Microsoft, stop trying to be so bloody helpful!

[Nick]

Ah this is just getting silly.

I can understand the need for UAC in Vista, I really can. Having disabled it the first time I installed Vista and then having utterly broken Vista because I tried to install incompatible software (which prompted a Back to the Future style DOS recovery of essential data) and then re-installed Vista and left UAC on, I'm getting more and more irate at Microsoft's attempts to 'help' me.

Look, if I wanted help, I'd click the damn question mark icon or load up the Help and Support window, which, let's be honest, is useless for even the most mundane of questions such as how to configure Office 2007 to load with defaults I want and not those Microsoft reckon I should have.

For example, I detest, and I mean detest double spacing, which is an Office 2007 default.

Why?


Well, how would you like it if you had to read this blog entry with more damn white-space than writing? I mean, it's all fine and well if I were a student trying to pad the hell out of

my dissertation, but I'm not. So why can't I just have normal line spacing load on start-up? Seems impossible, eh? I sure as hell can't find anyway of changing it in the options and

Help and Support is about as much use as a one legged man at an arse kicking party. But Microsoft think this is a good way to read a letter...


Sucks, huh? (btw that example only works if you're viewing this post full window at 1280x1024).

Anyhoo, it's not just there that MS is winding up or, to put it in a more conspiracy theory way, forcing their set of rules on me, it's with Windows Live Messenger, which as far as I'm concerned, is a classic case of not knowing when to stop bloody developing.

Offline messaging is great, but we had that in MSN 7... and with Live, well, everything is a just an extra that I don't use, won't use, don't have need for but still bloody well winds me up... such as the file and folder sharing.

Right now I have 13 pending requests to share my information with people on my MSN list... but seeing as I've no idea who most of them are, I'm hardly going to do that, am I?

I mean, would you share your info with someone whose MSN name is "Donkey's aren't as well hung as me!" with a tag-line "America! **** yeah!"... I mean, come on!

But no matter what I do, I can't get rid of these requests, it's as if that 'ignore request' option does bugger all except leave the request there.

I know that eventually I'll cave in, share my info, just to be rid of the damn 'pending requests' link and all will seem well for a while.

And then I'll get a knock on the door one evening from a well endowed American wanting to know if I'll play ass to his donkey comparisons... not my idea of productivity, but probably his.

[grizzla]

Well, how would you like it if you had to read this blog entry with more damn white-space than writing? I mean, it's all fine and well if I were a student trying to pad the hell out of my dissertation, but I'm not.

Having finished my degree at the start of the summer i had to write a dissertation using the dreaded double line spacing, i personally see no need for it. However we were required, as one of the writing criteria, to include this specific formatting. It makes it easier for the person marking the text to read, apparently. It doesn't really help 'pad the hell out of' what you are writing as you are given a word limit, so having extra spaces does not count towards your word count. It can however be lucrative business for the uni print shop who will charge you to print out the 2 copies which you must provide the faculty for marking.

I dont have the latest version of Office, think i am using xp pro version and it is fairly straight forward to change the formatting. I dont know whether they have changed the options and layout of the latest version of office but in the version i use i would do this:

Format>Paragraph>Indents and Spacing>Line Spacing>Single

[TheAnimus]

its still the normal.dot only now its dotx init?

[Nick]

In Office 2007 you just click the format button at the top of the screen, but the damn thing requires you to do that on EVERY new doc you create... there's no way to set 'No Spacing' as a default... very annoying.

TheAnimus, yes, it's now .docx for Office 2007, though you can of course save as earlier versions of Word for those that have sensibly stuck with 2003.

Oh, and woe betide you if you try to un-install the bugger... it's registry edit and manual deletion of files time!

[Fraz]

i personally see no need for it.

It's not for you - that's why. It's for the person marking it to be able to easily write comments/corrections

[Tobeman]

I see what you did there

Regarding the new Messenger, I agree. I do like the multi PC login though.

[TheAnimus]

Nick was this an OEM install, i was part of the office BETA team, and have been impressed by it for years, i even wrote my dissertation in it

not heard of default settings been ignored before.

[grizzla]

It's not for you - that's why. It's for the person marking it to be able to easily write comments/corrections

Not on a dissertation, they are not allowed to write or make corrections on the document, any comments are written on a seperate form and returned to you along with one copy of the dissertation. I do see your point when it comes to marking other essays. But mostly, from what i can gather, it is to help the lecturer to read what is written, i.e. easier to read when it is spaced out rather than clsoe together, especially when they have to read 100s of the things.

[TheAnimus]

In Office 2007 you just click the format button at the top of the screen, but the damn thing requires you to do that on EVERY new doc you create... there's no way to set 'No Spacing' as a default... very annoying.

TheAnimus, yes, it's now .docx for Office 2007, though you can of course save as earlier versions of Word for those that have sensibly stuck with 2003.

Oh, and woe betide you if you try to un-install the bugger... it's registry edit and manual deletion of files time!

Nick think you might of had a bug with your normal.doc*

acording to my quick flip through the help, its docm for macro enabled template, and dotx sometimes too.

if you've got nothing set, delete any that appear below your user profile root, there might be some in your Users\Default profile too.

Then, go set up the formatting in Paragraph (remeber kids, shift + enter type are line breaks, enter key presses are the pargraph breaks (before and after) if that makes sense).

Get it how you like, and press default, you will get a new normal file, which will have all your settings.

[fuddam]

and not that you want to do it every time, but CTRL + A then CTRL 1 (or 2 or 5) on the main keyboard adjusts your line spacing to 1, 2, or 1.5