Controlling Unexpected Font Changes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Hardenbrook
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave Hardenbrook

I have been helping some new users learn Word, but they are frustrated
by something that I've heard many complain about. Say you're editing a
document that contains multiple fonts, and you select, say, "Times New
Roman" as the font you want to type in. Then you move to another
location in the document, and type, but the new text is not in "Times
New Roman" but something else!

Now *I* know why this happens -- hidden embedded commands setting the
font for the current cursor position. But this is counter-intuitive to
many new users -- If they select "Times New Roman", they expect
everything they type from then on to display in "Times New Roman"!

How can I explain the logic to a new user so that he/she will accept it?
This may be a problem withsome of my older and more set-in-their-way-of-
thinking members of the group. Also, it doesn't seem "logical" *at all*
(even to me), when all text in a certain font is deleted, but the
embedded command is still there, so if you move the cursor there and
type, it's mysteriously in a different font -- This frustrates people
more than anything!

Better still, is there a macro or other workaround that will force Word
to behave in the way these users expect?

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

My suggestion: Teach your users about styles and how to use them correctly.

Cheers
 
The font is not “changing†when they click elsewhere - their position in the
document is changing. To use an analogy, if you have three plates on the
counter, each with a different kind of bread on it, moving the knife from
plate one to plate two will not change the kind of bread, only the position
of the knife. You would not even expect the kind of bread to change. Same
with the insertion point, as you move it around in the document, formatting
does not follow you - you are simply positioning your insertion point in what
may very well be different formatting. This formatting is by no means
hidden, if you look at the formatting toolbar when you move your insertion
point, it will always show you the formats applied to the current position.
If they are having problems because they change the font when they first
open the document and then latter on the font changes back to the default on
them, this is because changing the font of the insertion point at the
beginning does not change the base font of the document. Even in an empty
document, you should select all before changing the font if you want to make
sure to keep it throughout. Turning on Show/Hide so that they can see that
there is something to select might help them understand better what’s
happening.
In my opinion, it would be a mistake to attempt to make anything work the
way they expect it to, rather than help them understand why it works the way
it does. It would just make it worse when they had to work on a different
machine or new install.
 
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