Coping with Word's Idiosyncrasies

You may have noticed what appeared to you to be capricious formatting changes in your Word Document that you did not intentionally make. These are caused by codes that get left in Word when changes are made, but which you cannot access.

Some of these are:

• Capriciously changing the font
• Putting an extra line between each paragraph
• Format problems that still resist undoing.
• Icon that is in your way after pasting
• Changing the formatting of a pasted object
• Can't figure out how to do in Word 2007 what you could do in Word 2003 (Must be opened in Internet Explorer). Use the Word 2003 command and what you need to do in Word 2007 will appear.
• Reveal Formatting (This little gem will allow you to find and undo some formatting problems.)

 

Capriciously changing the font

As some of you have discovered, MS Word has a bad habit of capricious font changes in a document. Unfortunately, it takes too much energy to keep fighting this while you are writing. There is, however, a quick cure.

1. Don't pay any attention to it while you are writing.
2. When your document is fully edited and you are ready for the final save do the following.
   1. Tap Ctrl-A. All your document will suddenly have white text on a black background indicating that the entire document has been selected.
   2. With the document selected, follow the information for Word 2003 or Word 2007 to change the font and size of the entire document to one typeface and size.

Return to Prior Screen

 

Icon that allows change to the formatting of pasted tex, but can be in your way after pasting.

If you want to change the way the text you paste looks, right click on this icon and make your selection from the choices that drop down. If it is in the way of reading the text, tap Esc and it will disappear,

Return to Prior Screen

 

Reveal formatting

This little gem, although not as easy to use as Word Perfect's reveal codes, can be a help for such things as paragraphs that are in the wrong place, or other annoying formatting. Once you have the Reveal Formatting window up, click on the offending place, then select from the window the problem, i.e. under Font or paragraph. This will open a screen that allows you to make the changes needed.

In Word 2003, on the menu line click on Format>Reveal Formatting.

In Word 2007:

Click on the Office Logo. On the bottom left of that window, click on Word Options Choose Customize from this screen Be sure that "All Commands" is in the green box Scroll down to Reveal codes and select it Click on Add Click OK

 

These actions place the icon for reveal formatting in the quick access bar at the top of your screen. When you want to reveal codes, click on the icon. To turn it off, click again.

Return to Prior Screen

 

Format problems that still resist undoing.

If you find that there are formatting problems in Word:

1. Select the text both before and after the error.
2. Tap Ctrl+X (cut)
3. Open Notepad by
   1. Clicking start>All programs>Accessories>Notepad
   2. Paste the text there.
   3. Tap Ctrl+A to select all the text again
   4. Tap Ctrl+C to copy the text.
4. Return to Word and paste it in.

What this does is erase any coding that is in that section of text.

Return to Prior Screen

 

 

Making Word format the way that a document should look can often be a frustrating problem. This page provides some help for overcoming these frustrations.

Created May 15, 2009

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