Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!apple!ames!sgi!key!jsp
From: jsp@key.COM (James Preston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: MS Word questions
Message-ID: <927@key.COM>
Date: 11 Jul 89 20:59:47 GMT
Reply-To: jsp@penguin.key.COM (James Preston)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Key Computer Laboratories, Fremont
Lines: 43

MS Word gurus please read:

I am a recent convert to the Macintosh world from the MS-DOS world.  While
in general I like the Mac better, there are few things that, apparently,
the MS-DOS Word (no "l") did better.  (I have Word 3.01 on the Mac.  If
the answer to any of my questions below is "Word 4.0 can do it", it will
be time to upgrade.)

Style sheets.  In MS-DOS (or at least on my HP150), a style sheet is a
separate file.  I could have one style sheet attached to many documents.
This meant that I could create twenty documents with a normal paragraph
that was first line indented.  Then, if I decided that I liked paragraphs
that were first line flush with one blank line following, I could make ONE 
change to the style definition and all twenty documents would reflect the
change.  It appears to me that in the Mac Word, I will have to go into
each of the twenty documents and make the change (or at least open the
document, go to "define styles", then open a document with the new definition,
and save).  Have I missed something?

This is especially annoying with margins.  In MS-DOS, the margin settings
are part of the section definition, which means that I can again change them
on all twenty documents with one stroke.  On the Mac, margin settings are
under the "Page Setup" (or whatever) dialog, and thus don't even seem to be
a part of the document's style sheet!  I am in the situation right now where
I have fifty or so documents (converted from MS-DOS), and I will need to
change their margin settings.  The thought of getting each document, selecting
"Page Setup", then TYPING the new margins for ALL those documents makes me
cringe.  (Yes, I know I could just wait until I actually need to print one
before changing its settings, but I will undoubtedly forget, and proceed to
waste time, paper, and aggravation.)  Again:  Is there an easier way?

Another important difference is that, even within one document, MS-DOS Word
had style sheet definitions for characters.  This meant that I could type  
my document using Times font and italics for emphasis.  I could print it and
have a "professional" looking document.  If I then wanted to submit it for
publication, I could make a few changes to the character style definitions,
and get a printout in Courier with the italics replaced by underlining.
Once again, I have these many documents converted from MS-DOS with italized
words sprinkled all through them.  I can find no way to change those words
to normal font with underlining except to manually look through the entire
document!  This is user-friendly??

--James Preston