Re: Applying styles -- another degradation from 2000 to 2003

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Hi Cindy,

>Did you ever, in any version of Word, use the dropdown style list for
>applying styles (via the keyboard)? This was always the fastest method, and
>it still works: [...] to activate the toolbar control, then start typing
>the style name. If you need to see the list, Alt+Down Arrow.

Zounds!! I never knew about that. (You meant to say CTRL+SHIFT+S, by the
way.)

I just don't know why downarrow shows only a very incomplete list of styles.
I checked "Customizing menus and toolbars" in the online help. It says:

---------------------
You can customize menus and toolbars yourself; you can add and remove
buttons and menus on toolbars, create your own custom toolbars, hide or
display toolbars, and move toolbars. You can customize the menu bar the same
way you customize any built-in toolbar (built-in toolbar: A toolbar included
with Microsoft Office programs; it is not created by the user.)- for
example, you can quickly add and remove buttons and menus on the menu bar-
but you can't hide the menu bar.
---------------------

And it stops there, without saying how.

There is a "See Also" followed by a "Customize your toolbars and menus"
link. One might expect that to lead to another help page, but it takes you
to http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC010036361033
, a webpage that talks out loud at you, trying to sell training services.

Regarding the user-defined keyboard shortcuts for styles method you
suggested before:

>since the keyboard shortcut can be stored in the "container" (document or
>template) in which the style is defined it shouldn't be that much more
>complex than managing the styles, themselves...

I think user-defined keyboard shortcuts are normally undesirable. They are
largely arbitrary, so if you have any number of them they're hard to
remember (it'd be quite a challenge, at least for me, to devise a uniform
scheme to designate user-defined shortcuts, and one that doesn't conflict
with Word's built-in shortcuts); they're normally not displayed, so you
don't see reminders; they make your interface non-standard, so your habits
won't work on someone else's system; and they're normally unnecessary since
a standard operation can accomplish the same thing about as efficiently
(e.g. in Word 2000, alt-o s <first-letter>). In general they violate the
fundamental software principle of simplicity -- avoid many specific rules,
seek a small number of general rules.

>Microsoft is trying to "listen" to what their automated statistics
>gathering tells them is the majority of users. And those are the ones who
>basically use Word as a fancy typewriter. Powerusers who know what styles
>are and work with them are in the minority.... things are moving even more
>radically away from the traditional Word interface...

You're depressing me....

"Cindy M -WordMVP-" <C.Meister-C@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:VA.0000b3ba.006daa09@xxxxxxxxx
Hi Uriel,

> Cindy, you must realize this is MORE WORK. It introduces complexity --
> customization, definitions of shortcuts, keeping things in sync -- where I
> needed none before.
>
Well, since the keyboard shortcut can be stored in the "container" (document
or
template) in which the style is defined it shouldn't be that much more
complex
than managing the styles, themselves...

> Perhaps your solution is the best option for me in 2003, and I thank you
> for
> the advice. But my post was more in the nature of a remark that 2003 is
> positively worse than 2000. Which seems incredible. I don't know if
> there's
> something wrong with the way MS listens to customers, or something wrong
> with the way customers use the product.
>
>From my experience, the reason is that Microsoft is trying to "listen" to
what
their automated statistics gathering tells them is the majority of users.
And
those are the ones who basically use Word as a fancy typewriter. Powerusers
who
know what styles are and work with them are in the minority.

If you've been following the discussion on the MS site and in the blogs,
you'll
have seen that things are moving even more radically away from the
traditional
Word interface... But for the moment...

Did you ever, in any version of Word, use the dropdown style list for
applying
styles (via the keyboard)? This was always the fastest method, and it still
works: Alt+Shift+S to activate the toolbar control, then start typing the
style
name. If you need to see the list, Alt+Down Arrow.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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.

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