Writing in the margins. Possible?

[nickravo1]

I writing a very long document (100 pages). and what I would love to
be able to do is change right margin so that I have a nice wide
gutter, maybe a third of the page. (Okay, that I can do.) And then in
that gutter—the area of the margins—be able to write notes about
various sections of the document. I tried using the column function
and the text wraps up to the column at the end of each page and
prevents me from doing what I want to do. So how can one use the
margins effectively for notes, suggestions, et-cetera. I don't want to
go into edit-trace. I just want to add some notes in the margin.
Possible in Word for Mac 2004? In any word processing program?

 

[Michel Bintener]

Search Word's help function for a feature called Comments; comments allow
you to write notes next to a relevant section in your text. You can easily
add and delete them, you can even print them alongside your original text,
and, of course, you can hide them so they do not interfere with the display
of your original text.

I writing a very long document (100 pages). and what I would love to
be able to do is change right margin so that I have a nice wide
gutter, maybe a third of the page. (Okay, that I can do.) And then in
that gutter‹the area of the margins‹be able to write notes about
various sections of the document. I tried using the column function
and the text wraps up to the column at the end of each page and
prevents me from doing what I want to do. So how can one use the
margins effectively for notes, suggestions, et-cetera. I don't want to
go into edit-trace. I just want to add some notes in the margin.
Possible in Word for Mac 2004? In any word processing program?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[nickravo1]

Search Word's help function for a feature called Comments; comments allow
you to write notes next to a relevant section in your text. You can easily
add and delete them, you can even print them alongside your original text,
and, of course, you can hide them so they do not interfere with the display
of your original text.



--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

Ok. Now how do I format it, so that the default font is something
other the tiny type that pops up each time

 

[Michel Bintener]

Ok. Now how do I format it, so that the default font is something
other the tiny type that pops up each time

Go to Format>Style and select "Balloon Text" from the list of styles. Click
on Modify, change the font according to your preferences, make sure the "Add
to template" box is checked, then click on OK/Apply until you get back to
the main document. The font should now have changed, and it should stay this
way for any new document based on your current template.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Go to Format>Style and select "Balloon Text" from the list of styles. Click
on Modify, change the font according to your preferences, make sure the "Add
to template" box is checked, then click on OK/Apply until you get back to
the main document. The font should now have changed, and it should stay this
way for any new document based on your current template.

Addendum--

Balloon Text style controls the *size* of the text in the comments. The
*font* is controlled by Comment Text style. You may want to adjust both
to get your ideal.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Balloon Text style controls the *size* of the text in the comments. The
*font* is controlled by Comment Text style. You may want to adjust both
to get your ideal.

Thanks for pointing this out. How very strange!

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for pointing this out. How very strange!

Indeed. I publicize the craziness at every possible opportunity.
Actually, it's not that strange, from a coding point of view---Comment
Text controls the styling, as is rational. However, because the balloons
have to be a predictable size to do the complex calculations to fit or
abbreviate them on a page, all Comments are forced to constrain to the
Balloon Text sizing (and I suspect spacing), which is used in the
calculations. At least I think that's how someone explained it to me
once. I suppose it would be more logical to eliminate Comment Text as a
style entirely, but there *is* a separate function for it---Balloon Text
controls the "Comment:" prefix that is automatically added, while
Comment Text controls the text you write. (Is that worth separating? I
do not know.)

I have been unable to determine what controls the text in the action
button line, with name and date, though I seem to remember someone
managed to make it a curly font once. You think it would be Balloon
Text, but it's not.

Ah, Word. <sigh> MVP Bob Buckland: "Word rarely misses an opportunity
to perplex."

I use Arial Narrow 11pt for Balloon Text, to scrunch the Comment prefix
as small as possible, and Century Gothic as a big open typeface for
Comment Text.

While we're at it, here's a sample macro and script, since every student
doc I receive has to be restyled for me to use Comments on it:

Sub RestyleComment()
With ActiveDocument.Styles("Comment Text").Font
.Name = "Century Gothic"
End With
With ActiveDocument.Styles("Balloon Text").Font
.Name = "Times"
.Size = 11
End With
End Sub


tell application "Microsoft Word"
tell active document
set name of font object of Word style "Comment Text" to "Century
Gothic"
set font size of font object of Word style "Balloon Text" to "10"
set name of font object of Word style "Balloon Text" to "Arial
Narrow"
end tell
end tell

Daiya

 

[nickravo1]

Indeed.  I publicize the craziness at every possible opportunity.   
Actually, it's not that strange, from a coding point of view---Comment
Text controls the styling, as is rational. However, because the balloons
have to be a predictable size to do the complex calculations to fit or
abbreviate them on a page, all Comments are forced to constrain to the
Balloon Text sizing (and I suspect spacing), which is used in the
calculations. At least I think that's how someone explained it to me
once. I suppose it would be more logical to eliminate Comment Text as a
style entirely, but there *is* a separate function for it---Balloon Text
controls the "Comment:" prefix that is automatically added, while
Comment Text controls the text you write. (Is that worth separating? I
do not know.)

I have been unable to determine what controls the text in the action
button line, with name and date, though I seem to remember someone
managed to make it a curly font once.  You think it would be Balloon
Text, but it's not.

Ah, Word. <sigh>  MVP Bob Buckland: "Word rarely misses an opportunity
to perplex."

I use Arial Narrow 11pt for Balloon Text, to scrunch the Comment prefix
as small as possible, and Century Gothic as a big open typeface for
Comment Text.

While we're at it, here's a sample macro and script, since every student
doc I receive has to be restyled for me to use Comments on it:

Sub RestyleComment()
    With ActiveDocument.Styles("Comment Text").Font
        .Name = "Century Gothic"
    End With
    With ActiveDocument.Styles("Balloon Text").Font
        .Name = "Times"
        .Size = 11
    End With
End Sub

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    tell active document
        set name of font object of Word style "Comment Text" to "Century
Gothic"
        set font size of font object of Word style "Balloon Text"to "10"
        set name of font object of Word style "Balloon Text" to "Arial
Narrow"
    end tell
end tell

Daiya

Anyway, I can change the size of the word COMMENT in the balloon. I
have my text the right size now, but the template word COMMENT is
large and a distraction. Besides, I know it's a comment; it also takes
up too much space.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Anyway, I can change the size of the word COMMENT in the balloon. I
have my text the right size now, but the template word COMMENT is
large and a distraction. Besides, I know it's a comment; it also takes
up too much space.

Try reading the thread before adding to it. I already answered that
question in one of my posts.