


SHORTCUTS.
| Ctrl-L |
Left-aligned text. |
| Ctrl-E |
Centered text. |
| Ctrl-R |
Right-aligned text. |
| Ctrl-J |
Fully justified text. |
| Ctrl-A |
Select the entire document. |
| Ctrl-C |
Copy the selected text (or graphics.) |
| Ctrl-X |
Cut selected text (or graphics.) |
| Ctrl-V |
Paste data from the Clipboard. |
| Ctrl-Z |
Undo the last operation. |
| Ctrl-Alt-PgDn |
Next
page. |
|
|
| Ctrl-Alt-PgUp |
Previous page. |
| Ctrl-Home |
Top of a Word document. |
| Ctrl-End |
End of the document, press. |
| Character |
Keystrokes |
| Grave |
Ctrl - ` release and press A, E, I, O, or U |
| Acute |
Ctrl - ' release and press A, E, I, O, or U |
| Umlaut |
Ctrl-Shift- : release and press A, E, I, O, U, or Y |
| Tilde |
Ctrl-Ctrl-Shift- ~ release and press A, N, O |
| Cedilla |
Ctrl-comma release and press C |
| Inverted question mark |
Ctrl-Shift-Alt-? |
| Inverted exclamation mark |
Ctrl-Shift-Alt-! |
Ctrl-Alt-1, Ctrl-Alt-2, or Ctrl-Alt-3 to apply Headings 1 through 3.
To assign Ctrl-Alt-x to Heading x, (where x is the heading number), choose Format, Style.
When the Style dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the list box
labelled List to expand the list. Select All Styles and then select Heading x from the
Styles list.
With Heading x selected, click Modify. When the Modify Style dialog box opens,
click Shortcut Key. When the Customize Keyboard dialog box opens, press Ctrl-Alt-x and
then click Assign. Click Close to close the dialog box.
Back in the Modify Style dialog box, click OK. In the Style dialog box, click Close
to close the dialog box. Now, you can press Ctrl-Alt-x to apply the Heading x style to the
cursor line.
COMMAND LINE SWITCHES.
/n
Load without even a blank document
/t (Doc Name) Open to the document of your choice
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.
You can also add one in Word 95 or Word 6. You'll need the Drawing toolbar; so
if it isn't visible, choose View, Toolbars, select Drawing and click OK. Now, choose View,
Header and Footer. When the Header and Footer window opens, click the Text box button in
the Drawing toolbar. Use the mouse to draw a frame for your watermark. Now, choose
Insert, Object, Microsoft ClipArt Gallery. Select a picture and click OK. Use the mouse to
size and locate your watermark. Select the picture and then click the Send Behind Text
button in the Drawing toolbar (the icon is a circle behind a page of text). Now,
double-click in the document to close Header and Footer. To view your watermark, switch to
Page Layout view (View, Page layout) or choose File, Print Preview. Although Word will dim
the watermark, we suggest that you avoid dark or very busy pictures for your watermarks.
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.
- 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.
To insert the contents of the Spike and clear the Spike, press CTRL+SHIFT+F3.
To insert the contents of the Spike without clearing the Spike, so that you can use
the collected items again, type spike and then press F3.
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.
In Word 97, you'll see a button with a small round icon between these up and
down buttons. This button lets you customize the way the double-arrow buttons search.
Click on this button and the Select Browse Object Menu will appear. You can click on one
of the menu buttons to assign the browse activity to the up and down buttons. For example,
you can click on the Browse by Heading button to enable the up and down buttons to move to
the previous and next headings. You'll find browse buttons in the menu buttons for Go To,
Find, Edit, Heading, Graphic, Table, Field, Endnote, Footnote, Comment, Section, and Page.
Page is the default. So, when you finish browsing on some object other than Page, click on
the button and choose Page to put Word back to its normal browse state.
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.
Another approach is to use drag and drop. To do this, position Word and Excel on
the screen at the same time. Run both programs and right-click on the Windows 95 taskbar.
When the menu opens, choose Tile Horizontally.
Now select the text you want to move, hold down the Ctrl key (you want to copy the text,
not move it) and use the mouse to drag the selection to the spot in your Excel worksheet
where you want the text to appear. Release the mouse button, then the Ctrl key. This
approach is probably the easiest if you plan to copy numerous selections to Excel.
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.
Let's take a look. Run Word and load a document. Press Ctrl-H to open the Find
and Replace dialog box. Now click on the More button to get to the expanded feature list
and click on Format. As you can see from the menu, you can find and replace fonts,
paragraphs, tabs, languages, frames, styles, and highlights.
This offers some possibilities for those documents under development. For example, you
could highlight a sentence or paragraph that isn't thoroughly researched. The highlighting
will remind you to do the research; and if you need to make changes later, you can use
Find and Replace to locate (and perhaps make changes) to the highlighted text. When
finished, all you have to do is remove the highlighting.
Let's take a look. Run Word and load a document. Press Ctrl-H to open the Find
and Replace dialog box. Now click on the More button to get to the expanded feature list
and click on Format. As you can see from the menu, you can find and replace fonts,
paragraphs, tabs, languages, frames, styles, and highlights.
This offers some possibilities for those documents under development. For example, you
could highlight a sentence or paragraph that isn't thoroughly researched. The highlighting
will remind you to do the research; and if you need to make changes later, you can use
Find and Replace to locate (and perhaps make changes) to the highlighted text. When
finished, all you have to do is remove the highlighting.
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.
So, if you have a long list of oddly capitalized words in your Custom.dic file,
you can save yourself some time if you make them all lowercase. To do this, choose Tools,
Options and click on the Spelling tab. Now click on Custom Dictionaries. With CUSTOM.DIC
selected, click on Edit. With your list of words available, you can either go through the
list and make the necessary case changes, or you can make all the words lowercase by
pressing Ctrl-A to select all the words and then choosing Format, Change Case. When the
Change Case dialog box opens, select Lowercase and click on OK.
Now choose File, Close to close the dictionary file. Say Yes to all the questions about
saving. If asked about format, you want Text Only.
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.
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.
To create a table with more than one column, use plus signs to show where the columns go.
For example, if you type +--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
and press Enter, you'll get a three-column table. There will be a column divider at each
plus sign. To create a new row, press Tab.
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.
Not all the WordArt selections have lines. If you happened to choose one of
these, just click on OK to close the dialog box and go back to the beginning to select a
WordArt style that has lines. When your sample WordArt uses lines, you'll see line color,
style, and weight listed. Increase the weight. Try something rather heavy, perhaps 2 or 3
points. Click on OK.
After you see how the new border looks, you might want to try a new line color. Select the
WordArt and click on Format WordArt again. This time select a new line color and click on
OK.
This is one you can experiment with. Sometimes a combination of color and line widths can
produce some very striking effects. Don't hesitate to try some very wide line widths.
We've seen some very good effects produced by using as much as 4.0 point lines.
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.
As an example, let's consider an age entry. You could ask for age and let people
fill in the blank. But if the age group is more important to you than a specific age, you
can use a drop-down list.
First, choose View, Toolbars, Forms to place the Forms toolbar in your Word window. Now
click where you want the list to appear and then go to the toolbar and click on the
Drop-Down Form Field button (the icon resembles a drop-down list).
After you insert the form, click on the Form Field Options button (it's the next button to
the right of the Drop-Down Form Field button). When the dialog box opens, enter the first
age group and click on Add. Repeat until all the age groups are entered. When you're
finished, click on OK.
To get your form to work, click on the Protect Form button (it looks like a padlock). To
edit your form, click on the Protect Form button again.
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.
To create a table with more than one column, use plus signs to show where the
columns go. For example, if you type
+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ and press Enter, you'll
get a three-column table. There will be a column divider at each plus sign. To create a
new row, press Tab.
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.
Suppose you'd like to print a company logo on all your envelopes. Here's how.
Create a new Word document and enter your return address. Now click where you want the
picture to appear and choose Insert, Picture, From File. Locate the picture you want to
use and select it.
Once the picture is in place in the Word document, resize it if necessary and then click
it once to select it. Choose Insert, AutoText, New. Type in EnvelopeExtra1 and
click OK. Now the envelope will include the new picture.
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.
Let's say you've inserted several Clip Art objects into a Word document. You've
placed these objects just where you want them in relation to the page and to each other.
You don't want to lose this relationship, so click the first object and then press and
hold down the Shift key while you select the remaining objects. If the Drawing toolbar
isn't available, choose View, Toolbars, Drawing. Now click the Draw button in the Drawing
toolbar and choose Group. Your objects will become one.
Note that you cannot Ungroup Clip Art in Word. If you need to
make a custom picture by ungrouping and removing some portions, use PowerPoint and then
copy the result and paste it into your Word document.
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?
Actually, Word 97 includes the solution right in the dialog box. But it can be
confusing. What happened was that the new style sheet was set for No Proofing. To correct
the situation, choose Format, Style. When the dialog box opens, click Normal (or your main
style name). Now click Modify and then click Format. Click Language now and you'll
probably see that the style is set to No Proofing. Select English (if that's what you
need) and click OK. Click OK again and then click Apply.
This should take care of the problem. If not, you need to check some of the other styles
that you commonly use in your documents and set them all to the correct language.
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.
When Word asks about saving a text file, tell it to go ahead. When you close the
document (or close Word) you'll be asked about saving a non-standard file again. Once
again, tell Word to go ahead and save the text file.
Now, back in Word, choose Tools, Options and click the Spelling tab. Click Custom
Dictionaries. If your new dictionary appears in the list, select it and click OK. If it
doesn't appear in the list, click Add. Your new dictionary should appear in this dialog
box. Select it and click OK. Now locate it in the list and select it. Click OK to add the
dictionary and close the dialog box.
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?
To create a spreadsheet in a Word document, choose Table, Insert Table. When the
Insert Table dialog box opens, choose the number of columns and rows you need for your
spreadsheet (you can adjust this later). Now click OK to insert the table. View the table
just as you would an Excel worksheet, the first cell in the upper left corner is A1.
Moving down vertically, you'll find cells A2, A3, A4, etc. The next column is B1, B2, B3,
etc.
Let's look at an example now. Let's say you inserted a table with five columns
and four rows. Enter into cell A1 the word Month. Now move down to A2 and enter Jan.
Next, go to A3 and enter Feb. In A4, type Total.
Go to cell B1 and enter a name. In cell B2, enter the sales figure for January. Enter all
figures using a dollar sign (£). Move to B3 and enter sales for February. In cell B4,
press Ctrl-F9. Between the brackets, type =sum(b2:b3) and then press F9. The sum
will appear in cell B4 complete with the dollar sign. If you change any of the numbers,
you need to press F9 again to tell Word to perform the calculation. How's that for easy?
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
Now click the document to the right of £20,000 (maybe add a space and then
click). Choose Insert, Form Field. When the dialog box opens, select Check Box and click
OK. The check box will appear in your document to the right of £20,000. Do the same now
for all the numbers.
To use the questionnaire online, choose Tools, Protect Document. When the
Protect Document dialog box opens, select Forms and click OK. Now the only thing anyone
can do is select one of the check boxes--they can't modify the document. After someone
finishes the questionnaire, you need to save the document. Choose File, Save As and type
in a name. Click Save to save the document. You can open the documents that you collect
and print them later. f you want to mail some of the questionnaires, the check box will
show up just fine, so the members can make the selection with a pen and mail it back to
you. This is one style of questionnaire to fit all purposes.
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.
To add a frame to your document, choose Insert, Frame. Use the mouse to draw a
frame. Now you can click in the frame and add text. Use the mouse to drag the frame to the
location of your choice. To set up the frame, right-click it and choose Format Frame. In
this dialog box, you can choose how you want text to wrap around the frame, along with how
far the text should be from the frame and other parameters. After you make all your
selections, click OK.
Next, let's look at the text box. To add a text box, click the Text Box button
in the Drawing toolbar. If the Drawing toolbar doesn't appear in your Word window, choose
View, Toolbars, select Drawing, and click OK.
After you've drawn the text box, click it and then enter the text. If you use the mouse to
move the text box over some existing text, you'll see that text doesn't wrap around it.
You can place the text box over text and other objects in your document.
In conclusion, use the frame when you want text to wrap, and use
Text Box when you don't.
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.
The best way to handle this job is to use Word labels. Choose Tools, Envelopes
and Labels. When the Envelopes and Labels dialog box opens, click the Labels tab. Click
Options and then click Details. In Details, set the height to 2, the width to 4, the
number across to 2, and the number down to 5. Leave the other settings as they are (the
default). Word will ask you to confirm your changes. Click OK to get back to the Envelopes
and Labels dialog box.
Now type in the text you want to use for your ticket. If you'd like to change the font or
font size, right-click the label and choose a font and font size. After you make the
selection, click OK to get back to your label. Make sure the Full Page of the Same Label
radio button is selected and then click Print to print your tickets.
Now let's look at how you can add some graphics to your tickets to enhance their
appearance. A few weeks ago, we described a technique allowing you to insert pictures into
labels. This time, we'll show you a different technique.
Choose Tools, Envelopes and Labels. When the dialog box opens, click Options and then
Details. Make sure the sizes are correct (label size: 2 inches by 4 inches, 2 across, 5
down) and click OK, and then OK. Right-click the label text entry box and choose Fonts.
Select a font and size and then click OK.
Now enter the label text. When the text is in place, make sure the Full Page of the Same
Label radio button is selected and then click New Document. When the document appears in a
standard Word document, click where you want the picture to appear in the first ticket.
Let's assume for this example that you want to use ClipArt. Choose Insert, Object,
Microsoft ClipArt Gallery. Choose a picture and click OK.
Now size the picture and, when it suits you, click the picture to select it. Press Ctrl-C.
Next, click in each of the labels where you want the picture to appear and press Ctrl-V.
This places the picture in each of the labels.
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.
The real advantage of the Equation editor becomes apparent when you need to
enter more complex equations. For example, showing a square root in Word can be
cumbersome, but if you use the Equation editor, it will look just as any mathematician
would expect it to look. Because we can't show you samples, the best approach is to open
the Equation editor and experiment with it.
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.
1. Line one
2. Line two
3. Line three
4. Line four
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.
To make a four-page booklet, you'll fold the paper in half. Give this a try now,
before you even think about writing and printing the booklet. Fold the paper and then
place it on the desk with the inside of the fold upward. You're looking at page 2 and page
3. The back of page 2 is page 1, and the back of page 3 is page 4.
Now you can create a document. Choose File, Page Setup. When the dialog box opens, click
the Paper Size tab and select Landscape. Click OK to exit the dialog box and record the
change. Now choose Format, Columns. When the Columns dialog box opens, click Two columns
and then click OK. Now choose View, Page Layout so you can see what's going on in both
columns. Now write your document, remembering that pages 1 and 4 will appear on one Word
page, and pages 2 and 3 will appear on another Word page.
Let's assume that booklet pages 1 and 4 are on Word page 1. To print your
booklet, choose File, Print. When the dialog box opens, select Pages and type in 1. Click
OK to print. Now remove the printed page from the printer and insert it in the paper tray
printed side up (in most printers). This time choose File, Print and select Page. Type in
2 and click OK to print the other side of the paper.
With both sides of the page printed, you can now fold the paper to make your booklet.
Note: Not all printers feed the paper the same way. You
need to determine
how your printer works.
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:
......Text Leaders.
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:
Put the Microsoft Office 97 installation disk into the CD-ROM drive. Open the
disk using Windows Explorer, locate the Valupak folder and double-click it. Now look at
the subfolders. You'll see one named Averywiz. Click it and in Explorer's right pane
you'll see the files in the Averywiz folder. Double-click Setup to set up the Avery
Wizard.
After the setup is complete, you can test your new addition. Choose Tools, Avery Wizard.
When the wizard opens, follow the directions and choose the label you want to print. Note
that you can use the wizard to make all the labels on the page the same, or you can make
them all different.
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.
If something like this should happen to you, don't panic. Panic is what causes
permanent data loss. In this case, all you have to do is press Ctrl-Z and, thanks to
Word's terrific Undo command, your document will magically reappear.
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.
AUTOTEXT
You can use AutoText to insert pictures and other graphics. Let's look at an
example.
Run Word and choose Insert, Object. When the Object dialog box opens, select Microsoft
ClipArt (or Clip Gallery) from the list and click OK. Select a picture and click OK. Now
that the picture is in place in Word, size it the way you want and then select it. Choose
Edit, AutoText. The picture should appear in the Preview pane. Assign a name and click
Add.
To insert the picture, type in the name and then choose Edit, AutoText. Select the name
and click Insert.
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
Now, when you open a new document, Word will prompt you for a name. Enter a name
without the extension. Word will append the extension .DOC to your file name.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
For that super-fancy document, what you need is a table of
contents. Here's how to create one in Word.
Your document will need to have some identifiable headings. For this example,
let's assume that all the headings use the standard Heading 1 style. If you want to
include subheadings in your TOC, then you'll need identifiable styles for those too. We
suggest (for this example) that you use another of the standard headings--perhaps Heading
3.
Now click where you want the TOC to appear (at the beginning or end of the
document) and choose Insert, Index and Tables. When the Index and Tables dialog box opens,
click the Table of Contents tab. Now you can select the type of TOC you want to use from
the Formats: list. After you make your selection, click OK to create the TOC. Choose a
nice font style and title your table of contents.
If you placed the insertion point at the beginning of the document, you can put
the TOC on a separate page quite easily. Just click the line below the TOC and choose
Insert, Break and select Page Break. Now click OK, and the TOC will appear on a separate
page at the beginning of the document.
The TOC is only as good as the information available to it. If you're adding a
TOC to a long document, we strongly suggest you use as many subheadings as you need to
provide topic information. This not only creates a more through TOC, it also helps the
reader follow the train of thought in the document.
Now let's suppose that you've already created a TOC and then decide that you
need to add to your document.
The TOC won't automatically update, but it isn't much of a problem to do the job manually.
All you have to do is click in the TOC to select it and then press F9. When the Update
Table of Contents dialog box opens, select the Update entire table radio button. Click OK,
and your additions will appear.
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:
Sub DelIt()
Dim FileToDel As String
FileToDel = ActiveDocument.FullName
ActiveDocument.Close
Kill FileToDel
End Sub
Now choose File, Save Normal to save the new macro into your Normal.dot
template. This makes it available to all documents. To close the VBA editor, press Alt-Q.
To run the macro, make sure you really want to delete the current document and choose
Tools, Macro, Macros. Select DelIt from the list and click Run - Goodbye document!
Now let's look at a variation of the DelIt macro that's a bit safer to use. For
this version, we add a dialog box to ask if you're really, really, absolutely sure that
you want to delete the current file.
Open Word and press Alt-F11 to open the VBA editor. Locate Normal and expand it by
clicking the plus (+) sign to its left. Double-click Module 1. If you've already entered
the DelIt macro, it will appear. If you haven't entered any macros, a blank window will
appear. In either case, enter the following exactly as shown:
Sub DelIt()
Dim FileToDel As String
FileToDel = ActiveDocument.FullName
Msg$ = "Are you sure you want to delete " + FileToDel + "?"
Response = MsgBox(Msg$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion)
If Response = 7 Then End
ActiveDocument.Close
Kill FileToDel
End Sub
When you run DelIt (choose Tools, Macro, Macros, select DelIt, and click OK), a
dialog box will open asking if you really want to delete the file. Click Yes if you do or
No if you don't.
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).
Sub MAIN
FileSave FileClose FileNew
End Sub
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.
Run Notepad and enter exactly as shown (spaces and all)
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options]
"DateFormat"="MMMM d, yyyy"
Choose File, Save As and name the file DoDate.REG
Note that you can change the name, but you must use the
REG extension. Save the file. Now double-click your new REG file and it will insert
the date format change into the Registry. You can run Word and use your new date format
now.
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 and register your change.
Enter your paragraph and press Enter. If you now want to return to automatic hyphenation,
you need to choose Format, Paragraph again. Click the Text Flow tab and then deselect the
Don't Hyphenate check box. Click OK to record your change and close the dialog box.
A VERTICAL LEAP
One way to enhance the appearance of documents such as
flyers and bulletins is to use a vertical text header down the left side of the page. To
create a vertical header, first choose File, Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Set the
top margin to -1 and click OK.
Now, choose View, Header and Footer and then choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph
dialog box opens, set the Left indentation to -72 pt and click OK. This gives you about
one inch of space. Choose Format, Font and choose the font, font size, and colour (if
desired) and click OK.
Type in your text now, one letter at a time. To make the text vertical, press Enter after
each letter and press Enter twice after each word. You may have to experiment to get the
text placed where you want it.
Note that this vertical header is still a header. It will appear on every page of your
document, and you won't see it in Normal view. To see how it will print, choose File,
Print Preview.
SUM TABLE ADVICE
It's a pain to enter formulas in a table cell in Word. The
trick is to use Word's Table, Formula command.
To see how it works, create a simple table. To do this, open a blank document and choose
Table, Insert Table. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, click OK to accept the
default table. Now, let's say you want to add a formula to the bottom cell in the first
column. Click the cell to select it and then choose Table, Formula. This opens the Formula
dialog box. The most commonly used formula is SUM, so the Formula dialog box opens with
the default formula: =SUM(ABOVE)
If this is what you want, click OK to continue. If you want to use a different formula,
click the arrow at the right side of the Paste Function list box to expand the list.
Select your new formula and perform any necessary editing. Click OK to continue.
CHANGING THE LABEL FONT
You can change the label font and font size. The method
isn't apparent though. Let's start from the beginning. Choose Tools, Envelopes and Labels.
When the dialog box opens, right-click in the Address entry box and choose Font. When the
Font dialog box opens, you can choose a font, font size, and even font colour and other
formatting. After you make your choices, click OK to continue.
SELECTIVE SERVICE
Word offers you many ways to select text: You can use the
mouse, you can hold down Shift and press the arrow keys, you can double-click or
triple-click, and you can click in the margin. Do you need another way to select text?
Click at the beginning of some text that you'd like to select. Now, if you look at the
bottom of the Word window (on the status bar), you'll see a button marked EXT. By default,
EXT is greyed out. If you double-click it, it becomes active and is no longer greyed out.
With EXT active, 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.
HYPERLINKS
MS Word97 automatically makes hyperlinks out of Web addresses. Well, you can turn off most
of the automatic functions, and the hyperlinks maker is one that you can turn off. The
problem is that you don't turn it off where most people would expect. Choose Tools,
AutoCorrect. When the AutoCorrect dialog box opens, click the Autoformat As You Type tab.
Now, deselect the check box labelled Internet and Network Paths With Hyperlink. Click OK
to close the dialog box and save your change. With this change, you can type in an
Internet address as plain text.
CUSTOM DICTIONARY
To work with the Custom dictionary, run Word and choose File,
Open. When the dialog box opens, go to \Windows\MsApps\Proof. There you'll see the
Custom.dic icon. Select this icon and choose Open. You can now remove (or add) any words
you want. When you finish editing the list, choose File, Save. Next, choose File, Close to
close the dictionary file.
ONLY THE OUTLINE
To print only the outline after you've added body text choose
View, Outline. When the Outline View opens, click All in the Outline toolbar (the icon is
the word "All"). This will display only the outline, minus the added body text.
If you now choose File, Print, the Word document will print the outline only.
TEMPLATES -Version 4.x, 95
There are times when you may want to create your
own template. For example, if you commonly use a particular letter format, and there's no
existing template to do what you want, you can create your own template and even make its
style available in Normal.dot, where you can access it in any document.
To create a template, simply open a new document and type in all the information you need.
Choose the font, font size, and style for each paragraph. For example, for a letter
format, you might type in placeholders for the various elements of a business letter and
format them however you want.
As you add the guide text to your new template, choose the styles you want to use for each
element. When your template is as you want it, choose File, Save As. When the Save As
dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Save as Type list box to expand
the list. Select Document Template (*.dot) from the list. Give your new template a name
(one that isn't already in use) and click Save.
To make your new template's styles available globally, choose File, Templates. This opens
the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box. In this dialog box, you should see Normal in the
Document Template entry box. To add your new template to Normal.dot, click Add. This opens
the Add Template dialog box. Select your new template and click OK. When you get back to
the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box, click OK to close the dialog box and save your
changes.
MAIL MERGE WORD EXCEL
Want to use an Excel worksheet as the source of
data for Word Mail Merge? Let's say you develop a workbook that lists all your names,
addresses, etc. When you make the list in Excel, use column headings. For example, your
worksheet might contain the headings shown here.
Last Name, First Name, Address, Town, County, Post Code
Fill in a few rows for test purposes. Choose File, Save As and name your new file. Find a
folder in which to save it and click Save. You can close Excel now, if you wish.
Next, run Word and choose Tools, Mail Merge. When the Mail Merge Helper opens, click
Create, Form Letters. Click New Main Document. Next, click Get Data and choose Open Data
Source. When the Open dialog box appears, click the arrow at the right side of the list
box labelled Files of Type and select MS Excel Worksheets (*.xls). Locate your new Excel
file and select it. Click Open to open the file. When asked, confirm that you want to open
the entire worksheet.
Next, you need to add at least one field to your main document. Type in Dear Mr. and
then type a space and click Insert Merge Field. Select Last Name and then type a comma. To
see how this works, click Merge to New Document (its icon shows a right arrow pointing to
a sheet of paper). You should now see the inserted names in the new document.
MASTER
MODE - Version 4.x, 95
The primary purpose of a master document is to make it easier to deal with subdocuments.
Let's say that you're writing a book. By the time you're halfway through the book, the
Word document is getting rather large. So why not split the document into separate
chapters? Well, then you have to load each chapter separately. But if you create a master
document, you can split up the book and still have it all together.
To create a master document, click the New button on the Word toolbar (its icon resembles
a blank page). Next, choose View, Master Document. Generate your outline, and then select
the heading that will represent your first subdocument. Click the Create Subdocument
button in the Master Document toolbar (its icon looks like a blank page with a small
rectangle in the centre). Now you can start typing in your subdocument. You'll notice that
Word places a box around the subdocument as you type.
When you save your master document, Word automatically saves the subdocuments. It name
these files using the headings you choose for the subdocuments. With the subdocuments
saved, you can open them individually for editing, or you can open them in the master
document.
We mentioned that you can open each of
the subdocuments individually for editing. When you elect to do this, DO NOT rename the
file. If you do, you'll destroy the link between the subdocument and the master document.
If you need to rename a subdocument, open it in the master document and then choose File,
Save As, give it a new name, and click Save.
AUTOCORRECT
Let's say you'd like to insert the Greek letter mu
automatically when you type in the letters mu. To do this, choose Insert, Symbol. When the
Symbol dialog box opens, locate the symbol you want to use (the mu in this case) and click
it. Now, click AutoCorrect at the bottom left side of the Symbol dialog box. When
AutoCorrect opens, your selected symbol will appear in the With entry box. All you have to
do is type the letter or letters you want to use for the symbol. For this example, you'd
type in mu and click Add. Click OK to close AutoCorrect. Back in the Symbols dialog box,
click Close again.
When you type mu, Word will now automatically insert the Greek letter.
INSERT CENTS - Version 4.x, 95
We recently said that you can use Ctrl-/-C to insert the cents
symbol into a Word document. This won't work if Caps Lock is on. This is true if you hold
down all three keys simultaneously (as we described in the tip). However, if you press the
keys sequentially (press Ctrl-/ and then release / and press C), you'll get the cents
symbol regardless of the Caps Lock state--on most keyboards. If this doesn't work for you,
turn Caps Lock off before you try to make cents.
A YEN FOR POUNDS
Q: Is there an easy way to insert the symbols for the British
pound and the Japanese yen into Word documents.
This would require the same technique as above. The only trick here is finding the symbols
for the pound and the yen. Choose Insert, Symbol. When the Symbol dialog box opens, click
the arrow at the right side of the Font list box to expand the list. Select Normal Text
from the list. Click the pound symbol and click AutoCorrect. Enter gbp (Great Britain
pound) as the phrase to correct, then click Add. Click OK to close AutoCorrect and get
back to Symbol. Click the yen symbol now, then click AutoCorrect again. This time, type in
jy (Japanese yen) and click Add. Next, click OK to save your changes and close the dialog
box. Click Close to close Symbol.
All you have to do now is type gbp to enter the pound symbol and jy to
enter the yen symbol.
STYLE FOR LANGUAGES - Version 95
Many Word users need to generate documents in more than one language. One way to do
this is to create a separate style for each. For example lets create English and
French body text called UKBody and FRBody.
To create the UKBody style, choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click
New. Name the new style UKBody and click Format, Language. Choose the language and click
OK. Back in the New Style dialog box, select Add to Template and click OK. In the Style
dialog box, click Apply to close the dialog box and continue. You need to repeat
this procedure for FRBody (or language version you choose
). To change styles click Format, Style and
choose Style1, etc.
Note: Select Normal to return to your default style.
GLOBAL TEMPLATE- Version 4.x, 95.
There are times when you may want to create your own
template. For example, if you commonly use a particular letter format, and there's no
existing template to do what you want, you can create your own template and even make its
style available in Normal.dot, where you can access it in any document.
To create a template, simply open a new document and type in all the information you need.
Choose the font, font size, and style for each paragraph. For example, for a letter
format, you might type in placeholders for the various elements of a business letter and
format them however you want.
As you add the guide text to your new template, choose the styles you want to use for each
element. When your template is as you want it, choose File, Save As. When the Save As
dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Save as Type list box to expand
the list. Select Document Template (*.dot) from the list. Give your new template a name
(one that isn't already in use) and click Save.
To make your new template's styles available globally, choose File, Templates. This opens
the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box. In this dialog box, you should see Normal in the
Document Template entry box. To add your new template to Normal.dot, click Add. This opens
the Add Template dialog box. Select your new template and click OK. When you get back to
the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box, click OK to close the dialog box and save your
changes.
COPYING TOOLBARS.
You can easily transfer the toolbar information in Word, but
Excel is a different story. Let's run through the procedure for transferring toolbars from
one Word installation to another.
Close Word and then run Windows Explorer. Locate your Office folder; in that folder,
locate the Templates folder. Insert a blank formatted floppy disk into drive A and copy
Normal.dot to that drive (use the mouse to drag its icon from \Templates to drive A).
On the target computer, insert the disk containing Normal.dot in drive A. Run Word and
choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click Organizer. In the Organizer
window, you'll see two list boxes--one for Document 1 (the document that opened when you
ran Word) and one for Normal.dot. Click the Close button under the Document 1 style list
to close Document 1. The button will now change to Open File. Click Open File to open the
standard Open dialog box. In this dialog box, locate drive A and double-click your copy of
Normal.dot to open it.
With the two versions of Normal.dot available, click the Toolbars tab. Your toolbar should
now appear in the pane that contains your copy of Normal.dot. Select it and then click
Copy. This will copy the toolbar information to the target computer's Normal.dot. Click
the Close button at the lower right corner of Organizer to close the dialog box and record
your additions.
Now Normal.dot on your work computer includes the toolbar information from your home
computer. When you next run Word, those toolbars should appear.
PAGE MACRO - Version 4.x, 95
You know that you sometimes need to switch to Page Layout view
to see how a document will look when printed. But, if you like to work in Normal view most
of the time, you may find yourself switching back and forth between the two views just as
Ann was. So, you might like to use Ann's macro to make your job easier.
Ann's macro lets you place a view-switching button on your Word toolbar. All you have to
do is click the button to switch views. If you're currently in Normal view, clicking the
button will switch you to Page Layout view. And, if you're in Page Layout view, you can
click the button to switch to Normal view.
To enter the macro, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type in the new
macro name (we used View) and then click Create. Type the macro shown below between the
Word-generated lines Sub Main and End Sub.
If ViewNormal() = - 1 Then
ViewPage
Else
ViewNormal
End If
Press Alt-S to save the macro. To assign a button to your new macro, choose
View, Toolbars and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Toolbar
tab. Now, locate and click Macros. Drag your new macro to the toolbar and then click
Assign. Click Close to close the Customize dialog box and save your macro button.
Now all you have to do to switch between page views (Normal and Page Layout) is click the
View button.
EDITING CUSTOM BUTTONS - Version 95.
You can edit existing toolbar buttons in Word 95. The problem is that the method isn't
especially obvious. Try this: Open a blank document in Word 95. Let's say you'd like to
edit the New button. Right-click the New button and choose Customize. When the Customize
dialog box opens, right-click the New button again. This time choose Edit Button Image.
This opens the Button Editor. Modify your image and then click OK to close the editor and
record your changes. Click Close to close the Customize dialog box.
You use this method to edit any button on the toolbar. This includes any buttons you may
have added for macros or styles.
RESUME MACRO - Version 4.x, 95
When you work with long documents, it can be frustrating to open with the cursor at the
beginning of the document. Unfortunately, there isn't an Options setting that will do the
job. However, you can create a very simple macro that will automatically scroll to the
bottom of any document you open. Since this is where most people usually begin working,
this will do what you want most of the time.
To enter the macro, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type AutoOpen for the name (you want it to run automatically). Click the arrow at the
right side of the Macros Available In list box and select Normal.dot (Global Template) to
make it available to all documents. Now, click Create and enter the macro as shown. Note
that Sub Main and End Sub are supplied by Word, so you type only EndOfDocument.
Sub Main
EndOfDocument
End Sub
Press Ctrl-S to save the macro. You'll be asked if you want to save the
document. Click Yes. Now when you open an existing document, Word will automatically
scroll to the bottom.
CALCULATIONS.
Want to perform calculations in Word documents?
If you want to generate a simple invoice, the best approach is to create a table. Choose
Table, Insert. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, select 2 Columns and 3 Rows and
click OK. Now you have a table with two columns and three rows in your Word document. Look
at the table just as you would an Excel worksheet--the first cell on the upper left is A1.
The cells immediately below A1 are A2 and A3. In the other column, you have cells B1
through B3.
Let's suppose your business is to sell fruit. In this case, we'll enter Oranges
in cell A1 and Apples in cell A2. In cell A3, enter Total
Move to cell B1 and enter £23.95 and then move down to
cell B2 and enter £31.56
Now, go to cell B3 and press Ctrl-9. Enter =sum (b1:b2) and then press F9. The total should be £55.51.
If you change any of the numbers, you need to press F9 again to tell Word to perform the
calculation.
AUTOMATE TICKET NUMBERING - Version 4.x, 95.
As we described in a previous tip, you can use Word to create tickets for things like
raffles or entry into events. But did you know that you can also use a macro to
automatically number your tickets? You will need to create the labels manually. But once
you've created the labels, you can click a single button to take care of duplicating and
numbering the labels.
To create the macro, choose Tools, Macro. Type in Tickets and then click Create.
Now, enter the following text as shown below.
Remember that Word supplies Sub MAIN and End Sub. You have to
enter everything else.
Dim Num
Sub MAIN
ScreenUpdating 0
StartOfDocument
Input "Number of Tickets to Create:", Num
InsertField .Field = "seq Tickets \* MERGEFORMAT"
NextCell
PrevCell'select the cell
EditCopy'copy the cell contents
Cancel
For Index = 1 To Num - 1'paste into remaining cells
NextCell
EditPaste
Cancel
Next
EditSelectAll
UpdateFields
Cancel
LineDown
ToolsOptionsView .FieldCodes = 0
StartOfDocument 'go to the top
End Sub
After you enter all the code, press Ctrl-S to save it. Choose File, Close to
close the macro. To add the macro to a toolbar button, choose View, Toolbars and then
click Customize. In the Customize dialog box, click the Toolbars tab and then locate
Macros and select it. Your new macro will now appear in the right pane of the dialog box.
Drag the name to the toolbar and release the mouse button. Click Assign to assign the name
Tickets to the button. Click Close to close the dialog box.
Now, you need to create the tickets. Choose Tools, Envelopes and Labels. When the
Envelopes and Labels dialog box opens, click the Labels tab. Now, click Options, select
Avery 5163 from the Product Number list, and click OK. Finally, click New Document.
Choose Format, Font and select the font and font size you want to use in the
Font dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your font selections. Now it's
time to run your new macro. Click the new Tickets button. You'll be prompted to enter the
number of tickets you want to create. Enter the number and press Enter. Note: This prompt
is in the Status bar at the bottom left of the window.
That's it--the macro will now insert the number field and copy the contents of the first
label.
CUSTOM DICTIONARY WORD REMOVAL - Version 4.x, 95.
You may want to remove a word if you tend to mistype and add
misspelled words to the custom dictionary. To get rid of or modify words in the custom
dictionary, choose File, Open and then click the arrow at the right side of the Files of
Type list box to expand the list. Select All Files (*.*). Now, locate
\Windows\MSApps\Proof. In the \Proof sub folder, you'll find Custom.dic. Double-click its
icon to open the file.
You can now delete or edit words in the custom dictionary. You can even add words if you
like, especially if you often use industry-specific words. After you're finished working
with the file, choose File, Save and then choose File, Close. Word will open a dialog box
informing you that you are about to save a file in a non-Word format. Click Yes. When the
next dialog box appears, click Text Only.
MACRO - DELETE CURRENT FILE.
The macro is designed to delete the current open file. Without the macro,
you have to close a file before you can delete it. This macro is especially useful if you
often need to open documents in Word as you work. When you no longer need a document
(you've already done a cut and paste or whatever), all you have to do is click the Delete
button in the Word toolbar.
Here's the macro, to enter the macro, press Alt-F8. Type Delete as the name of the new
macro and click Create. Now, type the macro as shown here:
Sub Delete()
Dim DeleteFile As String
DeleteFile = ActiveDocument.FullName
DoWhat = MsgBox("Do you really want to delete " + DeleteFile +
"?", vbYesNo + vbCritical + vbDefaultButton2, "Delete this file")
If DoWhat = vbYes Then
ActiveDocument.Close
Kill DeleteFile
End If
End Sub
Choose File, Save Normal to save your Delete macro. Press Alt-Q to get back to
Word. Open a new document now, and type a few characters. Choose File, Save As and save
the document under any name you choose.
Now, let's get that Delete button onto the toolbar. Choose View, Toolbars, Customize. When
the Customise dialog box opens, click the Commands tab. Scroll down through the Categories
list and select Macros. Your new macro should appear in the right pane of the Customize
dialog box. Use the mouse to drag it to the toolbar. Release the mouse button when you've
located a spot for the button.
Click Modify Selection and name your new button Delete. Press Enter and then click Close
to close the dialog box and save your changes.
To see how your new macro works, click Delete. The dialog box should open, asking if you
want to delete this file. Click Yes to delete. The macro now gives you another chance with
a second dialog box. To delete your new current file, click Yes again.
Note that this macro can quite easily delete a
document you need. Before you click that Yes button, make sure the current document is the
one you really want to delete.
PLACING SYMBOLS - Version 4.x, 95.
A symbol is treated just like text. In fact, a symbol is simply
a typeface just like all the other text. But, this doesn't mean that you can't place it
inside other text. Let's run through an example.
Open a blank Word document and add some text--anything will do. When you're finished,
press Enter a few times and then choose Insert, Symbol. When the Symbol dialog box opens,
double-click the symbol you want to use and then click Close to dismiss the dialog box.
Select your newly added symbol and choose Format, Font. When the Font dialog box opens,
type in 144 as the font size (for this example) and click OK. Now, with the symbol
selected, choose Insert, Frame. Use the mouse to size the frame and to place it in your
text.
By placing a frame around the symbol we have, in effect, turned the symbol into a picture
that we can place anywhere in the document.
COUNTING THE WORK - Version 4.x, 95
Use Find and Replace to count the number of occurrences
of a heading (or other style) in Word documents. If you always use Heading 1 as the title,
press Ctrl-H to open Find and Replace. Click in Find What. Now, click Format and choose
Style. The styles in the document will appear in the Find Style dialog box. Select Heading
1 and click OK. Now, press the Tab key to get to the Replace With entry box. Click Format,
Style and choose Heading 1 again. Click OK to continue. After you enter the style in both
entry boxes, click Replace All. A dialog box will open to display the number of
replacements made. This is the number of occurrences of Heading 1 in your document.
What you're doing is finding Heading 1 and then replacing it with Heading 1. So, no harm
is done, and you get your article count.
AUTO TEXT - Version 4.x, 95.
You know that you can add text to AutoText and then insert that text into your document at
a later time. For example, you could type John Doe and select it. Then choose Edit,
AutoText. When the AutoText dialog box opens, type in a name for the entry (perhaps JD
would do in this case) and click Add. From this point on (until you change it), you can
type JD and press F3 to enter the full name.
It's sometimes handy to embed an AutoText name in a field code. To see how this works,
press Ctrl-F9. Now, inside the field marks, type AutoText JD Press F9 and the entry
(John Doe) will appear in the document.
BLANK START. - Version 4.x, 95
By default, Word opens with a blank document. But, if you prefer
that Word open with no document, all you have to do is apply the proper switch when you
run Word.
Let's assume that when you open Word, you click Start, Programs, Microsoft Word. To add a
switch to the command that opens Word, right-click Start and choose Open. Next,
double-click the Programs folder to open it. With the Programs folder open, right-click
the Microsoft Word icon and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and then click in
the Target entry box to select it. Move to the end of the existing command and type a
space. 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.
OPEN THE LAST ONE
Would you like to start with the document you were working on
when you stopped the previous evening? A simple macro to do the job.
Sub Autoexec()
RecentFiles(1).Open
End Sub
To enter the macro, run Word and press Alt-F11. When the Basic editor opens,
choose Insert, Module. Enter the code in the new module and then choose File, Save Normal.
With this macro in place, Word automatically opens with the last document loaded.
OPEN WITH NO DOCUMENT.
To open Word with no document you need to modify the
shortcut you use to run Word. To do this, right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.
When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click 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, 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.
Make sure you click in the Target text entry box before you press Space. Clicking in the
Target text entry box deselects the current entry. If you press Space with the current
entry selected, you will delete the entire entry.
REPLACING CARRIAGE RETURNS.
Have a problem when you copy text from Web pages into MS
Word you can't get the text to wrap to your margins until you remove the hard carriage
returns at the end of each line?
Run Word and open a document that has carriage returns at the end of each line. Now press
Ctrl-H to open Find and Replace. When the Find and Replace dialog box opens, click the
Find What entry box and type ^p
Leave the Replace With entry box blank and then click Replace All to replace all the
carriage returns with nothing. Once you've done this, you'll need to go back through the
document and press Enter to create paragraphs where necessary.
An alternative is to enter ^p as described and then click Find Next. When Find And Replace
locates a carriage return you don't need, click Replace.
DELETE A WORD.
When you add words to the dictionary in Word, you are adding
them to a separate user dictionary. So the answer is yes, you can delete incorrectly
spelled words from the user dictionary. Although you could modify the Custom dictionary
file using Word 97, most people find it simpler with Notepad. To do this, run Windows
Explorer and navigate to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office (assuming Microsoft
Office is on drive C:). In this folder, you'll find Custom.dic. Double-click its icon to
open the file in Notepad.
You can now add, delete, or edit words in the custom dictionary. After you're finished
working with the file, choose File, Save and then File, Exit to close Notepad.
EASY WAY TO PRINT A FILE.
Here's a simple tip that makes it easy for you to print to a text file from your Windows
applications. First, open the Printers folder in Control Panel and double-click Add
Printer. Select Local Printer, click Next, and select Generic from the manufacturer list
and Generic/Text Only from the printer list, Then, click Next. Select File from the
available ports list and click Next to add the printer. Now, highlight the new icon,
right-click it, and select Properties. Click the Paper tab and change the paper setting to
Continuous, No Page-Breaks. You can now select this printer from any Windows application,
sending the output in text format to a file. You'll be prompted for the filename when you
print.
AUTOCORRECT.
Want to stop AutoCorrect from automatically
supplying an uppercase when you enter 4i in a Word document? Just create an AutoCorrect
entry to handle the job. Choose Tools, AutoCorrect. When the AutoCorrect dialog box opens,
click in the Replace text box and enter something such as 4xxx. Now, click in the With
text box and enter 4i. Click Add, and then click OK to close the dialog box and save your
entry.
From now on, whenever you enter 4xxx followed by a space (or any punctuation), it
immediately turns into 4i and any accidental lowercase i entries will still be corrected
by Word.
An alternative is to create an AutoCorrect entry to handle the job. Choose Tools,
AutoCorrect. When the AutoCorrect dialog box opens, click in the Replace text box and
enter something such as 4xxx. Now, click in the With text box and enter 4i. Click Add, and
then click OK to close the dialog box and save your entry.
From now on, whenever you enter 4xxx followed by a space (or any punctuation), it
immediately turns into 4i and any accidental lowercase i entries will still be corrected
by Word.
FORMAT LINE SPACING.
To change the line spacing for a paragraph quickly,
position the cursor in the paragraph you would like to modify. Then, press Ctrl-1 to set
the spacing at single space, Ctrl-2 to set double spacing, or Ctrl-5 to set the spacing at
1.5 lines. You can modify an entire document or parts of it by first selecting the text
you would like to modify and then pressing one of these simple keyboard shortcuts.
WIDOWS AND ORPHANS.
Widows and orphans, in the world of word
processing, represent something that should be eradicated rather than pitied. Widows occur
when a paragraph ends with a single line of text running into the next page. This can be
confusing, because when you flip the page and encounter the line, you may have forgotten
how it relates to what you have read previously. It also looks terrible. Orphans are
paragraphs that begin with a single line at the bottom of one page and bleed over to the
next. Word 2000 allows you to set the program to eliminate widows and orphans
automatically.
First, select Format, Paragraph, then check the Widow And Orphan box. Word will
automatically format paragraphs to avoid these dreaded creatures by making sure that
paragraphs don't start or end with a single line on a page.
CHOOSING FROM ANY STYLE IN WORD 97.
When you click the arrow at the right side of the Style list
box in the Word 97 toolbar, you see only the styles that are used in your template
(usually Normal.dot). However, if you hold down the Shift key while you click that
drop-down arrow, you'll get a list of all the available styles.
PLACING CURRENT FILE NAME IN THE WORD FOOTER.
Want put the file name at the bottom of your document in the lower-left corner, the way it
appears in attorneys' documents?
You can write a macro to insert the text. To write the macro, run Word and press F11 to
open the VBA editor. If you don't currently have any modules, click Normal and choose
Insert, Module. Now, add the following code:
Sub InsertInFooter()
Dim ThisFile As String
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPageView
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
If Selection.HeaderFooter.IsHeader = True Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageFooter
Else
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
End If
ThisFile = ActiveDocument.Name
Selection.TypeText ThisFile
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView
End Sub
Press Ctrl-S to save your new macro and then press Alt-Q to return to your Word
document.
Next, let's assign a toolbar button to the new macro. To do this, choose View, Toolbars,
Customize. When the Customise dialog box opens, click the Commands tab. Under Categories,
click Macro. Now, locate your new macro in the Customize right pane and use the mouse to
drag it to the Word toolbar. When you release the mouse button, click Modify Selection and
enter the name you'd like to use for the button. Click Close to dismiss the dialog box and
save your new selection.
All you'll need to do now is click the button in a document and the macro will insert the
file name into the left side of the footer. The file name will appear on all pages in the
document--don't click the button for each page.
Note: This macro sets you to Normal view before
it closes. If you normally work in Page Layout view, you can
delete the line. ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView and you'll remain in Page Layout
view. You use ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdOnlineView for Online view or
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView for Outline view.
MISSING WORD TEMPLATES.
If you choose File, New and you don't get a list of
templates from which to choose, it probably means the templates didn't get loaded. This
problem occurs with the integrated Office 4.3 and Bookshelf 94 package. What happens is
that the Setup program sets the User Templates file locations incorrectly.
If you don't get a template selection when you choose File, New, then you should choose
Tools, Options. When the dialog box opens, click the File Locations tab. Next, select User
Templates, then click Modify. Now double-click the directory that contains your templates
(...\Winword\Templates). Click OK, then Close.
If you need to correct your ClipArt setting while you're at it, open the Tools, Options
dialog box again and this time select ClipArt pictures, then click Modify. Double-click
\Winword\ClipArt. Click OK, then Close.
GOING BACK TO WHERE YOU LEFT OFF.
To get back to where you worked last, the next time you open
a Word document, press Shift-F5. You can also press Shift-F5 to get back to where you were
working after you scroll through a document.
Sometimes you're working on a numbered list and you find that you need to insert
parenthetical remarks. Unfortunately, each time you press Enter, Word thinks you want to
add another item to the list. You can turn off the numbering, but when you wish to resume
the list Word starts again at number one. Fortunately, there is a simple way to resume the
numbered list from where you left off.
When you've reached the point where you wish to insert text without numbers, click the
Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar. Type the new text as you would normally. When
you wish to resume the list, press Enter and then click the Numbering button on the
Formatting toolbar once again. The list will start at one. Right-click at the start of the
list and select Bullets And Numbering from the shortcut menu. Click the Continue Previous
List button, and your list will begin numbering from where you left off.
MISSING WORD TEMPLATES.
If you choose File, New and you don't get a list of
templates from which to choose, it probably means the templates didn't get loaded. This
problem occurs with the integrated Office 4.3 and Bookshelf 94 package. What happens is
that the Setup program sets the User Templates file locations incorrectly.
If you don't get a template selection when you choose File, New, then you should choose
Tools, Options. When the dialog box opens, click the File Locations tab. Next, select User
Templates, then click Modify. Now double-click the directory that contains your templates
(...\Winword\Templates). Click OK, then Close.
If you need to correct your ClipArt setting while you're at it, open the Tools, Options
dialog box again and this time select ClipArt pictures, then click Modify. Double-click
\Winword\ClipArt. Click OK, then Close.
CREATING SUBSCRIPTED TEXT.
If you flash back to high school chemistry, you will recall
that compounds are named with subscripted numbers indicating the proportion of molecules.
The example that leaps immediately to mind is H2O, the chemical name for water. Because
you are viewing this text as an e-mail, we cannot properly display this compound in its
subscripted form, where the number 2 appears slightly below the letters H and O. With Word
2000, however, creating subscripted text is easy.
Using the water example above, you'd type the H normally and then press Ctrl-Hyphen-Equal
Sign. You then type the 2 and press Ctrl-Hyphen-Equal Sign again to resume normal typing.
CHANGING A FILENAME'S EXTENSION.
In many Windows 95 applications, you can type a filename in quotation marks to give it the
extension of your choice. However, various versions of Word respond differently to this
trick. In Word 6, if you choose File, Save As, then type "TEST.ABC" and
tell Word that you want to save the file as Text Only, Word won't recognise what you're
trying to do and will give you an error message. Word 6 doesn't recognise the quotes as
valid. To save the file with a new extension in Word 6, simply type TEST.ABC
In Word 7, the extension will change to TXT once you indicate that you want to save
the file as text--whether or not you type the filename in quotes. Word 97 will accept the
new extension, and your file will be named TEST.ABC. However, you can ALWAYS save the file
with the extension of your choice if you first select Text Only and then type the filename
in quotes.
REPEATING A FIND IN WORD DOCUMENTS.
When you want to find a specific word in a Word 97 document, you can press Ctrl-F to open
the Find And Replace dialog box. Then you type your word and click Find Next.
"However, if you would like to locate all occurrences of the same word without
leaving the Find And Replace dialog box open, you can just click the double down arrow at
the bottom of the scroll bar. This takes you to the next occurrence of the word you
entered in the dialog box. You can repeat this until you have located all occurrences.
When you click the double down arrow, Word searches from the current point downward. If
you want to search from the current point upward, click the double up arrow.
REPEATING A STYLE IN WORD DOCUMENTS.
If you always use the same style when creating Word
97 documents say Heading 8 for all the headings, when you press Enter, the text style
switches to Body Text.
There are times when you may need to use Heading 8 again before you switch to the Body
Text style. Instead of selecting Heading 8 to switch the style, press Shift-Enter, then
type the second line in Heading 8 style. When you press Shift-Enter to move to a new
paragraph (line), Word retains the style of the current line.
SELECTING TEXT IN TRICKY SITUATIONS.
In certain situations, such as when you're working
with a tightly packed table, selecting passages of text with precision with the mouse can
be difficult. There's a handy trick to help you through these trying times. Place the
insertion point where you want the selection to start, press F8, and click the insertion
point where you want the selection to end. All text in between these two points will be
selected, and you needn't worry about the clumsiness of the mouse.
PLACING PAGE NUMBERS IN THE LEFT OR RIGHT MARGINS.
When you insert page numbers into a document, they
typically appear in either the header or footer of the document. If you're a freewheeling
type who likes to be a little different, you can also put page numbers into the left or
right margin. To insert page numbers into a margin, first select Insert, Page Numbers as
you would normally. Then go to View, Headers And Footers. Move your cursor over the
number, and the cursor will turn into a directional icon. Grab the small box that contains
your page numbers; drag the box into the left or right margin, wherever you would like the
page numbers to appear; and release. Your subsequent pages will follow suit.
CREATING CONCENTRIC CIRCLES.
Let's say you'd like to create a drawing in Word
that requires closely aligned 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 and 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.
ADDING
THE DATE TO DOCUMENTS.
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. However, 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. Word will insert
the date in the selected format.
ADD
NON-BREAKING SPACES.
As you create a Word document,
you may encounter two or three word phrases that you'd rather not have split between
lines. For example, you may prefer to keep the phrase "The Supreme Court" on a
single line. You can use Ctrl-Shift-Space to add non-breaking spaces within this phrase.
So, you'd type The(Ctrl-Shift-Space)Supreme(Ctrl-Shift-Space)Court(Space) When
typed this way, the phrase will stay together as though it were a single word.
USING
LEADERS.
Leaders are those dots and
dashes that stretch from one portion of text to another, letting the reader know that the
two groups are related. Leaders are used commonly on small lists or table of contents. For
example:
Chapter 1.........How to use leaders
You could simply press the period button repeatedly to produce leaders (as we've done
above), but you'd quickly find that not all items in the list line up properly. The
solution is to use the Leaders feature when setting tab stops. When you're ready to enter
a list that contains leaders, choose Format, Tabs to open the Tabs dialog box. Set the
first tab stop where the left side of your list will be positioned, and the second where
your right side will be positioned. Then click the button under Leader that corresponds to
the kind of leader line you like and click OK.
DOCUMENT
REVISIONS.
Ask any solicitor who regularly deals with contracts, and they'll
tell you that the ability to track changes is one of the most important features of a word
processor. Word 2000 offers great flexibility for tracking document revisions. To get you
started tracking document changes, choose Tools, Track Changes, Highlight Changes. Select
both the Track Changes While Editing and Highlight Changes On Screen options and click OK.
Word 2000 will now keep track of any revisions you make to the document, marking revisions
in red and using strikethrough to indicate deletions and underlining to indicate
additions. Using this feature, you can see exactly what you've changed and when (by
rolling the cursor over the revised text), and you can refer to all your deleted text
later.
To review changes and accept or reject them individually, right-click on the highlighted
revision and select either Accept Change or Reject Change. The revised passage will no
longer be highlighted, and the change will become regular text.
While highlighted revisions are great for seeing how a document progresses, they can also
make for difficult reading. You can turn off the revision highlights at any time to see
the document how it stands in its most recent form. The revisions are still tracked, but
Word 2000 does so invisibly. To turn off the revision highlights, choose Tools, Track
Changes; deselect the Highlight Changes Onscreen option; and click OK.
Suppose you give a document for editing to several people at the same time. Word 2000
allows you to merge each of the edited copies back into the original so you can have all
the changes in one place. To merge the originals with the edited versions, have the
original open and choose Tools, Merge Documents. Browse through your files, select one of
the edited copies, and click OK. Repeat the process until you've merged all copies. Each
set of edits will appear in the original document in a different colour, so you can tell
who made each change. You can then accept or reject the changes as you would normally, or
abnormally, whichever you prefer...
By default, Word 2000 marks insertions with an underline and deletions with a
strikethrough. If these revision marks don't suit your taste, you can change them. Choose
Tools, Options and click the Track Changes tab. Here you can set how word tracks the
aforementioned changes as well as changes to formatting and lines. When you have the
settings the way you want them, click OK.
LAYING OUT TEXT ON AN ENVELOPE.
For the most part,
Word 2000 does a good job of formatting the text on an envelope if you simply
use the Tools, Envelopes And Labels box. But sometimes you may need to create an
envelope that requires more precise formatting. Remember that you can always
format envelopes precisely by adding your envelope to your document and creating
text on it as you would any other document. Begin by selecting Tools, Envelopes
And Labels and clicking the Add To Document button. Then, choose View, Print
Layout, and you'll see a white page that's a WYSIWYG version of the envelope.
Here, you can format text any way you wish, with the same precision as in any
other Word document.
CREATING MULTIPLE COPIES OF AN ENVELOPE.
The easiest way to
print multiple copies of the same envelope is to add the envelope to your
document and then print multiple copies from the standard print window.
To do this, first select Tools, Envelopes And Labels and enter the address as
you would normally. Then click the Add To Document button, and you'll see that
your envelope is inserted as the first page of your document. Click on the page
with the envelope and choose File, Print. In the resulting dialog box, select
Current Page under Print Range, select the correct number of copies, and click
OK.
COMPILING YOUR WORD MACROS.
When you run a Word
macro, Word has to compile the code first. You can tell Word to compile the code
in the background when the computer has a little extra time. This can save you
some time when you run the macro, especially if you're running an older
computer.
To make this selection, run Word and press Alt-F11. Now choose Tools, Options.
When the Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Select the check box
labelled Background Compile and click OK to close the dialog box and save your
changes. Finally, press Alt-Q to return to your Word document.
AUTOMATIC LISTS.
Version 95
If you want to let Word handle numbered lists for you, here's how to stay in
control of what types of lists you get.
If you want to use Roman numerals, enter I followed by a period, a space,
and the text. When you press Enter, the next Roman numeral will appear. It
should look like this:
I. This is the first line
II. This is the second line
III. And this is the third line
If you want standard
numbers, enter 1 followed by a period, a space, and your text. Now you'll
get this:
1. This is first
2. This is second
3. This is third
Want to use letters? Type A
followed by a period, a space, and your text, like this:
A. This is first
B. This is second
C. This is third
You can also automatically
create bulleted lists. Let's say you want to use a round bullet. Type * followed
by a space or tab, then your text. When you press Enter, the bullet for the next
item in the list will appear.
You can also use angle brackets (greater-than and less-than signs) as bullets.
ADDING IMAGES TO MAILING LABELS.
Version 4.x, 95
You know that you can insert images into a Word document. You can also insert
images into the header and footer. But how about a mailing label? Why not put an
image in a mailing label, too? You can do this, but the method isn't quite as
obvious as the method for inserting pictures into documents and headers and
footers. Here's what to do.
Locate a BMP file that you'd like to use in your labels. Now choose Tools,
Envelopes And Labels. When the dialog box opens, click Labels. Now click in the
Address box. Press Ctrl-F9 to create a field. Enter into the field
IncludePicture C:\\windows\\MyOwn.bmp where the picture is in the Windows folder
and MyOwn.bmp is the filename. Make sure you use the double slashes (c:\\) as
shown for every subdirectory when you enter the filename. Now, while the cursor
is still in the field, press F9. The picture will load and appear in the label.
If the picture is too large, use the mouse to size it. This insertion technique
works best with small, simple figures. For example, inserting a small company
logo should work well.
Try to size the picture before you insert it into the label. If the picture
doesn't look good at a reduced size, then it certainly won't look good in the
label. If you use a black-and-white printer, you need to make sure the picture
you intend to insert into the label will print well on your printer.
WORD: WRAPPING TEXT AROUND CALLOUTS.
Version 4.x, 95
Is there a way to make the primary text wrap around callout text? Yes, there
is--well, sort of. What you can do is insert a frame (Insert, Frame) and then
draw a callout inside the frame.
Before you insert the callout, place the frame where you want it to appear when
finished (at least as close as possible). If you don't see the Drawing toolbar,
choose View, Toolbars and select Drawing. Once the toolbar is visible, click the
Callout button (it looks like one of the speech bubbles you see in a comic
strip) and draw the callout inside the frame.
Now you can right-click the frame and choose Format Frame. In the Frame dialog
box, choose to have text wrap around the frame, then click OK. At this point,
you can enter your callout text. If you need to change the placement of your
callout, move the frame and then move the callout back inside it.
A DESCRIPTION OF HEADER AND FOOTER COMMANDS.
The Header And
Footer toolbar is not one of the better examples of design in Word 2000. It's
difficult to figure out what all the buttons mean intuitively, and you may find
yourself relying on trial and error to see what they do. We'll give you a quick
rundown on some of the Header And Footer toolbar buttons.
First, make the toolbar visible by selecting View, Header And Footer. Insert
AutoText inserts items like the document name into the header or footer. Insert
Page Number puts the page number into the header or footer. The Format Page
Number button allows you to control where and how the page number is displayed.
Insert Number Of Pages allows you insert the total number of pages into the
footer (more on this later). Insert Date inserts either the date the document
was opened or, if you print the document, the date it was printed. Same goes for
Insert Time. The Page Set-up button opens the Layout tab of the Page Set-up
dialog box. Show/Hide Document Text allows you to look at your header or footer
with or without the document text to check on formatting. Stay tuned--more
exciting header and footer talk is on the way.
First, make the toolbar visible by selecting View, Header And Footer. The
buttons we'll cover today have to do with headers, footers, and sections. As you
know, headers and footers vary from section to section in Word 2000, unless you
tell the program otherwise. Most of the following buttons have to do with making
comparisons between the headers and footers in different sections to see how you
want the current section formatted. So, the Same As Previous button is used to
make a header or footer the same in the current section as it was in the
previous section. Switch Between Header And Footer allows you to jump between
the two on a single page. Show Previous takes you to the header or footer in the
previous section to see how it was formatted. Show Next shows the header or
footer in the next section. And Close--why, we all know what that does. It
closes the Header And Footer view.
FIXING THE DATE.
How do you insert
the date into a document automatically and keep it from updating once the
document was finished. In other words, ensure that when you open a letter some
time after you created it, it would display the date the letter was drafted
rather than the current date.
The key is, when inserting the date (by choosing Insert, Date And Time and
selecting a format) make sure the Update Automatically option is not selected.
When the option is enabled (and by default it is whenever you select Insert,
Date And Time), a field is inserted instead of a string of text, and the field
is updated continuously.
WORD SHORTCUTS.
If you double-click
any indent marker in the Word ruler, Word opens the Paragraph dialog box. If you
double-click the Page number or Sec number labels in the status bar, you'll get
the Go To dialog box. Notice that you can also click either the Find or the
Replace tab to use one of these functions or you can double-click anywhere in
the two leftmost areas of the Word toolbar to open the Go To dialog box.
MAKING WATERMARKS IN WORD.
Let's use a ClipArt
picture as an example. Also, the easiest way to deal with a watermark in Word is
to place it in the header, so we'll describe this technique.
Run Word and choose View, Header And Footer. Click in the Header area and choose
Insert, Picture, ClipArt. Double-click a picture to insert it. Now you should
have a floating toolbar named Picture. In this toolbar, click the second button
from the left (Image Control) and choose Watermark from the list. Click the Text
Wrapping button now (fourth from the right in the Picture toolbar). Select None
from the list, then click Close in the Header And Footer toolbar.
To view your watermark as you work, choose View, Page Layout. The watermark will
not show in the Normal mode. If you need to make adjustments to your watermark
(resize it, relocate it, and so on) choose View, Header And Footer and make the
required changes.
USING THE CENTS SIGN.
Press Ctrl-/ (slash)
and then press C.
Note: The most likely reason for the lack of a cents
symbol on standard keyboards is that stating amounts in cents has never been
acceptable in formal financial dealings. To express ten cents, one would write
$0.10.
FINDING
OUT HOW TEXT HAS BEEN FORMATTED.
There are so many ways to format, manipulate, and
otherwise transform text in Word 2000 that it's possible to forget exactly what
you've done. Fortunately, it's easy to see exactly what formatting has been
applied to a specific section of text.
Select Help, What's This? and click the text that you're curious about. A dialog
box appears.
CREATING SUBSCRIPTED TEXT.
If you flash back to high school chemistry (a painful memory for many of
us), you will recall that compounds are named with subscripted numbers
indicating the proportion of molecules. The example that leaps immediately to
mind is H2O, the chemical name for water. Because you are viewing this text as
an email, we cannot properly display this compound in its subscripted form,
where the number 2 appears slightly below the letters H and O. With Word 2000,
however, creating subscripted text is easy.
Using the water example above, you'd type the H normally and then press
Ctrl-Hyphen-Equal Sign. You then type the 2 and press Ctrl-Hyphen-Equal Sign
again to resume normal typing.
KEEPING LISTS FROM BREAKING ACROSS PAGES.
If you have a brief
numbered list in your document, you probably don't want items one and two on the
first page and items three, four, and five on the second. Your list would look
much better if all the items were kept together. The best way to do this is to
tell Word 2000 to keep the lines of your list together.
First, select the text in your list. Then select Format, Paragraph and click the
Line And Page Breaks tab. Check the Keep With Next box, and your list will
remain together on the same page.
CLIPART.
Although Word 2000
comes with a sizable library of clip art, you will eventually need a picture
that isn't available on your CD. Fortunately, there is another vast reservoir of
images available online, and it's simple to insert these images directly into
your document.
First, select Insert, Picture, Clip Art and click the Clips Online button. Click
OK, and Word 2000 will launch your Web browser, connecting you to Microsoft Clip
Gallery Live. Here, you will have access to literally hundreds of thousands of
clips, and when you download a clip, it is automatically inserted directly into
your own Clip Gallery, into the Downloaded Clips category. Have fun with this
clip art gold mine.
If you ever want to draw a line across the entire width of a document, there is
a neat little trick that makes this operation almost instantaneous. All it
involves is pressing a key three times and pressing Enter. Different keys will
give you different kinds of lines.
For example, for a solid line across the page, simply press the Hyphen key three
times and press Enter. For a thicker line, use the Underline key. For a broken
line, use the Asterisk key. Pressing the Equal Sign key three times and then
pressing Enter will give you a double line across the page, and performing the
operation with the Tilde key gives you a squiggly line across the page.
GENERATING TEST TEXT.
When you need to type some text into a Word document for test purposes, don't
waste your time--let Word do the job for you. Let's say that you would like to
type in a single four-sentence paragraph. Just click at a blank line in your
document, type =rand(1,4) and press Enter. Word will automatically type:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy dog.
The first number inside the parentheses is the number of paragraphs and the
second number is the number of sentences in each paragraph. So, for 22
paragraphs of 22 sentences, you'd enter =rand(22,22).
PLACE THE CURRENT FILE NAME INTO THE FOOTER.
A friend recently asked if there is some way to get Word to automatically put
the name of the current document into the document footer. You can do this with
a macro. To write the macro, run Word and press F11 to open the VBA editor. If
you don't currently have any modules, click Normal and choose Insert, Module.
Now, add the following code as shown here.
Sub InsertInFooter()
Dim ThisFile As String
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPageView
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
If Selection.HeaderFooter.IsHeader = True Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageFooter
Else
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
End If
ThisFile = ActiveDocument.Name
Selection.TypeText ThisFile
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView
End Sub
Press Ctrl + S to save your new macro and then press Alt + Q to return to your
Word document. Now you can press Alt + F8 to open the Macros dialog box, then
double-click InsertInFooter to run the macro. Note that this will add the
document name to the footer each time you run the macro. So you should run this
macro only once for a given document.
ADDING TO WORD'S AUTOCORRECT.
When you need to add a word to AutoCorrect, you choose Tools>>AutoCorrect,
type in your word and click Add. Then you click OK to close the dialog box and
apply the correction. But you can shorten this up some. All you have to do is
enter your word and press Enter twice - one time for Add, and again for OK.
WORD STYLES.
We were recently asked this question about Word styles: "If you click the
arrow at the Style list box in the Formatting toolbar, you see only the styles
that are used in the current document. How do you get to the other styles?"
This is easy to do, but not especially obvious to the Word user. What you do is
hold down Shift while you click the arrow at the right side of the Style list
box. This will display all the available styles.
CUSTOMIZED GRAMMAR.
If you're mostly writing letters and other friendly documents in Word 2000, then
you may find the Grammar checker just a bit more rigid than you'd like. You can
easily correct this. Just run Word and choose Tools>>Options. When the
Options dialog box opens, click the Spelling & Grammar tab. Click the arrow
at the right side of the "writing style" list box. From the expanded
list choose "Casual." Click OK to close the dialog box and save your
selection. You'll find that Word is now much more lenient in the grammar
department than before.
CONTROL PANEL.
For those of you who
want Control Panel in the toolbar, here's how. Right-click the desktop and
choose New\Folder. Name the folder ControlPanel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
exactly as you see it here. In fact, the best way to do this is to copy
the name from this document and then paste it into the new folder name.
At this point, the new Control Panel will appear on your desktop. All you have
to do now is use the right mouse button to drag the folder to the Quick Launch
bar. When the menu opens, choose Move Here.
HOW TO OPEN WORD WITH NO DOCUMENT.
When you open Word,
there is always a new blank document present so you can start typing
immediately. If you'd prefer to have Word open with no document at all, there is
a way.
To open Word with no document, you'll need to modify the shortcut that you use
to run Word. To do this, right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When
the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now 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. Now, 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.
HOW TO REPEAT FIND.
Suppose that you want to
use Find to locate all occurrences of a particular word. You press Ctrl + F to
open the Find and Replace dialog box and type in your word. Then you click Find
Next and locate one occurrence of your word. You close the Find dialog box, but
later on, you want to find another occurrence of the same word.
One way to do this is to click the blue double-down arrows on the vertical
scrollbar. If you want to search backward rather than forward, click the blue
double-up arrows.
STARTING WHERE YOU LEFT OFF IN A DOCUMENT.
When you open Word and
load the document you were working on the day before, the cursor always appears
at the top of the document. So you have to locate where you left off to continue
your work. This is often a real pain if you're working with a long document and
you were not working at the end of that document when you closed Word. To get
back to where you left off, run Word, load the document and then press Shift+
F5. Word will place the cursor just where it was when you last closed the
program.
WATCH OUT FOR A POSSIBLE DISASTER.
When you're working on a
document, be sure to save it frequently. This will help you avoid losses better
than anything else you could do.
And now, for that possible disaster. Suppose you're working on a long document.
You're starting a new sentence so you press Shift and the letter A. But, let's
say that you accidentally press Ctrl + A instead of Shift + A. Now you keep
typing and your entire document disappears. What has happened is that you
selected all the text in the document and then replaced it with the next letter
you typed.
If this should happen to you, don't panic and don't save the document at this
point. Instead, press Ctrl + Z and Word will restore your lost text. Now, you
can save the document. This may not happen often, but we have had it happen.
USING AUTOCORRECT TO INSERT SYMBOLS.
Many of us occasionally
need to use Greek letters as mathematical symbols. An easy way to insert these
letters is to use Word's AutoCorrect feature. Let's say we want to use the Greek
letter tau.
Open a blank document in Word and type in t
and then press Enter. Now, select the t, click the arrow at the right
side of the Font list, and choose Symbol from the list. This will turn the t
into a tau symbol. Select the tau symbol and choose Tools/AutoCorrect. When
AutoCorrect opens select the "Formatted text" radio button. You should
now have the tau symbol in the "With" entry box. Click in the
'Replace' entry box and type in tau then press Enter twice. From now on, when you type in
tau, Word will replace it with the tau symbol.
SPARKLING TEXT.
If you create documents
that people will read on the computer, you can add a bit of spice to your text.
Open a Word document and select some text. Now, choose Format/Font. When the
Font dialog box opens, click the Text Effects tab. Now, click one of the text
effects - Sparkle Text, for example. Now click OK to close the dialog box and
apply your selection.
WORD TABLES
Do you need to make
a list in Word 2000? Let's suppose that you want to make a list of books,
authors, and publication dates. Run Word and open a blank document. Now choose
Table/Insert/Table. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, enter 3 into the
'Number of columns' entry box (you can type in a 3, or you can use the up and
down arrows to enter the number). Click OK to close the dialog box and continue.
Note that you don't need to set the number of rows right now. Into the first
row, type the heading names (for our example, Book, Author, Publisher,
Publication Date). Now, add the first book and its related information. To add
another book, you will need another row. So, click in the last row and choose
Table/Insert/Rows Below. Each time you add a new book, you'll have to insert a
new row, so just repeat the described procedure and enter your new book. Don't
forget to save your document when you add a new book.
CHANGE THE SIDEBAR BORDER.
You may not care
much for the default text box border on your Word sidebar--perhaps you would
like a heavier border instead. So, let's take a look at how you can make your
sidebar border a bit thicker. To do this, move the mouse pointer over the
sidebar (text box) border. When the pointer changes to a four-headed arrow,
right-click and choose Format Text Box. When the Format Text Box dialog box
opens, click the Colors and Lines Tab. Now, click the up arrow at the right side
of the 'Weight' spin box to increase the line thickness. When the line reaches
the correct thickness, click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new
border settings.
INSERTING A WATERMARK INTO A DOCUMENT.
A watermark is a
very light graphic that appears on document pages. The normal text of the
document appears over the watermark. For example, you might like to have your
company logo appear as a watermark on some of your documents.
To test this, open a blank document and choose Insert/Picture/Clip Art. When the
Insert Clip Art dialog box opens, select a picture and insert it into the
document. Size and locate the picture as you like. Right-click the picture and
choose Format Picture. When the Format Picture dialog box appears, click the
Picture tab (if necessary) and then click the arrow at the right side of the
'Color' list box. Select Watermark from the list. Next click the Layout tab and
then double-click 'Behind text.' Finally, click OK to close the dialog box and
save your watermark.
ALIGNING TEXT IN WORD.
Let's imagine that you
have already written a rather long document. Now, you see that a portion of the
text would look much better centred. You don't have to redo any part of your
document. All you have to do is select the text you want to centre and press
Ctrl + E. You can apply any format to selected text. Select the text and press
Ctrl + E to centre the selection, Ctrl + L to align to the left, or Ctrl + R to
align it to the right.
USING CAPTIONS FOR PICTURES.
If you're composing a newsletter, or some other type of document that
needs figures, you can get to add captions to your figures. Suppose you'd like
to just call the figures Figure 1 through Figure X. Right-click the graphic
object and choose Caption. When the Caption dialog box opens, accept the default
settings and click OK. Word will insert 'Figure 1' below the picture.
Right-click the next picture and choose Caption, then click OK. Word will insert
'Figure 2' below the picture. Continue until you have captions for all your
graphics.
MODIFYING THE NEW BUTTON.
If you click the New
button (at the left side of the Word toolbar), Word usually opens a new blank
document. However, if you often use one of the other templates, you may prefer
to have the New button open the New dialog box and give you a chance to select
the template you want.
To change the button, choose View/Toolbars/Customize. When the Customize dialog
box opens, drag the current New icon away from the toolbar. Now, click the
Commands tab. Next, under 'Categories,' click File to select it. Drag the icon
labeled New into place in the first spot on the left in the Word toolbar. Click
OK to accept your new selection and close the dialog box. The new button will
open the New dialog box and you can choose a new template from each document.
INSERTING BOOKMARKS IN A DOCUMENT.
When you need to work
with large documents in Word, it's very helpful to bookmark sections of your
document for quick navigation. To do this, click where you want a bookmark and
choose Insert/Bookmark. Name your bookmark and click Add.
To navigate to the bookmark, press Ctrl + G and under 'Go to what' select
Bookmark. Now, under 'Bookmark name' you'll see your newly-added bookmark. Click
'Go To' to navigate to the bookmark. Click Close to close the dialog box.
When you have more than one bookmark (and you probably will), click the arrow at
the right side of the 'Bookmark name' list box and select your bookmark name.
COPY CONTACT CONTENT.
You can easily copy
contact information from the Address Book into a Word document. Open the Address
Book and highlight the contact you wish to copy. Right-click it, select Copy,
move your mouse cursor to the desired place in the Word document, right-click
again and select Paste. The contact information will now appear in the Word
document.
QUICKLY CHANGING CASE.
Suppose you've just
finished writing a paper for school in Word 2000, when you notice that some of
your capitalization is incorrect. You can select the word and choose
Format/Change Case and go from there. But, if you'd rather not use the mouse,
you can simply click inside the word you want to change and press Shift + F3.
Each time you press Shift + F3, Word will move to a new case type. Just keep
pressing the key combination until you get the one you want.
FINDING THE NEXT OCCURRENCE.
Not long ago, we did a tip on how to repeat a Find in Word. We suggested
clicking double down arrow at the bottom of the scroll bar. Since then, several
readers have pointed out that you can use keystrokes to repeat a find. All you
have to do is press Shift + F4 or Alt + Ctrl + Y.
To check this out, open a document in Word and press Ctrl + F to open the Find
and Replace dialog box. Type in "the" and click Find Next. When Word
finds the first occurrence of "the," click Cancel to close the dialog
box. Now press Shift + F4 and Word will move to the next "the." After
you do this a few times, press Alt + Ctrl + Y and you'll discover that it works
just the same as Shift + F4.
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