Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

lexapro · Jul 24, 2009, 01:20 AM

As a student I make heavy use of the Notebook Layout in Word 08. I have just completely deleted Office 08 (including prefs) and reinstalled with SP2 in order to ensure the issue was replicated. It is. I also just finished showing this to a friend who is a developer at MS in Seattle.

here's the issue...

I make a new section in a document that already has several. I save the new section, which includes the date at the header. The new section date is different than the first section. Remember, this is a series of lectures for a class. I go home and try to print my new section notes. Immediately the date for the new section switches over to the date for the first section. This is how it prints, as well. This happens no matter what printer or PDF I try to print to.

It's super annoying as it doesn't allow me to keep my printed notes in chronological order.

Is anyone else experiencing it?

My MS developer friend isn't a Mac guy, but he did search their bug reports. Didn't find anything like this. In addition he said he's send their MacBU an email, but doesn't know what (if anything) will happen.

ghporter · Jul 24, 2009, 08:36 AM

Can I assume that you don't see a similar header/footer bug in other layouts, or are you just citing the particular experience you have encountered?

Also, when you go back to the document, is the new section's header changed to that of the previous section, or is your intended data still there? Do you use the "insert today's date" button (or whatever they call it in O2008), or do you manually enter the date? Have you tried it the other way?

lexapro · Jul 24, 2009, 01:04 PM

I manually set the date. After I print and I go to close I get a prompt to save changes. I click don't save, but that doesn't stop the date on the date line from being changed to the previous section.

ibook_steve · Jul 24, 2009, 02:14 PM

So you are saying that you manually type in a date like 7/24/09 and it magically changes to the first date in the file (like 7/1/09)?

The only way manually entered text (as opposed to the Insert Date and Time option from the Insert menu) can change is if you have an Autocorrect or Autoformat option. Can you determine exactly when the text is changing? If you hover your cursor over the changed text, is there a little blue highlight thing you can click to open a little menu to change the auto-changed text?

Steve

lexapro · Jul 24, 2009, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

So you are saying that you manually type in a date like 7/24/09 and it magically changes to the first date in the file (like 7/1/09)?

The only way manually entered text (as opposed to the Insert Date and Time option from the Insert menu) can change is if you have an Autocorrect or Autoformat option. Can you determine exactly when the text is changing? If you hover your cursor over the changed text, is there a little blue highlight thing you can click to open a little menu to change the auto-changed text?

Steve

Steve,

The date on the sections for the Notebook Layout are in special spots specific for the date, not just typed in to a random location. It also records the time of the lecture, as well.

TheoCryst · Jul 24, 2009, 07:16 PM

I can reproduce the bug on my machine. Specifically, when you print, or even go to Print Preview, it reverts to the date when the document was originally created (note the word "Created" underneath the date). I'll go ahead and report the bug to the lead developer of the Word:mac team. I'm not sure what the intended behavior is: either the date should not randomly change like that, or you shouldn't be able to manually edit the date field.

In the meantime: try changing that field to "Modified" -- it'll update the field to whenever you last changed that section. Still not perfect, but it should be a usable workaround in the meantime.

~ your friend on the Office:mac team

ghporter · Jul 24, 2009, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by lexapro

Steve,

The date on the sections for the Notebook Layout are in special spots specific for the date, not just typed in to a random location. It also records the time of the lecture, as well.

I don't really understand this statement. Could you expand on it, and contrast that to using fields in the header?

lexapro · Jul 26, 2009, 12:17 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I don't really understand this statement. Could you expand on it, and contrast that to using fields in the header?

I really can't explain it any better. You'll just have to try it out for yourself, or rely on that the bug has been reproduced.

ghporter · Jul 26, 2009, 10:56 AM

I'm not doubting that the bug is there, just my understanding of what you mean by "special spots." As I have not yet installed 2008, I can't play with it at the moment. Depending on the way today or tomorrow unfold, I may get to install it soon though...

Let me see if I can take a stab at understanding this though. By saying "the date on the sections for the Notebook Layour are in special spots specific for the date," are you talking about behavior like a template, where you have a constant page location for this particular data? And it IS in the header, right?

lexapro · Jul 26, 2009, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I'm not doubting that the bug is there, just my understanding of what you mean by "special spots." As I have not yet installed 2008, I can't play with it at the moment. Depending on the way today or tomorrow unfold, I may get to install it soon though...

Let me see if I can take a stab at understanding this though. By saying "the date on the sections for the Notebook Layour are in special spots specific for the date," are you talking about behavior like a template, where you have a constant page location for this particular data? And it IS in the header, right?

Can I suggest that you install 08 or use a friend's? Sorry, Glenn, but I just can't explain it any better.

TheoCryst · Jul 26, 2009, 09:30 PM

On the top-right of the page, there is a little date and time field. That field is editable: you can select the text and modify it as you see fit. However, it is a (moderately) smart field, and resets to the date and time that the document was created when you print the document (or even view it in print preview). As far as I can tell, printing is the ONLY action that will reset the field -- otherwise, it will keep your custom input forever.

EDIT: lexapro: I just found a completely viable workaround: since it's an automatic field ( {CREATEDATE} ), there will always be little actions that force the field to reset. Instead, there's nothing stopping you from completely deleting the field altogether and replacing it with your own custom text. I just tested it, and it won't replace that text on printing.

lexapro · Jul 27, 2009, 11:19 AM

You mean just delete the default date entirely and rewrite the date from scratch?

TheoCryst · Jul 27, 2009, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by lexapro

You mean just delete the default date entirely and rewrite the date from scratch?

Essentially. It's not perfect, but it works.

lexapro · Jul 28, 2009, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by TheoCryst

Essentially. It's not perfect, but it works.

Yeah this works. No it's not perfect. Such is MS.

JKT · Jul 29, 2009, 05:04 AM

You could just try using some decent software instead. There are tens of note-taking apps for the Mac (DEVONThink, Yojimbo, OmniOutliner, etc.) all of which are probably better than the one in MS Office by a long, long way.

TheoCryst · Jul 29, 2009, 07:49 PM

Yep, too bad there's no Mac version of OneNote. A few of my Windows-using friends got hooked on it back in college, and I was always a bit jealous. Word's notebook view is okay, but not quite what I was looking for in university. Oh well.