Word 2013: Where are the layout options?
The way Word lays out a page has changed with almost every version. Depending on what you do, you may like the new or prefer the old. For this reason, and for backwards compatibility, all the accumulated changes have been kept as growing list of “compatibility layout options”. The user can activate/de-activate these for each document individually, or as a group.
The following screen shot shows part of the options list for Word 2010. Changing the selection in “Lay out this document as if created in:” will change numerous settings to emulate the layout used in the selected version. Or, if you’re interested in only one setting, such as the bottommost “Don’t use HTML paragraph autospacing”, you just check that box. (This option adds “Space Before” and “Space After” settings, rather than applying just one of the settings.)
In Word 2013, if you create a new document from a 2013 version of Normal.dotm, you get a greatly reduced list of compatibility layout options and no possibility to work with the old ones. They also aren’t available through the object model. If you try to apply one, you get Run-time error 6313 “One of the values passed to this property or method is out of range for this file format.”
Here’s how the same dialog looks in 2013. There are only the seven “Layout options” and nothing in “Compatibility options” You’d think perhaps you could somehow scroll down, but you can’t.
If you need to use the old layout options in Word 2013 you can either
- Start with a document or template created in an older version of Word OR
- You can save a Word 2013 document to the Word 97-2003 file format (which will enable the options) and then save it to *.docx, being careful to retain compatibility mode with older versions.
Now you can use full list of the Layout options.
(The dropdown list “Compatibility Options for” contains an entry “All New documents” giving the impression that you could somehow use this, starting from a document in “Compatibility Mode” in order to get to these options and set some as a default. But that is not the case – the list of options simply disappears when that entry is selected.)
A related problem is how Word 2013 deals with tab stops positioned in the right margin. A Word 2013 document doesn’t allow or honour tab stops positioned in the right margin unless they’re in a table. If you open a document from an older version of Word the tab stops are respected and you can tab to them until the document is saved in such a way as to remove “Compatibility Mode” from the title bar. At this point, any text that was positioned at such a tab stop is moved to a new line, as shown in the next screen shot. The only solution is to retain Compatibiliy Mode, as described above.
January 20th, 2015 at 20:56
oops – that should say I kept Word 2003
January 20th, 2015 at 20:54
I am forever grateful – I not only can not stand the loss of the “compatibility for” (WHY would they ever get rid of this??) I despise Word 2013’s draft view – 1. It will NOT default to this unless I change my registry (I did) 2. No way to view manual line breaks (WTF??) 3. NO graphics are shown (again, WTF?.
I kept Word 20013 until they stopped supporting it. IMHO, it is still the best Word they ever created.
Now–thank you, thank you–I see that I can still create all new docs in word 2003 and it will keep all 3 of the list above even though it is executed thru word 2013. That is wonderful news! Thank you!
July 11th, 2015 at 17:34
Hi Lisa
Sorry about the late response – WordPress hasn’t been notifying me about new comments…
2. You should be able to see manual line breaks (Shift + Enter) by activating “Show all formatting marks” in Options/Display
3. Under File/Options/Advanced, section “Show document content” are the options for graphics. You want to make sure the “picture placehoders” is NOT activated and “Show drawings and text boxes on-screen” is. But please note that, if you’re working in Draft view, “floating” graphics will not appear. And this is nothing new in Word 2013. “Floaing” graphics were, if I recall correctly, introduced in Office 97 and have never been displayed in Draft view.
December 11th, 2014 at 16:45
Is there any way to recreate the “select entire field code with first or last character”?
I’m finding Word 2013 very frustrating b/c it appears to be “dumbed down”. I can no longer customize Word as I used to – and I don’t consider myself a “power user”. Of the latest versions, 2010 seemed to be the best. Why are they taking steps backward???? (I know, it’s not your call – but maybe they’ll see comments like these and get the message that users are unhappy.)
July 11th, 2015 at 17:41
Hi Gail
I don’t know of any way to recreate “select entire field code with first or last character”, unfortunately. But maybe someone in the Answers forum does: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/word.
The closest I can get is to Alt+F9 (view field codes). If I start at either end, then Shift+Arrow key it will select the entire field.
It would certainly be possible to do something with VBA code, leveraging the WindowSelectionChange event but that could slow down editing and possibly interfere with any add-ins you might have installed that alos use the evnt.
August 28th, 2014 at 11:42
A related issue in Word 2013 (windows). No tab stops or any other formatting are visible in the ribbon. There is nothing shown in the tab selector box either. Restoring this is not covered by any Help topics and any feedback gratefully received.
July 11th, 2015 at 17:24
Hi Nick
I know it’s a bit late – WordPress hasn’t been notifying me about new Comments…
The best place to get help with this kind of thing is the Answers forum:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/word. From my experience, there are display problems with 2013, but I don’t know whether updating your graphics card will help. Another thing that’s often suggested is to disable graphics acceleration in the Options/Advanced settings.
April 15th, 2013 at 21:43
I have run into the very same problem with the right tab in a TOC and TOA, and with the Layout/Compatibility options. I find that if I select All New Documents, I can check additional Layout options, and if I go back in and select All New Documents AGAIN, those boxes remained checked. However, the spacing of my paragraphs in a California pleading, which relies upon specific layout options, is not working correctly, except of course in Compatibility Mode. Very frustrating!
April 26th, 2013 at 08:31
Hi Eric
The word is that Microsoft is aware of the problem with tabs inside of margins (as opposed to those outside the margin) not working as in previous versions and is investigating the behavior. Translated, this means it’s not “by design” (wasn’t intended with the change in the layout engine). So we can hope that, at some point, it gets corrected – but no promises as to whether or when!
May 21st, 2013 at 17:58
Thanks for the update. I hope they do fix that, but the Layout options are a much bigger issue for me, frankly, and I hope MS reconsiders that. Having to take documents back to 97-2003 format and then save them up and retain compatibility is not just inconvenient, but problematic when it involves templates. It basically means having to tell everyone to go back to Compatibility Mode!
February 18th, 2013 at 17:23
Hi Michael
Sorry about the late answer. I get so few comments that I’ve almost given up watching out for them :-) Thank you for supllementing the information, here. There’s a discussion in the “Communities” forum about this that it might be good for you to watch or particpate in:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/word-2013-ignores-tab-stops-beyond-right-indent/34adc7e2-17df-4399-8f7f-bbcbf507ae29
I do know this point has been brought to the product team’s attention, and it’s a good argument for re-thinking what they’ve done.
Obviously, some people making design decisions really don’t understand everything about how power-users work with Word. As the years progress, the focus goes more and more to the “write a letter to Mom” users and “simplifying” the application. Which is sad, considering how much went into creating the powerful product it had become…
February 7th, 2013 at 21:27
Re: tab stops positioned in the right margin. This is a problem for tables of contents and authorities. In Word 2010 and earlier versions, I had a right tab at the normal right margin. Page numbers went there. However I wanted the text to wrap about an inch to the left of the page number. I dragged the right margin triangle to that position. Can’t do that in 2013. Therefore, I’ll have to add hard returns manually to the text.
June 30th, 2013 at 03:10
Hi Michael (and others),
For the tab issue you describe, rather than dragging the margin you can move the right indent of the paragraph. What I do for TOC’s and TOA’s is set the tab at the margin and give the TOC and TOA styles .5″ right indents. Though I haven’t tested this in Word 2013 yet, I am just assuming it will work.
January 5th, 2016 at 22:56
Laura – you are a genius – your fix works in 2013 – thank you so much!!!!! I hope Microsoft actually has a fix for it – but until then – this will work. Thank you
Donna