New Stuff

So I’ve been working at a new job for the last few weeks and it’s a good place to work.  I like what I do and I’m learning a lot about Access and Excel 2007. 

I like working with Access a little more than Excel just because Access does a few more of the things I need to do without having to code it in VBA.  I wouldn’t mind learning more VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) but it’s a little time consuming so I’m sticking with macros for now.  I like the face that I can run a query to merge data from two tables and then have a table that displays just the information I want without additional filtering and fussing.

Don’t get me wrong I think that Excel is a phenomenal program that does some fascinating things, and the 3-D charts in Excel 2007 are posh.  The difference is that if you want to merge, manipulate and export data, take a look at using Access for these kinds of tasks.  If you need a really cool looking table for a presentation or you need to crunch some fiscal numbers, use Excel.  It’s a matter of knowing what’s in your toolbox and when to apply which tool to get the job done right, get the job done well, and still get the job done on time.

 Littlebrownmouse

When MS Word Changes Your Formatting

Ok so this one was obscure and I want to make sure that I document it so that I remember for any future occurrences. Today I was asked to diagnose a strange MS Word problem. This copy of MS Word was automatically changing the formatting for the whole document whenever formatting was changed for a new paragraph.  The person was pressing Ctrl+E to center the top of the document, then the person hit enter twice and hit Ctrl+L to left justify the next paragraph.  After hitting Ctrl+L, the document changed the centered text to left justified text with the new line.

I was perplexed, I looked in Auto text, I looked in Auto formatting, I even wondered if a rogue macros was to blame.  But then I found out it was just an automatic style update that was to blame.  I found this at the Microsoft Office website under Troubleshooting Using Styles and Applying Formatting.

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A style has changed unexpectedly.

Automatic updating may be turned on for the style With automatic updating, a style is updated when you make additional changes to it, so that certain elements in your document, such as headings, are consistent. You can turn off this setting by modifying the style. If the Styles and Formatting task pane (task pane: A window within an Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your files.) is not open, click Styles and Formatting on the Formatting toolbar. Right-click the style that you want to change, and then click Modify. If the Automatically update check box is selected, clear it.

Your style may be based on another style that has changed. When a base style (base style: The underlying or original style on which other styles in a document are dependent. When you change a formatting element of the base style in a document, all other styles that originate from the base style will also reflect the change.) changes, so do all the styles that are dependent on it. For example, if you change the font in the Normal style (Normal style: The default paragraph style used in documents based on the Normal template (Normal.dot)) to Arial, Microsoft Word changes the font for the styles used in footnotes, headers, footers, page numbers, and other text based on the Normal style.

If you don’t want a certain style to change when you change a base style, make certain that your style is not based on another style, or at least not on the base style that you’re changing. If the Styles and Formatting task pane is not open, click Styles and Formatting on the Formatting toolbar. Right-click the style that you want to change, and then click Modify. In the Style based on box, click (no style) or a style different from the base style you’re changing.

The document may be based on a template that changed. If you change the styles in a template (template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape an entire Web site.) and then reopen a document based on that template, styles in the current document may be updated, based on their new definitions in the template. If you don’t want the styles in documents based on a particular template to be updated when you open the documents, click Templates and Add-Ins on the Tools menu, and then clear the Automatically update document styles check box.

The template that contains the style definitions may be missing or damaged. If the template that contains the style definitions is missing or damaged, styles in the current document use the style definitions from the Normal template (Normal template: A global template that you can use for any type of document. You can modify this template to change the default document formatting or content.).

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It took me forever to find this, but I’m glad that I began to wonder if Styles where the issue. Styles are a handy way of making your text more uniform, and setting a Style to Automatically Update makes it a lot easier to change a mass of text at one time (without writing a macro to do it). But that’s a subject for another day.

Word 2007

Here’s my take on the first of the MS 2007 Professional Suite, Word 2007. There are a few new features of Word 2007 that I like Publish as PDF Integration with Business Contact Manager and SharePoint. Styles, Themes and Building Blocks can help to make documents more consistent and polished. There are also improvements in the Word 2007 Reference tools that simplify inserting and formating references.

I like the new interface for Word 2007 because it groups buttons on toolbar or “ribbon” that are typically used together. If you’ve ever worked on documents from start to finish, you know that you start out with a document or a template, it goes through a draft or two, you make sure your citations are added, it goes through another revision or two and then you’re done. The other cool part about Word 2007 is that basic document functions aren’t hidden in menus and there’s a logical flow to their placement. It’s almost revolutionary, but really what it does is it puts the functions out in the open based on what they do and allows users to find and use more of the software than in previous versions because they didn’t have time to find these functions (hopefully).

As usual the one thing I don’t like about Word is that it doesn’t allow for too much customization for industries with specific formatting or citation requirements. I do likethe “Reference” tab in Word 2007 which makes it easier access to automat document references. What I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t automatically format citations under Blue Book standards and the research panel doesn’t include legal research items. I’m sure these are all items that can be customized somehow, but it would be nice if these things where already in place.

The Table of Authorities still exists and in Word 2007 it is easer to mark and add Table of Authorities citations.  Another thing I noticed in Word 2007 that I haven’t seen in earlier versions (probably because I couldn’t find the command for it) is insert text. This feature would enable firms to save standard language in a snippets or small portions of commonly used language, and then just insert it into the text without running the risk of using previously built documents and existing metadata.

Now on to my favorite part of MS Word, the Merge feature. I love pulling information directly from MS Outlook or another commonly used database and creating merge letters for multiple contacts. I didn’t really notice much in the way of changes to the MS Word Merge in 2007. What I do like about the Merge in 2007 is that it is the easiest access to the Merge features that I’ve seen yet. In MS Word 2002, you had to hunt out the Merge feature, in 2003, there’s a toolbar and a wizard, but you still had to know what you where looking for (it’s not on the "Standard" toolbar). In MS Word 2007 there’s a "Mailings" tab, and on the tab you can see buttons (finally!) for envelopes and labels, as well as all the buttons necessary to complete a word merge. MS Word 2007 will also let you scrub metadata before sending a document (without a plug-in) and it will compare a document with earlier versions so that you can make sure that someone else will be able to open and read your document.

MS Word 2007 still does not have a built in PDF publishing feature unlike some of its competitors, but you can use MS download a plug-in to publish in PDF. There is also a new file format for MS Word 2007 the .docx format.  This format is intended to mimic the open document format found in OpenOffice.org and Star Office products. In conclusion, I like the layout and I like some of the new features. I think it will make it easier for people to navigate the program, create consistent documents, cite sources, and save time. It looks like MS Word could make it easier for people to use more of Word than they have in the past because they can clearly see what’s there and pop up help menus make it easier to find out what the buttons do.