Word 04 to 08

[Tom in Texas]

I just upgraded from Office 04 to 08. Couple of questions:

1. I told the installation procedure to remove all former versions of
Word. I go to the Applications folder and see that Office 04 is still
there. Was it not supposed to get removed? Should I remove it?

2. How do I upgrade all my 1000s of Word 04 documents to Word 08?

3. I use different color fonts. Looking at the color toolbar, I don't
see a number of colors I use all the time, such as bright green. Can I
customize that toolbar?

Thanks...

Tom in Texas

 

[John McGhie]

Well Howdee Pardner:

1. I told the installation procedure to remove all former versions of
Word. I go to the Applications folder and see that Office 04 is still
there. Was it not supposed to get removed? Should I remove it?

No, it wasn't supposed to remove the folder, just in case you had put
anything in there you wanted or needed to keep. I would leave it a month or
so just to make sure, then you can delete it.

2. How do I upgrade all my 1000s of Word 04 documents to Word 08?

Open them. Set your default Save format to .docx and it will save them as
..docx when you save.

3. I use different color fonts. Looking at the color toolbar, I don't
see a number of colors I use all the time, such as bright green. Can I
customize that toolbar?

In Word 2008, just because you "can't see it" does not mean it's not there.
(Sometimes it isn't, but usually whatever you are looking for has simply
moved.)

Yes, you can customise the toolbar, but you can't do anything to customise
the Font Colour dialog, which now gives you a much wider range of colours
than before.

However, specifying font properties such as "Colour" as direct formatting is
a very slow and clumsy way of driving Word 2008.

Look up "Styles" in the Word 2008 help, and make sure you allow the help to
go online so you can see the little movies that show you how to do this.

The bottom line is that a style is a named "collection" of formatting
properties (including colour) that you can apply with one click. It takes
the same amount of time to make a "Green" style as it does to format the
font with green, but after you have made the style, it's just one click to
apply it to any text.

Welcome aboard, nice to have you with us.

Cheers

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters 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
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Tom in Texas]

Thanks...that was helpful. I got to the New Style box, but don't know
where to go from there. Sorry to be dense, but I am not proficient at
this and I've never defined a new style. Would you please guide me a
little further and list the steps I need to take after getting to the
New Style box, to set up a new style where I can make text a color
with one click? Regularly I make text about five different
colors...red, bright green, blue, orange, magenta...I think that's
all... and I still can't quite see how to define a style to do that.
Thanks again!

tom

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Tom:

Word has about 200-ish styles predefined that you can customise to your
purpose.

For example, I typically use the "Heading 1" through to "Heading 9" series
for my headings, and I set them to different colours so I can tell at a
glance which is which when I am working on the document in Draft View.

So "Modify" the style Heading 2 and set its font colour to "Blue". Check
Add to template and save. Simple as that.

For body text, I would first find the Body Text style and set its spacing,
margins, indents and font to be what you want.

Then select the Body Text style and choose "New Style". Word will
automatically pick up all the properties you have defined for Body Text and
offer them to you in New Style. Change the name to "Body Text Green" and
set the Font colour to green.

Then Select Body Text again, New Style, "Body Text Red" and set its fond
colour to Red.

And so on...

As you create each style, right-click your toolbar, choose Customise, and
drag the new style onto the toolbar so it's only one click away.

It's worth putting in the practice to get good at this: you will save weeks
or months out of your life

Post back if you need more detail.

Cheers

Thanks...that was helpful. I got to the New Style box, but don't know
where to go from there. Sorry to be dense, but I am not proficient at
this and I've never defined a new style. Would you please guide me a
little further and list the steps I need to take after getting to the
New Style box, to set up a new style where I can make text a color
with one click? Regularly I make text about five different
colors...red, bright green, blue, orange, magenta...I think that's
all... and I still can't quite see how to define a style to do that.
Thanks again!

tom

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters 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
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Tom in Texas]

John... Thanks a lot for your time and guidance. Gradually I'm getting
it, but still not there entirely since my knowledge of Word is so
limited.

So, if you will, please give me a list of steps to take to set up a
style. For instance, I have a Word document, and have typed a sentence
in black. I want to change it to bright green. Give me a list of
things to do to set up the style, so that I can change the text color
with one click...or whatever it takes. Bear with me. I'll get this
sooner or later.

Tom in Texas

 

[CyberTaz]

See Word Help on the topic: Word Styles, then click the link at the bottom
of the Help Page: Define a Style. It provides clear instructions with
illustrations which can't be replicated here.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Tom in Texas]

Got it... I got colors styles set up for one document, and it works
fine. I opened another document, went up to Styles at the top of the
page and only the defaults are there. Clear Formatting, Heading 1,
Heading 2, etc. Do I have to set up new styles individually on every
document?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Tom;

Custom Styles are stored only in the document you create them in unless you
check thte box for "Add to template" in the New or Modify dialog. If you do
check the box the style is added to the template the document is based on.
New documents based on the template will inherit the styles.

For pre-existing documents you can import the a style in at least 2 ways:

One is to use the Organizer to copy the style from one document or template
into another. The advantage is that you can import several styles at one
time & import styles from different sources without leaving the Organizer
dialog. You can get to the Organizer from Tools>Templates and Add-ins.

Another method is to copy text which has a style applied to it in a source
document & paste it into the target document... the style will be brought in
with the content. You can then delete the content but the style will remain
available. A shortcut if it's just 1 or 2 styles on the spur of the moment,
but for other than that the Organizer is more efficient.

 

[Tom in Texas]

By Job...I think I've got it. Thanks, Bob, John, et. al.

Tom in Texas

 

[Tom in Texas]

One more thing... In the Format box in the upper left corner, is there
any way to remove unwanted formats? E.g., Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.?
Now that I've got "Red 22" and "Blue 22" I'd like to get rid of the
default formats.

TnT

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Tom:

Trust me, you WANT the Heading series to stay there

You can colour THEM if you like. I do. But leave them where they are.

Later, when you want to share documents with others, or to produce Tables of
Contents, or get your numbering working, or have your pages number right...
Heaps of things really, all depend on the document using the built-in
"Heading" styles

That said, you don't have much control over which styles appear in the list,
in Word 2008. Other versions of Word allow you to pick and choose: Word
2008 is missing that function.

And the Heading series are part of the Required Document Structure: they are
among the styles Word will not allow you to delete.

My solution to all of this is to make my OWN toolbar, and put on it only the
styles I actually USE, then I never have to look at the damn list at all

Look up "Customize" in the Help, and have your wicked way with it...
Ummm... Just make the changes one at time, will you? Because sometimes the
results can be a little ordinary, so every now and then you will want to
revert a change ...

Find your Normal.dotm and take a backup at regular times when you start
customising. Then if you REALLY break it, you can simply quit Word, re-name
the backup, and away you go again...

Enjoy: This not only saves you heaps of time, it also gets to be a lot of
fun!

Cheers

One more thing... In the Format box in the upper left corner, is there
any way to remove unwanted formats? E.g., Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.?
Now that I've got "Red 22" and "Blue 22" I'd like to get rid of the
default formats.

TnT

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters 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
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]