Use of StyleRef field in Header (Word 2000)

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Is there a way I can get a piece of text including any symbol(s) to appear correctly in my page header automatically and to appear accurately?

If I use a styleref field, in the page header, and get it to pick up text in the style I’ve used, the symbols become an open bracket eg, ( . (symbol inserted using ‘Insert’ ‘Symbol’ and ‘symbol’ font).

If I bookmark my text and then use a REF field in the header instead it works and my symbols are accurate. However, my users apply some sort of clean up tool which remove the REF field!

I did suggest to my users the basic copy/paste and for some reason this would be too much trouble!

Any ideas / suggestions?

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The STYLEREF field is ideal when the reference needs to be able to change from page to page, but it does copy only “text” and no formatting, so it seems to lose the “I am a Symbol” attribute.

It is too bad that the REF fields are being removed. I don’t know what tool would do that. The users could “lock in” the results of the REF field by clicking in it and using Ctrl+Shift+F9 (Unlink), but if the REF field is being used to accommodate edits, this might not be attractive either..

The users could simplify the copy-and-paste by using a macro that inserts the current selection into the header, but that probably is more trouble than it’s worth considering the difficulty of predicting the best placement in the header and the hassles of distributing macros to people unfamiliar with them outside an environment where you control their computers.

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thanks for the comments.

But maybe worth noting is that I have found that if you insert the symbol and set the font as Times New Roman, then my symbols characters do come through into the STYLEREF field.

I presume the underlying problem may also be related to character set used.

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I’m not sure what you mean about setting the font to TNR & then your symbol characters come through. If I type text with a particular style & then insert a symbol on the same line, the StyleRef field interprets the symbol as a text character (often Alt+040, which is a closing parenthesis). Could you give me an example of what you mean? Thanks,

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Phil – I am attaching a document which hopefully shows the different choices and their output.

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The essential point is not the use of Times New Roman, but the use of a “standard” for the symbols instead of a dedicated symbol font. Arial, Tahoma or Comic Sans MS would have worked as well as Times New Roman.

If you use a symbol font, Word uses a special placeholder character ( to mark the location of the symbol, and stores the information about the displayed symbol in the document’s metadata. The STYLEREF field picks up the placeholder (, not the symbol itself.

If you use a standard font, Word just inserts the character into the document, and this is picked up by the STYLEREF field.

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The best font to use for this purpose is the one that the Symbol dialog box calls “(Normal text)” this will allow the font to change if the underlying style is changed in the future.

StuartR

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Yes, I forgot to mention that. Unless there is a reason for using a specific font, “(Normal text)” is the best choice.

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Yes, I forgot to mention that. Unless there is a reason for using a specific font, “(Normal text)” is the best choice.

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The best font to use for this purpose is the one that the Symbol dialog box calls “(Normal text)” this will allow the font to change if the underlying style is changed in the future.

StuartR

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The essential point is not the use of Times New Roman, but the use of a “standard” for the symbols instead of a dedicated symbol font. Arial, Tahoma or Comic Sans MS would have worked as well as Times New Roman.

If you use a symbol font, Word uses a special placeholder character ( to mark the location of the symbol, and stores the information about the displayed symbol in the document’s metadata. The STYLEREF field picks up the placeholder (, not the symbol itself.

If you use a standard font, Word just inserts the character into the document, and this is picked up by the STYLEREF field.

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Phil – I am attaching a document which hopefully shows the different choices and their output.

Reply | Quote

I’m not sure what you mean about setting the font to TNR & then your symbol characters come through. If I type text with a particular style & then insert a symbol on the same line, the StyleRef field interprets the symbol as a text character (often Alt+040, which is a closing parenthesis). Could you give me an example of what you mean? Thanks,

Reply | Quote

thanks for the comments.

But maybe worth noting is that I have found that if you insert the symbol and set the font as Times New Roman, then my symbols characters do come through into the STYLEREF field.

I presume the underlying problem may also be related to character set used.

Reply | Quote

The STYLEREF field is ideal when the reference needs to be able to change from page to page, but it does copy only “text” and no formatting, so it seems to lose the “I am a Symbol” attribute.

It is too bad that the REF fields are being removed. I don’t know what tool would do that. The users could “lock in” the results of the REF field by clicking in it and using Ctrl+Shift+F9 (Unlink), but if the REF field is being used to accommodate edits, this might not be attractive either..

The users could simplify the copy-and-paste by using a macro that inserts the current selection into the header, but that probably is more trouble than it’s worth considering the difficulty of predicting the best placement in the header and the hassles of distributing macros to people unfamiliar with them outside an environment where you control their computers.

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