Topic: MS Word (Read 3600 times)

12AX7 · « **on:** December 07, 2009, 11:01:47 PM »

Ive been using Word for several years at work; since our ticketing system crashes every damn night for several hours; and Im left to manage incoming alarms and troubleshooting efforts with nothing but Word to copy/paste the alarm details into.
Up until a couple of weeks ago; Ive never had any issues. I alt-tab to it, paste in what Ive copied. Later, I have to highlight/copy these ticket details in Word, and paste them back into a ticket when the system comes back up. Here's where my issue shows up.
Up until recently, when I would hilite/copy something and then alt-tab to my ticket app,, paste it, and alt-tab back to Word; everything was still highlighted, and all I had to do was hit backspace and it disappeared and I'd move on to my next one.
NOW, I highlight/copy, alt-tab, paste, alt-tab back; and nothing SHOWS highlighted, (but it IS) so if you try to highlight again (to backspace and delete it); it un highlights... so then you have to RE-highlight it again, then hit backspace and . . .nothing. Its still there. ( So you THINK.) It doesnt disappear now until you click SOMEWHERE ELSE on the .doc - THEN the UNhighlighted-but-actually-still-highlighted disappears; and the entire rest of the text jumps up to fill in what you just deleted.

I have changed NOTHING in Prefs or Option or anything in Word. Anyone have any idea what could be the issue here? Was there an update that screwed Word up (changed it somehow)? Is there a setting that you can imagine causing this that maybe someone else changed for me? I have no idea what to even look for; as I dont know what changed, and havent ever seen any setting having to do with higlighting/al-tabbing/etc.

SOMEONE. PLEASE HELP me before I go all Office Space on this piece of shit...

Novice · « **Reply #1 on:** December 08, 2009, 12:44:30 AM »

Quote from: 12AX7 on December 07, 2009, 11:01:47 PM

SOMEONE. PLEASE HELP me before I go all Office Space on this piece of shit...

Hlight? What the F*ck does that mean?

In seriousness, I tried recreating the problem and could not. The problem itself sounds a little too odd to be something wrong with an update, but that's just an opinion.

Which Word are you using? 2007? This is what I was testing with. Also, can you use any other text editor / word processor to test if it is the machine you are using that's the problem? Did you accidentally hit the insert key? I find that button creates odd situations in Word.

ivan · « **Reply #2 on:** December 08, 2009, 02:07:02 PM »

In MS Word there is a setting called "Typing Replaces Selection". You'll find it under Tools/Options, usually on the Edit tab. If that is unchecked, that might be why backspacing is not deleting the highlighted text (the selection).

As for the highlight disappearing when you shift focus to another window and then shift focus back, I don't know what could have changed that. And the thing where you have to click out of the selection to delete it is just weird.

Here are some ideas:

1. Try using WordPad, if you have it.

2. Try using Notepad.

3. Instead of Highlight-Copy-AltTab-Paste-AltTab-Backspace, try Highlight-Copy-AltTab-Paste-AltTab-DELETE. The Delete key always deletes the selection, no matter how the "Typing Replaces Selection" option is set.

4. Instead of Highlight-Copy-AltTab-Paste-AltTab-Backspace, try Highlight-CUT-AltTab-Paste-AltTab. Replacing the Control-C/Control-V habit with Control-X/Control-V may be both hard and dangerous, but in this case it would save you a step.

12AX7 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 08, 2009, 02:56:12 PM »

I would use Notepad, but I color code my tickets (red- didnt clear and has to be dispatched, light green- I fixed it, dark green-it restored on its own, orange- alarm has been cleared, but has repeated, etc..)
I will look into the "Typing Replaces Selection" setting.

I may even record a short vid of what it's doing and explain during. It's a small thing, but Im sure you know how a little thing like that can totally throw everything off; especially when you're doing several things at once and have to be FAST about it to keep up. Plus, its a 9-solid-year habit. Doing something forty hours a week for nine years and then all of a sudden having a change that forces you to totally retrain your fingers is a BITCH.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, guys. I'll post whatever I find/have to do/etc.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #4 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:00:26 PM »

It might be worth giving OpenOffice.org a try...

12AX7 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:08:21 PM »

Cant. Its a Verizon pc; and they run a check on them - if not every night; at least a couple times a week. ANY application (or version) that is not "Verizon-approved" gets unceremoniously uninstalled. They've uninstalled Firefox, Chrome, MSNmessenger, Yahoo messenger, the "wrong" version of Lotus's Sametime chat client (which we use), and Adobe Photoshop, among others.

BizB · « **Reply #6 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:21:42 PM »

Locate and delete your normal.doc and let Office re-create it.

ivan · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:30:31 PM »

Quote from: BizB on December 08, 2009, 03:21:42 PM

Locate and delete your normal.doc and let Office re-create it.

Smarty bombalarty.

Bet it will work.

12AX7 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:54:42 PM »

My "normal.doc" . . . is that a template? Or are you talking about my .doc that I use? (its been the same one for several years... I just save in it, then when Im done; its empty, still formatted (font and size, borders, etc), and I do a save and close it. Next night I open the same one, use it again)

BizB · « **Reply #9 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:57:22 PM »

Normal.doc is the base template that Word uses before it opens anything. It's like the empty word document shell.

12AX7 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:58:32 PM »

Ok. I'll try that. Thanks!

12AX7 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 08, 2009, 04:06:06 PM »

Another thing I just remembered its doing now that it wasn't doing before.
I have my pc set to view ALL files; hidden, system, etc. So I get to see the temp files from the Word .doc on my desktop.
I do a CNTRL-S save with nearly EVERY change I make; be it pasting into, or deleting out of the doc. Previously, it would only show a couple of .doc temps on the desktop. When I would save, one would disappear, and the other would remain. NOW, however, it fills up the desktop with separate temps files until you close the .doc and re-open it. They all disappear, and it starts collecting them again ( as you make changes and do saves).

Like I said; I dunno if that has anyting to do with my issue directly; but it might point to some other possibilities causing my grief.

12AX7 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 09, 2009, 06:34:09 AM »

The problem is ...gone. Not "solved", but gone. Thanks for everyone's help.

I couldn't find a 'normal.doc', so I instead was going to use WordPad. It at least has bold, italics, and underline.
I opened a new WordPad document and started using it. I had to close it, and when I re-opened it, I didn't "Open With" WordPad ( I just dbl-clicked); and it opened with Word instead. I just kept working using that; and everything was fine; just like it used to be. I deleted the original .doc; and am using this one now.

Chaulis · « **Reply #13 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:27:33 AM »

Not surprised you couldn't find Normal.doc, go for Normal.dot instead. No doubt keyboard gremlins must have gotten at BizB's post.
The file is located in:
c:\Documents and Settings\{user name}\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\
Several of the folders in that path are hidden so you'll have to enable viewing hidden files and folders in order to get at it.

BizB · « **Reply #14 on:** December 09, 2009, 09:10:25 AM »

What he said.

Clear_Runway · « **Reply #15 on:** December 09, 2009, 04:08:12 PM »

normal dot dot? that's not confusing. way to go, Microsoft. very creative with the extensions.

Chaulis · « **Reply #16 on:** December 09, 2009, 04:25:09 PM »

Have you seen windows?

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