## "Newborn" customized VS built-in toolbar ##

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Wai - 22 Nov 2003 13:04 GMT

Product: MS Word 2002

"Newborn" customized toolbar
a toolbar which is made by creating a completely new one
(eg you add all the components of the standard toolbar to
your new one, and make some changes based on
your "newborn" customized standard toolbar)

Modified built-in toolbar
a toolbar which you just change some from built-in
toolbars.

The reason why I wish to do so is simply MVPs tell me it
is the best (they once said customizing your toolbars by
creating new ones, not modify from built-in toolbars).

However after a whole day for me to create tons
of "newborn" customized toolbars, I found some problems
which might defy me from doing so.

Pros of "newborn" customized toolbar
- easy to translate between files
- if normal.dot is lost, still can transfer them from
other templates

Pros of modified built-in toolbars
- lots of work saved in "copying" the existing components
of built-in toolbars
- no problems between the links of some icnons and
toolbars
Problem Sample:
- When I push the drawing icon to call the drawing
toolbar out, the built-in will be called, instead of
my "newborn" drawing toolbar.

Now I am in a dilemma. Should I keep building
all "newborn" customized toolbars, or should I just
add/modify under built-in toolbars?

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 22 Nov 2003 15:52 GMT

I won't venture an opinion on this but will point out that what you are
calling "newborn" toolbars are what Microsoft calls "custom" (as opposed to
"customized") toolbars.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)

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Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

> Product: MS Word 2002
>
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> all "newborn" customized toolbars, or should I just
> add/modify under built-in toolbars?

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Wai - 22 Nov 2003 22:26 GMT

If we have been able to transfer modified built-in
toolbars between documents, life would have been much
simplier.

>-----Original Message-----
>I won't venture an opinion on this but will point out that what you are
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>
>.

Reply to this Message

Suzanne S. Barnhill - 22 Nov 2003 22:51 GMT

Agreed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)

Signature

Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

> If we have been able to transfer modified built-in
> toolbars between documents, life would have been much
[quoted text clipped - 65 lines]
> >
> >.

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Dayo Mitchell - 23 Nov 2003 03:35 GMT

Wai, if you back up your Normal template regularly (containing the modified
default toolbars), if ever you need to scrap a Normal template, you could
return to using an OldNormal by naming it Normal.dot and putting it in the
right place. This OldNormal would have your toolbars as changed, at least up
to the point you made the backup. Or, if for some reason a completely fresh
Normal is preferred, it is not that difficult to temporarily open up an
OldNormal, and open up the respective toolbars in both new Normal and
OldNormal. Then you can just drag the icons across, as opposed to having to
find them in the Tools | Customize dialog and do the whole thing from
scratch again.

This approach is less professional than Suzanne's Global Template
suggestion, as given under "Customize right-click context menu" (which I
will have to experiment with soon, thanks Suzanne for that idea!), but a
viable backup to keep *all* your work from being completely wasted.

Note that you would only even consider modifying a default toolbar if it is
one of the ones that appears automatically in certain situations (i.e.,
Outlining in Outline View, Drawing when you click on a Picture, etc). Your
main toolbar, or anything that you are manually calling up, you can and
should build from scratch.

It is probably possible to write a macro or something that suppresses these
automatic toolbars and calls your own. For instance, instead of clicking on
Word's default Outline View icon, I could probably click on an icon linked
to a macro that switches to Outline view, suppresses the default Outlining
toolbar, and shows My Outlining toolbar. But it hasn't been worth the
trouble for me to figure this out. And I doubt anything similar would work
for the Drawing Toolbar, which is set to appear when pictures are selected,
not from clicking a toolbar icon.

Dayo

> Agreed.
>
[quoted text clipped - 76 lines]
>>>
>>> .

Reply to this Message

Wai - 23 Nov 2003 12:35 GMT

Actually I would like to reply "Dayo Mitchell" post.
But dunno why, I failed to do so.

So I just reply it by pressing the "post reply" from
Suzanne S. Barnhill post.

When transfer changes between normal.dot and
mynormal.dot, it should be true that:

- I can't transfer any commands from one *.dot top
another simply by dragging. If it is so, life again will
be much simpler.

Am I right?

Reply to this Message

Dayo Mitchell - 24 Nov 2003 10:03 GMT

> When transfer changes between normal.dot and
> mynormal.dot, it should be true that:
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Am I right?

Partially right.

I think what you are saying is that if you modify a default toolbar, you
cannot copy it from OldNormal to Normal via the Organizer. Correct. (Note
that you can transfer almost everything *except* modified default toolbars,
although you need a third-party utility for the keyboard shortcuts).

What I am suggesting, if for some reason, you need to create a new Normal,
is that you then:

Open up Word, and open a new doc based on Normal, and open all toolbars that
you have modified, but have now been returned to their default.

Then open up OldNormal (created because every so often you copy the Normal
in use to a backup location and rename it, which is a very good habit to
have).

With the cursor in OldNormal, go to View Toolbars and open up all the
default toolbars that you modified in OldNormal. Now you have two versions
of all your toolbars showing. Open up the Tools | Customize dialog, but you
don't need to do anything with it, it just needs to be open to enable
modifying toolbars.

Now you can drag all the icons from the modified toolbars in OldNormal onto
the fresh default toolbars in Normal. Yes, you are redoing some of your
customization work, but it is far quicker to drag from toolbar to toolbar
than to find the command in Tools | Customize again, especially if you don't
quite remember what was on your modified toolbars. Also, if you have
created any of your own icons, you don't have to redo any of that again.

So to summarize, you can't copy the entire toolbar from OldNormal to Normal,
but you can copy the individual icons.

When you close OldNormal, do *not* save changes, and it will continue to
hold your customizations in case you need to bring them over again. Do save
changes to the Normal template.

Re Replying: It's a glitch. People using the MS Communities web interface
can't reply to those using Mac Entourage newsreader to read the NGs.
Annoying if you wanted to reply in detail--in desperate cases you could
probably copy the text over.

Dayo

> Actually I would like to reply "Dayo Mitchell" post.
> But dunno why, I failed to do so.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Am I right?

Reply to this Message

Wai - 24 Nov 2003 15:56 GMT

I thought of this idea, but I failed to do so.

Let me tell you my situation with illustration.

Open 2 docs:
Doc 1 - based on default normal.dot (let call it ND)
Doc 2 - based on "modified" normal.dot (let call it MND)

All toolbars for doc 1 & 2 are opened.
Open doc 1 "Tools | Customize" Dialog box.
Then try to open doc 2 as well.
Problems occurs - can't open doc 2 "Customize" Dialog box
(CDB).

Have to close doc 1 CDB so as to open doc 2 CDB.
To sum up, can't open 2 CDB at the same time!

Also try to drag icons (by pressing "Alt", without
opening CDB) from doc 1 to doc 2, or vice versa.

Word doesn't let me to do so.

Your method doesn't work (at least in my computer). I
don't know why.

How to do?

Reply to this Message

Dayo Mitchell - 24 Nov 2003 17:46 GMT

It is possible this won't work, depending on how Word arranges its windows.
Do your documents open in the same or different windows? Which Word are you
using anyhow? (my Word lets me open all documents in different windows, but
they did change that behavior at some point, which I had forgotten when I
wrote the previous directions) Can you actually see all the toolbars from
both templates at the same time? If not, my method is unlikely to ever work.

If you can see all the toolbars at once, note that you didn't actually
follow my directions. You don't have to open the Tools Customize dialog in
both documents, and I didn't say you needed to. Did you try dragging the
icons just as I said? Also, I said open the actual modified template, not a
document based on it (though I doubt that matters), and leave the cursor in
the modified template. Try it again.

If you can't see all the toolbars at once, you *could* create a temporary
toolbar in the modified template, drag icons onto it, and then copy that
toolbar into the new Normal via Organizer, from where you could drag the
icons to desired locations. If you have created your own icons or linked
icons to macros, this may be worth the trouble. If you are only using icons
supplied by Word, it probably doesn't save you anything and you are just
stuck with rebuilding your modified default toolbars if ever you need to use
a new Normal.dot

DM

> I thought of this idea, but I failed to do so.
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> How to do?

Reply to this Message

Wai - 27 Nov 2003 04:50 GMT

I am using MS Word 2002 (Eng Version)

> Do your documents open in the same or different windows?

In different windows, actually I do think it is
impossible for me to open under the same window after
Word 2002.

> Can you actually see all the toolbars from
> both templates at the same time? If not, my method is
> unlikely to ever work.

No, can't!
When I choose AA doc, BB toolbar will be hidden, vice
versa.

Actually I would not bother myself to creat newbron
custom toolbars if I can transfer icons in that easy way.

Anyway, thank you so much for your help.
Good work!!

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