Drawing Pane/Frame and other stuff

[Martin James Thornhill]

Guys

I'm trialling MS Word 2003, as a proposed replacement for MS Word 97.

I'm beginning to think that, as usual, Microsoft has created pointless
complexity that its own program gets wrong.

I am trying to insert a horizontal line in the header. In Word 97, it's an
autoshape job: select line, drag from start to stop, job done. Word 2003
apparently requires the shape to appear in a drawing pane/frame, around which
the wrapping properties apply. When the illogical & unnecessary frame is
re-sized, it does the usual Word special of disobeying the user, flipping
between several pages, re-appearing in a completely different header and the
rest.

Does anybody have an ideas what I can do?

I had a bad feeling about this version of Word when I tried to create a new
document. Instead of the easy-and-quick "which template" box, I get a new
document pane that requires the use of the mouse (not good for me, a
power-keyboard user).

I see no reason why Word 2003 must be so apparently different from its
predecessors. If I have to re-learn a basic tool, then perhaps I should
ditch MS completely and use OpenOffice.....!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

 

[Luc]

Martin,
Unfortunately Word 2003 activates the drawing canvas upon inserting a
drawing. But you can disable this on the General tab in Tools - options. The
canvas has some advantages when you're drawing several AutoShapes especially
if you want to manipulate them. The latest versions of Word offer many
automatic features, fortunately you can turn them off, have a look at
Tools -AutoCorrection options and you will see what I mean. Most of them can
be turned off.

I would suggest another option to have a line in your header though (works
in every version of Word), just put a bottom border to it using Format -
borders and shading, or even better use the toolbar Tables and borders to
add one, you can adjust thickness, style and colour quite easily.
As to the taskpanes, yes they do need some time to adjust to. And yes in
Word you could do without them, but I' m afraid they are here to stay. After
all in computer software 6 years is an eternity.
Luc

"Martin James Thornhill" <[email protected]>
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[Jay Freedman]

Go to Tools > Options > General and uncheck "Automatically create
drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes".

Upgrading directly from Word 97 to Word 2003, you've skipped two major
version changes, and there are a lot of new things to learn or turn
off. I suggest
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CustomizingWord2002.htm as a cure
for many of the new annoyances.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Luc has given you the solution to your immediate problems. For some further
thoughts, see this article:

Word 2002: How to “put it back the way it was†[applies to Word 2003 as
well]
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CustomizingWord2002.htm