Unofficial Word Stuff

Restore Defaults

2009-07-15T03:29:00.000-07:00

Office 2003 redo

To reset the original settings in Office 2003, follow these steps.
Make sure that you back up your files before you follow these steps.

1. Start any Office 2003 program.
On Help menu, click Detect and Repair.
Click to select the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings check box, and then click Start.
Quit the application, and then click Ignore.
Click OK when you receive the following message:
Reset of setting to default succeed.

Microsoft Office Diagnostics in 2007 replaces Diagnose and Repair:

Howtogeek.com

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Plain Numbers

2009-07-12T03:02:00.000-07:00

I'd Like to Make It Clear

Plain Figures is a method of transforming statistical and financial data into figures, tables and graphs that people readily understand.

Have you ever:

squinted your eyes trying to see the numbers in a PowerPoint presentation?
scratched your head at a charity leaflet with an indecipherable pie chart titled 'Where your donation goes' ... and set it aside?
missed discussion at a meeting because you were busy trying to figure out the figures?
put aside a graph or table, thinking "I'm not good with numbers."?

Then you know how important the clear display of numerical information can be.Common problemsPeople have trouble using numerical information for many reasons. Most commonly, authors don't know:

what to include: when unsure what numbers are important, people frequently display them all, overpowering the reader with irrelevance.
which format to use: the choice between text and table, table and chart, bar and pie.
how to use the technology effectively: computer software generates graphs easily, but the results hide your point behind incomprehensible chartjunk.
how to explain the information: selecting the right words for titles, columns and captions.

Plain Figures is a partnership between Sally Bigwood, located in Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK, and Melissa Spore, who divides her time between Toronto and Saskatoon, Canada. Sally and Melissa are sisters and both have dual citizenship in the United States.PlainFigures.comSee all Topicsword

Echo Document Data

2009-07-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

Enter once — use again

Enter data in one place in a document and have it repeated elsewhere.

There comes the time when you need to enter a clients name at the beginning of a document and you know that it will be repeated again many other places.

Greg Maxey has collected a number of ways to make the task easier.

Repeating Data

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Word Converters

2009-07-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

Pick a flavor

There are fewer word processing formats to worry about than there used to be.
For those that remain, MS Word provides "translators" or converters.

The following file formats are built into Word.
Web page
Web page, Filtered
Web Archive
Plain Text
Encoded Text
Rich Text Format (RTF)
XML
Recover Text (import only)
The following text converters are set to the Run from My Computer installation state.
Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 RTF Converter
Recover Text Converter
Word 97 for Windows/Word 98 Macintosh
The following text converters are set to the Installed on First Use installation state
WordPerfect 6.x Converter
WordPerfect 5.x Converter
Microsoft Works for Windows 7.0

Support.Microsoft.com
Description of the text converters that are available with Word 2003

Additional text converters and image filters are available in the Microsoft Office File Converter Pack<See all Topics
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Clip Art at Home

2009-06-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

Install more

Do you remember all of the clip art that was available locally with Office XP?

When you have an Internet connection, you have access to the Office Online collection, but if you would like more clip art installed on your machine:

A small amount of sample clip art images was included The 2007 Office systems and Office 2003 and is part of the "local collection" that is searched when you do not have Internet access to the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. Office 2003 no longer included a media content CD with additional clip art. However, the Microsoft Office XP Media Content CD can still be installed locally or on a network share.

The Office XP Media Content CD contains approximately 35,000 clips that are a subset of the clips that are available on the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. The Office XP Media Content CD was included with Microsoft Office XP Professional, Microsoft Office XP Standard, and Microsoft Publisher 2002 Deluxe Edition.

To install the contents of the Office XP Media Content CD on a computer, follow these steps:
Exit all programs that are running

Insert the Office XP Media Content CD into the CD drive or into the DVD drive
(Hold down the SHIFT key to prevent the program from automatically starting. If Microsoft Windows Installer automatically starts, click Cancel)
Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
msiexec.exe /i CD_drive:\CAG.MSI ADDLOCAL=ALL /qb
(CD_drive is the letter of the drive that contains the Office XP Media Content CD)

Support.Microsoft.com
How to add clip art to Clip Organizer in a 2007 Office system and in Office 2003

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VBA Variable Problems

2009-06-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

Explicit protection

It's good practice to always use the Option Explicit statement in the beginning of your code modules to ensure that all variables are unambiguously declared in your procedures.

With this process in place, you'll receive a "Variable not defined" error if you try to execute code containing undeclared variables. Without this statement, it's possible to mistype variable names, which would be interpreted as new Variant type variables.

This could severely impact the results of your code, and you might not ever know it. If you do find a problem, tracking down where the error is can be a chore.

Although you can manually type the statement into your modules, changing a setting in Access can ensure that the statement is always added to new modules.

Open a module (start the VBA Editor)
Choose Tools>Options from the menu bar
On the Editor tab of the Options dialog box, select the Require Variable Declaration check box in the Code Settings panel
Finally, click OK

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SQL Warning in Word

2009-06-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

Merge Ahead!

When you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data source, you may receive the following message:

Opening this will run the following SQL command:

SELECT * FROM C:\file_name.log

Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want to continue?

This message helps protect you from unintentionally sending data to a malicious user.
To suppress this message, you must first create the following registry key:

Open Registry Editor.
Locate, and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options

(Use 12.0 for Word 2007)
Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Under Name, type:

SQLSecurityCheck
Double-click SQLSecurityCheck.
In the Value data box, type:

00000000

See
Microsoft KB 825765

Installing Office XP SP3 appears to cause the same problem. For Word 2002 (XP also known as 10.0) you need to place the registry key in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options

(Thanks to Brian Livingston at WindowsSecrets.com for pointing the way to a solution)

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Art and Words

2009-06-08T03:34:00.000-07:00

One picture can mess up a thousand words

Linda Johnson has put together a well laid out basic tutorial about combining text and graphics on a page.

Aligning Text and Graphics in Word

I might have added "Edit Wrap Points"; a feature that allows more control over how text wraps around a picture. Also the use of Format>Picture from the menu. The Layout tab on the dialog box has an Advanced button. The Advanced Layout section presents more precise layout choices if needed.

Linda dismisses the Drawing Canvas that pops up in Word 2002+. I think she is correct, in most situations.

For more information on the "DC" see:
Drawing Canvas - More than I want

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PowerPoint Bloats Word

2009-06-02T03:13:00.000-07:00

Diet tips

For various reasons, it can be helpful to send a PowerPoint show to Word. You can have great looking handouts and be able to format the document in ways that are not possible in PowerPoint.

The problem can be the size of the resultant file.

One of the easier, more practical ways to slim the doc down is to break the OLE links.

The size of a Word document may be 20 to 50 times larger than a PowerPoint presentation when you send the presentation to Word.
Start PowerPoint.

On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Microsoft Office Word.

Click Paste link, and then click OK.

In the resulting Word document, click Links on the Edit menu.

Select all the links that are listed, and then click Break Link.

Click Yes when you are prompted.

Save the Word document.
When you eliminate the OLE overhead, you can reduce the size of the Word document by 90 percent

Support.microsoft.com
Size of Word Document

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Grammar Rules!

2009-05-27T03:19:00.000-07:00

Could Of or Could Have?

This web site sells a grammar and spell checker, but they also have a compendium of rules for free.

"Looking for a specific rule to help you in your writing? Trying to decide between two similar words? A grammar checker helps you, but does not tell you why. Grammar checkers also miss many errors, especially those having to do with names, punctuation, sounds, and style.

Some of you may have a full grammar textbook stored on your disk somewhere, but it is a nuisance to access and use.

Grammar Slammer takes care of both problems in an easy-to-use format. Grammar Slammer contains the rules and tips you need to write your best and make yourself clear. Grammar Slammer uses the familiar Web Page format to make it easy to find what you are looking for. It even has an easy-to-use glossary to help with those grammatical terms you can't remember. It will truly Slam your Grammar Agony!"

Grammer Slammer

(Could of does not exist. Neither do should of, will of, or would of as verbs.)

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Styles not Applied to All Text

2009-05-21T03:24:00.000-07:00

Word makes judgments

When text is selected, Word must examine the styles that have been applied and determine which to keep and which to overwrite.

Type the following text:

This line will test how styles and formatting work in Word.
Select all the text, and then apply italic formatting.
Select all the text, and then apply a style such as Heading 1.

You notice that italic formatting is not retained.
Select all the text, apply the Normal style, and then remove the italic formatting.
Select "work in Word" in the text, and then apply the italic formatting.
Select all the text, and then apply the Heading 1 style.

'This behavior occurs because Word uses a specific rule to determine whether to apply a style to selected text. According to this rule, Word applies a style depending on the percentage of the selected text that already has formatting applied. For example, if you already applied formatting to less than 50 percent of the selected text, this formatting is retained when you apply a style. If the selected text includes multiple paragraphs, Word first calculates the percentage of text that is formatted in the first paragraph. Then, it examines the paragraphs in the same range. If the formatting that is applied to the text in the paragraphs that follow the first paragraph differs from most of the formatting in the first paragraph, Word does not apply the style to the following paragraphs. Therefore, the formatting is retained in these paragraphs."

Support.Microsoft.com:
A style is not applied to all the selected text in Word

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Custom Properties

2009-05-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

Use your own

If you look at Properties on the File menu, you will see a number of entries. You can also create your own custom properties.

Click the Custom tab and add what you want.

To insert your own properties in a document, use Insert>Fields

Choose Document Information in the list of Categories
In the list of Field Names, choose DocProperty
Click the Field Codes button
Add the property name to the Field
Click OK
Click OK. Word to inserts the value.

Here's the "click path" for 2007:

Also: Office-Watch.com:
Creating word custom doc properties from code

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Who was that font I saw you with last night?

2009-05-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

That was no font, that was my typeface

You can find the Fonts supplied with some Microsoft products
Select a product name from the list to get a list of fonts supplied with that product.

Microsoft's Typography is an interesting site to poke around in.

Here are some books I use for reference material:

Words into Type

by Marjorie E. Skillin, Robert Malcolm Gay ISBN 0139642625

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works

by Erik Spiekermann, E.M Ginger ISBN 0201703394

The Elements of Typographic Style

by Robert Bringhurst ISBN 0881791326

A font can be defined as a collection of characters with the same style and size. A typeface is the design of the characters regardless of size or style. The terms are used interchangeably today.

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Vertical Selection with ALT

2009-05-01T03:25:00.000-07:00

Old trick

This trick has been around for awhile, but it might be forgotten as new information in the right ear shoves old knowledge out the left.^*

If you hold down the ALT key while selecting in a Word document, you can select a block. This could be a vertical area, such as the prefixes of a list.

The selection can then be formatted or deleted.

^*Also see Michael Feldman's "Something I Said: "Innuendo and Out the Other""

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Google from the Help Menu

2009-04-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

Search with Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Where better to search the Internet for support on an Excel, PowerPoint, or Word problem than through the Help menu?

Would you like to add Google to that menu?

Ron de Bruin at rondebruin.nl has developed free add-ins that does just that.

"Google Search 6.0/7.0 places a new sub-menu item under the Help menu of whatever program you call it from. When that item is selected, up pops a user-friendly interface. This allows a largely intuitive completion and execution of a Google Search.

On clicking the Search button a lot goes on behind the scenes.
Your default (i.e. your usual) web browser is loaded and, without further instructions,
It's off to the Google Advanced Search Page.
It then fills in an Advanced Query to your specifications
Executes that query.
Once results are found (or not found) you are shown those results just as if you had carried out all of the steps of the process."

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Quote Me All You Want

2009-04-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

What the other guy says has weight

There are sites that give you Bartleby Quotations.

Gar Reynold has put together a list of some other sites that can help bolster any argument, no mater how specious.

"In my presentations, I may have several slides which feature a quote from a famous (sometimes not so famous) individual in the field. The quote may be a springboard into the topic or serve as support or reinforcement for the particular point I'm making. A typical Tom Peters presentation at one of his seminars, for example, may include dozens of slides with quotes. "I say that my conclusions are much more credible when I back them up with great sources," Tom says."

PresentationZen.blogs.com:
Where to get quotations

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Pablo Picasso"

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Date an Octothorpe

2009-04-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

Some more of those things I'm sure I used to know

The keyboard combination of Alt+Shift+D inserts the current date in MS Word and PowerPoint. Ctrl+; (semicolon) does it in Excel and Access.

If you do not like the date's format, select a different one with Insert>Date and Time and, if you would like to make that permanent, click on the Default button in the lower left corner of the dialog box (in PowerPoint it's in the lower right corner).

In Excel, Ctrl+Shift +# formats the entry as day-month-year. Ctrl+1 will display the "Format cells" dialog box.

BTW, the "hash, pound or number" sign # is also called an "octothorpe".

The person who named it combined Octo for the eight points and Thorpe for James Thorpe.

"Bell Labs engineer, Don Macpherson, went to instruct their first client, the Mayo Clinic, in the use of the new (touch tone phone system). He felt the need for a fresh and unambiguous name for the # symbol. His reasoning that led to the new word was roughly that it had eight points, so ought to start with octo-. He was apparently at that time active in a group that was trying to get the Olympic medals of the athlete Jim Thorpe returned from Sweden, so he decided to add thorpe to the end."

While we're at it, the "backwards P, Enter mark" ¶ is actually named a "pilcrow".

The pilcrow was used in medieval times to mark a new train of thought, before the convention of using paragraphs was commonplace.

Also see:
Geek-speak names for punctuation marks

Wikipedia:
Punctuation

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Booklets

2009-04-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

Sized and numbered

Word has the built-in ability to print booklets with automatically numbered pages.

"If you don't want to spend money on an add-in, or use VBA; and are willing to do a bit more work yourself, here is the method I use. I've produced booklets up to 100 pages long this way, and it works quite satisfactorily for me."

Word.MVPS.org:
Booklet printing

Microsoft.com/Education:
Create Booklet

RickySpears.com:
Microsoft Word Booklet Templates

"The WordBookletTemplates.zip file contains Microsoft Word templates for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 page booklets, with and without page numbers (16 templates in all). I think I developed these with Microsoft Word 97 and I've never made any changes to them. They use a series of text boxes that flow from one to the other to get the text where it is supposed to be in the booklet."

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Add Captions Programatically

2009-03-31T03:18:00.000-07:00

When the project seems overwhelming

Faced with a repetitive task, I often have to make the decision, do I do it by hand again and again? Or do I write or find a macro to do the heavy lifting?

"Have you ever had a document with ten, twenty, or even 100 images, and then as an afterthought decided you wanted to add a caption to each of those images? This is an easy task through the user interface (UI). All you have to do is select each image, one at a time, and choose Insert, then Reference, then Caption. Unfortunately doing this through an image-heavy document is a boring chore and takes up a lot of time.

Fortunately, the Word object model lets you to apply a caption to a selected object. An add-in that does this for you is only a small chunk of code away. The sample add-in accompanying this article demonstrates how to do this. It also demonstrates many other details about working with shapes and images in Word programmatically that are useful to know about."

Working with Word 2003 Images Programmatically

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Readability Evaluation

2009-03-21T03:45:00.000-07:00

What grade are you?

Word has a built in tool to determine the level of reading difficulty of a document.

To see the statistics:

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab
Select the Check grammar with spelling check box
Select the Show readability statistics check box, and then click OK
On the Standard toolbar, click Spelling and Grammar
In 2007, click the Office button in the upper left corner. Click Word Options. Choose Proofing and When correcting spelling and grammar in Word.

When Microsoft Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it displays information about the reading level of the document.

Each readability score bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.
Flesch Reading Ease score Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70. The formula for the Flesch Reading Ease score is: 206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW) where: ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences) ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words)
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score
Rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.
The formula for the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is:
(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59

Readability
Measuring the reading age of books and other reading matter.
Everything you ever wanted know about
readability tests but were afraid to ask.
Wikipedia.com:
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
Support.Microsoft.com:
Frequently Asked Questions About Proofing Grammar

I am working on a law review article dealing with readability. We have found a problem with Microsoft Word's Flesch-Kincaid formula - it does not appear to be accurate. We took a sample text of slightly over 100 words, and ran the check. We then changed the word "report" to statement" (with everything else unchanged) and Word indicated a higher grade level. However, the grade level should not have been affected, since "report" and "statement" are both two-syllable words. It looks like Word is somehow incorporating number of characters in each word into it's Flesch-Kincaid score, which it should not. Any idea what the problem might be?

posted by Anonymous

You're right, Word handles the formula a little differently.
BTW, they say the sample s/b 200+ words for reliability.
See these links:
University of Memphis
and:
Wikipedia

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Insert>Fields

2009-03-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

Tiny code snippets

Microsoft has included a number of code pieces that you can use without having to haul out the VBA editor. These codes handle such things as page numbers, Table of Contents, Merge data and more.

"Some 80-plus fields are built into Word that provide information about the file and the user; store, display, and manipulate reference information; and link the document to other applications - all without a bit of code."

Automate Word Documents with Minimal Code
By Cindy Meister

Cindy Meister is a Word MVP.

She also works with bobbin-lace. Here is a sample of a Honiton lace butterfly.

Also:

AddBalance.com:
Using { Fields } in Microsoft Word

GMayor.com
Formatting Word Fields with Switches

In 2007 you can use the =(Formula) field.
On the Insert tab look for Quick Parts:

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Justify Clean Up

2009-02-26T03:39:00.000-08:00

Minimize white space

When a document is formatted with columns, the text is often Justified. This can lead to a messy layout of words and letters.

"When justifying text in Microsoft Word use the hyphenation feature to improve the look of your page. (Without hyphens). . . unnecessary 'white space' is distributed throughout. When hyphenation is turned on the overall typographic color of the page is much more even. To enable this feature in Microsoft Word do the following: After you have justified the columns in your document, choose from the "Tools menu" > Language > then from the dropdown menu, choose "Hyphenation", then choose "Automatically hyphenate document"

FontBlog:
Typography Tip #2

BTW, this goes along with one space after punctuation.
Bill Hill - There is only one space after a period

In Woody's Office Watch look for #2:
"SQUISHED" JUSTIFICATION IN WORD

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SCORE Templates

2009-02-18T03:08:00.000-08:00

Free business advice

SCORE is a nonprofit organization providing small business advice and training.

SCORE's 10,500 volunteers have more than 600 business skills. Volunteers share their wisdom and lessons learned in business. Our volunteers are working/retired business owners, executives and corporate leaders.
SCORE offers Ask SCORE email advice online.
Face-to-face small business counseling at 389 chapter offices.
Low-cost workshops at 389 chapter offices nationwide.
"How to" articles and business templates

Here are some of the available templates:

A Business Plan for a Start-up Business: Microsoft Word
A Business Plan for an Established Business: Microsoft Word
Bank Loan Request for Small Business: Microsoft Word
Break-Even Analysis: Excel
Competitive Analysis: Microsoft Word
Financial History & Ratios: Excel
Loan Amortization Schedule: Excel
Opening Day Balance Sheet: Excel
Personal Financial Statement Excel
Projected Balance Sheet: Excel
Start-up Expenses: Excel
4-Year Profit Projection: Excel
12-Month Cash Flow Statement: Excel
12-Month Profit and Loss Projection: Excel
12-Month Sales Forecast: Excel

SCORE Template Gallery

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Page Numbers

2009-02-11T03:15:00.000-08:00

A baker's dozen of ideas

Here is a collection of tips about how to display information in Headers and Footers.

Field codes are demonstrated. Remember that the brackets {} must be inserted with Ctrl+F9, not directly from the key board.

Here's one suggestion

Display the word "more" at the bottom of every page except the last page.

Insert an "if" field into the footer.

The field in this case will be a compound entity that consists of two fields nested within a third field.

{ IF { PAGE } = { NUMPAGES } "" "more" }
Position cursor where you want the field.
Press Ctrl+F9 to insert the field braces.
Type the field expression as it appears below, using Ctrl+F9 and arrow keys as needed to keep text within the various braces as you type.
{ IF { PAGE } = { NUMPAGES } "" "more" }
Select the entire expression.
Right-click the selection and choose Toggle Field Codes.
(or use Alt+F9)

WordMacros.com: Headers and footers and page numbers

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Automate Word Tables

2009-02-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

VBA examples and instructions

The Microsoft Developer's Network has a pretty comprehensive article on programmatically working with data and Word tables.

"You can look at the world as split into applications that store data (databases) and applications that present information, such as Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003. Increasingly, the end user demands to display database content in documents and presentations.

While Word does provide some tools for displaying tables from databases in its documents, these are somewhat rudimentary, they require a basic understanding of how the database is built, and using them involves a number of steps. In addition, there may also be security and access issues involved, requiring additional layers of protection.

The developer is therefore increasingly confronted with the task of transferring data into Word, whether in the form of tables, or as part of the document text. This article considers some of the major aspects of using the Word object model to work with tables."

Introduction to Automating Tables
Creating Tables Programmatically in Word
Populating Word Tables with Data
Adding Linking in Word Tables Programmatically
Extracting Data from Word Tables Programmatically

A downloadable document is also available for those of us still addicted to paper.Automating Word Tables for Data Insertion and ExtractionSee all Topicsword