Word 2010:errors highlighting, indents, margins, flagging &c

Word 2010

In the middle of a paragraph, it will suddenly indent every line except the first, for no reason, since it does it without my accidentally pressing the wrong key. Drives me nuts.

It also arbitrarily resets one or both margins for part or all of the document. For *******’s sake!

And it suddenly changes the colour of corrections to a uniform red for no reason. ********* it!

It brings up Research (which I never, and would never, use) for no reason that I can think of except perhaps inadvertently touching the space bar – how can I turn this off ? (When you press F1 and type Research, it does not even tell you how to turn it on, so I have no idea how to avoid it)

When I highlight something and underline / italicise / bold it, Word applies the instruction to the whole document; and I have to press the Undo button to get rid of it (curiously one press undoes the rest of the document but not the highlighted section which stays underlined, etc.)

When Word flags something as wrong (green underline) and I click Ignore, it usually doesn’t ignore it but keeps on flagging it. Same for saying a word or phrase is in another language – it keeps coming back about it.

Dictionary:
1. I want to be able to open the dictionary then and there, and remove the appalling suggestions that Microsoft gives.
2. Add to dictionary – why not a choice of which dictionary to add to ? you only get the current one (for instance, I would like to have a dictionary of names, separate from ordinary words; and I would like to keep languages separate.)

3. Also the dictionary does not appear to accept two-word terms

Incidentally you really have to wonder about who compiled their version of a ‘correct’ English grammar and why they were allowed anywhere near a keyboard.

And just in case anyone knows the answer

Excel 2010

I have not yet managed to understand the reason for having a background screen, and have no use for one, is it possible to dispense with it because it just gets in the way ?


Grateful for any help, adj

Sounds like you need MS OFFICE – DIAGNOSTICS AND REPAIR

Windows Support Center – MS Office ‘Fix It’ – solutions + support from Microsoft
Office 2010 - Perform Repairs
Repair or remove Office 2010 - Project - Microsoft Office

Open Word, press the Office button, Word Options, Resources + click on "Run Microsoft Office Diagnostics."

Then, go to Control Panel, Programs + Features, scroll down to MS Office, click Change, then select Repair from there.

Thanks but ...

Thank you for taking the time to try to help. I tried your 'Repair' recommendation,after unsusccesfully searching for help on the site you listed; and on about the third attempt, it seemed to go through whatever it does (a progress bar filled up). However, I have no idea what it thought it was doing or what it did; and I still have unexpected indents occurring in the middle of typing a paragraph, and 'Ignore' does not make Word ignore things - it continues to flag them.

Please, has anyone got any better ideas ?

(I do use another word processor, but for this task I am constrained to use Word, which is what my students have to use).

Again thanks to you all for reading this tedious complaint.

Adj

And another Word error ...

Now (post-repair) Word has come up with a new trick: as I type, when it should have a carriage return and line feed (shows you where I come from), it starts a new line - but in the middle or more often at the right-hand side of the page: and I have to click the icon for left margin (which I sensibly put into the (ha-ha) Quick Access Toolbar, to make it start on the left. Interestingly neither the icon for 'Centre' nor for 'Print on the right' (or whatever it is called) is highlighted when this happens.

Happy days, adj

Do these problems occur with a specific document or all , including new, documents?

Irene said:

Do these problems occur with a specific document or all , including new, documents?

Click to expand...

All documents, Irene - all the ruddy time, even opening them up years later ... If it was only one ...

My guess is that you have a specific 'Style' applied as your default. Here is an Article which explains - in great depth (sorry) - about the use of Styles:
Style basics in Word - Word - Office.com

I would first check which style you are using - the one which is 'highlighted', is it the one called Normal?:

I would check a keyboard for hardware failure. Have you ever spilled anything on it?
Or it could be just weared out or/and poor quality.

Hello again

Irene - thaks for this (yes my basic style is normal, but of course I ought to check what each student's file is), I will follow up the reference and let you know.

Neutron 16: 2-year old Logitech keyboard in good nick: in spite of the fact that my wife said I touch-type as if I were playing one of the noisier bits of the Brahms first piano concerto, I don't think it's worn out yet; and so far I have avoided tea /coffe / beer / absinthe disasters, but a fair point, thanks

Hello again

Irene - thanks for this (yes my basic style is normal, but of course I ought to check what each student's file is), I will follow up the reference and let you know.

Neutron 16: 2-year old Logitech keyboard in good nick: in spite of the fact that my wife said I touch-type as if I were playing one of the noisier bits of the Brahms first piano concerto, I don't think it's worn out yet; and so far I have avoided tea /coffee / beer / absinthe disasters, but a fair point, thanks

red formatting stuff shows up in Word 2010

Sorry, I am new to this group, so I might be doing something wrong in posting my problem here. I was minding my own business, typing away on a letter in Word 2010, when my fingers spazzed out and hit the wrong key/keys. Now when I type anything RED formatting junk shows up on the right side of the page, with a red horizontal line extending from what I was typing (which connects to a rectangular/oval box that contains more information).

I tried to use the curvy arrow to reverse the steps to when this started showing up, saving the document and then opening it again, and checking things out under Help/Display, etc., but to no avail. Microsoft wants to charge me an arm and a leg (after a ridiculously complicated process to even get to someone who can answer the question) which is wrong in principle (because I have had/updated Microsoft products since the beginning with Windows on 3.5 inch disks without ever asking for help).

I can't even select text and make it smaller (for example) without there being a vertical line on the left and other junk. Clearly, I must have turned on something that needs to be reversed (in other words, I only want the text to show up. as usual). I have searched for what this might be, but am unable to identify it to turn it off.

Any ideas? Thanks very much!

Hi Tom, Welcome to the forum. Two suggestions:

First, since you apparently just did this, I would do a System Restore, and hopefully the problem will be 'undone.'

Second, if that doesn't work, I would suggest you post your problem as a new thread, because unfortunately, most of the members won't see it attached at the end of this thread. Good luck.

Fixed it another way

Imperfect1,

I like your honesty; I too am imperfect. I had installed some updates at the same time that I was working on the document, but as System Restore plainly states, there are no changes made to documents. So, when I did a System Restore to yesterday, nothing happened.

I like to know WHY something is as it is, so I was hoping to understand the mechanism behind these marks (in other words, the specific on/off button). Thinking in simpler terms, I tried simply copying and pasting the text to another new Word document, deleted the problem document, and the problem was solved.

As a radiologist, I always have to PROVE a disease diagnosis on images (MRI, CT, US, etc.) by being able to specifically point out the evidence, and it is a bit frustrating not to be able to do it here (the formatting button that ostensibly does this stuff). Medicine is difficult because there are many different presentations of similar disease processes, not as logical as you might expect (there is still an "art" to doing it properly). I have always been VERY impressed with the complexity of many of these software programs and the logical way they are programmed (step by step with no mistakes), then being executed at unimaginable speed (compared to what humans can do, at least in one sense).

At any rate, thanks very much for taking the time to respond to me.

Cordially,

Tomclay444

Tomclay444,

It is sounds like you turned Track changes function in Word.
You can undo it - Review Tab - Unclick Track changes

Turn Track Changes on or off - Word - Office.com

Hi Tom, Thanks for your post. I can appreciate your wanting to know the cause of the problem because I am plagued with that need as well. Actually, I think Neutron16 has answered the question, because now that I think about it, what you described does sound like you inadvertently enabled your Tracking application. And that would be why the problem was solved by copying and pasting the text to a new (clean) document --- because the new doc clearly wouldn't have had Tracking enabled.

PS I notice you're in Houston --- My daughter lives just north of you, in
The Woodlands. Great area!

Actually....

Imperfect1,

Actually, I live in The Woodlands, so I guess that your daughter lives close by. It is a VERY nice place to live; as you know, everything is hidden by vegetation, so as to be environmentally friendly as possible (I suppose).

Based on Neutron16's information, I recovered the document from the Recycle Bin, located Track Changes, and sure enough it was turned on. I turned it off and voila'! it worked! Now I am pleased that I understand another little thing about Word.

See you later!

Tomclay444

One smart cookie

Neutron16,

Thanks very much for solving the problem! Just as you said, Track Changes was turned on, so I turned it off and the problem was fixed. Thanks again for sharing your experience! If you have any questions about radiology and disease diagnosis, feel free to let loose!

I love the concept of forums, with people helping other people without charging them an arm and a leg. I realize that everybody has to make money in order to live, but these nuisance problems from hitting the wrong key are the types of things that one should not have to pay for to get fixed.

Thanks again for your generosity!

Tomclay444

tomclay444 you are very welcome.

If I were you I would delete private info from the post above, or it will be on google in minutes!
Every post of yours has an Edit button.
You can send private messages on this forum via http://www.sevenforums.com/private.php?do=newpm

DPI

Neutron16,

Thanks, I have deleted the private information. It seems that I have much more to learn about how these forums work. Now I know how to send private messages. Do you know a general resource for the capabilities of Word that is in PDF format? That is, something that is easier to read and understand than the books that one buys, yet covers the most common issues? I know that the program is powerful enough to do a bunch of things that I would never use, because I mostly use if for creating letters and stuff like that. It is, of course, an amazing program, particularly compared to Word Perfect (does that date me?).

Tomclay444

You can try this free pdf book from Microsoft Press