I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is doing what
it is doing.

The point is that this is a product that is used by millions of users and it
should be designed to be easy to use and intuitive. The two cases I explained
are highly UN-intuitive. i.e. click a menu option that indicates it will do
what you think it will when in actual fact it does nothing or something
completely different without telling you why or what for. Its these problems
that I find so confounding and frustrating. Im not alone. I know dozens of
people who hate this product for these very reasons. Its completely,
apparent, random behaviour actually slows my work down.

The best one just happened to me. I was looking at my doc, I switched
applications in windows, switched back, and lo, all my headings were now
"A,B,C,D,E" instead of "1.1,1.2,1.3" etc and all my numberings were "0,0,0,0"
instead of "1,2,3,4". I hadnt actually done ANYTHING, but I guess it wanted
to change it all for me.

I could be an expert on Word and indentation and all that but I still
wouldnt know why the f**king hell THAT happened!!!!

I'm sorry, but its a poor product and with all the money Microsoft they
should be bloody ashamed of themselves.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

If you would turn off all the auto stuff (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm) and take a little
time to learn how to use Word (you could learn enough to do indents just by
reading http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/conc...ion/index.html),
perhaps you wouldn't be so bitter.

--
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.

"Word Hater" Word wrote in message
...
Im a software developer and the hardest part of my job is using MS Word to
write all my documentation. Im CONSTANTLY battling with indentations,
numbering and tables that have a mind of their own and are so
counter-intuitive it makes me want to eat my computer. I have handed in
documents to my projects managers in the past which they returned to me
complaining about the formatting. I have simply replied to them that I
refuse
to waste my time using such a badly written bit of software and they can
do
the bloody indentations themselves. Youd think after a million versions MS
would have fixed it. Oh no.

----------------
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Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
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http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

Yes: invest time to learn a bit more about indentation you would understand
why it is doing what it is doing.



"Word Hater" wrote in message
...
And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is
doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

No, you've completed avoided my points and repeated what you said in the
first place. What about when it changed my heading numbering when I switched
applications? What about it being very un-intuitive at times? These are the
points Im trying to make.

"Jezebel" wrote:

Yes: invest time to learn a bit more about indentation you would understand
why it is doing what it is doing.



"Word Hater" wrote in message
...
And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is
doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

Your points are too generic and obviously come from someone who hasn't
even tried to understand how Word works. Combined with the attitude you
came in here, I don't think that many people here are going to be
extremely willing to refute every single detailed point. Come back with
a different name and an attitude that searches for help on how to do
things instead of blasting Word, and you'll find a more receptive
audience.


"Word Hater" wrote in message
:

No, you've completed avoided my points and repeated what you said in the
first place. What about when it changed my heading numbering when I switched
applications? What about it being very un-intuitive at times? These are the
points Im trying to make.

"Jezebel" wrote:

Yes: invest time to learn a bit more about indentation you would understand
why it is doing what it is doing.



"Word Hater" wrote in message
...
And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is
doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

Im not gonna give up here. Yeah my attitude is a bit whiffy but lets get to
the point. Tell me why it changed all my headings from numbers to letters
simply by switching applications. Im sorry, but give me all the books you
want, that is a bug.

No one has given me an answer for why that happened and I dont expect one.
My point is, is that Microsoft is one of the biggest software producers in
the world and its still releases software with bugs and little niggles that
make you scratch your head or scream vulgar obsenities at it. In addition it
also crashes a fair bit and corrupts the odd file now and again for no
reason. As I have repeated, I could be an expert in Word but I would have no
control over these problems.

Look at Propellerhead software's Reason. Its a real-time, cpu intensive,
hardware emulating sythesizer and music sequencer package. It can do all
manner of ridiculous things all at once. Do you know how many times its
crashed or acted in a way that confused me in the last 3 years Ive been using
it? None. True, its not a word processor, but if a small Sweedish company can
write software that can manage to do all these very techinical, cpu intesive
things all at once without dropping a single note or crashing ever and
Microsoft having trouble 'displaying a bit of text' what hope is there?!?

MS Word IS buggy. It IS un-intuitive. No amount of reading up can change
this. The fact that you suggest I should have to read a book to know how to
do these, lets face it, very basic tasks, only highlights its
un-intuitiveness.

ha.

"Patrick Schmid" wrote:

Your points are too generic and obviously come from someone who hasn't
even tried to understand how Word works. Combined with the attitude you
came in here, I don't think that many people here are going to be
extremely willing to refute every single detailed point. Come back with
a different name and an attitude that searches for help on how to do
things instead of blasting Word, and you'll find a more receptive
audience.


"Word Hater" wrote in message
:

No, you've completed avoided my points and repeated what you said in the
first place. What about when it changed my heading numbering when I switched
applications? What about it being very un-intuitive at times? These are the
points Im trying to make.

"Jezebel" wrote:

Yes: invest time to learn a bit more about indentation you would understand
why it is doing what it is doing.



"Word Hater" wrote in message
...
And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is
doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

[gm.blgr7]

Word Hater,
There are several things you could try.
* Several settings in Word Options could be changed such as pasting options (I use "Match destination formatting") under the Advanced tab.
*Adjust settings using the Settings button in the Cut, copy, and paste section (in the Advanced tab). Try unchecking the "Smart style behavior" checkbox.
* When you want to continue a numbering scheme there must be a hard return after the previous line. Try going to the end of the last correctly numbered line, delete everything up to the next line and then hit Return.
* If you want to change how numbers or bullets are formatted versus using the default in Word, you'll need to define a new bullet or numbering scheme for that document.
* Try working in Outline view and adjust the indents that way.

I hope that helps but you might find that taking a class would save so much time and headache.

Originally Posted by Word Hater

No, you've completed avoided my points and repeated what you said in the
first place. What about when it changed my heading numbering when I switched
applications? What about it being very un-intuitive at times? These are the
points Im trying to make.

"Jezebel" wrote:

Yes: invest time to learn a bit more about indentation you would understand
why it is doing what it is doing.



"Word Hater" wrote in message
...
And my other points.....do you have a response to them?

"Jezebel" wrote:


I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter but I am. Maybe if I invested
time
to learn a bit more about indentation I would understand why it is
doing
what
it is doing.

You said it.

[Swish77]

Originally Posted by gm.blgr7

Word Hater,
There are several things you could try.
* Several settings in Word Options could be changed such as pasting options (I use "Match destination formatting") under the Advanced tab.
*Adjust settings using the Settings button in the Cut, copy, and paste section (in the Advanced tab). Try unchecking the "Smart style behavior" checkbox.
* When you want to continue a numbering scheme there must be a hard return after the previous line. Try going to the end of the last correctly numbered line, delete everything up to the next line and then hit Return.
* If you want to change how numbers or bullets are formatted versus using the default in Word, you'll need to define a new bullet or numbering scheme for that document.
* Try working in Outline view and adjust the indents that way.

I hope that helps but you might find that taking a class would save so much time and headache.

I see this guy has been (understandably) thrown under the bus for having a scandalous post title and name, but is he wrong?

I have been writing documents for 15 years. I used to use QuarkXPress, and had virtually unlimited control over my documents. In 2002, I was forced to learn word. Since then, it feels like few years I come up against this very same problem in Word: multi-level lists and styles (whatever you want to call it) simply do not work, well, at all.

I've done the research, read Shauna Kelley's blog, and others, for like the 3rd time, at the 3rd company. I created styles based on no styles. I defined a custom multi-level list. Then I went to modify the font, or whatever, in one of my styles, and poof! I've wasted the better part of a day going back and forth between my heading style and my multi-level list style.

Every time I go back into my custom heading one style, it's indent has been magically changed from (no style) to hanging .75"s

Likewise, if I touch the heading style, then look at my multi-level list style, all of the lists have been magically disconnected from the heading styles I've painstakingly connected them to.

What is frustrating is to be somewhat of a (non-MVP) expert, do the research, be careful, and conscientious, and still have these problems. And when I research these problems, it appears they've existed since before 2007.

How hard can this be for word to get right?

All I want to do is create a requirements document with 1 to 1.1.1.1.etc numbering, and control precisely how the text lines up. I use non-numbered text (separate style) below my numbered text, and I like to left align these as well.