Local formatting aberration? (Word 2000)

[ChrisGreaves]

This took me by surprise this morning:
I am accustomed to selecting an entire paragraph, paragraph mark and all, by Ctrl-Up (to go to the start of the paragraph) and Ctrl-Shift-Down (to select the entire paragraph. (I can select a one-line paragraph with Shift-End)
If I then apply local formatting (by Format, Font, or by a character style), the entire paragraph is formatted.
I know too that Ctrl-Down, Left-Arrow, Shift-Ctrl-Up will select ALL BUT the paragraph mark, and I use this for local formatting.
In the case of bulleted text these rules seem not to apply.

In the attached document, try selecting "ClearCosmeticFormattingSELECTION", say with Home, Shift-End, Left-Arrow. You think you have just the text, not the paragraph. Change the font color to Red.
The bullet changes color!

Undo the change.

Now, instead, try selecting all but that trailing "N", all but one characters change to Red, the bullet does not change to red.
Now, try selecting that trailing "N", all that one character changes to Red, the bullet does not change to red!

It seems that selecting the text in two (or more) chunks does not change the bullet, but selecting the text in one chunk does change the bullet!

It's not a major problem; just struck me as odd.

[HansV]

Apparently, Word is trying to help the user: if the user selects ALL text in a paragraph, then changes the color, surely he must intend to change the color of the bullet (or numbering) too.

[ChrisGreaves]

...surely he must intend to change the color of the bullet too.

Hans, thanks for the comeback.
I agree. After all, the designer ALWAYS works that way, so it must be right for all users, Right? (grin!)
I do agree that Word is trying to be helpful, but still I think it doesn't make sense.
Selecting the entire paragraph should mean the text in the paragraph and the paragraph mark, tassels, fringes, bells and whistles.
But selecting only the text should mean the only-the-text; even humble VBAers know that a Word .Range object has a .Text thingy which is distinct from the .Paragraph.Range.

As an experiment I tried to see if Word would extend ( ) its helpfulness to let me color only the one bullet in a single paragraph.
Word 2000: Format, Bullets and numbering, Customize changes all the bullets to Green, not just my bullet local to the paragraph.
At a much higher level I'd argue that if one can change text local to a paragraph, one should be able to change a bullet local to a paragraph, but I know(?) that bullets are more of a style than a local formatting device, so I'm whistling in the wind.

Again, the real oddity is that one can achieve one's goal by cutting the process into two (or more) parts of text selection.
There's some code in there that says "If all text selected, then it is not really a text-selection, treat it as all paragraph-selected, Else treat as text-selected.".

We now take you back to our regular program of documenting Excel macros ....

[StuartR]

...one should be able to change a bullet local to a paragraph, but I know(?) that bullets are more of a style than a local formatting device, so I'm whistling in the wind...

All you need to do is select the paragraph mark at the end of the paragraph and apply your preferred colour.

colour-bullet.png

[ChrisGreaves]

All you need to do is select the paragraph mark at the end of the paragraph and apply your preferred colour.

Great! Just great! Now Word does what I want it to do to get around it doing something that I didn't want it to do ...

The sequence to color text in a bulleted paragraph (a la Greaves) would then be:

1. Select the text of the paragraph, apply local formatting (e.g. green {font})
2. Select the paragraph mark, apply local formatting (e.g. Automatic-color {bullet})

Either way, it seems that one is looking at a two-step process (or a a two-step macro) to apply local formatting to a bulleted or numbered paragraph.

Thanks Stuart!

[IanWilson]

Either way, it seems that one is looking at a two-step process (or a a two-step macro) to apply local formatting to a bulleted or numbered paragraph.

... or looking at yet another good reason never to use local formatting!

Ian

[ChrisGreaves]

... or looking at yet another good reason never to use local formatting!Ian

Ian, I agree.
I am against local formatting, but I have used "local formatting" to describe the use of the formatting items directly from the menu or toolbar, rather than the use of styles. (Format, Font, ... as distinct from Format, Styles, ...)
I am in favour of formatting portions of a paragraph with character styles, and so so frequently.
In the situation I described in my first post I'd placed myself in the unusual position of wanting to format the single word in a paragraph. Had the paragraph consisted of the text "better use of ClearCosmeticFormattingSELECTION" I'd not have created the problem for myself. (That's my first clue!)
If I look at the problem as that of "formatting the entire paragraph" I might have applied my paragraph style, "Macro Text", which is Courier Blue, but then I would have lost the bullets from my "Body Text Bullet" style, so that would have required a third style "Body text Bullet Courier Blue". (I note in passing that this is a case for Excel's additive-mode of style application!)

[Sundog]

All you need to do is select the paragraph mark at the end of the paragraph and apply your preferred colour.

Stuart, you beat me to it; that's ALMOST the way it works for me. (I have to apply my preferred color.)