> (As far as I can tell, nobody else here knows how to work styles either. 
> Granted, most of them wouldn't actually *care*, but our report writers 
> certainly might...)

How anyone can write a report in Word (or any WP) without using styles (or 
their equivalent) is beyond me.  How do you generate and keep updated the 
table of contents without them?  Or create a list of tables/figures?  Or let 
alone change the format of the section headings!

It's funny how companies spend thousands of pounds sending employees on 
training courses for bizarre pieces of software, but most fail to teach 
their employees how to use the software they use every day most effectively.

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> Well, most people use Word to write 1-page documents. (Things like letters 
> and printed notes, address labels, etc.) As for the rest, I guess it's 
> just because it's so hard to figure out how this stuff actually works... 
> [Assuming you even realise there's a useful thing to be learned about in 
> the first place.]

True, you need to have a certain level of intelligence to think "there must 
be a more effective way to do what I am trying to do", and then probably a 
bit more intelligence to actually bother to go and find out.

Remember, keep your saw sharp...

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Brian Elliott wrote:

> Andrew, THINK instead of reacting and publickly flying to bits at every 
> puzzle you can't open in ten seconds flat.

Erm, no, I've been using M$ Word for slightly longer than 10 seconds 
flat. ;-)

> Instead of taking research to the 
> next level, you shut the book and blame the fuck out of the software for 
> being criminally stupid or whatever thing it is that has your pique at 
> the moment.

[Ironic, given that one of the things I was just talking about is that 
there *isn't* a book...]

> Seeking help and answers is OK.  Having tantrums is the realm of 
> children and is not becoming in people beyond 11 years old.

Tantrums? You're the one who's swearing at me.

> You must be totally emotionally exhausted at the end of every day if 
> they are all like this...

No, not really. Most days I just don't let Word bother me.

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> Oh, and here's a version with Heading-based auto-numbering turned on. 
> Took
> another 20 seconds to do.
>
> Put your cursor in a "Heading 1"-style paragraph (important).
> Menu:  Format / "bullets and numbering" / "Outline Numbered" tab.
> Select the example that looks like
>   1  Heading 1 ----------
>   1.1  Heading 2 ----------
>   1.1.1  Heading 3 ----------

The best thing about that is that you can then go "insert table of contents" 
and everything is done for you.

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scott wrote:
>> (As far as I can tell, nobody else here knows how to work styles 
>> either. Granted, most of them wouldn't actually *care*, but our report 
>> writers certainly might...)
> 
> How anyone can write a report in Word (or any WP) without using styles 
> (or their equivalent) is beyond me.

Like I said, the answer is quite simple: Very, very slowly.

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Le Forgeron wrote:

> Then your way is Lyx!
> Latex front-end (hiding all the latex from innocent users). Ready to
> write the model...

Ever tried using it?

Unfortunately, certain things that are trivial in LaTeX become 
irritatingly difficult with LyX. But yes, if the particular document you 
want to write won't use too many of all those things, it represents 
about the best you're going to get. ;-)

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Brian Elliott wrote:

> Don't get too smug Andrew, it has a corollary:  What does it say about 
> you? ;-)

I'm stumped. What *does* it say about me?

>> I just think sans serif text looks primitive and unsophisticated and 
>> generally childish. (Arial is almost as ugly as my own hand writing - 
>> and that's saying something!)
> 
> Then we disagree on taste.

Fair enough.

> ... and I notice that while your reply shifts off-subject to complain 
> about trivial points about fonts you hate and M$ you hate, you bypassed 
> any notice of the important thing that this was all about:  That help to 
> get you out of your predicament was given to you at all.  I even made a 
> document for you to demonstrate the principle.  Even a "Thanks, I 
> appreciate the effort and examples, but it didn't solve my issue" would 
> be more socially apt.

Well, you said it only took you a few seconds to do it; I assumed that 
meant it was no huge hardship to you. I didn't actually mean to appear 
ungreatful. (And I thought my reply to Scott made it clear that I've 
solved this particular problem now... although on reflection maybe that 
isn't so clear.)

> At times like this, I think you deep down hate it when people help you 
> to solve your problems, because your original motivation was only to be 
> heard complaining.  Solving things takes away your justification to keep 
> in a publicly bad mood.

It's times like this that I wonder why I hang around here, when so many 
people are so keen to repeatedly tell me what an evil person I am. Trust 
me, I have enough little voices in my head repeatedly reminding me that 
I don't desurve to live without you adding your voice to it.

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote
> Brian Elliott wrote:

> > Whinge, whinge, whinge.  :-P  :-)
> > They do do it.  You just haven't figured it out.

> So, I figured out LaTeX and HTML (not to mention POV-Ray, the Lambda
> calculus, cryptography, inorganic chemistry, and much else besides) yet
> I couldn't figure out M$ Word?
>
> What does this say about M$ Word? ;-)

Nothing. It says more about your anti MS-bias. Mind is a funny thing; if you
have somehow convinced yourself that learning something is beneath you (or
above you, but I suspect that's not the case here), you won't be able to
learn it, no matter how hard you try on the surface.

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somebody wrote:
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote
>> So, I figured out LaTeX and HTML (not to mention POV-Ray, the Lambda
>> calculus, cryptography, inorganic chemistry, and much else besides) yet
>> I couldn't figure out M$ Word?
>>
>> What does this say about M$ Word? ;-)
> 
> Nothing. It says more about your anti MS-bias. Mind is a funny thing; if you
> have somehow convinced yourself that learning something is beneath you (or
> above you, but I suspect that's not the case here), you won't be able to
> learn it, no matter how hard you try on the surface.

Well, you could say that. And I came to OpenOffice Writer fully 
expecting it to be much better. But you know what? I couldn't figure out 
how to use styles in that either. (At least, not very reliably.) I 
wanted to be able to say "haha, Word sucks, OOW is better", but I can't 
because it's not true. Is that bais?

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> It's times like this that I wonder why I hang around here, when so many 
> people are so keen to repeatedly tell me what an evil person I am. Trust 
> me, I have enough little voices in my head repeatedly reminding me that I 
> don't desurve to live without you adding your voice to it.

I don't think you're evil at all, just a bit annoying when instead of 
pressing F1 and typing "modify style" you write a huge rant about how crap 
MS Word is because *YOU* can't work out how to modify styles.  It's just the 
way you word it.  If you'd just said "does anyone know how to modify styles 
in Word, this is driving me nuts I've tried X and Y but to no avail" you'd 
probably get less "evil" replies.

You might also try pressing F1 in Word, then clicking "Table of Contents" 
and just having a browse through one day - you'll probably learn a lot.

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