Is there an easy way to parse filenames in macros so you don't see the extension. You can do this by expanding on the macro we used in the last tip. 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. (If you have the Test macro from the last tip, you can click the name and then click Edit to modify the existing macro.) Enter the macro as shown here (Word will add the lines Sub MAIN and End Sub):

Sub MAIN

name$ = WindowName$() ' get the name ext = InStr(name$, ".") ' get the dot position name$ = Left$(name$, ext - 1) 'don't show the dot MsgBox name$ ' display the name

End Sub

Save the macro and then close it. Load a file and run the macro (choose Tools, Macro and click the macro name to select it). Now click Run to see how your new macro works.

HOW TO USE NONBREAKING HYPHENS

A reader writes, "I have a problem with Word. When I enter my hyphenated last name, Word will often separate the name and place part of it on two lines. Is there a way to tell Word to keep the entire name together?"

Sure. 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 extra long, like an em dash. Don't worry--it will print just fine.

GETTING THE CURRENT FILENAME IN MACROS

"I want to use Filename$() in a macro to return the current filename. The problem is that this function returns the entire path plus the filename. Is there a way to get Word to return only the filename?"

The easiest way to get the filename 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 and close it. 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 filename.

USING THE CENTS SIGN

There's no cents sign on the keyboard, is there a way to make the cents sign in Word?

Yes, there is. All you have to do is press Ctrl-/ (slash) and then press C. 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. In any case, it's getting harder and harder to find something that costs less than a buck these days.

SETTING PAGE MARGINS

"When I print a Word document, the last line is often lost. Do you know why this happens?"

Most likely the printer margins are set incorrectly. Most printers require a fixed minimum margin. The amount of margin is specific to the printer. This requirement is necessary because the entire sheet isn't available for printing; the printer's paper-handling mechanisms must have something to work with.

Choose File, Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Now check your margins. Note that Word will try to protect you from this problem. To see what happens, make the bottom margin 0 (zero) and click OK. Word opens a dialog box telling you that your selection is outside the printer's range. If you click Fix, Word will set the bottom margin to the printer's requirement. If you click Ignore, Word will use your zero setting.

Although Word will select the minimum requirement for you if you click Fix, you should add a bit to that. If Word selects 0.2 as the minimum, you should go for at least 0.3.

ADDING A WATERMARK TO A DOCUMENT

It's easy to add a watermark in Word 97, but can you add one in Word 95 or Word 6? A watermark is text or a picture you place beneath the text on your page. You might want to use a watermark to label a page "confidential" or "urgent." To add a watermark, first decide what you want the watermark to be. If you want to play along, you can use ClipArt for the example.

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.

WORKING WITH 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. You'll see a pop-up menu that 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 grayed out unless you're using a multilevel list.

PRINTING A SPECIAL FIRST PAGE

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.

CREATING NEW STYLES

When you need a special style for a certain category of Word documents, it's not difficult to create your own. When you assign formatting to styles, you can easily apply that formatting to other paragraphs or entire documents. To create a style, choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click New. Give your new style a name. A style name can be up to 253 characters in length, as long as you don't use backslashes, semicolons, or brackets. Select Add To Template and then click Format, Font. Choose the font and font size and click OK. Now, you can click Format again and this time choose Paragraph. Set up the paragraph the way you want and click OK. You can click the Format button and choose any of the selections that you might want to apply to your new style. When you get back to the Style dialog box after having made all your selections, click Apply.

AUTOMATICALLY SAVING WORD DOCUMENTS

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 (your best bet is to copy and paste directly from this tip):

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 filename.

DANGERS OF WORD'S FIND AND REPLACE FEATURE

After using Find and Replace, the entire document was turned into nothing but gibberish. We can only speculate about what might have happened to that document, but we can warn you about the dangers of using Find and Replace carelessly. Try this object lesson on a document you don't need. (Copy a document under a new name and use that.)

Open Find and Replace (Ctrl-H) and click the Find What entry box. Choose Format, Style. Now choose the predominate style of your document (perhaps Normal). Don't enter any text in the entry box. Click on the Replace With entry box and type a few spaces. Click Replace All and then click OK. Now click Close. You've just destroyed your document by replacing all the Normal style text with spaces.

If something like this happens to you, don't panic. Panicking can lead to 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.

The moral is, be careful with Replace All. Always check to make sure you don't have spaces in Replace With unless you're sure this is what you want. And never forget that wonderful Undo command.

EDITING IN WORD'S PRINT PREVIEW MODE

There's a widely circulated rumor that says you can't edit a Word document while it's in Print Preview mode. We're not sure about the origin of the rumor, but check out Print Preview mode for yourself.

Open a document that you can afford to mess around with, and then choose Print Preview (click the toolbar button, or choose File, Print Preview). Use the magnifying glass cursor to zoom in on the page. Now, click the Magnifier on the toolbar (it looks like a small magnifying glass). At this point, you can add, delete, copy, and paste text.

We're not suggesting that you use Print Preview mode for editing, but we do advise you to be careful when you're in Print Preview mode. You could lose something.

DRAG, DROP, AND PRINT WITH A DESKTOP PRINTER ICON

Let's imagine that you need to print a few Word documents. Word isn't open right now, so you open Word by double-clicking the document file. Then you choose File, Print.

Although this method works just fine, you don't have to open Word before you begin. If you place a shortcut to your printer on your desktop, all you have to do is drag a file's icon to the printer shortcut and drop it on top. Word will open the document, print it using the printer defaults, and close.

INSERTING EXISTING TEXT INTO A WORD TABLE

When you select text in your Word document and then insert a table, Word will convert the selected text into 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.

To create a desktop printer icon, choose Start, Settings, Printers. In the Printers window, find your printer's icon and drag it to the desktop. Click Yes in response to the warning box, and there's your shortcut.

OFFICE 95: LOCATING EXISTING WORD MACROS

Microsoft Office 95 Professional Version contains some Word macros that you may want to use. The only problem is that they aren't available to you unless you make them available.

To locate the macros, choose Tools, Macro and click Organizer. When Organizer opens, you'll have two views of Normal.dot. Click the Close button on the left side of the dialog box to close Normal.dot. Now click Open and then go to the Office folder. In this folder, locate the Winword folder.

Double-click Winword to open it. Now you should see a folder named Macros. Double-click it. In the Macros folder, you should see a list of macros: Convert7.dot, Layout7.dot, Macros7.dot, Present7.dot, and Tables7.dot.

To work with these macros, click one to select it and click OK. Now click the macros inside the DOT files and click Copy to copy them to Normal.dot (on the right side of the Organizer dialog box). Repeat this process for each of the macro-containing DOT files in Winword\Macros.

After you copy all the macros to Normal.dot, click Close in the Organizer dialog box. Now you can choose Tools, Macro, Macros to view the newly loaded macros. Select a macro and click Edit to see what the macro does.

NORMAL.DOT FILE BACKUP

Version 4.x, 95
Since most of us make changes to the Normal.dot file as we work, it's a very good idea to keep a backup of that file just in case a problem arises. If you have a backup, you don't have to worry even if you're forced to completely reinstall your Office system.

In Office 4.x, you find Normal.dot in the \Winword\Template folder. To back it up, put a formatted floppy disk into drive A, open Windows Explorer, and click on your MSOffice folder. Now expand that folder and locate \Template. In \Template, locate Normal.dot and drag its icon to the floppy disk to copy it.

In Office 95, you'll find the file in \MSOffice\Templates. Drag the file's icon to drive A to copy it to the floppy disk. Now, if you have problems, you can always copy Normal.dot back into its proper folder and continue your work.

If you have other templates that you've modified, copy them to the floppy disk along with Normal.dot.

MODIFYING WORD'S GRAMMAR SETTINGS

If you'd like to stop all those grammar errors that get tagged as you 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" and "they're," 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. In the Writing Style box, choose For Casual Writing. 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.

POWERPOINT, WORD: PRESENTING A SLIDE SHOW ON PAPER

You want to share your PowerPoint slide show with your pals who don't have PowerPoint. What to do? One way to handle this problem is to import an entire slide show into a Word document. Once the slide show is in Word, you can print it and send it to people who need to view it. This is especially effective if you have access to a color printer.

To put an entire slide show into a Word document, choose Tools, Write-Up. When the Write-Up dialog box appears, select the type of layout you want to use and click OK. Once the slide show is in a Word document, you can add whatever text and formatting you want.

REPEATING FIND IN WORD

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 using the keyword (or phrase) most recently entered in Find.

To check this out, press Ctrl-F to open Find. Enter a common word or phrase. 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.

STARTING WORD WITHOUT A DOCUMENT

Is it possible to run Word without opening a blank document? Absolutely.

We can't be sure how you start Word on your computer; we'll assume that you click Start, Programs, Microsoft Word. To run Word without opening a blank document, begin by right-clicking Start and choosing Open. Now double-click the Programs folder to open it. Next, right-click the Microsoft Word icon and 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

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.

Note that we assumed a location for the icon you use to run Word. The procedure we described will work no matter where the icon is located. All you have to do is find your icon and right-click it. Then choose Properties and proceed as we described.

USING PICTURES IN WORD'S AUTOTEXT

You can use AutoText to insert pictures and other graphics into Word. 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.

USING WORD'S EXTEND COMMAND

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 grayed 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, open Find (Ctrl-F), and type in a word you want to search for, all the text between the current cursor position and the word located by Find will be selected.

WORD/EXCEL: START EXCEL VIA WORD

Do you always start your day by loading Word and Excel? If so, why not let a Word macro start Excel for you?

To do this, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type in

AutoExec

and click Create. Now enter the following macro exactly as shown:

Sub MAIN Shell "Excel.exe" End Sub

Note that Word enters Sub MAIN and End Sub, so all you have to enter is the one remaining line. Choose File, Save to save the new macro. Since an AutoExec automatically runs, you don't need to assign a button or key to the new macro. All you have to do is close Word and then open it again. When you open Word with the macro in place, Excel will also open.

INSERTING A BLANK LINE IN BULLETED OR NUMBERED LISTS

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

GOT TO GO HOME TO CHECK MY SPELLING

Version 4.x, 95

This tip isn't exactly earthshaking, but it can save you a bit of time. Before you run a spelling check, press Ctrl-Home to move to the beginning of the document. This way, you won't get the dialog box asking if you want to continue checking the document from the top. And since you're trying to save some time, use the keyboard shortcut to run the spelling checker. Press Ctrl-Home and then press F7.

GET STYLE INFORMATION

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 on the style you'd like to examine. The dialog box will 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 the current styles.

GAINING THE UPPER HAND WITH AUTOFORMAT

If you don't want Word to automatically replace straight quotes with curly quotes, or stick symbols into your documents, you'll need to tell AutoFormat.

To modify AutoFormat, choose Tools, Options and click the AutoFormat tab. This is where Word 95 is a little tricky. Before you make your new selections, make sure the radio button labeled AutoFormat As You Type is selected. Now make your choices by selecting and deselecting the appropriate check boxes. When you're finished, click OK.

FONT SUBSTITUTION

Version 4.x, 95

If you get a Word document from someone and find that the font looks terrible on your computer, you may not have the font that the document's creator used. When this happens, Word will substitute a font that you do have for the one you don't. The problem is that the substitute font sometimes doesn't look very good in the document.

If this is a problem that you encounter often, it may be worth purchasing the needed font. But an alternative approach is to reformat the document using a font that you have--ideally one that looks better than the one Word selected.

ELIMINATING THE TIP WIZARD

Version 4.x, 95

If you want to eliminate the Tip Wizard during a Word session, choose View, Toolbars, deselect the Tip Wizard check box, and click OK. However, this works for only one session. When you close Word and open it again, the Tip Wizard will reappear.

To get rid of the Tip Wizard completely, choose Tools, Options and click on General. Deselect the Tip Wizard Active check box and click OK.

DOCUMENT STATISTICS MACRO

In the last tip, we showed you how to locate macros that ship with Microsoft Office 95 Professional Version. This time, let's focus on one of the supplied macros. This one is called SuperDocStatistics. You'll find it in Macros7.dot.

When run, SuperDocStatistics will tell you everything you could want to know about the currently open document. You'll get a report on the filename and folder, the time spent editing the document, and the number of words, characters, and paragraphs. SuperDocStatistics will also allow you to run a grammar check and look for any objects, tables, and links that your document is using. And you can even print a report.

This is a macro that you'll probably find useful, so let's create a toolbar button for it. Choose View, Toolbars, and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, locate Macros in the Categories list and select it. You'll see SuperDocStatistics in the Macros list. Drag SuperDocStatistics to the toolbar and release the mouse button over the location where you want the button to appear. Now you can assign the name or choose an icon--whichever you prefer. Click Close to close the dialog box and save your changes.

With the SuperDocStatistics button in the toolbar, open a document and click the new button to see a report on the open document.

DELETING STYLES

Is there an easy way to get rid of those extra styles without messing up Normal.dot.

To delete a Word style, choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, locate and click the style you'd like to delete. When you click a style name, the Delete button will activate. To delete the selected file, click Delete. Now you can click Close to close the dialog box.

Normal.dot protects itself by keeping the Delete button inactive when you select a style that Word needs. In other words, you can delete only the styles that you've created.

CREATING CUSTOMIZED COLUMN WIDTHS

When you decide to use columns in a Word document, you can set 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. Just 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.

CREATING BACKUP FILES

No matter how careful you are, there's always a chance that you could lose a document. Why not make the odds in your favor 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 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.

CREATING A TOOLBAR BUTTON FOR YOUR TABLE MACRO

Version 4.x, 95

In the last tip, we showed you a macro that you can use to create a table. This time, we'll show you how to make a toolbar button for the new macro (or any macro).

Choose View, Toolbars and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Toolbars tab. Now scroll down until you locate Macros. Click it once to select it, and the macro list will appear on the right side of the dialog box. Use the mouse to drag your new macro to the toolbar. When you reach the macro's chosen location, release the mouse button.

When the Custom Button dialog box opens, select a button or just use the suggested text name and click Assign. Now click Close and your new toolbar button should work just fine.

CREATING A SAVE, CLOSE, AND OPEN MACRO

One way to make Word work more efficiently for you is to customize some of its 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 other 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 with just one button click, you can save the current document, close it, and open a new blank document.

CREATING A CUSTOM BUTTON

If the Word toolbar contains a button image that you'd like to use for a custom button, you can make a copy of the button and use its icon in your custom button. To do this, choose View, Toolbars and click Customize. Now click on the Toolbars tab. At this point, you can click (once) on the toolbar button you'd like to copy. Then choose Edit, Copy Button Image.

Now you're ready to copy the image to a custom button. Create the new button by dragging a command to the toolbar (this could be a macro or a command). Click Assign and then choose Edit, Paste Button Image. Click Close to close the Customize dialog box.

By the way, since the button image is on the Clipboard, you can paste it into your Word document if you like. Simply choose Edit, Paste.

CHANGING THE LINE SPACING

Whether you're writing a brochure, newsletter, report, or memo, you'll find that even a tiny bit of difference in the line spacing can make your document easier to read. Why not experiment with this a little? Print two or three versions of a document, each with a different line spacing, and then ask several people for their opinions. You'll probably find that there's a line spacing that people prefer.

Let's try this. Let's make three documents all with the same text, but with different line spacing. For the original document, use the standard spacing. Choose File, Save to save the original document. Next, choose File, Save As and give the document a new name. In the new document, click in the body of the text and then choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, locate the two boxes labeled Line Spacing and At. In the At spin box, type

and click OK. Choose File, Save to save the document.

This document is a bit more closely spaced than the standard single spacing.

Now, choose File, Save As again and provide the document with a third name. Click in the body of the text and choose Format, Paragraph. This time, set the spacing to 1.1 and click OK. Save the new document (choose File, Save).

Now print all three documents (or a portion thereof) and pass them out for comments. You'll probably find that people don't like the more closely spaced lines--even if they fail to actually notice the line spacing. Most people make little distinction between the 1.1-line spacing and the standard single spacing--although a few people may comment that the wider-spaced document seems easier to read.

CHANGING CELL SIZE IN TABLES

When you work with Word tables, you can size individual cells. This can lead to problems if you don't select the cell or cells before you establish a new size.

Try this: Open a Word document and choose Table, Insert Table. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, select 4 Rows and 4 Columns and click OK. Now select one cell (any cell) in the table and choose Table, Cell Height And Width. Set the width to a new value and click OK. You'll see that only the selected cell changed its width.

The moral is this: Select what you want to change. If you want to change only one cell, select the cell. But if you really want to change the width of a column, make sure you select the column. One way to make sure the column is selected is to click a cell in the column and then choose Table, Select Column.

BREAKING A LINK IN YOUR DOCUMENT

When you have a file linked to 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. Choose Yes. The object will remain in your Word document, but it will no longer be linked to its source file. Any changes you make to the object's file will not appear in the 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

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

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

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.

AUTOFORMAT HEADERS

Version 4.x, 95

Do you sometimes need to generate a document that has a repetitive style? Perhaps you need a header, followed by text, then another header, and so on. 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, Options and click on AutoFormat. Select the radio button labeled AutoFormat As You Type. Now, under Apply As You Type, make sure Headings is selected. Click OK. Now type your header again and press Enter two times in rapid succession. You have to develop a touch for this.

Note that the header style won't be applied to a sentence that includes punctuation at the end. If you type

What, me worry

the sentence will be converted to a heading. But if you type

What, me worry?

it won't be converted.

ANOTHER WAY TO PASTE THE CLIPBOARD CONTENTS

You know that you can paste Clipboard contents into Word by choosing Edit, Paste. You can also press Ctrl-V. And, although it seems to have been largely forgotten, you can press Shift-Insert.

Word will even allow you to paste with only the Insert (or Ins) key. To see if you might like this arrangement, choose Tools, Options and click the Edit tab. Select the check box labeled Use The INS Key For Paste, and then click OK to save your changes and get rid of the dialog box.

Now copy some text and then click on a blank spot in your document. Press Insert, and the copied text will appear.

AN UNDO TWIST

Suppose you're working hard on a long Word document and you decide to delete (not cut) a paragraph. After a lot more serious editing, you decide that you really wish you hadn't deleted that paragraph. The thing is, you'd like to have that paragraph back, but you don't want all the other junk that you deleted along with the desired paragraph. Here's something to try: Choose File, Save As and save your document under a new name. Press Ctrl-Z (Undo) until the paragraph reappears. Select the paragraph and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Open your saved document, click where you want the paragraph to appear, and press Ctrl-V to paste it.

It may seem like all that saving and opening is a lot of trouble, but it's a lot quicker than going through all that editing again.

AN INFORMATION-GATHERING MACRO

When you work with a Word document, the title bar displays the current file's name, but it doesn't show you the file's location. You can write a macro that will put the current file's name and complete path into the Word status bar.

To enter the macro, choose Tools, Macro. In the Macro Name entry box, type

GetPath

and click Create. Now enter the macro as shown here. Note that Sub MAIN and End Sub are supplied by Word.

Sub MAIN x$ = FileNameInfo$(FileName$(), 1) MsgBox(x$, - 1) End Sub

This macro won't work in the toolbar. So, to use it, you need to put the command on one of the menus. Choose View, Toolbars and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Menus tab.

Let's put the new command on the View menu. To do this, click the arrow at the right of the Change What Menu list box to expand the list. Select &View. Now click the arrow at the right side of the Position On Menu list box. Choose Bottom to place the command at the bottom of the menu.

Now that you know where the new command will go, you have to locate the new command. Scroll down in the Categories list box and select Macro. Your new macro (GetPath) should appear under Commands. Select it and click Add. Click Close to close the dialog box and save your changes.

With the new command in place, choose View, GetPath. The current file's full path and name will appear in the left side of the status bar at the bottom of the Word window.

ALERTING AUTOCORRECT TO YOUR HABITUAL ERRORS

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 you commonly make, click AutoCorrect and the misspelled word and its correction will be entered.

ADJUSTING THE MOST RECENTLY USED LIST

You'll often want to start working on the last document you were working on when you left work the day before. Word has a neat little feature called the Most Recently Used list, but many Word users seem to ignore its presence. To access the list, choose File and you'll see the list at the bottom of the menu. Select the file you want to load and get back to work right where you left off.

By default, the list holds the four most recently accessed files. You can change the number of files in the list, though. You can set it from zero to nine. Choose Tools, Options and click the General tab. Now use the spin box to indicate the number of filenames you want to retain in the list. After you make your selection, click Close to close the dialog box.

ADDING WORDS TO YOUR CUSTOM DICTIONARY

If you need to use a lot of words with strange capitalization, such as AutoCorrect, AutoFormat, and ClipArt, here's a tip that may save you some time and energy. When you run a spelling check, a word such as AutoCorrect will be tagged as incorrect if it 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 lowercase 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 the Spelling tab. Now click Custom Dictionaries. With CUSTOM.DIC selected, click 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. Just press Ctrl-A to select all the words and then choose Format, Change Case. When the Change Case dialog box opens, select Lowercase and click OK.

Now choose File, Close to close the dictionary file. Select Yes in all the questions about saving. If asked about format, you want Text Only.

ADDING SHADING TO BORDERED TEXT

Version 4.x, 95
If you want to really make your bordered text stand out, you can add some shading. Let's say you already have some bordered text. Click inside the border and choose Format, Borders And Shading. When the dialog box opens, click on the Shading tab. Now you can select the type of shading you want to use. After you finish your selection, click on OK.

Note that you can also use the Shading dialog box to set the colors. If you use a color printer, you may want to try some colors to see how the printout looks. If you do decide to use colors, you'll soon find that Foreground doesn't refer to the text color; Foreground and Background refer to the colors that appear in your shading selection.

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.

ADDING A FRAME TO YOUR WORDART OBJECT

When you insert a WordArt object into a Word document, you don't automatically get a frame. Your text won't do the old wraparound trick until you insert a frame. Just right-click the WordArt and choose Frame Picture. Now right-click the framed WordArt and choose Format Frame. Make your wrapping choices and click OK.

LINKED AND UNLINKED PICTURES

Is there a way to insert pictures and still keep the Word file a reasonable size?

Yes, you can reduce the size of the Word document and, although that picture file has to reside somewhere, you'll experience a net saving in disk space.

Locate a picture (a rather large one) and choose Insert, Picture. Select the picture you want to insert and click OK. Now choose File, Save (or Save As) to save your document. Close Word (File, Exit) and then run Windows Explorer. Locate your document file and click it. Explorer will show you the file size. In our case, the picture file size was 160 KB; with the picture inserted, the Word document file size was 370 KB.

Run Word and open your document again. Click the picture to select it and then press Delete to delete the picture. Now choose Insert, Picture again. Locate and select the same picture. This time, select the check box labeled Link To File and deselect the check box labeled Save With Document. Now save your file and close Word (File, Exit). Check the file size in Windows Explorer again. This time, the file will be much smaller. Ours was 45 KB.

With the picture inserted into the Word document (and saved with it), the file size was 370 KB. Without the inserted file saved with the document, the size was 45 KB. The total file space required is 205 KB for the linked picture and 370 KB for the inserted picture.

There are some problems with linking the files this way and then sending them to someone else on a floppy disk. We'll cover these problems in the next tip.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUT TO STYLE LIST BOX

Version 4.x, 95

When you want to select a new style in Word, you can move up to the toolbar, click on the down arrow next to the Style list box, and select the new style. You can do the same using the keyboard. Press Ctrl-Shift-S. This highlights the Style list box. Use the arrow key to move through the list. When the style you want is highlighted, press Enter.

KEEPING LINKED PICTURES TOGETHER WITH THEIR FILES

In the last tip, we discussed the difference between linking and inserting pictures into a Word document. You'll gain a net saving in disk space if you link the pictures and then save the pictures and the Word files on a floppy disk. However, there are some sticky problems with this approach.

The problems all come about because the link to the picture will point to a specific folder--the folder in which the picture resided when you created the link. If you copy a Word file and its linked picture to a floppy, the link will be broken.

A remote user could see the picture only if it is copied into a folder of the same name as the original folder. Although you could send along instructions on how to create and name the folder, you're asking for trouble. Try this instead: Copy the Word file and the picture file to a blank floppy disk. When the floppy arrives at the remote location, ask the user to load the Word file from the floppy disk. Now the user will need to choose Edit, Links. When the Links dialog box opens, click Change Source. Now locate the picture file on the floppy disk and select it. Click OK, and the picture will appear in the document.

All this is probably more trouble than it's worth. Unless you have a really good reason for needing to keep those Word files short, insert the picture and save it along with the Word file. You'll save everyone (including yourself) a lot of headaches.

TROUBLESHOOTING WORD SEARCHES

Version 4.x, 95

Suppose you'd like to locate a specific word in a Word document. Let's say you'd like to locate the next occurrence of the word "this." You open Find and start a search. The search finds nothing. Now, you know you've used the word "this," so what's wrong?

If you encounter this problem, open Find and see if there's a formatting style attached to the word for which you're searching. If so, click No Formatting and then continue your search.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAST AND SAFE SAVES

When it comes to saving Word documents, you can choose between fast and safe. If you want to be safe, choose Tools, Options. Click the Save tab and then select the check box labeled Always Create Backup Copy. Click OK to save your choice and close the Options dialog box. If you'd like to use fast saves, choose Tools, Options, click Save, and select the Allow Fast Saves check box. You'll notice that this automatically turns off Always Create Backup Copy. You have to choose between the two. After you make up your mind, click OK to get back to work.

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

Do you sometimes need to use leaders? Leaders are those little dots leading up to some text, like this:

...............Text Leaders.

To set up leaders, choose Format, Tabs. When the dialog box opens, enter the tab position you want to use (in inches). Next, look under Leader. Select the radio button associated with the type of leader you want (they don't always have to be little dots) and then click Set. 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.

SHORTCUT TO CHANGING SENTENCE CASE

If 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 will turn to all caps. The next time you press the combination, the sentence will turn to all lowercase. When you press Shift-F3 once more, the sentence will display standard capitalization (it begins with a cap and other letters are in lowercase).

SHORTCUT KEY FOR TRUE APOSTROPHE

Version 4.x, 95
In the last tip, we showed you how to enter an apostrophe using two methods: Hold down Ctrl, press the apostrophe key, release Ctrl, and press the apostrophe key again; or, with the Numlock key active, hold down Alt while you enter 0146 using the number pad. This time, let's look at how you can assign keystrokes to make the job even easier.

Choose Insert, Symbol and click the Special Characters tab. Now locate Single Closing Quote and select it. Click Shortcut Key and then click in the Press New Shortcut Key text box. Press Ctrl-Alt-' (apostrophe), click Assign, and click Close. Click Close again in the Symbol dialog box. From now on, you can insert the apostrophe by pressing Ctrl-Alt-'.

SELECTING PARAGRAPH MARKS

Version 4.x, 95

In the last tip, we suggested that you select the paragraph mark along with the numbered list item before making a drag-and-drop text move. This technique 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 want to make a move and retain the formatting, include the paragraph mark in the selection.

An easy way to select the paragraph mark along with a single paragraph sentence is to hold down the Ctrl key and double-click the sentence to select it. Then, with the sentence still selected, release the Ctrl key and press the Shift key. 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 technique won't work with sentences in the middle of a paragraph because there's no paragraph mark there.

SELECTING ALL THE TEXT IN A DOCUMENT

Version 4.x, 95

This is another one of those tips that's of questionable usefulness but fun to relate. As you know, there are a number of ways to select an entire Word document:

You can choose Edit, Select All.
You can press Ctrl-A.
You can move the mouse pointer to the left margin until it turns into an arrow and then click the mouse button three times.
You can move to the left margin and hold down Ctrl while you click the mouse button.

SELECTING A BLOCK OF TEXT

How do you select a block of text in a document? That is, select a block of text without regard to individual sentences, paragraphs, or page breaks? Hold down the Alt key while using the mouse to select a portion of the document.

RESUMING A FIND OR FIND AND REPLACE OPERATION

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 Close. Now press F4 to continue with the operation. Word will pick up in the same spot where you stopped, unless you moved your cursor.

PRODUCING A TRUE APOSTROPHE

Version 4.x, 95
Even when you have Smart Quotes turned on, Word doesn't generate a real apostrophe if you add the mark to an existing line. Check it out. Say you want to enter a date as '00. The apostrophe is backwards. To make a real apostrophe, make sure the Numlock key is active and hold down Alt while you enter 0146 using the number pad. This produces a true apostrophe--even if Smart Quotes is turned off.

There's another way to create a true apostrophe: Hold down Ctrl and press the apostrophe key. Now release Ctrl and press the apostrophe key again.

PLACING PICTURES IN A TWO-COLUMN NEWSLETTER

Version 4.x, 95

In the last tip, we talked about setting up columns in Word and using section breaks as a way to place large headlines over a two-column layout. This time, let's look at how we can add pictures to a two-column newsletter.

Let's say you'd like to place a picture right in the center of a two-column page. To begin, choose View, Page Layout so you can view your two-column document in the form in which it will print. Next, add the picture by choosing Insert, Picture and then locating and selecting the picture you want to include. After you select the picture file, click OK.

Once the picture is in the document, don't worry about its placement just yet. Right-click the picture and choose Frame Picture. With the picture framed, you can drag it anywhere in the document--even between the two columns. You can also size the picture now.

The text should flow around the frame. If it doesn't, right-click the picture and choose Format Frame. Make sure you select Around and click OK. You can also use this dialog box to set the distance between the text and the frame. The default is 0.13 inch. Reduce that number to place the text closer to the frame. After you enter the new number, click OK.

PASTING CLIPBOARD DATA INTO A DOCUMENT

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, you can use its keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl-V or Alt, E, P. Here's another method that you may not know about: You can press Shift-Insert to paste that Clipboard data.

MOVING NUMBERED LIST ITEMS

Version 4.x, 95

You've generated a rather long numbered list, and now you see that you'd like to organize the list a bit differently. So you select the text in one of the entries and then use the mouse to drag it to a new location. It doesn't work. How come?

When you want to move selected text from a numbered list, you need to select the paragraph mark and drag it to the new location along with the text.

If the paragraph marks don't show up in your document, choose Tools, Options and click on View. Select the Paragraph Mark check box and then click OK.

MODIFYING THE SAVEANDCLOSE MACRO

Recently, we showed you a macro designed to save the current document, close it, and open a new blank document. This time, let's modify that macro.

Since you may not always want to open a new document after you close the current one, this version of the macro uses a message box to give you the option of opening a new document or simply saving and closing the current document.

Choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, enter

SaveAndClose

If you've already written the SaveAndClose macro described previously, click Edit. If not, click Create. In either case, enter the following:

Sub MAIN

MyChoice = MsgBox("Do you want to open a new document?", 4)

If MyChoice = 1 Then FileSave FileClose FileNew ElseIf MyChoice = 0 Then FileSave FileClose EndIf

End Sub

Now choose File, Save to save the macro. To assign your new macro to a toolbar button (if you haven't already done this), 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.

If you've already assigned SaveAndClose to a button, the button will function with the modified macro.

When you click the SaveAndClose button, the macro will give you the option of saving and closing the file and opening a new document (click Yes), or saving and closing without opening a new document (click No).

MODIFYING THE FILECLOSE COMMAND

In the last tip, we discussed how to combine Word commands into a macro. We mentioned that you can modify existing Word macros to make them suit your needs. This time, let's look at how to modify one of those commands.

Let's consider the FileClose command. When you choose File, Close, Word will ask if you want to save the file. But a safer way to handle a file closing might be to always save the file. If you do this, you'll never have to work at recovering an unsaved document. So why not modify the command?

To modify the FileClose command, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type in

FileClose

and click Create. You'll find that the macro (shown below) consists of only one command.

Sub MAIN FileClose End Sub

To make the macro always save a file before closing it, modify the macro as shown here:

Sub MAIN FileSave FileClose End Sub

Choose File, Save to save the modified macro. Then choose File, Close to close the macro. From now on, when you choose File, Close, Word will first save the document and then close it. If the document has no name, Word will prompt you for one. Of course, if you commonly create a lot of test documents you don't plan to save, this is not the macro for you.

MAKING A BOOKLET

If you'd like to make a booklet, all you need is Word and some standard 8.5- by 11-inch paper. The trick is setting up the printer and visualizing 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 two and page three. The back of page two is page one, and the back of page three is page four.

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. Next, choose Format, Columns. When the Columns dialog box opens, click Two columns and then click OK. Choose View, Page Layout so you can see what's going on in both columns. Now write your document, remembering that pages one and four will appear on one Word page, and pages two and three will appear on another Word page.

Let's assume that booklet pages one and four are on Word page one. To print your booklet, choose File, Print. When the dialog box opens, select Pages and type in

Click OK to print. Now remove the printed page from the printer and insert it in the paper tray with the printed side up (in most printers). Choose File, Print and select Pages. Type in

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.

USING BOLD, UNDERLINED, OR ITALIC TEXT FORMATTING

Making text bold (or underlining or italicizing it) isn't a problem in Word. To make all subsequent text appear in bold, press Ctrl-B and start typing. For underlined text, press Ctrl-U. And, to set the text in italics, press Ctrl-I. You can toggle off all of these commands by repeating them.

If you need to change the format of existing text, select the text and then choose the appropriate command to change its formatting.

USING A TABLE MACRO

Version 4.x, 95

If you frequently insert a specific size and type of table into your Word documents, here's a macro that can do the job for you. Of course, the table we're creating with AddTable might not be the one you need, so you'll have to edit the macro a little.

TableInsertTable .ConvertFrom = "", .NumColumns = "8",.NumRows = "2", .InitialColWidth = "Auto", .Format = "7",.Apply = "167"

Macros just don't get any simpler than this. To get the macro into Word, choose Tools, Macro. In the Macro Name text box, type

AddTable

and click Create. Now type in the macro as shown above. Choose File, Save to save the new macro.

To change the table parameters, change NumRows and NumColumns. To choose a different table format, change the Format value. The number corresponds to a table format listed in the AutoFormat dialog box. To get there, choose Table, Insert Table and click on AutoFormat. Unfortunately, you're forced to count down the list to figure out which number goes with which table format--the first format, (None), is zero; Simple 1 is number one; Classic 1 is number four; and so on. Our number 7 corresponds to the Classic 4 format. After you finish looking over the table formats, click Cancel and then click Cancel again.

To use the new macro, choose Tools, Macro. Click AddTable to select it and then click Run.

USING A DIFFERENT HEADER FOR EACH SECTION IN A DOCUMENT

When you place a header or footer into a Word document, the header or footer applies to the entire document--unless you separate the document into sections, in which case you can use a different header and footer for each section.

Open a blank Word document and choose View, Header And Footer. Insert something into the header. Now, press Enter until you get to a new page. Choose File, Print Preview. If you zoom in, you'll see that the header appears on both pages.

Now, go back to Page 1, about halfway down the page. Choose Insert, Break. When the Break dialog box appears, select Continuous and then click OK.

Click in the new section and choose View, Header And Footer. Enter your new header (or footer) text. Make sure the Same As Previous button is NOT selected (it's the fourth button from the left in the Header And Footer floating toolbar). Click Close, and your new header will take effect. To view the headers, choose File, Print Preview and zoom in if necessary.

USE COLUMNS FOR TEXT APPEAL

Version 4.x, 95

If you've been appointed to produce a newsletter for your organization, club, or church, you can use columns to make the newsletter look more professional. Columns are much easier to deal with than most people imagine.

Let's say you decide to create a two-column newsletter. This isn't a problem at all. Simply choose Format, Columns. Click Two and click OK. To view the document properly in two columns, choose View, Page Layout.

People sometimes run into problems when they want to use a full-width banner headline over a two-column page. But you can do this fairly easily. Go to the very top of the document and choose Insert, Break. When the dialog box opens, select Continuous and click OK.

This inserts a section break. Now click above the section break line and choose Format, Columns. Click One and click OK. Type in your headline and make it long enough to cover the entire width of the page, if that's what you want. In any case, you can center it on the page by clicking the Center Text button in the Word toolbar.

Another problem people encounter is trying to place graphics or pictures in the columns. We'll discuss that in the next tip.

UNSHRINKING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY

In a previous tip, we mentioned that you can shrink text in Word's Print Preview mode. For example, if you have only one or two sentences on the next page of a document, you can use Shrink To Fit to make all the text fit on the same page.

Several readers have asked 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 through the entire document and reformat any headings (or other elements) that you used in the original document. Of course, if you just shrunk the document, and have now decided that you'd rather not, just press Ctrl-Z to undo the shrink.

You can avoid this dilemma altogether by saving a backup copy of your file. Before shrinking the document, use the File, Save As command.

TURNING YOUR TABLE GRIDLINES ON AND OFF

When you create a table in Word, the table will appear in the document with gridlines. However, the gridlines won'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 the gridlines to appear in the printed document, select the table and choose Format, Borders And Shading. When the dialog box opens, click Grid and then click OK. The gridlines will appear both in your document and in the printout.

WRAPPING TEXT AROUND CALLOUTS

Version 4.x, 95

Some subscribers have asked about using callouts in text. 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.

VERTICAL TOOLBAR UNDO QUIRK

Version 4.x, 95
Here's another little Word curiosity for you: If you move the toolbar (hold down Alt and drag the toolbar) to a vertical position, the Undo and Redo buttons no longer have a multilevel function. To check this, drag the toolbar to the left side of your screen. When the outline switches to vertical, release the mouse button. Now look at the Undo and Redo buttons. You'll notice that the down arrows are no longer there. If you type in some text, delete it, and then do an Undo, you'll find it works only at the first level. This happens only when the toolbar is vertical. If you drag the toolbar out onto your document, the down arrows will reappear. Weird, eh?

USING ZOOM TO CHECK YOUR DOCUMENT

When you want to get a quick idea of the look and feel of a document--see how its layout looks--choose File, Print Preview and then click the arrow at the right side of the Zoom list box to expand the list. Select 25%. You won't be able to read the text, but you'll get a very good idea of the overall appearance of your page layout.

USING PREPRINTED STATIONERY

If you use preprinted 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 preprinted letterhead. 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.

USING BORDERS

Version 4.x, 95

Borders can really spruce up your Word documents. Suppose you have some text you'd like to set apart from the rest of a document. Go ahead and type in the paragraph, and with the cursor set somewhere in (or at the end of) the paragraph, choose Format, Borders And Shading.

When the dialog box opens, click on the Borders tab and then click on either Box or Shadow. Click OK, and a border will appear around your paragraph.

If you decide you don't want the border after all, click inside the bordered paragraph, choose Format, Borders And Shading, and again click the Borders tab. This time select None and click OK.

INSERTING SMILEY FACE SYMBOL

Versions 4.x, 95
By default, Word 95's AutoCorrect will replace the :-) emoticon with a smiley face symbol. This may not be the default in other versions, so if you like the smiley face and want to use it in another program, first open Character Map, then select the Wingdings font. Select the
smiley face and click Select, Copy, Close. Now go to your document and choose Edit, Paste. Select the smiley face and choose Tools, AutoCorrect. Now type

:-)

in the Replace Text entry box. Press the Tab key once to move to the With Text entry box. Select the Formatted Text radio button. The smiley face will now appear in the entry box. Click Add, then OK. From now on, typing :-) will produce the happy face.

SHRINK-TO-FIT TEXT

Versions 4.x, 95
Have you ever finished a Word document only to find that the last few sentences land on a separate page? If so, you might like to try to eliminate that last page for cosmetic effect. Don't start deleting words; all you have to do is choose File, Print Preview. In the Print
Preview toolbar, click the Shrink To Fit button, which is located below the Tools menu. This will reduce your document by one page.

Make sure you double-check your reduced document before you print it; the font size may have changed and the document may not suit your tastes.

QUICK PARAGRAPH SELECTION

Versions 4.x, 95
You probably know that you can select a single word in a Word document by double-clicking the word. You should also know that if you triple-click anywhere in a paragraph, Word selects the entire paragraph.

EXCEL: COPYING DATA MAPS

Version 95
Do you use Excel 95's Data Map? If so, you might like to transfer some of those neat maps to a Word document or a PowerPoint slide. It's easy--you can cut and paste a map just as you would any other object. Simply select the map, then choose Edit, Copy. Go to your Word or PowerPoint document, select a position where you want the map, and choose Edit, Paste.

QUICK WORK COVER PAGE

Versions 4.x, 95
If you've just finished a long Word document and decide that you really need a cover page, you don't need to jump through a lot of hoops. All you have to do is go to the top of your document and press Enter. Now choose Insert, Break and select the radio button labeled
Page Break. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your request. This process inserts a blank page before your document, and you can type whatever you want on this new page.

MAPPING NEW BORDERS

Have you ever wanted to apply a border to only one side of a block of Word text? Perhaps you'd like to have a border at the left side of a paragraph to set it off without having to place the whole thing inside a rectangular border.

To apply a border to the left side of a paragraph, click the paragraph to select it. Now choose Format, Borders And Shading; when the dialog box opens, click the Borders tab. Next, click Custom. Choose your line (Solid is the default), then look at the Preview section of the dialog box. There are four buttons here. The top one places the border at the top of the selected paragraph; the next one places the border at the bottom of the paragraph. The two buttons below the preview pane give you the option of a border at the left (the button on the left) or right side of the paragraph.

Note that you can click on one or all of the buttons. So if you want a border at the top and bottom of the paragraph, just click the top and bottom buttons. After you make your selection, click OK.

AIN'T NO REASON TO USE BAD GRAMMAR

Versions 4.x, 95
If you'd like Word to run a grammar check on your documents, you should decide what type of checking you want it to do. Choose Tools, Options, then click the Grammar tab in the Options dialog box. Click the down arrow at the right side of the Use Grammar And Style Tools list box to expand the list. Now choose the type of testing you'd like to use. Choose the one that seems to best fit a particular document.

VIEWING MULTIPLE WORD PAGES

Versions 4.x, 95
When you want to use Print Preview to see how your Word document will look on paper, choose File, Print Preview. If you want to see multiple pages simultaneously, click the Multiple Pages button in the Print Preview toolbar. It's the button that has four tiny pages on it.

When you click the button, a dialog box showing six small pages opens. Here's how the dialog box is laid out: The top row provides pages 1 through 3. The bottom row provides two to the maximum, placing the pages both vertically and horizontally. You can adjust the number of pages in view by changing the zoom factor.

FORMAT PAINTER

Versions 4.x, 95
Here's a cool trick that many Word for Windows users overlook--format pasting. If there's a format in your document that you'd like to apply in some other part of the document, don't bother with a lot of fancy manipulations. All you have to do is click on a line that contains the format you want to use and then click the Format Painter button (it looks like a paintbrush) in the toolbar. Clicking the Format Painter button will change the icon to a brush. Move to the text to which you want to apply the format, and use the mouse to "paint" over the text. That's all you have to do. Word will reformat your text.

TAKE CTRL AND GO STRAIGHT TO THE TOP

Versions 4.x, 95
If you want to quickly navigate to the very top of a Word document, press Ctrl-Home. To get to the end of the document, press Ctrl-End. And, just in case you don't already know, Ctrl-A will select the entire document; Ctrl-C will copy the selected text (or graphics);
Ctrl-X will cut selected text (or graphics); Ctrl-V will paste data from the Clipboard; and Ctrl-Z will undo the last operation.

AUTOMATING AUTOCORRECT

Version 4.x, 95
You know that you can place a series of characters into Word's AutoCorrect and let that feature add the text for you. Did you know that you can ask AutoCorrect to add formatting, too?

Suppose, for example, that you have a line of bold, italic text followed by a line of text in the Heading 1 style. Type in your text and then press Enter. Now select the Heading 1 style and then select both lines. Choose Tools, AutoCorrect and select the Formatted radio
button. Next, add the characters you want AutoCorrect to respond to, and click OK. When you type in the selected sequence, AutoCorrect will add the line, the carriage return, and the style change for you.

SUPERIMPOSE TEXT ON A PICTURE

Version 4.x, 95
Want to add some text inside a picture in a Word document? Here's one way to do the job--frame the picture. To do this, right-click the picture. When the menu opens, choose Frame Picture.

Now for the text. Choose Insert, Frame. The cursor will turn into a crosshair. Use the crosshair to draw a new frame. Now add text to your new frame. At this point, since both the picture and text are in frames, you can place them both wherever you want, and placing the text frame over the picture frame is no problem at all.

HOW TO USE AND MODIFY SPECIAL BULLETS

Version 4.x, 95
Bulleted lists are a nice, clean organizational touch to a document, but did you know that you can make them look even better by using special bullets? Try this: Select a bulleted list, then right-click the selection. This opens a menu from which you choose the Bullets and Numbering command. When the Bullets and Numbering dialog box opens, click Modify.

This opens another dialog box called Modify Bulleted List. In this dialog box, click Bullet to open the Symbol Character Map. In the Character Map, select a new bullet symbol and click OK. Back in the Modify Bulleted List dialog box, you can change the color, size, and
so on. When you've finished making your changes, click OK twice, and your new selection will appear in the document.

WACKY WINGDINGS MAKE MEMORABLE BULLETS

Version 4.x, 95
In the last tip, we told you how to change your bullet symbol (Bullets and Numbering, Modify, Bullet). This time, let's look at even more bullet-symbol options. Go through all the steps we discussed in the last tip, but when you get to the Character Map, go to the Symbols

>From list box and click the down arrow at the right side of the box to expand the list. Select Wingdings. Now you can choose a new bullet from the rich symbol source that the Wingdings font offers. Once again, click OK after you make your choice, then you can change its color and size. Click OK twice to get back to your document.

SEE BOTH DOC AND RTF FILES WHEN USING FILE, OPEN

Version 4.3, 95
If you work with .RTF files in Word 6 or Word 7, you'll find that always having to tell Word to look for .RTF files in the Open dialog box is a bit of a pain in the CPU. A simple macro will take care of the problem for you. Actually, you don't even have to add a macro--all you have to do is modify an existing one.

Choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type into the Macro Name text box

FileOpen

Now click Create, and the FileOpen macro will appear. Modify it to match the macro shown here:

Sub MAIN
Dim dlg As FileOpen
GetCurValues dlg
dlg.Name = "*.rtf;*.doc"
On Error Goto OhNo
Dialog dlg
FileOpen dlg
OhNo:
End Sub

Now when you choose File, Open, you'll see both .DOC and .RTF files.

HIGHLIGHT FEATURE LIGHTS UP YOUR DOCUMENTS

Version 4.x, 95
Word has a nifty highlight feature that works like those highlighting markers you use to emphasize text on a printed page. To use it, just click the Highlight button; it's probably next to the Underline button unless you've moved it. (Don't have one? Go to Tools, Customize and click the Toolbars tab, then click on Tools in the Categories box. The button looks like a highlighting marker with a small yellow square beneath it; just drag it up to your toolbar.)

Word's default highlight color is yellow. If you'd rather use some other color, click on the down arrow at the right side of the highlight button to expand your color list. You can choose no color (None), green, cyan, magenta, blue, red, or dark blue (keep scrolling down the menu to see all the colors).

ADD HANGING INDENTS TO PARAGRAPHS

Version 4.x, 95
If you'd like to use hanging indents for several paragraphs in a Word document, select the paragraphs you want to modify, then choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, click the Indents and Spacing tab. In the list box labeled Special, click the down arrow to expand the list and choose Hanging. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.

MAKING A CASE FOR CHANGING CASES

Version 4.x, 95
If you're a high-speed typist, you can type several sentences without ever looking at the screen. That's great unless you've accidentally turned on the Caps Lock key. In that, um, case, all the characters are in the opposite case. Don't delete them and start over again. Instead, select the text, then choose Format, Change Case. When the Change Case dialog box opens, select the Toggle Case radio button and click OK. Your text will appear in the correct case.

AUTOCORRECT HANDLES CAPS LOCK PROBLEM

Version 4.x, 95
Yesterday we showed you how to correct text inadvertently typed with the Caps Lock key activated. There's another way to handle the Caps Lock problem in Office 95 programs. Choose Tools, AutoCorrect. When the AutoCorrect dialog box opens, select the Correct Accidental Usage Of Caps Lock Key check box. Click OK to close the dialog box. Now if
you accidentally toggle the Caps Lock key, Word not only will produce correct text, it will toggle off the Caps Lock key.

WORDART, PAINT: SAVE ARTWORK AS A BITMAP FILE

Version 4.x, 95
You probably know you can use WordArt to create a logo. You can save all your hard work and keep the logo simply by saving the document in which the WordArt appears. However, if you'd like to use the logo again, you might want to consider saving the art as a separate .BMP (bitmap) file. To do this, right-click on the WordArt and choose Copy from the resulting menu. Now open Paint (Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint) and choose File, Paste. Once the WordArt object is pasted into Paint, you can size it and save it as a .BMP file. Now you can use it wherever you want. You can even use it as wallpaper if you like.

POWERPOINT, WORD: ENABLE YOUR INNER PLACEHOLDER

Slides may not show up in Word when you use PowerPoint's Write-Up. The notes will look OK, but instead of slide images, you'll get an empty box with resize handles. This happens when you've enabled the picture placeholders in Word. To disable the holders, choose Tools, Options and click the View tab. Deselect the check box labeled Picture Placeholders.

WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT: THE PROBLEM WITH COMPRESSED GRAPHICS

If you run an OEM version of Office for Windows Version 4.3c-CD, you may have a problem inserting pictures into a document. When you attempt a picture insertion in Word, you might get the message

Word cannot start the graphics filter.
(C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\GRPHFLT\GIFIMP.FLT)

where the filename shown in parentheses is the graphics filter name that you would use to read the picture file. In Excel, you might not get an error message, but the picture won't be inserted. In PowerPoint, you get the message

Sorry, C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\GRPHFLT\EPSIMP.FLT is not a valid filter. You should reinstall it.

This happens because some of the graphic filters that are installed during Setup are still in compressed format. These files are as follows:

CGMIMP.FLT
DRWIMP.FLT
EPSIMP.FLT
GIFIMP.FLT
PCXIMP.FLT
PICTIMP.FLT
TIFFIMP.FLT
WPGEXP.FLT
WPGIMP.FLT

You'll find all these files in the \Windows\MSApps\Grphflt folder.

WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT: RESOLVING THE PROBLEM WITH COMPRESSED
GRAPHICS

To eliminate the problem with compressed pictures described in the last tip, use the Extract utility to extract the graphic filter files. You'll find the files in the following directories/CAB files (on the Office CD):

CGMIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
DRWIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
EPSIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
GIFIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
PCXIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
PICTIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK24\MSOFF24.CAB
TIFFIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK27\MSOFF27.CAB
WPGEXP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK20\MSOFF20.CAB
WPGIMP.FLT SETUP.ADM\DISK28\MSOFF28.CAB

To extract the files, first find and then copy EXTRACT.EXE to the root directory of your hard disk. Go to the MS-DOS prompt and type the following (all on one line) in this format:

extract /Y D:\ /L c:\windows\msapps\grphflt

D: is the drive that contains the Microsoft Office CD. To this, directly following the /L switch, add the path for the directory and .CAB file that contains the filter you need to extract. The line that begins c:\windows should be your Microsoft Windows directory and the name of the graphic filter you're extracting.

Let's suppose that you're extracting CGMIMP.FLT. You'd type on one command line

extract /Y d:\setup.adm\disk27\msoff27.cab /L
c:\windows\msapps\grphflt cgmimp.flt -

Note: Using the /Y switch will allow Extract to overwrite the existing compressed file. The space before the filename is important--make sure you don't omit it.

THE MOST RECENTLY USED FILE LIST

Word keeps a list of the most recently used files at the bottom of the File menu (unless you tell it not to). Previous versions of Word warn you when a file on that list has been deleted, and remove the file from the list. Nowadays, Word does not remove a deleted file from the
list because of the more widespread use of networks.

CLEAR THE MOST RECENTLY USED FILE LIST

If you want to clear the list of most recently used files in Word (located on the File menu), choose Tools, Options, and when the Options dialog box appears, click the General tab. Deselect the Recently Used File List option and then click OK. To reactivate the list, repeat the steps, this time selecting the Recently Used File List check box. Now the list is cleared but activated, so newly used files will appear on the list.

WORD 6: WHEN A FILE DOESN'T APPEAR ON THE RECENTLY USED

If you open a Word 6 file from File Manager or Windows Explorer and then close that file without saving it, the file will not appear on Word's most recently used file list (located on the File menu). If you want a file to show up on the list, you must save it before you close it.

WORD 6: LARGE VS. SMALL BUTTONS

If you create Word 6 toolbar buttons with the Large Button option selected, the buttons created will look lousy if you then switch to the Small Button option. Also, if you create buttons with Small Button selected and then switch to Large Button mode, you'll find that the buttons are still small.

To make your Word 6 toolbar buttons look their best in Small Button mode, create all your buttons in Small Button mode and run Word with the Large Button mode turned off. If you want to run in Large Button mode, create all your buttons in that mode. If you want to switch back and forth between small and large, create two sets of buttons--one for each mode.

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 recognize what you're trying to do and will give you an error message. Word 6 doesn't recognize 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.

WORD 6: MODIFYING WORD COMMANDS

If you choose Tools, Macro and then select a Word command, the Create button will be grayed out. This may cause you to incorrectly assume that you can't modify a Word command in Word 6. Here's how to do it. Choose Tools, Macro and type the name of the macro you want to modify. Select the command you want to modify. Now choose where you want to save your macro (Normal.dot, for example) and then click Create. This will open the macro in an editing window, where you can modify it as desired.

WORD 6: UNMODIFYING WORD COMMANDS

If you've modified a Word command and would like to revert to the macro's original function, simply delete your replacement macro. Go to Tools, Macro. Click the macro name to select it and click Delete. Click OK to confirm your choice, and click Close to close the Macros dialog.

CUSTOM TOOLBARS

When you open a Word 2.x template in Word 6.0, you'll find that Word won't customize the standard toolbar. Word will instead define a separate Word 2.0 toolbar, and to display it, you have to choose View, Toolbars and select it.

REPAGINATE IN THE BACKGROUND--OR NOT?

When you turn on background pagination, Word will repaginate the current document while the program is idle. This keeps the page numbers current. Unfortunately, in some cases, background pagination can slow down other operations. If you have a problem with slowdowns, turn off background pagination. To do this, choose View, Normal (background repagination doesn't work in Page Layout view). Now choose Tools, Options and, when the Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now you can select or deselect the Background Repagination check box. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

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.

LIMIT TO WORD COUNT

If you use Tools, Word Count to see how many words there are in a document, you should know that it can fail to report the correct number. Here's what happens: In Word 6 (and all prior versions), the largest number of words that Word can count is 65,536. So when a document contains more than 65,536 words, the first time you choose the Update button, Word restarts the counter at 1. This problem was eliminated in Word 7.

SHADED BACKGROUND PRINTING PROBLEM

If you paste a PowerPoint 7.0 slide with a shaded background into a Word document, the color resolution appears to be lost. When you're running at 256 colors, PowerPoint handles shaded fill displays differently than Word does. Your printout should be OK, even if the picture doesn't look so good on screen.

PASTING BITMAPS

You may find that when you paste a bitmap file from Word into PowerPoint, the picture is distorted. The reason for this is that Word assumes the system palette remains constant. So Word places palette information for a Device Dependent Bitmap (DDB) and a Device Independent Bitmap on the Clipboard. The default pasting uses DDB. The way around the problem is to use Paste Special and always choose Device Independent Bitmap when pasting from Word into PowerPoint.

BRING BACK A FAVORITE OLD TOOLBAR

If you have fond memories of the Word for Windows 2.0 toolbar, you can still use it in Word 6 or 7. Choose View, Toolbars to open the Toolbars dialog box. Select the Word for Windows 2.0 check box and click OK. There's your Word for Windows 2.0 toolbar. Even if you never used Word for Windows 2.0, you might like to check out the toolbar. It's a good, no-frills toolbar and a good start to building a customized one of your own.

SPEED UP YOUR SPELLING CHECK

Word's spelling checker will run faster if you don't ask it for suggestions. The theory is when Word tags a word as incorrectly spelled, we'll know how to correct the spelling. All that's required is that we exert some effort when no words are suggested. If you'd like to try this out, choose Tools, Options a