Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with word

How can I make Microsoft Word print a complete document wirelessly?

newfers — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:17:17 -0800

Why are we getting incomplete printouts when attempting to print wirelessly from a laptop? I have a Laserjet L7680 connected to my wireless router so that my wife can print wirelessly from her laptop, and I also so I can print from mine.

Oddly, though, when she attempts to print from Microsoft Word (2007), only parts of the printout are completed.

I can print fine from my MacBook Pro, and from my Dell desktop, and she can print from Firefox and from Notepad, it seems, but now MS Word 2007 is misbehaving, and it's driving me batty.

I have the network set up via the Network Magic Pro software (which greatly simplified the process), and there does not appear to be any problem with the network. As I said, this seems to be a problem linked to MS Word (I have the full Office 2007 suite), and though there are workarounds (ie. don't use Word!), I'd much rather get my money's worth with that expensive piece of software!!

I have looked at the printer settings within Word, but do not see anything that would cause this problem. Also, sometimes the printout will contain 10 lines of the document, other times 2 lines, other times nothing at all.

The ink heads are fine, and everything prints perfectly from the desktop.

She uninstalled Office and reinstalled it tonight, to no avail. She has printed from Word in the recent past with no problem, btw.

Help! I am baffled... please give me some clues on what to look for!

Making Chapbook/Zine! Need help on how to format Microsoft Word! Please help

goalyeehah — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:32:59 -0800

I am making a chapbook/zine that needs to be completed by noon on Thursday. I need help on how to format Microsoft Word so I can get the job done, printed and out to public. I am just finishing an 8 week writing class where we finish by making our own chapbook. I need to be taken through on how to adjust Microsoft Word so that I can format my writings so that I can print the them out and cut and paste together a mock version of the chapbook itself.

This info is not available in the text. I am actually in an advance class where they do not have to make chapbooks so the teacher did not instruct me how to do it in the last session.

Help!

How can I make my thesis look beautiful?

roofus — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:36:27 -0800

I have a 50,000 word medical thesis to write. I don't want it to end up looking like a big ugly Word document, just printed out on A4 and bound. I would like some graphic design inspiration/tips for making it look more like a real book, which would actually be a pleasure to pick up and read. The bulk of the thesis is made up of existing papers, which I wrote in Word 2004 for Mac, using Sente and Papers as my bibliographic system. At this stage I don't think it is worth the effort to learn to use LaTeX. Unless there are convincing arguments for switching systems, I am mostly looking for suitable design resources online, and tips for making this as painless as possible in Word.

Return Word to A4 Default

forallmankind — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:23:38 -0800

Word 2003: I was working on a document that had headers and footers, and something unexplained happened causing them to disappear. No big deal; but now, every time I open Word, the default view is sans header and footer: ie the view of the page (print layout) is almost as tall as it is wide. How do I get it back to what it was (full A4 size)? Once I've opened a new document, if I hit View/ Headers and Footers, the page returns to full A4 size with the header/ footer boxes. If I then hit View/ Headers and Footers again, the header/ footer boxes disappear, and the page remains full A4 size.

This is currently what I do every time I open a document - I hit View/ Headers and Footers twice to get to an A4 page. This is driving me crazy, and I can't find any answers in Office Help. I would like to set Word back to defaulting to full A4 size on opening.

Cheap Mic for Recording Spoken Word?

airguitar2 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:17:47 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions for a cheap mic I can plug into my MacBook to record spoken word into GarageBand or Audacity. I'm new to podcasting and so don't want to shell out for a massive set-up right away. Can I spend under $30 and get a recording that'll sound okay as a podcast, or am I deluding myself? What mic would provide the best bang-for-buck?

(This question was asked on MeFi in 2005, but I imagine mics have changed!)

Thanks much.

screwy bullet lists

Meatbomb — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:11:49 -0800

Why do word processors screw up the size of bullets in bulleted lists? I initially thought it was a MSWord issue, but I see the same behaviour now that I am using Open Office as well. Is it a problem with the .doc format itself? In bulleted lists, I often end up with the first bullet being a different (larger) size than the rest of the list - and often no amount of screwing about fixes it.

So I guess my question has a few parts:

Why does this happen?
Is there an easy, bulletproof way to fix it when it does happen?
Is there anything left to live for? After half an hour trying to get my promo flyer looking right I am ready for a bullet to be inserted into my brain.
Is there a specific individual who can take the blame for this incredibly frustrating bug? What is his name and contact info?

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?

Help with a Find/Replace in Word

agent99 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:52:02 -0800

I’m at the end of my rope trying to figure out how to write a find/replace expression in MS Word (syntax is similar to regex) I need to turn this:

[xv][#AuthorA:2001] text text text text text [123][#AuthorB:2000] text text text text [456-78][#AuthorC:1999]

into this:

{AuthorA:2001@xv} text text text text text {AuthorB:2000@123} text text text text {AuthorC:1999@456-78}

Searching for \[(*}\]\[#(*)\] and replacing with \{\2\@\1\} doesn’t work (the search isn’t specific enough and will match "[xy][#AuthorA:2001] text text text text [123]" which screws up the replace).

Can anyone help me figure this out? Alternately, is there any kind of expression builder that could help with this? I am very much not a programmer of any kind. THANKS!

Importing Excel spreadsheet data into to Word

lunchbox — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:05:22 -0800

How can I make readable Word tables out of a large Excel spreadsheet? Here's a question for the Excel/Word gurus.

I have created some data in Excel that I need to put into a Word document (.docx) in table form, preferably so that I can continue to edit the Excel spreadsheet and have the Word tables dynamically update. I tried using "Paste Special" to insert one of my worksheets as an Excel Object, but the spreadsheet is too wide to fit in my portrait-oriented Word document. What is the best way to make this data fit?

I have thought of changing some of the pages in my document to "landscape", so that all the table fields can fit. However, it seems I can only change the page orientation for the "rest of the document" to landscape, and I want to change only the middle of my document.

Also, inserting as an Excel Worksheet is quite unappealing aesthetically. The table looks grainy, and when I export to .mht, the object is converted to an image file, so that I cannot select the text.

Another, closely related question: in some situations, I want to make a bunch of tables out of one spreadsheet. In other words, let's say I have the following Excel spreadsheet:

Name | Age | Sex
----------------------
John | 12 | Male
Jane | 13 | Female

I want to convert this to two side-oriented tables of the following format:

Name | John
Age | 12
Sex | Male

Name | Jane
Age | 13
Sex | Female

Ideally, I would like to put these two tables in different places in my document, and have them automatically update when the spreadsheet changes. This seems very similar to the Mail Merge feature, except I want the output to be in my document, not to other formats.

Any ideas? Thanks!

@#$%#$ Word!

ottereroticist — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:29:30 -0800

MS Word 2004 for the Mac: Annoying unexpected behavior when editing tables. WTF Filter: Copying and pasting rows within a table unexpectedly results in separate tables.

For example, if I select three rows, and either drag or cut&paste those rows to a different point in the table, the three rows are inserted as a separate table, not as rows in the existing table.

The new table is contiguous with the original one, with no paragraph mark between them. But if I choose Select Table, the moved rows are not selected. Instead, they have a dotted outline of their own, along with their own "handle" (little box with arrows at the upper left corner).

This is causing formatting and display problems. More importantly, it is causing me to doubt my sanity.

I have been using Word for many years and this version since 2004, and I consider myself an expert user. And yet I've never seen this behavior before.

I expect Word to move the rows within the table, not to create a new table. Could Word really have just started acting this way? Or have I just never noticed this behavior before?

Most importantly, how can I reliably cut and paste rows of a table within that table without seemingly creating a separate table?

(Version is 11.3.5, if that matters.)

Help me find a word relating to balance

Mil — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:15:58 -0800

I'm searching for a word, possibly a technical or medical term, that I think starts with the letter p, and that defines the relationship between the bones in the feet as they apply to overall balance. Am I dreaming this word?

prefixy words?

juv3nal — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:19:32 -0800

What are some good words that form the prefixes for other words of varying definition? I want to write a rule-fudging sestina where I do (prefixy word as my sestina end of line word) + hyphen + linebreak + (ending of longer word). I've got things like:
arm (armory, armagnac, armageddon)
do (door, donate, dolor, doting, dog)

(you get the idea)

I've also got in, con, & all. What are some others?

Help me open my Word 2008 docs on top of already open docs!

fenriq — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:54:19 -0800

Can someone figure out why Word 2008 on the Mac keeps my newly opened doc behind previously opened docs? I'm working on something like seven different documents right now. When I open a new document (note, not a blank doc, a new doc that I've already written to in the past) it always comes up behind my other documents. No amount of clicking on it will bring it to the front of the others and its really aggravating as it keeps getting thrown down into the dock. My current workaround is to send all the docs on top of it to the dock (is this confusing enough?) until I get to the new doc.

What's going on here and how can I make it open the doc on top of all the others so I can, you know, actually read it and work on it?

I do not use the .docx save as I like to be able to use the documents on any computer and find the xml-ized limits me too much. Could this be part of my problem, is MS trying to tell me to use their new file system (in which case I'll downgrade to 2004)? Or is it just another example of MS publishing crap software and figuring they'll get around to fixing it later?

Non-Sharepoint Version Control for Word?

Alterscape — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:21:53 -0800

Alternatives to SharePoint for multi-user collaboration and version control on Word documents (Word 2004 Mac, 2008 Mac)? I'm a grad student. The last paper I worked on had three actively contributing authors, and in the last day before the deadline, I spent almost all day integrating changes submitted via email from the other two authors into a single up-to-date version (we were all working in one office, on separate machines). I know about "track changes" in Word, but that only works effectively when a single document is edited by many people in a serial manner, which isn't terribly efficient.

I don't feel like this is good use of anyone's time. We use subversion and git to version-control software source code, and subethaedit or Google Docs/wikis from time to time to pair-program or work on writing text collaboratively. Subethaedit has no formatting capabilities, as it's meant as a programmer's editor, and neither Google Docs' nor wikis' formatting capabilities are up to par with the complex formatting requirements of some of the venues we publish in. In theory, we could compose the text in google docs/wikis/a version-controlled plaintext document and format it for Word as a last step, but my coauthors often want to see/manipulate the document in Word early on in the drafting process to check length and layout figures/etc.

Since the new xml-based Word documents are in theory plaintext files, I suppose Git could handle them if I handled conflict resolution in a text editor, but many of my collaborators still use older versions of Word that can't export the xml-based files.

I know I could write the text with LaTeX markup, version control that with our plaintext version control system, and render the output the final PDF through LaTeX, but I don't think I could convince the rest of my collaborators to learn TeX syntax, and some of the venues I publish in only provide Word templates.

I personally use NeoOffice and OpenOffice when possible, but I own Word 2008 in order to more easily collaborate with Word users, and I don't think I could convince the people I work with to switch to OpenOffice, so any version tracking system I used would need to accomodate .doc/.docx files anyway.

Sharepoint seems to be the Microsoft-blessed solution, but we're a Mac shop (nowhere to run the server) and I don't think I could convince anyone to spend the money to license SharePoint when there are RAs available to do the grunt work for the cost of their time.

All the same, I'd like to get some kind of collaborative, version-tracking workflow in place for our Word documents. Am I missing any options here? I'm primarily interested in low-cost solutions (no FileNet or Documentum here, sorry) but I'm willing to do some setup grunt work if necessary.

Black rectangle on Microsoft Word

salvia — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:26:15 -0800

There is a black rectangle across the bottom of my Word document (about an inch from the bottom of the page, about half an inch tall, stretching across the page). Can you get it to go away? Here's what I know:

Microsoft Word, 2002, SP3, Windows XP Home

I've tried restarting everything.

The black bar only shows up in Print Layout view (which is the one I want: I need to view comments and don't want to have to use that reviewing panel at the bottom).

This is _v12 of a document. _v9 doesn't have it (the only one I tried).

It was created on a PC but recently used by someone on a Mac (after _v9).

Someone else on a PC (I think running XP Pro) doesn't get this black bar for this document.

I can't find a way to select the black rectangle. (Is there some Word parallel of Powerpoint's Master Slide?)

If I start a new Word document on my computer, it doesn't have this rectangle.

If I Select All in the _v12 document and copy and paste it into that clean new Word document I just opened, the black bar comes with it.

Viewing headers and footers hasn't helped.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is there a word for this?

disaster77 — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:34:07 -0800

Is there a word for this thing that I do with the names of things? And would you find it annoying? I frequently add words on to the names of things (usually places) when they are similar to another thing (usually a person). For instance, there's a little wooded area near us called Willard's Woods. I always call it Willard Scott's Woods. We used to live on a Halford Ave, which I called Rob Halford Ave. I do this pretty often. I just wondered if there was a word for what I was doing.

And also, would you find someone who did this annoying? My husband doesn't think it's annoying, but he's probably biased.

Where O where has my little file gone?

mcarthey — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:26:55 -0800

Where did the file go after it was opened from a website and edited it in Microsoft Word? A friend of mine downloaded a Word .doc from a website and instead of choosing the option to save the file, opened it. It opened in Word and she made numerous modifications, each time being careful to save it (note: not 'save as'). She closed Word and is now unable to find the file. I had her search the %LOCALAPPDATA% directory and also the autosave directory for Word, but she was unable to find it. I performed a similar test by downloading a file from Google Docs and opening it. I had the same problem and was unable to find the file. This is Microsoft Vista. I also tried Vista's find utility and chose the option to include the search in non-indexed and hidden/system files. So the question is where does the file get temporarily stored when opening a file directly from a website?

Endnotes! Help? Please?

cholly — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:41:26 -0800

I'm writing a paper in Microsoft Word, and I want the endnotes to have each reference assigned one number throughout the whole document, instead of one each time I add an endnote. I really don't want to have to go through and number them manually. Any ideas? I'm not using EndNote at the moment, and realise I probably should be. But it seems that I am now past the point of return.

Looking for half-remembered word from Toronto schoolyard

jb — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:56:58 -0800

Looking for a lost word (Torontonian/Canadian dialect): There is a word that my husband and I both remember from our childhood, but cannot spell, and we can't find anyone else who knows this word. It sounds like "coal-liss" or "coal-lass", and it was used in Etobicoke, Ontario in the 1980s to mean the asphalt part of a schoolyard. Did we just collectively dream this word? Or did (does) it exist, and how is it spelled, and where is it used? We have already done a small poll at a party, with no luck - not even the other Canadian there (from Edmonton) had heard of it, and none of the Americans (several of whom said their word for the same thing was "blacktop").

One form to rule them all...

freudenschade — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:57:21 -0800

Creating a form template for colleagues to use at work that needs to meet the following criteria: 1. Allow text fields and drop-down selection boxes. 2. Allow users to add additional text in should they see fit (i.e. doesn't disallow all input outside of form fields). 3. Will allow rows (the form will be arranged like a table) to be duplicated/copied & pasted, including the form fields contained within those rows. 4. Is formatted nicely enough to be passed along to a client and read clearly. 5. Is openable/usable by your average user who doesn't have access to super expensive/specialized software. What program/functions should I be using to create such a document?

I tried Word 2003, but it seems that using form fields requires you to "lock" the document, allowing no editing after the form structure is saved as a template. I had some success with Word 2007 (and its updated form functions), but everyone else in my office uses Office 2003, and even Microsoft's fix that supposedly allows 2003 users to open/edit/save 2007 files still won't allow for opening of DOTX (Word 2007 template) files. Acrobat seems out of the question because PDFs also only allow editing/input within form fields.

Is there something I'm missing in Word 2003 that would make it work for me? Other options? Help, please.

Smallest Number of Words To Be Deemed A Dictionary?

vanoakenfold — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:59:13 -0800

LogosFilter: Could a blog entry that contains two words and their definitions be consistent with the definition of a dictionary? In looking up with word dictionary, I most often find something along the lines of "a collection of words.." as far as quantity, but nothing further than that besides "a selection of words" or "a list of words" which to me would be at minimum, two. Is two of something a collection? How many of something must one have before it is deemed a collection?

I just want the pop up to go away.

misanthropicsarah — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:07:17 -0800

You know the pop up format menu that comes up in Word 2007 when you highlight something? How do I turn that off? This thing. I want it gone. It annoys me. I googled around and looked thru some old posts here, but I just can't find anything about how to disable it or turn it off.

I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I don't know what it is.

Microsoft Office is accessing my wi-fi - how do I stop it?

Unsomnambulist — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:41:05 -0800

How do I prevent Microsoft Office from going online? I recently noticed this recently while I was setting up a new laptop with software.

My old computer (Mac Book Pro) was on, with Word open. After installing Office on my new computer, I tried opening Word to confirm, and it wouldn't allow me saying that I was already using a copy (and addressing me by name - creepy).

Anyway, I don't know if the Word is using the wireless connection for the two computers to communicate, or if its going online to a central server.

Either way, the idea that Office is beaming my personal details without my knowledge is hella creepy. How do I stop it without messing with my wifi setup?

How can I prevent this?

Arial or Times New Roman? Single spaced? Bold?

billtron — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:08:07 -0800

Who wants to share their favorite MS Word 2003 Style themes for writing academic papers? I am a terrible typesetter. All my writing looks ugly and I don't have time to learn LaTeX before May.

CJK Word translation macro

bokane — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:43:29 -0800

I need a Word macro that will go through a folder, run word/character counts on each file in the folder, and deliver a total count of Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters, ignoring all English. This seems like it shouldn't be hard to script, but insufficient leetness on my part (and the fact that I've never written a macro before) means I'm more or less clueless here. What am I missing?