Chapter 2 - Word Tips and Tricks

Chapter 2 - Word Tips and Tricks. 1

Section One: General Information. 1

Annoying Features: 1

Menus and Toolbars: 2

Section Two: Handling Text 2

Working with the Mouse: 2

Short Cut Keys: 3

Moving Around the Document: 3

Section Three: Formatting and Working With Text 5

Paragraphs and Spacing. 5

Special Characters. 5

Styles: 5

Bullets and Lists: 6

Borders and Shadings: 6

Miscellaneous: 6

Section Four: Printing and Files: 7

Printing: 7

File Management: 7

Exercise 1 - Essay Assignment 8

 

This chapter focuses on methods of using Word to a) quickly perform routine operations and b) perform hidden, interesting, non-routine, or complex tasks.

Section One: General Information

Annoying Features:

I like to turn off several features in Word for Office 2003 that I find annoying. Here’s how:

Automatic Bulleted lists: Use the Tools menu, AutoCorrect, AutoFormat While Typing tab. Uncheck the box.

Automatic Numbered lists: Use the Tools menu, AutoCorrect, AutoFormat While Typing tab. Uncheck the box.

Reading View at Start Up: Use the Tools menu, Options, General tab. Uncheck the box for Allow Reading Layout at Start Up.

Reviewing Toolbar at Start Up:  Use the Tools menu, Customize, Toolbars tab. Uncheck the Reviewing Toolbar box. Click Reset.

Task Panes at Start Up: Use the Tools, Options, View tab. Uncheck the Startup Task Pane box.

Office Assistant:: Right click on the assistant. Click on Options. On the Options tab, uncheck the Use Office Assistant box. Click OK.

Drawing Canvas: Use the Tools menu, Options, General tab. Uncheck the box for Automatically create drawing canvas. (It interferes with many graphics operations.)

Smart Tags: Use the Tools, Options, View tab. Uncheck the Smart Tags box.

Main Toolbars sharing one row:  Click and drag one toolbar to another row or use the Tools menu, Customize, Options tab.

Incomplete Menus:  Double click when opening a menu, or use the Tools, Customize, Options tab to permanently fix this.

Track Changes: Use the Tools menu, Track Changes. Toggle On/Off. The Reviewing toolbar opens automatically but doesn’t close automatically.

Margin Indicators in Print Layout View: These are a result of having language support installed for East Asian Languages. To uninstall this add-in Click on the Start Icon in Windows, Choose Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools, Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings. In the dialog box, select and click remove for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Restart.

Menus and Toolbars:

To show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows: 

Use the Tools menu, Customize submenu, Options tab. Select “Show Standard and Formatting Toolbars on two rows.” Then select “Show full menus.” Next, select “Show ScreenTips on toolbars.” Finally, select “Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips.” Click on Close. 

To add/hide icons on toolbars:    Use the toolbar options pull-down menu at the right end of the toolbar. You can click and drag icons from one menu to another by holding the Alt Key. Don’t do this in the computer lab!!!

To return to the default settings: Use the Tools menu, Customize, Toolbars tab. Select the toolbar. Click on reset. Click OK. 

To show full menus:    Use the Tools, Customize, Options tab.

To show ScreenTips on toolbars:    Use the Tools, Customize, Options tab.

To increase the size of the icons:    Use the Tools, Customize, Options tab.

To show shortcut keys in ScreenTips:     Use the Tools, Customize, Options tab.

To show additional toolbars:    From the View menu, select Toolbars. Toggle the toolbar on/off.

To show different views:     From the View menu, select a View. Views can also be selected from the icons in the lower left hand corner of the document.

To open or close multiple toolbars simultaneously: Right click in gray toolbars background.

To change the default toolbars that appear at startup:  Right click in gray toolbars background. Click Customize. On the toolbars tab select or deselect toolbars. Reset button.

To move or resize toolbars:    Left-click on the toolbar and drag it.

To add or remove commands from a menu:    Use the Tools menu, Customize submenu, and select the Commands tab. Select a menu, then click and drag a command.

To hide toolbars and frames:  From the View menu, select Full Screen.

To use a pre-existing template:     Use the File menu, select New. In Word 2000 the Templates menu appears automatically. Under Office XP a “New Document Pane will appear. Select General Templates.

To split the screen into two views: Drag on the rectangle at the top of the vertical scroll bar. This can also be done from the Window menu.

To resize the Task Pane: Click on the border and drag. You can move the task pane! Click on upper left corner and drag. Not recommended.

Section Two: Handling Text

Working with the Mouse:

To select a word:   Double Left-Click on the word.

To select any amount of text: Drag over the text.

To select a row of text: Move the pointer into the margin, left of the line. Click.

To select multiple rows of text: Move the pointer into the margin, left of the line. Click and drag.

To select a sentence:   Control-Left-Click on the sentence.

To select a paragraph:   Triple Left-Click in the paragraph, or double click in the left margin

To select multiple paragraphs: Double click in the left margin. Drag up or down.

To select a block of text:   Click at your starting point. Scroll down. Shift-Click at your end point.

To select an entire document:    Triple Left-Click in the margin, or type control-A.

To select multiple blocks of text:   Highlight the first block of text. Hold down Control, then use the mouse to highlight additional blocks of text. Release Control.

To select a vertical column of text:  Put your cursor to the left of the column. Hold down the ALT key. Highlight the area. Useful for editing > symbols out of email, removing numbering.

To access a shortcut menu:   Select something then Right-Click.

To find synonyms:   Right-Click on the word.

To edit misspellings:  Misspelled words have red underlines. Right-click and make a selection.

 Short Cut Keys: 

To access a shortcut menu:   Select. Press Shift-F10. This simulates right-clicking a mouse.

Cut, Copy, and Paste:    Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V

Select the entire document:    Ctrl + A

Use the Office Clipboard:  Ctrl + C twice. First position the cursor in the document, then select an item from the clipboard to paste it. You can access the clipboard from the Task Pane drop-down list, or from the Edit menu, Office Clipboard.

Go to the beginning or end of the document:    Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End

Create a line across the page:    On a new line type one of these six symbols: ~ - _ * = #. Repeat twice more, and then press Enter. Each symbol gives you a different type of line (wavy, single, bold, dotted, double, or triple).

To remove a line: select the paragraph above it. Press Ctrl + Q.

Insert a page break:     Press Ctrl + Enter.

To find synonyms: Shift + F7.

Increase font size for an entire document:    Select the whole document (Ctrl + A) then press Ctrl + ] as many times as desired. Each click increases the font size by one point.

Decrease font size for an entire document:    Select the whole document (Ctrl + A) then press Ctrl + [ as many times as desired. Each click decreases the font size by one point.

To double space lines in a paragraph:    Select the paragraph. Ctrl + 2. Use Ctrl +1 to reverse the procedure. Use Ctrl + 5 to set the distance between lines to 1.5 spaces. Note: this doesn’t work with the numeric keypad keys.

Align Right, Left, Center, Justify:    Ctrl + R, Ctrl + L, Ctrl + E, Ctrl + J

Indent and Decrease Indent: Ctrl +M or Shift +Ctrl + M

Find/Replace:    Ctrl + F or F5. Type in the word you are looking for.

Select a Table: Click in a cell. Alt +F5

Open a document:    Ctrl + O

Open a new document:    Ctrl + N

Print the document:    Ctrl + P

Save the file:    Ctrl + S  (or F12 to Save As)

Create a Hyperlink:    Ctrl + K

Undo, Redo:    Ctrl + Z, Ctrl +Y

Selecting Text:  Press F8 repeatedly. Or press F8 then use arrow keys. Press Escape to turn off.

Selecting Blocks of Text:  Position the cursor in a word. Hold down control and use the arrow keys, the PageUp PageDown keys, or the Home and End keys.

Add a Date or Time field that updates automatically: Alt +Shift + D, Alt + Shift + T.

Moving Around the Document:

To search for text: Press F5 or Control F.

To move to sections listed in a Table of Contents: Hold down Control then click on the heading.

To jump quickly around the document:  Press F5 for options.

To move to previous cursor locations:  Use Shift + F5.

To create bookmarks:   Position the cursor at the location where you want a bookmark. From the Insert menu, select Bookmark. Enter the Bookmark name.

To move to a bookmark: Use the F5 key and select from the pull-down list of bookmarks.

To search for non-text items: Click the circular icon below the vertical scroll bar. Choose the type of object you want to look for. Use the up or down browse buttons on the vertical scroll bar to quickly search the document.


Section Three: Formatting and Working With Text

Paragraphs and Spacing

To set indents for paragraphs:  Use the Format menu, Paragraph submenu, Indents and Spacing tab to set indentations to an exact distance. Positive numbers make the text area narrower, negative numbers widen the text area. Alternative methods are to use the Indent/Decrease icons on the toolbar, or click and drag on the polygons on the horizontal ruler.

To widen the space between characters: Format menu, Font submenu, Character Spacing tab.

To widen the space between paragraphs: Format menu, Paragraph submenu, Indents and Spacing tab. Character Spacing section, increase the number of pts.

To have right and left aligned text on the same line: Put the cursor at the beginning of the line. From the Format menu, Tabs submenu, type 6” (this is the right-hand margin setting, in inches) as the “tab stop position”. Select right alignment then OK. Enter text on the left hand side. Press tab. Enter text.

To create newspaper-style columns for text:   Select the paragraph or area you want to appear in columns.  From the Format menu, choose Columns. You can add lines between columns here. Use the horizontal ruler to adjust spacing between columns.

To create hyphenated text: Tools menu Language submenu Hyphenation submenu, check Automatically Hyphenate Document

To change the underline color or shape:   Format menu, Paragraphs submenu.

Remove the underline from a hyperlink:   Select the link. Double-Click the underline icon.

To quickly change the letter case: Shift + F3 cycles through different options or use the Format menu.

To reset paragraph format to the default: Ctrl + Q

Special Characters

For superscript and subscript formatting: You can add icons to the Formatting toolbar.  The keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl + = for subscripts and Ctrl + Shift + = for superscripts. Repeat the keystrokes to turn the formatting off.

To insert a symbol or character:    Use the Insert menu, Symbol submenu. Scroll to find your symbol. Highlight it and press insert. Continue selecting symbols. Click close when finished. The font size and color of symbols can be changed after you insert it. For older versions of Word look under Start Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

To create a dropped cap:  Use the Format menu, Dropped Cap option.

To create small caps:  Highlight text. Format menu, Font submenu. Small caps are capital letters shrunk to the same height as lowercase, mainly used for emphasis. This won’t work for web pages.

Styles:

To quickly format text: Apply a style from the style pull-down box on the Formatting toolbar.

About master styles: Normal is the default style. Body Text style is like Normal except it adds a 6 point (half a line) spacing below each paragraph. Web is for use with Web Pages. Headings 1, 2, and 3 are useful for automatically creating outlines and table of contents. Changes to these master styles will automatically change any sub-styles that are derived from these master styles.

To create a sub-style: Changes you make with the formatting menu or icons will automatically generate sub-styles.

To modify a master style: Formatting Styles: on the Format menu, click Styles and Formatting. Word will display the Styles and Formatting task pane. Right click the name of the style, and choose Modify. 

To remove a style: Click the double A symbol left of the style box. Select a style then click on the down arrow. Select delete. Note: Any text using the deleted style will revert to “normal” style.

To duplicate and copy styles: Use the paintbrush icon. Left-Click anywhere on the font style you want to copy. Left-click on the paintbrush icon.  Your cursor becomes a paintbrush. Paint the area where you want to apply the original style.  If you want to copy the style to multiple areas, double click on the paintbrush and press Esc when finished.

Bullets and Lists:

To change bullet or numbering styles:    First create the bullets or numbering in your document, using the icon on the Formatting toolbar. This is an on/off toggle switch.  From the Format menu, choose Bullets and Numbering.

To create multi-level bullets: Type in all of the bullets, including sub-points. Highlight and click the bullets icon. Highlight the lines you want as sub-bullets and press the indent icon.

Another way is to select a bulleted list. From the Format menu, Bullets submenu, choose the Outline Numbered tab.

To widen line spacing in numbered lists: Select the list. Press Control and zero.

Borders and Shadings:

To create artistic page borders for a document:    From the Format menu, Borders and Shading submenu, Page Border tab, select Custom and Art. Select a design. Change the “width” and “apply to” options if desired.

To add a border to text:    Format menu, Borders and Shading submenu, Border tab. You have a choice of line colors, patterns, and widths.

To add a fill color to text:    Format menu, Borders and Shading submenu, Shading tab. Select a color from the Fill area of the dialog box. Leave the Patterns style as “Clear.” Make a selection from the “Apply to” box.

To add shading or a pattern to text:    Use the Format menu, Borders and Shading submenu, Shading tab. Select a style from the Patterns area of the dialog box, then select a color from the Patterns area (lower left pull-down box). Important: Leave the fill color set to “No Fill.”  Make a selection from the “Apply to” box. Enter.

Miscellaneous:

To automatically create a table of contents:  Set the “style” of all references wanted in the Table of Contents to heading level 1, 2, or 3. From the Insert menu, select Reference, then Index and Tables, then use the Table of Contents tab.

To edit heading styles: You can use the Outline View to quickly edit heading styles.

To allow direct clicking on links: Tools menu, Options, Edit tab. Uncheck “Use CTRL + Click…”

To compare two documents side-by-side: Open both documents. Select from Window menu.

To create an Executive Summary:  Tools Menu, pick Auto Summarize. Choose an option.

To check word count: Tools menu, Word Count. The Word Count toolbar has more features.

To create a re-usable text template:  Create the text in word. Highlight the text. Drag it onto the desk top. Copy it into other documents whenever it is needed.

To repeat a word or series of letters: Type the word then Press F4. Example: ChaChaCha

To translate into French or Spanish: Select Text. Tools menu, Language submenu, Translate.

To insert a footnote or endnote:  Position the cursor where you want the marker to appear in the text.  On the Insert menu, Reference submenu, select Foot Note. In the Location box, choose either endnote or footnote and press Enter. Word will 1) display a marker in the body of your text where your cursor was positioned and 2) reposition the cursor at the bottom of the page in a special area for entering the citation. Type in the citation in that bottom area or, if citing from a website, copy and paste the web address to that area. The footnote/endnote area should never contain any graphics.


Section Four: Printing and Files:

Printing:

Centering documents vertically:  File, Page Setup, Layout, Page, select from the pull-down box.

Previewing the document before printing:  Use the print preview icon on the standard toolbar.

To edit a document in Print Preview: Click the Magnifier button. Zoom in.  You can use keyboard shortcuts, but not the mouse, to edit. Click the magnifier icon when finished editing.

To add a header or footer:    From the View menu, select Header and Footer. A toolbar opens. You can toggle between header and footer.  Press the close icon when finished.

To apply a header to just the first page:  From the View menu, select Header and Footer. A toolbar opens. Click the Page Setup icon. On the layout tab, select Different First Page. Type the header. Press the close icon when finished.

To add page numbers:   From the Insert menu in Normal View or Print Layout View. Or use the View menu, Header and Footer submenu.

To change the starting page number on a document:  From the Insert menu, select Page Numbers, then Left-Click on the Format button.   

To add a watermark: From the Print Layout View. Format menu, Background submenu, Printed Watermark. Click on picture or text. Select a picture or enter a text message. Choose formatting. The watermark will not appear in the web view, or on a webpage. 

To print “Tracked Changes”: From the File menu, Print submenu, Print what box, select Document showing markup. To stop printing the changes, choose Document.

To get rid of a short last page: Print preview, “Shrink to Fit” Icon. To reverse: Edit menu, Undo.

File Management:

To reduce file size when emailing: Save it as Rich Text Format 

To create a PowerPoint Presentation from a Word document:  Use the File menu, Send To submenu, Microsoft Office PowerPoint. All text formatted in Heading 1 Style will show up as PowerPoint Slides. Text formatted as Heading 2 and 3 Styles will show up as bullet points.

To create a webpage as a single file: Choose File Save-as Single File Web Page. This puts all of your graphics and fonts into a single file. If you save as a webpage, graphics are stored as separate files inside a folder and you have to upload both the file and the folder to your server.

To find a lost file: File menu, Open, Click on Tools, Search, Advanced Tab. Select a property. Enter search parameters.


Exercise 1 - Essay Assignment

 

Section One – Short Story or Essay

  1. The first section of your paper will be a short story about yourself, a classmate, or a business topic. The essay should be 3-4 paragraphs long and contain about 300-600 words. The story should be spaced at 1.5 lines. The paragraph alignment style should be “justified”. The font size should be 11 or 12 points.
  2. Do NOT submit a paper you have written for another class.
  3. This section should be preceded with a title (heading). For example: About Me.
  4. Use the “Style” box on the Formatting Toolbar to apply a “Heading 1” style to the title
  5. Underneath the title, insert a copyright symbol followed by your name and the year.  A shortcut to create the symbol is to type a c in parentheses.
  6. Change the first letter in the essay to a dropped cap. This option is on the Format Menu.

 

Section Two - Links

  1. Underneath the story about yourself, type a heading “My Favorite Links”.
  2. Use the “Style” box on the Formatting Toolbar to apply a “Heading 3” style to this heading.
  3. Enter 3-6 hyperlinks, one per line. Control K is a shortcut to create a hyperlink.
  4. Format the hyperlinks as bullet points.
  5. Change the bullet point symbol.  Use the Format menu, Bullets and Numbering submenu.

 

Section Three – Quotation

  1. Underneath the Links Section, type a heading “Web Quotation”.
  2. Use the “Style” box on the Formatting Toolbar to apply a “Heading 3” style to this heading.
  3. Go to the web and find a story about something that interests you. Copy and paste the first paragraph into your document.
  4. Insert an endnote with appropriate citation. (Insert menu, Reference submenu, Footnote). 
  5. After you have pasted the source information into the endnote area, return the cursor to the document area of the worksheet.

 

Header and Footer

  1. Create a header containing your name and section number.  Headers and Footers are on the View menu. Right align the text.
  2. Add page numbers to the footer. Center them.

 

Section Four – Picture

  1. Make sure your cursor is not in the Endnote area. Nothing goes in that part of the document except for author and source information.
  2. Underneath the Quotation, NOT IN THE FOOTNOTE AREA!, type a heading “Image from the Web”.
  3. Use the “Style” box on the Formatting Toolbar to apply a “Heading 3” style to this heading.
  4. Go to the Google website and find an image that relates to the quotation. Copy and paste the image into your document.

 

Above the Short Story – Insert a Table of Contents

  1. When the paper is complete, insert a table of contents. Position your cursor below the line which contains your name and the copyright symbol. (Insert menu, Reference submenu, Index and Tables)
  2. Under the Table of Contents, use the AutoFormat feature to insert a line. (Example: On a blank line type *** and press enter.) If Word doesn’t have this option, create a line using the drawing toolbar.

 

Section Five – Word Jeopardy Table

  1. Below the Image and above the endnote area, insert a table. The table should be 4 columns wide and 7 rows deep.
  2. Merge the cells in the top row. Split the first cell in row two into 2 rows and 1 column. Enter text into the cells as shown in the sample table. Make the headings in rows one and two Bold, center them (both vertically and horizontally), and make them 14 point font.
  3. In column 2, rows 3-7, enter words that end with the letters “ough.”
  4. In column 3, rows 3-7, enter words that contain the letter Q, but do not start with a Q.
  5. In column 4, rows 3-7, enter words that contain the letter J, but do not start with a J.
  6. Center the text and numbers in rows 3-7.
  7. Add shading to the cells using at least two different colors. (First highlight the cells you want to add color to. Use the Format menu, Borders and Shadings submenu, Shadings tab. Apply to: Cells).

 

Jeopardy

 

Words With:

ough” words

“Q” words

“J” words

Score

200

 

 

 

400

 

 

 

600

 

 

 

800

 

 

 

1000

 

 

 

 

Save the file. Before coming to class, print out a hardcopy of the assignment to hand in.

 

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