn't make any
difference.

I will report the problem to MS.

I'm glad to read it is a "known issue" as that increases the chance of it
being resolved I guess

Thank you

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yeah, well, let's hope. CyberTaz thinks it might be related to something
Apple decreed, and McGhie thinks it might be related to making Word
usable in Spaces, but letting MS know it's a problem for you can only
help. I mean, it might only raise the priority from 10000 to 9999....

You can applescript window control, so that if you always move windows
to the same place, you can do that in one click--some samples here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/ArrangeAll.html
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/WindowSize.html

Thanks for confirming the update didn't fix it--I haven't installed it yet.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Patrick -

The only thing you're "missing" (as I understand it) is that 2004 was
designed prior to the actual introduction of the earlier stages of OS X -
before established interface guidelines were published by Apple, some of
which have since been changged. Therefore Office was designed pretty much on
pre-OS X standards and an otherwise "free rein".

The behavior of Office 2008, however, is in compliance with the Apple
guidelines which have since evolved... The expectation being that window
positioning is to be controlled by Exposé and Spaces - which, unfortunately,
have not yet matured to their full extent & Word doesn't yet play nicely
with those features.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Except, CyberTaz--if that's the case, then Word ought to behave
differently in OS 10.4, which doesn't have Spaces and thus cannot turn
control over to it. But it's broken in Tiger on my machine too.

Expose doesn't affect window position in active apps, so I can't think
it's presence in Tiger should matter.

 

[CyberTaz]

Except, Except Ms Daiya, Office 2008 was designed for Leopard & the future,
not "retro-designed" for prior versions of the OS

I'm not saying that it *should be* that way nor that I, too, wouldn't
prefer it otherwise - just offering my understanding of why that "control"
is absent from 2008.

Not being a programmer I certainly can't say for sure, but I would think it
might cause some sort of conflict or at least more complex coding to include
both behaviors & have Word recognize what OS version it's running in &
maintain window positioning in one version & relinquish it in another. It
would also be incongruous for Word to behave one way in one version of the
OS but differently in another -- just look at the discussion generated here
due to the fact that different versions of Word operate in disparate
manners I can understand that it my be an "either/or" situation as a
matter of necessity, but it just as well may be simply a design decision.

At any rate, my original intent was to reassure Patrick that he was doing
nothing wrong nor "missing" anything.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I used to argue with McGhie about some stuff being just bad design, and
therefore not bugs. Now I just say screw it, it's a bug.

 

[CyberTaz]

Couldn't agree more - "A rose by any other name..." can be antithetically -
but equally - applied to a pile of [].

 

[John McGhie]

Whereas *I* have learned not to argue with Daiya

I used to argue with McGhie about some stuff being just bad design, and
therefore not bugs. Now I just say screw it, it's a bug.

--
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]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Oh, but if you don't argue, that takes all the fun out of it!

 

[patrick j]

You can applescript window control, so that if you always move windows
to the same place, you can do that in one click--some samples here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/ArrangeAll.html
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/WindowSize.html

Thank you for these links. In fact I'd already created my own simple
"Window Bounds" script

It is very useful to have http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/ as I was
looking for a repository of Word (and other Office) scripts. At MacScripter
there doesn't seem to be a category for Word.

I'm wondering that now that Mac Word has become solely dependent on
AppleScript then soon there will be a lot of scripts for it perhaps?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

It is very useful to have http://word.mvps.org/Mac/scripts/ as I was
looking for a repository of Word (and other Office) scripts. At MacScripter
there doesn't seem to be a category for Word.

Eh. It's not a great repository or index at present, but thanks. Share
suggestions to link if you find stuff.

I'm wondering that now that Mac Word has become solely dependent on
AppleScript then soon there will be a lot of scripts for it perhaps?

I'm hoping so. It's only been two months, takes time to get stuff up to
speed, and as far as I can tell, most people are *either* good at
AppleScripting *or* at VBA in Word, but have to start from scratch on
the other thing.

Plus I think a problem may be that people's needs are pretty
idiosyncratic because Word is such a complex app, so I suspect what
scripting has been done is often personal scripts that they don't
necessarily consider worth sharing, or corporate scripts for a custom
task. There's also the issue that Word 2008 being variably buggy, makes
sense to stick with Word 2004, so why invest the time to script?

Daiya

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Patrick:

I'm wondering that now that Mac Word has become solely dependent on
AppleScript then soon there will be a lot of scripts for it perhaps?

Well, that might happen

I consider that it is far more likely that there will be very few users of
Microsoft Word on the Mac.

The only purpose in having Word it to be able to flip documents and macros
back and forth with other members of your team. Since that doesn't work, I
guess most larger shops and government departments are making plans to
migrate to something like OpenOffice.

Cheers

--
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]

 

[Phillip Jones]

Hi Patrick:



Well, that might happen

I consider that it is far more likely that there will be very few users of
Microsoft Word on the Mac.

The only purpose in having Word it to be able to flip documents and macros
back and forth with other members of your team. Since that doesn't work, I
guess most larger shops and government departments are making plans to
migrate to something like OpenOffice.

Cheers

Is MacBu aware of this sentiment?

I suppose Bill Gates is finally smiling with Glees and drolling with
prospect. He been Trying to Marginalize Apple and Mac's for years.
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