[paulwms]

After typing a phrase in an empty rich text control, I want to set the
current paragraph to be a bulleted list. But clicking the bulleted list menu
option has no effect here. After I insert a couple of returns, I can select
the middle paragraph and the bulleted list option works there just fine - but
not in the first or last paragraph in the rich text control. Am I doing
something wrong, or is this behavior by design?

[Cindy M.]

Hi Paul,

After typing a phrase in an empty rich text control, I want to set the
current paragraph to be a bulleted list. But clicking the bulleted list menu
option has no effect here. After I insert a couple of returns, I can select
the middle paragraph and the bulleted list option works there just fine - but
not in the first or last paragraph in the rich text control. Am I doing
something wrong, or is this behavior by design?

I'm not able to reproduce your problem. OTOH I do seem to recall seeing this, a
while ago. In the meantime, I've installed Office SP1, though, so that may have
fixed the issue.

FWIW, if I type something in a RichText control, then click the Bulleted List
button, the bullet appears *outside* the content control. If I then press ENTER
a new paragraph appears and the bullets for both paragraphs are inside the
content control.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[paulwms]

"Cindy M." wrote:

Hi Paul,

I'm not able to reproduce your problem. [...]

FWIW, if I type something in a RichText control, then click the Bulleted List
button, the bullet appears *outside* the content control. If I then press ENTER
a new paragraph appears and the bullets for both paragraphs are inside the
content control.


Thanks Cindy. The fact that your bullet formatting was applied to the
paragraph that contains the control instead of the paragraph inside the
control may be part of the problem. The difference is that my control is
contained inside a protected group, so I'm not allowed to change the
formatting outside of the control. Therefore it appeared that nothing was
happening. I tried the test again with a control that is not contained in a
group and got the same results as you.

So, the question is: why does the formatting get applied to the paragraph
outside the control when the cursor is inside the control?? But also, with
the control contained in a group, I still cannot get the bullet to appear
after a single return is entered like you can when its not in a group. Its
only after entering another return that I'm able to go to the middle line and
apply bullet formatting successfully. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Cindy M.]

Hi Paul,

The fact that your bullet formatting was applied to the
paragraph that contains the control instead of the paragraph inside the
control may be part of the problem. The difference is that my control is
contained inside a protected group, so I'm not allowed to change the
formatting outside of the control. Therefore it appeared that nothing was
happening. I tried the test again with a control that is not contained in a
group and got the same results as you.

So, the question is: why does the formatting get applied to the paragraph
outside the control when the cursor is inside the control?? But also, with
the control contained in a group, I still cannot get the bullet to appear
after a single return is entered like you can when its not in a group. Its
only after entering another return that I'm able to go to the middle line and
apply bullet formatting successfully.

OK, I think I can see what the logic behind this is: A Content control can be
either part of an existing paragraph (like any text character) or it can
*contain* paragraphs. Bullet formatting can be applied only to paragraphs.

Content Controls "start life" as being a text character, not a paragraph
container. They can only become a paragraph container once they contain a
paragraph (ENTER has been pressed).

What does seem to work is to apply a paragraph style that is linked to a bullet
(or numbering) style. If the environment your users are working in has a
corporate identity that specifies which bullets and/or numbering are allowed you
can set up some styles for them to choose from.

If not, you could do that any way and then provide some instructions ("help") on
how they can do that themselves if they want something different.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)