Demonstration for MoosieAZ
The following is a screen shot of Word 2003, WordPad, and Notepad. Notepad is the active window. Notice that all three use Vista’s scheme (I actually use a darker blue than the default, but I get whatever color I choose, not the XP scheme):
How to Force Compatibility Mode
In Word 2007, when you choose OfficeðWord OptionsðSave, and set Save files in this format to Word 97-2003, you won’t get the “benefits” of compatibility mode until you actually save the file. This has been the source of much newsgroup discussion and frustration. Today, however, a user who had the opposite problem managed to tip us off to the existence of a solution (for him, all new documents were being created with Compatibility Mode in the title bar even before saving, the Save files in this format setting notwithstanding–indicating that what others wanted could actually be done).
The “culprit” turned out to be the CompatMode registry option setting, something which is not created by default, and whose presence in his registry is a pending mystery. I don’t know how the CompatMode option was created—I had to manually create it here—but creating it will cause Word 2007 to default to compatibility mode right from the start—even before you’ve attempted to save the file! This is a wonderful discovery! It puts Word 2007 on a par with Excel and several other Office 2007 programs. I suspect that this setting is supposed to be available through the interface, but was left out due to a programming oversight. Or, perhaps it was inserted using a Group Policy setting.
In any case…
To force compatibility mode for new document, do the following:
Find the following section in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options
In the right panel, right-click and choose NewðDWord (32-bit) Value.
Replace New Value #1 with CompatMode. Double-click CompatMode, and replace the 0 with a 1.
Close the registry, then start Word. With this setting in place, new documents you create will default to Compatibility Mode.
Why doesn’t Alt,FU bring up the Page Setup?
In a newsgroup, someone asked:
Is it possible to enable the keyboard shortcut mappings for the File menu in Word 2003? i.e. in word 2003 Alt+F+U was Page Setup, but now in 2007 it shows the Publish menu in the office button.
Apparently, this was an oversight. Or, perhaps they thought nobody used this keystroke. However, if you’re used to this legacy convenience, there’s no good reason not to keep on using it. Note, if the vertical ruler is displayed, you can double-click it to bring up the Page Setup dialog. You can also double-click the upper area of the horizontal ruler. But, both of those require using the mouse and having a steady hand. If you prefer the keyboard method, then try this:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+[plus sign on number pad]. This turns the mouse pointer into a cloverleaf.
2. Use that cloverleaf to click the Page Layout tab in the ribbon, then click on the Page Setup dialog launcher in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup section of the Page Layout tab in the ribbon.
3. This causes the Customize Keyboard dialog to appear, with the FilePageSetup command already selected.
4. Click in Press New Shortcut Key, and press Alt+F then U, it will display as Alt+F,U, as shown above.
5. Click Assign, then Close.
If you have Word set up to prompt before saving changes to Normal.dotm, click Yes when prompted.
Tip: I have FileSaveAll on my QAT so I can force Word to save Normal.dotm at any time (being careful not to save any stray Document # windows I might not want saved). [This is necessary because the old Shift+click File menu no longer exposes the Save All command, largely because the File menu has been replaced by the Pizza dialog.]
Organization Chart Add-in for Microsoft Office programs
Someone in microsoft.public.office.misc was trying to find the organization chart add-in for Office 2007. I confess–I looked, and it wasn’t there. Not in add-ins, and not where Help said it should be.
In theory, you choose Insert->Object. In the Create New tab, scroll down to Organization Chart Add-in for Microsoft Office programs, select it, and click OK. Only, it wasn’t there.
So, off I go to Office 2007 setup, and look under PowerPoint, and it’s there, and listed as if it’s installed. Clearly, it is–big as life.
But, it’s not in evidence in PowerPoint, Word, or Excel. So, I go through the motions, anyway. After pretending to change it to Run from My Computer, I then click Continue.
After a few seconds, setup says it’s done. So, I close setup and head back to Insert->Object. Now, lo and behold, I suddenly have an entry for it!
If I then click OK, the following dialog appears:
But, having said all that–I think the organization charts you get from SmartArt are much nicer. But, if you like the retro tools, now you know where to find ‘em.
Turning off Date AutoComplete in Word 2007
In microsoft.public.word.docmanagement, someone complained that Word 2007 offers to autocomplete days, months, and dates. Someone responded by posting the following URL, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100997751033.aspx, which explains that it’s Word’s AutoComplete feature, and cannot be turned off. That would be fine–if it were actually true.
As it turns out, there actually is a way to turn this off in Word 2007, the statement to the contrary in that article notwithstanding. If you run the following macro, date AutoComplete should no longer occur:
Sub TurnOffAutoComplete()
Application.DisplayAutoCompleteTips = False
End Sub
Or, if you prefer a toggle, replace False with Not(Application.DisplayAutoCompleteTips).
The problem was that AutoText autocomplete was causing problems in the Office 2007 beta because of the way Building Blocks were implemented. So, autocomplete for AutoText was removed. In Word 2003 and earlier, the autocomplete checkbox control both dates AND AutoText. In Word 2007, they disabled autocomplete for AutoText, but left it enabled for Dates.
At the same time they removed the checkbox from the interface, they nonetheless left the command in the object model. Hence, you can use this command to turn off the parts of autocomplete that were NOT removed.
Turning off the Mini Toolbar
In Word 2007, when you make a selection, the Mini Toolbar, shown below, appears. When you right-click in a document, it also appears.
Word’s interface provides a way to prevent the Mini Toolbar from appearing when you first make a selection. However, the interface does not provide a way to prevent it from appearing when you right-click in a document.
To turn it off when you first make a selection, choose Office->Word Options->Popular, and remove the check next to Show Mini Toolbar on selection–the very first option–shown below.
What about the rest of the time? Thanks to fellow MVP Tony Jollans, I now have the answer. Simply write a one-command macro with the following statement:
Options.ShowMenuFloaties = False
This turns “floaties”–Microsoft’s name for the Mini Toolbar–off. If you’d prefer a toggle, instead, use the following:
Options.ShowMenuFloaties = Not (Options.ShowMenuFloaties)
This one toggles the Mini Toolbar on and off. I just created that macro and assigned it to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F. Now, anytime the Mini Toolbar gets in the way, I can toggle it off. If I decide I want to use the Mini Toolbar, a quick press of Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F turns it back on.
Errata: Full Screen not really RIP
In the microsoft.public.word.docmanagement newsgroup, Martin Gifford pointed out that I mistakenly indicated that Full Screen view (not to be confused with Full Screen Reading View) had been completely removed from Word 2007. Indeed, on page 858, in the Word 2003 > Word 2007 commands appendix, I indicated that View->Full Screen was RIP. This is not correct.
In defense, I based this on information deduced from Microsoft’s Interactive Applet that shows where Word 2003 commands are located in Word 2007. If you choose View->Full Screen in the applet, you see this:
Notice that View and Full Screen Reading are both highlighted. Since Full Screen Reading and Full Screen aren’t the same, this allowed me to incorrectly conclude that Full Screen was no more. Searches in the command list in customizing the Quick Access Toolbar had turned up empty in searching for the legacy Full Screen or View Full Screen commands.
Oops.
I should have been searching for Toggle Full Screen View, instead:
As you can see, it’s not gone. You can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar if you like. Or, you can press Alt+V, U, and voila! The legacy keystrokes work. Thanks to Martin Gifford and Tony Jollans for pointing this out.
Where is Prompt for document properties in Word 2007?
In the microsoft.public.word.docmanagement newsgroup, someone asked:
In previous versions of Word, you could turn on an option to display the properties dialog box every time a new document was saved. Pretty easy.
In Word 2003’s Tools->Options->Save tab, you could tell Word to prompt for document properties
Who can tell me how to do this in Word 2007. Can’t find the option anywhere.
In the Developer tab (if it’s not showing, turn it on in Word Options->Popular), click Document Panel. At the bottom of the Document Information Panel dialog box, tick the Always show document information panel on document open and initial save option.
Making Word 2007 a Little More Familiar
Moving from Word 2003’s toolbars and menus to Word 2007’s ribbon can be a bit of a shock to many users of earlier versions of Word. Some of this shock can be eased, however, by making your most-used tools from Word 2003 as visible as possible in Word 2007.
Contrast the interfaces for Word 2003 and Word 2007. Here, I’ve told Word 2003 to show the Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows:
Notice that right above the ruler, you see the style name, the font name, and the point size. For the most part, no matter what you’re doing in Word, this information is always there where you can see it.
Now, take a look at the default view for Word 2007:
Here, too, you see the style, font, and point size, at least initially. However, if a style other than the ones that fit in the current style gallery window is one other than the first 4 or 5 (sometime more, sometimes fewer), then the current style name isn’t available to the user. Moreover, if you move out of the Home tab, style, font, and point size are no longer knowable at a glance.
I’m guessing that the programmers at Microsoft aren’t writers. I can tell this because no veteran Word writer would put up with not knowing at all times the current style, font, and point size. These are vital pieces of information. Well, perhaps you don’t agree. If you don’t, then this post isn’t meant for you. It’s meant instead for users who want to know at all times what’s in their document.
A solution is at hand, however, in the form of the Quick Access Toolbar, or QAT as it’s more affectionately known. First, look at where the Quick Access Toolbar is. It’s up there in the stratosphere, thousands of miles above where you’re working. This means that to see it, you’re going to have to look way above where you’re accustomed to looking. It also means that you’re going to have to move the mouse quite a bit more than you did when accessing the Formatting toolbar in Word 2003 and earlier.
So, let’s move it. Right click the QAT and choose Show Quick Access Toolbar Below the Ribbon, as shown here.
Great. Now the QAT is closer to the battlefield, even if the selection of tools is somewhat lacking. Let’s address that problem right now.
First, let’s add a style tool to the QAT so you can see what you’re wearing, so to speak. Right click the QAT and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. Set Choose commands from: to Commands Not in the Ribbon. Click in the list of commands and tap the T key to accelerate to just below the last command that starts with “S”. Scroll up a few commands and look for one that says Style. When you hover the mouse pointer over it, you see this:
The word Classic is the clue that you’re in the right place. With Style selected, click Add to move the command into the right-hand panel. Click the up arrow (5) to the right of the right panel until Style is at the top:
Click OK. Let’s see what it looks like now:
Great! Now we can always tell what style is applied at the insertion point. Not so great, however, is that unless the Home tab is displayed, you can’t necessarily tell what font and point size are selected. Let’s fix that.
In the Home tab, right click the font tool’s dropdown arrow, and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar. Next, right click the point size tool’s dropdown arrow and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
This done, you’re almost there:
But, there’s a visual problem. If you came here from Word 2003, you’re used to the three tools–style, font, and point size–being side by side. Click the dropdown arrow at the right end of the Quick Access Toolbar and remove the checks next to Save, Undo, and Redo. You’ll have to do this in three motions, since the dropdown list doesn’t remain displayed.
Once that’s done, the three formatting tools you added will now be side by size. Now you can click the dropdown arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar and put those tools back. They’ll be added to the right of point size, rather than where they were.
If you like, you can set up the newly positioned Quick Access Toolbar as a combination of Formatting and Standard toolbar tools so that the tools you need most often are right in front of you:
From left to right, we now have: Style, Font, Point size, New, Open, Save, Bold, Italic, and so on. But, notice which ribbon tab is selected: Review.
Now, no matter which ribbon tab is displayed, you’ll always have those tools at the ready. But, most important, if the style, font, or point size in the current document ever look a little strange to you, you’ll be able to tell at a glance what’s what.
Bigger matrices using the Linear method for inserting equations
As shown here, Word 2007’s equation interface provides a maximum matrix size of 3×3:
So, what if you need a 3×4, 4×4, 4×3, or some other size matrix? Are you out of luck? Not at all.
Begin by inserting a 3×3 matrix as shown above. What you see in your document is shown here, minus the “Click here” balloon:
Click as shown to drop down the control menu for the equation object for the choices shown at the right. Click on Linear.
This now exposes the ugly syntax for creating a matrix using the linear syntax:
So, what does this mean? Well, first of all, you’re not seeing the entire picture. What’s missing is the full syntax. If you could see the full syntax, you’d see:
\matrix(&&@&&@&&)
& corresponds to columns, and @ corresponds to rows. For x & characters, you get x+1 columns. For y @’s, you get y+1 rows.
When modifying the syntax to add additional columns, it’s easy. Just add a & as shown here:
(&&&@&&@&&)
Now, right-click the equation and choose Professional, and you’re rewarded with:
Right-click again and choose Linear, however, and you’ll see that Word automatically completed the syntax for you:
(&&&@&&&@&&&)
That’s because ragged matrices aren’t allowed. What’s a ragged matrice? Had they been permitted, the modified matrix using (&&&@&&@&&) would’ve looked something like this:
| Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Â | Â | Â | Â |
Â
So, if you wanted a 4×4 matrix, what would you do? Insert a 3×3 and modify like so:
(&&&@&&@&&@&&)
Notice that I’ve added another column, and I’ve said to include 4 rows in that column. But, I haven’t added additional &’s in the other parts of the syntax specification. Nonetheless, when I right-click the equation and choose Professional, I now get this:
If I now flip this back to linear, I see that Word graciously filled out the needed syntax for me:
(&&&@&&&@&&&@&&&)
When going the other way – shrinking an existing matrix – you would need to completely modify the syntax. Word isn’t smart enough to sense that you’ve removed an & and now want a bunch more removed. But, frankly, if you want a smaller matrix, just use the built-in user interface.