How to get control of Word formatting

[Windowed]

So I’m sitting at my cute little Sony VAIO PCG-SRX77 with its 10†screen and
scant 2.7 pounds, trying to fix my resume. (I know I put ‘resume’ in the
auto-correct section; but it only wants to do so for ‘Résumé’. Not for
‘resume’. So I go there and try to enter ‘resume’ in the “change from†field,
but it keeps reverting to the capitalized form. How is one supposed to
control things with MS Word when it has such a stupid mind of its own?)

Anyway, back at the ranchhouse. I’m trying to fix my Résumé and I need to
type in the heading ‘EDUCATION’ at the start of a new page. But it keeps
indenting the word. I try backspacing to get rid of it, and it goes directly
to the last word on the previous page. I place my cursor there and hit
‘Ctrl-space’ to enter a hard page break, and, lo and behold, ‘EDUCATION’
shows up indented again. Where in the world is that indent coming from?

So I start examining everything I can find that has to do with formatting. I
go to Tools->Options->View and tell it to show all formatting marks. Many
show up, but nothing to indicate why ‘EDUCATION’ insists on indenting.
Likewise there’s nothing under the Format menu option that suggests why Word
is behaving the way it does. Now I’m really upset, and thinking back to the
good old days when I could use Word Perfect and just hit Shift-F4 and see
every single formatting code, and then work directly with them to get the
effect I wanted. And I have to wonder: Why can’t Microsoft be bothered to
provide this tool? Is Big Brother afraid to give up this power to us? Surely
it’s nothing that’s too hard for Bill and Buddies to do! If you’re going to
try to be THE wordprocessor for the world, surely you could be a little
user-friendly.

I’ve read a few of the formatting discussions and they just confirm that
this whole process is excessively complicated. Why can’t there be a simple
solution, Bill Gates? Several people have mentioned how easy they found it in
Word Perfect. Why can’t Word be easy? If you have to go to forums and try to
find answers there, the program is broke!


----------------
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suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
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click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...ae842a165&dg=microsoft.public.word.pagelayout

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Now I¹m really upset, and thinking back to the
good old days when I could use Word Perfect and just hit Shift-F4 and see
every single formatting code, and then work directly with them to get the
effect I wanted. And I have to wonder: Why can¹t Microsoft be bothered to
provide this tool? Is Big Brother afraid to give up this power to us? Surely
it¹s nothing that¹s too hard for Bill and Buddies to do! If you¹re going to
try to be THE wordprocessor for the world, surely you could be a little
user-friendly.

It's not that MS can't be bothered to provide this tool, exactly--it's that
Word is designed in an entirely different way than WordPerfect, and the
Reveal Codes tool cannot exist. You may find these articles enlightening:

How Word differs from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordVsWordPerfect.htm

Some Tips and "Gotchas" for those who are new to Word
Especially if migrating from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/TipsAndGotchas.htm

Is There Life After "Reveal Codes"?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm

WordPerfect to Word converters (and why none of them are perfect)
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordPerfectConverters.htm

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For problem #1, delete the AutoCorrect entry entirely. Then add a new one to
change [something] to résumé. I would suggest that you *not* use "resume,"
which is a correct word that you might someday want to use. For purposes of
illustration, let's say you use "rsm." When you type "rsm," you'll get
résumé; when you type "Rsm," you'll get "Résumé"; and if you type RSM,
you'll get RÉSUMÉ.

For problem #2, there are two likely possibilities. One is that the heading
EDUCATION is formatted with a style that has a left or first-line indent.
You should be able to see this from the ruler. The other possibility is
explained at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UnaccountablyIndented.htm

As for the rest...what Daiya said.

So I’m sitting at my cute little Sony VAIO PCG-SRX77 with its 10†screen and
scant 2.7 pounds, trying to fix my resume. (I know I put ‘resume’ in the
auto-correct section; but it only wants to do so for ‘Résumé’. Not for
‘resume’. So I go there and try to enter ‘resume’ in the “change from†field,
but it keeps reverting to the capitalized form. How is one supposed to
control things with MS Word when it has such a stupid mind of its own?)

Anyway, back at the ranchhouse. I’m trying to fix my Résumé and I need to
type in the heading ‘EDUCATION’ at the start of a new page. But it keeps
indenting the word. I try backspacing to get rid of it, and it goes directly
to the last word on the previous page. I place my cursor there and hit
‘Ctrl-space’ to enter a hard page break, and, lo and behold, ‘EDUCATION’
shows up indented again. Where in the world is that indent coming from?

So I start examining everything I can find that has to do with formatting. I
go to Tools->Options->View and tell it to show all formatting marks. Many
show up, but nothing to indicate why ‘EDUCATION’ insists on indenting.
Likewise there’s nothing under the Format menu option that suggests why Word
is behaving the way it does. Now I’m really upset, and thinking back to the
good old days when I could use Word Perfect and just hit Shift-F4 and see
every single formatting code, and then work directly with them to get the
effect I wanted. And I have to wonder: Why can’t Microsoft be bothered to
provide this tool? Is Big Brother afraid to give up this power to us? Surely
it’s nothing that’s too hard for Bill and Buddies to do! If you’re going to
try to be THE wordprocessor for the world, surely you could be a little
user-friendly.

I’ve read a few of the formatting discussions and they just confirm that
this whole process is excessively complicated. Why can’t there be a simple
solution, Bill Gates? Several people have mentioned how easy they found it in
Word Perfect. Why can’t Word be easy? If you have to go to forums and try to
find answers there, the program is broke!


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...ae842a165&dg=microsoft.public.word.pagelayout

 

[Windowed]

Good info. Thanks to both of you. Both for the specifics and for the general
info re the nature of Word, which I hadn't seen before. It still seems like
getting control of these styles is an excessive learning curve--and the posts
in this area seem to confirm that. Ten years ago, word processing was a lot
easier than it is now.

For problem #1, delete the AutoCorrect entry entirely. Then add a new one to
change [something] to résumé. I would suggest that you *not* use "resume,"
which is a correct word that you might someday want to use. For purposes of
illustration, let's say you use "rsm." When you type "rsm," you'll get
résumé; when you type "Rsm," you'll get "Résumé"; and if you type RSM,
you'll get RÉSUMÉ.

For problem #2, there are two likely possibilities. One is that the heading
EDUCATION is formatted with a style that has a left or first-line indent.
You should be able to see this from the ruler. The other possibility is
explained at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UnaccountablyIndented.htm

As for the rest...what Daiya said.

So I’m sitting at my cute little Sony VAIO PCG-SRX77 with its 10†screen and
scant 2.7 pounds, trying to fix my resume. (I know I put ‘resume’ in the
auto-correct section; but it only wants to do so for ‘Résumé’. Not for
‘resume’. So I go there and try to enter ‘resume’ in the “change from†field,
but it keeps reverting to the capitalized form. How is one supposed to
control things with MS Word when it has such a stupid mind of its own?)

Anyway, back at the ranchhouse. I’m trying to fix my Résumé and I need to
type in the heading ‘EDUCATION’ at the start of a new page. But it keeps
indenting the word. I try backspacing to get rid of it, and it goes directly
to the last word on the previous page. I place my cursor there and hit
‘Ctrl-space’ to enter a hard page break, and, lo and behold, ‘EDUCATION’
shows up indented again. Where in the world is that indent coming from?

So I start examining everything I can find that has to do with formatting. I
go to Tools->Options->View and tell it to show all formatting marks. Many
show up, but nothing to indicate why ‘EDUCATION’ insists on indenting.
Likewise there’s nothing under the Format menu option that suggests why Word
is behaving the way it does. Now I’m really upset, and thinking back to the
good old days when I could use Word Perfect and just hit Shift-F4 and see
every single formatting code, and then work directly with them to get the
effect I wanted. And I have to wonder: Why can’t Microsoft be bothered to
provide this tool? Is Big Brother afraid to give up this power to us? Surely
it’s nothing that’s too hard for Bill and Buddies to do! If you’re going to
try to be THE wordprocessor for the world, surely you could be a little
user-friendly.

I’ve read a few of the formatting discussions and they just confirm that
this whole process is excessively complicated. Why can’t there be a simple
solution, Bill Gates? Several people have mentioned how easy they found it in
Word Perfect. Why can’t Word be easy? If you have to go to forums and try to
find answers there, the program is broke!


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...ae842a165&dg=microsoft.public.word.pagelayout