Easy Fixes/Upgrades Surprisingly Not Done Yet

[RicoWarner]

Hello -

Not a complaint--suggestions--love Word and have been using it since Day 1 when WYSIWYG was not even a thing, yet.

As a professional writer, figure it is a responsibility to state the obvious, after giving them decades to sort this out.  Here are pet peeves that are a surprisingly large wasters of time and should be quick fixes.  Am sure others have commented on them, just adding my vote.

1. In multipage view, Page 1 [Recto] needs to be on the right side. Adding a blank page at beginning is a kludge and throws off the mirror margins, plus need to remember to remove the page for publishing.  Just give a "Book View Multipage" or checkbox optional mode.  Throws off review of a book more than non-book writer sorts might suspect.

2. Headers & footers get confused and mangled in unpredictable and irrational ways.  Unspecified buggery is at work in them.  Please fix.  Probably some 5% of my editing time involves checking and re-checking every blessed header and footer after every editing pass to see how they got screwed up.  Screw-ups generally involve information from one section leaking into another, including 1st page headers where did not used to be any, wrong chapter headings, etc. Yes, attempts to avoid this by tediously unlinking *all* the headers [and sacrificing that functionality, still does not fix it.  Yes, have researched and tried various "fixes."  Ditto for footers where the page numbering gets confused or leaks from one section to another [such as from Chap 1 to front matter] or number formatting changes, etc.  This is a huge productivity waster and main motivation for me taking the time to write.  Literally wastes tens of hours for me over the time developing a book.

3. For some unknown reasons, Word likes to seemingly occasionally change "Next Page" section breaks into "Odd Page" or "Even Page"...which magically inserts a blank page upon printing [otherwise not visible].  Bonus Points: Would be great to also have a "Last Page" section header.  That way, at end of chapters one can have no header [for example] without having to make the last page its own section and manually break a paragraph to get it properly justified at last word/first word.  

[#2]

@RicoWarner 

You can post suggestions for future versions of Word at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472.

Below, I briefly comment on your remarks... 

1. Recto (odd-numbered) pages are displayed on the right if you switch to the print preview at File > Print. 

2. Headers and footers may be a bit convoluted, but they are not buggy. Each time you insert a section break, you get a new set of three headers (and footers): first page, even page, odd page. To activate all types of headers (footers), you have to enable "Different first page" and "Different odd and even pages" in Page Setup. When you add a section, the first page header of the new section is linked to its "neighbor" first page header in the preceding section by default. See http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/HeaderFooterRibbon.htm.

3. A next page section break may change into an odd page section break if the page numbering restarts in the new section. This is done because Word enforces the typographical convention that an odd-numbered page should be a right-hand page. As discussed in item #1, this will not be shown correctly in Print Layout view. The print preview (and an actual printout) will be correct, though.

If the new section changes the page orientation, sometimes the type of section will also change. 

[#3]

Thanks for the response. Per your comments:

1. Then cannot edit while reviewing the work.  

2. It's buggy.  Yes, I know all that, and that is not what I am talking about.

3. No new page numbering in scenarios I am experiencing.  The page numbers are all linked to previous sections and continue from previous numbering. 

Have tried to identify the use case scenarios that trigger the apparent faults, but cannot.  Merely invest the time.  Spent about 6hrs today on a book that is undergoing final edit pass.  [In other words, header/footers have been "corrected" a number of times over the last 18 months and there is zero reason I should have to do it again.  Had to go thru entire book.  Found about 20 screw-ups with headers & footers.  VERY GOOD CHANCE, in review of final print-ready .pdf...?  That many will have auto-generated and need repair yet again.]

[#4]

@RicoWarner 

Regarding item #2, you will have to provide a specific example, maybe a sample document which illustrates what you are referring to. 

Someone here will be able to provide a suggestion for a way forward. 

[#5]

No idea how to do that. It is a transient issue w/unknown ways to manifest it on demand.

Am currently wondering if a corrupted .dot file could exercise a fault. If Word is not buggy in this feature, as you claim, then it would have to be something that follows me from project to project as have dealt with this for ten years or more.

[#6]

@RicoWarner 

Intermittent issues are very difficult to troubleshoot, of course. :(

[#7]

Hello @RicoWarner ,

like you I also grew with Word. I used to type my theses on a typewriter when desktop computers were not a "thing" yet as they needed an entire room to work.... :)

All things you describe can be fixed, and usually result from user error. It doesn't necessarily be you, it can be anyone else working with the document and doing changes without realising it. Us, the editors (and document fixers for that matter) see that every day... It's our daily bread.

From what you describe it is something that will not apply to your document anymore as it is the last draft.

Anyway, my suggestions:

1. Add an odd page section break to the first page - it doesn't throw off the mirror margins. Will have to accept the blank page, though. Can be delete in PDF, though.

2. Don't bother with headers/footers until the last draft, or you have to keep redoing it. But things you describe are the tell-tale of an inexperienced user. Education/investing time in education will get rid of this 'buggery'. They are, truly, easily fixable.

3. Odd page section break is the magic that inserts a magical blank page without showing it in Print View. Again, this is not a bug. The Last page can be actually inserted using one of the magic section breaks (odd/even section breaks).

[#8]

Sorry, this does not help; it is dismissive of an issue Microsoft needs to fix and you are not helping anyone. You are presuming there is not buggery at work and it is working as intended. Have tried injecting odd pages and that only makes issues worse.

In theory, if all worked right, can add headers/footers any time in your process...and they will work. I should not have to alter my creative process to get the headers/footers to work. As add pages, they will work. As delete pages they will work. Yes, btw, I know when add a section it auto-links to previous section...and that should work. It doesn't.

[#9]

Sorry, @RicoWarner but you assume we know exactly what is going on. You also assume we will fix it for you.

As much as we try to find the right answer for your problem, unless we see your document, all is an assumption.

"it is dismissive of an issue Microsoft needs to fix " Then why turning to this group? You posted your enquiry to the wrong group, who obviously don't own nor can alter Microsoft's code.

Turn to Microsoft. Use their feedback process to improve the product.

Word · Community (microsoft.com)