A minor annoyance has occured recently with my MS Word. I write in semi-manuscript format-double spaced and with tabbed indentations for paragraphs. In the past, when I would hit enter to go to the next paragraph it would start in the tabbed position (I guess its like .5 inch back.) Lately, however, its been going right back to flush with the margin. Then it stopped. Now its doing it again.
I've looked through every options menu I can find and so far nothing about this..
Aggg to many vs
[This message has been edited by Merlion-Emrys (edited February 11, 2009).]
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
On the horizontal ruler atop your page there are two little gray sliding triangles. The top one controls the paragraph indent.
Posted by C L Lynn (Member # 8007) on :
My husband is a systems administrator, and he'd say, "That's Windows for you. Don't you just love it?"
I've encountered the same issue and decided just hitting Tab wasn't that difficult after all.
I can't wait till I can afford a MacBook. :P
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
Thanks allied. Any way to keep it from sliding over on me for no apparent reason?
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
Under tools > AutoCorrect Options > 'Autoformat as you type' tab > the check box that says 'Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces'
This toggles whether its manual or not. I usually just drag the bar where I want it to start a document, and as long as you don't tab or do anything strange, it should keep. If it goes sideways just press ctrl+a to select all, and reset the slider.
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
Ahh ha, I thought that box had something to do with it...
So, do I want it checked or unchecked?
Thanks so much...I know its a minor thing but it irritates me when I can't figure it out...
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
I have never messed with the check box. I just use the ruler slide. Also, you can go to Format > Paragraph > under the Indentation area is a drop down called 'Special'. You can set your first line indent there.
Then you could just save it as your default template.
Not to get too defensive of MS... but, C L Lynn -- won't you still be using Microsoft Word on your future MacBook? It's still the most popular word processor on Macs.
Posted by LAJD (Member # 8070) on :
I use office 2008 on the mac and office 2007 on windows. In my experience, all the Mac office 2008 apps are easier to use and have better performance than their counterparts on windows and much poorer performance that the XP products. Since I run windows in a VM on my mac, I hardly ever run the office 2007 products. I just use the Mac versions. They both produce .docx or.xlsx formatted files.
Love my mac. Wouldn't go to a PC for anything.
Leslie
Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :
Another thing to be aware of is that when you hit the return key, it will format the new para in the same fashion as the previous one. So if you centre a para, then hit return, the next para too will be centred.
It may change from one document to another because, under the hood, there's something called a template, which knows about formatting a document. You can have different templates for different docs, and they can feel sticky in the sense that a template for one document can stick onto a fresh document. This may be the reason its behaviour changes mysteriously. The help system will tell you about templates but it's not for the faint hearted. Simplest workaround for new docs is to first open a document you know is correctly formatted, then save it with a fresh filename, delete the content and start typing the new story.
Posted by Troy (Member # 2640) on :
I use, and recommend, Open Office writer.
Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :
Open Office Writer is a great -- free -- product. But since it's designed to be an open-source alternative to Word, with largely the same behaviours, switching to Open Office isn't likely to fix Merlion's problem.
[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited February 12, 2009).]
Posted by Troy (Member # 2640) on :
Well, actually, it is completely likely.
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
I've got it under control now that I know the source of the issue, thanks everyone.
Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :
"Well, actually, it is completely likely."
On this XP machine I have Word 2003 and Open Office 2.0.4. My understanding is that Open Office Writer is designed to be compatible with Word, same look 'n feel, compatible file formats, the works. Although there are differences, in respect of rulers and simple para formatting they appear, to me, to behave identically.
What am I missing?
[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited February 15, 2009).]
Posted by Troy (Member # 2640) on :
Just that if he installed Writer, whatever settings were causing the problem in Word would not be present in the default installation of Writer.
Also, Writer is not a clone of Word. It is similar to Word in the way that all word processing programs are similar to each other. If you know one, you can pretty much figure out any other. They all typically behave the same way. But it has many unique features, and uses a native file format (.odt) that I think is far superior to Word (.doc).
I didn't think it was out of line for me to recommend the program, under the circumstances, as there had been some discussion of other writing programs within the thread.
Posted by steffenwolf (Member # 8250) on :
One advantage to OpenOffice is you can save in PDF format.