Monday, January 1, 2001		Article

Tips and tricks for Microsoft Word

THE Microsoft Word is one of the most commonly used and widely accepted as versatile word processing software today. It is perhaps the most commonly used office application all over the world. Though, most people can use the software, but there are several features that are unknown. A few finer points that can also be called tips and tricks can make the working in Microsoft Word very enjoyable.

Some of the tips and tricks are as follows:

To draw a line across the page, under normal procedure, you will press the (-) key i.e. the key immediately after the 0 key, and keep it pressed till the time a line is drawn on the full page across its width. Now the smart trick for drawing a line is to Press Enter once and then press the – key three times e.g. —- and then press enter key or simply put three dashes in a new row and press Enter. This will draw a neat line across the width of the page automatically. Similarly, if you want to draw a double line in place of a single line, then normally you will press the = key and will keep it pressed till the time a double line is drawn across the page. Now, using a smart trick, you are just required to press = key thrice in a new line and press enter and this will automatically draw a double line on your sheet. However, if by any chance you do not see the line in either of the cases, and then too you need not worry as a slight modifications can help you enable this settings. These settings are as follows: From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect > Choose the "AutoFormat As You Type" tab > Enable the Borders option and then try the trick mentioned above.

Have you ever wondered, what those 3 keys labelled " Print Screen", "Scroll Lock" and "Pause Break" are? All these have their utility and importance. The " Print Screen" could be especially useful in Microsoft Word. This key is very useful in capturing your screen either in full or in part. Thus using this key in Microsoft Word, you can capture a screen shot of your work and can also use it in your document. For capturing the screen shot, following is the procedure. First you must prepare your screen that you would like to capture. After preparing the screen, press Alt + Print Screen keys together. This will print the active Window only. However, if you wish to capture entire screen then you can do so by pressing Ctrl + Print Screen key. Now you can paste this screen in the paintbrush and can even save it as a .bmp file. When you capture a screen, it is added to your clipboard and you can then paste it an image viewer including.

The Next trick in Microsoft word is related to easy manoeuvring in the Microsoft Word. While working in a multi document environment, you can open one document, work in it and then close it before opening the next document. Other than using this method you can chose to work in a multi document environment. You can do this with the help of this trick that allows you to scan through all open documents, by pressing, Ctrl + Shift + F6 together, you can easily move around between all the open documents and search for the contents in different documents opened previous to the current document. Similarly, you can search for the documents opened after opening the current document by pressing Ctrl + 6 keys together. So, these tricks saves you the botheration of going to your Windows menu and searching for all your open documents. Using this trick you can also directly go to a document you want, without choosing it from the Windows menu.

One very popular use of Microsoft Word is printing documents and stationary. Though documents require formatting, but stationary requires formatting as well as desktop publishing techniques, which includes printing logos and pictures. Word is one such program, which can also be used for the purpose of desktop publishing besides using it for normal document printing. Now in order to use the desktop publishing features, either you are required to have in-depth knowledge of the software or you are required to know this trick, which can help you in using your desk top publishing techniques in normal Microsoft Word applications. Using this trick you can easily create Logos on envelopes and can also print them. Now as a first step, choose the clipart or any .bmp image in your computer as logo. Now choose, insert menu on the menu bar and then select AutoText sub menu. Select New from the options that you get in the drop down menu. Now, at the prompt Enter; EnvelopeExtra1and then click OK. Now on printing the envelopes from this application, the logo, which you created, will automatically print on the left-hand corner of all envelopes that you print.

Another great feature of Microsoft word is the user-defined styles, which a person uses to highlight the main points in his documents. These styles could be in the form of use of different fonts and symbols. However, the style in terms of fonts and symbols could become a nightmare for the person who receives and e-mail attachment of the Word document, if he does not have those fonts and symbols, as it will be shown as junk at the other end. This may eventually fail the whole purpose of using the special fonts and symbols. However using smart tricks in Microsoft Word, you can avoid this situation and can actually have a person see exactly what you have sent despite the fact that the person at the receiving end does not has those fonts. Under this tip, from the Tools menu select Options, now click on the Save tab. Select the "Embed TrueType fonts" and the "Embed characters in use only" options and then click on OK. Now by enabling this feature Microsoft Word will embed your font selections in the saved document. Though this way the file made by you would be larger than the normal one but the person who receives this file, would be able to view this file as it is including those special fonts and characters without even having it in his computer.

There are many more tips and tricks in Microsoft word, which a person needs to explore. These tips and tricks normally form a part of the short cuts, which a person in the normal course of working does not use. However, you can learn more tips and tricks from the regular help file of Microsoft Word. Although it is not listed under tips or tricks in the help file, but you can use the valuable information contained therein and make your own tips and tricks.

— Roli