Dynamic Word Template

T

The Yogurt Man

How would I go about creating a dynamic Microsoft Word template (for both Mac
and PC) that changes the bottom margin of the first page depending on the
length of the document (which would be determined as someone was typing). For
instance, if the document ends up being one page in length, the bottom margin
of the front page would be 1". If the document ends up being more than one
page in length, the bottom margin of the front page would be 1.875" and all
subsequent pages would have a bottom margin of 1".
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Can you explain why this is necessary? Saying a bit about the ultimate
goal you need to achieve will help people determine the best route to
get there.

For instance, if this has something to do with letterhead, a dynamic
margin is probably NOT the route. :)
 
T

The Yogurt Man

This does have to do with letterhead. Our non-profit organization has
letterhead with a large graphic in the lower right hand of the page. For
one-page letters, signatures fit nicely in the space to the left of the
graphic with a 1" margin (and removes the need for multiple pages). However
if the letter goes to two pages, the margin needs to bump up on the first
page, or text would run through it.

Why do you suggest this is probably NOT the route. Or what other options
would you suggest?
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Hi Yogurt Man,

An image formatted to Layout: Square and anchored in the first page
footer but placed to the lower right corner wraps text around itself,
which would permit a signature to the left on short letters, and not run
text through the image in long letters. But that system also means that
in long letters, that space to the left of the image gets used for
half-width paragraphs. That may or may not be acceptable to you. For
pre-printed letterhead, you would need to use an empty text box with no
outline in place of an image.

I'm not coming up with anything better than that, but someone else may,
and more easily because they have a sense of the document you are
dealing with.

I suggest it's not the route because people do all sorts of crazy things
with margins attempting to get letterhead, and usually it is the wrong
route. :) For instance, to actually change the *margins* in a Word
document, you need section breaks, and text won't flow through section
breaks. So the whole idea of having a margin on one page and a
different margin on the second page is *always* the wrong route for
letterhead, because Word uses different features to accomplish that
within a letter.

Your general approach might be the best way to deal with a logo on just
one side of the paper. But instead of margin you would need the size
of the first page footer to be dynamic, a larger first page footer
pushes the text out of the way without interfering with the flow of text
across a page. It's probably possible to write a macro that checks the
page numbers and then sets the size of the first page footer whenever
anyone hits Save or Print--though I don't know how. You could ask in a
programming group if no one gives you one here, and if you are willing
to deal with macros.

General information on setting up letterhead here, if you are curious:
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm

Daiya
 
M

Mike Starr

It's easier than that...
Choose the File>> New menu item to start a new blank document

First, add three manual page breaks ({CTRL} + {Enter}) .

Now go back to the beginning of the document and choose the File>>Page Setup
menu item. On the Layout tab, enable (check) the Different first page
checkbox and click the Ok button.

Choose the View>>Header and Footer menu item. The cursor should be in the
First Page Header - Section 1 paragraph. Click the "Switch between Header
and Footer button on the Header and Footer toolbar.

Choose the Insert >>Text Box menu item and draw a text box on the bottom
right side of the page, the same size as the graphic. Make sure you select
the text box and set the border to None. Click the edge of the text box and
drag it around so that it's positioned so the text will wrap around it.
Right-click on the text box and choose the Format>>Text Box menu item. On
the Layout tab, st the layout type to Tight. Click the Okay button. Click
the Close button on the Header and Footer toolbar. Now delete the extra
manual page breaks and do a File>>Save, select the Word Template (.dot) file
type and call it letterhead.dot. Word should put it in your default template
directory. Now do a File>>New and choose letterhead.dot and you should be
ready to go. Your text should wrap around the graphic in the bottom right
corner of the first page and be perfectly normal on the second and
subsequent pages.

The whole secret to this is adding those page breaks... That sets Word up to
create the multiple headers/footers. Once you've created the
headers/footers, you can delete the page breaks and Word still stores the
header/footer information (in the Maggie paragraph).

Mike
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Hi Mike,

that's the same thing I suggested in the first paragraph, actually,
although I did not give nearly as much detail about how to accomplish
it, since I wasn't sure Yogurt Man would be happy with that solution.
Cosmetically, it's a little different result than what he asked for.

Daiya
 
T

The Yogurt Man

Daiya,

You're right. The solution of adding a graphic isn't going to cut it for
me, because then text of a two-page document would print in a shallow column,
and that would look terrible. (Thanks for the effort, though Mike, of
letting me know how to do that.)

I will take your suggestion about trying to create a dynamic footer. . . and
head over to the programming group and see if I can get any help with Macro
programming. I tried this and was successful on the mac, unsuccessful on the
PC.

Thanks so much for your time.

YM
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

To be honest, I kinda think that text wrapped around the graphic would
look nicer than all the empty space at the bottom of the letter, but
it's totally subjective. :)

I'm surprised a macro that ran on the Mac didn't work on Windows.

Glad I could help focus your efforts.

Daiya
 
M

Mike Starr

What I suggested would use the text box only on the bottom of page one, so
text on page one would wrap around the text box but there would be no text
box on page two or subsequent pages. The text box wouldn't contain any text
but would only be used as an object to force text to wrap around it on the
first page only. Far as I can tell, that satisfies all of Yogurt Man's
requirements without any need for complex macro solutions. It allows the
signature on the left, next to the image on the letterhead when there's only
a single page worth of content but when there's more than one page of
content, the content itself wraps around the text box on the first page
only. When using letterhead one normally uses the letterhead for the first
page then unprinted paper for subsequent pages. Unless I'm missing something
here about what Yogurt Man really wants to accomplish (and yes, I have been
known to do that now and again <grin>).

Mike
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

D

Daiya Mitchell

Hi Mike,

The difference between the "text box in a first page footer" and the
original request is cosmetic--Yogurt Man seemed to want the text to end
above the graphic completely, leaving the space to the left of the
graphic blank on a 2-page letter. This route puts text in that space.
Yogurt's Man later post suggested that would look terrible, in his opinion.

I pointed out that I had already made the suggestion of a "text box in a
first page footer" because I felt that someone familiar enough with Word
to identify this as a good approach should also be able to read what I
said and recognize that it was the same thing, even if lacking concrete
directions.

You may have been confused by my ungrammatical "I suggest it's not the
route" in which "it's" was meant to refer back to Yogurt Man's original
idea of dynamic margins (not the "textbox in a first page footer"
route). That sentence was meant to respond to his question "Why do you
suggest this is probably NOT the route?". I had re-arranged my
paragraphs and made them a little less comprehensible without updating
the language.

Daiya
 
M

Mike Starr

I was suggesting using a text box because one only needs an object on the
bottom of the first page to force text to wrap around it so that it doesn't
overprint the graphic that's already printed on the bottom of the letterhead
sheet. Pages other than the first page would be printed on blank paper, not
letterhead. If I inserted a graphic instead of a text box then the graphic
itself would print.

The nuance in Yogurt Man's original request that I missed was that he didn't
want the text of the letter to print in the narrowed region at all if the
letter required a second page... in that case, he wanted the bottom margin
to increase so that the last line of his letter text would be above the
graphic on his letterhead (1.87" from the bottom of the sheet). If the
letter including signature didn't require a second page, it was acceptable
for the signature to be adjacent to the graphic printed on the bottom of the
letterhead sheet.

That could be resolved by the use of a macro (OnSave??) that would see if a
certain paragraph style is on page 1 or page 2 and if the paragraph style is
on page 2 then increase the size of the text box on page 1.

Best regards,

Mike
 
Top