Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with msword

What can I use to write my PhD in?

Augenblick — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:38:57 -0800

PhD Filter: First year into my course, one chapter written, MS Word can no longer take the strain. It's a humanities PhD, I need a cheap/free alternative... all help appreciated. I've been using Microsoft Word since the beginning of the Phd and just slightly bankrupted myself on the EndNote software to use as bibliography. Up till now I'd been using Zotero and Word. The amount of references I have in one chapter seems to be throwing Word off entirely, my word count is 20,000 and at around 55 pages, it no longer seems to be functioning. This may be due to the section breaks for some of the tables and figures I have as well.

I've read many previous and similar questions but they seem to be more science based - I don't need anything that can formulate equations. I do need something that could deal with tables however, columns for translation of poetry, and a serious mountain of references. What do other humanities students use? I know lots of people seem to have the same problem re: Word.

What I need is something free or else fairly cheap, easy ish to use (though I am quite techie, and could learn it if necessary). At the very most I could spend about £60.

How can you set a background color in Word that can be viewed on screen and printed

willnot — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:03:15 -0800

Can you help me view and print background colors in Word? I'm trying to reproduce a form that has a purple background. This form will be completed on screen, but may also be printed. For reasons that we won't go into, it has to be in Word. I'm having trouble getting a purple background that shows up when viewing it on the screen and also when printing. Is there a way to get both? Setting the background to purple allows me to view it on screen, but it doesn't print. Putting a purple box in the header allows me to print it, but it appears to be a much lighter purple when viewed on screen. Putting a purple box in the main page sent to back covers up any text in the header or footer. Is there some other option that would make it show up when viewed on screen and also when printed?

how do you construct a correlation matrix in APA format in Microsoft Word 2007

esolo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:12:39 -0800

how do you construct a correlation matrix in APA format in Microsoft Word 2007 without killing yourself? I have 12 variables, and I need to construct a matrix of correlations preferably in portrait orientation. I have spent hours on this, and I still can't get my table to look like it should.

Each cell with correlation value should hold at least 5 characters. Is there a tool out there that would help me do that? APA came out with a plug-in, but it doesn't work with MS 2007, which is what I have. Please help!

is there a way to combine a set of Word documents into one large file without cutting and pasting?

Nayano — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:59:54 -0800

is there a way to combine a set of Word documents into one large file without cutting and pasting? I am using Office 2007 and I have a folder of about 20 files, all of which are lists of references. I need to have them all on one document. Is there a quick or easy way of doing this?

Why doesn't Word work right?

BeerFilter — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:56:21 -0800

Word 2003 won't open after double-clicking on a document, and the mouse doesn't work in the document area. If I double-click a Word file, the mouse hourglasses for a moment, then nothing happens. If I run Word by itself, I can open documents just fine, but outside of Word, I got nothing. I've already checked the file types and everything seems to be in order.

In addition, my mouse doesn't work in Word, but only in the actual document window. I can mouse all around the menus and toolbars and such, but I can't do anything with the mouse to the document. I can't highlight, I can't insert a cursor, I can't get the scrollbars to move. I CAN change the page view with the clickys in the lower left, but nothing else in the document window works.

Since Outlook 2003 uses Word 2003 for its rendering, I have the same problem in Outlook 2003. Menus & toolbars work fine but I can't highlight or do anything with the mouse to the actual text. I can use the keyboard to highlight and navigate.

In all other application, including the rest of MS Office, the mouse works fine.

Here's what seems like the key to figuring this out:

I already completely uninstalled Office 2003, ran CCleaner (my S.O.P.), and reinstalled it, and it's exactly like it was before. No opening documents outside of Word, no mouse in the text field.

I'm a FOSS guy at home, but this is at my relatively new job (in the IT dept, no less) and I haven't been inflicted with Word in a long time, so I'm not real hip to fixing MS Office screw-ups. Anyone got any ideas on this?

MS Word's Undo is Making Me Come Undone

foxy_hedgehog — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:08:55 -0800

Another infuriating episode with your favorite source of aggravation and psychological trauma: MS Word! Experts and embittered veterans, click here and help me figure out where my "Undo" function went. All of a sudden, my Word "Edit" menu no longer displays the "Undo" option- it only gives me the option to "Repeat" what I've just typed. This is making me want to pull my hair out and throw my computer out the window.

I've tried changing toolbars and looking in all of the hidden menu items in "Options." I even tried all sorts of phrasings to find the answer in MS Word Help, to no avail. It just seems to be gone. Closing and reopening the program doesn't work either. Clippy the animated paper clip keeps showing up on a bicycle and being useless.

The specs: running XP/Word 2002 on a PC.

I'd be grateful for any help or insight you can offer. PS Yes, I know about Open Office and Scrivener. For now, I need help with my Word problem.

Thank you!

Using 'Insert' to stop over-writing

Nayano — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:20:50 -0800

Since I transferred all my data to a new mother board, when I switch from writing emails to writing in Word the 'insert' function changes, that is, if I have been writing an email and something getrs overwritten and I press 'insert' to overcome that, all is good until I switch to Word and the stuff gets overwritten until I press 'insert' and so on, ad infinitum. Is it possible to set the same default for both? I use Windows XP, and am in South Australia.

How to make regular expressions work with track changes?

Partial Law — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:42:09 -0800

How can I make Microsoft Word's Find-and-Replace feature work properly with regular expressions when Track Changes is on? I'm working on a document containing a significant number of citations with page ranges. Many of those page ranges are separated by hyphens, and I need them to be separated by en dashes instead.

So I'm using Find and Replace with regular expressions like so:
Find what: ([0-9]{1,5})-([0-9]{1,5})
Replace with: \1–\2

Here's the problem: If I run Replace All on the test sentence, "Read pages 35-66, 87-92, & 105-22," I get back "Read pages 35–66, 87–92, & 105–22." Perfect. But if I turn on Track Changes and run it, I get "Read pages 3566–, 8792–, & 10522–." I need these changes to be tracked. Am I doomed to doing them by hand?
I realize how this question looks to people who aren't grammar nerds or law students. Trust me when I say that there is a difference, that the difference matters, and that the changes have to be tracked.

Spellcheck hack

strangeguitars — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:45:22 -0800

Is there a way I can only use the user dictionary in MS Word, without using the built-in dictionary? In other words, let's say I have three words in a user dictionary: "cat", "mouse", and "fish". I want MS Word to underline every word that I type, other than "cat", "mouse", or "fish". Solutions involving other software or scripts are welcome, as long as they are free and aren't too complicated.

Much macro madness?

Zinger — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:23:39 -0800

Where can I find a repository of Word macros? Can anyone recommend a site that has lotsa Word macros on it? I know macros are generally fairly easy to create, but I need a bunch and would rather not reinvent the wh.eel.

I Might Have MAde a Mistake Using MS Word as a Web Page Creator

LarryC — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:38:05 -0800

I created an MS Word document with a host of hyperlinks. When I saved it as a webpage, the links turned all wonky. Blocks of text beneath where I put the link showed up as linked to the URL. Blocks of text that should have been linked to one URL are instead linked to the previous URL. And now the Word file itself shows wonky formatting--every link connects to what should be the URL above it. My friends, WTF? How do I fix this without going in a redoing every damn link (and there are roughly 100). I want to know what I did wrong, but more importantly how to fix it. My document has over 100 links, going in and fixing each one is not an option!

What's the word on ditching Word?

grumblebee — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:47:29 -0800

Help me ditch Word, yet still deliver a document that uses Word templates. When I switched from PC to Mac, I decided not to buy MS Office. I don't miss it, I don't want it, and I've fallen in love with simple text editors like Writeroom and Textmate. But my publisher wants me to use a specific Word template (which he provides).

I'm hoping there's a way I can write in a plain text editor and mark text that ultimately needs to be set to a specific style in the template. E.g. [1]Chapter One[/1] might mean that this text should be changed to Heading 1 style.

Then, later on -- in some other app -- I'd search for [1] ... [/1] and apply the style.

What's that other app? I know I could do it IN Word, but then I have to buy and install Word, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Is there an alternative? Some freeware, shareware or open-source app (Open Office?) that can use a Word templates (and can spit out a Word doc using that template)?

Extra points if it also can interpret Word's track-changes feature, so that my publisher and I can still use it.

Is there a good text-editor-to-doc workflow or do I need to breakdown and buy Word?

Can I export pictures from MS Word?

schroedinger — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:18:45 -0800

Is it possible to export pictures from Microsoft Word documents? I need to re-color a graphic that's been inserted into a Microsoft Word 2003 document. Unfortunately, that is the only copy I have of the graphic. Word doesn't seem to provide a way to color over graphics. Even getting it into Paint would work fine--but first I need to get it there. Am I screwed?

12pt Times New Roman Jumble Jumble

buriednexttoyou — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:13:06 -0800

Microsoft Word Filter: Why does anything typed in 12pt Times New Roman decide to pile up on top of itself? Character spacing issues? I am trying to fix my coworker's MS Word 2003 problem that started today after she opened an emailed word document from another employee. This problem is limited to 12pt Times New Roman font that is aligned left or right. Every letter that is typed is just piled upon the previous one, so that instead of a line, there is just a jumble the size of one letter. I suppose it's a character spacing issue, but the character spacing settings are set to "normal." Expanding the spacing provides sort of an ugly fix, but why is the normal setting doing this? When the text alignment is set to centered or justified, there are no issues. Everything is normal when the text is bold or italicized, even 11pt or 13pt. It's just the 12pt Times New Roman aligned left or right that jumbles up upon itself. Also, it appears as it should in web view, but not in normal view or print layout view.

I'm usually pretty good at figuring out these kinds of things, but this one's got me stumped. What's going on and how do I fix this?

How do I change the date in MSWORD 2003?

beautifulcheese — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:20:32 -0800

I am typing up reports in MSWORD 2003 and need to have it show a future date instead of todays. When I go to print the file it shows the current date no matter what I do. Any changes just revert back to todays. Is there a way to correct this? Surely this is possible?

MS Word query

azure_swing — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:02:37 -0800

In MS Word, is there a simple way to change every underlined word in a document into italics?

Free Word or free-er OpenOffice?

sarahkeebs — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:52:15 -0800

So we know that OpenOffice.org is a better value than MSWord...but is it really BETTER? I've just started using a brand-new Vista-included (though currently running XP Media Centre) Toshiba laptop. It came with WordPad and OneNote (both useless), so I've been using GoogleDocs for note-taking (I'm a law student). However, it's time to begin writing term papers and other heavy content docs with lots or formatting and footnotes and such, and GoogleDocs won't cut it. Should I upload my old school (but free!) MSWord on my shiny new machine, or can I shrug off the MS-dependency and make the leap to OpenOffice?

FWIW, I'm not very computer-savvy generally, but I am willing to do a little more work/learning to use a better program...

Where did my macros go? what macros do you use?

timnyc — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:46:00 -0800

My MS Word (2003 version) macros keep disappearing! What gives? While I'm at it, what macros do you use? I think this happens when I "save as" a document emailed to me. But the macros are not only missing from that doc, but all my docs. To add to the strangeness, this only happens to a few of my newer macros; a couple of my older macros are still there. Detective, what's going on?

I love macros and they're essential (paste unformatted, insert date, highlight, etc.). What are your favorite macros? How do you manage your them? Are there any good sites with macros and answers to troubleshooting questions like the above?

What word processor will be most intuitive for experimental writing?

scarylarry — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:05:52 -0800

What word processing program will allow most easily allow me to do unusual things with form--with the way text appears on the page? I write experimental fiction, and find MS Word almost terminally unintuitive when it comes to being creative with visual form. I'd like a program that will easily allow me to do any (preferably all) of the following: place text on the margins of the page, insert pictures, overlay text upon other text, type backward, type upside down, type in colors, type in unusually-shaped text boxes. It would be nice if it had even more functionality that will allow me to perform operations on text that I haven't even considered yet.

I grew up with MS Word, and I know that I can do most of these things with that application--but it is not designed for experimental writing, and I've found it requires a frustrating amount of fanagling to get the pieces looking the way that I want them to. I'm in the market for something new--what word processor should I switch to?

Word master document creation and maintenance

liet — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:55:12 -0800

Creating and maintaining a master document in Word with sections from other documents. I have a directory full of Word documents that are all similarly formatted with Word heading outlines -- each document has a section called "table of contents," "summary," "requirements," etc. They're real outlines, so if I go into, say, outline or document map viewing mode, they display correctly as collapsible trees. The content under the headings is in paragraphs and bullet lists, and it'll be continually updated for the forseeable future.

I want to create a single document that contains all of the other documents' "summary" sections. For each document, print its name, then the contents of its summary section. I would like to update that master document with the other documents' contents on a regular basis, and I don't want to do it by manually copying and pasting. I also don't want to make a real "master document" with "subdocuments," because I don't want to manually handle each document -- we only have about 20 now, but in the future ...

Initially, I thought I'd write a Python script using the Word object model, but the Word object model doesn't seem to support selecting text by its heading. I wouldn't mind programatically converting the documents to RTF or XML as an intermediary step, and XML looks like it might be a candidate -- since each document has a table of contents, each heading section has an automatic bookmark, but the bookmarks are named with random numbers. I could look at the table of contents, pull out that random ID for the heading I want, then go to the corresponding bookmark and select all text until the next bookmark. Unfortunately, Word-generated XML is so full of formatting crap, it seems exceptionally difficult to get the final text formatted the same as the original, bullet points and all.

Anyway, if I had a script that went through all the documents, pulled out the text I wanted by heading, then wrote it to a new master doc every time I ran it, I'd be happy.

Any ideas? I've searched MSDN and Google Groups and our own AskMeFi archives for the last couple of weeks to no avail, but I can't imagine that nobody's had this problem before.

Where did my .doc go?

amethysts — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:36:06 -0800

When you open a .doc out of a yahoo email (just open - not downloaded) then edit it, and click the save icon, where does it go? What happens after you close that window? My brother got an email attachment, opened it in yahoomail without downloading it, edited it for 2 hours, clicked the save icon continually, and then closed the document. Now he can't find it.
After having searched the computer to the best of his non-techie ability he believes it is gone.

Question: What happened to it and is it possible to get it back?
Thanks!

MS Word approving nonsense words in spell check?

You Should See the Other Guy — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:43:34 -0800

Reasons Word tells me a document passed spell check when it has misspelled words in it? For some reason, when I run spell check on my resume, Word tells me spell check is complete without actually finding the misspelled words. If I run it on any other document, it finds the same misspelled words for me. Any idea why this is? Note that it's not that I've added the words to my dictionary as I can type nonsese like asdlkfjlasdjf and it passes.

I'm on OSX Office X.

Auto-indexing files on a hard drive?

lionelhutz5 — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:27:50 -0800

Is there an easy way to automatically generate an MSWord (or text) document that contains the titles and folder structure for all files on a hard drive? In other words, to create an index of a hard drive's contents? I am trying to create a clean, polished index of everything on a hard drive. The idea is to have a Word document that lists all of the files and includes the folders/subfolders in which they sit (links to the files would be great, but not necessary). This seems like it should be easy to do, but I have not been able to figure out a way. If there is a way to do this without the need to apply any real technical expertise (which I generally lack), all the better.

Changing the font of text copied to clipboard from web browser

lockse — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:22:14 -0800

When I copy text from my web browser and paste it into Word, I get an awful awful awful Lucinda font. It's too big and i hate it all over. But how do I change it?

How do I transfer Word autocorrects between computers?

Lucie — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:40:44 -0800

Microsoft Filter: Please help me transfer my Word autocorrects from work to my new laptop. There's To make it more complicated, I have Word 2002 at work and I think I have the Office 2000 version at home. Both computers run XP Pro. I can't seem to find instructions online. Please help!