Change points to inches??

D

degas1900

In advancing text on a page, the field requires using points as the unit of
measure, not inches. Is there a way to change that to inches? I'm tired of
doing math conversions. I'm using Word 2003 (SP3). The default unit on the
toolbar is inches, so why can't the advance field also use inches??
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

The Advance field is one provided by MS primarily for compatibility with
WordPerfect and is not much used. There are probably other ways to
accomplish what you want, such as Space Before (which you can enter in
inches).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
D

degas1900

"Space Before"?? No such thing in 2003 that I can find. What I'm attempting
to do is put a line of text at a certain location near the bottom of a page
(NOT a footnote).
 
G

grammatim

Space Before is found in the Format > Paragraph panel.

Maybe what you're looking for is a Footer.
 
D

degas1900

Nope--don't need a Footer; just need to put a line of text at a specific spot
on a page. In WP I could Advance down to a specific inch mark from the top
of the page--very simple to do.

See my original Q: Is it possible to change Points to Inches in the advance
field?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

You could put it in a text box with the vertical position set in inches from
Top of Page.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
D

degas1900

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, but my original question remains
unanswered: Is it possible to changes Points to Inches in the Advance field??
 
D

DeanH

Tools, Options, General tab, change the Measurement Unit to Inches, this
should change all measurements in the Word environment to inches.
Hope this helps
DeanH
 
D

degas1900

Sorry--that only works for the ruler toolbar.

DeanH said:
Tools, Options, General tab, change the Measurement Unit to Inches, this
should change all measurements in the Word environment to inches.
Hope this helps
DeanH
 
D

DeanH

See my other post on PageLayout, retracting this information.
This is the reason why cross-posting is not a good idea as you lose track of
who and what has been posted.
As mentioned, probably your solution is not to use the Advance Field function?
All the best
DeanH
 
P

Peter Jamieson

No. The only thing that comes close is to use a nested field such as

{ ADVANCE { QUOTE "\\y {=<number of inches>*72 }" }

to go to an absolute vertical spot on the page - where you sbstitute
your number of inches, but
a. it's difficult to think of a way (even using autotexts) to make
that "easier" than working out the number of points from the number of
inches.
b. using that approach injects a sliver of space before the following
text, so you'd probably have to ADVANCE to the line above where you
wanted the text to go. It may also inject a sliver of space above, which
wouldn't help

There may be a simpler fomulation that works better but the obvious
possibility, i.e.

{ ADVANCE \y {=<number of inches>*72 } }

simply does not work. Nor is there anything documented or really obvious
like

{ ADVANCE \y "6in" }

and in this case it would slightly surprise me to discover that you
couls specify the unsits somehow.

If all you need is an absolute vertical location you could insert the
field using a macro that prompts for the location, works out the number
of points and inserts the field, e.g. as a crude example

Sub InsertAdvanceY()
Dim strY As String
Dim rngSelection As Word.Range
' could perhaps detect the current units
' rather than assume inches, and/or allow
' input of 3in, 50pt, 5cm etc.
' and work it out
' but here we keep it really simple
' modify the default as appropriate
strY = InputBox( _
"Enter the vertical position in inches", _
"ADVANCE to absolute vertical position", _
"144")

' cancel without warning if escape or simple blanks
If Trim(strY) = "" Then Exit Sub
' do whatever validation you want
' (perhaps check the number
' against the page height etc.)
' here, just do a crude check
If Val(strY) <= 0 Then Exit Sub
With ActiveDocument
' might want to check the location
' of the selection
' is in the main body first
Set rngSelection = Selection.Range
rngSelection.Collapse direction:=Start
rngSelection.Fields.Add _
Range:=rngSelection, _
Type:=wdFieldAdvance, _
Text:="\y " & CStr(Val(strY)), _
preserveformatting:=False
Set rngSelection = Nothing
End With
End Sub

Anything much more than that and you would probably need to do it as a
userform.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
 

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