Consistent style for autoshapes

[Werner]

I start to work on a word document which uses several kinds of
autoshapes as graphical elements. There will be e.g. many rectangles
with the same color and shadow setting used as background for text
paragraphs. I want to use autoshapes because they give me more visual
control than paragraph formatting alone.

Now, what happens if after completing the document it turns out that
the autoshape line or shadow style should better be changed? Do I have
to select and reformat all hundred occurrences of each kind of
autoshape individually to maintain a consistent layout, or is there a
way that works like format styles: I change one instance and all others
of the same kind will follow?

Is there anybody who has an advice how this can be accomplished?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Werner,

From Tools=>Customize=>Commands use the Drawing
category and drag the 'Select Multiple Objects'
command to the Drawing toolbar and place it next
to the White Arrow (Select object) command.

Use the new command and select all of the items
you want to change then apply the change.

======
I start to work on a word document which uses several kinds of
autoshapes as graphical elements. There will be e.g. many rectangles
with the same color and shadow setting used as background for text
paragraphs. I want to use autoshapes because they give me more visual
control than paragraph formatting alone.

Now, what happens if after completing the document it turns out that
the autoshape line or shadow style should better be changed? Do I have
to select and reformat all hundred occurrences of each kind of
autoshape individually to maintain a consistent layout, or is there a
way that works like format styles: I change one instance and all others
of the same kind will follow?

Is there anybody who has an advice how this can be accomplished? >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx

 

[Nick Hebb]

From Tools=>Customize=>Commands use the Drawing

category and drag the 'Select Multiple Objects'
command to the Drawing toolbar and place it next
to the White Arrow (Select object) command.

Use the new command and select all of the items
you want to change then apply the change.

This is one of my pet peeves with drawing autoshapes in Word. Selecting
multiple objects will let you change the lines and fill, but you can't
change the text formatting for more than one autoshape at once.

Did Microsoft change this capability in Word 2003? I wrote up a piece
on this here: http://www.breezetree.com/article_excelvsword.htm#tip2.
But I'm using Office XP, so if this is incorrect in Word 2003 I'd
appreciate some feedback so I can make the correction.

 

[Jay Freedman]

This is one of my pet peeves with drawing autoshapes in Word.
Selecting multiple objects will let you change the lines and fill,
but you can't change the text formatting for more than one autoshape
at once.

Did Microsoft change this capability in Word 2003? I wrote up a piece
on this here: http://www.breezetree.com/article_excelvsword.htm#tip2.
But I'm using Office XP, so if this is incorrect in Word 2003 I'd
appreciate some feedback so I can make the correction.

In either version, define a character style with the format you want. Select
all the autoshapes and apply the character style. After that you can change
the formatting in all autoshapes just by modifying the style.

 

[Nick Hebb]

I just tried that, and I can't get it to work for multiple shapes.

If I define a new style (MyAutoshapeStyle1), select multiple shapes,
then apply the style, nothing happens. The style dropdown shows the
name of the new style, but the format does not change. If I click away
then click back on a single shape, the style reverts to Normal.

But If I apply the new style to a single shape, then the formatting
change is retained.

Any suggestions? I would be cool if I could figure out a way to do
this.

Thanks,

Nick Hebb
BreezeTree Software
http://www.breezetree.com

 

[Werner]

Thanks, Bob.

I didn't know there is a dialog box where I can pick shapes by name.
Since it seems that I cannot arrange the predefined names differently I
still have to go thru the whole document visually (around 200 pages)
and find all shapes with a certain format. And I have to do this all
over again if I want to change the overall layout of my document.
I thought there was a trick to define something like a format style for
shapes, which I can change and for example the corresponding
rectangles immediately get more 3D-depth.

Alternatively forming groups of shapes would be fine, but seems not to
extend beyond a single page.

I already considered writing a makro which picks up all similar shapes
and reformats them.

Werner

 

[Jay Freedman]

I just tried that, and I can't get it to work for multiple shapes.

If I define a new style (MyAutoshapeStyle1), select multiple shapes,
then apply the style, nothing happens. The style dropdown shows the
name of the new style, but the format does not change. If I click away
then click back on a single shape, the style reverts to Normal.

But If I apply the new style to a single shape, then the formatting
change is retained.

Any suggestions? I would be cool if I could figure out a way to do
this.

Thanks,

Nick Hebb
BreezeTree Software
http://www.breezetree.com

I tried it before I posted before, and I just repeated it. This was in
Word 2003, though, and I think you said you have 2002. I'm not sure
whether the behavior changed between versions.

I tried it with a character style and with a paragraph style, and they
both worked.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Werner,

Probably a bit late at this point but
when you insert a picture in Word you can use
the Format=>Picture=>/Web\ tab to add descriptive
text that will appear next to the picture name
when you use the Select Multiple Objects Command.

Except for graphics formatted as 'inline with text'
(where you can use the Edit=>Replace commands to
some extent to modify the inserted graphics), the
Select Multiple Objects tool should let you adjust
shadow settings, line settings and fill colors.

As another approach you can setup one graphic with
attributes you like and then use the Format Painter tool
to apply it to other graphics, either individually or
ones you select with the Multiple Object Tool.

You could save a 'sample' graphic with the formatting
'style' you like as an autotext entry and use it to
be the pallette you copy to the format painter to apply
to your other graphics then delete that graphic again
after its use as a reference item.
========
Thanks, Bob.

I didn't know there is a dialog box where I can pick shapes by name.
Since it seems that I cannot arrange the predefined names differently I
still have to go thru the whole document visually (around 200 pages)
and find all shapes with a certain format. And I have to do this all
over again if I want to change the overall layout of my document.
I thought there was a trick to define something like a format style for
shapes, which I can change and for example the corresponding
rectangles immediately get more 3D-depth.

Alternatively forming groups of shapes would be fine, but seems not to
extend beyond a single page.

I already considered writing a makro which picks up all similar shapes
and reformats them.

Werner>>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx

 

[Werner]

Thanks again Bob,

one more of these wonderful tricks, the Format -> Autoform -> Web
feature! I tested it and will setup an infrastructure in my document by
marking the template for every type of shape with a specific comment.
Then I can easily select them by name in the multiple objects dialog
box and change their properties. And if I get tired of selecting
manually I have seen the AlternativeText property in the VB object
model, so that I might be able to select them by a macro.

I suppose the character and paragraph styles discussed by Nick and Jay
won't help me because I cannot store the advanced graphical settings
(shadow depth etc.) in them.

Thanks again Werner