Help menu issue
Bob Stringer
I have the help paper clip disabled. When I click the help
menu and the help files come up, there are three tabbed
areas: contents, answer wizard and index. I like to use the
answer wizard, but it has one tedious feature: it starts out
with text already in the "what would you like to do?" area
(it always says "Type your question here and then click
Search"). As a result, I can't simply put the cursor there
and start typing; instead, I always first have to take the
extra step of highlighting what's already there so that it
disappears once I start typing my question.
Is there a way to make the help feature stop doing this?
Thanks.
Bob Stringer
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Mark Tangard
Maddening, isn't it? Fortunately there's a way around it, or
rather, a way *halfway* around it. Assuming you're already on
the correct tab, press ALT+A. This highlights the text in the
box so that anything type type then replaces it.
It took me months to stumble upon this, because since the 'W'
in 'What would you like to do' is underlined, it implies that's
the appropriate hotkey, but ALT+W doesn't seem to do a thing.
(Quite a few things in Word 2000 seem to have been designed to
slow down fast people and keyboard users. For example, I wish
I could close VBA help just by hitting Escape, like I could in
'97, but nooooooooo. )
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Mark Tangard <mtan...@speakeasy.net>, Microsoft Word MVP
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Graham Mayor
assistant (which is the same thing) as this always pops up with the text
selected ready for you to type. You can eliminate the intrusiveness of the
help assistant by turning off most of its options. Also there are some macro
functions which you may wish to use that use the help assistant to provide
information e.g. the following macro, which clears the recently used file
list. The alternative is to click the contents tab then the answer wizard
tab which will highlight the text.
(What do I do with macros sent to me by other newsgroup readers to help me
out? I don't know how to install them and put them to use
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm)
Sub ClearMRU()
Application.DisplayRecentFiles = True
Set Balloon = Assistant.NewBalloon
With Balloon
.Text = "This will delete your recently used file list"
.Button = msoButtonSetOkCancel
.Animation = msoAnimationBeginSpeaking
ButtonPressed = .Show
End With
If ButtonPressed = -2 Then
Set Balloon = Assistant.NewBalloon
With Balloon
.Text = "OK, we won't do that then!"
.Button = msoButtonSetOK
.Animation = msoAnimationGoodbye
.Show
End With
GoTo skipped
End If
If ButtonPressed = -1 Then
listsize = RecentFiles.Maximum
RecentFiles.Maximum = 0
RecentFiles.Maximum = listsize
Set Balloon = Assistant.NewBalloon
With Balloon
.Text = "Your recent file list has been cleared and reset to hold " +
Str$(listsize) + " files."
.Button = msoButtonSetOK
.Animation = msoAnimationGetAttentionMinor
.Show
End With
End If
skipped:
End Sub
--
<>>< ><<> ><<>
Graham Mayor
<>>< ><<> ><<>
"Bob Stringer" <bob...@NotHere.net> wrote in message
news:1uilnuongctnfejif...@4ax.com...
Bob Stringer
<gma...@noonehome.com> wrote:
Thanks very much, Graham. I'll take a look at doing that.
Mark's idea of Alt + A sounds nifty too.
Bob Stringer
<mtan...@speakeasy.net> wrote:
>Maddening, isn't it?
Grrr.
>Fortunately there's a way around it, or
>rather, a way *halfway* around it. Assuming you're already on
>the correct tab, press ALT+A. This highlights the text in the
>box so that anything type type then replaces it.
>
>It took me months to stumble upon this, because since the 'W'
>in 'What would you like to do' is underlined, it implies that's
>the appropriate hotkey, but ALT+W doesn't seem to do a thing.
This is good. You've made me happy for the day.
But might I ask: how does a person stumble onto a
combination such as Alt + A? :)
Klaus Linke
> [...] I wish I could close VBA help just by hitting Escape, like I
> could in '97, but nooooooooo. )
Alt+Q? (admittedly not quite as easy as Esc).
I often use Alt+F4, but I'm not sure if that is "proper".
Greetings, Klaus
Mark Tangard
> But might I ask: how does a person stumble onto a
> combination such as Alt + A? :)
The A in Answer Wizard is underlined. Technically that means
pressing ALT+A should activate that tab of the dialog. But
apparently to the brainiac who coded this interface it means
activate the next control, the textbox for 'What do you want
to do'?
How did I stumble on this?
<rant>
In this case it was because I had suffered a slew of similar
indignities in a web graphics program called Fireworks, which,
while otherwise good and useful, is miles further along in the
categories of (1) ignoring the needs of keyboard users and (2)
royally screwing up their own bloody designs where keyboard
issues are concerned. There are places in Fireworks where the
caption on a control in a dialog has one character underscored,
which -- to anyone familiar with how Windows interfaces work --
means you should be able to press the ALT key plus that letter
to engage that control. In many cases these were checkboxes,
so it was blindingly obvious that the intent was that you should
be able to check or uncheck the box, without mousing to it, by
using the keyboard -- as you can with, any of the checkboxes in,
say, Word's Font dialog. In VBA these are called 'accelerator
keys.'
But in Fireworks, many of these accelerators simply didn't work,
meaning that, at some point in the program's development, someone
at Macromedia (maker of Fireworks) overlooked the simple step of
connecting the hotkey to the checkbox.
As many keyboard users who've set about learning graphics programs
can attest, the gurus for these programs are notoriously snobbish
about keyboards and generally regard them as a necessary evil or
a throwback to the quaint horse-and-buggy era. (From what I've
gathered, precious few would ever consider pulling down the File
menu with ALT+F.) So when I raised this issue on the Macromedia
newsgroups, almost none of the many responses exuded any sort of
surprise, embarrassment, or a plan to correct the gaffe. (Unlike
the Microsoft groups, those groups *do* get visited by Macromedia
employees.) And I got the usual tittering replies, many private
(not sure what that means), telling me in a haughtily amused tone
that Real Graphics People use mice, not keyboards.
There was one dialog in Fireworks where an accelerator key did
indeed "work" but activated a different control. I don't even
remember where it was, but the experience stuck in my head, and
late one night months later, while thinking dark-brown thoughts
about lazy programmers and repeatedly opening & closing VBA help,
I applied it. That's how I stumbled on it.
</rant>
--
Mark Tangard <mtan...@speakeasy.net>, Microsoft Word MVP
Reply ONLY to the newsgroup. Note: MVPs do not work for Microsoft.
MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word
Userform demystification: http://www.speakeasy.org/~mtangard/userforms.html
"Life is nothing if you're not obsessed." --John Waters
Mark Tangard
Hi Klaus,
ALT+Q doesn't close it for me. What I've done is program the clumsy
but effective ALT+F4 into the hotkey combination Ctrl+W (which is a
common close-this-window command in many programs) using my third-party
macro program Keyboard Express. It works, but of course only on that
PC; anywhere else I'm stuck with the slow way. Plus, there's something
distasteful about the idea of needing a separate program just to patch
the gaping holes in a very expensive larger one.
--
Mark Tangard <mtan...@speakeasy.net>, Microsoft Word MVP
MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word
Userform demystification: http://www.speakeasy.org/~mtangard/userforms.html
"Life is nothing if you're not obsessed." --John Waters