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  Saturday, May 10, 2008 – Permalink –

Tables

Without reservations


Word is more versatile than Excel or PowerPoint when it comes to manipulating how a table will appear. Go to View>Toolbars Tables and Borders, and also see the Table menu especially, "Table Properties" .
(In 2007 go to Insert Table, or Right click the Table)

Often, you will insert a table at the top of a document, and then later realize that you need to enter text above the table.

A keyboard shortcut to fix this is to place the insertion point in the first cell in the top left corner of the table.

Hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter and Word will move the table down and place the insertion point at the top.

This is also the combination used to split an existing table in two.
(If there are no entries in the cell, the Enter key will move the insertion point. If there is text in the cell or a paragraph above the table, then the Enter key will just start a new paragraph inside the cell.)

Here are some more suggestions from the Word MVPS web site:
Maximising the performance of Word tables

Rutgers University:
Word 2003: tables


[Edited entry from 1/16/2005]




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<Doug Klippert@ 8:55 AM

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  Wednesday, May 07, 2008 – Permalink –

Change Case

CAPS - No - caps



Sometimes mistakes are made in setting the case for sentences.
There are four general categories of capitalization:

Sentence Case - The first letter of a sentence is capitalized

Lowercase - all words are in lowercase

Uppercase - ALL CAPITALS

Title Case - All Words Are Capitalized
(This is, really, "Proper case". Title case would be "All Important Words are Capitalized".
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs should be uppercase. Common articles, prepositions, and conjunctions should be lowercase
.)

You can make changes to selected text by going to
Format>Change Case
and choosing the correct style. (Including tOGGLE cASE)

You could also use a keyboard shortcut.
Select the text and then hold down the SHIFT key and tap the F3 key to toggle through three of the main cases – All Cap, Lowercase, and Title.

SAP Design Guild:
Quick Guide to Capitalization in English


Technical Communicators' Forum:
Capitalization of Headings and Titles


From The Editorium.com:
Here's a macro to change Heading styles to true Title case:
TITLE CASE MACRO, VERSION 2
By Jack M. Lyon

Word Tips:
Capital after colon

Automatically correct capitalization in most any MS 2007 App.



[Edited entry from 1/22/2005]




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<Doug Klippert@ 6:00 AM

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  Monday, May 05, 2008 – Permalink –

Word is full of HTML

Clean up tools


From the Help file:

"When you save Web pages format with Microsoft Word, additional tags are added so that you can continue to use the full functionality of Word to edit your content.

To reduce the size of Web pages, you can save them in filtered HTML. Filtered format removes Microsoft Office-specific tags. If you save in filtered HTML and then reopen the file in Office programs, text and general appearance will be preserved, but some features may work differently.

If you reopen a Web page in Word that you saved in filtered HTML, your text and general appearance are preserved, but you may not be able to use certain Word features in the usual way to edit your files. For example, the appearance of bulleted or numbered lists is preserved; however, some of the Word functionality associated with lists will not be preserved.

If you will need to edit the file later, you can maintain two files: one in Word format and one in filtered HTML format. You can edit the content in the Word document, save it in Word format for future editing, and then save a copy in filtered HTML format."


Using filtered HTML save may not clean everything up. If you need more help see Informit.com:
Clean HTML from Word: Can It Be Done?
By Laurie Rowell.

Also:

HTML Tidy Library Project


[Edited entry from 1/3/2005]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:11 AM

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  Wednesday, April 23, 2008 – Permalink –

Identify Formatting Inconsistencies

A suggestion I don't suggest



Microsoft Word can detect formatting inconsistencies as you type and then mark them with a blue, wavy underline.You may want to have all the headings in a document formatted the exact same way, but you inadvertently formatted some of them differently. Word can detect these inconsistencies as you are typing and underline them with a blue wavy line to alert you.

Lockergnome:
Check your formatting inconsistencies in Word

Microsoft Word Help:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Edit tab.
  2. Under Editing options, select the Keep track of formatting check box, if it is not already selected.
  3. Under Editing options, select the Mark formatting inconsistencies check box.
    Formatting inconsistencies will be marked with blue, wavy underlines.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In your document, right-click the blue, wavy underline where a formatting inconsistency has occurred.
  6. Do one of the following:
    To correct the inconsistency, click the command that describes the inconsistency.
    To have Word remove the blue, wavy underline and not correct this inconsistency, click Ignore Once.
    To skip all occurrences of the inconsistency in the document, click Ignore Rule.


PC World:
Word 2002 adds fast formatting for stylin' documents.

ShaunaKelly.com:
How the Styles and Formatting pane works in Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003

I would suggest that you don't use this feature. See:
Runaway Styles in 2003

If you are going to use it, just to track formatting, remember to turn it off for the majority of uses.

Also see Wopr lounge

[Edited entry from 11/17/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 6:28 AM

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  Wednesday, April 16, 2008 – Permalink –

Word Ranges

Pre-defined locations



When entries are made in a document, Word creates a Story Range to identify what part of the document is being used. These ranges can be used in macros to search for items , change text, or other actions.


This macro, for instance, changes the text in just the header of the first section:

Sub HeaderFooterObject()
Dim MyText As String
MyHeaderText = "This would be your text"
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1)
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Text = MyHeaderText
End With
End Sub


When you use Edit>Replace in Word, it does a fine job of locating all occurrences of the target in the body of the document or in the header or footer.


Something fails, however, when you record the action and try to run it as a macro. To make it work, you must loop through the built in ranges of a Word document.


The exercise is interesting if only for the exposure to the built in ranges such as:

  • wdCommentsStory
  • wdEndnotesStory
  • wdEvenPagesFooterStory
  • wdEvenPagesHeaderStory
  • wdFirstPageFooterStory
  • wdFirstPageHeaderStory
  • wdFootnotesStory
  • wdMainTextStory
  • wdPrimaryFooterStory
  • wdPrimaryHeaderStory

    and
  • wdTextFrameStory.


See this article for more information:

Word.MVPS.org:
Find and replace with VBA


Also:

Microsoft KB
VBA macro examples to insert text into a document

[Edited entry from 12/3/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:11 AM

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  Wednesday, March 26, 2008 – Permalink –

Do you Like Like Type?

Or do you love it?


Fonts have traits, character, even spirit. Witchita University ran a psychological study on how people "feel" about typefaces.


" This study sought to determine if certain personalities and uses are associated with various fonts. Using an online survey, participants rated the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjective pairs. In addition, participants viewed the same 20 fonts and selected which uses were most appropriate.

Results suggested that personality traits are indeed attributed to fonts based on their design family (Serif, Sans-Serif, Modern, Monospace, Script/Funny) and are associated with appropriate uses.

Implications of these results to the design of online materials and websites are discussed."


Personality of Fonts




For instance when it came to business documents, 78.2% chose Times New Roman, 75.6 thought Cambria was appropriate, while only 5.3% wanted their attorney to use Gigi.



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<Doug Klippert@ 7:22 AM

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  Saturday, March 22, 2008 – Permalink –

Default Save

Choose your own location



When you choose to save most Office files, the Save dialog box defaults to the Documents or My Documents folder.

(The following directions work in 2007, but you need to click on the Office button in the upper left corner of the Window)

Word
you can change the default location by going to Tools>Options. On the "File Locations" tab you can modify the storage location.

Excel
Tools>Options. On the "General" tab change the default location.

PowerPoint
uses Tools>Options and the "Save" tab.

Access
Tools>Options and the "General" tab for Databases and Projects

Publisher
Tools>Options "General".

Outlook
will make you take an underground tour into the Registry to change the location to save e-mail attachments.

FrontPage/Expression Web
appears to require the same sort of spelunking.


Change the folder where e-mail messages and attachments are saved

Also:
D.C. Everest school district Weston, WI:
Office Default Paths

If you don't want to change the default, but would like to be able to quickly go to an alternate site, open the Save or Save Attachment dialog box. On the left side of the box is the Places Navigation bar. If you click the Desktop icon, that location will be used to save the file.

You can add spots to the bar. Browse to the specific folder. Highlight the folder and click the down arrow beside the Tools option. Select "Add to My Places."

The file or e-mail attachment can then be saved where you want.

[Edited entry from 11/05/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:42 AM

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  Saturday, March 15, 2008 – Permalink –

Plain Language

Twaddle free




THE WHITE HOUSE
June 1, 1998

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Plain Language in Government Writing
"The Federal Government's writing must be in plain language. By using plain language, we send a clear message about what the Government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money."

The Plain English Network
Plain language can be understood by YOUR reader at first reading. It doesn't mean writing for a certain grade level - it means organizing and writing for your reader. Writing in plain language saves time and money for writers and readers.


The Plain Language Center
Building Plain Language from the Ground Up


Introducing Plain Language

Plain language matches the needs of the reader with your needs as a writer, resulting in effective and efficient communication. It is effective because the reader can understand the message. It is efficient because the reader can read and understand the message the first time.


Also:
LegalWriting.net
Plain language produces clear, concise, and readable documents



And then for no reason ,other than most writing is twaddle, here's a review of:

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World:
A Short History of Modern Delusions
by Francis Wheen.


It's entitled: "Twaddle unswaddled".
Appropriate or not, it is fun to say.

[Edited entry from 12/27/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 8:30 AM

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  Thursday, March 06, 2008 – Permalink –

Labels by Merging

Demos


As part of their series of demos, Microsoft has information on creating mailing labels from a database, or mailing list.

Create labels with mail merge

Here is another entry concerning some of the fine points.

More label info


Also, if you place a graphic in the first cell, it will be duplicated in each box.



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:39 AM

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  Sunday, March 02, 2008 – Permalink –

Index Concordance

Order!


Creating a Table of Contents can be easy if you use Styles. Word will automatically insert a TOC when you place the insertion point and then use Insert>Reference Index and Tables and choose Table of Contents.
(2007 – Reference Tab>Table of Contents group)

An Index or Concordance can be more difficult.

In a larger document, you may want the reader to be able to locate key words. You could go through the whole document and mark each word you want included, but there is an easier way.


  1. Make a list of the important words.
  2. Create a two-column table in a new document.
  3. In the first column, enter the word or phrase.
  4. In the second column, enter the index entry
    (If you need a sub-category, type the main entry followed by a colon (:) and then the sub category.)
  5. Save the file.



When it comes time to create the Index, place the insertion point, go to Insert>Reference Index and Tables. Choose Index and then AutoMark.
(2007 – Reference Tab>Index group)

Browse to the location of your Index file.

Word will now automatically use your list to mark the main document and insert an Index.

Also:

Word for Word:
An Index or a Concordance for Your Book?


Word MVPS.org:
How can I automatically generate an index in Word?


Microsoft KB:
How to create a table of contents and index with field codes in Word

[Edited entry from 12/19/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:34 AM

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  Monday, February 25, 2008 – Permalink –

Legacy files from 2007

Go back


Read this article closely. If you work in a situation where you need to work with legacy (pre-2007) files, it may be handy.

If you do most of your work in 2007, I wouldn't bother.


"When you use Windows Explorer or the desktop to create a new 2007 Microsoft Office file, a new Office file is created in an XML file format (.dox or .xlsx). For example, this behavior occurs when you right-click the desktop, you point to New, and then you click Microsoft Office Word Document. By default, files that you create in the 2007 Office system are in XML file formats.

This article is about how to create legacy Office files, such as .doc files, .xls files, .ppt files, or .mdb files in the 2007 Office system. You can create legacy Office files without opening any Office applications. To do this, you must modify some settings. The modified settings will apply to all the users who log on to the computer."

Knowledgebase 935787



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<Doug Klippert@ 7:46 AM

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  Saturday, February 23, 2008 – Permalink –

Troubleshoot

Problem solvers



If you have trouble opening a Word document, or it is not working well, try these suggestions:

FIRST
Delete all of Word's temp files.

  1. Go to Edit>Replace
  2. Make sure to include all of your local drives in the search and that "include subfolders" is checked.
  3. Search for:
    *.tmp
  4. Then delete all these temp files.

Word leaves shards of temp files wherever the document file was stored. Word's temp files start with a tilde (~), so in most cases you can delete:
~*.*

SECOND

  1. Use Edit>Find to locate Normal.DOT.
  2. Rename it (Normal.OLD) or delete it. Word will create a new copy when it restarts.


The only caveat here is be careful that you don't have important macros stored in Normal.DOT. If you rename, you can recover them.

THIRD


If that does not correct the problem, try this next step:


  1. Go to Start>Run and type:
    winword.exe /a
    (Note that there is a space before the /a)
  2. Then press ENTER. This starts Word without any add-ins, global templates, or Normal.DOT.
    Look in Tools>Templates and Add-ins to see if there are any files that can be un-checked.

If you need even more help, go to:

The Word MVP site



Knowledge base:
How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start Word or when you work in Word

How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word 2007, Word 2003, or Word 2002

[Edited entry from 12/11/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:14 AM

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  Thursday, February 21, 2008 – Permalink –

VBA, Named Arguments

An easier read


Use named arguments for cleaner VBA code.


Most likely, you use positional arguments when working with VBA functions. For instance, to create a message box, you probably use a statement that adheres to the following syntax:

 MsgBox(prompt[, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])


When you work the MsgBox function this way, the order of the arguments can't be changed.

Therefore, if you want to skip an optional argument that's between two arguments you're defining, you need to include a blank argument, such as:
MsgBox "Hello World!", , "My Message Box"


Named arguments allow you to create more descriptive code and define arguments in any order you wish. To use named arguments, simply type the argument name, followed by :=, and then the argument value.

For instance, the previous statement can be rewritten as:

MsgBox Title:="My Message Box", _
Prompt:="Hello World!"


(To find out a function's named arguments, select the function in your code and press [F1].)



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<Doug Klippert@ 7:53 AM

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  Friday, February 15, 2008 – Permalink –

Word Math

An Add-in, of course


Microsoft has a downloadable add-in for Word called Microsoft Math.


"To use the add-in, open Word 2007, type Alt-= to create a RichEdit math object, type an equation or expression, and right-click on the equation to see options for solving and graphing within Word."


Math Word

Also see:
Math Add-in


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<Doug Klippert@ 2:25 AM

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  Sunday, February 10, 2008 – Permalink –

Merge to More than One Document

Custom content



In the Data Source, include a field for the type of letter the recipient requires.

In the Main merge document, enter IF fields, such as:

{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=1} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter1" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}
{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=2} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter2" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}



  • The curly brackets { } cannot be entered from the key board. Either use Insert>Field, or Ctrl+F9.
  • Word uses spaces in the If..Then..Else statement.
  • The last two quote marks "" are "empty" , so nothing will be entered.
  • Notice the \\ in the path statement. A path is not needed if the Main document is in the same folder as the letters.
  • To see the field codes, use Alt+F9 to toggle the view on and off.

Letters 1 and 2 can have completely different texts, formats and layouts. One can be an invitation to a sale, the other can be a dunning letter.
(To carry over different formatting, leave out the \* MERGEFORMAT switch)

After setting up the main document for mail merging, insert all of the fields you want to merge.

Copy the individual fields and paste them in the correct locations in Letter 1 and 2.

Go back to the main document and erase all of the text and fields EXCEPT for the IF statements.

Letters 1 and 2 do not have to be set up a merge docs, or connected to a data source. Their text will be inserted in the Main document depending on the field type.




[Edited entry from 11/28/2004]




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  Tuesday, February 05, 2008 – Permalink –

Curly Quotes be Gone

Stop them up front


Word, by default, uses curly (“ ”) rather than straight quotes(" ").

Here's a video that shows how to go into Word options and turn this Auto feature off.

Next we need to turn off Moe and Larry




Curly quotes



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<Doug Klippert@ 7:19 AM

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  Tuesday, January 22, 2008 – Permalink –

Migrate to Word 2007

Move the parts.


If you've been having trouble with converting to Word 2007, this might help.

This topic discusses migration considerations for Microsoft Office Word 2007, including:

  • Migrating files to the new file format

  • Migrating AutoText entries

  • Migrating customizations

  • Migrating Add-ins

  • Migrating AutoCorrect entries

  • Migrating the data key




Microsoft - Migration considerations



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:40 AM

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  Wednesday, January 16, 2008 – Permalink –

Font Lister

A look see


I haven't seen, lately, how many fonts you can have on a machine, but I know it's a lot more than earlier versions.


Here is a free download that will create an HTML file that will show all the fonts installed on your computer.

"Using FontList, you can change the predefined sample text, exclude seldom used fonts from the list and change the path for the HTML file.

In your browser, you can change the style of a font and zoom in on a font. You can also view the character map of a font. And, for some, maybe the most important feature, you can create a print out of all your fonts.




FontList



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:16 AM

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  Sunday, January 13, 2008 – Permalink –

Match Format Paste

Copy/Paste formatting in Word, PowerPoint or Excel



When you copy information from a Web page or another document, the formatting will also be copied.

To match the formatting of the target document, copy the text and place the cursor where you want to insert the copy.

Then, go to Edit>Paste Special, and select the Unformatted Text option.
(Click the arrow under Paste in the Clipboard group on the Home tab in 2007)

The clipboard text will be pasted to match the target.

Another way when using Word 2002 + is to click on the "Smart icon" that appears at
the lower right corner of the pasted text. You can then choose to keep the original formatting, match the destination formatting, keep text only, or apply a new style.

An additional way to transfer just the formatting between documents is to highlight the text with the formatting you wish to copy and then hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key and press the C key (Ctrl+Shift+C). Release the keys. Select the text you want to have formatted. Hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key and press the V key (Ctrl+Shift+V). Only the formatting is copied, not the text.
In Excel use Edit>Paste Special and select the "Formats" option.

TechTrax:
What's So Special About "Paste Special"?
by Linda Johnson, MOS

Paste Special can also be used with graphics.

You can change Word's default behavior; choose whether to paste Inline or Floating.

Microsoft Word MVPS FAQ

[Edited entry from 10/31/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 6:37 AM

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  Monday, December 31, 2007 – Permalink –

Keyboard Alt Codes

Quick inserts


Here is a collection of Alt codes. There is also a free download that you can post near your computer.

  • Alt Codes for Letters with Accents for Languages
  • Alt Codes for Bullets, Symbols and Other Special Characters
  • Alt Codes for Mathematical Symbols - Symbols used in Mathematics
  • Alt Codes for Currency Symbols
  • Alt Codes for Drawing
  • Alt Codes for Characters from the Greek Alphabet
  • Alt Codes for "Additional" Letters particularly for Nordic / Scandanavian Languages
  • Alt Codes for Spanish
  • Intellectual Property Right symbols.
  • Alt Codes for Arrows
  • Alt Codes for Punctuation and Editing
  • Alt Codes in Computer Programming

Alt Codes



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<Doug Klippert@ 7:56 AM

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  Wednesday, December 26, 2007 – Permalink –

Page Breaks

Demo tutorial


You can control when Word decides to break for a new page.

Ctrl+Enter is the keyboard shortcut, but there are a number of variations.


This MS link has both Demos and text tutorials.
Page breaks

BTW; a merged document is made up of Section breaks, not Page breaks.

For ease of printing, Replace ^b with ^m



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:33 AM

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  Monday, December 24, 2007 – Permalink –

Word News (still)

Here's another good newsletter



Editorium

Jack M. Lyon, a book editor who got tired of working the hard way and started creating programs to automate editing tasks in Microsoft Word. He's been editing more than twenty years and started working on the computer in 1985.



(Unfortunately has not published recently, but still full of good information)

A few back issues of Editorium Update arranged chronologically:

  • Deleting Unused Styles
  • Pasting Tracked Revisions
  • Indexing with a Two-Column Concordance
  • Fancy Sorting
  • Editing by Concordance
  • Making a Concordance
  • Numbers by Chicago
  • Fixing Typos Automatically

And more.

[Edited entry from 10/25/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 7:40 AM

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  Tuesday, December 18, 2007 – Permalink –

Bad Words

Not the best features


Katherine Murray from TechRepublic, lists ten word features that can be replaced with the new tools.


#1: The Font dialog box
(She says use Themes, I prefer to control individual components)


#2: Mark As Final
(I agree, it's not that Final)


#3: Save As Word XML
(I agree. "Today’s Word is completely built on Office OpenXML, so now all the files you create and save in Word 2007 are actually saved in XML". )


#4: Mail Merge Wizard
( I agree. Mail merge is not that hard. It is only made more difficult with the Wizard)


#5 Drawing Canvas
(Down with the Canvas!)


#6: Signature Line


#7: Web Tools


#8: Document Map


#9: Microsoft Clip Organizer


#10 Document Properties



10 features you can skip



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:00 AM

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  Sunday, December 16, 2007 – Permalink –

Office VBA tricks

Video + Free code



Quick tips VBA Video


"Learn tips and use sample code for several Office applications. These tips can help you to be more productive and can also be a starting point for developing your own tools, utilities and techniques."


  • Update Word Document Statistics in the Title Bar
  • Create Outlook Rules Programmatically
  • Delete Repeated Text Throughout a Word Document
  • Run Macros Based on the Value of One or More Excel Spreadsheet Cells
  • Disable Related Controls on a PowerPoint Slide After a User Clicks an Input Control
  • Display Reminder Information When a User Opens an Office Document
  • Synchronize an Access Main Form to a Subform and Vice Versa
  • Log Worksheet Changes to an XML File
  • Merge Body Text from Multiple Outlook E-mail Messages to a Word Document
  • Use the Office Assistant as an Alternative to Displaying and Retrieving User Input


Ten Tips for Office VBA Developers


[Edited entry from 10/22/2004]




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  Wednesday, December 12, 2007 – Permalink –

Images Sources

No cost


After awhile the graphics in Office Clipart or even the ones found on Microsoft's Office online appear the same.

Here is a list of 100 locations for royalty free stock images.




Free stock images



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<Doug Klippert@ 5:50 AM

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  Saturday, December 08, 2007 – Permalink –

Drawing Canvas

More than I want


The Draw layer has been around since about Word 97, but it has not been as intrusive as it is in Word 2002+.


Try to place an AutoShape on a page and the Drawing Canvas pops up by default.


To turn off this feature, go to:
Tools>Options.
On the General tab, remove the check mark from
"Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes"


To just dismiss it each time, choose your AutoShape and then touch the Delete or Esc key before drawing the object.

Here's some more information.


Wordsite.com:
The draw layer: a metaphysical space


Knowledge Base
General Information About Floating Objects
(a discussion of Word's floating objects and layers)


As I understand it, the Drawing canvas is not really a new layer. The following illustration shows the classic layers. It is from the Knowledge base article:

How to Place Text over a Graphic



___________________
/ /
/ <SURFACE OF /
/ PAPER> /
/ / /
Front drawing layer ------------------- /
MAIN TEXT LAYER =================== / /
Back drawing layer -------------------/ / /
/ /
Front drawing layer -------------------/ /
(Header/footer) BOTTOM TEXT LAYER =================== /
Back drawing layer -------------------/



You can dump the layer in 2007 in the Office button Word Option equivalent of Tools>Options:



[Edited entry from 10/19/2004]



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:30 AM

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  Friday, November 16, 2007 – Permalink –

Holiday Templates

Make your own stationary


Microsoft Office Online has a group of themed holiday designs.


  • Holiday party invitation
  • Holiday menu
  • Holiday place cards
  • Holiday stationery
  • Holiday thank you card (quarter-fold)
  • Holiday gift certificate


Poinsettias


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<Doug Klippert@ 6:15 AM

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  Wednesday, November 14, 2007 – Permalink –

Word to PP

Send outline to PowerPoint


That old 2003 version allowed you to send a Word file to PowerPoint and have it create a slide show.

After styling with Heading 1, 2, etc, go toFile > Send To > Microsoft Office PowerPoint.

2007 is a little different (duh!)


For Microsoft Office 2007

Word 2007 doesn't allow you to publish to PowerPoint 2007 by default.
Here's the solution:

After you are done in Word 2007, save it as a Word document.

Now open PowerPoint 2007.

Click on the Office Button at the top left hand corner.

Click Open.

Under Files of type, select All Outlines.

Now select the Word document and click Open.

Alternately,

In Word 2007, right click on the ribbon.

Select Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

Under "Choose commands from:", select Commands not in the ribbon.

Look for "Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint".

Click OK.

The command will then be added onto the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).




Word to PowerPoint


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<Doug Klippert@ 5:18 AM

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  Thursday, November 08, 2007 – Permalink –

AutoText - Building Blocks

New old feature


Back in the old days minutes, we used "Autotext" to hold chunks of data that could then be reused in other locations and in other documents.


This tool has been polished and given the new name of "Building Blocks".

The Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog:

Part 1 - Building Blocks

Part 2 - Inserting and Swapping Building Blocks

Part 3 - Creating Building Blocks

Part 4 - Deploying Building Blocks

Office.Microsoft.com:
Reuse and distribute parts of a document



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:25 AM

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  Saturday, November 03, 2007 – Permalink –

Automation - VBA - Help File

Office Wide


"Automation (formerly known as OLE Automation) is a feature of the Component Object Model (COM), an industry-standard technology that applications use to expose their objects, methods, and properties to development tools, macro languages, and other applications.

For example, a spreadsheet application might expose a worksheet, chart, cell, or range of cells--each as a different type of object. A word processor might expose objects such as an application, document, paragraph, bookmark, or sentence.


When an application supports Automation, the objects that the application exposes can be accessed through Visual Basic. You can use Visual Basic to manipulate the objects by invoking methods or by getting and setting properties of the objects."


Here's an example:


Inserting Data into a Microsoft Word Document

With Automation code, you can open a Microsoft Word document and move to a bookmark location in the document. The following example opens a Microsoft Word document and inserts text after a bookmark.

This example assumes that you have Microsoft Word on your computer, that you have an existing document called C:\My Documents\WordTest.doc, and that the document contains a pre-defined bookmark named City.


Sub FindBMark()

Dim wordApp As Word.Application
Dim wordDoc As Word.Document
Dim wordRange As Word.Range

Set wordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open("C:\My Documents\Wordtest.doc")

wordApp.Visible = True

' Go to the bookmark named "City".
Set wordRange = wordDoc.Goto(What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="City")
wordRange.InsertAfter "Los Angeles"

' Print the document.
wordDoc.PrintOut Background:=False

' Save the modified document.
wordDoc.Save

' Quit Word without saving changes to the document.
wordApp.Quit SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges

Set wordApp = Nothing

End Sub



Microsoft Support provides an entire Help file to assist you. It includes theory and examples.

The file is called XPAutomation.chm.

Download it and then double click on the file to run it. You could also set up a shortcut on the desk top, if it will be used frequently.


Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: 302460


This was aimed at Office 2002 but it can be used with later versions:

  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word





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<Doug Klippert@ 6:45 AM

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  Wednesday, October 31, 2007 – Permalink –

Single spaced +

2007 gives you more than you ask for


This quote from The Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog explains their thinking behind making line spacing "looser" in 2007 than it was earlier.


"(A) lesson here for me is that lots of people seem to think of Word as a typewriter (remember typewriters?). There are many examples of this, in the way people construct a table of contents for their Word documents, use the TAB key to align columns, and the way they always hit ENTER twice after typing each paragraph (for those who are fans of extra space between paragraphs).

Many, many of the feedback comments on the line-spacing issue had to do with wanting "single spacing." But, of course the line spacing in the new template is single spacing. It's just that it's a little bit "more" than single spacing used to be: 1.15, instead of 1.0.

But what is 1.0? You might think that if you're using an 11-point font that line spacing of 1.0 would be 11 points. But if you lay out paragraphs that way - depending on the font you're using - the parts that stick below one line will crash into the parts that stick up from the line below. You need to allow some extra space between lines.

In a former life when I set type on a Compugraphic phototypesetting machine, the convention we used was about 20% extra space, so we'd set 10-point type on a 12-point line. Larger fonts demanded more breathing room. This was at a newspaper, so we spaced things a bit tighter than you'd expect to see in, say, a report or a brochure (or, dare I say a professional looking document).


What does single spacing really mean anyway?



How to fix it:
Default line spacing in Word 2007 differ from earlier versions of Word




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<Doug Klippert@ 6:49 AM

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  Thursday, October 25, 2007 – Permalink –

2003-2007 Compatibility

Exchange the future and the past


"Microsoft has added new file formats to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. To help ensure that you can exchange documents between Microsoft Office releases, Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack for the Office Word, Office Excel, and Office PowerPoint 2007 File Formats"


Use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office programs


Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:40 AM

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  Tuesday, October 23, 2007 – Permalink –

Tab Leader

You can lead a tab to ...........


Setting Tab Leaders in Word


Fred Smith.........................$44.59


This makes your list easier to read


  1. Select the line on which you want to create a tab

  2. Click on the Format menu and click on the Tabs menu item
    (you will see the Tabs dialog box)

  3. In the Tab Stop Position field enter the distance to the last column: 5", 6" or what ever is appropriate

  4. Then select the tab alignment; Decimal, Right, Center or Left

  5. Select the type of leader to use

  6. Click Set and then OK


Enter the name, or first entry, and then touch the Tab key.

Word will automatically enter as many leading characters as required.

When you can type the amount, it will be aligned on the decimal or any other alignment you might have chosen.

Here's what it looks like in Word 2007





Also:

University of Florida handout:
Word Tabs Doc

WordTips Online Answers:
Tips on Word tabs

OfficeLetter.com:
Favorite Word tips #2

About.com:
Creating Tab Leader Lines


Fab Tabs
Uncover the magic of using tabs

[Edited entry from 10/11/2004]




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<Doug Klippert@ 6:36 AM

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  Monday, October 15, 2007 – Permalink –

Work with Office

It can make life easier


Here's a collection of tips and tutorials from Microsoft about how to use '07 at work.
If no one's looking, you could use these hints at home too.

Ways to work smarter



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<Doug Klippert@ 6:49 AM

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  Monday, October 08, 2007 – Permalink –

First look at Word 2007?

We all have to start somewhere


Here is a 30 minute course:


After completing this course you will be able to:

  • Create and save a document.
  • Accept or reject suggested revisions for spelling and grammar as you type.
  • Change page margins.
  • Adjust spacing by deleting any extra spaces between words or extra lines between paragraphs.

Create your first document in Word



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<Doug Klippert@ 8:03 AM

Comments:
Not everyone is using Microsoft Office anymore! You should do a tutorial on Open Office as well. Here at work, we’ve all switched to Open Office. Not only is it easier to use, but it cost us nothing to setup and install. The $12400 that was saved went right into our pockets: every employee got an Open Office bonus of $250 in their paycheck last August, with an additional $1650 used to refurnish the office kitchen.
 
Perhaps when Open Office has even half the market share, rather than less than 20%.
Maybe then we could, also, talk about the obscure "Maccy" machine.

 
Here's an interesting article from eWeek:

IT pros are sticking with Office