Hi
You know how when you move the cursor to a different part of the document,
how it automatically switches to whatever the local font, size, color, etc?
I would like a lock button so that the style travels with the cursor. This
would be useful for adding comments or ideas into an existing text.
Examples:
A teacher receives rough draft papers from students submitted online. She
wants to insert comments into the papers using red bold type, but each time
she moves the cursor to where she wants to insert the comment, it reverts to
local style. So now she has to reselect red, and reselect bold. This occurs
on average ten times per paper and for thirty students each assignment.
Switching to her style three hundred times per assignment is tedious, to say
the least.

A student rewriting his own paper inserts comments into his own paper,
typically by highlighting. Since the style cannot be locked, occasionally
these ideas (like, "add data here" ) revert to local and get missed during
rewrite. Paper is submitted and grade suffers.

I like to respond to long emails by inserting comments where appropriate.
Because the text style automatically reverts, it gets to be a mess where I
can't tell where the original and my comments are, unless I am very careful
to change style each time. Even then, the style can automatically switch
without my noticing! That requires me to highlight and change the
erroneously formatted text.

All of these situations lead to distractions which change the focus of one's
attention from the work itself to the tedium of using the software. I
envision a lock button right along with the colors in the color drop-down
menu (so it would be 'lock', 'Black', 'Maroon', 'Green', etc.) and the same
for other attributes (bold, italic, underline, etc. could share one) or maybe
just one "Lock Style" button would be cleaner.

Yes, this is similar to the cut-and-paste option box which asks "Keep
source" or "Match destination formatting", but now it is for newly-typed text.

I would like to see this in Outlook Express, Word, Excel, ... actually, in
all products which have text formatting as a feature.

For anyone who actually read this whole thing, thank you for your patience
and attention.

~WClayB


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

Create a character style with the required attributes and assign it to a
keyboard shortcut - however, Word has its own commenting tools - try the
reviewing toolbar.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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




WClayB wrote:
Hi
You know how when you move the cursor to a different part of the
document, how it automatically switches to whatever the local font,
size, color, etc?
I would like a lock button so that the style travels with the cursor.
This would be useful for adding comments or ideas into an existing
text.
Examples:
A teacher receives rough draft papers from students submitted online.
She wants to insert comments into the papers using red bold type, but
each time she moves the cursor to where she wants to insert the
comment, it reverts to local style. So now she has to reselect red,
and reselect bold. This occurs on average ten times per paper and
for thirty students each assignment. Switching to her style three
hundred times per assignment is tedious, to say the least.

A student rewriting his own paper inserts comments into his own paper,
typically by highlighting. Since the style cannot be locked,
occasionally these ideas (like, "add data here" ) revert to local and
get missed during rewrite. Paper is submitted and grade suffers.

I like to respond to long emails by inserting comments where
appropriate. Because the text style automatically reverts, it gets to
be a mess where I can't tell where the original and my comments are,
unless I am very careful to change style each time. Even then, the
style can automatically switch without my noticing! That requires me
to highlight and change the erroneously formatted text.

All of these situations lead to distractions which change the focus
of one's attention from the work itself to the tedium of using the
software. I envision a lock button right along with the colors in
the color drop-down menu (so it would be 'lock', 'Black', 'Maroon',
'Green', etc.) and the same for other attributes (bold, italic,
underline, etc. could share one) or maybe just one "Lock Style"
button would be cleaner.

Yes, this is similar to the cut-and-paste option box which asks "Keep
source" or "Match destination formatting", but now it is for
newly-typed text.

I would like to see this in Outlook Express, Word, Excel, ...
actually, in all products which have text formatting as a feature.

For anyone who actually read this whole thing, thank you for your
patience and attention.

~WClayB


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the
button, follow this link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft
Web-based Newsreader and then click "I Agree" in the message pane.


http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

Have you tried using the Comment feature? It seems to me it would be more
appropriate for all the situations you describe.

--
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.

"WClayB" wrote in message
...
Hi
You know how when you move the cursor to a different part of the document,
how it automatically switches to whatever the local font, size, color,
etc?
I would like a lock button so that the style travels with the cursor.
This
would be useful for adding comments or ideas into an existing text.
Examples:
A teacher receives rough draft papers from students submitted online. She
wants to insert comments into the papers using red bold type, but each
time
she moves the cursor to where she wants to insert the comment, it reverts
to
local style. So now she has to reselect red, and reselect bold. This
occurs
on average ten times per paper and for thirty students each assignment.
Switching to her style three hundred times per assignment is tedious, to
say
the least.

A student rewriting his own paper inserts comments into his own paper,
typically by highlighting. Since the style cannot be locked, occasionally
these ideas (like, "add data here" ) revert to local and get missed during
rewrite. Paper is submitted and grade suffers.

I like to respond to long emails by inserting comments where appropriate.
Because the text style automatically reverts, it gets to be a mess where I
can't tell where the original and my comments are, unless I am very
careful
to change style each time. Even then, the style can automatically switch
without my noticing! That requires me to highlight and change the
erroneously formatted text.

All of these situations lead to distractions which change the focus of
one's
attention from the work itself to the tedium of using the software. I
envision a lock button right along with the colors in the color drop-down
menu (so it would be 'lock', 'Black', 'Maroon', 'Green', etc.) and the
same
for other attributes (bold, italic, underline, etc. could share one) or
maybe
just one "Lock Style" button would be cleaner.

Yes, this is similar to the cut-and-paste option box which asks "Keep
source" or "Match destination formatting", but now it is for newly-typed
text.

I would like to see this in Outlook Express, Word, Excel, ... actually, in
all products which have text formatting as a feature.

For anyone who actually read this whole thing, thank you for your patience
and attention.

~WClayB


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.


http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t