Changing Stubborn Ruler Measurements

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 11, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Barbara has a problem on her system: The Ruler seems to be divided into points, but she needs it to display inches. She went through the usual approach of choosing Tools | Options | General tab to change the measurement units, but that wouldn't change things for her.

What Barbara is experiencing is a glitch in Word related to the Ruler. What she is seeing is not points, but character units, which are used when Word is working with Asian languages. This problem is described, along with a fix, at the following Knowledge Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299339

As the article says, this problem sometimes occurs when upgrading to Word 2003, but there have also been reports of it happening spontaneously in other versions of Word. As the article describes, there are two possible solutions.

One solution is to delete the data settings key in the Registry. This, of course, may also delete other configuration settings you don't want to lose in Word. (How to delete the data settings key, besides being described in the Knowledge Base article, is also described in other issues of WordTips.) Because of this drawback, it's best to try the other solution first:

Press Alt+F11 to display the VBA Editor.
Press Ctrl+G to display the Immediate window.
Type this single command into the Immediate window, then press Enter:

     Options.UseCharacterUnit=False

Close the VBA Editor.

That's it; the character units should be gone, and your Ruler will use whatever setting you've made in Tools | Options | General tab.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (240) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Getting Help in Dialog Boxes

Dialog boxes are prevalent in a program like Word, and they can contain dozens (if not hundreds) of options. This tip ...

Discover More

Disabling the F1 Key

Tired of hitting the F1 key by mistake and pulling up the Help system? Here's a couple of ways (one drastic and one not ...

Discover More

Protecting Hidden Text

Formatting some of your text as hidden can be a great help when you need to keep some things from being viewed or ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Editing a Toolbar Button Image

You already know that Word allows you to customize the tools on your toolbars. You may not have known that it also allows ...

Discover More

Automatically Saving Changes to Defaults

Have you ever started a new document only to find that the settings in Word seem to be different than what you expected? ...

Discover More

Folder Locations for Add-Ins

Add-ins can be stored in a number of different places on a computer system. This tip explains the many different places ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is five minus 3?

2025-07-17 03:28:04

Hale

Oh, that is cool!
Options.UseCharacterUnit=False

I just wonder how many morons in the net keep reposting that cr@p about options, which obviously NEVER works, and people are coming there only when they face this problem... I just wonder how MS office dept manages to keep against Google Docs when this child deciese keeps appering 22 years after the engine was released; and was never fixed.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.