Default search scope in "find and replace"
Hi all, is there any way to make the search scope in the "fine and replace" menu (under "more") default to "all"? I have files with text boxes and the only way to make sure they are included is with "all", so every time I have to change it manually... Many thanks ahead!
TechCommunity Report — Word extremely slow to open files (now resolved)
Issue summary Starting on March 22nd, Word became extremely slow when opening any .docx file (even new empty files). A document that normally opens in 5 seconds suddenly required 8–10 minutes. The issue affected all my devices (Windows PC, mobile, and Word Online). Symptoms observed Word took several minutes to open any file, including newly created ones Word Online displayed “servers are busy” errors My Microsoft account portals sometimes failed to load or did not recognize my identity The issue appeared immediately after an Office update on March 22nd PowerPoint and other Office apps were unaffected Another software opened the same files much quicker Reinstalling Office, repairing Office, and attempting System Restore did not fix the issue Key diagnostic findings The problem was not related to my files (another free online software opened them much quicker) The problem was not local to my PC (same behavior on mobile and Word Online) The issue was clearly linked to Microsoft cloud services or the March 22nd Word build System Restore failed, but the issue persisted exactly the same afterward The problem disappeared suddenly without any local change Resolution The issue resolved itself spontaneously. A document that previously took 10 minutes to open now opens in 5 seconds again. This strongly suggests that the root cause was on Microsoft’s side (cloud service dependency or faulty build). Current configuration After reinstalling Office, I am now on: Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 Version 2408 — Build 16.0.17928.20148 (64-bit) This build is stable and does not exhibit the issue Request If possible, could Microsoft confirm whether there was a service degradation or a problematic build released around March 22nd? This would help users understand the root cause and avoid unnecessary troubleshooting. Thank you.
Is there an acceptable method to convert pub to docx?
Unfortunately Microsoft has decided to end Publisher. So users are forced to find methods both for archiving old files and converting current files to be able to continue working. For the first PDF will most likely be the easiest. For the second I've been trying to find a converter. This proves to be a challenge. And the results have been very unsatisfactory so far. My main publication is a brochure which is printed double-sided on A4 paper, stapled and then folded to A5 size. The publication contains 99% text boxes (with formatted text) and pictures. Here and there a shape like a horizontal line. All things that Word definitely supports. So converting it should be a no-brainer - at least I thought so. Of course Publisher can save as DOCX. Unfortunately the function only supports plain text. So the text boxes are removed, which means a lot of manual rework. Also the text isn't converted continuously. For exapmle the text that was on the first sheet in my Publisher file, ended up on page 5 in Word. Bottom line: not acceptable. Microsoft therefore don't even refer to that save function in their official communication to Publisher retirement. They suggest a workaround instead: save the file as a PDF and open it with Word. The suggestion is embarrassing enough, since it implies that Microsoft are unable to provide suitable conversion between their own formats. I tested it anyway. But the layout ends up in Word in a way that requires a lot of manual rework. Tab stops are partially removed, page margins are shifted. The pagination is also incorrect, so that some pages are half empty. Bottom line: not acceptable. Also tried some online converters. Unfortunately the results haven't been satisfying either. Most of them convert text boxes into shapes with integrated text boxes. And even worse: big text boxes are often split into several smaller boxes. In any case there still remains a lot of manual rework. Bottom line: halfway acceptable. Disappoiting Conclusion: At present, I consider it the best option to rebuild the file from scratch in Word using Copy-Paste. If someone knows a better method, would be happy to hear about it.Table Styles and the Ribbon Table Design>Table Option Checkboxes
I have been dabbling in Word VBA for almost three decades but have a fairly limited practical use for Word so I rarely find myself dealing with Tables. However, the other day I got interested in Charles Kenyon's post on creating a table style with VBA and that led to my discovery of some very odd behavior with both the Table Option Checkboxes on the Ribbon and table style visibility. Specifically a) What triggers which of those six buttons is checked when a table style is applied, b) Why can't one or more of the plethora of "Table Styles" be removed from the Table Style Gallery on the Table Design Ribbon and c) Why can't the table style visibility be modified in the Style Manager "Recommended Dialong ("Show, Hide, Hide Until Used" is dimmed). First, I took Charles' recorded macro and modified it to focused on only two conditional formatting object “Header Row” and “Total Row” Option Explicit Sub TableStyleCreate() Dim oStyle As Style Dim oTS As TableStyle On Error Resume Next If ActiveDocument.Tables.Count = 1 Then ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Delete 'For testing. DoEvents Set oStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add("Table with Just One Condtional Style Element", wdStyleTypeTable) If Err.Number <> 0 Then 'The named style already exists. Delete it. ActiveDocument.Styles("Table with Just One Condtional Style Element").Delete DoEvents Set oStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add("Table with Just One Condtional Style Element", wdStyleTypeTable) End If oStyle.BaseStyle = "Table Grid" On Error GoTo 0 Set oTS = oStyle.Table With oTS.Condition(wdFirstRow) 'Associated with Header Row Checkbox .Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorLightTurquoise DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderLeft), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColor:=wdColorBlue DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderRight), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorBlue DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderTop), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorBlue DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderBottom), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorBlue DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderVertical), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorBlue End With With oTS.Condition(wdLastRow) 'Associated with Total Row Checkbox .Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorRose DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderLeft), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorRed DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderRight), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorRed DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderTop), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorRed DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderBottom), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorRed DefineBorder .Borders(wdBorderVertical), wdLineStyleSingle, wdLineWidth150pt, wdColorRed End With ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Selection.Range, 5, 7 Selection.Tables(1).Style = "Table with Just One Condtional Style Element" lbl_Exit: Exit Sub End Sub Sub DefineBorder(oBorder As Object, Optional LineStyle As WdLineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle, Optional LineWidth As WdLineWidth, _ Optional wdColor As wdColor = wdColorAutomatic) On Error Resume Next With oBorder .LineStyle = LineStyle .LineWidth = LineWidth .Color = wdColor End With On Error GoTo 0 lbl_Exit: Exit Sub End Sub TABLE STYLE OPTION CHECKBOXES After the macro runs, there is a five row, seven column table inserted into the document with conditional formatting displayed only on the “Header Row.” The reason for this is because when the table is inserted the Table Style Options on the Table Design tab are configured with “Header Row, Last Column, and Banded Rows” checked with “Total Row, Last Column and Banded Columns” unchecked. When I then checked “Total Row,” my style defined last row formatting was displayed. My style is formatted with only “Header Row and Total Row” formatting. Why was “First Column and Banded Rows” checked and “Total Row” not? I mean, if I go to the trouble of creating a style with conditional formatting, it seems to reason that I would want to see that formatting applied when I apply that style to a table. Why would I need to take the extra steps of selecting the table, clicking Table Design tab, and checking unchecked boxes? While investigating, I read that: "Set as Default" Function: If you modify a table (e.g., check "Total Row") and right-click to select "Set as Default," those specific check marks will appear on all future tables. So, I selected the table, and checked “Header Row and Total” and unchecked the other four boxes, then selected the style in the Table Styles Gallery, right clicked and applied "Set as Default." I inserted another table, applied the style but still, the formatting was incorrect for the second table. I had to again, select it, select Table Design and check the unchecked box for Total Row. I also read that the default configuration of the Table Style Option buttons is set as Header Row, First Column and Banded Rows checked whenever a new table is inserted in a document. That seems a bit illogical as I believe the default table style when a new table is inserted using Insert>Tables>Table is "Table Grid". The built-in Table Grid style doesn't have conditional formatting applied to either the Header Row, First Column or Banded Rows. One may wonder why are the boxes checked in that case? But they are. However, that theory is debunked because if you insert a table using a simple VBA procedure: Sub InsertSimpleTable() Dim oTbl As Table Set oTbl = ActiveDocument.Tables.Add(Selection.Range, 8, 6) MsgBox oTbl.Style.NameLocal End Sub ... which again has no conditional formatting applied, the Table Style Option boxes checked are "Banded Rows" and "Banded Columns" (the Header Row and First Column boxes are unchecked). Where is the logic in that? What triggered this change? It seems to me that the logical behavior would be that whenever a Conditional Formatting is defined in the table style that the associated Table Style Option button would be checked and the others unchecked when the table is inserted and that style applied. If a user then wants to then turn off the display of one or more conditions, then they uncheck it. Scenario: I need to create a document with 100 tables with conditional formatting applied to the Header Row and Total row. First table contains 3 rows, the second 4 four rows, third 5 row … the one hundredth 102 rows. I create a style with conditional Header and Total row formatting. I insert the first table apply the style, select the table, click Table Design Tab, check Total Row in table design options. I shouldn’t have to repeat those ridiculous steps for each of the next 99 tables. Madness!! TABLE STYLES IN GENERAL Next is table styles in general. The Table Design>Table Gallery has a plethora (a hundred or more) table styles displayed. Shauna Kelly discusses this absurdity in her page on tables styles (can't seem to post link) and how to remove some or all of them. She is right. Despite the artificial idiot solution to the prompt Word Table Design>Table Style Gallery remove a displayed style: To remove a displayed table style from the gallery in Word, right-click the specific style in the Table Design tab's gallery and select Remove form Style Gallery. This instantly removes the style from view in the current document, although it remains available in the full style list. There is no "Remove from Style Gallery" and as she states, there is no apparent way in the user interface to remove these built-in table table styles. Unfortunately, her suggested VBA method for doing so (in which I think there are typos): Sub HideATableStyleButMakeItVisibleWhenUsed() With ActiveDocument.Styles(Word.wdStyleTableLightShading) .Visibility = True 'Yes, True. .UnhideWhenUsed = True End With End Sub nor my altered version makes any difference. Sub MyAlteredVersion() With ActiveDocument.Styles(Word.wdStyleTableLightGrid) .Visibility = False .UnhideWhenUsed = False .Hidden = True End With lbl_Exit: Exit Sub End Sub At other places on the web, I have read that you can perhaps "hide" these styles with the Manage Styles "Restrict" dialog or Manage Styles "Recommended" Dialog. I applied restriction to all List Tables styles and still all 49 List Table type styles doggedly persist in the Table Style gallery. Attempts to hide using the visibility settings with the Style Manager Recommended Tab also fails: You can select Table Styles that are visible in the Table Style Pane and try to make them hidden but the associated visibility buttons are dimmed. All of my testing has been done with Word 2019. Does anyone have any evidence that any of these oddities/anomalies are resolved in new versions? Thank you.
VBA concern: support for macros or controls not installed
Background: installed Zotero, a citation manager, to use on Word but it uses macros My Word doesn't seem to have VBA installed. Every time I open the app, error boxes appear. Screenshotted below: I have tried a few things to fix this but without benefit: Macros enabled in the trust centre VBA enabled in the trust centre Rapid and online repair completed I have attempted to 'change' the program in the Control Panel in order to access the 'expand/add features' option but this does not exist as an option for me. When I press 'change' only repair options appear for me. Screenshotted below: My impression is that somehow VBA was not installed when I downloaded Office form my account. I appreciate VBA is downloaded automatically but this has not been the case for me. Please advise on next steps. Thanks in advance.
Word VBA, Unreachable table style setting?
I've noticed something that may be a missing feature in the Word VBA Object model. Styles in word can be of different kinds set by the WdStyleType when adding a style via expression.Add (Name, Type) method of the Styles Object (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.styles.add). Using wdStyleTypeTable gives a Table Style. Table styles differ somewhat from other styles since you build up the style of a table by setting the formatting for different parts/features of the table. E.g. the first, or last row may differ in their style compared to the rest of the table. These kind of settings are reached via the Condition method of the TableStyle object (reachable from the Style.Table property). Specifying different "conditions" (of data type WdConditionCode) give you access to ConditionalStyle objects handling the settings for different parts of the table. In word you can modify the table styles by for example <right-clicking> a table style and selecting "Modify Table Style" This presents you with the following UI. The setting I am unable to reach via VBA is tied to the Condition "First Row" which can be reached by selecting the pull-down menu "Apply formatting to:" to Header Row, then clicking the button menu "Format" at the lower left and selecting "Table Properties...". This gives us the "Table Properties" UI in which we in the tab "Row" is given the options to enable "Repeat as header row at the top of each page". The effect of this can be seen in the "Description field" in the previous "Modify Style (Table Edition)" view. (You might have to select something else in "!Apply formatting to:" menu and then re-select "Header row" again to get the description field to update). We now have a "Repeat as header row" shown in the description for "Header rows". This is a setting which in VBA can be reached for an inserted Table via a Rows property: table.rows.HeadingFormat https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.row.headingformat However, it should be possible to set for the table style as well. In the resulting XML file (styles.xml) of the .docx file we find it in a <w:trPr> block as a <w:tblHeader/> tag. Note that this is the definition of a style in the styles.xml, not the declaration of an inserted table. Have anyone managed to reach this style setting via VBA or know of how it can be done? I've scanned through the methods and properties of Style, TableStyle, and ConditionalStyle object definitions and not found anything allowing me to set this "Table property" as part of the style. It would make most sense if it was available in the TableStyle object (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.tablestyle) since that is where properties such as "AllowBreakAcrossPage" can be found. Maybe something they missed in the Word VBA model.
Word Document Scrambled
I have been using the online version of Microsoft Word via Onedrive.com. The document I have been working on does not exist on my harddrive. It only exists on my OneDrive. The word document is 67 pages long and 31,788 words in total. It is a cumbersome document to review, to say the least. So, of course I was devastated when I discovered that Microsoft Word had glitched. Its not a minor glitch either. Its a radnomized duplication glitch. In some places one sentence is duplicated, one after the other. In some places a paragraph is duplicated, one full paragraph after the other. In other places, its all messed up. It has copied a single sentence and pasted it in the middle of another paragraph 1 or 2 pages away. One paragraph I saw was composed of sentences copied from at least 2 other paragraphs. This glitch has made a chimera out of a year of hard work. I had a chat message conversation with a customer support agent today while I was at work. We were unable to fix it. Although, he only offered me two things to try. He wanted me to log onto Onedrive.com from a different computer (in private web browser) and then log onto Onedrive.com from a different internet source. I was unable to log onto Onedrive.com from a different computer (in private web browser). It wanted me to either insert a USB passkey or scan a QR code with my phone for the pass key. I don't have the USB and when I tried my phone it just said that my phone doesn't have a passkey. My passkey is stored on my laptop. So, I was only able to log onto Onedrive.com on my laptop. Next, I tried a different internet source (in private web browser). It didn't work. The document is still scrambled eggs. After that, the customer support agent was all out of suggestions. He sent me here. The customer support agent did seem to think he knew what the glitch was from. He listed a few things. The ones that sounded possible were either Onedrive.com/word document timed out (maybe when the PC went to sleep) or the internet connect dropped. And supposedly those can cause a duplication problem. Does any of this sound familar to anyone? Suggestions? I'm begging for a quck fix so I don't have to scrutinize 67 pages and 31,788 words.
