RE: Word, too [was]Does Frame Suck? From a new user

["John Locke" <mail -at- freelock -dot- com>]

Chris is annoyed with much of Word's behavior, but many of his problems can
be addressed:

> For example, I can't delete a leading clause, plus comma,
> plus first letter of the following word...  This is a great
> way to drop a leading clause and start the sentence with the
> following clause - select and type a capital letter.  But
> Word expands the selection of the first letter to include
> the entire word.  This is one example of how Word assists
> me...  there are others I can't recall right now.
> Assistance like this I can do without.

Turn this option off (Word 2000) by going to Tools-->Options, Edit tab, and
clear the option "When selecting, automatically select entire word."

> The number of clicks I have to go through to create a
> paragraph style is astounding.  No wonder voice-command has
> a market.

Here's a shortcut: Type a new name in the style box on the toolbar. Instant
new style, defined with the current formatting. Then, modify all the
formatting to how you want the style to appear, go to the style dropdown and
reselect it from the list. Word gives you the option to update the style or
reapply the style.

> Tables are incomprehensible.  I honestly can't say anything
> more about them.

Here, I agree totally. I hate Word tables.
>
> Controlling the placement of graphics on a page, almost
> equally so.  I think I finally figured out the
> terminology/UI widgets they want me to use.

After inserting a picture, I almost always right-click it, and select Format
Picture. Then, on the Layout tab, I select Inline with Text. Then the
picture is treated like any other character that you can align as you
wish--I have a special paragraph style defined for pictures, generally
centered with no indents. Word automatically shrinks the picture to fit in
the line, or you can tweak the size directly on the Size tab.

If you don't put the picture inline with text, it "floats" on a drawing
layer, anchored to a paragraph. You can turn on the anchor symbols using
Tools-->Options, View tab. With floating pictures, you drag them wherever
you want them, but I've had problems printing to other printers, with lines
jumping below the picture, etc.
>
> Cross references...  Could they be worse than tables?  Why
> can't I make an xref to *any* paragraph I want?  Why only
> headings and captions?  Ok, so if I want to learn about
> hidden fields (and send in enough box-tops to get my secret
> decoder ring), I can put them anywhere I want.  But I really
> don't have enough time to work that out.  And the online
> docs are absolutely no help.

See Jarnopol's answer...
>
> I'm documenting code, so I want literals to be in Courier.
> I type the literal, select it and make it Courier.  To get
> out of Courier again, I have to select the original font all
> over again.  There's no way to put the cursor outside of the
> Courier *region* because I suspect there is no region per
> se, rather a Start Courier code with no matching End Courier
> code.  Likewise with other formatting such as color, etc.
> This compounds my mouse-hand injuries.

Another shortcut here is to use a character style instead of direct
formatting. Unlike paragraph styles, you have to define character styles
using the awkward menus, but you can assign shortcut keys to the style (find
it at Format --> Style). Define your style for the literal, assign it a
shortcut key, and then assign another shortcut key to the built-in character
style named "Default Paragraph Font." Alternatively, once you've started a
new word, Ctrl-Spacebar removes all direct character formatting, reverting
you to whatever style is selected (this won't remove a character style)...
>
> Word modified my email preferences when I accidentally
> clicked on a mail address in a friend's document.  Isn't
> that illegal?  I mean, by definition, isn't it a virus when
> a program modifies your data without your knowledge or
> consent?  Anyway, I had to re-establish my preferred mail
> system, and re-enter my user name in that system's
> preferences.  Very bad manners!

Haven't had this happen!
>
> So just going from one system to another is a hassle, no
> matter which way you go.
>

Agreed. Hope that helped!

Cheers.
John Locke
http://www.freelock.com