Wordpad formatting: Why no color option when a large area?

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I can
still adjust the fonts OK. Yet sometimes the color is there when a multi-page document is highlighted. Anybody know about this? I
Googled without success.

 

[M.I.5¾]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a
lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I can still adjust the
fonts OK. Yet sometimes the color is there when a multi-page document is
highlighted. Anybody know about this? I Googled without success.

Whilst you may get answers here, the question would have a higher liklihood
of being answered if you were to ask the experts in one of the
microsoft.public.word newsgroups.

 

[Tom Willett]

: Whilst you may get answers here, the question would have a higher
liklihood
: of being answered if you were to ask the experts in one of the
: microsoft.public.word newsgroups.
:
Since MS Word and Wordpad aren't related, it's doubtful.

 

[Bob I]

Sounds like an intermittent problem. What is the source of the
"document". That may be the cause.

 

[HeyBub]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I
highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I can
still adjust the fonts OK. Yet sometimes the color is there when a
multi-page document is highlighted. Anybody know about this? I
Googled without success.

To change the color of selected text, all of the selected text has to be the
same color. That is your can change all of

black, black, black, black

to red, but you can't change all of

black, red, black, black

to blue. You first have to change the "red" to "black," then you can do it
all.

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a

Whilst you may get answers here, the question would have a higher liklihood
of being answered if you were to ask the experts in one of the
microsoft.public.word newsgroups.

I was wondering about that....

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I can

Sounds like an intermittent problem. What is the source of the "document". That may be the cause.

Just my own creation. Created on Wordpad I'm pretty sure. If that matters, please let us know. I never thought of the origin of
the file having impact on this.

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I

To change the color of selected text, all of the selected text has to be the same color. That is your can change all of black,
black, black, black
to red, but you can't change all of
black, red, black, black
to blue. You first have to change the "red" to "black," then you can do it all.

Just checked an open Wordpad document. Its all in black. When I highlight the whole thing (actually its only 2 pages long) the
color options aren't visible. (Format, Font). Actually when I highlight 2 lines it vanishes sometimes. In other areas I can
highlight half a page and it stays visible. Bizarre.

 

[Bob I]

Just my own creation. Created on Wordpad I'm pretty sure. If that
matters, please let us know. I never thought of the origin of the file
having impact on this.

If they mixed some unprintable characters into it text it may throw the
color choice into a confused state. Can you determine where in the
selecting the color option goes gray? And then restart the selection
after skipping a space?

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I

If they mixed some unprintable characters into it text it may throw the color choice into a confused state. Can you determine
where in the selecting the color option goes gray? And then restart the selection after skipping a space?

Sometimes its after only 2 lines are highlighted. Other times I can highlight a paragraph. Other times I can highlight and entire
multipage document. I'm using very simple fonts/sizes all in black. I'd like to be able to control color later though without
using Word or OpenOffice. They are so slow comparatively. Wordpad is like lightning.

 

[Bob I]

Sometimes its after only 2 lines are highlighted. Other times I can
highlight a paragraph. Other times I can highlight and entire multipage
document. I'm using very simple fonts/sizes all in black. I'd like to
be able to control color later though without using Word or OpenOffice.
They are so slow comparatively. Wordpad is like lightning.

Please turn on the Format bar, and then try my suggestion about
"selecting sections" again.

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I

Please turn on the Format bar, and then try my suggestion about "selecting sections" again.

I don't ever use Toolbar - just keyboard shortcuts. Toolbars waste vertical space. But when I did try it the A with the painter's
icon didn't change. I can change the whole page with that. But when I use the Font shortcut (Alt_O, F) Color options are either
there or they aren't. On the last multi-page document I tried I could highlight 2 lines and change color but not 3. I've noticed
this with previous versions of Wordpad. Should have investigated this before. I just wish I knew what is the determining factor
here.

 

[M.I.5¾]

: Whilst you may get answers here, the question would have a higher
liklihood
: of being answered if you were to ask the experts in one of the
: microsoft.public.word newsgroups.
:
Since MS Word and Wordpad aren't related, it's doubtful.

I read 'wordpad' as 'word' for some inexplicable reason.

 

[Bob I]

I don't ever use Toolbar - just keyboard shortcuts. Toolbars waste
vertical space. But when I did try it the A with the painter's icon
didn't change. I can change the whole page with that. But when I use
the Font shortcut (Alt_O, F) Color options are either there or they
aren't. On the last multi-page document I tried I could highlight 2
lines and change color but not 3. I've noticed this with previous
versions of Wordpad. Should have investigated this before. I just wish
I knew what is the determining factor here.

So the Icon always works but the occasionally the Menu doesn't? In
instances where the "Menu" doesn't work, will the R-click context menu
work? R-click, Font, Color?

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes.

So the Icon always works but the occasionally the Menu doesn't? In instances where the "Menu" doesn't work, will the R-click
context menu work? R-click, Font, Color?

Nope. Tried that already.
Buy the way, every time you reply something is adding a > and line between each reply. Are you using WLM to reply to the newsgroup
or something else? I'm using WLM 2009 build 14.....

 

[Bob I]

Nope. Tried that already.
Buy the way, every time you reply something is adding a > and line
between each reply. Are you using WLM to reply to the newsgroup or
something else? I'm using WLM 2009 build 14.....

Nope, I use the newsreader from Netscape 7, and those > denote quoted
material.

 

[Richard]

From your other thread in microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight
a lot, say half a page, the color option vanishes. I can still adjust
the fonts OK. Yet sometimes the color is there when a multi-page
document is highlighted. Anybody know about this? I Googled without
success. And is there any way of controlling the color of the
background in Wordpad? Can I change the color in Word, then see it in
Wordpad I wonder? Or any other program? I love working with
Wordpad - so quick and efficient but working on a white background is
tedious on the eyes. I love light gray. So nice and soothing.
Using black text of course.

Hi Will,

Have you tried changing your Monitor brightness?
Have you tried changing your window display to pale gray?

Right click desktop and click Properties.
Click "Appearance" tab at top.
Click "Advanced" button.
Click "Item" dropdown and choose "Window"
Note that Color 1 is white.
Click Color 1 dropdown, click light gray
Click Color 1 dropdown again, click Other.
Change "Lum" to 224. Click OK.
Look at sample display. (Change "Lum" up or down if needed.)
Click OK. Click OK. (Or Cancel, Cancel if you change your mind.

And is there any way of controlling the color of the background in
Wordpad? Can I change the color in Word, then see it in Wordpad I wonder?

Yes, but Word saves RTF with a lot of MSO garbage that greatly increases the
filesize. Open an RTF document with Notepad to see formatting.

Here are some excerpts from my reply to someone in another thread:

[begin excerpts:]

I like the light footprint and speed of WordPad, so sometimes I use it
instead of Word.

I haven't seen another post showing how to insert page breaks, so
here's how:
First, the document must be saved in Rich Text Format... ....
Close the document, and open it using Notepad. This will display all
of the RTF tags which WordPad automatically hides.

Scroll down in the document to where you want to place the page break,
then enter:
\page
This is the RTF tag for a page break.

Close and save the document from Notepad.

Open the document in WordPad, and using File > Print Preview, notice
that there is now a page break where you inserted \page.

After you do that once, and re-open it in WordPad, locate and select (double
click) the blank line where that page break is positioned, and ctrl+C copy
it to clipboard, and then you can ctrl+V paste that formatted page break
anywhere in WordPad without the hassle of further editing in NotePad.
....
Oh Wow! On a whim, I just created a 2x2 Table in Word, copied and pasted it
into Wordpad, added some content, and it saved and reloaded correctly. Back
in Word, added yellow background color in one cell, green-highlighted a
word, copied to WordPad, and yes, that works too! So, although WordPad does
not have any direct provision to create such features, it is capable of
displaying and saving documents with pasted RTF formatting.

[Y]ou could create a Word document with all sorts of special formatting,
and SaveAs FormatPlus.RTF, and then open it in a separate instance of
WordPad, and copy and paste from there into WordPad.

(Are the wheels in your brain turning faster now?
[:end excerpts]

I don't ever use Toolbar - just keyboard shortcuts. Toolbars waste
vertical space.

Change the toolbar so it does not take away from the vertical space:

In WordPad: Click View, Click (checkmark) Format Bar. With mouse, grab a
blank area of that bar and move it downwards over the text area and notice
how the outline rectangle thickens. While still dragging it, position it
over the menu bar to the right of the help item, and then while still
dragging it, move it up slightly onto the title bar until the rectangle
thickens, and position the bottom edge even with the bottom of the menu bar
and DROP it there. (Say: "Oh WOW! Is that cool or what?"

But when I use the Font shortcut (Alt_O, F) Color options are either
there or they aren't. On the last multi-page document I tried I could
highlight 2 lines and change color but not 3. I've noticed this with
previous versions of Wordpad. Should have investigated this before.
I just wish I knew what is the determining factor here.

Open the RTF document in NotePad and examine the paragraph, font and color
coding stuff, and notice the {} nesting of things. Wordpad can display RTF
formatted in other applications, but it has limited ability to manipulate
some RTF coding. What you are calling "lines" may be word wrapped screen
lines within a single paragraph, or separate paragraphs.

HTH. (Hope This Helps.
--Richard

 

[Will]

When I highlight a few lines I can adjust the color. When I highlight

Have you tried changing your Monitor brightness?

Yes - got it set up well.

Have you tried changing your window display to pale gray?

Never knew that was possible til now.

Right click desktop and click Properties.
Click "Appearance" tab at top.
Click "Advanced" button.
Click "Item" dropdown and choose "Window"
Note that Color 1 is white.
Click Color 1 dropdown, click light gray
Click Color 1 dropdown again, click Other.
Change "Lum" to 224. Click OK.
Look at sample display. (Change "Lum" up or down if needed.)
Click OK. Click OK. (Or Cancel, Cancel if you change your mind.

Very interesting. I shall play with this for a while. This is great. I wonder if there any program that would allow a keyboard
shortcut to instantly switch a light gray background to the default white background?

And is there any way of controlling the color of the background in
Wordpad? Can I change the color in Word, then see it in Wordpad I wonder?

Yes, but Word saves RTF with a lot of MSO garbage that greatly increases the
filesize. Open an RTF document with Notepad to see formatting.

Here are some excerpts from my reply to someone in another thread:

[begin excerpts:]

I like the light footprint and speed of WordPad, so sometimes I use it
instead of Word.

I haven't seen another post showing how to insert page breaks, so
here's how:
First, the document must be saved in Rich Text Format... ...
Close the document, and open it using Notepad. This will display all
of the RTF tags which WordPad automatically hides.

Scroll down in the document to where you want to place the page break,
then enter:
\page
This is the RTF tag for a page break.

Close and save the document from Notepad.

Open the document in WordPad, and using File > Print Preview, notice
that there is now a page break where you inserted \page.

After you do that once, and re-open it in WordPad, locate and select (double
click) the blank line where that page break is positioned, and ctrl+C copy
it to clipboard, and then you can ctrl+V paste that formatted page break
anywhere in WordPad without the hassle of further editing in NotePad.
...
Oh Wow! On a whim, I just created a 2x2 Table in Word, copied and pasted it
into Wordpad, added some content, and it saved and reloaded correctly. Back
in Word, added yellow background color in one cell, green-highlighted a
word, copied to WordPad, and yes, that works too! So, although WordPad does
not have any direct provision to create such features, it is capable of
displaying and saving documents with pasted RTF formatting.

[Y]ou could create a Word document with all sorts of special formatting,
and SaveAs FormatPlus.RTF, and then open it in a separate instance of
WordPad, and copy and paste from there into WordPad.

(Are the wheels in your brain turning faster now?
[:end excerpts]

I don't ever use Toolbar - just keyboard shortcuts. Toolbars waste
vertical space.

Change the toolbar so it does not take away from the vertical space:

In WordPad: Click View, Click (checkmark) Format Bar. With mouse, grab a
blank area of that bar and move it downwards over the text area and notice
how the outline rectangle thickens. While still dragging it, position it
over the menu bar to the right of the help item, and then while still
dragging it, move it up slightly onto the title bar until the rectangle
thickens, and position the bottom edge even with the bottom of the menu bar
and DROP it there. (Say: "Oh WOW! Is that cool or what?"

But when I use the Font shortcut (Alt_O, F) Color options are either
there or they aren't. On the last multi-page document I tried I could
highlight 2 lines and change color but not 3. I've noticed this with
previous versions of Wordpad. Should have investigated this before.
I just wish I knew what is the determining factor here.

Open the RTF document in NotePad and examine the paragraph, font and color
coding stuff, and notice the {} nesting of things. Wordpad can display RTF
formatted in other applications, but it has limited ability to manipulate
some RTF coding. What you are calling "lines" may be word wrapped screen
lines within a single paragraph, or separate paragraphs.

HTH. (Hope This Helps.
--Richard