How can you save a lot of time and boring repetition when it comes to formatting in Word?
Read MoreOn this day #1: Paragraph styles
in Archives, Fast writing, Technology, Word
Word
Rich-featured software often leads to headaches
in Audio, Archives, Technology, The lighter side, Word
Solving one problem in a writing program like Word can lead to others.
Read MoreFurther thoughts on using Word for Desktop Publishing: Frames
If you have the occasional desktop publishing to do, or if you only require a sort of limited desktop publisher or simply don’t have the time to learn a whole new program, Word will do fine. But, to borrow from Clint Eastwood, a program’s got to know its limitations. In the article Using Word for desktop publishing, I noted that text boxes are good for enabling you to place text anywhere. Furthermore, you can link text boxes, so that if text outgrows its text box, you can make it flow on to another one.Further thoughts on using Word for Desktop Publishing: Text Boxes
in Handy hints, Technology, Word
Back in April 2014 I penned a few lines on using Word as a desktop publishing tool. On the whole it works, but, as I noted then, it does have serious limitations.
I mentioned in that article that it was impossible to use automated cross-referencing between text boxes. Since then I have discovered something even worse.
Using Word for desktop publishing
in How to, Technology, Word
Can Word be used for desktop publishing? The answer is yes — but only as a last resort. Here’s a summary of my recent experience.
Read MoreCombining different versions of a document
Suppose you’re in this position: you have created a document. You have sent it to someone else for their comments or to edit it. They have now sent it back to you, but in the meantime you have made some changes to your original. How are you going to sort out this mess?!
If you and your colleague have been using Microsoft Word, then you don’t have a problem. All you need to do is use the Combine Documents feature.
Blogging from Word
A really good blog editor is hard to find. But if you create your day-to-day documents in Word, why not use that as a blog editor too?
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Repeating Yourself
This is a very quick tip, but one that is remarkably useful. As you may know, Word has a ton of keyboard shortcuts which can make life a bit easier. But sometimes, if they’re really convoluted, they can make life difficult.
Read More13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Sorting
One nice feature of Word is the Sort feature. If you have a list, and you’d like to sort it into alphabetical order, this is what you do:
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Erase Formatting
*!@#^ #~*&%! Blast! If that sounds like you when you can’t seem to change what a piece of text looks like, don’t fret: there is a solution.
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Properties
Like other Office software, Word includes a feature which isn’t exactly obvious, but potentially very helpful. It’s the Properties section.
Read More13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: AutoCorrect
Here’s a feature which you may have noticed, perhaps without thinking about it. Type a smiley face in “text speak”, ie :-), and you will notice that it immediately converts into a smiley face.
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: AutoSave
in Handy hints, How to, Word
A few days ago I switched the light on in the kitchen, there was a pop, and all the lights went out. Everything electrical was as dead a dodo. It could have been a major disaster, as I’d just finished doing several hours’ work. Fortunately, it was merely a minor inconvenience, thanks to the magic of AutoSave.13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Commenting
Making changes to a document, albeit provisionally, is something you can easily do in Review mode, which has been covered in a separate article. But that can easily become unwieldy, especially when more than a couple of people are involved: we all know the old saw about too many cooks.
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Reviewing
Here’s the wrong way of reviewing a document: make the changes you think necessary, and save the document with a different name. Sounds sensible enough, doesn’t it?
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Comparing Documents
It’s enough to make a grown man cry. You receive a second version of a document from a colleague, with no indication in the covering email about what’s changed. So what do you do? Print out both documents and pore over them till you’re cross-eyed?
No need:
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Table of Contents
When does a document need a table of contents? I don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule about this, but let’s think about it from the other end: the reader. Is your document going to be challenging to navigate? Are there sections in it which people are likely to want to refer to or likely to wish to return to, and which they can’t see at a quick glance? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, I’d say that a table of contents is imperative, even if the document is only two or three pages long.
13 Things You Didn’t Know About Word: Outlining
Do you ever get to the point, when writing a long document, where you can’t see the wood for the trees? I know I do. Should I put that section right at the start? What would it look like if I made it the second section rather than the first? Would the whole document still flow, would the structure be wrong?
13 Things You Didn't Know About Word: Paragraph Styles
Some people really make a lot of work for themselves when it comes to headings. It seems straightforward enough: just select the text you want to use for the heading
13 Things You Didn't Know About Word: Random Text
In this series I’m looking at 13 features of Microsoft Word that you may not have come across, but which can be incredibly useful. Today’s topic is how to generate random text.
First, though, why would you wish to do so? Blogger Doug Woods recently joked that you could use the random text feature to bulk up a report in order to fool your boss into thinking you’ve been putting in loads of effort! But there are more serious reasons you might want to do so.
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