Dear Folks

For those still interested (and who isn't?), David Moss of PC Pro
printed up his findings of the red/green underlining in word question
this month (PC Pro: Computing in the Real World, May 2002, 91,
201-202).

The short answer is forget it, apparently. The long answer, featuring
a non-response from Microsoft and details of how to get it working in
Word 2002, goes like this:

"I'm sorry to say that it simply isn't possible to do this in Word 2000
or any previous version, though it is possible to under Word 2002 - but
even this isn't easy, as you have to modify a template. I asked
Microsoft if there was any way at all to change the colours in Word
2000 - a patch perhaps - and received this response from Stephanie
Thorn, product manager for Office at Microsoft: `Microsoft strives to
make its products as accessible as possible to all users, by improving
functionality in a variety of ways. This issue was highlighted by
customers' feedback, and Microsoft implemented this functionality in
Word 2002. There is currently no way to affect the red/green colour of
the underlines in Word 2000 and this is a feature by design of Word
2000 and previous versions of the product.
`So can I get hold of a patch? The Registry entries in question were
created specifically for Word 2002 to address this issue. Microsoft
recognises that this functionality is not available in Word 2000, or
previous versions, and people who have red/green colour blindness may
not be able to take advantage of the automatic spelling and grammar
underline feature. Spelling and grammar checking are still accessible
to users through Tools/Spelling and Grammar, and Help within Windows
for hard-of-sight persons is available, with the extended contrast and
screen amplification settings, which could help a user with previous
versions o f Word. As Word was originally designed with red and green
lines distinguishing spelling and grammar queries, its functionality
and suitability for its original purpose remains intact. This means
that I cannot offer a promise of a patch for previous versions of Word
at this time.'
This issue has clearly been known for some time, but I'd
translate the last sentence to `You will never see a patch for this'.

To change the red/green underlines in Word 2002, you need to change
some options in a template named SUPPORT.DOT, the problem being that
this template doesn't get installed if you used the Typical or Upgrade
setup options. You'll need to first install it before you can start, by
following these steps:
0 From the Start button, select Setting I
Control Panel, then double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon. From
the list of installed programs, select either Office XP or Word 2002
(only one or the other should be there) and double-click that entry.
Look in the Setup Maintenance dialog and click on `Add or Remove
Features'.
0 In the Update Features dialog, look for the Microsoft Word
for Windows entry and click on the + sign to expand its tree. Then
click on the icon next to Wizards and Templates and you'll see that
some of the icons have the number I on them: in my case, these were
Reports, More Wizards and More Templates and Macros. I opted to install
them all, but, if you don't want to, my guess is that More Templates
and Macros is the one to choose. Click on an icon select Run From My
Computer from pop-up menu. Once you've done that, click on Update Now,
which will install the template, so you can next turn your attention to
changing the colour of underlines. You do that by opening the template
SUPPORT.DOT in Word using a command- line switch, follow these steps:
0 From the Start button, select Run and then Browse. You're looking for
WINWORD.EXE, and if you took the default settings on installation you
should find it at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Officel0 (if you
installed Office or Word somewhere else, you'll need to look there
instead). Locate the file, click on it and then on the Open button. You
should see this in the Run edit box: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\0ffice10\WINWORD.EXE"
To this command line you're going to add the /a switch, outside the
quotes, so you'll end up with a command line that looks like this:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\WINWORD.EXE" /a
Now click the Run button or press Enter and Word 2002 will leap into
view, looking rather different from how you usually have it set up.
Ignore any differences and open SUPPORT.DOT, which you'll find in
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Officel0\Macros from the File menu.
SUPPORT.DOT is really a repository for macros, which is why it's in the
Macros rather than the Templates folder. If you hadn't selected Run
From My Computer for the More Templates and Macros option when you
installed Word or Office, you probably wouldn't even have a Macros
folder at all. I checked a system that was set up with Typical settings
- it wasn't there, but appeared after I updated Word following the
above instructions. When you try and open the file, you'll probably be
warned that it contains macros and be asked if you trust Microsoft
Corporation..., but since you've installed its operating system and
Office suite you may as well trust it once more. Anyway, if you don't,
you won't be able to open the file to modify the red/green colour
settings. With the file open, you'll see three buttons, each devoted to
a different area o f operation within Word - click on the one labelled
Registry Options. If all is still going to plan, you should be rewarded
with the Set Registry Options dialog. Make sure the Word Options tab is
selected then look through the Option list. Entries that may interest
you here (including the spelling and grammar entries) are:
SpellingWavyUnderlineColor GrammarWavyUnderlineColor
Smart7agUnderlineColor FormatConsisteneyWavyUnderlineColor Select them
in turn and click on the Choose Color button, select your preferred
colour, then click OK to finish.
This whole business would be far better served by an entry in the
default Tools settings for Word - all this rigmarole about installing
the SUPPORT.DOT template is deeply unfriendly."

Um, that's it.

Regards, Bernard

----------------------
Bernard Doherty
Student Adviser
Anglia Polytechnic University
Tel: 01223 363271 x2434
Fax: 01223 363369
Minicom: 01223 576155

[log in to unmask]