Copy/Paste to Match Destination Formatting -- BY DEFAULT

[kfortier5]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel As a long time PC Word user, I have been accustomed to the large amount of preference customization that is available. One CRUCIAL (for me) customization option in PC Word is the ability to set the default action when pasting from one program (the web or Acrobat) to Word.

By default, both Word 2008 (mac) and Word 2007 (PC) keep the source formatting when pasting between programs. To me that makes no sense, because 9 out of 10 times you don't want your word document to have many different formats -- the default should be the other around, IMO. So, in PC Word, the fix is simple: you change the default preferences to the user's liking. No such option is available in 2008. In fact, I find that, generally speaking, Word 2008 lacks a lot of the customization options of Word 2007 for PC. But I digress.

I was hoping that maybe I am just skipping over this preference. Is there anyway I can change the default action when pasting between programs?

Here is what I know. I found a somewhat helpful post here that suggests that you can set up a custom keystroke to solve this issue (shift+command+v, for example). I am also aware of the little drop down menu that pops up (only sometimes!) when you paste between programs. This is not an acceptable solution.

If there is no solution to this problem, other than the two I just discussed, can someone please point me to a feature-suggestion area of the Mactopia site?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ken

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Ken:

The Feature Suggestion area is on the Help menu of each Microsoft
application: just click the "Send feedback" link.

Your point has been made a few times before (by me, for example...) but I
hope you will take the time to make it again. The more "votes" we get for
this design change the more likely we are to have it made.

You are quite correct: wanting to keep the source formatting is by far the
LEAST likely scenario for anyone who knows how to use Word. On the other
hand, it's the most likely scenario for anyone who doesn't.

Microsoft is busily designing Microsoft Office for those who don't know how
to use it and have no intention of learning. This is the old "Software
should be smart enough to know what to do so I don't have to tell it"
argument.

I think it came as a bit of a shock to everyone (including me...) how bad
Word becomes when you remove the ability to correct all the myriad little
behaviours put there for the newbie that greatly impede forward progress for
the experienced professional. They had no choice, they had to leave VBA out
this time around, but even so I think everyone got a shock as to how big an
impact it had.

The next version of Office fully reinstates VBA and corrects a few other
behaviours that got sidetracked by the newbies. A next step from this
learning is to say to users "You are quite right, you should not have to
learn to use our software. But we do expect you to learn how to do your
job!"

Word 2004 (and Word 2011 even more so...) are a delight to use if you know
how to create the complex, feature-rich documents they were designed for (or
even if you know how to make a simple document properly). And the
reinstatement of VBA means that we can now override the native user
interface to provide exactly the behaviours we require at each individual
workplace. It's a great product!

Oh: To answer the question! No, most of the customisation options were
left out in Office 2008 when they ran out of time.

Hope this helps

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
As a long time PC Word user, I have been accustomed to the large amount of
preference customization that is available. One CRUCIAL (for me)
customization option in PC Word is the ability to set the default action when
pasting from one program (the web or Acrobat) to Word.

By default, both Word 2008 (mac) and Word 2007 (PC) keep the source formatting
when pasting between programs. To me that makes no sense, because 9 out of 10
times you don't want your word document to have many different formats -- the
default should be the other around, IMO. So, in PC Word, the fix is simple:
you change the default preferences to the user's liking. No such option is
available in 2008. In fact, I find that, generally speaking, Word 2008 lacks
a lot of the customization options of Word 2007 for PC. But I digress.

I was hoping that maybe I am just skipping over this preference. Is there
anyway I can change the default action when pasting between programs?

Here is what I know. I found a somewhat helpful post here that suggests that
you can set up a custom keystroke to solve this issue (shift+command+v, for
example). I am also aware of the little drop down menu that pops up (only
sometimes!) when you paste between programs. This is not an acceptable
solution.

If there is no solution to this problem, other than the two I just discussed,
can someone please point me to a feature-suggestion area of the Mactopia site?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ken

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[kfortier5]

John,

Thanks for the reply. It's unfortunate that Microsoft panders to the novice user. The truth is, novice users are probably the least likely to complain about such features (or the lack thereof). And to me, I don't see why even novice users would prefer to match the source formatting when pasting into a document. It just doesn't make sense. How many times does the source format match the destination? Rarely. The result: a hideous document. How often does ANYONE want to create a document with varying fonts, sizes, etc. (outside of headings, etc., of course)? Almost never.

I just wish they would provide the OPTION to change the default. Word 2007 does it, so why not 2008? Go ahead and ship it with what I consider counter-intuitive features, but let me change them when they are unworkable! Seems simple, right?

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that these little annoyances are a subtle way of pushing mac users back to the windows platform. Which doesn't really make sense nowadays with boot camp (I'm sure about 50% of OSX users buy a basic copy of windows to run in boot camp).

The bright side: Office 2011 for Mac seems to be touting more parity between the two versions. Let's hope they deliver on the preference pane. Just give me as many customization options as Windows; that's all I'm asking for. I don't want to mess with the mac users that have become comfortable with the 2008 defaults, but please, just let me change things as I see fit!

Rest assured I will be visiting the suggestion page...



Question: are you suggesting that 2004 has more customizable options? If so, what, in your opinion, is the downside of downgrading to 2004?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Ken:

Office 2004 is an upgrade from Office 2008, not a downgrade

However, it won't handle XML documents quite as well, because Office 2004
can't natively handle some of the things and XML file can contain.

Office 2008 is a little nicer to use, but more limited.

And newbies ALWAYS want to keep the source formatting ‹ that's often why
they're copying it; they have no idea how to produce the formatting they
want, so they copy some

Cheers

John,

Thanks for the reply. It's unfortunate that Microsoft panders to the novice
user. The truth is, novice users are probably the least likely to complain
about such features (or the lack thereof). And to me, I don't see why even
novice users would prefer to match the source formatting when pasting into a
document. It just doesn't make sense. How many times does the source format
match the destination? Rarely. The result: a hideous document. How often
does ANYONE want to create a document with varying fonts, sizes, etc. (outside
of headings, etc., of course)? Almost never.

I just wish they would provide the OPTION to change the default. Word 2007
does it, so why not 2008? Go ahead and ship it with what I consider
counter-intuitive features, but let me change them when they are unworkable!
Seems simple, right?

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that these little annoyances are a subtle
way of pushing mac users back to the windows platform. Which doesn't really
make sense nowadays with boot camp (I'm sure about 50% of OSX users buy a
basic copy of windows to run in boot camp).

The bright side: Office 2011 for Mac seems to be touting more parity between
the two versions. Let's hope they deliver on the preference pane. Just give
me as many customization options as Windows; that's all I'm asking for. I
don't want to mess with the mac users that have become comfortable with the
2008 defaults, but please, just let me change things as I see fit!

Rest assured I will be visiting the suggestion page...



Question: are you suggesting that 2004 has more customizable options? If so,
what, in your opinion, is the downside of downgrading to 2004?

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!