Office 2007 Choosing Colors

[craigmadsen]

I'm trying to automate something in Office 2007, however, I just can't get it to work properly. If you take a Word 2007 document, and then insert a shape, any shape, that shape is now currently selected. Now I'm trying to "Format AutoShape", it then seems to default to whatever tab was used last, and for my case, this is always "Colors and Lines", which is what I want. I'm now trying to change the "Fill" area, and I want to change the "Color" to "No Color". So my sequence has the following codes: Alt-o, Alt-o, Alt-c, Shift-Alt-n. However, this never works, even though by hand, hitting the above key strokes works every time?

I've also tried recording the key strokes, etc. in QuicKeys, and the only difference, is that it puts a "Wait for Window ['Format AutoShape' Appears] after the 2nd Alt-o. But then when I play it back, it doesn't work either?

In both cases, it almost seems like when using QuicKeys after the sequence has been created, that the original Alt-c, isn't getting run properly or something like that?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[gb2]

I don't have a working copy of Office 2007 at the moment but I think I see your problem. I don't think you should be using the alt key most of the time. See this post Office 2007

[craigmadsen]

So I've changed my sequence to use: F10 then the characters JD and then the characters FA and I'm now at the same color palette as what a couple of Alt-o's would get me. However, now that I'm at the color palette, pressing F10 here doesn't do anything. There are no little boxes with characters inside of them to push (like you get when you hit F10 from the main screen. Again, if I now hit Alt-C and then type a N, it does what I want it to, but in my QK sequence, that doesn't work?

Still stuck?

Craig

[gunns256]

In Word 2000, you can navigate the color palette with arrow keys. You should be able to get a reliable starting point of "automatic" by sending a home key followed by an up arrow, then navigating to the color of your choice.

[craigmadsen]

Gunns256 reply mentioned Word 2000, so I wasn't sure if this was a typo, as I am using Word 2007, which is a whole bunch different. By typing in the keystrokes I mentioned in my previous post, I can pull up the color palette just fine, it's actually doing something with it, once it is displayed. Again, using Word 2007 w/o QuicKeys, once the color palette is presented, I can also enter the TAB character, which puts me in the "Fill color drop-down", and then entering a down arrow key opens up the color palette, then I can enter 8 more down-arrow keys, which puts me at the "No Color" option, at which time I can hit the ENTER key and I have what I want. Just try doing this without QuicKeys?

[gb2]

I was able to get to the dialog with the F10 and JD and FA like you said, but it looks like Word has some problems with that dialog. You shouldn't have to do the F10 when in the dialog you should just have to do the alt-C for Color menu to come up. When I do that doesn't happens but it will come up when I use alt-shift-C for a upper case C but I try that in QuicKeys it doesn't work. So they have something strange going on in that dialog. You might need to try doing a Click on the menu to get it open.

[craigmadsen]

Just so that everyone knows that we still haven't found a working solution to this problem. Keep in mind there are 2 ways to get to the "Fill color pallet" under the "Colors and Lines" tab. You can TAB to it and hit the DOWN Arrow key, or you can hit ALT-c/ALT-C. The problem is, it appears as though QuicKeys doesn't seem to recognize this pallet, once it's open? I know that sounds strange, but we have not been able to get anything recognized in that pallet, once it's selected.

Startly, we need your help!!

[gb2]

I have tried everything that I can think of and that Color pop-up menu just won't cooperate with QuicKeys. I'll enter a report on the issue into our database.

[gunns256]

Now you need to decide whether it is more important to automate with QuicKeys or just get the job done.

I only use Office 2000, and your mileage may vary, but this VBA macro works for me. I'm a math teacher and I do a lot of work with shapes. I've automated my work extensively.

Sub NoFill()
'
' NoFill Macro
' Macro recorded 5/4/2004 by Ernest Gunn
'
Selection.ShapeRange.Fill.Visible = msoFalse

End Sub

[ldrabbit]

The reason it doesn't work is that QuicKeys simply is not compatible with Office 2007. You can get macros to work sporadically, but not consistently. Startly clearly does not care about Windows anymore. I've given up.