Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

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Peter Kinross
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Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Peter Kinross »

Here is what I thought would be a simple task.
How do I set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?
Avagr8day, regards, Peter

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HansV
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by HansV »

You can't, as far as I know. You have to draw the line somewhere...

But once you have inserted a shape and formatted it the way you like, you can set it as the default from its context menu.
Best wishes,
Hans

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Peter Kinross
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Peter Kinross »

That seems weird. I'm trying to draw a line on a photo map (Google). Default line color is blue, can't see it to see where I am drawing.
Might have to set the default to red.
Thanks anyway Hans.
Avagr8day, regards, Peter

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

You could also save a number of such lines in various colors as AutoText. You could add them to the TextBox Gallery, as well.

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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Peter Kinross »

Thanks Charles, but this is to draw my bike paths on a Google map. It's all curves.
Avagr8day, regards, Peter

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Peter Kinross
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Peter Kinross »

Opened Normal.dotm. Selected Insert | Curves. Drew small curve, changed its color to red. Saved that curve as default. Saved that doc as the one I to use for map tracing. Works a treat.
Avagr8day, regards, Peter

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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
28 Aug 2021, 06:40
You can't, as far as I know. You have to draw the line somewhere...
Hi Hans.
If I understand the philosophy of this it runs as "You can't set the colour of a line until you have a line to set the colour (of)"

But the default colour for a line is "Black" (or "Automatic=Black"), so clearly there is a default.

I suspect a better question would be 'Why can't I set the default colour to be Red, instead of "Automatic=Black", to which the answer would be "Because MSoft did not provide a facility for changing the default colour of a line".

Does that sound correct?

Thanks
Chris
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HansV
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by HansV »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
28 Aug 2021, 15:24
"Because MSoft did not provide a facility for changing the default colour of a line".
But there is: colour a line, then right-click it and select "Set as default" from the context menu.

(In recent versions of Word, the out-of-the-box default colour is dark blue, by the way)
Best wishes,
Hans

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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
28 Aug 2021, 15:41
But there is: colour a line, then right-click it and select "Set as default" from the context menu.
Ahhaha!
So what you are saying is that I have to learn to read! : :stupidme:
" ... you can set it as the default from its context menu."
Thanks
Chris
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Peter Kinross
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Peter Kinross »

Missed that. Mr Google said I had to open Normal.dotm, change a line there to red, then save that doc as the one I was to use.
Dang! Can do that with any doc - but ONLY for that doc.
Actually Mr G said to save the altered Normal.dotm as Normal.dotm. But with my Win 10 or Off 2010 the AppData folder is not visible once I have Normal.dotm open, so I couldn't save it as itself.
Avagr8day, regards, Peter

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Guessed
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Guessed »

It appears to me that the default line colour is whatever the Accent1 colour is on your document theme. So if I wanted to set the default colour of lines I would change that item either by choosing a colour theme or by just setting that one position

ActiveDocument.DocumentTheme.ThemeColorScheme(msoThemeAccent1).RGB = RGB(155, 23, 255)
Andrew Lockton
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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

Peter Kinross wrote:
29 Aug 2021, 01:25
Missed that. Mr Google said I had to open Normal.dotm, change a line there to red, then save that doc as the one I was to use.
Dang! Can do that with any doc - but ONLY for that doc.
Actually Mr G said to save the altered Normal.dotm as Normal.dotm. But with my Win 10 or Off 2010 the AppData folder is not visible once I have Normal.dotm open, so I couldn't save it as itself.
First, follow up on Andrew's suggestion as to Theme color setting. I suspect it is more productive.

If you have opened the Normal.dotm template (not created a new document, but opened the tempalte), you can save it. Not SaveAs, but Save.
Never try to overwrite the normal template with another file!
How to Open the Normal Template: http://addbalance.com/word/normaltemplate.htm#Open

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

Following up on the AutoText idea.
1. You can edit the lines, including curves once they are inserted.
2. You could also save as formatted AutoCorrect entries.

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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Charles Kenyon wrote:
15 Sep 2021, 13:01
Never try to overwrite the normal template with another file!
Hi Charles.
As a matter of curiosity only (right now), do later versions of MSWord maintain the Phoenix-like behavior with Normal.dot[m], in that if we delete the Normal template, MSWord will create a default Normal template the next time it is loaded?

That was (and I hope still is) a quick way of removing a corrupted Normal template - just delete it and then reload MSWord.

Thanks
Chris
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HansV
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by HansV »

Yes, Word will try to create a new Normal.dot(m).
I moved my Normal.dotm to a different folder and started Word, then quit immediately without changing anything. Because my settings specify that Word should ask before saving the default template, I got this:

S0796.png

(Because this was just an experiment, I clicked Don't Save and moved my Normal.dotm back into the Templates folder)
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Best wishes,
Hans

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
30 Sep 2021, 15:15
Yes, Word will try to create a new Normal.dot(m).
Thank you, Hans.
Chris
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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
30 Sep 2021, 14:48
Charles Kenyon wrote:
15 Sep 2021, 13:01
Never try to overwrite the normal template with another file!
Hi Charles.
As a matter of curiosity only (right now), do later versions of MSWord maintain the Phoenix-like behavior with Normal.dot[m], in that if we delete the Normal template, MSWord will create a default Normal template the next time it is loaded?

That was (and I hope still is) a quick way of removing a corrupted Normal template - just delete it and then reload MSWord.

Thanks
Chris
Yes, a new normal.dotm is formed if needed to store something. However, do not delete the old normal.dotm; rather, rename it to something like badnormal.dotm or normal210930.dotm. That serves the same purpose, but some or all customizations in the old file might be recovered.

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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Charles Kenyon wrote:
30 Sep 2021, 22:55
...rather, rename it to something like badnormal.dotm or normal210930.dotm. That serves the same purpose, but some or all customizations in the old file might be recovered.
Thank you, Charles.

Code: Select all

copy "%drive%:\GREAVES\ADMIN\Templates\Normal.DOT" %drive%:\___spare\%se%.DOT
I do that each time I load Word2003 through my batch file - copy the existing Normal.dot to a file named according to the seconds of the time, then copy TO Normal.dot a secure copy from another folder. This was a great way to isolate/trap viruses back in the 90s!
Today it preserves my shortcut-key macros should I ever want to retrieve one of those disposable beauties, since I always have the latest version of Normal.dot in the folder T:\Spare\.

Cheers
Chris
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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

Copy keyboard shortcuts - use Chris Woodman's original organizer in Word 2003.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070203011 ... anizer.htm
http://addbalance.com/word/download.htm#ChrisWoodman

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Set a line color BEFORE drawing it in Word 2010?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Charles Kenyon wrote:
03 Oct 2021, 00:38
Copy keyboard shortcuts - use Chris Woodman's original organizer in Word 2003.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070203011 ... anizer.htm
http://addbalance.com/word/download.htm#ChrisWoodman
Thank you, Charles; I shall try these.
Word2003 often loses track of my shortcut key assignments; I suspect that this might be due to the number of user macros that need to be tracked by MSWord when it is loaded.
Cheers
Chris
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