tool tips but more....

[WendyMc]

Hi all, I am getting to grips with Word 2007 and love it - but today have
been unable to create a document I would like to. I want to have a main
information document with an indicator (any type - bubble, box ect) at the
side which will open more information if hovered over, then disappears again
when you move the mouse away. Sense? I have a very smooth, nicely designed
idea in my head (seen similar on web sites) and I am sure with the new smart
art etc in 2007 I should be able to do this. I dont really want to navigate
to another document using hyperlinks unless this is the only option.

Any help will be much appreciated.
Wendy

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi all, I am getting to grips with Word 2007 and love it - but today have
been unable to create a document I would like to. I want to have a main
information document with an indicator (any type - bubble, box ect) at the
side which will open more information if hovered over, then disappears again
when you move the mouse away. Sense? I have a very smooth, nicely designed
idea in my head (seen similar on web sites) and I am sure with the new smart
art etc in 2007 I should be able to do this. I dont really want to navigate
to another document using hyperlinks unless this is the only option.

Any help will be much appreciated.
Wendy

The new SmartArt won't provide anything like what you imagine, nor
will any of the new features. You should be aware that interactive
things you see on web pages are unlikely to be available in Word --
this is a word processor, not a web browser (though the distinction is
growing smaller with each release).

The only thing in Word that reliably provides a popup when you hover
over text is the ScreenTip of a hyperlink. You can arrange to make it
do what you want as follows:

- Select the text (word, phrase, sentence, etc.) that you want to make
into a hover target.

- Click Insert > Bookmark and supply a name (it can be anything as
long as it's unique and without spaces, and it should be
recognizable).

- While that text is still selected, click Insert > Hyperlink. In the
dialog, click the "Place in This Document" button on the left, then
click the bookmark name in the middle. The "Text to display" box at
the top should show the selected text; leave that as is. Click the
ScreenTip button next to it, and enter the content for the popup, up
to about 240 characters.

Back in the document, the text will be formatted as a hyperlink, blue
and underlined. If you want to change that formatting, you can either
apply different formatting directly to the text or, if these are the
only hyperlinks in the document, you can modify the definition of the
Hyperlink and Followed Hyperlink styles.

The only drawback to this "hijacking" of hyperlinks is that the popup
will contain the line "Ctrl+Click to follow link" at the bottom, and
that can't be removed. If the reader does Ctrl+Click, though, the
hyperlink will just go to the bookmark, which is in the same place as
the hyperlink, so apparently nothing happens.

 

[WendyMc]

Many thanks for taking the time to respond Jay. I want the document to be
available on our intranet, so you are right that Word is probably the wrong
tool to use I will have a go at your suggestion though.

Thanks again
Wendy