Comments? What comments?
I just discovered that comments – most of which were spam – have been disappearing into the ether. Anyone who ever posted a comment here and wondered why I never responded… it’s because I never saw the comment. Hopefully… that has now been fixed. Hopefully.
Inline Picture - Slash bug in Word 2007 document search!
Fellow MVP Lisa Wilke-Thissen has discovered a pretty nasty bug in Word 2007. If you’re searching for a slash — / — (ASCII character 47), Word 2007 will also match any inline graphics. So, let’s say you’re searching for /^p (a slash followed by a paragraph mark). /^p will indeed match any slashes followed by paragraph marks. But, it will also perfectly match any inline graphics followed by paragraph marks. If you happen to be replacing /^p with something else, you will also end up replacing any inline graphics matched, too. /^? also matches any inline graphic.
This might not seem like a big deal to some users. However, some of us sometimes use / as a placeholder to facilitate find/replace. The / character is also a common character for a number of users in other circumstances as well.
So… when searching for /s in a Word 2007 document that also contains inline graphics, caution is advised – better be really certain before clicking Replace All. Note that the problem exists only in Word 2007 documents. When working in compatibility mode (Word 97-2003 document), the problem does not occur.
Normally, ^g is the character of choice for matching inline graphics in Word documents. In Word 2003, ^1 also works.
Insert from Camera or Scanner in Word 2007
From Word 2007’s Help file:
What happened to the From Scanner or Camera option for adding pictures to a document?
The From Scanner or Camera option for adding pictures to a document is not available in Microsoft Office Word 2007. Instead, you can add pictures from your camera or scanner by downloading the pictures to your computer first and then copying them from your computer into Word.
The second part of that is true enough. You can do it that way. The second part, however, is not necessarily true. In Word 2003, the command used was InsertImagerScan. You can access this functionality in Word 2007 in either of two ways:
Assign the InsertImagerScan command to a keyboard shortcut
Enshrine the InsertImagerScan command in a macro, then put that macro onto the Quick Access Toolbar.
Assign to a keyboard shortcut
Choose Office buttonðWord OptionsðCustomizeðKeyboard shortcuts: Customize.
Set Categories to All Commands.
Set Commands to InsertImagerScan.
Click in Press new shortcut key: and press a key combination you’d like to use (I used Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I).
Click AssignðClose.
Now, press the key combination you assigned. I get the following dialog:
I don’t have a scanner attached, but I do have several cameras… and I was able to insert a “live” picture from my camera. I see no reason this wouldn’t work with a scanner, as well.
Place a macro onto the Quick Access Toolbar
First, you’ll need a macro. In the Developer ribbon, click Macrosðtype InsertImagerScanðclick Create. This should give you something like the following:
Sub InsertImagerScan()
‘ InsertImagerScan Macro
‘ Inserts one or more images from a scanner or digital camera
On Error GoTo Nope
WordBasic.InsertImagerScan
Nope:
End Sub
1. Close the VBA editor, then right click the Quick Access Toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
2. Set Choose commands from: to Macros.
3. In the list, click on InsertImagerScan.
4. Click on Add.
5. If you want to give the macro a better icon, click on Modify, pick an icon, then click OKðOK.
That done, you can now use the new tool.
Caveats
Caveat 1: I’m running Vista, and I don’t know if this works in Windows XP. However, I don’t see why it wouldn’t, unless it doesn’t.
Caveat 2: This feature was not tested in Word 2007, and might not work with all scanners and cameras. So, if you encounter problems, you can chalk it up to “progress,” and use Microsoft’s “work-around” (i.e., use the software that came with your camera or scanner to capture the picture first, then use the Insert Picture from File tool).
The Password Requirement from Hell
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/276304
Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem…
Well, duh.
Very Nasty Vista Bug
Do not try this on any files you want to keep.
- In Vista, select a group of files you want to rename.
- Press F2 (Rename), and type a new name. The files are all renamed using that name, but each file after the first has a number added a la (1), (2), etc.
- Click EditðUndo Rename. The file are restored to their original names. So far, so good.
- Click EditðRedo Rename. All but one of the files disappear – they are permanently and irrevocably gone. History. Poof. All she wrote.
This is exceedingly nasty.
| Note: If you don’t have but want the menu bar in Vista’s Windows Explorer click OrganizeðLayoutðMenu Bar. |
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.
Language bar context menu problem
When I right-click the language bar, the context menu is mostly obscured by the Taskbar. When I right-click other parts of the Taskbar, this does not happen.
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.