Help in dumbing-down Word

[Guest]

Okay. I 'upgraded' to Office 2003 a while back, and generally am working
away contentedly. However, the attendant version of Word is too smart for
me. I've unchecked all the pertinent boxes I can find, but am still fighting
the application's overwhelming desire to auto-format things for me.
Depending on what, where and when I drag or copy, it sometimes changes fonts
back to the Normal style font, even thought the whole document is in
something else, and does strange things with tabs... either automatically
tabbing the first line for me (when I would rather do it myself, thanks!), or
changing the tab-in measurement to something I haven't even set. Also,
copying the paragraph mark from a desired paragraph into another doesn't
always result in re-formatting the other one like the sample. Is there a
tutorial on how to make this version of Word behave more like earlier ones,
or how to learn to manage the new features? I know these features must be
helpful to some, but they are driving me nuts! Many thanks.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Okay. I 'upgraded' to Office 2003 a while back, and generally am working
away contentedly. However, the attendant version of Word is too smart for
me. I've unchecked all the pertinent boxes I can find, but am still fighting
the application's overwhelming desire to auto-format things for me.
Depending on what, where and when I drag or copy, it sometimes changes fonts
back to the Normal style font, even thought the whole document is in
something else, and does strange things with tabs... either automatically
tabbing the first line for me (when I would rather do it myself, thanks!), or
changing the tab-in measurement to something I haven't even set. Also,
copying the paragraph mark from a desired paragraph into another doesn't
always result in re-formatting the other one like the sample. Is there a
tutorial on how to make this version of Word behave more like earlier ones,
or how to learn to manage the new features? I know these features must be
helpful to some, but they are driving me nuts! Many thanks.

Hi Jim,

Start here:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm

Continue here:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/HowPasteOptionsWorks.html

And finish up here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/CustomizingWord2002.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Jay; I don't feel too bad, your citations hint that I'm not the only
one befuddled by all the improvements. Thank goodness for you, Suzanne and
the others that continue to bail me out. If it weren't for you guys, I would
have gone back to a lined yellow pad years ago.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition to the article Jay cited, you might want to look at
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordsintotype/LonelyPilcrow.htm, which is the
text (more or less) of a presentation I gave to a writers' workshop,
emphasizing the basics for those who want to *get something done* in Word
without unnecessary interference.

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

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