I'm using Word 2003. I want to create a new style - to convert text,
separated by paragraphs, into a 2 column table, with no borders. I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style. When I try to
apply the new style, I have a 2 column table, with no borders, BUT the text
has remained in one column, rather than being divided into 2 columns. When I
make the formatting changes to the text, it has very clearly been divided
into 2 columns. So why doesn't style work?
A second question - since I have been experimenting, I have several styles,
that I want to PERMANENTLY delete (I saved to the template - being
optimistic!) - how can I now get rid of them?
Also, is there a way to have ONLY the styles which I have created appear
with every new document or do I have to hide the others and select the ones I
want?
Why oh why is style better than a macro?!?
Thanks
Janet

I think in this case you do want a macro. Tables and columns are not among
the attributes that you can include in a style definition.

An alternative would be saving a preformatted table as an AutoText entry,
then typing the text directly into it (assuming you want this macro for
creating new documents as well as formatting old).

You should be able to delete the styles you created using Tools | Macros...|
Organizer.


On 4/20/05 6:48 PM, "Janet" wrote:

I'm using Word 2003. I want to create a new style - to convert text,
separated by paragraphs, into a 2 column table, with no borders. I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style. When I try to
apply the new style, I have a 2 column table, with no borders, BUT the text
has remained in one column, rather than being divided into 2 columns. When I
make the formatting changes to the text, it has very clearly been divided
into 2 columns. So why doesn't style work?
A second question - since I have been experimenting, I have several styles,
that I want to PERMANENTLY delete (I saved to the template - being
optimistic!) - how can I now get rid of them?
Also, is there a way to have ONLY the styles which I have created appear
with every new document or do I have to hide the others and select the ones I
want?
Why oh why is style better than a macro?!?
Thanks
Janet


--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

OK - now I have another question. Originally I created a macro to do this
using a keyboard shortcut - Alt t,t and I believe I saved in it normal.dot.
I am cutting many small sections from a large document and then moving each
into a new file, for editing, etc & formatting. (So, I don't want to create
a set of new macros for each new document or file). The problem I had was
that the keyboard shortcuts, (which I had created in the original document)
wouldn't work in the new documents. I could run the macro from the menu bar
- Tools - macro, etc., but when I used the keyboard commands, nothing
happened. (Using a keyboard command, is much faster that going into the
menu). I posted my problem here, and the answer was to use styles instead,
but they never explained why the keyboard commands were not transferable from
the one document to a new document. Or what I had done wrong. (Sometimes,
one or two of the commands worked for awhile in a new document, and then
stopped or they worked in one new document, but not in another.) Thanks
again.

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote:

I think in this case you do want a macro. Tables and columns are not among
the attributes that you can include in a style definition.

An alternative would be saving a preformatted table as an AutoText entry,
then typing the text directly into it (assuming you want this macro for
creating new documents as well as formatting old).

You should be able to delete the styles you created using Tools | Macros...|
Organizer.


On 4/20/05 6:48 PM, "Janet" wrote:

I'm using Word 2003. I want to create a new style - to convert text,
separated by paragraphs, into a 2 column table, with no borders. I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style. When I try to
apply the new style, I have a 2 column table, with no borders, BUT the text
has remained in one column, rather than being divided into 2 columns. When I
make the formatting changes to the text, it has very clearly been divided
into 2 columns. So why doesn't style work?
A second question - since I have been experimenting, I have several styles,
that I want to PERMANENTLY delete (I saved to the template - being
optimistic!) - how can I now get rid of them?
Also, is there a way to have ONLY the styles which I have created appear
with every new document or do I have to hide the others and select the ones I
want?
Why oh why is style better than a macro?!?
Thanks
Janet


--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

Consider the keyboard shortcut as completely separate from the macro. You
create a macro. Right, done. Saved in normal.dot, good.

Then you assign a keyboard shortcut to it, via Tools | Customize. These are
two totally different things, and objects and live in Word totally
independently. When you created the shortcut, you need to also save it in
normal.dot (down at the bottom of the Tools | Customize dialog, there should
be a little inconspicuous note/menu about "save in:").

Word theoretically offers you the option to combine these two steps, but
that has never worked for me, and since they are two separate things, just
as well to understand that by doing them separately.

I went back to your earlier message. Suzanne does appear to suggest you can
use a macro to create a table, but I think she just missed that in all the
text you wrote. You mentioned 3 uses for a macro--Suzanne posted back
"both" of the uses can be accomplished by styles. And Charles did give you
some info re why the keyboard shortcut was not working.

So, go back and recreate your shortcut for your table macro, and make sure
you save it in normal.dot.

You said:
I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style.
Okay, that second method is where the confusion arises. If you use New
Style, it's clear that there is no way to say "put this text into a table."

Note that you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to a style--but again,
this is a totally independent object, and will only continue to work if
saved in the proper template.

It's not really a question of a style being better than a macro, by the way.
In general, if you don't need a macro to do something, it is easier and
faster to use the predefined method. So styles and macros should serve
different purposes, thus better/worse becomes irrelevant.

DM

On 4/21/05 6:20 AM, "Janet" wrote:

OK - now I have another question. Originally I created a macro to do this
using a keyboard shortcut - Alt t,t and I believe I saved in it normal.dot.
I am cutting many small sections from a large document and then moving each
into a new file, for editing, etc & formatting. (So, I don't want to create
a set of new macros for each new document or file). The problem I had was
that the keyboard shortcuts, (which I had created in the original document)
wouldn't work in the new documents. I could run the macro from the menu bar
- Tools - macro, etc., but when I used the keyboard commands, nothing
happened. (Using a keyboard command, is much faster that going into the
menu). I posted my problem here, and the answer was to use styles instead,
but they never explained why the keyboard commands were not transferable from
the one document to a new document. Or what I had done wrong. (Sometimes,
one or two of the commands worked for awhile in a new document, and then
stopped or they worked in one new document, but not in another.) Thanks
again.

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote:

I think in this case you do want a macro. Tables and columns are not among
the attributes that you can include in a style definition.

An alternative would be saving a preformatted table as an AutoText entry,
then typing the text directly into it (assuming you want this macro for
creating new documents as well as formatting old).

You should be able to delete the styles you created using Tools | Macros...|
Organizer.


On 4/20/05 6:48 PM, "Janet" wrote:

I'm using Word 2003. I want to create a new style - to convert text,
separated by paragraphs, into a 2 column table, with no borders. I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style. When I try to
apply the new style, I have a 2 column table, with no borders, BUT the text
has remained in one column, rather than being divided into 2 columns. When
I
make the formatting changes to the text, it has very clearly been divided
into 2 columns. So why doesn't style work?
A second question - since I have been experimenting, I have several styles,
that I want to PERMANENTLY delete (I saved to the template - being
optimistic!) - how can I now get rid of them?
Also, is there a way to have ONLY the styles which I have created appear
with every new document or do I have to hide the others and select the ones
I
want?
Why oh why is style better than a macro?!?
Thanks
Janet

Thank-you so very much - now I understand. I spent a long time learning
about styles in the Word training section and for some of the formatting,
they will definitely be easier. I thought I must be doing something wrong,
because styles does have a table option. Thanks again.
Janet

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote:

Consider the keyboard shortcut as completely separate from the macro. You
create a macro. Right, done. Saved in normal.dot, good.

Then you assign a keyboard shortcut to it, via Tools | Customize. These are
two totally different things, and objects and live in Word totally
independently. When you created the shortcut, you need to also save it in
normal.dot (down at the bottom of the Tools | Customize dialog, there should
be a little inconspicuous note/menu about "save in:").

Word theoretically offers you the option to combine these two steps, but
that has never worked for me, and since they are two separate things, just
as well to understand that by doing them separately.

I went back to your earlier message. Suzanne does appear to suggest you can
use a macro to create a table, but I think she just missed that in all the
text you wrote. You mentioned 3 uses for a macro--Suzanne posted back
"both" of the uses can be accomplished by styles. And Charles did give you
some info re why the keyboard shortcut was not working.

So, go back and recreate your shortcut for your table macro, and make sure
you save it in normal.dot.

You said:
I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style.
Okay, that second method is where the confusion arises. If you use New
Style, it's clear that there is no way to say "put this text into a table."

Note that you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to a style--but again,
this is a totally independent object, and will only continue to work if
saved in the proper template.

It's not really a question of a style being better than a macro, by the way.
In general, if you don't need a macro to do something, it is easier and
faster to use the predefined method. So styles and macros should serve
different purposes, thus better/worse becomes irrelevant.

DM

On 4/21/05 6:20 AM, "Janet" wrote:

OK - now I have another question. Originally I created a macro to do this
using a keyboard shortcut - Alt t,t and I believe I saved in it normal.dot.
I am cutting many small sections from a large document and then moving each
into a new file, for editing, etc & formatting. (So, I don't want to create
a set of new macros for each new document or file). The problem I had was
that the keyboard shortcuts, (which I had created in the original document)
wouldn't work in the new documents. I could run the macro from the menu bar
- Tools - macro, etc., but when I used the keyboard commands, nothing
happened. (Using a keyboard command, is much faster that going into the
menu). I posted my problem here, and the answer was to use styles instead,
but they never explained why the keyboard commands were not transferable from
the one document to a new document. Or what I had done wrong. (Sometimes,
one or two of the commands worked for awhile in a new document, and then
stopped or they worked in one new document, but not in another.) Thanks
again.

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote:

I think in this case you do want a macro. Tables and columns are not among
the attributes that you can include in a style definition.

An alternative would be saving a preformatted table as an AutoText entry,
then typing the text directly into it (assuming you want this macro for
creating new documents as well as formatting old).

You should be able to delete the styles you created using Tools | Macros...|
Organizer.


On 4/20/05 6:48 PM, "Janet" wrote:

I'm using Word 2003. I want to create a new style - to convert text,
separated by paragraphs, into a 2 column table, with no borders. I have
tried both using New Style and selecting what I want, or making the
formatting changes to the text and then naming the new style. When I try to
apply the new style, I have a 2 column table, with no borders, BUT the text
has remained in one column, rather than being divided into 2 columns. When
I
make the formatting changes to the text, it has very clearly been divided
into 2 columns. So why doesn't style work?
A second question - since I have been experimenting, I have several styles,
that I want to PERMANENTLY delete (I saved to the template - being
optimistic!) - how can I now get rid of them?
Also, is there a way to have ONLY the styles which I have created appear
with every new document or do I have to hide the others and select the ones
I
want?
Why oh why is style better than a macro?!?
Thanks
Janet

Yes, apologies, you are right, I just doublechecked this again. Applying a
predefined table style does put the text into tables. I've not messed with
these myself, but the impression I get from Suzanne, etc (if I remember
correctly) is that Table Styles are not quite ready for prime time. I think
they were a new feature in 2002 or 2003.

My version (MacWord 2004) does not appear to let me create a table style
myself, from scratch, though it has preset ones. Where is the option in
your version, out of curiosity?

Did any of the predefined table styles match your needs?

On 4/21/05 2:14 PM, "Janet" wrote:

Thank-you so very much - now I understand. I spent a long time learning
about styles in the Word training section and for some of the formatting,
they will definitely be easier. I thought I must be doing something wrong,
because styles does have a table option. Thanks again.
Janet