Re: How useful are Word 5.1a menus in Office 2004?

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Hi Zack:

Everyone has had a go at this, so I might as well pitch in, too :-)

On 18/11/05 3:06 AM, in article
1132243616.056915.115580@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Zack"
<asdfi23453@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 1. Going to 'Customize toolbars/menus' and choosing 'Word for
> Macintosh 5.1' opens up the 5.1 toolbar, but does not seem to change
> the actual menus. I discovered elsewhere in this message group that
> 'control-5' can activate the 5.1 menus, but just wondered if I'm
> missing something about the 'Customize toolbars/menus' command.

Word 2004 offers a heap of abilities that Word 5.1 did not have. I would
spend at least "some" of your time investigating those. The entire
user-base of Word spent the past ten years dreaming up ways to make a better
product -- are you quite confident that they were wrong about EVERYTHING??
:-)

I used Word 5.1. I now use 2003 and 2004. Would I go back? Hell no! Did
it take me a while to get used to the new ways of doing things? Ummm...
Yes! Do I use the menus and toolbars the way they come out of the box as
standard? Hell no... :-) Word is built for the "average" user, who knows
very little about Word or word-processing. That's not me -- or you. The
standard user interface is designed to place the simplistic stuff within
easy reach for people who have no interest in the greater power, flexibility
and stability professional tools offer. But, like a Harley Davidson, Word
is built to be improved. And (as some unkind motorcyclists enjoy pointing
out...) just like a Harley Davidson, Word needs a lot of improvement to make
it really "go" :-)

> 2. If I choose 'Word for Macintosh 5.1" under 'Compatibility'
> preference, will I create any compatibility problems if a document is
> opened using Word on a Windows computer? Is there any other downside
> to choosing 5.1 compatibility?

Yep: Stability, corruption, and compatibility. The Word 5.1. Format can
not describe many of the things that Word 2004 can produce. If you specify
Word 5.1 compatibility, you are stripping things from your document each
time you save. The things most affected are Tables, Graphics, Numbering and
special characters.

Many Windows users won't notice if you do this: if your documents are really
simple. If you produce complex documents, they will be broken, sometimes
badly so, on either platform and knowledgeable users will come back to you
asking you to re-send in "Word document format" :-)

> 3. While using 5.1 menus, is there any way to turn page numbering
> on/off? In Word 5.1 this command would be under Format>Section, but in
> Word 2004 with 5.1 menus page numbering is missing from the 'Sections'
> screen.

Double-click the header or footer that contains it and delete the field.

> 3. I've set Word 2004 to open new documents by default in 'Normal
> view'. I'd like new documents to open by default in 'Normal view' at
> 125% magnification. Is there any way I can do this?

Yes, but it needs a macro to make sure of it. (By default, a document will
open in the view and magnification it was last saved in. The macro will
force-override this behaviour.)

Put these three macros in your Normal template: If you can't remember how,
Daiya explains it here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/InstallMacroMacContent.htm


Sub AutoNew()
Call AutoOpen
End Sub

Sub AutoExec()
Call AutoOpen
End Sub

Sub AutoOpen()
'
' Macro1 Macro
' Macro recorded 18 November 2005 by John McGhie
'
If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView
Else
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView
End If
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 125
End Sub

>
> I'm sure I'll have more questions down the line...

Good. Makes us feel useful :-)

Cheers

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

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