AutoFormat feature that can't be turned off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry
  • Start date Start date
There is no option to turn off borders on my AutoFormat tab, although there
is on the AutoFormat as you type tab. I guess this makes it, not a bug, but
an unfortunate anomoly. No reason I can think of to not put similar options
on both tabs.
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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Hi, glad you could join us :)

You've got the right key but it sounds as though you have turned off the 'border' option under tools, autocorrect,autoformat as you type (very sensibly too, as this thread proves)

basically, way back in the mists of time, MS decided it would be really good if just typing a few hyphens or underscores was converted into a line under the paragraph - presumably as a replacement for the typewriter version of creating a line.

What larry (OP) complained about was that even if you turn this off (as above) but then used 'tools, autoformat' the hyphens still get replaced, so if you don't want that you can't use 'tools, autoformat'

Reg
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the clarification. I figured I was missing
something from the original complaint, and I was. Sorry for the
intrusion.
(The already noted technique of simply entering a space before doing an
end-of-paragraph mark--I.e., Enter--does quickly handle that situation,
however.)
 
You're right. I was remembering the change on the AutoFormat As You Type tab
(from "Borders" to "Border lines") and thinking that was on AutoFormat.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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RegUK said:
Larry

Whilst I agree with and support your original post - the feature
Click to expand...
should be optional - I can't understand why this particular bug causes
you so much stress.

It's not about me personally, as I've already explained. I virtually
never use AutoFormat myself. Your attempt to make my personal feelings
the issue, rather than the subject at hand, is not the way to discuss
things. I've already talked about the sheer mind-blowing
inconsiderateness of Microsoft forcing generation after generation of
readers to go through the same inconviences. That is my point. MS
people read these newsgroups. They're familiar with the perenial issues
users have trouble with. So there is no excuse for them adding
innovation upon innovation to version after version Word without fixing
these g--d---n irritations in Word.
Where I don't agree with you is painting MS as some big, bad
Click to expand...
organisation out to upset everyone

It didn't say they're doing it deliberately to upset people, that's
completely misconstruing what I said. I said that they don't give a
damn. They don't care about certain things that they should care about.

Larry
 
Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Have you reported this as a bug? It will certainly never be fixed if no one
knows about it.
Click to expand...


I will do so. Though, as I said, reporting bugs is a lot harder than it
used to be.

Larry
 
Point taken, apologies

And given the general theme of questions in this forum I can't disagree that their attitude sucks, my point is that they suck just like every other major corporation, but that, as you say, is no excuse!!!

Reg
 
Larry said:
I will do so. Though, as I said, reporting bugs is a lot harder than it
used to be.
Click to expand...
Hi Larry,

MSWish should still be active, so try there first. It hasn't been shut
down, although the only thing it is designed to do is file and pass on
messages. But I just sent in the AutoFormat thing and got back a standard
acknowledgement form letter (that made sense).

Dayo
 
I believe MSWish claims it's not for bug reporting, but as long as the
report is stated in the form of a feature request (viz., put back this
feature that Word used to have!), it might get by.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Reg,

I don't agree they're like every other corporation, or rather I don't
think that every other corporation is like them. I don't want to turn
this into some generalized "all businesses are bad" screed, which would
relieve MS of its specific responsibility. There's no other single
corporation in the world which produces an important product which is
used so much by so many people. There is no other corporation which
produces a product, and then "new" version after "new" version of the
same product, while leaving in place absolutely horrible features that
have caused endless irritation to millions of customers. One simply
cannot say that about Sony or Panasonic or Dell or a thousand other
consumer-oriented companies. Microsoft not fixing its bulleting and
numbers, for example, is not an example of "normal" bureaucratic
indifference or lack of concern. It off-the-charts unforgivable.

Larry


RegUK said:
Point taken, apologies.

And given the general theme of questions in this forum I can't
Click to expand...
disagree that their attitude sucks, my point is that they suck just like
every other major corporation, but that, as you say, is no excuse!!!!
 
You're comparing apples to oranges. Sony, Panasonic, and Dell do not make
software. The products they make do not have to be compatible with previous
versions. MS, by contrast, has to write software that will run on a huge
variety of hardware, operating under a wide variety of operating systems,
and the documents produced by the latest version of Word have to be
backward-compatible. If you want to understand the difficulty of fixing
"broken" features, you might find it instructive to read
http://weblogs.asp.net/chris_pratley/archive/2004/02/05/67871.aspx.

A single illustration of this concept is the WordPerfect options on the
General tab. One of the recommendations the MVPs made was to remove them,
since very few people enable them intentionally, and those who do usually
realize pretty quickly that this was a mistake. What we were told, though,
is that there is always the possibility of their getting turned on
accidentally, say by intrusive add-ins (which is the reason, AFAICS, for
most of the questions we get about them here); if there were no provision in
the UI for turning them off, then we would really be in the soup. It is to
be hoped that the next version will perhaps make them a little harder to
find, or add some text advising against using them, but they will *not* be
removed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
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