It Pays to Increase Your Word Power

These add-ons and add-ins give Microsoft's word processor new punch.

Want to know what features will be added to the next version of Word? I've been to some non-Microsoft Web sites that showed me. There's a great document format revealer and a powerhouse tool for changing Word's interface, along with other functions that help me work lots more efficiently. Want your own pre-prerelease copy? Read on.

If you're thinking that my inside track is a warez or pirate site, you're wrong. My insight comes from paying attention to the companies that make Word add-ons. I figure that Microsoft will find a way to "reinvent" the best features in these programs for Word's next release. (Yes, I'm bashing Microsoft, but based on past experience, it's a fact.)

Revealing Codes

I bet many of you remember WordPerfect's Reveal Codes, the super feature that lets you see every trace of formatting in a document. For WP users, it's an indispensable tool for finding the bizarre, picayune formatting problems that can turn parts of a document into gibberish. No, Microsoft's halfhearted try at the feature in Word XP doesn't even come close.

One look at the format revealer in Levit & James's $75 CrossEyes add-in, and I was blown away. The program gives you a peek behind the curtain in Word. Click the CrossEyes icon on Word's toolbar to split the screen horizontally into two windows--the document above, and the corresponding text and formatting codes below. You can see tables, sections, field codes, and all character, paragraph, and style formats. The two windows work in harmony--if you move the cursor in either window, you'll go to the corresponding location in the other.

A More Optional Word

Crosseyes lets you do more than just view the formatting, however. You can excise misbehaving formats in the code-revealing window, or copy and paste to apply formatting from elsewhere in the document. Heck, you can even enter and edit text in the code window if you want. CrossEyes may be expensive, but it's vital for heavy Word users. It works with Word 97 through Word XP, and with all versions of Windows except 3.1 (which my brother-in-law won't stop using).

Another set of essential Word add-ons has been in my toolbox for going on a decade. They're part of the $30 Woody's Office Power Pack (WOPR) by Woody Leonhard. I've watched as many of WOPR's features ended up in Word. "It's kind of a push-me, pull-you approach to improving Office," Leonhard says. "Microsoft 'borrows' the right-click spell checking from WOPR 6, the Document Map from WOPR 95, and the Word Count toolbar from WOPR 2000, and we build in more tools and must-have features for the next version of WOPR."

One of my favorite utilities in the program is the WOPR Place Bar Customizer, which lets me customize File Open, Save, and other dialog boxes in Office 2000 and XP so they point to where I want to go today. For instance, I rarely use the Desktop and My Network Places shortcuts on the left side of the dialog boxes; the customizer lets me replace them with icons to folders I need to get at quickly. (This and other individual WOPR tools are available separately for $15.)

For a great deal, pick up two books that come with the software CDs--I refer to both (Leonhard cowrote them with Ed Bott) regularly. The first is Using Office XP, which comes with WOPR XP. I've seen it discounted on Amazon for about $27. Using Office 2000 is an even bigger bargain--it has WOPR 2000 and runs about $21. To find them online, enter que books and the title in Google's search box.

Want even more Word tools? For a rich source of tweaks and downloads, visit the Microsoft Word MVP site. Now give me your word you'll stop shilly-shallying and boost your productivity with a few of these add-ons.

Buying Information

Levit and James CrossEyes $75

Buying Information

WOPR Woody's Office Power Pack XP and 2000 $30

Contributing Editor Steve Bass is the president of the Pasadena IBM Users Group. Reach him at homeoffice@pcworld.com. Sign up for his online newsletter here.