WORD2Effect of File, Print Preview on visibility of toolbars

[ChrisGreaves]

Admittedly Word2003, but still and all ...
I am curious about the behaviour of File, Print Preview.
I have noticed this issue for years but am only now getting around to wondering why MSWord would behave the way it does. That is, I have here yet another philosophical question.

I maintain 18 Word2003 templates in my MSWord Startup folder; all but one is an application of some sort, and twelve of those applications have a visible toolbar.

Toolbars001.png

When I switch from Normal View to Print Preview, 8 of those 12 toolbars disappear from view.

Toolbars002.png

Switching back to Normal view re-establishes all toolbars as visible.

(1) I cannot believe that MSWord is smart enough to work out that some application toolbars might not be relevant to whatever I might do in Print Preview mode (roughly: Stare at the screen)
(2) I could accept hiding all user application toolbars, or hiding no toolbars, but I cannot think of a reason for partial hiding
(3) To the best of my knowledge, all my toolbars are created equal, in the sense that I create a new toolbar and drag a New Menu to the bar, and then drag New menus or Macros to make a tree of the application toolbar

Toolbars003.png

(Please see for example, the tree that springs out of the “Under” toolbar menu.
(4) Since 2003 I have experienced problems with toolbars based, I think, on the rather large number of toolbar items and macros associated with my automated life. I suspect that deep within Word2003 some programmer has hard-coded “256” or “512” or some such value thinking that Chris Greaves would never dream of approaching ...

Like my Shortcut-link question: This is not a critical issue. I have enough money in my savings account to buy one of those Apple iPads.

(signed)
"Visibly Puzzled" of Toronto

[DaveA]

If I remember the print preview was additional window that was open on top of the document window.
BUT, one can not get back to the document without closing the Preview window.

Just checked the wife machine and yes she has 2003. She hates print preview.
There is really a view pane that is over the document and one can NOT get to the document without closing preview.

By the way if you do spend some or all of that savings for a Apple iPad, then NONE of your templates will work without a lot of conversions.
But then that could be your next retirement job!

[ChrisGreaves]

If I remember the print preview was additional window that was open on top of the document window.
BUT, one can not get back to the document without closing the Preview window.!

Thanks Dave. This makes it sound like some of that 3rd-party software that MS patched in back in the days when everyone chewed bubble-gum and there were still scraps of fencing-wire about the place.
There are significant chunks of MSWord that do not conform to rational thinking.
My guess is that the 3rd-party software is not interrogating MSWord in a correct fashion. For example, perhaps the PrintPreview writers never dreamed that someone might have more than four toolbars on the screen.

Just checked the wife machine and yes she has 2003. She hates print preview.!

I can see why you love your wife (polite grin)

By the way if you do spend some or all of that savings for a Apple iPad, then NONE of your templates will work without a lot of conversions. But then that could be your next retirement job!

Dave, you'll just have to trust me on this one: The day I get an iPad is the day I toss everything I know (and love, and hate) about MS into the trash can. I'm not there yet, because I still love programming too much, but I do not have any plans to advance beyond VBA in Office 2003. There are just too many books left to read ...

Cheers
Chris

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi Chris,

Print Preview remains a limited view. It does not provide for editing while looking.
It has its own close button. In ribbon versions, if you can figure out how to trigger it at all, you have even more limited commands. As with earlier versions, the window must be closed (with its own special close button) before you can type in the document.

00 deleteme 2.png

The single Quick Access Toolbar is also available in that view. A modification to the QAT or Ribbon is the only way to get to this screen at all.

00 deleteme 2.png

[Charles Kenyon]

By the way, I updated the link to your site on my downloads page.

[ChrisGreaves]

Hi Chris, Print Preview remains a limited view. It does not provide for editing while looking.

Hi Charles, and thanks for the response, but whether i want to edit or not, why would MSWord hide eight of my end-user toolbars and leave visible four of them?
That makes no sense to me.
I don't believe MSWord (2003!) is smart enough to know which of my 12 tooolbars provides a text-editing capability.

i could understand (but hate) MSWord hiding all my toolbars.
I would prefer MSWord to leave all 12 visible.
But hiding 8 out of 12 makes no sense at all to me!
Cheers
Chris

[Charles Kenyon]

Chris, as long as we've been working with Microsoft products, you expect them to make sense? Isn't that the poster child for insanity?

I think my first exposure to MS was DOS 1.1 and MultiPlan. I remember DOS 2.0 vividly.

I've learned to like the Ribbon interface because, if I'm willing to tear my hair out and beat my head against a wall, I can make some really nice UI modifications that really speed up my workflow. Greg Maxey was a big help. With all of your custom toolbars, I can understand your reluctance to change from Word 2003. IMO Word 2010 is a decent product. Many of your toolbars would likely show up under the Add-Ins tab.

[ChrisGreaves]

More on Toolbars
(I as near as anything wrote Moron Toolbars, but that would be mean and nasty, right?)

Toolbars.png

Still Word2003 and all, but here I am in File, Print Preview mode, still with only four of my custom toolbars visible, but look: I can run macros from my Normal.dot template, so either:-
(1) Word2003 Preview is tolerant of Normal.dot and trusts all the macros within it to the extent of causing changes in the document currently being previewed or ..
(2) Word2003 Preview is prepared to monitor macros in Normal.dot and stomp on those that try to violate the document while it is being pre-viewed.
If the second option is correct, then it ought to be applicable to all user macros in all user templates currently loaded.

[Charles Kenyon]

Again, you are expecting intelligence, consistency, and sense from Microsoft. Why? The product works (or doesn't work) the way it does.

Neither of your suggested options is correct.
(1) Word will trust macros in any Add-In that is trusted when not in Print Preview.
(2) The macros may or may not work, but they will run.
(3) Word will allow said macros to make changes in the document but they may not be the changes expected.

I tested with my MacroButtonPrompt Add-In http://addbalance.com/word/download.htm ... ttonPrompt. The toolbar disappears in Print Preview, but its macro is still available through the macros dialog or a keyboard shortcut. When run while in Print Preview, it generates an error and does make changes in the document even though it does not run properly.

[ChrisGreaves]

Again, you are expecting intelligence, consistency, and sense from Microsoft. Why? The product works (or doesn't work) the way it does.

Hi Charles.
Most times when i pose these sorts of questions, I am not so much querying MSoft as checking up on my own reasoning.
I have another finding today - inconsistencies in "Cyclic References" between VBA projects. I am pretty sure that my reasoning is correct, but I was brought up to "test your assumptions".

I have known for a long time that MSoft is not a software company. It is a very successful marketing company!
Cheers
Chris