PowerPoint: Not all AutoCorrect entries are listed

This is a strange one that’s easily fixed, but only once you know how!

I set up Office 2013 on my new laptop and transferred all my ACL files from my PC to the laptop — ACL files are the AutoCorrect entries, and I have an extensive list. When I checked in Word, Excel, and Publisher, they were all listed. Outlook doesn’t list any AutoCorrects, but they still work with Outlook. However, PowerPoint only listed the ones that were just letters; it didn’t list those I had prefixed with a period. (See this post for why I use a period in front of many of my AutoCorrect entries: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/word-use-the-power-of-autocorrect-to-save-heaps-of-time/)

I thought this was a bug in PowerPoint 2013, but when I checked another computer with PowerPoint 2010 on it, I saw the same thing. Hmmmm…

I was about to post to the Microsoft Answers forum to see if anyone knew why, and how I could get my extensive collection of AutoCorrects back without re-entering them. But before I did that I figured it cost nothing to just try one and see if it worked anyway — and it did!

Not only did the AutoCorrect work, but when I looked at the list after using one, they were ALL listed.

So the solution is to type one of your AutoCorrects in your PowerPoint presentation. It will work and all those with period prefixes will now be listed (under File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options).

Weird.

Word: Draft view icon missing in Word 2013

More on the Microsoft giveth and taketh away theme…

This time, the Draft View icon on the status bar. It’s completely gone in Word 2013. Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft ever polls its users, particularly its power users and those who work in the program all day, every day.

I used the Draft View icon regularly, especially when checking the styles used in a document (see https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/word-display-styles-for-each-paragraph/).

You can get to Draft view now only via the View tab or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+n.

Of course, if you use the Quick Access Toolbar, you could always add the Draft icon to that (see: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/microsoft-office-quick-access-toolbar-productivity-benefits-how-to-customize-it/)

[Links last checked September 2015]

Word: Browse Object icon missing in Word 2013

One of the annoyances I’ve discovered in Word 2013 is the complete absence of the Browse Object icon. Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away! Any power user of Word was likely familiar with the Browse Object button — it was very handy for quickly jumping to places within your document. (See this blog post for how it worked prior to Word 2013: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/word-jumping-to-next-table-graphic-or-field/)

Sure, you can use F5 to jump to certain places, but that Browse Object button was quicker and easier to use.

Despite its loss, there’s another way you can browse certain objects, and that’s from the Navigation pane that you open using Ctrl+F (or View > Navigation Pane).

When you’re on the Navigation pane, click the magnifying glass icon to display other Find options such as Graphics, Tables, Equations, Footnotes and Endnotes, and Comments.

Use the up/down arrow icons to go to the next/previous object for the Find type you selected, or click the yellow highlighted section to go to the section where the next object of that type is located.

[Links last checked September 2015]

Word: Track Changes settings

The track changes settings in Word 2013 (and later) have changed in several ways. This blog post describes some of those changes, and some recommended best practices. All track changes options are on the Review tab.

Track Changes button

This button is now divided in two, though it’s not obvious as there’s no dividing line. Click the top half of this big button to turn track changes on and off; click the lower half to open a submenu for turning track changes on and off (again!) and for locking track changes so that others can’t delete them.

Display for Review options

In previous versions of Word, the view markup options were Final: Show Markup (now Simple Markup and All Markup — see below for differences); Final (now No Markup); Original: Show Markup (no longer available); and Original (same).

From my testing, the difference between Simple and All Markup is whether or not the changes are shown:

• With Simple Markup, you just get a vertical line to the side of the text (on the left for a left page; on the right for a right page if you have different left and right page layout) that tells you there’s one or more changes on that line or lines. In my testing this line was red. You don’t know what the changes are — you just know that there are some insertions, deletions, or moves. The text shown is with the changes applied.

• With All Markup, you get a vertical line on the side (gray for the same document), plus you can see the change that’s been made. This is the same as the previous Final: Show Markup, but with a thicker (more obvious) vertical line.

Show Markup and Reviewing Pane options

Seem to be the same as in previous versions of Word; however, Reviewers under Show markup is now Specific people.

Track Changes settings

In earlier versions of Word, you clicked the little drop-down arrow on the big Track Changes button to open the submenu that got you to the settings. That’s gone. In its place is a dialog launcher button at the bottom right corner of the Tracking group.

Clicking the dialog launcher opens the Track Changes Options window. Be careful with this window — it does what it says but NOT what you might assume it does. The check boxes on this window function the same as the Show Markup options on the ribbon. Don’t assume that turning off Formatting here, for example, turns off track formatting — it doesn’t (yes, I got caught with this…). It only stops formatting changes from showing. Formatting is still tracked! To turn off track formatting and adjust other settings, you have to go a step further…

To turn off track formatting and adjust other settings, click Advanced options on the Track Changes Options window. The Advanced Track Changes Options window opens, showing the familiar window you probably know from previous versions of Word. It’s here that you turn off track formatting, etc. All these settings seem to be the same as in previous versions, though arranged slightly differently.

To turn off track formatting for all documents, you need to use a macro. Details: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/word-macro-to-turn-off-track-formatting/

Word: Applying a template to a new document doesn’t transfer Heading styles

This blog post is about a glitch with outline numbered headings I found in Word 2013. It works fine in Word 2010.

Scenario

You open a new blank document, then decide to apply a particular template’s styles to that document. All the styles come through fine, except the outline numbered Heading styles. The template uses multilevel outline numbering Heading styles, but none of the numbers come through.

NOTE: If you start a new document based on the template, you get all the numbered Heading styles as expected; this post is only about the scenario where you start a blank document, and then apply the template to it.

Solutions

Method 1: Start the new document based on the template

This option is best for a new document, not one you’ve already started (unless you’ve only added a few words, in which case start again using this method). If you’ve already started your document and are well into it, then use Method 2 below.

1. Go to File > New then click Shared. (See the Note below)
2. Select the template to base this document on.
3. Off you go!

Note: See this blog post for how to tell Word where your templates are and how to select them easily: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/word-finding-your-own-templates/.

Method 2a: Attach the template and apply its styles to the new document

First, you have to attach the template to your new document and apply the styles. This will get most of them. If you’re using outline numbering and the numbering doesn’t come across, then follow the steps in Method 2b. If you’re not using outline numbering for headings, then ignore Method 2b.

1. Make sure the Developer tab is visible (File > Options > Customize ribbon then click the Developer check box in the panel on the right side).
2. On the Developer tab, click Document Template.
3. Click Attach.
4. Select the template, then click Open.
5. Select the Automatically update document styles check box, then click OK.
6. On the Developer tab, click Document Template again.
7. Clear the Automatically update document styles check box, then click OK. Yes, you MUST uncheck it after you’ve applied the template.

The document should now have all the styles available to you that are in the template.

If you’re using outline numbered headings and the numbers haven’t come across, follow the next set of steps.

Method 2b: Copy the numbered Heading styles from the template to the current document

NOTE: There’s a new feature in Word 2013 — the Design tab. I found that this worked — to a degree. BUT, and it’s a big BUT, the outline numbering clobbered the Bullet styles! So I don’t recommend resetting the styles from the template using the Design tab.

Let’s do it the way that I know works, and that doesn’t clobber any other styles.

1. Attach the template and apply its styles (see Method 2a above).
2. Open the Styles pane (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S).
3. At the bottom of the Styles pane, click on the Manage Styles icon (third from the left at the bottom).
4. Click the Import/Export button at the bottom left of the Manage Styles window.
5. On the Organizer window, go to the right side and click the Close File button to close Normal.dotm. DO NOT click the Close File button on the left.
6. Still on the right side of the Organizer window, click Open File.
7. Choose your template. The styles from your template populate the right side of the Organizer window.
8. On the right side, select your heading styles (e.g. Heading 1 to Heading 5, if they’re your outline numbered heading levels as defined in your template). Use Click+Shift to select multiple styles.
9. In the middle of the window, click Copy to copy these styles into your current document (i.e. the left side).
10. Click Yes to all to overwrite the styles that have the same name in the current document.
11. Click Close.
12. You may have to adjust your tab indents for the outline numbered Heading styles (see the NOTE below).

NOTE: In my testing, although the outline numbering came across, the tab and hanging indents weren’t quite right and I had to modify those in the Styles pane. This was a simple task that took a minute or so for all five heading styles — and is MUCH quicker and less stressful than trying to set up your multilevel outline numbered headings again!

Word: Finding your own templates

Word 2013 has hidden your own templates fairly well, seemingly trying to force you into using theirs. However, every organization I’ve ever worked for uses its own templates, not the Microsoft ones, so when users in those organizations want to create a new document, they need to choose from the organization’s templates.

You used to be able to click File > New and then My Templates, but that’s gone in Word 2013.

And even if you’ve put your templates into the Templates location on your computer (C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates), you still can’t find them when you click File > New. There are a few things you can do to get them back. First, you have to tell Word to look in that location. Then you have to know how to find your templates when you click New, and I’ll show you two ways to do this.

Tell Word where your templates are

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > Options > Advanced.
3. Scroll down to the General subsection.
4. Click File Locations at the end of that subsection.
5. Workgroup templates is likely empty. Click it, then click Modify.
6. Navigate to where your templates are stored; typically, C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
7. Select that folder, then click OK.
8. Click OK twice more to close the windows.

Now that you’ve told Word where to find your templates, you need to know how to get to them easily when you click File >New. There are two ways to do this — the Word 2013 way, and the ‘old’ way via a Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) button.

Method 1: Start a new document based on your template (Word 2013 way)

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > New.
3. Click Shared. (It’s not easy to see!)
4. Click the template you want to use.

Method 2: Add a button to the QAT

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Change the selection at the top of the left column to Commands not in the ribbon,
4. In the panel below that selection option, scroll down to New Document or Template and select it.
5. Click Add to move it to the right panel and thus onto your QAT.
6. Optional: Use the up/down arrows to move it where you’d like it to go on the QAT.
7. Click OK.
8. Test that it works by clicking this new button on the QAT — the old-style dialog box for choosing a template should open.

Word: Get rid of cloud save options

By default, Word 2013 has lots of options for you to save to cloud storage. But what if you don’t want to use the cloud, and just want to save to your local drives or network?

The good news is that you can turn off the cloud-based save options. And even better, if you change these settings in one of the Office 2013 programs, the changes apply to the other programs too.

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > Options > Save.
3. Select the Don’t show the Backstage… check box.
4. Clear the Show additional places… check box.
5. Select the Save to computer by default check box.
6. Click OK.

Word: Get rid of the Start screen and open with a blank document

Ah, the joys of discovering new things in a new version of a program you’ve used for years. I’m talking about you, Word 2013 (and later, including Word in Office 365). You are frustrating the hell out of me, wanting to save everything I do to the cloud (no, I don’t want to save to Skydrive etc., and I’ll address this in a later blog post), changing the design yet again, and not opening with a blank document ready for me to start working.

Sure, occasional users of Word might want to choose from your fancy wancy templates (many of which require an always-on internet connection to download) on your new Start screen, but power users and those who use Word every day already use their own templates and just want to get to work. (I’ll address how to find your own templates in a later post, ‘cos they’ve really hidden them in Word 2013 [and later]).

This post is on hiding the Start screen in Word 2013 and later versions (including Office 365) so that when you open Word, you get a blank document, ready to start working. Just like you’ve always done in previous versions of Word.

1. Open Word 2013 (or later).
2. Go to File > Options.
3. Select General on the left side of the Options window (it’s probably already selected).
4. Go to the bottom of the window and clear the Show start screen when this application starts check box.
5. Click OK.
6. Close Word.
7. Reopen Word — it should now start with a blank document.

This is a one-off change; you should only need to use it again if you reinstall Word or change computers.

NOTE: You can do the same with your other Office programs to get rid of their Start screens too.

Word: Change upper case names on the ribbon to lower case

Word 2013… Why do you have to SHOUT at me? Whose design decision was it to use upper case on the tab titles on the ribbon in all Office 2013 programs? Every readability study going back decades says that all upper case is much harder to read than lower case or sentence case.

There are a lot of other readability/design issues with Word (and Office) 2013, but for today I’ll just tackle the upper case issue. And give you the good news that it’s easy to change. The bad news is that you have to change them one at a time in each program, and that some can’t be changed (see the note below). But it’s a one-off task that will only take a few minutes.

Here’s how you change the upper case words on the tabs to sentence case (i.e. initial capital letter) in Word 2013 (other Office programs will be similar):

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > Options.
3. Click Customize ribbon on the left.
4. In the panel on the right side, change the top selection to All Tabs.
5. In that panel, click Home to select it.
6. Click Rename below the panel.
7. Leave the name as it is but add a space after it. This space is critical.
8. Click OK.
9. Repeat steps 5 to 8 for the other top-level tab names, adding a space at the end of each one.
10. When you’re finished, click OK to close the Options window.

Almost all your tab names are now in sentence case!

NOTE: Not all tab names can be changed — I couldn’t find any way to change the FILE tab or the ADD-INS tab, nor the TABLE TOOLS or PICTURE TOOLS etc. super-headings, though I’m sure there’s a Registry hack that could do that.

Word: Cross-reference dialog box doesn’t show some headings

Whoa! I came across a glitch in Word 2013, and checked if it also occurred in Word 2010 (yep). It’s possibly in earlier versions too, though I can’t recall coming across it in those. This glitch could have been around for years, but I just never had this combination of circumstances that caused it to occur.

It’s likely you may not figure out what’s causing it. So here’s what I discovered with some testing…

If you:

• have track changes turned on, then
• delete the first letter(s) or words of a heading (i.e. text styled with a heading style, whether outline numbered or not), and
• don’t accept those changes

then the heading text (and number, if you use heading numbering) disappears from the Cross Reference dialog box (under Headings) and you can’t select that heading to make a cross-reference to.

I’m not talking about deleting an entire heading — that would be expected behavior. I’m talking about deleting the FIRST letter at the beginning of a heading! Letters or words deleted within a heading still show the heading in the Cross Reference dialog box, but NOT if you’ve deleted the first letter.

Accepting the tracked change is one solution — the heading reappears in the Cross Reference dialog box (under Headings) then. But this is NOT a satisfactory solution for situations where your track changes MUST be shown for the client (e.g. for a regulatory authority that wants to see any changes made to the original document).

However, if you’re using outline numbered headings, the heading is listed under the ‘Numbered Items’ reference type on the Cross Reference dialog box.

Related to this is a blog post I wrote several years ago on missing cross-references for table and figure captions where track changes had been turned on that resulted in the caption numbering changing as tables/figures were added/deleted from the document: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/word-macro-to-fix-track-changescross-references-issues/

[Link last checked September 2015]