Microsoft Word problems....

[Gordon Maney]

I use Microsoft Word in my work in the magazine. My adoption of it is fairly recent. I used to use Microsoft Works, an integrated software package that was quite old, in the form that I owned.

Word has some really nice features I like, and it also does some things automatically, so to speak, that I do not like. Often when opening documents, such as my classified ad document, there are pages of text at the end that seems somehow connected to e-mail addresses and web addresses that are found elsewhere in the document. Also, inside of the document, it adds strings of text that call out e-mail addresses as hyperlinks, and it effectively duplicates all of the e-mail addresses at times. I then have to go through and manually pick them out.

Sometimes it also creates new characters and punctuation marks inside of text that is brought in from somewhere else, and in some cases, it can do this in subsequent openings of documents that previously were correct.

I can’t see that the preferences offer me any control over these events. Does anyone here have any experience in such problems? I am using a Mac G4 running OS X v10.2.8. My version of Word is v.X.

[Jumper]

Gordon,
Just read something on this, it seem when Word translates from another system or the old system it adds things or translates them a little different. So going from one system to anoter creates problems that Word tries to correct. Hope this helps or at least explains what is going on.
Jumper

[Joe Cimoch]

This is the Windows version of turning off hyperlinks, I'd check the help file in the Mac version:
Turn on or off automatic formatting of hyperlinks

On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

Under Replace as you type, select or clear the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks check box.

<img src="http://photos.imageevent.com/powerwagon/extrastuff//websize/word.jpg" border=0>

[Gordon Maney]

Joe, you are one heck of a guy. Thank you. I found that and have fixed it.

[Joe Cimoch]

Glad to help. Now on your other problem, do you have an example of what gets converted, and what the original document was built with?

[Gordon Maney]

In general, the kind of thing I mean is that I might compose some text in Word, paste it into a forum window, and have it come out with punctuation that has been changed. Or, sometimes you compose in word, paste it into an e-mail, it looks OK on my end, but when it gets to the other end, punctuation, and in some cases characters, are substituted.

[Joe Cimoch]

WORD is notorious for adding in all kinds of good stuff. Try building a web page with WORD, then take a look at the html in a text editor or something like Dreamweaver that is better suited for building web pages. There is a lot of unnecessary junk added. Dreamweaver even has a tool just for removing WORD junk.

WORD has its place, and is very good as a word processor, so I use it for that purpose. Its kinda like Vise-Grips, you can do just about anything with them, but there are better tools to use in certain circumstances.

[p15-d24]

and the newer versions are getting worse. The one thing I have found is to save the file before you do the copy and paste and the resulting copy is much less likely to have all the "extra stuff".

[Gordon Maney]

Originally posted by p15-d24
and the newer versions are getting worse. The one thing I have found is to save the file before you do the copy and paste and the resulting copy is much less likely to have all the "extra stuff".

An interesting idea I would never have thought of, I am afraid. Thanks for sharing that.