June 14, 2004

Since the majority of people now seem to have Word as their primary word processor, I decided to devote this discussion to some helpful tips for making life a little easier.  The Office suite of programs is quite powerful and I find very few people actually utilize most of the features.  I'll provide a list of the tips, you just click on one and it will take you to that item, or you can scroll down the list.

Text Selection Tips
Returning To Last Edit Point
Ruler Tips
Shrinking To Fit a Page
Row and Paragraph Moving
Copy and Move Multiple Items
Finding Synonyms For Words
Formatting Text Files
Removing Document Formatting
Changing A Text Box Shape
Remove A File From The Recent File List
Using Graphics In A Return Address
Changing Text Case
Sharing Files From Word to an older version of Word
Adding AutoCorrect Entries
Non-Breaking Spaces
Table Positioning Using Text Boxes

Text Selection Tips

Use the mouse to select text:
One Word - Double click on the word.
One Paragraph - Move the cursor to the left so it changes to an arrow, then double click.
More Than One Paragraph - Move the cursor to the left so it changes to an arrow, then hold the mouse button down while scrolling to the end of the selected area.
Entire Document - With the cursor anywhere in the left side, hold the Ctrl key down and click.
 

Returning To Last Edit Point - When opening a document, press <Shift>-<F5> to return to the last point you were editing when you last saved the document.

Ruler Tips - While using Word hold the <Alt> key and click anywhere on the ruler at the top of the document window, the normal ruler margins are repeated by a tape measure-like display that gives you a readout of the size of various indents, hanging indents, and margins. If you know that you want to indent a page or paragraph a particular number of inches, holding down the mouse button while you drag ruler markers beats trying to figure out how many little notches equals 1.25 inches, and to remove tabs, etc.  To remove a tab just drag the tab off the ruler.

Shrinking To Fit a Page - Instead of fussing with margins, fonts, and page settings to squeeze that one-and-a-quarter-page document onto one page, let Word do the work for you. Select File, Properties, and click the Shrink to Fit button.  Word will make all the necessary tweaks to fit your document onto a single page.  On longer documents, Word will reduce the page count as much as it deems prudent.

Row and Paragraph Moving - To move a row in a table, put the cursor anywhere in the row.  Press Shift-Alt-Up-(or Down) Arrow and arrow to desired location. NOTE:  You can also break off the last row of a table using this method.

Copy and Move Multiple Items - Have you ever had to collect blocks of text and graphical images from different places in one or more Word documents, insert them into another document?  This sounds like a multi-step process, but if you're working in Word 6.0 or a later version, you can simplify the job by using the Spike.  The Spike, named after the old-fashioned editor's spindle, is part of Word's AutoText feature, which lets you store text for repeated use.  You add text graphics to the Spike one by one, then insert them into another document as a group. 

Here's how: Open the document, or documents, containing the text or graphics that you to collect.  Select the first item you want to send to Spike.  Keep in mind that items in the spike are inserted in the final document the order in which they were added.  Adding an item to the Spike removes it from the original document, so if you need to keep the original intact, press <Ctrl>-C to copy the item to the Windows Clipboard.  NOTE: Just make sure the original document is saved and when you are done moving and using Spike, when Word asks if you want to save the original document, just say No.

Press <Ctrl>-<F3> to move the first item to the Spike.  Repeat the steps above until you've collected all the material you want to transfer.  AGAIN, don't forget, when you put the items in the spike, they are deleted from the original document, so don't save the original documents you took the items out of when you're done.

To insert all your collected material and clear the Spike's contents, position the cursor on a blank line in the document where you want the items to go, then press <Ctrl>-<Shift>-<F3>.  To insert the contents of the Spike without clearing it, so that you can use the items again later, position the cursor where you want to insert the Spike material, type spike, then press <F3>.

Note: Before you begin a new collection of items, make sure the Spike is empty.  To view its contents, to insert a new item, or to delete an item, select Edit-AutoText, then choose Spike from the list of AutoText entries.

Finding Synonyms For Words - When you type a word and wish you could come up with a better one, press <Shift>-<F7> to open the Thesaurus dialog box.

Formatting Text Files - When importing text files into Word, try using Autoformat, on the Format menu, to remove extra carriage returns.

Removing Document Formatting - If you open a document which has a lot of formatting you don’t want, highlight the text you want to change to the normal formatting and press <Ctrl>-Q.  To change only character formatting. select the text, then press <Ctrl>-Spacebar.

Changing A Text Box Shape - By default, a text box uses the Rectangle AutoShape.  To change the AutoShape assigned to a text box, select the text box you’d like to modify, then select Draw/Change AutoShape from the Drawing toolbar.  Select an AutoShape category from the resulting submenu, then select the AutoShape tool you’d like to use from the group’s submenu. 

Remove A File From The Recent File List - This is a common question from my clients.  Press <Ctrl>-<Alt>-(Use minus key on keyboard, not keypad), the cursor will change to a minus sign.  Go to File menu and click on the file you want to remove.

Using Graphics In A Return Address - When you click on the Envelope icon to print an envelope, you've probably noticed Word will not let you do anything except type text in the return address.  If you dig through the help stuff, you'll find Word will automatically look for a macro called EnvelopeExtra1.  If it exists, whatever is in it will be placed into the return address.

NOTE: Keep in mind that when you are at the screen showing the return address, you will not see the graphic but it will print.  Also be advised if you create the Autotext entry, clicking on Omit Return Address will not stop word from printing the graphic. 

To create a graphic in the return address for an envelope, create the return address in the active document.  You might want to save this document for later.  Now, highlight all the graphic and any text you typed, go to the Insert menu, click on Autotext, then click on New, and save it as an entry named EnvelopeExtra1. 

You can also create a macro to remove the graphic and another to put it back.  Macros are too difficult to explain here.  If you're interested, call me and we'll make an appointment to discuss further.

Changing Text Case - You can quickly toggle the case of selected text by pressing <Shift>-<F3>. Each time you press <Shift>-<F3>, the selected text's case cycles from lower case to title case to upper case.  A lesser known case-toggling keyboard shortcut you'll be sure to get some use from is the <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A shortcut.  When you select text that contains both upper-case and lower-case characters and then press Ctrl-Shift-A, Word toggles the case of the lower-case characters to upper case.  For example, if you select the text "My Dog has Fleas" and press <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A, the text becomes "MY DOG HAS FLEAS."  If you press <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A again, the text returns to its initial state. 

A word of warning: the <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A shortcut works just like the Caps Lock key.  If you don't select any text before pressing <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A and then begin typing, your text will all be upper case.  To turn the feature off, press <Ctrl>-<Shift>-A again.

Sharing Files From Word to an older version of Word - If you're sharing documents between versions, it's a good idea to turn off the Word features that aren't supported by older versions of Word. 

To do so, start Word and select Tools, Options from the menu bar. Click on the Save tab, then select the format you want at the bottom. Now when you save a document in Word, Word lists the features it's able to convert (if any) for use in the older version.  If you're not a power user, you'll probably never know you changed this setting since it only affects higher end editing features.

Adding AutoCorrect Entries - If you have Word's automatic spell checker turned on, you can quickly create AutoCorrect entries as you type.  Word's automatic spell checker marks unrecognized words in your document with a wavy red underline.  To add an unrecognized word and its correct spelling to the AutoCorrect list, right-click on the word.  If Word's spell checker is able to suggest alternative spellings for the unrecognized word, AutoCorrect appears on the resulting shortcut menu.  Select AutoCorrect, then choose the word you'd like to replace it with from the submenu.  Word adds the unrecognized word and its replacement to the AutoCorrect list; the next time you type the misspelled word, Word automatically replaces it with the word you specified.

Non-Breaking Spaces - Non-breaking spaces offer a dependable way to ensure that your document doesn't contain unsightly or confusing text breaks.  For instance, when you enter a date such as December 15, 2000, you want to make sure Word doesn't place December and 15 on different lines.  Similarly, you don't want Word to break the line between a person's first name and middle initial. 

To enter a non-breaking space, just press <Ctrl>-<Shift>-Spacebar. 

Table Positioning Using Text Boxes - You can add drag-and-drop and wrapping capabilities to your Word tables by placing them in a text box.  Simply select Insert, Text Box from the menu bar or click the Text Box button on the Drawing toolbar and draw a text box in your document.  Next, place the insertion point inside the text box, if it isn't already there, by clicking inside it.  Now insert your table by selecting Table, Insert Table from the menu bar or by clicking the Insert Table button on the Standard toolbar.  You can now adjust the table's position and wrapping style by customizing the text box's position and wrapping settings.

If you have any questions or comments, click