When I write papers on my tablet PC I occasionally switch to tablet mode and use ink to create my revisions. Sometimes, however, I open the inking ribbon and click "Start Inking," but nothing happens. I have puzzled with this for a long time, and came up with some workarounds, including copying the body of my document into a new file (I incorporate my actual changes in a different window and throw away the inked document anyway). But as it turns out, there is a slightly better solution. Apparently, the problem comes from page numbers. If you have page numbers, you cannot "start inking." If you remove them, you can.
Another howler from Word 2007. Why can you not ink when you have page numbers? Why do you get no response from the button instead of an error message?
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Word: Word 2007 bibliography system is full of fail
I am trying to write a humanities paper using the bibliographic/source management features in Word 2007. As far as I can tell, the system is almost completely worthless.
Here are my problems so far:
1. When you attempt to generate a Works Cited page, you get a list of all the sources that are in your source database, regardless of whether or not all of those sources are actually cited in your document. WTF? This is effectively a Works Consulted list, not Works Cited. Why does it work like this? I imagine there are some fields of scholarship where it's traditional to list works that are not actually cited, but this is certainly not the case in the humanities, which, I should note, does not represent an insignificant body of scholars, yet there does not appear to be an option to show only the cited works--you have to edit the generated stuff by hand.
2. The generated bibliography and works cited come out in the Word 2007 font (Cambria or something like that) that no one wants to use and that you can't seem to make go away. Also the "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" text at the top of the generated section is blue. Am I supposed to submit my research with colored fonts? I don't see a way to tell the generated section to pick up the font and styles from the surrounding text.
3. The MLA formatting generated in the Works Cited page is wrong. When you have multiple works by a single author, you are supposed to have the author's name written out for the first work, and then use a line or three hyphens for subsequent entries by that author. This is stated clearly in the MLA guidelines, but inexplicably is not understood by Word.
I may end up buying something like EndNote to get the job done.
Edit:
I have bought EndNote, and it also contains a good amount of fail. For example, there is no simple way to create an in-text citation consisting of only a page number, i.e. without an author and without a title. MLA occasionally demands this, specifically, if you have just named the author and the work in the body of your text. EndNote does give you the ability to easily remove the title, but not the author. Why?
Here are my problems so far:
1. When you attempt to generate a Works Cited page, you get a list of all the sources that are in your source database, regardless of whether or not all of those sources are actually cited in your document. WTF? This is effectively a Works Consulted list, not Works Cited. Why does it work like this? I imagine there are some fields of scholarship where it's traditional to list works that are not actually cited, but this is certainly not the case in the humanities, which, I should note, does not represent an insignificant body of scholars, yet there does not appear to be an option to show only the cited works--you have to edit the generated stuff by hand.
2. The generated bibliography and works cited come out in the Word 2007 font (Cambria or something like that) that no one wants to use and that you can't seem to make go away. Also the "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" text at the top of the generated section is blue. Am I supposed to submit my research with colored fonts? I don't see a way to tell the generated section to pick up the font and styles from the surrounding text.
3. The MLA formatting generated in the Works Cited page is wrong. When you have multiple works by a single author, you are supposed to have the author's name written out for the first work, and then use a line or three hyphens for subsequent entries by that author. This is stated clearly in the MLA guidelines, but inexplicably is not understood by Word.
I may end up buying something like EndNote to get the job done.
Edit:
I have bought EndNote, and it also contains a good amount of fail. For example, there is no simple way to create an in-text citation consisting of only a page number, i.e. without an author and without a title. MLA occasionally demands this, specifically, if you have just named the author and the work in the body of your text. EndNote does give you the ability to easily remove the title, but not the author. Why?
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