Intercepting built-in commands

[larrysulky]

A long time ago (October 2003), Cindy Meister wrote in this newsgroup,
under this subject line, the following:

Hi Andrew,


This is now supported in Word 2003...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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I remember seeing this claim elsewhere and elsewhen from Cindy, and if
I recall correctly it had to do with the Keep Track of Formatting
setting under Tools > Options > Edit. But that doesn't work and I
cannot find anything that does. Is there absolutely no way to
intercept the command that triggers the application of a style from
the Styles and Formatting menu in order to ensure that a paragraph
style is applied only to an entire paragraph? I know that I can fix
them after the fact but a macro that must paddle through a large
document looking for every occurrence of every style that ends in "
Char" will take a long time to process, while the user is waiting.

TIA
---larry

P.S. Who in the world ever thought this Word "feature" was desired and
desirable???

 

[Stefan Blom]

"Limit formatting to a selection of styles" (in the Protect Document task
pane) does what you want. From Word 2003 Help:

*****
Restrict formatting of a document
Applies to: Microsoft Office Word 2003

When you restrict the formatting of a document, you prevent users from
applying styles that you don't explicitly make available. You also prevent
users from applying formatting directly to text, such as bulleted or
numbered lists or font characteristics. When formatting is restricted, the
commands and keyboard shortcuts for applying formatting directly are
unavailable.

On the Tools menu, click Protect Document.
In the Protect Document task pane, select the Limit formatting to a
selection of styles check box.
Click Settings.
In the list of formatting styles in the Formatting Restrictions dialog box,
select the check boxes for the styles you want to allow, and clear the check
boxes for the styles you don't want to allow in the document.
Tips

To limit formatting to the minimum number of recommended choices, click
Recommended Minimum. You can restrict formatting to fewer choices, but doing
so removes styles that Microsoft Word uses in certain features, such as
tables of contents and bulleted or numbered lists.
If you want to retain certain AutoFormat features, such as changing "1/2" to
"½," select the Allow AutoFormat to override formatting restrictions check
box.
Click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
Type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm
the password.
*****

 

[larrysulky]

Thanks, Stefan -- this might work very well. There are a few
implementation details I'll have to work out, but overall I think this
is the solution I've been looking for for a long time. Funny no one
ever mentioned this as a solution in any of my previous posts on the
matter.

Thanks again!
-larry

 

[Stefan Blom]

Glad I could help--or at least contribute...

FWIW, The suggestion from Cindy Meister is the only post I've seen on the
subject too.