Tips and Tricks Ms Word PDF
Tips and Tricks Ms Word PDF
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My copy/paste operation has failed. Is there a way to
Copy And Paste fix it?
Not Working This is a typical question where not quite enough
information has been given. It really is surprising how
many people think that because they have a problem you
will know the answer.
"My computer has stopped working can you tell me what
is wrong please?"
So, let's try and take a stab in the dark and answer the
question. I'm not sure what you are trying to do but in
word and/or Excel, the clipboard is only capable of
holding up to 24 items. You may have closed word or
Excel and are working in the other program, but the
clipboard is still holding your items. The computer
doesn't know that you no longer require the data that's
on the clipboard. Here's what to do.
In Word make sure you are on the Home tab and click
the arrow under the Paste in the Clipboard tab.
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To clear the clipboard click the small corner arrow to
Clear Clipboard the right of the word Clipboard. A type of dialog box will
appear showing all the copies on the clipboard up to this
point. Click the Clear All button and voila, the clipboard
is empty. The only other way of clearing the clipboard is
to close down all office programs.
Click the small right hand arrow after word Clipboard (as
Clearing in above note). If there is more than one item listed it's
Individual possible to click the clipboard item and a small arrow will
Items appear to the right.
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In 2007 and higher have you ever typed the Alt key on
The Alt its own and seen all the little letters and figures appear
Shortcut Keys in the Ribbon? More to the point, do you know why they
are there? Here are some shown below in a screen shot
of the plain Ribbon.
The Ribbon is the same but different, why all the letters
and numbers.
Let's look at the letters first. Up until version 2007 of
Office all programs had in them a letter underlined in
each menu item, using the Alt key plus that letter would
move you to that menu. IE. Alt + E opened the Edit menu.
This changed in version 2007 there was no more menu
only the Ribbon. At first, it was so confusing to users
that Microsoft wrote three utility programs with a 2003
fully working pseudo menu. When an item was clicked on
the ribbon opened and where the same item could be
found it was highlighted. These utilities are still
available in versions 2010 and 2013. However, Microsoft
didn't fully abandon the old method, type the Alt key
now and the Ribbon display letters, which when typed will
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open that Ribbon.IE. JL will open the layout Ribbon
section. The numbers are the items on the Quick Access
Toolbar. My number 4 opens the Delete Table options
with all the options also short-listed. The numbers are
the numeric keys not the F number keys.
This part of 2007 + means you no longer have to
remember the short cut keys the program guides you to
them. Try them out you may just be a little surprised at,
not only how nice it is to work this way, but also how
much faster it is.
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In the above I have clicked just the line spacing icon
notice the icon tip is displayed. Alongside of the icon is a
small downward pointing arrow. Click this and you will see
the different line spacing setting available to you.
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On the menu that appears it's the bottom right hand
icon. Note some of my screenshots have slight
differences because I'm using Office 2013
Now you can set the defaults of Font, Style and Line
Spacing. If you want this to apply to all future
documents click the option button for this. (New
documents based on this template). This changes the
New Document Template, which will remain for all new
documents until it is reset again.
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In word 2010 and 2013 there are slight differences in
Word 2010/13 the places thing are shown on the ribbon. This is
basically because Microsoft can't leave things alone they
have to try to fix what ain't yet broken. Look under the
Home tab on the ribbon and you will find the information
you are looking for. One thing I try to avoid is to rely on
finding the answer in the MS Help file. You often find
that what you ask for is buried deep in some other piece
of information. The best place to look is to ask the same
question in Google. Don't get despondent if you don't
find the answer right off – look down through the forum
listings through to the end or until you find what you
want.
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Default I am unable to get a grip of what is meant by a default
Settings setting with computers. At school a defaulter was
someone that had done something wrong. When you owe
money on a mortgage or loan a default is a penalty for
not paying on time. Can you explain what a default is on a
computer?
Noun
Failure to fulfil an obligation, esp. to repay a loan or appear in
A court of law.
Verb
Fail to fulfil an obligation, esp. to repay a loan or to appear in
A court of law: "some had defaulted on student loans".
Computer Default
This term is used to describe a pre-set value for some
option in a computer program. It is the value used when a
setting has not been specified by the user. For example,
the default font setting in Windows 2007 is "Calibri". If
you don't like this preference and change it to
something else, like "Times" the "Times" font will be
used in future -- by default. Typically, default settings
are set to what most people would, or Microsoft decides
they would choose anyway, so there's often no reason to
change them. If, on the other hand, you're one of those
people who has to customize everything that you possibly
can, then you can go ahead and change all the default
settings you want.
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Figure 12: Word 2003 Menu Option
All I have open is the word program with the Word tips
for… open. It's quite simple to keep the utility open also.
Look at the following task bar.
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Figure 15: Task Bar With Two programs Open
When you click in any of the 2003 menus and select what
you want the utility will open into the 2007 ribbon and
display where the item can be found.
"That's all very fine but the next time I open the utility
Getting Back it's already showing the ribbon."
Well, yes if that's what you want, but to get back to the
2003 screen display, when you've finished with the
program the first time, click the little "X" button as you
normally would to close a program. What this does is
close the 2007 ribbon screen display and takes you back
to the 2003 menu display. Now in the task bar click on
the Word 2007 item and that will open and the utility
will automatically remain in the minimised state on the
task bar until required again. Learn to work with the task
bar and as many as 5 programs open at the same time if
you wish. I usually limit it to 4 programs as otherwise
the task bar gets crowded.
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One of the worst things you can do with a document is to
Formatting not worry about how it is formatted. Formatting is one
of the most important things with a document to make it
legible and easily readable. Have you ever received a
badly formatted document that was hard to read? You
soon get fed up or annoyed with the layout and discard
the rest of it. So then what makes one document easier
to read than another?
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Copy the content from the source to the Clipboard using
[Ctrl]+C.
In the destination document, position the cursor and
then click the Home tab.
In the Clipboard group, choose the Keep Text Only
option shown in from the Paste drop-down.
In Word 2007, choose the Keep Text Only option from
the Paste Options (smart tag) drop-down after pasting
the content.
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Enter up the w2007 and then the correction Word 2007
Special Text each time in future when you type that, as soon as you
enter the space bar after the w2007 then it will be
replaced with what you want it to be replaced with.
You may also do this type of thing.
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In the above to get wrs to give the formatted type face
Auto Text and size, make sure the Formatted text option is clicked.
Summary
"Wellington Regional SeniorNet" Now
type in the text letters. I do this with any special
document I'm writing to save time and make it easy.
Once the document is finished go back and remove the
special Auto Correct statements.
So, to summarise Auto Text, it can be used for many
more things than at first meets the eye. Use it to your
advantage. Why make work for yourself when you have a
computer that can do it for you?
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I'm going to crop the picture above to show what I
mean.
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I've then copied the picture and cropped it the other
way by taking out the tree and using just the fence. Try
this out for yourself. One thing I found this handy for
was cropping a picture in Word then placing it in a web
page, (with a copy and paste) and later still being able to
alter the web page picture without the necessity of
returning to the word program.
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"I am a touch typist and type at about 50 wpm in word
Typing Is the characters on screen appear very slowly. Effectively
Slowed this slows my typing down, can I do something about
this"?
First ask yourself is this problem confined to word or
does it also happen in other programs? If it does then
this is an old fault that people come across and has
nothing to do with word or any other application program
you are using. You need to set-up your Windows
correctly. Here's what to look for and do.
Click the Start button
Select Control Panel
Move down the list and click Keyboard
Make sure you have the Speed tab open.
Adjust the buttons, for Repeat delay, repeat rate and
Cursor blink rate.
Click in the Test box and try out the speed of your
keyboard. Make the settings to suit your typing speed.
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The above sets just your overall keyboard speeds if your
rate is still slow in Word only, then check out this fix on
the Internet. It's too long to place in these notes.
http://www.howtogeek.com/74007/how-to-speed-up-
microsoft-word-2007-and-2010/
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Click the right-hand (third tab) or the Results Option.
You will see the search box where you type in the word
to search for. Type the Enter key once.
In the next screen shot I have gone mad and asked the
search to look for the word "then" without the quote
marks. The following screen shot is the result.
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The first instance of "then" is highlighted on the left
with a bordered box around the word. In the right-hand
side of the screen that particular instance of the word
is highlighted.
At the top of the Navigation section is the number of
instances of the word and which one we're viewing, in
this case 2 of 15.
To the right of that is two small arrows up and down.
Clicking the appropriate arrow will move the highlighting
to the next or previous time the word appears in the
text. You may still edit the document albeit that the
Navigation panel is displayed. Don't mistake this for a
Find and Replace like we're used to, it's not and neither
is it meant to be. It is purely and simply a word
searching assistant. It is also possible to scan through
the document looking for the particular instance of the
word being searched for by using the keyboard arrow
keys. In this case the right-hand side of the screen will
not move. However when you have found the right place
type the Enter key once and you will be placed at that
point in the editing screen. It comes back to the old, old
storey, make the computer do the work not you.
"I do a few pamphlets for our club and often I would like
Mirror Text to add mirror text how do I do this"?
That's a good question and in a nutshell the answer is as
simple. You can't, well not simply. I've seen ways of
fudging it using text boxes and 3D methods and even one
using the Paint program. But when it comes down to it
these all leave a little to be desired, either in simplicity
or output. Using drawing programs can be a bit daunting
unless you have a really good one that will handle text
well and keep the sizing correct.
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This is the kind of result it will produce. I've just used
my name as an example. I've used a Comic Sans Font of
14 point and used my name Bob Pretty with a left to
right presentation.
The size used was the same size as the text is written in
12pt. In the next one the same text was used with a
right to left presentation. Because the Xara program is
so good at the job the text can also be mirrored quickly
with top to bottom methods as shown next.
You're typing away like a busy little beaver and you wish
Automatic to add a list, which you want to bullet, number or letter.
Indents With This is simple just click the menu icon in the Home tab
Word of the ribbon and voila the list becomes bulleted.
Let's see this in action. The list will be objects on the
computer.
Keyboard
Mouse
Flash drive
Video
Wi Fi Modem
CPU
Printer
To list this, you can type it and then hit the list button
in the ribbon picking the bullet, numbering or lettering
you wish. I've started this with a numbered list on the
next page.
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1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Flash drive
4. Video
5. Wi Fi Modem
6. CPU
7. Printer
The list has been altered by word to include the indent.
To temporarily remove the indent, highlight the list and
use the decrease icon in the Paragraph tab.
The list (this one) will act the same if added to. If
however you start a new list in the document then that
list will be indeneted.
1. Chicken
2. Porterhouse
3. Lamb chops
4. Pork chops
5. Minced Beef
6. Topside
7. Rump
Now comes the question how do we do this for the whole
document?
The answer is quite simple once you know how. It is only
semi permanent, in other words it works in this
document and edits to it but not new documents.
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After making your list double click any item in the list.
Right click any item now in the list and from the drop-
down select Adjust List Indents. Word 2013 users do
not need the double-click first.
Chicken
Porterhouse
Lamb chops
Pork chops
Minced Beef
Topside
Rump
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Doing the above will display a dialog box (yours may be
Adjust List different to mine but they do the same job). Here's a
Indent screen shot of mine. Settle the adjustments to produce
what you require. The item Follow number with Tab
character can be changed for a space or nothing. Before
playing with the indent paly with this Follow Number
with. Just make a selection and click Ok, or type the
Enter key. I usually set my changes to 0 cm for the
Bullet position and .25 cm for the text indent and a
Space for the Follow Number with. You will find that
once this is set in a document that all future lists in that
document will produce the same. It is therefore a semi
permanent fix but for that document only.
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In older versions of Word to insert new columns of rows
New Rows And meant clicking a few times. It wasn't the clicking that
Columns upset most novice users it was the getting into the right
place to make the click. In 2013. I'll insert a table here
and show what I mean. Here I've inserted as 4 row table
by hovering the cursor in the margin, I can add a row or
by hovering over the top of the table I can add a column.
This is done by clicking the small cross that appears.
Insert Above
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Click the small arrow shown here and the table styles will
be presented on screen. These are in three groups, Plain
Table, Grid Table and list Table. Make selections for the
type of table you wish to format. There are a very good
number to choose from but you may also Modify the
Style, Clear it and make a new Table Style. As I always
say play with these and see what they do. Don't do this
with something you are working on do it in a practice
piece of work. It's also possible to work on a specific
row or column and an individual cell. Direct formatting
hasn't really changed all that much but you have more
choice on setting the borders.
To see these changes click in the Borders Gallery, click
any one from the borders available. This can apply to a
cell, column or row or the whole table. Play with them to
find out what you can do. If you don't play you will not
learn and some of these things are really worth knowing
when you wish to do something different or make
something stand out from the rest of the document.
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Figure 30: The Save Options
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