Precisely!

Dumb things like that are acutely stressful to me.

We're talking something I'd be doing thousands and thousands of times.
Manually removing font formatting that Word inexplicably attaches to plain
text.

It's just too dumb.

I already deal with enough folly without having it stuck in my craw every
time I use my computer. Actually, I can say it would definitely drive me to
abandon this 2003 trial and go back to 2000.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Okay, so what you're saying is that when you open a text document, it is too
much trouble for you to Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Spacebar to get the appearance you
want?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Uriel" wrote in message
...
I think what's happening here is that you have TNR defined as the default
font for Plain Text, but the plain text is coming in with Courier New as
direct formatting. I would think that this would change to TNR if you
selected text and did ResetChar (Ctrl+Spacebar) on the text irrespective
of
the draft font.

Yes, that's right:

- I have TNR defined as the default font for Plain Text

- the text is coming in directly formatted with Courier New

- (with "draft font" unchecked): it does change to TNR if I select text
and
do Ctrl+Spacebar (i.e., the direct formatting is removed, which is what's
supposed to happen on Ctrl+Spacebar).

does the font of the document not change to TNR if you Ctrl+A,
Ctrl+Spacebar (without using the draft font option)?

It does change to TNR.

I would imagine that the font box is reflecting what font the text would
be
using if you switched to Print Layout view (not using the draft font).

Right again. OK, I understand this now that I've looked up what checking
"draft font" means. It simply displays the designated draft font, in
Normal
view, regardless of what the actual font is in the document.

Which actually is not so cool for me, since setting the option gives me
TNR
12 (in Normal view, the view I normally work with) for ALL documents,
including actual .DOC documents that do have Word formatting, unlike TXT
or
HTM files.

Good grief. Is there no way to open TXT files without Word applying
unwanted
formats?

What happened to the "text file" option that Word 2000 included in the
list
of conversions one could choose from on opening a non-DOC file? Can I get
that, with the old behavior, back? (It provides what I need -- namely, NO
conversion.)


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I think what's happening here is that you have TNR defined as the default
font for Plain Text, but the plain text is coming in with Courier New as
direct formatting. I would think that this would change to TNR if you
selected text and did ResetChar (Ctrl+Spacebar) on the text irrespective
of
the draft font. I would imagine that the font box is reflecting what font
the text would be using if you switched to Print Layout view (not using
the
draft font). I haven't been following this thread carefully, but does the
font of the document not change to TNR if you Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Spacebar
(without
using the draft font option)?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Uriel" wrote in message
...
Curiouser and curiouser.

This really has to be tried to be believed.

I did what you suggested. "Draft font" had been unchecked; I checked and
selected TNR 12. Now what happens, on opening an HTM or TXT file, is
that
text indeed appears as TNR 12. But the formatting toolbar nevertheless
shows
"Courier New." If I ctrl-space, the formatting toolbar changes and
reports
TNR. But the highlighted text doesn't change (since it was already TNR).

Also, after opening the file and before I change any formats, Reveal
Formatting shows Direct Formatting with Courier New (in defiance of the
actual appearance of TNR).

However ....... these issues are academic, since I've got the TNR I
wanted.
(Better legibility and more efficient use of screen space.) Thanks for
solving the problem, Suzanne!

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I think the issue here is that the formatting for the Plain Text style
is
supplied in this case not by Normal.dot but by whatever template is
attached
to the file you open, and it's difficult to say what that might be in
the
case of a .TXT or .HTM file.

I have thought of a workaround that might accomplish what you want: If
you
are willing to edit in Normal view (which should be satisfactory for a
plain-text document), you can check the box for "Draft font" on the View
tab
of Tools | Options and select TNR as the font to use.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Uriel" wrote in message
...
Graham, I'm afraid you're still missing my points.

OK I'll concede that

Graham, I hate to say this, but you're STILL missing the points. Are
you
actually reading my posts? It's very kind of you to spend time posting
responses to queries, but the time would be better spent if you first
figured out what the queries actually say.

If you open an HTM file as text then change the formatting to TNR,
you
have
indeed changed the formatting

Graham: I DID NOT DO THAT.

By overriding the default font in the plain text style (which as you
have
indicated you cannot do)

I *DID* do it. As I've reported previously. The plain text style in my
Normal.dot is defined to use TNR.

As others have reported before you, Word is not the ideal tool for
editing
html files

Really. I don't know what their objections might have been. Word 2000
always
suited me perfectly fine for editing html files.

frankly for a plain text document I for one wouldn't want it changed.

What can I say? We have different preferences. This is an inquiry
about
buggy, inconsistent behavior in Word 2003, and whether there's a way
to
avoid it.

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Uriel wrote:
Graham, I'm afraid you're still missing my points.

OK I'll concede that

Select 'plain text'. This will open the document in the manner you
have described.

I know that. I did that. But the problem that follows is described
in
"Puzzle #1" in my earlier post (below).

OK

Word will let you format that document with any font you like, but
if you save it as plain text all that formatting will be lost,
because plain text doesn't support that.

I know that. No problem. I have no intention of applying formatting
to an .HTM file that I open, edit, and save as plain text.

If you open an HTM file as text then change the formatting to TNR, you
have
indeed changed the formatting to use a proportional font. This is no
problem
at all if you then intend saving as a Word document, but plain text
does
not
support font information of any kind. It stores only the underlying
text.

If you change the plain text style to use Times Roman font then
select all the document and press CTRL+Space to apply it to the
document.

But why is this necessary? Why does Word apply direct font
formatting
immediately after opening an .HTM file with conversion option "plain
text"?

You would have to ask Microsoft's programmers, but it is presumably
because
plain text documents do not contain proportional font information. By
overriding the default font in the plain text style (which as you have
indicated you cannot do) Word substitutes a monospaced font - courier
new.
You can apply the changes you have made to the style by using the
CTRL+A
CTRL+Space if that is what you want. There does not seem to be any way
round
this - and frankly for a plain text document I for one wouldn't want
it
changed.

the above proviso remains, the plain text format does not support
proportional fonts.

You said this before. And I answered: Word permits defining the
"plain text" style to use TNR. So what do you mean by "does not
support"?

Answered (I hope) above

select the document in the file open window and from the down arrow
alongside the Open button select 'open with Word'.

Why would I do that?? It's exactly the same as simply clicking the
Open button directly.

That rather depends on what you default settings are for opening htm
files
and what filters you have present. If opening directly works for you,
then
that's fine.

As others have reported before you, Word is not the ideal tool for
editing
html files, which I presume this is what lies behind your query. If
you
find
it such a big deal that you cannot edit your plain text files in Word
using
a proportional font without forcing the changes in the style as
described,
then the following macro attached to a toolbar button will do it for
you
at
a click.

Sub PlaintoTNR()
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Font.Reset
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
End Sub

http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Plain text is a document format containing only characters in the
ASCII character set. If you open an HTML document with the plain
text
filter (select the document in the file open window and from the
down
arrow alongside the Open button select 'open with Word'. You will be
presented with a bunch of file open options. Select 'plain text'.
This will open the document in the manner you have described.

Word will let you format that document with any font you like, but
if
you save it as plain text all that formatting will be lost, because
plain text doesn't support that. If you change the plain text style
to use Times Roman font then select all the document and press
CTRL+Space to apply it to the document. However the above proviso
remains, the plain text format does not support proportional fonts.


Uriel wrote:
Sorry, but I don't understand your points. Maybe I should be
clearer
that I *want* to open the .HTM as plaintext -- i.e. I want to see
ihtml formatting codes/i. (I want to see "i" rather than have
Word show the text formatted as italics.)

You say "Plain text cannot use proportional fonts like TNR." But
Word
permits me to modify the "Plain Text" style to use TNR.

Also don't know what you mean by text filter. Is my installation
missing a component? As mentioned, "Text file" is offered as a
conversion option when I select a .TXT file in the File/Open
dialogue.


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
1. Plain text cannot use proportional fonts like TNR, so you are
not
going to succeed with this.
2. You should be able to use the old filter (which was removed for
security considerations). The text filter is linked from the
downloads page of my web site. Whether it will do what you want is
another matter entirely. You may also need the old htm filter. I
don't have a link for that one, but if you still have access to the
Word 2000 equipped machine .......


Uriel wrote:
Puzzle #1: With Word 2003, when I open a file using the "Plain
text"
file conversion option, Word assigns the "Plain Text" style to
each
paragraph, which is not surprising; but it also applies direct
font
formatting (confirmed via Reveal Formatting) so that the font is
Courier New even though I've redefined the "Plain Text" style to
use
Times Roman.

Puzzle #2: In Word 2000, I used to routinely open .HTM files with
the "Text file" conversion option. This option is no longer
presented as an option in Word 2003 when I select an .HTM file to
open. (It *is* presented as an option when I select a .TXT file.)