Word 2007 takes away user's control over Document view

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry
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Larry

In earlier version of Word, in which the Normal view was the default view,
if you changed a document to the Page Layout view, and made changes and
saved them and closed the document, when you re-opened the document again
later it would be in Page Layout view. The user could get away from the
default Normal view and work in the view he preferred.

In Word 2007, where Print Layout view is the default view, if you switch to
the Draft view (previously called the Normal view), make changes, save, and
close, when you re-open the document it will revert to Print Layout view.
There is no way to get control over the document so that it will open in the
view that you want it to open in.

It is unbelievable. Microsoft has taken away the user's basic control over
a document, forcing the user to switch manually to Draft view each time he
opens the document if he wants to work in Draft view.

What happened to "userfriendliness"? What happened to the idea of the
"personal" computer that the individual user could use as he likes? What
happened to the emphasis on user customization and preferences? Gone.
Microsoft has one way, the Microsoft way, and everyone must conform.
 
I suspect I will find this incredibly annoying, too, since I work in Normal
(now Draft) view most of the time. I agree that this is high-handed.

--
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.
 
In fact last night I found a feature buried deep in Word 2007's absurd
"advanced options" page that fixes this.

To get there, first you press Alt+F to open the "Microsoft Office button."
Why Alt+F? Because that's a legacy from the File menu that the "Office
button" replaces. Makes a lot of sense, right? Very "intuitive," right?

Then you open the "Options" button. Why is the "Options" button part of the
"Office button" that is really a replacement for the File menu? Because MS
has eliminated the Tools menu, where the Options button used to be, and they
had to put the Options button _somewhere_. Isn't it wonderful how organic
and integrated this new environment is?

Then you arrow down in the left pane of the "Options" area and select
"Advanced." Then you shift your focus from the left pane to the main pane.
Af this point you're in the "Advanced" pane of the "Options" area, but this
pane is so large and contains so many sub-sections that it is not all on
screen at the same time!!! This is not like the various tabs of the old
Options dialog box, where you would select a tab such as View or Edit and
easily see all the features on that tab. No, in Word 2007 you have to
scroll down and search for different subsections to find the subsection you
might be looking for. Very user friendly, right?

Anyway, in one of the subsections, I think "Display" or maybe "Document
display" (I'm not at the computer with Word 2007 now and am saying this from
memory), there is an item that says something like, "Enable draft view."
Check that, press OK, and from that point you will be able to save a
document in Draft view and it will re-open in Draft view.

By the way, I was not able to find any reference to this in Word help. I
only found this feature by accident, after I had given up on finding it.

Now, how many ordinary users does MS expect to find this obscure control?
What it means is that MS expects, say, 98 percent of users never to be able
to save a document in Draft view and be able to open it again in Draft view.
The user would have switch the view manually to Draft view every time.

Larry
 
'Allow Opening of document in Draft View' is the wording. I've never used it
because I never use Draft (normal) view.

Terry Farrell
 
Thanks for finding this, Larry. I'll definitely want to enable it when I
install Word 2007.

--
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.
 
Larry said:
Now, how many ordinary users does MS expect to find this obscure control?
What it means is that MS expects, say, 98 percent of users never to be able
to save a document in Draft view and be able to open it again in Draft view.
The user would have switch the view manually to Draft view every time.
Click to expand...

Just by the way--98% of ordinary users never used Normal view, and won't
use Draft view either, and will never notice this problem. In fact,
most people posting here call Print Layout the normal view, as that's
what a page normally looks like. :)

However, if I ever use Word 2007, I will really appreciate your tip.
 
Those of us who work with out non-printing characters permanently displayed
are probably just as rare as those who work in normal view: at least the
Pilcrow tool button is still there. :)

Terry Farrell
 
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