Cursor Defaults to Header

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave B
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave B

How do I get the cursor to default to the body of the doc, not the header?
When I try to save a revised doc as the normal template, I get a message
that I can't save an already open doc(temp?). The question then becomes how
do I change the default template. The help instruction is just to do a save
as. That's when I get the error message.
What to do?
Thanks in advance.

Dave
 
Thank you Suzanne -

But 3 questions remain:

1) My default cursor position is still in the header. How do I get it into
the body of the doc. (Practically never use a header)
2) Your MVP article is amazing - where in the world do you find this stuff
out? (I'm not going there - it's just a matter of interest. To use the
trial and error method would take longer than 2003 has been out.)
3) Your MVP article, under "What You Should Never Do" is exactly what the
help routine says TO do (my interpretation). What am I missing?

I liked DOS. All this help I'm getting from Bill is driving me crazy.

Thx much

Dave
 
1. If you don't have a lot of customizations stored in Normal.dot, your
simplest approach might be to rename it. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm. But are you sure
the insertion point is actually in the header? Or is your problem that
described at http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/WhiteSpace.htm? If you
don't have text boundaries displayed, it might be easy to miss this.

2. I've been using Word since 1992 and reading these NGs since 1998. One is
bound to pick up a few tips that way!

3. What Help topic are you citing? It sounds like a description of how to
create a document template, which would not be applicable to Normal.dot.

--
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.
 
OK, thank you for all that. Omitting a several pages of comments I could
make about how long I've been using the original Word, and what Bill has
done to it in the interim, we'll move forward as they say in Washington (an
open admission it has been somewhat disastrous getting to where we are now):

1) OK, I can create new/revised dot files OK, but I assure you the cursor
defaults to the header. Not only that, the only way I have found to get it
out is by inserting at least one character in the header. Any letter,
object, you name it. It will not come out until you do.

Once out, if you then select header/footer, the cursor jumps back into the
header. Now that's another matter, and makes sense. No problem.

2) Impressive. I'm sure you've seen a lot more problems that I have.
Wonder why that is?

3) OK, we got that straight, thanks. How could I guess creating a
template was different from revising an existing one? Got a lot to learn.
I now have a NewNormal.dot in addition to Normal.dot. I'll turn them around
later.

I've been programming since the mid 60's. I also write volumes. I
originally got into Word in the mid 90's as a tool. I didn't/don't know how
to write word processing code. I am obviously very disappointed in the 2003
Word/Excel/etc rewrites because what I thought would be an upgrade has been
very counter productive. As I said before I have never seen so much
unwanted crap jump on a screen. Thanks only to your perspicacity, I would
be reverting to the original Word, God forbid but never Word Perfect, and
resuming what I was trying to do initially.

I guess I am complaining about all the default tricks these progs come with,
and which you have generously helped us turn off. That said, let me say I
can think of one more thing that should have been included in Office 2003 -
a switch to make it resemble Office 2000 (or whatever). What then would be
the point of upgrading Bill might say.

Exactly.

Thank you much. I do appreciate your help.

I'm Ok for now but I'm sure I'll be back. Promise to restudy writer's rules
for concise prose.

Dave
 
Well, any template you create, you can revise. And the templates that ship
with Word can be modified and saved (though they won't be saved to the
original location because that's reserved for the original installed
version). But Normal.dot is a special case.

Your header problem is something I've never heard of; as I say, I can only
assume it reflects either corruption in Normal.dot or (and this is actually
a lot more likely) the action of a poorly written add-in (since it would
seem to require an AutoNew macro to jump you to the header of a new
document). You might see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm for some more
troubleshooting ideas.
--
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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