WORD: The Write Stuff
15 essential tips for smarter, faster word processing--no matter which version of Word or WordPerfect you use.George Campbell
George Campbell is a contributing editor for PC World. He lives in Osos, California.
The workhorse of any office suite, whether preloaded or store bought, is its word processing application. And though each new version adds capabilities, ostensibly to boost productivity, we still value the basics: formatting documents and customizing menus, toolbars, and macros.
With that in mind, we present ways to get more out of your word processor--Microsoft Word 6.0 or later, or WordPerfect 6 or later. We'll highlight some useful features that are right under your nose, as well as a number of undocumented power tools just waiting to be harnessed.
Time-Savers
We all like to discover new shortcuts, whether they offer a faster route home or a quicker way to enter and edit text in a document. These tricks speed your work.
Do-It-Yourself Shortcuts
Do you find yourself entering the same signature block, address, or other text or object into document after document? Word lets you store these frequently used items--complete with formatting--and insert them with a few simple keystrokes.
Select the text, graphic, or object you wish to enter, and choose Tools, AutoCorrect (in Word 97 and 2000) or Tools, AutoCorrect Options (in Word 2002). Click the AutoCorrect tab in the resulting dialog box. You'll see your selected text or object in the 'With' box. Type a short, nonword abbreviation in the 'Replace' box, check the Formatted Text option, and click OK. To insert this text or object in another document, just type the abbreviation you chose, and press Space. If Word prompts you to save the changes to the global template when you exit, click Yes.
Print Keyboard Shortcuts
Word and WordPerfect offer dozens of useful keyboard shortcuts, but finding them can be a chore. WordPerfect 10 and all versions of Word make it easy to print a list of every shortcut to post nearby as a handy reference.
In Word, select Tools, Macro, Macros or press Alt-F8. In the Macros dialog box, select Word commands from the 'Macros in' drop-down list, and then select ListCommands from the 'Macro name' list box. Click Run, select Current menu and keyboard settings in the List Commands dialog box, and click OK. Word will create a document containing a table of commands and their keyboard shortcuts. Print it for reference.
In WordPerfect 10, select Tools, Settings. Click the Customize icon in the Settings dialog box, and choose the Keyboards tab in the next dialog box. There, the keyboard that you are currently using will already be selected. Click Edit and then click Print Report in the next dialog box.
Get There With Scrollbars
To navigate quickly through a long Word document, you can use the vertical and horizontal scrollbars on the right side and bottom of your document, respectively. But there's more to them than that.
By checking one of the double arrows (pointing up or down) on the bottom of Word's vertical scroll bar, you can jump from page to page in the document. Click the button between the double arrows to see a palette of options that you can assign to them. As you hover the mouse over each option, you'll see an explanation of what it sets--Browse by Graphic, or Browse by Section, for example. After selecting the option you prefer, click the double arrows to go to the next or the previous occurrence of your selection.
WordPerfect 9 and 10 offer almost the same tool on their vertical scrollbars. Click the icon between the double arrows to cycle through your quick-jump options.
Your Documents Folder
By default, Word stores your documents in the My Documents folder. If you want to change Word's default folder, select Tools, Options and bring up the File Locations tab in the Options dialog box. Choose Documents in the 'File types' list and then click Modify. Navigate to and select the folder you want to use; then click OK to make it the new default. If Word prompts you to confirm changes to normal.dot when you exit, click Yes.
Interface Makeovers
The default interface that greets you in Word and WordPerfect is somebody else's idea of the best arrangement of toolbars, menus, and other elements. Follow these steps to give your word processor the layout you want.
Menus Your Way
The smart menus in Word 2000 and 2002 show only the commands you've used most recently. To see all available commands, you must either wait a few seconds or click the double arrow at the bottom of the menu. There's an easy way to shut off this 'enhancement' once and for all.
In Word 2000, choose Tools, Customize, click the Options tab in the Customize dialog box, uncheck the Menus show recently used commands first box, and click Close. In Word 2002 the steps are the same, but in the Customize dialog box you select Always show full menus.
Unclutter Your View
Word's default interface resembles the controls in a jet's cockpit. An array of toolbars, icons, drop-down menus, scrollbars, rulers, and task panes (in Word 2002) fill more than half the screen. To remove a toolbar from Word's interface, including any that appears when you select a table or graphic, right-click it and uncheck it in the list that pops up. To delete other elements, select Tools, Options and click the View tab in the Options dialog box. Then deselect the scrollbars, vertical ruler, status bar, and any other unneeded items.
Fix Word 2002's Task Panes
Though Word 2002's task panes are handy, they take up a lot of screen space. To force Word 2002 to hide the New Document task pane each time it opens, select Tools, Options and uncheck Startup Task Pane under the View tab. Click OK to implement the change. Click the Styles and Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar to open or close the Styles and Formatting task pane. You can usually prevent the Styles and Formatting task pane from opening by using menu commands, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts to reformat your document.
Formatting for Smarties
There's more than one way to do just about anything you desire in your word processor. So why stick with the formatting techniques WordPerfect and Word suggest? The following alternatives can boost your productivity significantly.
Faster Text Selection
Selecting text for formatting or other actions is one of the most common word processing tasks. Most users click and drag over the text they want to select, but that's time-consuming and inaccurate. Here are several shortcuts to make your text selection faster and more precise.
To select a single word in any version of Word, double-click it. To select a sentence, hold down Ctrl and click anywhere in the sentence. Double-clicking the left margin next to a paragraph will select the entire paragraph, as will triple-clicking the paragraph. You can select successive words, sentences, or paragraphs by keeping the mouse button pressed as you select the first one (using the methods described above), and then dragging the mouse to subsequent or previous words, paragraphs, or sentences.
To select from the current cursor position to the end of a line, press Shift-End. Press Ctrl-Shift-End to select from the current cursor location to the end of the document. To highlight the entire document, either press Ctrl-A or triple-click the left margin. A good way to select a large block of text is to click the beginning of the block and hold down Shift as you scroll down; then click the end of the desired selection.
In WordPerfect 9 and 10, you can select a word by double-clicking it, a sentence by triple-clicking anywhere in the sentence, and an entire paragraph by clicking four times anywhere in the paragraph or by double-clicking the left margin next to the paragraph. To select from the current cursor position to the end of a line, simply press Shift-End. To select from the current cursor location to the end of the document, you should press Ctrl-Shift-End. Select the entire document by pressing Ctrl-A, or triple-click the left margin. And to select a block of text, click its beginning and hold Shift as you scroll down; then click its end.
Bonus Tip: Word 2002 Adds Multiple Selection Power Word processing software has never before been able to select multiple, noncontiguous blocks of text to copy and paste into documents--to help create summaries, say, or to format in a specific way. One of Word 2002's most welcome new features is its ability to select discrete blocks of text as a group.
Start by selecting the first block of text, using any of the techniques described above. After you've made the selection, hold down Ctrl while you highlight another block of text, again using any of the techniques described above (except Ctrl-click sentence selection, of course). Repeat this process until you have selected all of the desired text. With the blocks of text selected, apply formatting or copy the text blocks to the clipboard. You can paste the copied material into any Windows application.
Unformat Unsightly Text
It happens all the time. You paste text into a document from a Web page or another program, and the formatting shows wrong fonts, wrong paragraph spacing, wrong everything. Word and WordPerfect 9 and 10 let you fix this alien formatting.
Select the offending material, and click Edit, Cut or press Ctrl-X to delete it and place it in the clipboard. In Word, make sure the style on the Formatting toolbar's Style drop-down menu is set to Normal. In WordPerfect, select None from the Select Style drop-down list. Choose E dit, Paste Special, select Unformatted Text in the Paste Special dialog box, and click OK. All previous formatting will disappear. In Word 2002, it's even easier: Select the improperly formatted text, and choose Clear Formatting in the Style drop-down menu.
Styles for Success
If you don't use Word's Heading styles in your documents, you're missing out on some useful features. After you apply Heading styles to titles, headings, and subheadings, you can navigate through a document by selecting View, Document Map and clicking any heading displayed in the left margin to jump right to it. Heading styles also let you create a table of contents in a flash: Press Ctrl-Home to jump to the beginning of the document; then select Insert, Reference, Index and Tables (in 2002) or Insert, Index and Tables (in previous versions), choose the Table of Contents tab, and click OK.
Need to create a presentation quickly? If you use Word's Heading styles, your presentation is almost done. Select File, Send To, Microsoft PowerPoint. Word will convert Heading 1 text into individual slides, and Heading 2 and Heading 3 text into bulleted lists. Just add some formatting tweaks to the presentation, and you're done.
Bonus Tip: Word offers a quick keyboard shortcut for applying the first three Heading styles to your text. Press Ctrl-Alt-1, -2, or -3 to apply the Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3 style, respectively, to the current paragraph. To apply Word's Normal style, press Ctrl-Shift-N.
Making It All Fit
If a document extends a line or two onto another page, you don't have to edit it to fit. Instead, let Word or WordPerfect reformat the document automatically to occupy the number of pages you want.
In Word, select File, Print Preview, click the Shrink to Fit button on the toolbar, and press Esc to return to the editing screen. Word shrinks the document by reducing all font sizes slightly. If you don't like the result, select Edit, Undo or press Ctrl-Z. In WordPerfect 9 and 10, select Format, Make It Fit. In the Desired number of pages box, set the number of pages you want the document to have. Click Make It Fit. To undo the changes, simply select Edit, Undo or press Ctrl-Z.
Quick Table Formatting
In Word, inserting a table into a document is easy, but manually formatting a table's borders, lines, and colors can be slow. Word makes formatting a breeze.
Once you have added all the new information to your table, select Table, Table AutoFormat. In the Table AutoFormat dialog box, choose an item from the Format list (Word 97 and 2000) or from the 'Table styles' list (Word 2002). A preview of the results will appear in the Preview window. You can step through the available formats either by clicking them or by using the up and down arrow keys. Any other options you select will also show up in the Preview window. When you find the right look, click OK (Word 97 and 2000) or Apply (Word 2002).
Word Graphics: Worth a Thousand Pictures
Create Charts and Graphs in an Instant
You can convert tables in a Word document into colorful, dynamic charts with just a few clicks. First, select the table data and labels that you want to include in the chart, and choose Insert, Picture, Chart. Word's default 3D bar chart will appear, along with a datasheet containing the data from your table. Close the datasheet, double-click the chart, right-click any blank area in the chart, and select Chart Type from the context menu. In the Chart Type dialog box, experiment by selecting different items from the Chart type and Chart subtype lists. As you try different options, you can click and hold the Press and Hold to View Sample button to see what they will make your chart look like. When you're happy with the chart's appearance, click OK. You can resize the chart in your document by double-clicking it and dragging its sizing handles. To align the chart on the page, click anywhere outside it, click the chart again, and then select one of the text alignment icons on the Formatting toolbar. To make other changes to a part of the chart, double-click that part and then right-click it to view its context menu.
Thinner Graphics
By default, Word stores a document's graphics inside the document file itself. This can make the file huge, eating up precious hard disk space--especially if the document holds large scanned photographs. Fortunately, it's easy to tell Word to store a document's images elsewhere.
When you go to select Insert, Picture, From File in Word 97, choose Link to File in the Insert Picture dialog box before you click Insert. In Word 2000 and 2002, select your image in the Insert Picture dialog box and then click the down arrow on the Insert button. Choose Link to File to insert the image into your document while keeping it stored in its original folder when the document is closed. Note: If you are planning to send the document as an e-mail attachment, you must include the image in the document itself.
Text Support: Bend Word to Your Will
You can add or remove any command from a menu or toolbar in Word. Select Tools, Customize to display Word's Customize dialog box before making any changes.
