Toolbar buttons

[Guest]

I recently upgraded to Word 2003 and am very disappointed that the toolbar
buttons that you make yourself look terrible! Using the Customize function,
then right-clicking on a button, you can still go in and "Change button
image" but it's as if the resolution is all off. There's no way to draw a
straight line anymore, and the result looks horrible.

I have always created my own buttom images (or modified existing ones) for
functions that didn't have a ready-made image (only the text, which takes up
way more room). But there doesn't seem any way to do this now that Word is
using these high-resolution button images. Even if I go in and modify one of
these new images, it still looks terrible. It doesn't seem to resave it in
the same resolution.

Is there some trick to this I'm missing? Or is there a place where one can
get extra high-res images? Or is there a way to create an image in a graphics
program and import it?

Thanks.

Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have Word 2003, and I haven't seen this problem. The button editor
includes a preview that shows you exactly how your button will look. Perhaps
your problem arises from your display in some way--screen resolution,
ClearType (on an LCD screen), or some other setting? One thing I do notice
is that some of Word's built-in buttons use colors that are not available in
the color picker, so it is not possible to duplicate the "fuzzy" icons on
these buttons, but I prefer not to do that, anyway.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for replying, Suzanne. I wondered that too at first and I've tested it
in a variety of standard resolutions on my CRT screen but they all show the
same thing. When I do a test button with just a single-pixel diagonal line
from one corner to the opposite corner, it is always jagged -- regardless of
the resolution.

I know what you mean about the added colours in the icons. I found that
disappointing too but I can live with it. This is a totally separate problem.

Any other ideas? It sounds like this might be a technical glitch. Where do I
go to report this directly to MS?

Thanks again.

Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I've published a screen shot at
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/images/ButtonEditor.gif that illustrates
what I'm getting. The image is not a single-pixel diagonal line, so perhaps
it doesn't meet your criteria, but I think it looks rather nice. One that
does have a single-pixel line is
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/images/ButtonEditor2.gif. I make no
representations about the artistic qualities of this one, but it doesn't
seem terribly jaggy to me.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for posting the images. My test button looks okay when it's in the
button editor too, but looks crummy when it gets onto the tool bar. I've
posted two screen captures to show you what I mean:

http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/testonly/screencapture.jpg (showing the button
editor)
http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/testonly/screencapture2.jpg (showing the toolbar
version)

Again: the toolbar wobbly effect happens no matter what resolution I set my
monitor to (it's typically at 1152x864). Very weird.

Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This might have something to do with your screen resolution, which looks
rather coarse (your buttons on the toolbar are larger than the preview in
the dialog and about twice as big as the ones on my screen). I'm using 1024
x 768 on a 17" monitor. Also check to make sure that you don't have "Large
icons" selected on the Options tab of Tools | Customize.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I'm using 1152x864 on a 15" screen. I
think the image files look a bit coarse because of the resolution. It's not
as fuzzy in the real thing (the actual Word screen) as it is in the image.

I don't see how it would be my resolution or screen because it was only when
I recently upgraded to Word 2003 from 2000 that I started having this
problem. It was fine on the old version. Even the old self-created buttons
that got imported in with the upgrade from the previous version look bad.
Trying to clean them up with current editing or starting fresh doesn't fix
the problem. That diagonal line button was a test that I created just for
this test, starting fresh with a new blank button.

Actually, I think I might have first noticed the effect when I upgraded
FrontPage to 2003 from 2002, not long before I upgraded Office. But the
effect was only in FP/03, not in Office/00. Then it was happening in Office
after I upgraded to 03.

I still think this is some weird technical glitch that MS ought to be aware
of and looking at. Can you tell me where I would contact them about this?
Thanks again!

Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, I carefully imported my Normal.dot from Word 97 to Word 2002 (on
different machines) so that I could retrieve my customized buttons, and they
turned out *awful.* The conversion had turned my nice clear black lines into
"fuzzy" smoothed ones (with the shades of gray). I had to do them over (at
least one was improved in the process), but I agree that you seem to have a
particular problem. One thing you might investigate: if your screen (like my
monitor) provides controls for adjusting the height and width of the
display, it may be that the aspect ratio of the display area is just a
little bit "off." That still doesn't really explain, however, why the button
looks fine in the Button Editor and terrible on the toolbar.

I'm running out of ideas; perhaps someone else would like to weigh in? If
you don't get any more answers here, you might try posting in
microsoft.public.word.drawing.graphics, since I would think the same factors
might affect drawings.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.