Scanning messes up manuscript's format

[ebenhero]

Hi

I am suddenly encountering an add problem with Bookends. When I scan my manuscript (in Microsoft Word for Mac, latest version 15.28) it really messes with the manuscript formatting. Before scanning the main text is in Times New Roman 11 pt font, double-spaced; after scanning it is still Times New Roman, but now 8.5 pt font and single-spaced. And all the tables are messed up. Any ideas what might be causing this? I have been working with this manuscript for the past few months and Bookends scanning has been working fine. The only change has been a recent minor update to Word.

Cheers

[Jon]

It could be one of two things:

1. You're creating a new window when you scan. Word defaults to the default style template, which may be much different from the one in the original doc.

2. Your underlying style (probably Normal) is different from the styles in the document (that is, you made ad hoc changes). If so, check the styles and make sure they're double spaced, right font, etc.

I'm guessing #1 is the case here.

Jon
Sonny Software

[ebenhero]

I don't think either is the case. It isn't creating a new document (though I have just tried scanning with creation of a new document, with the same problem), and it isn't reflecting the normal style, which is Times New Roman, 11pt, double-spaced.

It does seem to have something to do with styles though. After the scan all of my styles are replaced with new ones. They are named 'p1', 'p2' … to 'p12', 'apple-converted-space', and 'apple-tab-span'. The only style that remains from the pre-scan document is the normal style, but it seems to have reverted to Microsoft's default style, Calibri 12 pt.

Does any of that provide a clue to the problem?

[Jon]

No, sorry, I've never heard of a problem like that before. Bookends takes the Word RTF, scans it, and sends it back to Word. It doesn't touch styles itself. If you save the original from Word as RTF, close it, then open that file in Word again are styles preserved?

Jon
Sonny Software

[ebenhero]

I suspect it has something to do with the latest Word update (I had checked the box to get early access to new releases). I have another computer that still has Word 15.26, and there is no problem. Also, I tried saving as rtf and scanning that, and there is no problem.

So I am okay for now, but might be worth checking to see if you encounter the same thing when you get to Word 15.28.

Cheers

[tedg]

Having same problem here. Palatino 11 changing to 8.5 on scan. Word 15.28

Huge problem

[Jon]

The 15.28 Word update has a known bug in paste. You can do one of three things:

1. Revert to an older version of Word

2. Save the file as RTF, and scan that file from within Bookends.

3. Scan from within Word, and after the scan Select All and Edit -> Paste Special -> Formatted Text (RTF). [This works for some people, including me, but one user has reported it doesn't work for her.]

Feel free to file a bug report with Microsoft (I have).

Jon
Sonny Software

[Cassady]

The 15.28 Word update has a known bug in paste. You can do one of three things:

1. Revert to an older version of Word

2. Save the file as RTF, and scan that file from within Bookends.

3. Scan from within Word, and after the scan Select All and Edit -> Paste Special -> Formatted Text (RTF). [This works for some people, including me, but one user has reported it doesn't work for her.]

Feel free to file a bug report with Microsoft (I have).

Jon
Sonny Software

FWIW - step 3 works this side.

Jon - if we were to report the bug to MS - what exactly would we describe as the problem?
Interference in working with BE, or focusing only on the paste-issue? If the latter, what would the gist of the problem be? Were I to send something through now, I wouldn't know enough of what the underlying problem is to be able to make a sensible input.

[Jon]

I've reported it, but the more the merrier.

The bug is the the default "Paste" event pastes in the HTML equivalent of the RTF that Bookends puts in the clipboard, losing any formatting. The old (and correct) behavior is to paste the RTF, which is the most detailed info in the clipboard.

Jon
Sonny Software

[jdien]

It appears I'm running into a different consequence of this problem. If I have a manuscript in Word 15.30 for the Mac and I scan using Bookends 12.7.7 after the scan not only can formatting be messed up but more importantly all the Bookends placeholders are gone. In other words, it is no longer possible to unscan the manuscript as all the citations and the reference list are now just regular text. The rtf file workaround does work fortunately but agreed this is a really serious problem. I'll try submitting a bug report to Microsoft as you suggest. If there is anything you can do on your end, it would be appreciated.

[jdien]

How exactly does one submit bug requests to Microsoft? The only avenue I could find was Microsoft Connect but after getting registered I found it wasn't accepting bug reports for Office.

Joe

[Jon]

After the scan select all and do a Paste Special -> Styled Text (RTF) and you'll be fine.

You can submit feedback via the smiley face at the top right of the document window.

Jon
Sonny Software

P.S. I think I have a workaround for the problem, but I'd much rather that MS fix it.

[mwarner]

It appears this problem has re-surfaced with the latest version of Word (15.30). After scanning my doc. formatting was completely hosed (fonts changed, spacing wrong, extra special characters added where I had bullet points etc.). Saving as an RTF and scanning within BookEnds seems to solve it, but be warned, Word is not playing nice with BookEnds at the moment.

[Jon]

It has nothing to do with Bookends, specifically, and affects other software as well. It's a change (bug) in Word's Paste function.

It's easier to take the other advice I gave:

Scan from within Word, and after the scan Select All and Edit -> Paste Special -> Formatted Text (RTF).

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

This problem should be solved in the just-released Bookends 12.7.8.

Jon
Sonny Software