SHORTCUTS.

COVER PAGE
You can very quickly add a cover page to an existing document. All you have to do is press Ctrl+Home to get to the top of the document. Then press Ctrl+Enter to add a page break. Now move up into the added page and enter your text. When finished, save the modified document.

SPACING
Sometimes you may find that increasing the line spacing in a Word document will vastly improve its readability. To do this quickly, right-click the paragraph you want to modify. When the menu opens, choose Paragraph. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the down arrow at the right of the Line Spacing list box to expand the list. Select 1.5 Lines and click OK to close the dialog box.
If you'd like to increase the line spacing by less than 0.5 line, right-click the paragraph and choose Paragraph from the menu to open the Paragraph dialog box. Click the down arrow in the Line Spacing list box and select Exactly. Next, use the At spin box to choose the amount of spacing you want to try. After you set the spacing, click OK to close the dialog box.
Note: Check that the underlinew is still OK if you do make changes.

NEW DOCUMENT CHOICES
There are three ways to open a new document in Word: You can choose File|New; you can press Ctrl+N; and you can click the New button on the toolbar. Although all three will open a new document, they don't all do it the same way. If you choose File|New, Word opens the New dialog box which allows you to choose a template for your new document. If you press Ctrl+N or click the New button, Word immediately opens a new document using the Normal template.

ALIGNING CIRCLES
Let's say you'd like to make a drawing in Word that requires close alignment of its parts, say, an archery target. Rather than try to place all your circles in exactly the correct position as you draw them, draw all the circles in any location. Now select all the circles. To do this, click one circle, then hold down the Shift key while you click on the remaining circles. With all the circles selected, click the Align Drawing Objects button in the Drawing toolbar. When the dialog box opens, select the two Center radio buttons and select the radio button labelled Each Other. Click OK and the circles will all line up concentrically.

TOOLBAR
You can move toolbar buttons by holding down the Alt key and dragging the button to a new location on the toolbar. When you release the mouse button, the toolbar button will appear in its new location. To delete a toolbar button, hold down the Alt key and drag the button down over the document. When you release the mouse button, the toolbar button will disappear

PROPORTIONAL DRAWING
Can you make anything perfect? Sure you can--you can make a perfect square or a perfect circle in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Hold down Shift while you draw an ellipse or a rectangle. To draw a perfect circle or square from the center out, hold down Shift+Ctrl.

USING A WATERMARK
A watermark is usually text or graphics that's imprinted in stationery by the paper manufacturer. In Word 97, you can add your own watermarks to documents. Here's a way to create a graphic watermark on every page of a document.
First, choose View|Header and Footer. In the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Show/Hide Document Text button. Now choose Insert|Picture|ClipArt and select your picture.
Now size the picture and locate it where you want it to appear on the page. While the picture is still selected in your document, choose Format|Picture. When the Format Picture dialog box opens, click the Wrapping tab and click None. Next, click the Picture tab, then click on the down arrow at the right side of the Color list box and, when the list expands, choose Watermark and click OK. If you look at your document in Print Preview now, you'll see that watermark.

CAPTIONS
If you need to create a document that includes a number of pictures or drawings, you might like to use Word's AutoCaption feature.
Let's suppose that your document will include drawings and pictures that will always be labeled Figure x, in which x is a sequential number. Choose Insert|Caption, then click AutoCaption. Now select the check box that describes the type of document for which you want to insert a caption. In this case, you can select Microsoft ClipArt Gallery, then click OK. Now when you insert a ClipArt image, the label will automatically be added.
Now let's consider adding captions when you intend to frame your pictures.
If you insert the picture, then insert a frame around it, the caption will appear outside the frame. If you want to use AutoCaption and frames (with the caption inside the frame), create the frame first, then insert the picture into it. Now the caption will appear inside the frame along with the picture.

CURRENT DATE
There are several ways to add the current date to a Word document. If you press Alt+Shift+D, Word will insert the date as a field. You have no control over the date format, it will be in the form MM/DD/YY. If you want to control the date format, choose Insert|Date and Time. When the dialog box opens, choose the format you prefer, then click OK. You can also control the format if you insert the date in a field. Choose Insert|Field and when the dialog box opens, select Date under Field Names and click Options. Now click General Switches and select the date format you want. Click Add to Field and click OK twice and the date will be inserted in the selected format.

RESIZING DRAWINGS
After you add some drawings to a document, you might decide that the drawing needs to be bigger or smaller than it is. To resize a drawing without messing up its position or aspect ratio, click the drawing to select it, then hold down Ctrl+Shift while you use the mouse to resize it. This will resize the drawing from the centre out and keep the aspect ratio the same so the drawing doesn't become distorted.

FRAMING
After you insert a frame in a Word document, you might need to do a little fine formatting on the frame. Select the frame and choose Format|Frame or simply right-click the frame. This opens a menu from which you choose Format Frame.

MOVING TEXT
Select the text with the mouse and then use the mouse to drag the text to a new location. Dragging the text may take a bit of practice but here's how it works. After you select the text, move the mouse pointer to any location in the highlighted text. Now click on it, hold down the mouse button, and then drag the text to the new location.

FORMAT COPY
We've shown you how to use the mouse to copy and move text. You can also use the mouse to copy a format. Here's how. First, use the mouse to select the text of the format you want to copy somewhere else in your document. Now click the Format Painter button in the toolbar (it's the button with the paint brush icon). The mouse pointer will change to a brush icon. Move the pointer to the location to which you want to copy the format and click. If you want to apply the format to a large area, simply hold down the mouse button while you drag the pointer over the area. Note: The format specifications are contained in the paragraph mark. When you select the format, you can select only the paragraph mark associated with the style you want to copy.

AUTOTEXT BUTTONS
Word lets you assign common phrases, such as "To Whom It May Concern:" or "Yours truly" to buttons on your toolbar. If you commonly type one of these phrases over and over, this feature can be really handy. If you'd like to assign a few phrases to buttons in your Word 97 toolbar, choose Tools/Customize and then click on the Commands tab. In the list box, locate and click on AutoText. Locate the phrase you're interested in assigning to a button, and use the mouse to drag it to a toolbar.
With the button on the toolbar, you can add the phrase to a document by simply clicking on the button.

SAVING NORMAL.DOT
Word has a template file called Normal.dot that is the basis for the default new, blank file. A number of people have experienced problems saving Normal.dot. Here's how it works.
If you open Normal.dot, you can make changes and then save the file by choosing File|Save. If you start with a new document, make style changes, and then try to save the file as Normal.dot using File|Save As, Word will refuse to save the file.
If you really need to do this, you can save the file as Normal2.dot and then later delete or rename the original Normal.dot and replace it with your new file by renaming Normal2.dot to Normal.dot.

PARAGRAPH MARK SELECTION
We suggested that you select the paragraph mark along with the selected text before making a drag-and-drop text move. This applies to many drag-and-move operations that have nothing to do with numbered lists. The paragraph mark contains the formatting information for the text. So anytime you need to make a move and retain the formatting, you need to select the paragraph mark.
An easy way to select the paragraph mark along with a single paragraph sentence is to hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on the sentence to select it. Then, with the sentence still selected, release the Ctrl key and press the space bar. While holding down the Shift key, press the right arrow once. This will move the selection one place to the right and will select the paragraph mark. This won't work with sentences in the middle of a paragraph because there's no paragraph mark there.

AUTOFORMAT IN WORD 97
Word has a great feature called AutoFormat. Customizing this feature lets you tell Word what to format automatically as you type. To investigate this feature, choose Tools/AutoCorrect and then click on the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
Next, select the check boxes that apply to features you want Word to format automatically as you type. After you make all your selections, click on OK.

THE SPIKE
Suppose you're working in Word and you don't like the way you've placed a picture. If it begins to look as though the best approach is to cut the picture and finish the text, you can choose Edit/Cut to cut the picture.
This places the picture into the Clipboard for later use. Unfortunately, if you then cut or copy something else, you lose your picture.
This might be a good time to use the Spike. To delete the picture and put it on the Spike, select it and then press Ctrl-F3. The picture will remain on the Spike until you need it again.
To paste the picture and remove it from the Spike, click where you want the picture to appear and press Ctrl-Shift-F3. This will completely clear the Spike and paste all its contents into the document.

Move text and graphics from various locations by using the Spike
You can remove several items from various locations in one or more documents and then insert them as a group in another location or document by using the Spike.
When you use the Spike, you remove ¾ not copy ¾ items from one or more documents. You can always insert the items into the document again after they are in the Spike.

1. elect the text or graphic you want to move to the Spike.
   Press CTRL+F3.
   Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each item you want to collect in the Spike.
   Click where you want to insert the contents of the Spike. Make sure the insertion point is at the beginning of a line or is surrounded by spaces.
   

CUSTOMIZING AUTOCORRECT
AutoCorrect is a handy feature, but sometimes it makes changes that you don't really want. For example, if you type something such as Sub. Abbreviation of Subway AutoCorrect will automatically capitalize the first letter after the period as shown here. To prevent this, choose Tools|AutoCorrect and click on Exceptions. Now click on the First Letter tab and enter sub. into the Don't Capitalize After text entry box. Click on OK and then click on OK again in the AutoCorrect dialog box.
Now you can type Sub. abbreviation of Subway all you want.

BROWSING
Have you tried Word 97's Browse button yet? If not, check it out. There are two buttons with double arrows in the scroll bar: one pointing up and one pointing down. If you click on the down button, Word moves to the next page. If you click on the up button, you move to the previous page.

DRAG AND DROP
You probably know that you can select text (words, sentences, paragraphs), and then grab the selected text with your mouse and move it to a new location. Hold down the mouse button during the drag, and release it when you reach its new home.
Word also lets you copy (as opposed to cut) selected text using the drag-and-drop method. To do this, all you have to do is select the text and then hold down the Ctrl while you drag the text to a new location.

SELECT AND ZAP
There's no point in fooling around when you need to get rid of some text permanently. The quick way is to select the text and press Delete. To select a word, double-click on it. To select a sentence, click and drag the mouse across the text. To select an entire paragraph, triple-click on it.

WHERE'S MY TEXT? Version 4.x, 95
If you enter text and then make a minor (miniscule, hardly noticeable) error, you can press Ctrl-Z to undo the typing. But if you haven't saved lately, all your recent text may disappear. Don't panic! Just press Ctrl-Y to undo the undone and get your text back. To remember these commands, think Z for "zap" and Y for "yank it back."

AUTOCORRECT
If you look through the default list of AutoCorrect options (Tools/AutoCorrect and click on the AutoCorrect tab), you'll find more than just misspelled words, there are also phrases that need correction. For example, you'll find that "could of been" will be automatically replaced by "could have been."  So whenever you run across an incorrect phrase that you find yourself typing now and then, add it to AutoCorrect.
Here's a little AutoCorrect refresher: To add a word or phrase to AutoCorrect, choose Tools/AutoCorrect, select the AutoCorrect tab, click on the Replace text entry box, and type the text you want corrected for you. Now press the Tab key to get to the With text entry box. Type in the correct word or phrase and click on OK.

MOVING BETWEEN PROGRAMS
Let's say you have a paragraph or two in a Word document that you'd like to quickly place into an Excel worksheet. You can copy and paste the text by selecting it, pressing Ctrl-C to copy it, moving to an Excel document, picking a spot for the text, and pressing Ctrl-V to paste it.

ANTONYMS?
You've probably used Word's Thesaurus to look up synonyms. It works well. But did you know you can also often use it to locate antonyms?
Select a word and then choose Tools/Language/Thesaurus. The Thesaurus will display your selected word and a list of synonyms. Look in the list on the left side of the Thesaurus dialog box. If you see Related Items, select it and click on Look Up. In some cases, you'll get Antonyms on the list. If you do, select it to see the list of words.

ON-THE-FLY AUTOCORRECT
If you like the way Word's AutoCorrect works, but you can't think of what you'd like to add to it, try this. When you run a spelling check, keep an eye on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box. When the spelling checker finds a misspelled word for which it has a correction, the AutoCorrect button will become active (most of the time it's grayed out). If you realize that a particular mistake is a common one for you, click on AutoCorrect and Word will automatically enter the misspelled word and its correction into AutoCorrect

HEADERS AND FOOTERS Version 4.x, 95
Although one usually places the same header and footer on all (or almost all) the pages of a document, you're not stuck with this selection; you can alternate headers and footers on left and right pages. To do this, choose View/Header and Footer. Now go to the Header and Footer floating toolbar and click on the Page Setup button (it looks like an open book). When the dialog box opens, click on the Layout tab and the select the Different Odd and Even check box. Click on OK to close the dialog box and get back to Header and Footer.

If you do this when you start a new document, you'll only be offered the odd page header (for page 1). To work on the footer, you'll have to click on the Switch Between Header and Footer button on the toolbar. To enter the even page header and footer, you'll have to create page 2 (or wait until you get to page 2 as you work).

SPECIAL FIND AND REPLACE
You know how to use Find and Replace to locate and change words in Microsoft Word. We've even discussed using Find and Replace to replace styles. If you take a close look at the Find and Replace dialog box, you'll see that you can also use it to locate and change other document features.

AUTOMATIC AUTOCORRECT
If you like to use AutoCorrect, but don't have time to sit around trying to decide what to add to it, you can add words and phrases while you check your documents' spelling. When you do a spelling check, watch the Spelling and Grammar dialog box closely. When the spelling checker finds a misspelled word for which it has a correction, the AutoCorrect button becomes active (most of the time it's inactive and grayed out). If the mistake is one that you feel you commonly make, click on AutoCorrect and the misspelled word and its correction will be entered.

UNSHRINKING TEXT
You can shrink text in Word's Print Preview mode. For example, if you have only one or two sentences on the next page, you could use Shrink to Fit to make it all fit on the same page.
But what about unshrinking a document? Well, here's the bad news--if you've already saved the document, there really isn't any good way to unshrink it. What you can do is open the document and press Ctrl-A to select all the text. Next, choose Format, Font and set the font size back to the original size. This will remove the shrink, but not automatically. You'll still have to go though the entire document and redo any headings (or other format styles) that you might have used in the original document.
Of course, if you just shrunk the document, and have now decided that you'd rather not, you can simply press Ctrl-Z to undo the shrink. You can avoid this dilemma by saving a backup copy of your file using the File, Save As command just prior to shrinking the document.

SAVE ALL
If you're working with more than one document in Word, you'll find that you have a new command on the File menu. The command is Save All; to see it hold down the Shift key and choose File.
You can hold down Shift and choose File, Save All to save all the currently open documents. This can be a bit of a time saver, especially when you have a large number of named documents. Any documents that haven't been saved before will prompt you for a name.

ADDING WORDS TO THE DICTIONARY
If you need to use a lot of words with strange capitalization, words such as AutoCorrect, AutoFormat, and ClipArt, here's a tip that may save you some time and energy. When you run a spelling check, words such as AutoCorrect will be tagged as incorrect if the word appears as Autocorrect or AUTOCORRECT, because of the way the capitalization appears in the Custom dictionary. However, if such words are in the Custom dictionary in lower case only, the case differences won't get tagged.

RESUMING FIND
If you need to interrupt a Word Find or Find and Replace operation before you're finished, you can resume the Find by pressing F4. To try this, start a Find and Replace and then click on Close. Now press F4 to continue with the operation. It will pick up in the same spot where you stopped, unless you moved your cursor.

BREAKING A LINK
When you have a file linked into a Word document, the time may come when you want to break the link. For example, once you're sure the linked file will no longer change, there's not much point in maintaining the link. To break the link, choose Edit, Links. When the dialog box opens, click on Break Link. Word will ask if you're sure. Tell it Yes. The object will remain in your Word document, but it is no longer linked to its source file. Any changes you make to the object's file will not appear in the Word document.

SAVING YOUR WORDART
People often use WordArt to create a logo. You can keep the logo by simply saving the document in which the WordArt appears. However, if you'd like to save only the logo to use in other locations, you might want to consider saving the art in a separate .BMP file. To do this, right-click on the WordArt and then choose Copy from the pop-up menu. Now open Paint and choose File, Paste. Once you've pasted the WordArt object into Paint, you can size it and save it as a .BMP file. Now you can use it anywhere at all. You can even copy it to the \Windows folder and use it as wallpaper.

GRIDLINES TABLES AND PRINTERS
When you create a table in Word, the table will appear in the document with gridlines. However, the gridlines don't appear on the printed sheet. If you'd prefer to work without the gridlines, you can choose Table, Gridlines. This is a toggle--so to turn the gridlines back on, choose the same command. If you want printing gridlines, select the table and choose Format, Borders and Shading. When the dialog box opens, click on Grid and then click on OK. The gridlines will appear in your document and will also appear in the printer output.

REPETITIVE STYLES
Do you sometimes need to generate a document with a repetitive style in Word? Perhaps you need a header, followed by text, then another header, etc. If so, this is a perfect time to use AutoFormat. Try this: Type in a header. Now press Enter twice--rapidly. The sentence should magically appear in Heading 1 style. If this doesn't happen, choose Tools, AutoCorrect and click on AutoFormat as you Type. Make sure Headings is selected and click on OK. Now try again. Press Enter two times in rapid succession. You have to develop a touch for this.

BE SUPER-SAFE
No matter how careful you are, there's always a chance that you could lose a document. Why not make the odds in your favour a little better by telling Word to always make backup files of your documents? Choose Tools, Options and click on the Save tab. Now select the Always Create Backup Copy check box and click on OK.
To retrieve a backed-up file, choose File, Open. When the dialog box opens, click on the arrow at the right side of the Files of Type list box to expand the list. Select All Files(*.*) and look for files with your document's name, but with a .wbk extension. Load the .wbk file.

WORDART FILES
When you insert WordArt into an Office 97 document, you can save the WordArt along with the document of course, but what if you'd like to save the WordArt as a separate file? To do this, right-click on the WordArt object you'd like to save and choose Copy from the pop-up menu.
Now open Microsoft Paint and first choose Image, Attributes. For Width and Height type in 10 pels and click on OK. Now choose Edit, Paste to paste your WordArt into Paint. Paint will ask if you want to enlarge the bitmap. Tell it Yes. This will make sure that your new image in Paint is the minimum size.
Now you can save your new image as a bitmap file (.BMP). You can use these files for wallpaper, or even icons, if you wish.

SPECIAL WORDART EFFECT
You know that WordArt allows a large number of special effects. But, along with the special effects that you can see, there are others that aren't quite as obvious. For example, if you change the width of your text's border lines, you can create a whole new effect.
To check this out, insert some WordArt into a Word document by choosing Insert, Picture, WordArt. After you size and place your new WordArt, click on it and then click on the Format WordArt button in the WordArt floating toolbar (it looks like a bucket pouring paint). When the Format WordArt dialog box opens, click on the Colors and Lines tab.

LOOK IT UP
Let's suppose you're working away on a Word document when you need to check on an historical reference. Suppose you need to know the date of the battle at the Alamo. Choose Tools, Look Up Reference. You'll need to insert the Office 97 disc into the CD-ROM drive now.
When the dialog box opens, select All Text and type in Alamo. Bookshelf will open and display the first occurrence of the requested word. This may not be what you want (in the case of Alamo, it isn't), but you should be near the topic you do want. For Alamo, Bookshelf provides this information:
Alamo
A chapel built after 1744 as part of a mission in San Antonio, Texas. During the Texas Revolution against Mexican rule some 182 people were besieged here from February 24 to March 6, 1836. All the insurgents, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, were killed. So, there you are--you have the date and some extra information to go along with it.

If you don't have Bookshelf installed, insert the Microsoft Office 97 disc and run Setup. Click on Add/Remove and then select Microsoft Bookshelf Basics and click on Continue. Follow the Setup wizard to install Bookshelf Basics.

AUTOFORMAT BORDERS
A quick way to create borders is to let AutoFormat do it for you. If you'd like to have a border line above and below a group of text, type three minus signs and press Enter. A line will appear. Click in the area below the line and add your text. After you finish adding text, type three minus signs and press Enter again. This will draw the bottom line for you.

If you need to add more text inside the borders, click on the desired location and add your text. Each time you press Enter, the bottom line will drop down. To get out of the box defined by the upper and lower border line, press the Down key in the number pad of your keyboard. To create a double border, use three equal signs in place of the minus signs.

DROP-DOWN FORMS
If you need to generate a form for people to fill in, you might want to consider using drop-down lists. This makes it easy for you to read the results because it forces certain responses of your choosing--eliminating the possibility of answers that have nothing to do with the questions.

EDITING WITH STYLE
If Word's Normal style is almost what you want--almost, but not quite--you can edit the style to make it do exactly what you want. Click on some text that's assigned the Normal style. Now choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click on Modify. In Modify Style, select Automatically Update and Add to Template.

Now, let's say you want to change the font. Click on Format and then click on Font. Make your selection and click on OK. Click on OK again and then click on Apply. Your new font will remain part of the style until you modify it again.

MANUAL FORMATTING (AND UNFORMATTING)
Although the styles recorded in Normal.dot will be used throughout your document, you can change a single paragraph's style, or even a single word's style if you like.
When you want to change the style for a section of your document, just choose Format, Font (or whatever you want to change), make your selection, click on OK, and start typing.
If you later decide that you should have used the standard formatting for a paragraph, select the paragraph (including the paragraph mark) and press Ctrl-Spacebar to remove special character formatting and Ctrl-Q to get rid of paragraph formatting.

HYPERLINKS
When you add a Web address to a Word 97 document, Word displays it as a hyperlink. You can click on the hyperlink to navigate to the addressed Web site. All this is well and good, but what if you don't want Web addresses to appear as hyperlinks?
To turn off this feature, choose Tools, AutoCorrect. Now click on the AutoFormat As You Type tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box. Now deselect the check box labelled Internet and Network Paths With Hyperlinks. Click on OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

LET'S TABLE THAT
you can add a table using AutoFormat. If you'd like to use AutoFormat to generate a table, try this: Type a plus sign (+). Next, type 30 or so minus signs (-) followed by another plus sign. Now press Enter. There's your table.

MAP IT
If you commonly create Word 97 documents that contain a large number of headings, you can make use of Word's document mapping feature. Let's say your documents get rather long at times, so finding what you want can often be time-consuming. Just choose View, Document Map.
With Document Map active, all your headings will appear in a separate pane at the left side of your document window. To get to one of the topics all you have to do is click on the heading and Word will take you there.
If your documents have subheadings, a small plus sign will appear at the left of the headings that contain a subheading. Click on the plus sign to expand the list and display the subheadings.

For Document Map to work, you must use Word's default headings and subheadings. If you make your own heading styles, Word won't know what to call a heading.

BREAKING A LINK
When you have a file linked into a Word document, the time may come when you want to break the link. For example, once you're sure the linked file will no longer change, there's not much point in maintaining the link. To break the link, choose Edit, Links. When the dialog box opens, click on Break Link. Word will ask if you're sure. Tell it Yes. The object will remain in your Word document, but it is no longer linked to its source file. Any changes you make to the object's file will not appear in the Word document.

GRIDLINES AND TABLES AND PRINTERS
When you create a table in Word, the table will appear in the document with gridlines. However, the gridlines don't appear on the printed sheet. If you'd prefer to work without the gridlines, you can choose Table, Gridlines. This is a toggle--so to turn the gridlines back on, choose the same command. If you want printing gridlines, select the table and choose Format, Borders and Shading. When the dialog box opens, click on Grid and then click on OK. The gridlines will appear in your document and will also appear in the printer output.

AUTOTEXT LOGOS
If you have special logos that you use frequently in your Word documents, you can use AutoText to make inserting them quick and easy.
To store a logo in AutoText, open a Word document and choose Insert, Picture, From File. Choose the file you want to use as a logo. Once the picture is in the Word document, size it. Now right-click the logo and choose Format Picture. Click the Wrapping tab and then click Tight and Both Sides. Click OK.
Next, choose Insert, AutoText, New. Type in MyLogo and click OK. Now your new logo (and its formatting) is stored in AutoText. To insert the logo, place the cursor where you want to insert the logo. Choose Insert, AutoText, Normal, MyLogo, and the logo will appear in the text. Use the mouse to drag it into the correct position.

POSITIONING  OBJECTS
When you insert an object into a paragraph, you may want to make sure that the object stays with its paragraph. To do this, position the object where you want it. Now right-click the object and choose Format Picture. Click the Wrapping tab and set the wrap conditions that you think will look best. Next, click the Position tab and select the Lock Anchor check box and the Move With Text check box. Click OK.

DRAW!
Some Office 97 users wonder why you'd want to use Draw Table rather than just using Insert Table. They point out that it's easier and quicker to insert a table since Word does most of the work for you. They are correct--except when you need rows with different numbers of cells.
Let's say you need a table with four cells in the top row and six in the bottom row. Choose Table, Draw Table. Now use the drawing tool to draw the outline of your table. Then use the tool to draw a horizontal line in the table. Now draw three vertical lines in the top row and draw five vertical lines in the bottom row

You can also do it easily with Word's Insert Table command, choose Table Insert Table. When the dialog box opens, tell it to produce a table with two rows and six columns. Click OK to insert the table. Now select the top row and choose Table, Split Cells. When the dialog box opens, make sure the check box labelled Merge Cells Before Split is selected. Now enter four columns for the top row and click OK. This converts the top row from six cells to four.

DOCUMENT MAP
Since Document Map won't work unless you use standard headings and subheadings, you may think you can't use it for those special documents that use a nonstandard template.
If you're forced to use a special template and would like to use Document Map, go ahead and use the standard headings. Then when you finish working with the document, use Find and Replace to replace all those headings with your special heading styles.

For example, suppose you need to use a heading style named MyHead1 and you substitute Heading 1 so you can use Document Map. After you finish, press Ctrl-H to open the Find and Replace dialog box. Click on the Find What text entry box to select it. Click on More and then click on Format and choose Style. Now locate MyHead1 and click on it. Now click on the Replace With text entry box and click on Format, Style again. This time, locate and click on Heading 1. Now click on Replace All and Word will substitute your special heading for all the occurrences of Heading 1.

SIZED OR CROPPED?
When you insert a picture, such as a Clip Art object, into Word, you often have to size it to make it fit your document properly. You can size a picture without distorting it by simply watching the display at the bottom left of the Word window. This display reports the current size as a percentage of the original width and height. As long as the two numbers match, the scaling is distortion-free. To crop a picture in Word, hold down the Shift key while you use the mouse to drag one of the picture handles.

WORKING WITH SECTIONS
When you need to change the formatting of one portion of a page (or document), the best approach is to insert a section. To do this, position the cursor where you want the new formatting to start and choose Insert, Break. When the Break dialog box opens, select the Continuous radio button and click OK.
Now you can set the formatting and add your new text. When you want to go back to the original formatting, choose Insert, Break again and select Continuous. Click OK.
Note: If you decide to delete a section mark, the format of the section before the break will change to match that of the second section. Make sure this format change is what you want before you delete a section break.

PICTURES
You can put pictures into your headers and into the body of a document, so why not put them on the envelopes as well? The way to do this isn't as obvious as inserting pictures into headers and documents is, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.

GROUPING IN WORD
Grouping of objects isn't limited to PowerPoint. In fact, it's a good idea to group objects in Word, too. Grouping them keeps them together and easier to deal with.

MACRO INFORMATION
If you write Word macros, at times you'd probably like to get some information about the system. You can get all the system info by simply inserting the command MicrosoftSystemInfo into your code. This opens the Microsoft System Information dialog box.
If you'd like to get specific information for your macro to use, you can use code such as the example shown here:

Sub MAIN

Dim info$(30)
GetSystemInfo info$()
FileNewDefault
FormatTabs .Position = "1 in", .Set
Insert "CPU" + Chr$(9) + info$(1)
InsertPara
Insert "Windows" + Chr$(9) + info$(3)
InsertPara
Insert "Disk Space" + Chr$(9) + info$(5) + " bytes"

End Sub

This code uses GetSystemInfo to gather information about the computer. It reports the type of CPU used, the current version of Windows, and the remaining disk space.
There are some differences in the way this macro reports information in Word 6 and Word 7. In Word 6, the results are

CPU i486
Windows 3.95
Disk Space 302448640 bytes

In Word 7, the same macro reports
CPU Pentium
Windows 4.0
Disk Space 305725440 bytes

DOCUMENT OPENING
If you often need to open more than one Word document when you start a work session, here's an easy way to do it. Choose File, Open. When the Open dialog box appears, click a file that you want to open. But don't click Open yet. Instead, hold down Ctrl and click another file you'd like to open. Then keep the Ctrl key down while you click yet another file--you can hold down the Ctrl key and click as many files as you want to open. "Now" click Open, and all the files will load.

PAGE BLANK MACRO
If you write Word macros, you may sometimes need to know when a particular page is completely blank. For example, if you need to search a page for some particular text, there's no point in searching a blank page. Try this code:
                StartOfDocument
                If AtEndOfDocument() = -1 Then Stop()

The code moves the insertion point to the start of the document and then checks to see if the insertion point is at the end of the document. If the start and end are the same, then the page is blank. When you get to the Stop, a dialog box will appear informing you that the macro was interrupted. If you don't want this message, use
If AtEndOfDocument() = -1 Then Stop(-1)
This will cause the macro to stop without a message.

SPELLCHECK AND STYLE SHEETS
If you get sent a new style sheet to use and Word when spell checking suddenly shows a dialog box that says "The spelling and grammar check is complete." What is the solution?

DON'T DELETE THAT TEXT
When Word starts, it defaults to inserting text rather than typing over existing text. This leads many users to always delete a word or group of words when they really just need to replace them. What we usually do is click where we want to start the new entry, type it in, and then delete the old entry.
However, if you like, you can click where you want to start replacing text and then press the Insert key so that your new text will simply replace the old text. Don't forget to press Insert again when you've entered the new text.

ANOTHER SELECTIVE SERVICE
You can select text with the mouse, you can hold down Shift and use the arrow keys, you can double-click, triple-click, and you can click in the margin. Do you need another way to select text? Probably not, but here it is anyway.
Click at the beginning of text you'd like to select. Now look at the bottom of the Word window. See the button marked EXT? Double-click EXT and it will become active (you'll see this when it happens). Now you can use the arrow keys to select text. You don't have to hold down anything while you do this. When you're finished, press Esc.

CREATING A SPECIAL DICTIONARY
If you write a large number of documents that call for numerous technical terms, you'll find it handy to create a special dictionary for that purpose. To create a dictionary, open a new Word document and type the words you want to enter in a single column. Your entries should appear in a list like the one in this sample:
                    RMS
                    Voltage
                    Ohm
                    Ohm's
                    Ampere
                    Current
                    RAM
                    ROM
                    EEPROM
                    Disk
                    Disc

After you've added all the words you need at the moment (you can add more later), choose File, Save As and type in Special.dic. Now click the arrow at the right of the Save as Type list box to expand it. Select Text Only (*.txt) and then locate the folder c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof and click Save.
The location can vary, depending on the Windows version and the Office version you use, and on your own installation. You may find that you need to save to the folder named c:\windows\msapps\proof.

WORD SPREADSHEET
If you're working with a Word document and you have a need for a small spreadsheet, you can create the sheet in Excel and then insert it into the Word document. But, if the spreadsheet requirements are rather minimal, why not just use Word?

WORD QUESTIONNAIRE
How would you like to use Word to create an online questionnaire? Suppose your organisation needs to know the approximate income of each of its active members (this is only an example; in the real world you'd probably have to hide out for a while after suggesting this).
Open a new Word document and type in all the header information. With the sales pitch in place, let's get to the questions. Type something like this:
                £10,001 £20,000
                £20,001 £40,000
                £40,001 £60,000
                £60,001 £80,000
                £80,001 £100,000
                Over £100,000

WORD FORM DATA
If you'd like to print only the data from a Word form, you can instruct Word to do this for you. Choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Print tab. Select the check box labelled Print Data Only for Forms and click OK. The selection remains in effect only for the current document. When you open a new document, the selection will return to the default.

FRAMED!
Word offers two ways to deal with text in a box: You can frame text, or you can add text to a text box. First, let's look at framed text.

PICTURE SIZE (DPI)
If you have two pictures that are say both 320 by 200 pixels and when imported into a Word document, picture A is twice as large in the Word document as picture B - what is the problem?. Here's what is happening. Although both pictures have a resolution of 320 by 200 pixels, chances are that the dots per inch (dpi) are different. For example, a 320 by 200 picture at 300 dpi will be twice the size of a 320-by-200 picture at 150 dpi.
If you have a good graphics application (not Paint) to view the image in you should have an option to see the current dpi.

If you have a scanner, you can check this out. All you have to do is select a small picture and scan it at 150 dpi. Then save the picture and scan it again at 300 dpi. Save the latter picture. Now you can insert both into Word. Choose Insert, Picture. Then locate and select the 150-dpi picture. Choose Insert, Picture again and this time select the 300-dpi picture. When viewing them side by side, you'll see that the second picture appears larger in the Word document. You may also notice that the 300-dpi picture looks a bit sharper.

SMALL DOCUMENTS
Have you ever needed to work with small documents in Word? Say a brochure, or a card? Let's say that your organisation needs some tickets for a show you're putting on. You can use Word to generate them if you like.
To walk through the procedure, let's assume that the tickets will be 2 inches by 4 inches. You want to enter the name of the show, the date and time, and the location.

To save the document, choose File, Save As. Name the document, choose a location for it, and click Save. To print the tickets, choose File, Print. When the Print dialog box opens, go to the Number of Copies entry box and type in the number of pages you want to print. If you need 100 tickets, enter 10 (10 pages with 10 tickets on each page). Click OK to begin printing.

BOOKMARKS
When you work with long documents in Word, you'll find that's it's nice to have some bookmarks to navigate around in the document. Bookmarks are easy to add, easy to use, and leave no unsightly marks of any kind in your text. And you can put them anywhere at all.
Just for the purpose of experimentation, click anywhere in your current Word document and then choose Insert, Bookmark. When the dialog box opens, type in a word to use as your bookmark. Now click Add.
To check your new bookmark, press F5. When the dialog box opens, type in the new bookmark name and then click Go To. Word will deliver you to the bookmarked spot without any further ado.

EQUATIONS?
Word users need to generate documents that contain equations. This is certainly no problem for Word. Here's how to add equations to a document.
As an example, let's assume that you want to create a document for some young arithmetic students, such as: 2X=Y+5
You can make this look better if you choose Insert, Object, Microsoft Equation. Now type in the equation, and the Equation editor will put the line into a more pleasing form.

AN ALT-TERNATIVE TO TEXT SELECTION
To select an entire column of specific text. Try this: Click the area where you want to begin your selection. Now hold down the Alt key and use the mouse to select the text you want to work with. This method allows you to select any specific text regardless of where it appears in the document.

DELETE TEXT
If you want to select and then delete some text, Word will let you do the job easily. All you have to do is press the Delete key after you select the text you no longer need.
If you'd like to play it safe, select the text and then hold down the Shift key while you press Delete. This sends the text to the Windows Clipboard. If you change your mind about the text, all you have to do is press Ctrl + V to paste the text back to its original position.  Yes, we know you can press Ctrl + Z to get your text back. We're offering this as an additional method. There's usually more than one way to do almost anything in all the Microsoft Office programs.

BORDERS
Word 97 allows you to apply a border to an entire page. If you need to make a decorative page for your organisation, perhaps you'd like to use a page border. Word includes some artwork for your border.
Let's say you want to write a letter to some fellow animal lovers--so a border of cats would look nice. Choose Format, Borders and Shading. When the Borders and Shading dialog box opens, click the Page Border tab. Now locate the list box labelled Art and click the arrow at the right side of the list box to expand the list. Select the artwork you want to use (in this case, the cats) and then click OK to close the dialog box and record your selections.
Word will now automatically switch to Page Layout view (unless you're already there), and your border selection will appear.

ROMAN NUMERALS
Now that a better way of writing numbers has been around for a thousand years or so, wouldn't you think people would stop using Roman numerals? They haven't, though. You still run across them in copyright dates and other places where you don't really expect to find them.

If you're like most of us, you don't have a great memory for converting numbers to Roman numerals. Everyone can do I to X or so, but suppose you'd like to be cool and use Roman numerals just like the movie moguls do? All you have to do is run Excel and then enter into a cell =ROMAN(MyDate,0) and press Enter. Excel will present you with the date in classical Roman numeral form. If MyDate is 1998, Excel will present MCMXCVIII. The 0 after the date tells Excel that you want to use the classical form. If you enter =ROMAN(MyDate,1) Excel will display MLMVLIII. This is a more concise form of Roman numeral. So it's up to you--do you want the original style, or the new, improved version?

BLANK BULLET
When you choose to use bullets or numbering in a Word document, the new number or bullet appears when you press Enter. If you'd like to insert a blank line between one bulleted line and another, you can press Shift-Enter. To get to the next bulleted line, press Enter. This produces the effect shown here.

5. Line five

MAKING A BOOK
If you'd like to make a booklet, all you need is Word and some standard 8.5 by 11 paper. The trick is setting up the printer and visualising where the pages will appear.

FILE VIEW OPTIONS
When you choose File, Open, Word displays the files that you can open using Word. You have quite a bit to say about how those files appear. For example, if you'd like to see all the dates of creation and file sizes, you can click the Details button in the toolbar (it looks like a small page of text).
You can also tell Word that you'd like to see a preview of the text in the selected file. To do this, click the Preview button (it looks like a bulleted list on white paper). With this selection in effect, any selected file will be displayed in the preview pane.
If you'd like to see the properties of selected files, click the Properties button (just to the right of the Details button).

But what do you do if you want to change the way the dialog box sorts the files?
Look at the bar above the file list (in Details view). You'll see Name, Size, Type, and Modified. To sort by name (the default), click Name. If you would rather sort by size, click Size.
When you click an object, Word will sort in ascending order by the selected property. If you'd like to sort by the date, click Modified. Now your files will appear in order of the last date they were modified.

CUSTOMIZE NOW
To select toolbars on the fly, locate a blank spot on any toolbar and right-click it. A pop-up menu will, well, pop up. From the menu, you can choose which toolbar you'd like to view, or which toolbar you'd like to stop viewing. You can also get to the Customize Toolbars command using the same technique. Right-click a blank spot on a toolbar and choose Customize.
Note: This works in any Microsoft Office 4.x (or 95) program.

LEADERS
Do you sometimes need to use leaders? You know, those little dots leading up to some text, like this:

Choose Format, Tabs. When the dialog box opens, enter the tab position you want to use (in inches). Now look under Leader. Select the radio button associated with the type of leader you want and then click Set. Now click OK to record your selection and close the dialog box. Now when you use the Tab key, the tab location you entered will display the leader.

PICTURE FLOAT
If you have found it difficult to place a picture or other graphic element exactly where you want it in relation to your text. Then make it a floating object, you can place it anywhere--even over the text if you wish. To do this choose Insert, Picture, Clip Art. Size the picture and then right-click it and choose Format Picture. Now click the Wrapping tab and select None. Click OK and you'll find that you can move the picture anywhere--even over existing text.

MAKING LABELS THE AVERY WAY
Printing labels on a laser printer can be a real pain. Fortunately, Office 97 includes a wizard that makes it easy to line up printing on Avery labels--the largest and most popular brand. So if you need to make labels, the way to do it is to use templates that match standard Avery blank labels. Here's how:

IT'S ALL SYMBOLIC

If you type: -->, Word will produce a right arrow.
Typing: ==> will produce a bold right arrow.
Typing: :) makes a happy face. So does: :-)
Of course, you can make unhappy faces as well. Type: :-( or :(
And then there's the indifferent face (neither happy nor sad). Type: :-| or :|
Typing: (C) gives you the copyright symbol.
Need left arrows? Type: or Trademark? (TM) does it.

MAKING A BLANK
When you choose to use bullets or numbering in a Word document, a new number or bullet appears when you press Enter. But what if you want to insert a blank line between one bulleted line and another? The first reaction is to simply press Enter to stop the numbering. This is unnecessary--all you have to do is press Shift + Enter. This inserts the blank. Now, to get to the next bulleted line, press Enter.

HYPERLINKS
You can enter a hyperlink of any kind into a Microsoft Office 97 document. And it doesn't have to be a link to a Web site. Let's suppose that you'd like to use a hyperlink in a Word document to open a specific Excel file.
Choose Insert, Hyperlink. When the Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens, enter the Excel file name. Or click Browse and locate the file. Now click OK to close the dialog box and save your addition. When you click the hyperlink, the Excel document will open.
You can also use the hyperlink to open a specific sheet in the Excel workbook. To do this, right-click your new hyperlink and choose Hyperlink, Edit Hyperlink. Click the text box labeled "Named location in file (Optional)" and enter Page_2  Now click OK.
At this point, you need to tell Excel what you're doing. So start Excel and open your test worksheet. Navigate to Sheet 2 and choose Insert, Name, Define. When the Define Name dialog box opens, type Page_2  into the Names in Workbook text entry box. Click Add to add the new name and then click OK to record the change and close the dialog box. Now exit Excel and go back to your Word document. Click the hyperlink, and Excel will open displaying Sheet 2.

CUT AND PASTE
Word offers a number of ways to paste data from the clipboard to an open document. There's the usual way--choose Edit, Paste. Or use its keyboard shortcuts: Alt, E, P or Ctrl-V. Here's another method that you may not know about: You can press Shift-Ins to paste that clipboard data.

JUST IN CASE
Just in case you'd like to change the case of a sentence quickly, try this: Select the sentence and press Shift-F3. The first time you press Shift-F3, the sentence turns to all caps. The next time you press the combination, the sentence turns to all lowercase. When you press Shift-F3 once more, the sentence will display standard capitalization (begins with a cap--all others lowercase).

ODD COLUMNS
When you decide to use columns in a Word document, you can choose the number of columns if you choose Format, Columns. When the Columns dialog box opens, you can select from one, two, or three columns. You'll notice that you can also choose a small column at the left or a small column at the right.
If you like, you can set the column size yourself. All you have to do is deselect Equal Column Width and then set the size of each of your columns. After you finish setting up the columns, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

FONT STYLES
If you'd like to see what styles you have available in a Word document, you can choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click the style you'd like to examine. The dialog box will now display data on the selected style. If you'd like some hard copy, choose File, Print. When the Print dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right of the Print What list box to expand the list. Select Styles from the list and then click OK. Word will print all the information on all the current styles.

FIND AND REPLACE?
If after using Find and Replace, the entire document was turned to nothing but gibberish the following may have happened (try this on a document that you don't need. You could copy a document under a new name and use that.)
Open Find and Replace (Ctrl-H) and click the Find What entry box. Click More and then choose Format, Style. Now choose the predominant style of your document (perhaps Normal). Don't enter any text in the entry box. Click now the Replace With entry box and type a few spaces. Click Replace All and then click OK. Now click Close. You have just destroyed your document by replacing all the Normal style text with spaces.

MODIFYING GRAMMAR
If you'd like to stop all those grammar errors that get tagged as your write, why not just change the rules? If you're getting grammar errors where you think there should be none, your grammar checker may well be set to follow more stringent rules than necessary. For example, if it tags contractions such as "we're," "they're," etc., you can make some simple setup changes to put a stop to those tags.
Choose Tools, Options, and when the Options dialog box opens, click the Grammar tab. If the Writing Style box is set to Strictly or Business Writing, choose For Casual Writing instead.
Now click Customize Settings and select those items that you want the grammar checker to tag. Click OK to save your changes, and when you get back to the Options dialog box, click OK to close it.

BLANK DOCUMENT START
To start without a blank document.  Here's what to do:
We can't be sure how you start Word on your computer, but this procedure will work no matter where the icon is located. Simply go to the Word icon wherever it is (in Start, on the desktop, etc.) and right-click it. Then choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and then click in the Target entry box. Move to the end of the existing command and type a space. Now add /n to the end of the line. Click OK to record the change and close the dialog box. The next time you start Word, it will open without any document at all.

FIND
You don't have to keep opening Find (Ctrl-F) to repeat a search, all you have to do is press Shift-F4 and Word will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered in Find.
To check this out, press Ctrl-F to open Find. Enter a common word or phrase (the, and, lottery winner, etc.). Click Find Next to find the first occurrence and then click Close. Now press Shift-F4 and Word will locate the next occurrence of your word or phrase.

FIND IT AGAIN
You don't have to keep opening Find (Ctrl-F) to repeat a search. All you have to do is press Shift-F4 and Word will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered in Find.
To check this out, press Ctrl-F to open Find. Enter a common word or phrase (the, and, lottery winner, etc.). Click Find Next to find the first occurrence and then click Close. Now press Shift-F4 and Word will locate the next occurrence of your word or phrase.

EXTENDING EXTEND
In a recent tip, we said that you could use the Extend command to help you select text more efficiently. To use Extend, double-click the EXT button at the bottom of the Word window--it's greyed out, but it will work. With Extend active, you can select text using the arrow keys--hands off (you don't have to hold down any keys). When you're finished with Extend, turn it off by pressing Esc.
You can extend Extend even further. If you double-click EXT and then open Find (Ctrl-F) and type in a word you want to search for, EXT will select all the text between the current cursor position and the word located by Find.

Now let's take a closer look at dealing with words and pictures in AutoText. AutoText will allow you to store formatted text or pictures. For example, if you'd like to have a framed company logo that you can move anywhere in your document stored in AutoText, try this.
Assuming you've already created a logo, insert the logo into a document. Select the graphic and choose Insert, Frame. Now, select the logo (frame and all) and choose Edit, AutoText. The logo should appear in the Preview pane. If it doesn't, you probably haven't selected the entire logo with frame. Once the logo appears in the Preview pane, name it and click Add.
Now you can insert your logo anywhere and move it anywhere.

PRINTING BOOKS
To print both sides of each page, format your document and then choose File, Print. When the Print dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Print list box (in the lower-right corner of the Print dialog box). If your first page is to be Page 1, then select Odd Pages from the list and click OK. Word will now print all the odd pages only (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.). Next, you place all the pages back into the printer and choose File, Print again. This time, choose Even Pages and click OK.
The trick here is to put the pages back into the printer so that Page 2 prints on the back of Page 1, and so on.
But this isn't the only trick. Because almost all printers cause the paper to curl, you need to wait a while before you print the opposite sides. Place the paper on a flat surface and leave it until it's cool (laser printers heat the paper). If you use an ink-jet printer, don't stack the pages until you're sure they are thoroughly dry. After you stack them, allow an hour or so to flatten out before you put them back into the printer.
When you put previously printed pages back into the printer, make sure they're aligned perfectly. Otherwise, the print on the second side will be skewed.
We can't tell you how to put the paper into the printer because there's so much variation among the way printers handle paper. You'll have to determine the correct way for your printer.
One other point: You'll have to go through the entire document to make sure that all the text is where you want it. For example, if you don't want a header to start at the bottom of a page, you'll have to take care of that before you print the document.

SAVE IT NOW
When you start a new document in Word, it's a good idea to name and save it as soon as you begin working. Since you're going to have to choose File, Save As and give the file a name anyway, why not let Word prompt you for a name?
You can use a macro to ask for the name whenever you open a new document. To enter the macro, choose Tools, Macro and type in AutoNew .  Now click the arrow at the right side of the Macros Available In list box and select Normal.dot (Global template). Click Create and type in the macro exactly as shown here

(Sub MAIN
FName$ = InputBox$("What do You Want to Name This File?", "New File")
FileSaveAs .Name = FName$, .Format = 0
End Sub

TABLE OF CONTENTS
For that super-fancy document, what you need is a table of contents. Here's how to create one in Word.

TABLE THAT TEXT - Version 4.x, 95
When you select text in your Word document and then insert a table, Word will convert the selected text to a table without displaying the Insert Table dialog box.
To check this out, select a section of text in any document. Now choose Table, Insert Table. The table will appear, and in the table, you'll find the text you selected. If this happens to you because you inadvertently left some text selected, just press Ctrl-Z (Undo) to remove the table.

HEADED PAPER -Version 4.x, 95
If you use pre-printed stationery, you probably want to use that paper for only the first page of a multipage document. Word makes it easy to use a different sheet for the first page.
Choose File, Page Setup and click the Paper Source tab. You'll notice that you can choose the feed source for the first page and the other pages separately. This is so you can use that pre-printed letterhead paper. If you select Manual Feed for the first page and the default tray for the other pages, Word will pause for you to insert that specially printed paper to print the first page. After that page finishes, the document will continue to print on the standard paper in the default bin.

NO MORE CROPPING
Once you ungroup a ClipArt object, you can no longer edit or crop it. PowerPoint warns you about this, although the warning may be a bit obscure. Try this: Choose Insert, Picture, ClipArt and select a picture to import. Click Insert. Make sure the picture is selected and choose Draw, Ungroup. A dialog box will open a warning dialog box. Of course, the warning says nothing about cropping.

97 MACROS
Office 97 macros are a bit different from those you may be accustomed to using in previous versions of Microsoft Office. Let's take a look at how to enter a macro in Word 97.
There are times when you need to delete an open Word document. Here's how you would ordinarily do it without a macro: Let's say that you open a file in your folder and determine that you don't need it; the only way to delete it (in Word) is to close the file (File, Close), choose File, Open, and then delete the file and open the next one in the folder.
This macro (DelIt) will delete the current open file. But use it with care, because it can delete files you might need just as well as it deletes files you don't need. And these files don't go into the Recycle Bin--they are gone forever.
To enter the macro, run Word and press Alt-F11 to open the VBA editor. When the editor opens, look at the Project list box on the left side of the VBA window. Locate Normal and click the plus (+) sign to its left to expand it. Now double-click Module 1. This will open the editing window. Next, enter the code exactly as shown here:

PRINT ORDER
When you're printing a group of long documents, you may find that you're not happy with the print order. If you decide that you'd like to change the order in which your documents print, click Start and choose Settings, Printers. When the Printers folder opens, double-click the printer to which you sent the documents. Let's suppose that the document you need right now is at the bottom of the printer's list. No problem--simply grab the file's icon with the mouse and drag it to the top of the list.

MY DOCUMENTS
To remove My Documents first make sure you assign new file locations to all your Office 97 applications, run Windows Explorer, and locate My Documents. Right-click it and choose Rename. Name it whatever you want as long as it isn't My Documents.

DOCUMENT TEMPLATE UPDATE
When you make a change to a document template in Word, the changes take effect on the current document and all future documents generated with the template. If you have an older document that you'd like to update, open the document. Now choose Tools, Templates and Add-ins. When the dialog box opens, select the check box labelled Automatically Update Document Styles and click OK.

FILESAVE MACRO
One way to make Word work more efficiently for you is to customise some of the commands. For example, Word includes a macro named FileSave. You could modify this macro to make FileSave save the current file, close it, and open a new blank document. However, if you simply modify the existing FileSave command, this will happen every time you use FileSave. So let's create a new macro that takes advantage of the existing FileSave command. Choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type in SaveAndClose and click Create. Now, enter the macro exactly as shown (Word supplies the Sub Main and End Sub statements).

Now choose File, Save to save the macro. To assign your new macro to a toolbar button, choose View, Toolbars and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, scroll down through the Categories list and locate Macros. Select Macros, and your new macro will appear in the Macros list. Use the mouse to drag the macro to the toolbar.
When you release the mouse button, the Custom Button dialog box will open. You can assign the macro name to the new button, or you can select one of the buttons. After you make your choice, click Assign. When you get back to the Customize dialog box, click Close to close the dialog box. Now you can click your new button to save the current document, close it, and open a new blank document, all with one button click.

CUSTOM DATES IN THE HEADER
When you insert the date into a Word document's header (or footer), the date appears in the form MM/dd/yy
For example, June 15, 1998 will appear in the header as 06/18/98
Let's say that you'd prefer to use the form June 18, 1998
You can change this format by editing the Windows 95 Registry. This is a rather drastic, and possibly dangerous, move. So you should first backup your Registry files. Close Word before you begin.
Run Windows Explorer and click the Windows folder. Locate User.dat and click it. Next press and hold down the Ctrl key, locate System.dat and click it. Now use the right-mouse button to drag both files to a new folder (any folder, so long as you remember it later). When you release the mouse button, a menu will open. Choose Copy Here.
Now you can get started with your modification. We're going to show you how to generate a file that will modify the Registry. Run this file at your own risk. And don't neglect to make copies of User.dat and System.dat.

FIND IT AGAIN
Let's say that you decide to use Find (Ctrl-F) to locate all occurrences of a particular word. You click Find Next and find one occurrence. You close the Find dialog box, but later you want to find another occurrence of the same word. You can repeat the Find by clicking the blue double-down arrows on the vertical scrollbar. You won't get another dialog box--the word you're seeking will be highlighted on the screen each time you click. If you want to search backward rather than forward, click the blue double-up arrows.

INSERT YOUR OWN LOGO
Let's assume that you already have a logo that you'd like to insert with AutoText. First, insert the logo into a Word document. Now, add any text that you'd like to include with the logo. Right-click the logo and choose Format Picture. When the Format Picture dialog box opens, click the Wrapping tab and choose Tight. Now, click OK and move the logo next to the text so that the picture and the text form the complete company logo. Use the mouse to select the text and the picture. Next, choose Insert, AutoText, New and type in the name--you can simply use "logo" here. Click OK to continue.
With your logo in place in AutoText, all you have to do is type logo and press Enter. Your logo will be inserted into the document. Note that the picture will not appear unless you're in Page Layout view.

GOING BACK TO WHERE YOU LEFT OFF
When you open a Word 97 document, there are times when you would like to go back to where you were working when you saved and closed the document. This is no problem; all you have to do is press Shift-F5. You can use the same technique to return to the last working point after you scroll through a document.

DON'T CORRECT THAT
AutoCorrect is a great Office 97 feature. The problem is that sometimes it does what you don't want it to do. Don't get mad--take some action. Suppose you want to type :) and AutoCorrect pops up that little happy face. You don't really want to eliminate the happy face from the AutoCorrect list, but, this one time, you want to type :). What do you do? When that happy face appears, and before you type anything else, just press Backspace and continue typing. The happy face will disappear and you'll be left with :).

WORDART SHADOWS
Instinct and experience led you to look in WordArt to add or delete WordArt shadows. However, as you'll notice, there's nothing there that controls the shadows.
Here's what to do. Select the WordArt object by clicking it once. Now, click the Shadow icon in the Drawing toolbar (it looks like a square with a shadow). When the Shadow dialog box opens, click No Shadow.
As you can see in the Shadow dialog box, this is also the place to change a shadow to a different type of shadow. And it's the place to go when you want to add a shadow where there is none.

HEADED PAPER
Many Word users need to print the first page of a document on paper with a preprinted letterhead, and the remainder on standard paper. If your printer has more than one bin, you can put all the letterhead paper into one bin and the remainder of the paper into another bin. Now, choose File, Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens, click the Paper Source tab. In the First Page list box, select the tray that holds the preprinted letterhead paper and in the Other Pages list box, select the tray that holds the blank paper. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.
If your printer doesn't have more than one tray, but does allow manual feed, you can choose Manual Feed for the first page.

WORD LISTS
When you're working with lists in a Word document, you can use the right-mouse button to manipulate the list. To try this, create a short list. Now, select the list and right-click it. A handy pop-up menu will open than contains the following helpful commands:

Cut                                 Copy                     Paste
Bullets and Numbering    Promote                 Demote
Skip Numbering              Stop Numbering     Font
Paragraph

Note that Promote and Demote are greyed out unless you're using a multilevel list.

OFFICE ASSISTANT
It's amazing how quickly people get tired of that cute little Office Assistant popping up at seemingly random times.  To turn off the Office Assistant, run Windows Explorer and go to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Actors (assuming your installation is on Drive C. If it isn't, substitute the correct drive letter for C). Right-click the Actors folder and choose Rename. Name the folder Non-Actors and press Enter. The Office Assistant will stop assisting you.

STYLES
Picture this: You're working on a Word document and the style you're using will switch to a new style as soon as you press Enter. Your problem is that you don't want to switch styles right now, but you do need to start a new paragraph. What to do? If you press Shift-Enter, Word will start a new paragraph but will retain the current style. This is a useful technique when you're working with templates that expect you to adhere to a specific layout.

NETWORK MAIL
If your computer is attached to a network, you can send Office documents to your co-workers very easily--right from within your Office applications. All you have to do is choose File, Send. Assuming all is set up correctly in your network, your mail software will open and allow you to choose a recipient from the address book. Just type a short message to inform the recipient of the contents and click Send. You can send a copy to yourself to make sure the message was sent properly.

TRANSPORTING STYLES
You work on documents at the office, and like to be able to copy them to a floppy disk and take them home. This works OK, but sometimes the styles you use at work aren't available at home.
Try this: Load one of the documents from the office and then choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click Organizer.
When the Organiser dialog box opens, you'll see that the styles in your document appear in the left pane and the styles in your Normal.dot appear in the right pane. In the document pane, click the first style that you want to copy to Normal.dot and then press and hold down Ctrl while you click the remaining styles that you want to copy. With the styles selected in the document pane, click Copy. You may be asked if you want to replace an existing style. If this is what you want (if the styles used in the office are what you want to always use at home), click Yes.
Click Close to close the Organiser dialog box. Now, close Word (choose File, Exit). Start Word again, and you'll find that your new styles are available.

Filename$()
Want to use Filename$() in a macro to return the current file name? The problem is that this function returns the entire path plus the file name
The easiest way to get the file name from Word is to use the WindowName$() function. Let's create a simple macro to show how this works.
To create the macro, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type in a name ("Test" will do for this example macro). Now, click Create and then enter the macro as shown here.
Sub MAIN
MsgBox WindowName$() ' get the name and display it
End Sub

Note that the lines Sub Main and End Sub are furnished by Word--don't re-enter them.

Now save the macro (Ctrl-S) and close it (Alt, F, S). Next, load a file and choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, click the new macro to select it and then click Run. The macro will open a small window displaying the file name.

HYPHENATED WORDS
Let's say your name is Clarence Worthington-Smythe. All you would have to do is type in the name up to the hyphen and then press Ctrl-Shift - (hyphen) and type the second part of the name. You can use this technique even if your name is Clarence Worthington-Smythe-Rhys-Collins-Jones. Just use Ctrl-Shift - (hyphen) to enter the hyphens.
Note: When you press Ctrl-Shift - (hyphen), the hyphen will look like an em dash. Don't worry--it will print just fine.

A BACKGROUND PICTURE?
Let's say that you want to draw a rectangle in a Word document, and you want a really special effect for this rectangle. Here's one approach to a striking effect.
First, make sure the Drawing toolbar is available to you. If it isn't, choose View, Toolbars and select Drawing. Now, let's draw the rectangle. To do this, click the Rectangle button in the Drawing toolbar (its icon looks like a rectangle). Use the mouse to draw the rectangle. Make sure the rectangle is selected; now click the arrow on the right side of the Fill Color button (its icon looks like a bucket of paint). When the dialog box opens, click Fill Effects. When the Fill Effects dialog box opens, click the Picture tab. Now, click Select Picture and locate the picture you want to use. Click Ok to close the dialog box and insert your Fill picture into the rectangle. Now your picture appears in the rectangle you created in your document.

OPEN IT BLANK
We've discussed how to open Word without opening a blank document--but we keep getting questions, so we'll run through the procedure again. Also you can also open Excel without a blank worksheet. So, let's look at both.
To open Word with no blank document, you need to work with the shortcut that you use to run Word. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click in the Target text entry box and use the arrow keys to move to the end of the line. Make sure the line is not selected and press Space and then add /n to the end of the existing line. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your new Word switch.
To open Excel with no blank document, right-click the Excel shortcut and choose Properties. Now, follow the procedure described for Word. This time, add /e to the end of the existing line.
In both cases, make sure you click in the Target text entry box before you press Space. Clicking in the Target text entry box will deselect the current entry. If you press Space with the current entry selected, the entry will be deleted.

INSERT LINE NUMBERS
If you don't want to number the entire document, select the text you want to number and choose File, Page Setup. When the page Setup dialog box opens, click the Layout tab. Click Line Numbers, and when the Line Numbers dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Add Line Numbering. If you want to number several sets of text, select one of the radio buttons under Numbering (the choice depends on how you want the numbering to appear) and click OK.
Back in the Page Setup dialog box, click the arrow at the right side of the Apply to list box to expand the list. Choose Selected Text and click OK to close the dialog box. Word will now apply numbers to the selected sentences. If you're working in Normal view, you won't see the numbers. To see the numbers, choose View, Page Layout, or click the Print Preview button in the Word toolbar (its icon looks like a magnifying glass over a sheet of paper).
To remove the numbering, choose File, Page Setup and select the Layout tab. Click Line Numbers and then deselect the Add Line Numbering check box. Click OK and OK again to close the dialog box.

GREEK SYMBOLS
To search for and/or search and replace Greek letters and symbols, try the following:
Choose Insert, Symbol and select the lowercase Greek beta symbol. Click Insert. Now, let's say that you later want to replace the beta with a Greek sigma. You can make the replacement, but the procedure is a bit non-standard. Choose Insert, Symbol again and this time insert the Greek sigma into your document by clicking Insert, Close. Back in your document, select the sigma symbol and press Ctrl-C to copy it to the Clipboard. Next, press Ctrl-H to open the Find and Replace dialog box. Click in the Replace With entry box and delete any current entries. Now, press Ctrl-V to paste in the sigma. The symbol will not appear correctly, but don't worry about this.
Click Cancel now and select the beta symbol in your document and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Open the Find and Replace dialog box again by pressing Ctrl-H. Click in the Find What entry box and delete any current contents. Press Ctrl-V to paste in the beta symbol. Again, the symbol may not appear in the Replace With box. Now, you can click Find Next to locate the first occurrence of the beta symbol. If you want to make the replacement, click Replace.

AUTO HYPHENATE
There are times when you may want to turn off automatic hyphenation of specific paragraphs. Is there's a way to eliminate hyphens in a single paragraph without turning off the feature globally?
Yes, you can turn off hyphenation for a single paragraph. But before we get to that, let's take a quick look at how to turn on automatic hyphenation. Choose Tools, Hyphenation. When the Hyphenation dialog box opens, select the check box labelled Automatically Hyphenate Document and then click OK. Once you've made the selection, Word will place hyphens in your document automatically. (By the way--if you choose to use automatic hyphenation, you should always check your document to make sure the hyphenation is as you want it.)
To turn off the hyphenation for a specific paragraph, click in the paragraph (or where the new paragraph will begin) and choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, click the Text Flow tab. Now, select the check box labelled Don't Hyphenate and then click OK to close the dialog box