Object in a Template

I downloaded and opened this template from HP's web site:
http://h30038.www3.hp.com/getasset.p...2169&asset=503

The gray lines are actually an object (whatever that is). When you type
in the document, the lines align perfectly with the text. Were the lines
created by trial and error? I do not see how they were spaced correctly.

This template accomplishes things I've tried to do in the past in
creating forms, so I would like to learn as much about this particular
form as possible.

(It is safe to download and open. I got the link from staples.com.)

Hi mcp6453

There are several things going on here.

First, the one paragraph in the document has its line spacing set to exactly
27pt. This is why you can type and get such large vertical spacing between
the lines of text. The 27pt spacing has been determined very carefully in
relation to the positioning of the horizontal lines. Unfortunately, this
spacing has been applied as direct formatting to that one paragraph. No
styles in the template have been modified to set their vertical line spacing
to match the horizontal lines. So you can't use any headings or bullets, for
example, without modifying the styles to suit the spacing.

Second, if you click on the grey horizontal lines, and then right-click (or
click Draw on the drawing toolbar), you'll see that the Ungroup option is
available. That's a clue that what you're seeing is a group of somethings.
And grouped somethings are called by the generic name "Object". If you
ungroup them, you discover that they're AutoShapes. And an AutoShape is just
about anything you insert using the Drawing toolbar.

So the grey horizontal lines are just lines drawn from the Drawing toolbar,
coloured grey and grouped.

The lines were spaced evenly by careful adjustment. First, each line is
anchored to the same paragraph (you can see this by doing Tools Options
View and ticking Object Anchors. Click each line and you'll see it's
anchored to the one paragraph mark.

And, the grey lines been positioned very precisely to keep the vertical
space even. Click on one, do Format AutoShape, click the Layout tab, then
Advanced. You'll see that they're positioned relative to the (same)
paragraph mark.

Oddly enough, although the Grid for this document has been changed from the
out-of-the-box default, the author (see File Properties) didn't use the
Grid to align the shapes (which would have made it a lot easier). To use the
Grid, do Draw Grid on the Drawing toolbar.

Third, the "logo" at the top of each page consists of several autoshapes;
boxes with no border, no fill and white text; and one picture (the scales).
It's really easy to drag one item out of a logo like this accidentally.
Grouping the items would have made it safer, and putting them in the header,
rather than the body of the document, would make it safer still. Putting the
whole thing in the header would also mean that the user only needed to enter
the company name once, rather than once for every page. Once the items are
grouped, you can then make the whole group in-line (rather than floating),
which again prevents accidentally knocking them out of place with your
mouse. (You can't add text to an item that's grouped, so if you really
wanted something like this you could group all the elements except the boxes
for the text.)

Finally, the "footer" is a blue autoshape box with white text. It probably
would have been better in the footer, not least because then the user would
only need to enter the information once, rather than once for every page.
There's no particular need for the textbox (you can put a blue background on
a paragraph of text). If you did want to use a textbox, it would be better
if it were in-line, rather than floating, to avoid accidentally knocking it
out of place.

Two other points, if you want to create something like this.

First, try changing the paper size to A4 (and show text boundaries with
Tools Options View and tick Text Boundaries). The text and the lines no
longer line up. So unless you know that you're never going to send your
document to anyone outside a small, known group of people, you can't rely on
the text and the lines lining up.

Second, if you wanted the grey horizontal lines to appear on every page (and
not just the first page), you could put the whole grouped grey lines into
the header, so it will appear on every page.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"mcp6453" wrote in message
...
I downloaded and opened this template from HP's web site:
http://h30038.www3.hp.com/getasset.p...2169&asset=503

The gray lines are actually an object (whatever that is). When you type
in the document, the lines align perfectly with the text. Were the lines
created by trial and error? I do not see how they were spaced correctly.

This template accomplishes things I've tried to do in the past in
creating forms, so I would like to learn as much about this particular
form as possible.

(It is safe to download and open. I got the link from staples.com.)

Shauna Kelly wrote:

Hi mcp6453

There are several things going on here.


Thanks, Shauna! That definitely clears things up.