Semicolon = period

[DrElwinRansom]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel This is really annoying! Apparently Office 08 thinks that a semicolon is the same thing as a period. It capitalizes after the semicolon, which violates every punctuation norm I know of.

Almost as bad is the fact that when you go back and change it, it defaults to adding the words you change to a list of words you don't want to capitalize *after periods*. So after typing "...answer; the...", it automatically changes it to "...answer; The..." but then when I manually change it back, it no longer autocorrects "the" after a period ("...answer. the....&quot.

Granted, this list of words not to capitalize after periods can be disabled, but then I'm stuck manually correcting every single word after semicolons. Semicolons are commonly used in any mature scholastic work, and the base problem is that Office 08 doesn't differentiate them from periods. This is mind-boggling.

The response will probably be "Tough luck," right?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Elwyn:

No, the answer is "You have an problem with your copy of Word". It doesn't
do it here, for me.

You have not stated the update level of your Office and OS X, so that's the
first place to start. When you have got both fully updated, re-start the
system and if it's still doing it, come back, and we will work through some
trouble-shooting. This is a solvable problem.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel This
is really annoying! Apparently Office 08 thinks that a semicolon is the same
thing as a period. It capitalizes after the semicolon, which violates every
punctuation norm I know of.

Almost as bad is the fact that when you go back and change it, it defaults to
adding the words you change to a list of words you don't want to capitalize
*after periods*. So after typing "...answer; the...", it automatically changes
it to "...answer; The..." but then when I manually change it back, it no
longer autocorrects "the" after a period ("...answer. the....").

Granted, this list of words not to capitalize after periods can be disabled,
but then I'm stuck manually correcting every single word after semicolons.
Semicolons are commonly used in any mature scholastic work, and the base
problem is that Office 08 doesn't differentiate them from periods. This is
mind-boggling.

The response will probably be "Tough luck," right?

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[DrElwinRansom]

John,

Gosh, looking back at my original post, I regret that I sounded so exasperated. I sounded like a jerk -- or worse, like my wife on PMS. My sincere apologies.

Anyway, I'm using version 12.2.4 of Office, and 10.5.8 of OS X. No updates are available for either software. Something I just now (sheepishly) noticed is that the only document doing this is my dissertation's document (of all things).

Do you need any more information? Thanks for your help!

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Elwin:

No worries: Word problems afflict a larger proportion of the human race
than PMS, and just as often, so we're pretty used to venting in here

OK, since everything is fully up-to-date, and it's particular documents (not
all documents) then the next thing to check is the Language of the text.

Word obtains its proofing and grammar rules from the language marked on the
text. Select the text in question and ensure that it has been marked in the
language you think you're using.

If it's marked as a different language, or worse, as "No Proofing", then the
rules may be disabled.

If it's neither of those, you can try a Maggie to replace the document
properties. The Maggie:

1. Create a new blank document
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicised the
technique.

Hope this helps

John,

Gosh, looking back at my original post, I regret that I sounded so
exasperated. I sounded like a jerk -- or worse, like my wife on PMS. My
sincere apologies.

Anyway, I'm using version 12.2.4 of Office, and 10.5.8 of OS X. No updates are
available for either software. Something I just now (sheepishly) noticed is
that the only document doing this is my dissertation's document (of all
things).

Do you need any more information? Thanks for your help!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!