Can't Change Paragraph formatting Word 2008

[rousseat]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel My PC crashed so I decided to buy a MAC with Office 2008. Once I moved the files from Windows Word 2007 to Word for MAC 2008 some of the formatting specifically indentation of paragraphs could NOT be changed. (I had to first convert the files to rtf format otherwise ALL my citations for my thesis disappeared - then open in Word 2008 and do a save as docx)

*I found a solution by using a suggestion posted by John McGhie for a different formatting problem*** AND IT WORKED. THANK YOU JOHN...even Microsoft did not know how to fix this problem! His answer is in quotes.

"Styles and direct formatting produce an algebraic addition. In other words.

if you apply a property twice, once by style and once by direct formatting,the result is the opposite of what you expected.

For example: Bold + Bold = Normal, Italic + Italic = Normal.

So I think that what has happened is that the formatting of your style has
been changed, so now when you apply bold or italic, you get the opposite effect.

SOLUTION BELOW:

Easiest way to find out? Select a whole paragraph and hit Control +
SpaceBar, then Command + Option + q. That removes all the direct
formatting. You can then immediately see what the underlying style is
doing.

I DID THE DIRECT FORMAT - PARAGRAPH - AND CHOSE THE INDENTATION AND SPACING FOR EACH PARAGRAPH AND IT FIXED ALL THE INDENTATIONS.

 

[John McGhie]

Well done

Now that you know how styles work, use them exclusively for your formatting,
so you do not get any more strange effects.

The biggest benefit of using styles for formatting is that you only have to
set the formatting ONCE, then it is correct, throughout the whole document,
forever.

And applying a style is one click, versus a lot of fiddling around.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
My PC crashed so I decided to buy a MAC with Office 2008. Once I moved the
files from Windows Word 2007 to Word for MAC 2008 some of the formatting
specifically indentation of paragraphs could NOT be changed. (I had to
first convert the files to rtf format otherwise ALL my citations for my thesis
disappeared - then open in Word 2008 and do a save as docx)

*I found a solution by using a suggestion posted by John McGhie for a
different formatting problem*** AND IT WORKED. THANK YOU JOHN...even
Microsoft did not know how to fix this problem! His answer is in quotes.

"Styles and direct formatting produce an algebraic addition. In other words.

if you apply a property twice, once by style and once by direct formatting,the
result is the opposite of what you expected.

For example: Bold + Bold = Normal, Italic + Italic = Normal.

So I think that what has happened is that the formatting of your style has
been changed, so now when you apply bold or italic, you get the opposite
effect.

SOLUTION BELOW:

Easiest way to find out? Select a whole paragraph and hit Control +
SpaceBar, then Command + Option + q. That removes all the direct
formatting. You can then immediately see what the underlying style is
doing.

I DID THE DIRECT FORMAT - PARAGRAPH - AND CHOSE THE INDENTATION AND SPACING
FOR EACH PARAGRAPH AND IT FIXED ALL THE INDENTATIONS.

--

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]