Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with word2007

Disable stupid MS Word 2007 warning

exogenous — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:42:05 -0800

Microsoft Word 2007: how do I disable this annoying privacy warning? Every time I save a file it pops up a window saying "Privacy Warning: This document contains macros, ActiveX controls, ...." The file came from an older version of Word. I don't see any macros and the trick I saw on Google of saving in another Word file format didn't work.

Running under Windows XP.

Help with autonumbering in Word2007, please!

mateuslee — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:49:06 -0800

How do I number individual tables in Word2007? (I don't mean numbering cells, or inserting captions). The numbering on my dissertation is now all screw up! So, I'm writing a long chapter for my dissertation which involves lots of examples like this:

1) Aka is__ harsta.m
this clothing AC wash I
‘Wash this clothing!’ (imperative)

Whenever I switch from Word07 to other versions of Word the formatting gets all screwed up and, since I already have over 100 examples and growing, I thought best to put these examples into tables (with invisible borders) to stabalize them and avoid a mess like this:

1) Aka is__ harsta.m
this clothing AC wash I
‘Wash this clothing!’ (imperative)

The tables work great, however, they are hard to number using the autonumbering in Word. It seems impossible to have a table exist on the same level as a number, and since some examples are tables and others are not, I would like the numbering to be consistent.

Does anyone know of a solution for this? Thanks!

tips or tricks for organizing information using Windows XP

KokuRyu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:15:03 -0800

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for organizing information using Windows XP and MS productivity software? Specifically, I'm wondering if there is a native "tags" function where you can tag specific documents so they can be easily retrieved.

When contracting, I relied on Gmail and the Google drive shell extension to easily store documents. In fact, I still use this system now for saving expense receipts for work: I email the receipts to a Gmail account and then search by keyword and date to find them.

However, I cannot use Gmail for work - it's against IT policy. I typically use Outlook 2007, Word 2007 and Excel 2007. The problem I have is that I often save multiple versions of files in multiple places.

I do have a filing system set up for email in Outlook 2007, but I often wish I could just bookmark an email, or bookmark and Excel spreadsheet.

Instead, I have to either save or file, and I much prefer Gmail's tagging system.

I am not considering moving to Gmail or whatever for my work-related productivity docs.

MS Desktop Search is enabled on my computer, but it's not quite as fast or efficient as the search function in Gmail.

So, once again, my question is:

Instead, does anyone have any tips or tricks for tagging items in Outlook 2007, or Word or Excel for easy retrieval? I'd love to hear your own unique solution using MS productivity software.

Note: my computer is locked down so I cannot easily install software.

Convert asterisks to bullets?

limon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:07:21 -0800

Word 2007. Table with cells with lots of text. Need to convert asterisks to bulleted lists. Example inside. Need to convert this:

* One
* Two
* Three

To this

one
two
three

I know Word will do that automatically as I type, but I need to do that on a preexisting text.

I also know that if I click on a bunch of lines that begin with an asterisk and hit the bulleted list icon, Word will correctly interpret the asterisk as the item indicator and convert it into a bullet. But this table has hundreds of small bulleted lists. I need something to do that automatically.

Using Word2007/2003 to make a bibliography

mateuslee — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:01:44 -0800

Word 2007 vs. 2003: It's complicated to go back-and-forth! Help me write my dissertation, please! So, I'm a grad student working tirelessly on my dissertation. At home I work with Word 2007 and at the university I'm using 2003. I just started using the citation mechanism in 2007, inputted a few books, and really started to get the hang of this as a useful too. However, as you probably know, when I switch to 2003 (I have the converter installed), all those citations are converted to static text.

Is there any way around this?
If not, what free software do you reccomend for standardizing citations and keeping them in a database?

Sure do appreciate any thoughts...
Thanks a lot!

Word 2007 Weirdness: help?

Zinger — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:13:53 -0800

Word/Office 2007 Weirdness: Why is Word 2007 showing a bright blue (cyan?) straight line under sections of text in this received document? We've received a document from a client, and we've discovered, when clicking on certain lines of the text, that a bright blue straight underline appears under the text.

The line extends from margin to margin in the text, and that particular part of a sentence seems to be somehow grouped together as a result. If we make a change in the line of text, say to add an 's' to a word, tracked changes shows that Word also makes formatting changes, expanding or condensing character scale in that line.

This is not Word 2007's contextual spelling marker (which apparently uses a wavy blue line), and there don't appear to be hidden fields or codes in the text where this occurs. It's only in a few places in the document, and I can't spot a common factor here. The font and paragraphing styles seem to be the same in these lines and elsewhere in the text where this line thing doesn't show up.

Anyone else ever have this happen? Google-fu fails me in this case, hence my query to the MeFiHiveMind.

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.

How to surmount the enormous obstacle of text color?

freudenschade — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:33:35 -0800

Form Controls in Word 2007: OK, I created a form with Rich Text and Drop-Down List controls. The controls appear within a table. The question is, how do I get the resulting text (once the form is filled in) to appear in black, not gray? No matter what I try, it seems the best consistent result I can get is to change the default prompt text (i.e. "Click here to enter text") within the control to black -- which still results in gray text as soon as something is entered. This should be a simple thing to accomplish, but my usual resourcefulness has failed me.

Word 2007: "Pattern" chart-fill option?

NYScott — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:43:12 -0800

I have a Word 2007 document with a pie chart, and this document will be printed in black & white. I want to fill the pie chart pieces with patterns so they'll be easily differentiated in black & white, but I don't see the "pattern" option. In previous versions of Office it was there, but I can't find it in 2007. (By "pattern," I'm talking about dots, or criss-crossed lines, or a "brick wall" pattern, or diagonal lines, etc.) I tried saving the document as a .doc & then opening it in "compatibility mode," hoping the 2003 version's fill options would be available. That didn't work, so I created a fresh chart in Excel 2007, saved it as a 97-2003 version, closed/reopened it, but that didn't show the option either...

Aside from editing it in another app (e.g. OpenOffice, Word 2003), or uploading to an online app (Google Documents, Zoho), or using a different fill style, etc., does anyone have a suggestion? Is the "pattern" option available in Office 2007--am I just not seeing it?

Thanks!

Word Shortcuts With Tabs

Sandor Clegane — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:51:30 -0800

Word 2007 - How do I create keyboard shortcuts that include the Tab character? I use bullet points a lot when writing documents in Word. I am used to being able to increase or decrease the indent of the bullet points using Tab and Shift+Tab respectively. I am able to do this in Outlook without any problems. However, for some reason this functionality is not included in Word.

Now, I know where the keyboard shortcut customization area is located. The only problem is when I attempt to use the Tab character in the field that accepts new shortcut keys the Tab actually moves me out of that field and into the next field. If I attempt to set Shift+Tab I am moved to the previous form field.

Thus far I have been unable to find an answer to this specific question on Microsoft's site. Now I turn to you. Help me oh Hive Mind you are my only hope.

What is the easiest way to index pre-existing bibliographies?

anotherpanacea — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:08:52 -0800

Bibliographic software newbie question: given an enormous backlog of hand-written bibliographies, what's my best bet for producing a database and integrating it with a book manuscript? I'd like to be able to push a button and change citation styles. No arduous data-entry, please. I've never taken the leap into Endnote et al, but I have some limited experience with Word 2007's reference panel. Now, it seems, I need to change, and fast. I'd like to be able to push a button and change inline citation styles. So:

1. What is the easiest way to index pre-existing bibliographies? Let's say I have fifteen pages of references saved as a Word document. Is there a citation sniffer that'll pull out the entries or some other import function I can use?

2. What software should I use? Is Word's new stuff robust enough? (I'm in the humanities.)

Harvard References in Word?

philsi — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 04:41:40 -0800

We're meant to do all of our University assignments with Harvard Referencing. Easy enough. However I've grown used to using Word's system of managing references and it does all the updating itself for any changes I make - has anyone got any ideas how to get Word 2007 (or 2003 / XP) to do the referencing? My Google-fu has failed me so far.