Here’s a request to anyone who uses Microsoft 2007. I’ve just installed it on my computer and it looks very nice, but it doesn’t behave in quite the same way as my tried and tested Word 2003. One thing in particular is bugging me. I don’t want this bossy system to leave a space between paragraphs. And it does. Here’s one coming up now. Arrrrgh!!!
Yes, yes, yes, I know! Spaces are left between paragraphs when you’re writing a letter, a commercial letter, that is, but books aren’t letters and I want to write books. And this blog. And all sorts of other things that don’t start with: “Dear Sir, thank you for your letter of the 4th instant which I now have safely to hand,” and end with: “I beg to remain your most obedient and respectful servant, Yours sincerely…” etc etc.
I only changed over from the old Word because the system, which has worked more or less perfectly for ages started sulking and closing down and going off to hang round with the other Types (or Fonts) in corners with a brief “Word has encountered a problem and has to close” message.
So how the dickens do I get Word 2007 to believe I’m using their all singing, all dancing system with its pretty colours to write books and not letters with and to stop acting like a badge-hungry Boy Scout who insists on helping old ladies across the road, whether they want to cross or not. To do, in short, what I want it to do instead of what it thinks I want it to do? At the moment, I’m thinking of re-labelling this “Officious 2007” as that’s what it’s being. Help everyone! It’s driving me nuts.
not sure if this i truely understand your dilemma, i'm not totally conversant with word 7 as i was with older version but now have word 7 and have to learn to work with it.
ReplyDeletei went into word, then page layout, and within that menu to "spacing" - my settings show 0 for before and after (it's the spot where "paragraph" shows in bottom light blue line.
so then i typed in a bunch of stuff, in order for me to get a line space between paragraphs i have to physically hit the enter button twice....ergo if i hit the enter button only once it does not leave a space....
am i way off base as to your dilemma?
cheers
b.
That seems to have done the trick, Barbara - thank goodness! Thank you very much for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it. I do wish these fairly expensive programmes would come with better guides, though. The official Microsoft site's search facility had no results when I entered "Space between paragraphs". It must be a fairly common problem, though.
ReplyDeletei've found the same thing about their help program, usually no help at all...
ReplyDeletei don't use word as much as i used to (retirement from an office job) - but every once in a while i have to do something that i used to do with one hand tied behind my back with earlier version of word, consequently i'm forced to pay attention to the so called helpful word 7 so if you have any more of these usage type questions, give me a shout, don't always have answers but two heads are better than one 8-)
am so very happy that i understood your problem and that my suggestion helped.