Synchronrollen in Word für die Massen

Synchroscrolling for the masses
Parallel scrolling of two Word documents

Yes, I hate any superfluous scrolling click as much as you do. For several years now I have been irritated by the lack of a synchronous scrolling possibility in Word, i.e. parallel up and down scrolling of two windows with just one click. An extensive Web search for an appropriate 'previously invented wheel' resulted only in a single, expensive software product that offered this option as a side dish. In such cases, I cannot help but think that it would not be too difficult to come up with a self-made solution using readily available tools. A half an hour of trial and error tinkering confirmed my assumption. Thus, you will find here a description of how to build this function into Word within two minutes.

Following the steps described below you can create two macros yourself - one for '1x PageDown' for both documents and one for '1x PageUp' for both documents. After creating the macros, you will place two corresponding arrow symbols (up/down) anywhere on one of your menu bars. Apart from the location of the file 'normal.dot' on your harddisk (more about this see below) the description here is valid for both Word 97 and Word 2000.

Moreover, the assumption is that when working with 2 windows, window 1 is always on the left side of your screen; window 2 on the right side and your starting/working position is the right window (i.e. no. 2). Although you may have other Word windows open, your working windows must always be 1 + 2. You find the window number in Word under the menu item 'Window'. The important thing here is the underlined number in front, and not the trailing document number. Therefore, you must always check the window number and not the document number!

Well, let's create the macros.

Open Word; create two empty documents, position document with window number 1 on the left side of your screen and the document with window number 2 on the right side. Preferably, use the Web layout mode (View, Web Layout).
Fill both documents with some text of approx. two pages in length. It is not necessary to save the documents.
Position the cursor in both windows in the top of the each document and finish by positioning the cursor in the right window.
Click on Tools, Macro, Record New Macro.
Enter 'SyncDown' (without the quotes) as the macro name.
Click on 'Toolbars' and then, without any more action, on 'Close'. Now a small macro-recording symbol appears on the screen. It means that all following keystrokes and mouse clicks will be recorded.

Now press:

PageDown
Alt-w [the 'w' stands for Window]
1
PageDown
Alt-w
2

Click on the dark little square on the macro-recording symbol. The first macro has now been recorded.

Now repeat this procedure for 'Up'.

Click on Tools, Macro, Record New Macro.
Enter 'SyncDown' (without the quotes) as the macro name.
Click on 'Toolbars' and then, without any more action, on 'Close'. Again, the small macro-recording symbol appears on the screen.
Now press:
```
PageUp
Alt-w
1
PageUp
Alt-w
2
```
Click on the dark little square on the macro-recording symbol. The second macro has been recorded, too.
Click on Tools, Customize, Commands.
In the left part of the window, choose the item 'Macros'. All installed macros will appear on the right.
In the right part of the window, choose the macro 'Normal.NewMacros.SyncDown'.
Drag this name to the position of your choice on one of the menu bars. The name will appear there in a black frame - don't worry; everything will be all right in a minute.
Now right-click on that black frame.
Choose 'Change icon' and pick the down arrow. It will appear on the left-hand side within the black frame on the menu bar.
Now go to the white field next to 'Name' and replace the text 'Normal.NewMacros.SyncDown' by 1 space. The name fields requires at least one character.
Click anywhere on the menu bar. Only the arrow in a black frame will be visible.
Drag the second of the macros you just recorded (Normal.NewMacros.SyncUp) from the right side of the still open window to the same spot on the menu bar, add the up arrow and replace again the name by 1 space.
In the window 'Customize' click on 'Close'.

Happy? I hope so... In case the PageDown/PageUp movements produce too large jumps, you can of course replace them by e.g. '3 x cursor down' and '3 x cursor up' respectively, or any other number.

In case you are working with another language version of Word, you will have to replace the 'w' in 'Alt-w' four times with the corresponding underlined character of the menu item corresponding to 'Window'.

The file 'normal.dot' contains al Word settings, therefore these new macros, too. Save a backup on a floppy disk. In Word 97 the location is c:\program files\microsoft office\templates and in Word 2000 in c:\windows\application data\microsoft\templates.

Good luck!