Autocorrect SEQ fields disappeared? (take II)

[Geoff Hart]

Nancy Allison reports: <<I should explain that documents go between  
the US and Israel, and sometimes when I select an entire doc and  
press F9 to update, at the end I get a message like "Hebrew character  
set not supported" or "Arabic character set not supported." The  
documents are entirely in English, and I have never seen any scrap of  
Hebrew or Arabic lettering anywhere, so whatever is generating those  
notices is deeply hidden. In addition, I painstakingly created my own  
templates from scratch, but then I did copy and paste content in from  
existing documents.>>

That's likely part of the problem. If the text from the other  
documents was defined to use Hebrew or Arabic (a logical choice for  
people working in the Middle East), the text will carry that property  
with it when you paste the text into your own document. The solution  
is to open the Edit menu, select Paste Special, and select  
"Unformatted text" (so that the pasted text takes on the properties  
of the surrounding paragraph). If you do this a lot, bind this to a  
keystroke or create a macro. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Alternatively, once you've pasted the copied text, reapply the  
correct paragraph style to strip out any external formatting. This is  
less reliable, since some of this formatting seems too deeply rooted  
to be removed*, but it will generally work. If you paste text into  
the middle of a paragraph, I believe the Windows Word shortcut to  
remove the additional formatting is to select the pasted text and  
press Control + Spacebar.

* For example, this won't always fix problems related to the Japanese  
and Chinese character grid, for instance. Very annoying.

<<This startup is so busy (not to say chaotic), that there's no way I  
will be able to get compliance with any kind of standards, regarding  
either the use of the template, or the versions of Word or operating  
system used.>>

Make a business case for standardization. Document the number of  
hours you have to spend fixing problems, cost out that time, and  
estimate a payback period.

Also note that friendly communication with your colleagues will let  
you teach them how to use templates effectively. Also explain the  
problems that result when people work around the templates instead of  
using them. Give your Israeli colleagues copies of your templates and  
teach them how to use the templates so that you can eliminate  
problems right from the start instead of trying to solve them later.  
For a few thoughts:
http://www.geoff-hart.com/resources/2000/dynamicstyle.htm


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www.geoff-hart.com
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