metric settings in Word

[Allen_N]

This is something that has bugged me for years.

Like most of the world, I live in a metric country. I've set Location (in
Control Panel) to Australia, and Measurement Units (in Word) to centimeters
(which should actually be spelled "centimetres", BTW). However, page margins
and tabs in Word still default to imperial sizes (e.g. 1.27 cm, or 0.5 inch).

It's like when Canada went metric, and milk came out in the "new metric
size" of 1.14 litres (which, of course, was just a relabelled imperial
quart). Is there a way to force real metric sizes onto Word?

Thanks!

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

In Word 2003 or earlier, click on File | Page Setup, change the page
margins to whatever you consider to be a real metric size, click on
Default, and Word should remember the new page margins until you change
them again.

In Word 2003 or earlier, click on Format | Tabs, and change the default
tab stop measurement to whatever floats your ethnocentric boat.

Not sure why you expect Microsoft to know in advance what your personal
preferences are for these settings.

 

[Russ]

garfield-n-odie,

In Word 2003 or earlier, click on File | Page Setup, change the page
margins to whatever you consider to be a real metric size, click on
Default, and Word should remember the new page margins until you change
them again.

In Word 2003 or earlier, click on Format | Tabs, and change the default
tab stop measurement to whatever floats your ethnocentric boat.

ROTFL Nice phrasing.

 

[Allen_N]

Thanks, but I was hoping for something less tedious. Oh well, I guess I'll go
ahead and set up the defaults manually. I don't remember using the 'Default'
button before, so thanks for the tip.

I think you partly missed the point, though, about "personal preferences ...
for these settings". Word defaults to multiples of half an inch, because
these are round numbers. In metric measures, 1 centimetre would be a round
number; 1.27 is not. Furthermore, Word's defaults mean that none of the
margins line up with the graduations on the Ruler, when Measurement Units are
set to centimetres. That gets annoying when you're trying to equally indent
different paragraphs by dragging the slider on the Ruler.

And, the "ethnocentric" concept really misses the point when you consider
how much trouble Microsoft has gone to in marketing it's products worldwide.
(The language support features alone would blow away the measurement units
problem by about a factor of 1 million, I should think!)

I suppose it's a little thing, but I'm surprised it has survived for so many
versions.

 

[Russ]

Allen_N,
Your comment about a 'real' metric ruler option is certainly legitimate.
Give your feedback to Microsoft.

Thanks, but I was hoping for something less tedious. Oh well, I guess I'll go
ahead and set up the defaults manually. I don't remember using the 'Default'
button before, so thanks for the tip.

Doesn't the default option makes it less tedious?
It sounds like you expect margin setting to be automated somehow?

I think you partly missed the point, though, about "personal preferences ...
for these settings". Word defaults to multiples of half an inch, because
these are round numbers. In metric measures, 1 centimetre would be a round
number; 1.27 is not. Furthermore, Word's defaults mean that none of the
margins line up with the graduations on the Ruler, when Measurement Units are
set to centimetres.

That gets annoying when you're trying to equally indent
different paragraphs by dragging the slider on the Ruler.

Select different, noncontiguous paragraphs with the Control key pressed and
select by either click and drag or triple click in each paragraph. With all
the paragraphs selected, change all the settings at once by dragging the
slider on the ruler. Hold down the Alt key while dragging the slider on the
ruler to see more numeric detail.

 

[Allen_N]

Thanks, Russ.

Doesn't the default option makes it less tedious?
It sounds like you expect margin setting to be automated somehow?

I was thinking more about setting all the tabs, when I said that. But you're
right; as soon as I've got one document set up in a way that works well for
me, I'll have my default.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Allen_N

Two issues:

1. Under the bonnet ("hood" for our American friends playing along at home),
Word measures things like margins and tab stops in points. The inches or
centimetres that are displayed in (eg) the Page Setup dialog box are just to
amuse we humans. So bear in mind that occasionally you can set something to,
say, 7cm, and Word will later come back and tell you it's 6.99cm. Word
manages these conversions a lot better than some other programs, but you hit
the conversion problem occasionally.

I sympathize with you in wondering why, eg, 0.63cm is a good default
measurement for the indent on a bullet. But I have more sympathy for
Microsoft that distributes such defaults than for the people I meet in
offices who, with a straight face, tell me that they have decided they want
a top margin of 2.54cm!

2. If you want Word to be able to tell you how to spell Maribyrnong,
Parramatta, Woolloomooloo and Toowoomba, follow the instructions on the
following page to set up all three of the Windows, Office and Word settings
to Aussie English: http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I don't think changing something once to suit your personal preference
for all time or until you want something different can be characterized
as tedious.

You can change the ruler graduations by clicking on Tools | Options |
General | Measurement units: Centimeters | OK. You can change the
snap-to-grid interval when you drag along the horizontal and vertical
rulers by displaying the Drawing toolbar (View | Toolbars | Drawing),
clicking on Draw | Grid, and changing the horizontal and vertical
spacing to 0.25 cm or 0.5 cm or whatever.

Yes, Microsoft markets Office to users all over the world, and Microsoft
makes many Office features customizable by users all over the world to
suit their personal preferences. I used the word ethnocentric to
describe you, not Microsoft.

 

[Russ]

Your Welcome,

Thanks, Russ.


I was thinking more about setting all the tabs, when I said that. But you're
right; as soon as I've got one document set up in a way that works well for
me, I'll have my default.

With tabs, in case you didn¹t know. You can click in the tab icon in the
upper left of document window and it will either drop down a menu or rotate
which each click through all the different type of tabs and hovering over it
will display the name. When it stops on the one you want, drag it over to
the ruler to set it.

For time saving with formatting use the Format Painter. Look it up in Word
help if you haven't used it before. Take note: it acts differently if you
single click the icon or double click the icon.

 

[Allen_N]

You can change the ruler graduations by clicking on Tools | Options |

General | Measurement units: Centimeters | OK. You can change the
snap-to-grid interval when you drag along the horizontal and vertical
rulers by displaying the Drawing toolbar (View | Toolbars | Drawing),
clicking on Draw | Grid, and changing the horizontal and vertical
spacing to 0.25 cm or 0.5 cm or whatever.

Thanks for the tip.

Yes, Microsoft markets Office to users all over the world, and Microsoft
makes many Office features customizable by users all over the world to
suit their personal preferences. I used the word ethnocentric to
describe you, not Microsoft.

I got that. I just considered it to be misguided, if not self-descriptive.

 

[Allen_N]

Thanks Shauna,

... So bear in mind that occasionally you can set something to,
say, 7cm, and Word will later come back and tell you it's 6.99cm.

So that's it! I figured it had something to do with round-off error. I don't
know why I never thought about points.

 

[Russ]

In line message below.

Hi Allen_N

Two issues:

1. Under the bonnet ("hood" for our American friends playing along at home),
Word measures things like margins and tab stops in points. The inches or
centimetres that are displayed in (eg) the Page Setup dialog box are just to
amuse we humans. So bear in mind that occasionally you can set something to,
say, 7cm, and Word will later come back and tell you it's 6.99cm. Word
manages these conversions a lot better than some other programs, but you hit
the conversion problem occasionally.

I sympathize with you in wondering why, eg, 0.63cm is a good default
measurement for the indent on a bullet. But I have more sympathy for
Microsoft that distributes such defaults than for the people I meet in
offices who, with a straight face, tell me that they have decided they want
a top margin of 2.54cm!

Right Shauna, I forgot about points. Type points into VBA Help to see all
the conversions you can do in VBA to get what you need, too.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Heil, kangaroo.

Thanks for the tip.




I got that. I just considered it to be misguided, if not self-descriptive.

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Allen_N

Two issues:

1. Under the bonnet ("hood" for our American friends playing along at
home), Word measures things like margins and tab stops in points. The
inches or centimetres that are displayed in (eg) the Page Setup dialog box
are just to amuse we humans. So bear in mind that occasionally you can set
something to, say, 7cm, and Word will later come back and tell you it's
6.99cm. Word manages these conversions a lot better than some other
programs, but you hit the conversion problem occasionally.

Strictly speaking, Word's fundamental units aren't even points, they are
twips. A twip is 1/20th of a point. Dimensions for everything in Word are
stored internally as 16-bit integers of twips. That is why the maximum page
size that Word will support is about 22"x22" - 22 inches is about 2^15
twips.

 

[Allen_N]

Thanks, Johnathon.

Now you've reminded of another annoyance. I sometimes find that a document
does not line up the same on two different PCs running the same version of
Word. A paragraph might finish at the bottom of the page on one PC, but spill
over onto the 1st line of the 2nd page on the other PC.

I have realised that different printers have slightly different ideas of how
high a 12-pt 'X' in Times new Roman True Type (for example) ought to be. Do
you think all printers assign the same number of twips to a point, or is that
where the variation occurs? Is there an API call that returns the actual
height of a font as implemented on the printer?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

In the Format Tabs dialog, you can set the default tab stops to whatever you
wish.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP