I need to fight my ignorance-or at least my conception of the world. This question is for the MS Word mavens out there, particularly the old folks.
Has Microsoft ever changed the “as shipped” definition of a standard style such as Normal? In any version of Office?
The reason I ask is that I am continually on the losing end of arguments at work regarding formatting Word docs. I am forced to work with people who are absolutely convinced that they “never use styles in Word” and that styles are bad. When I point out that no Word document has been created anywhere on the planet since about 1985 without using styles in every paragraph-all they are doing is allowing others to define how their document looks and looking stupid as a result-then the conversation tends to deteriorate…
Sigh.
They claim that if everyone would just use Word out of the box these problems would never occur. I retort that MS itself has changed the definitions so their theory is flawed.
Am I right? Has MS ever done this? For any standard style? I am 90% certain MS did this for Excel, and I think it happened back in the 90’s for Word, but I can’t remember any details. I know I am not going to win this argument, but I do like to feel righteous and vindicated…
I’m not exactly sure how to answer this question but…in Word 2007 (the latest version) the default font, and thus the font for all the styles including Normal, is no longer Times New Roman. It’s something that begins with a C and sort of looks like Arial.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re arguing–the value of styles, or the stability of Normal.dot. Styles are good and using styles is “Word right out of the box.” It is a prominent feature and intended to be used. Anyone who doesn’t use styles may not need to, but anything but the simplest of documents benefits from them. You should emphasize that point, not sure you’ll ever convince anyone of anything going down the “Normal.dot changes” road.
I have used Word since at least when it was a DOS product in 1980 (and I am a long-time WordPerfect hater) but I don’t know for sure what changes have taken place in Normal.dot as versions are upgraded. I have never noticed any. But I am not sure what you’re getting at. I believe that once a document is created, its styles are carried with it and will not change just because you use a different Normal.dot. Using a new Normal.dot with a different Normal font won’t cause all your existing vanilla documents to switch to that font. However, it’s true that you are letting Bill Gates decide what your new documents will look like. Personally I don’t see the point in 1.5" side margins as a default. :rolleyes:
BTW, telling someone that their document looks stupid means the conversation has *already * deteriorated. . . :rolleyes:
