Microsoft Word 2007 & 2010 Tips and Tricks

Restart Numbering when Working with Word Multilevel Lists

2014-09-10T15:24:00.003+10:00

Numbered Lists are a problem that Restart Numbering exacerbates – makes a whole lot worse.

If you are interested in how to set up numbering so that it is fairly reliable, go to this procedure:

Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists

If you want to understand how numbering works and what to do when it corrupts, go to this procedure:

Working with Word Multilevel Lists (2007 & 2010)

If you want to understand a little bit more about why Restart Numbering causes so many problems, read on.

“Restart Numbered Lists” is Buggy
I am not sure if everything to do with numbered lists is buggy, but restart numbering is certainly buggy. Word MVPs admitted this for 2003, but there is a deafening silence from Microsoft for the issue in 2007/10.

I cannot promise you this will solve all your problems, but it might help.

Some Revision on Setting Up Lists

In my previous articles I explained how I set up all numbered lists AND bulleted lists in a single Multilevel List Gallery Box, as shown.

I have been working on a set of styles for a particular document when I can actually manage to get all my styles into a single box.

The image to the right shows how this looks.

There are a few peculiarities with this list, but it does show how the system can handle complexities.

Note that every level of this list I am using is associated with a paragraph style. You cannot see this, but the formatting of the margins and tabs for the paragraph style is identical to the margins and tabs shown here. They must be or your list will corrupt.
Note that my document starts as part 5 so I have placed that number in manually.

Level 1 numbering starts with 5.1.
Level 2 numbering is 5.1.1 Level 2 is dependent on Level 1 as shown in this image:

The 5 never changes – I have typed it in manually.

The “Restart list after:” field

The critical field I am pointing out is “Restart list after: Level 1”. This causes the numbering to return to 1 when the level above increments. This means it goes from 5.1.1, to 5.1.2, to 6.1.1.

If your standard lists are not set up like this, go back and fix them before you continue.

Use Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists as a reference to do this correctly.

Bullets and the “Restart list after:” field

Note that the next level after my two numbered headings is a Bullet 1. It is not dependent on the numbering but as it always occurs after my Level 2 numbering, I have put Level 2 in the “Restart list after” field. I’m not sure it is necessary, but it doesn't hurt. Sometimes we just have to do things in Word that don’t make much sense. Don’t do this if you don’t want to, but if things go pear shaped, go back and put it in. It might help.

The next level is a Bullet 2 which is dependent on Bullet 1. So this is and must be set to Restart List after: Level 3. The same applies to Bullet 3 which must restart after Level 4.

Table Lists and the “Restart list after:” field

Now this is where the trouble starts. My table lists are not dependent on anything. Wherever I have a table, I may need a list, and then again, I may not. I have a Paragraph style to apply the list and it works just fine until I get to the second instance of the list.

When I press “Restart Numbering” to set it to “1” manually, sometimes it works and sometimes all my lists and margins throughout the document are re-set to something seemingly nonsensical.

In this document, my numbered tables happen to all occur in different chapters so I have put Level 1 in the “Restart list after:” field. Find a List Level to put here. You will need to look and see if your tables with auto numbering in them all start after a particular list level, and use that list level here.

Restart Numbering
If you have not already done so, you can place the Restart Numbering button on Quick Access Toolbar.

Right click in any blank area of the Ribbon.
Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
In the Choose Commands from field, click All Commands.
Scroll down to Restart numbering and highlight.
Click Add.
Click OK.

Conclusion
That’s it. No promises, but your numbering will be more robust than it was before if you do all this.

Note that I have not promised that it will be robust, just that it will be more robust than it was.

There may be an easier way of setting up robust numbering, but this is the path I went down and followed through.

If you find anything easier AND more reliable, please let me know.

Alternatives
If you don’t like my instructions you can try these.

Shauna Kelly
http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html

As I normally find myself modifying an existing List Style in dirty pre-existing templates and not creating a new one, I rarely find myself starting from this point, but if you have totally clean templates to work with, you may want to.

My instructions modified
You can use my instructions and try multiple style gallery boxes for different lists which will get around the restart numbering problem, but which brings a different range of issues with it.

SEQ number fields
If you don’t like either of them, you can use SEQ fields instead of Multilevel Numbering. The professional technical writers responsible for huge documents do this – they have no choice. There are some good instructions here.

http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/word-2007-setting-up-seq-fields-for-numbering-pt-1/

If you choose to do it any of the four ways I know of, you have a big set-up at the start to avoid problems down the track. Bite the bullet and take the time to do your set-up properly. You won’t regret it.

Working with Word Multilevel Lists (2007 & 2010)

2014-09-09T14:11:00.000+10:00

In my previous article on Multilevel Lists, I explained how to set lists up. There are no shortcuts.

It is imperative that you have all numbered lists for a single template in a single “style box” set up as instructed in my previous article.
If at all possible, it is also good idea to have all your bulleted lists in that same single “style box”. It is irrelevant if they are dependent on one another or not.

The illustration to the right shows the Multilevel List Gallery with all lists in a particular document, both numbered and bulleted, within a single “style box”.

Here is the link to how to set up Multilevel List. As you can see, I wrote this in 2008 and it still applies. Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists

The Problem

How many of us have experienced this? We are approaching a deadline for delivery of our large document with complex numbered lists, when Word decides to throw all the formatting and sometimes all the numbering of our carefully formatted lists to the wind. At least, that is how it seems. How many of us have worked an “all-nighter” courtesy of Word numbering?

Most of the time it is not as irrational or unpredictable as we think, but the rules are so complex that we are likely to do something to trigger a problem without knowing it.

However, all is not lost. We are able to take some level of control to minimise the problem and the time spent fixing it, IF we pay attention to the rules. Like so much else in Word, it comes down to setting up your templates correctly in the first place.

Setting up your Numbered Lists Display

When you click on Multilevel Lists from the Home tab, the Gallery displays three sections:

Current List
List Library
Lists in Current Documents

You can control which lists display in this display. You can choose to display one of them or all of them.

Click Multilevel Lists.
Roll your cursor over the word ALL at the top of the Gallery so that it colours.
Click All.
Select List Library. Read further to learn how to set this up to display only your correct “style box”.

So, why does it matter which lists you are working from?

How the Numbered Lists Display Works

Current List

Once you have set up all your numbered and bulleted styles in a single “style box”, place your cursor on some text that has been formatted with one of those styles. Click on the Multilevel List Gallery. The “style box” for that style will show under “Current List”.

If your numbering has gone haywire, with your cursor in that numbering, look at your Current List. It is probably the wrong list. You can apply the correct list, if you know which one it is. But wait…

List Library

You can set up a library of acceptable “style boxes”. If you have managed to get all your styles into a single “style box”, you can delete every option except that “style box” from your List Library. You can control this List Library to make sure you can use the List Library to apply the lists you actually want for your document – hopefully only one list.

Find the correct “style box” in your list library, and, with your cursor in the haywire numbering, click on the correct “style box”. If you are very lucky, your problem is magically fixed. If not, read on.

Lists in Current Documents

Unfortunately you have very little control over the “style boxes” that display in this area. Even if you go through an entire document, clear all formatting and re-apply your chosen list style throughout, there may still be some “style boxes” you do not want in this menu at the end of the exercise.

If you have a second document open, the “style boxes” from that document also display. This means you are doomed to have the “style boxes” from both your documents also displaying in this area.

Never apply numbering styles for any “style box” in this area. Make sure you have the correct “style box” in your “List Library” and stick to it.

How we mess up our lists in the first place

Importing data from another document

The most common way we mess up lists is by importing data into our document from another document.

When we import from that source document we are likely to bring in the “style boxes” from that document. These may over-rule our chosen “styles box”

We must avoid importing text that includes coding for the numbered list in the first place. There is only one 100% reliable way of doing this. There are two other ways which we might imagine do this but which do not.

When importing text, if you use the Paste Options box at the bottom of your pasted text, you are given a range of options depending on the type of data you are importing. NEVER use these in a document with numbered lists. Remember that style box that is attached to a numbered list? Well, even the Keep Text Only option brings the numbered list with it.

Are you aware of Paste, Paste Special, Unformatted Text, that you can select from the Ribbon? Plenty of people have told me it strips out all formatting. It does seem to, most of the time, but I have managed to retain paragraph formatting using it, so what else is retained? It is pretty good – you can risk it, but not on the day before publication of a massive document.

The only absolutely reliable way of stripping out all formatting is to use Notepad:

Open Notepad.
Copy or Cut the desired text from the source document.
Paste into Notepad. This does strip out all formatting.
Copy or Cut the desired text from Notepad.
Paste into your destination document.

Conclusion

In this article I do not claim to understand all the vagaries of Word numbering, but if you create your numbered lists as explained here:

Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists

…and if you follow the advice in this article, you are likely to significantly reduce the issues you face. This is one of those cases where the time spent setting up your computer and your templates correctly, WILL repay you tenfold in the time it takes you to “fudge” corrupted documents when they do something they should not.

Keystroke Options

Open Paste Options

For those of you who use keystrokes, you can use this combination to open the Paste Options box and select the required option:

Press Ctrl+V to paste the text into your document as per normal.
Press Ctrl again open the Paste Options icon.

Press T to select the “Keep Text Only” option (pressing t is a separate action to pressing Ctrl in step 2 — DO NOT press them together otherwise it won’t work).
M for merge formatting
U to paste it as a picture and so on.

OR Press the arrow keys to switch between them.

Open Paste Special

Alternatively you can open the Paste Special Dialog with Alt Ctrl V, then select Unformatted Text.

Quick Access Toolbar Options

You can put most of the Paste of options on your Quick Access Toolbar.

Right Click on your Quick Access Toolbar.
Select Customise Quick Access Toolbar.
From Choose Commands From, select All Commands.
Scroll down the list to Paste and you will see lots of options.
Click on the options you want and copy to save, for example Paste and Keep Text Only.
Click Add to put onto your QAT.
OK to return to your document.

The pitfalls of the Word help system

2011-06-02T08:21:00.010+10:00

There are problems with Microsoft help and support materials. This is nothing new. Their support has always been poor and one skill every user needs is the skill to navigate around the limitations.

Accessibility
One way Microsoft has tried to get around this, without actually improving the quality of the help materials, is to make them easier to find. In 2010 there are links there to the "in-built" help and to the on-line help under File, Help. For both you need an active internet connection, and both are geared to the new user, not a current user with a question.

Training for novices
The Microsoft on-line “training” for novices is, for the most part, very good. As novices are the vast part of the Microsoft user base, this has to be a good thing. Although it is tedious for experienced users to go through, and most of us will not take the time, I found it very instructive to learn how Microsoft intends us to be using a particular function. This is often quite different from the way we are using it based on our experience with older versions. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/training-FX101782702.aspx?CTT=97

Information for moderate users
Once we get to the written support, the standard starts sliding. In many cases it seems to be impossible to find the information we want and even when it is there, it is often badly written. These days I don't use the in-built help. Almost invariably nothing I need shows up in the search results. The first port of call for people who are new to the upgrade is http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/ although, for Word help, I go straight to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/.

This material is just not as good as it should be. Much of the functionality between 2007 and 2010 stayed the same and unfortunately Microsoft did not initially re-brand all of the pertinent 2007 material to 2010. Anyone who has gone straight from 2003 to 2010 will think it is missing. It’s not, but you may have to search the 2007 material for it. In addition, much of it is badly written. At times I have referred to it to fast track training development, and almost all of it has to be significantly re-written to bring it up to basic Australian standards. It is quite clear that Microsoft is not using skilled technical writers to either produce or review this material, and one has to ask why not.

Support for high level users
High level users have to "rough it". Expect a search for the answer to any question to be a magical mystery tour and a game of Russian Roulette combined. You will go on a very circuitous journey and you might just get your answer at the end. Then again, you might not. One thing is certain. You will not find anyone to take responsibility for finding an answer if one is not immediately available. As an example, I, like many others, have lost the functionality to publish a blog post straight from Word to Blogger. I followed this through with dogged determination, and still have no answer.

My routine when I have a question:
• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/ for basic questions
• http://word.mvps.org/index.html for advanced functions
• http://support.microsoft.com/?ln=en-au for technical problems
• Google search if all else fails.

Support forums
As with most companies trying to get out of their responsibility to provide good quality information on their products, they are now trying to push that responsibly onto helpful unpaid "experts". They are not alone in doing this; it is an unhealthy and growing trend. I have had absolutely no joy using these forums. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/word

There is also an attempt at something with a facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftWord. This also is largely for novice users, and all my tricky questions have been referred from here to the forum above, so none have been answered. It's a feel-good page designed to soothe frustrated novice users.

Conclusion
In summary, novices have good support, average users have average support, and high level users not only have terrible support but are increasingly being expected to support the other two groups.

Recovering lost documents

2011-05-28T11:52:00.033+10:00

It is now easier to recover a Microsoft Word 2010 document if you close your file without saving or you want to review or return to an earlier version of the file you are working in.

AutoRecover files are files that save when Word locks or crashes.
AutoSave files are files that Word saves routinely while you are working on a document.

AUTORECOVER

If Word crashes while you have documents open:

Word saves open files and generates a name for the file. ~Wra####.asd, where #### is a number generated randomly by Windows.

When you start Word, it:

searches for any .asd files. If it finds any, it:
renames each .asd file to [document name].wbk
opens all AutoRecover files in the Document Recovery Pane.

It deletes the [document name].wbk file when you do either of the following:

Save the recovered file, or
Close the recovered file without saving it.

SET AUTORECOVER AND AUTOSAVE OPTIONS

AutoRecover files are saved as [name].asd files. You should set a location for these files so that you know where they are when you need them.

1 Click File, Options, Save.

2 Ensure the Save AutoRecover information every x minutes check box is ticked. This will save documents to use if your system crashes

3 In the Minutes field, specify how often you want the program to save your data – if you work consistently in a document, 5 minutes is a long time.

4 Ensure the Keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving checkbox is ticked.

5 In the AutoRecover file location, set a path. It can be wise to nominate your own AutoRecover path so that you remember where it is.

RECOVER UNSAVED FILES (AutoSaved)

You can choose to keep the last AutoSaved version of a file in case you accidentally close that file without saving, so that you can restore it the next time that you open the file. Also, while you are working in your file, you can access a list of the AutoSaved files for your current session from the File tab, Backstage view.

Recover new versions of a file in Office 2010

Click File, Recent, Recover Unsaved Documents. You will find this right at the bottom of your screen on the right hand side. OR
Click File, Info, Manage Versions, and select your required version from the list. Word will look in its UnsavedFiles folder. This is not the same path as the path for your AutoRecover files. A window will open with your AutoSaved drafts.
Select the file and then click Open. When the document opens, you will be given a warning.
Save this file immediately to its correct name and location.

Browse to find lost files that have not been saved (AutoSaved)

You can also browse to one of the following file locations to open the file, depending on your operating system. Files in this folder will be kept for four days after creation.

Windows 7/Windows Vista. C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
Windows XP, C:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

These file locations cannot be changed.

RECOVER SAVED FILES (AutoSaved)

Find and restore previously saved files (AutoSaved)

To open the last AutoSaved draft.

1 Open the file that you were working with.

2 Click File, Info, Versions.

3 Click the version required. The document opens.

4 In the business bar at the top of the file, observe the message and click the appropriate response.

Restore will overwrite any previously saved versions with the last AutoSaved version of your file.
If you have saved a version after the AutoSave, you will be given the option to Compare.

Files in this folder will be kept for four days after creation or until you next modify the file, whichever is earlier.

Browse to find previous versions (AutoSaved)

You can also browse to one of the following file locations to open the file, depending on your operating system:

Windows 7/Windows Vista, C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\
Windows XP, C:\Documents and Settings\ \Application Data\Microsoft\

All AutoSaved files are deleted when you close the program unless you have enabled Keep the last AutoSaved version if I close without saving, which will keep the last AutoSaved version.

Protected view

2011-04-22T08:15:00.003+10:00

To help protect your computer, files from potentially unsafe locations are opened in Protected View. By using Protected View, you can read a file and inspect its contents while reducing the risks of opening the file.

Protected View gives you warnings about possible threats or problems with your file such as corrupt or broken code, computer viruses, worms and other types of malware.

Setting the rules

Click File, Help, Options.
Click Trust Center.
Click Trust Center Settings.
Click Protected View.
Make selections that you want from the list of options:

What files open in Protected View?

Protected View is a read-only mode in which most editing functions have been disabled. You first establish source locations for documents that you want to open in protected view, and then you can define your exceptions and refinements.

Exceptions include:

Trusted Publishers – nominate trusted publishers
Trusted Locations – nominate trusted locations
Trusted Documents – nominate trusted documents

Refinements include:

Add-ins – disable some or all. Application add-ins may run when a file opens in Protected View, but may not function as expected. If your add-ins are not running correctly, contact the add-in's author. An updated version, which is compatible with Protected View, may be needed.
ActiveX Settings – disable some or all
Macro Settings – disable some or all
File Block Settings – nominate disabled file types

Protected View Messages

There are several reasons why a file opens in Protected View and you will see different messages depending on the problem identified.

This file originated from an Internet location and might be unsafe. Files from the Internet can have viruses and other harmful content embedded in them. You should only edit or save if you trust the sender and file contents. Note that you can specify trusted locations.
This file originated as an e-mail attachment and might be unsafe.The file was received as an Outlook 2010 attachment. Note that you can specify trusted people.
This file was opened from a potentially unsafe location. File was opened from a folder that may be unsafe. An example of an unsafe location is your Temporary Internet Files folder.
Editing this file type is now allowed due to your policy settings. Files of this file type have been blocked in File Block settings. There are two options, editing is not allowed and editing is allowed.
Office has detected a problem with this file. Editing it may harm your computer. Office File Validation is a new feature that scans an Office file when it is being opened and validates it against a well-known schema. When there are inconsistencies between the file and the schema, the file will fail validation and will open in Protected View.
The file was opened in Protected View. You can select to open a file in Protected View. See below for instructions.

Open file in Protected View

You can choose to open a suspect document in Protected View if Word does not do so automatically for you.

Click the File tab, Open, to display the Open dialog box.
Click the Arrow on the Open button. A drop down menu displays.
Click Open in Protected View.

Exit Protected View

If you know the file is from a trustworthy source, you may want to edit, save, or print the file. You can exit Protected View. After you leave Protected View, the document becomes a trusted document.

Exit protected view and edit when the yellow message bar displays.

On the Message Bar of the warning message, click Enable Editing.

Exit protected view and edit when the red message bar displays.

Click the File tab. The Backstage view displays the Protected View Warning on the Info tab.
Click Enable Editing.

If you cannot exit Protected View, it's possible that additional rules have been established in the Trust Centre that block this particular document.

Editing your own work

2011-04-21T19:23:00.009+10:00

One problem for writers is the frequent need to edit our own work. This can be for many reasons. We know it is not ideal, but we find ourselves having to do it. Sometimes we can find a friend or relative to look the work over, or a recent graduate who is prepared to do the edit pro bono in return for a reference, but these cannot be fully trusted so we still have to do a final edit.

Here are some tips on how to self-edit. I compiled this from a discussion on a LinkedIn group, Publishing and editing professionals. You won't use all these techniques, but you can find a few that work for you.

ONLINE

Run your spellchecker and grammar checker at the maximum possible settings.
Write out a list of a range of checks you can do on-line for things you know you get wrong. Then do one at a time. You can use the new search feature on the Navigation Pane of Word 2010 to help with this.
Get a proofreading software product such as PerfectIt. http://www.intelligentediting.com/default.aspx
Increase the zoom so that you read with one eye movement per line.

PAPER

Print out a hard-copy rather than editing on-line, or even better, self publish on Lulu, order a printed copy, and edit the delivered book. It looks and feels so different it may as well be someone else's work.
Leave the hard-copy sitting for a week or two after you last worked on-line.
Use a ruler or straight edge so that you only see one line at a time.
If you have voice on your computer, get your copy electronically read back to you.
Read your printed copy out loud, slowly and clearly, line by line or sentence by sentence.
Read your printed copy word by word backwards.
Read your printed copy sentence by sentence backwards.
Take your printed copy to a different environment. (I go to a coffee shop.)
Turn the page upside down.

List of new features when upgrading from 2007 to 2010

2011-04-08T06:47:00.000+10:00

There are lots of new functions and features and many 2007 irritations have been solved. In summary, if you are still on 2003, skip 2007, and if you are on 2007, you will still benefit from upgrading to 2010.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE GREAT NEW FEATURES
1. A well organised back office that collects all File commands together
2. Fully customisable ribbon
3. Improved search and navigation
4. Improved cut and paste
5. More file types to save to

SHARING AND COLLABORATION
6. Access and share your documents from anywhere using SharePoint or Windows Live
7. Multiple users can work on the same document in real time
8. Simple translation options
9. Publish to a blog

GRAPHICAL ENHANCEMENTS
10. Great new visual effects to add to your text
11. Great new picture editing tools such as background removal
12. Extended Smart Art designs
13. Capture screenshots and insert directly into your documents

SECURITY
14. Recover work you thought was lost
15. Open documents sent to you safely using Protected View

Installing multiple versions of Word on a single computer

2011-04-03T08:30:00.004+10:00

As a trainer and a writer of training manuals, for me there are good reasons to have three versions of Word available, Word 2003, 2007 and 2010. If you are documenting something you may need screen shots, and when answering student enquiries you may need to test something on any of the versions. I have achieved this by maintaining "generational" computers, XP and 2003, Windows 7 and 2007, and Windows 7 and 2010. (I can see no reason for anyone to keep Vista).

If you need to install several versions on a single machine, apparently you can. There are some instructions for parallel installations, but it does seem to be a bit fiddly.

For those who want to install 2007 and 2010 side by side, here are some good instructions. http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/09/02/how-to-install-office-2010-and-keep-office-2007-side-by-side-together/.

For those who want to run lots of old versions up to 2007, you will find information here.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091. This only goes as far as 2007 but a discussion elsewhere seems to indicate that you can just add 2010 onto the end of this.

However, there are few reasons for the average user to keep two let alone three versions running. 2010 is vastly better in every way than 2007, and is totally robust (in my experience) with opening and saving files to 98/2003 file formats. So there is simply no need, unless you are doing something unusual or super complex.

For those upgrading and afraid of Word 2010 you can see my books here. Just commit the time to learning it and you will love it. http://stores.lulu.com/christinekent

Some advantages of upgrading to 2010

2011-04-02T18:14:00.000+11:00

It's not easy to summarise in just a few words why someone should upgrade to 2010, because there are so many changes from 2003 and even 2007. The truth is that you will be left behind - that's not just a meaningless phrase - in the WAY you work. Most of this has to do with interfacing with the external world through the internet - but not all. Some of it also has to do with your quality expectations.

Word is getting closer to desktop publishing, and has significantly enhanced, for example, its graphical production and manipulation capabilities. For a technical writer this is magic, as you can produce your process flows and the like as 3D images, directly in the document, and continue to update and change them if you need to directly in the document. For serious image editing or process flow diagrams you will still need the correct professional software, but for most of what we do, Word is now pretty good.

Then there are speed of work and accessibility enhancements. My experience here is that new users love the new versions and adapt very quickly because they really ARE user friendly. Long time users who have mantrams in their heads (like File, New) for finding commands will have to allow time for new mantrams to replace the old ones. However, I am a long-time user and it took me two days to start to see speed and productivity improvements.

Regarding master documents I think they may be on their way to being redundant. My books are entirely written in tables with hundreds of illustrations that I do nothing to compress, and I have not hit any limits yet with writing them as a single file. First, the docx file format saves a document to about half the size of a doc file. That helps. Then, if you have a decent computer, 20-30 mb files don't even cause a slow-down and, in my experience, don't crash. Working with 2007, I edited every book on an educational publishers list over two years, and did not reach any limits. Now using 2010 for my own books, they positively zip along.

Personally, as a remote worker, I love the collaboration features and the ability to publish to a blog. I can't find many people willing to collaborate on-line yet, but that will come. Did you know that two of you can remotely access a single document and work on it simultaneously without technical conflicts, and that you can message one another about the changes you are making? Imagine what that means for people writing articles, or marketing materials or having to meet a serious deadline?

That's just a few things. I suggest to anyone who is nervous that they download a trial copy of 2010, install it alongside their own version so that they have both, and discipline themselves to work through up to date training materials (like mine). Take care with these as many books have been updated from the 2003 to the 2007/2010 interface but do not include the 2007/10 functions and features, let alone enhanced ways of working

Outline View in Word 2010

2011-04-02T18:09:00.000+11:00

I don't think Outline has changed in 2010. I must confess, I was never comfortable with Outline view - I work with far too many tables - so in older versions I learned to work backwards and forwards with a table of contents. It is one of a few ugly features that are still ugly, but are partially replaced in 2007/10 - which leads me to suspect they will eventually be replaced with something that is much better designed. My list of still ugly features includes master documents, mail merge, and cross references.

The partial replacement for Outline View that everyone should look at and work with for a while is the new Navigation Pane. (Ctrl F will open it rather than the old Find/Replace dialog which you now have to open with Ctrl H.) Like all brand new features with MS, they are using us as usability testers, so there are some irritations, but for me it is already worth the effort of getting around them.

There are three tabs in this view. I find the Find part of of the Navigation Pane fantastically useful for finding and reviewing specific things I might have wrong. For instance, if realise I have been inconsistent with standards I can run a search. It displays the found text string in context - this is critical - and highlights it throughout the document. Editors are going to love it.

You can also, as long as you are 100% disciplined with heading styles, use the browse headings tabs to move slabs of text around. You just have to make sure you have the right cut and paste default set when you do this, or you might lose your styles - that is an example of one of the irritations that I am sure Microsoft will fix down the line. As you cannot use this view without styles correctly applied, they should overrule any cut and paste default so that it always takes styles unless told otherwise.

Where does Word 2010 store files?

2011-02-16T16:24:00.004+11:00

Finding important background documents in Word can be a challenge. Here are a few of them.

File	File name	File Path in Windows 7
File save		C:\Users\User\Documents § Change default in File, Options, Save, Default file location. § Choose any location when saving file.
My templates		C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates To change path, File, Options, Advanced, File Locations, User Templates
Normal and other Installed templates		C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates User this location to display templates from File, New. Blank or File New, My Templates Change default My templates location through File, Options, Advanced, File Locations, User templates, Modify Locations
Building Blocks Template	Building Blocks.dotx	C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks\1033\Building Blocks.dotx C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks\1033\14\Building Blocks.dotx Administrator only can change path. Additional templates can be added to path and all become available for building blocks functions. http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2009/02/03/managing-and-administrating-building-blocks.aspx
User Saved Themes Templates	[name].thmx	C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes\[name].thmx Administrator only can change path. Additional templates can be added to path and all become available.
Dictionary files	[name].dic	C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof To change path, and add create additional dictionaries File, Options, Proofing, Custom Dictionaries
Autosaved files	~Wra####.asd	C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word These are the files offered when word restarts and gives you the Document Recovery Pane. You can also find them under File, Info, Versions. To change path: § File, Options, Save. § File, Options, Advanced, File Locations, AutoRecover Files
Autosaved backup files	[name].bak	C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word This is a backup of the ~Wra####.asd file. If all else fails you may be able to find this file in the .asd file location. To list all the .bak files, type ~wra*.bak in the File Name box.
UnsavedFiles	Unsaved-####.asd	These are the files offered when you go to File, Recent, Recover Unsaved Documents C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles Path cannot be changed.
Backup of previous version when you save your document	[name].wbk	Copy is saved to location of original file Set this option in File, Options, Advanced, Save, Always create backup copy.
User Saved Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar files	[name].exportedUI	C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office Choose any location when saving file.

What to do with Styles now the toolbars are gone

2011-02-14T15:13:00.002+11:00

The loss of the toolbars for applying most commonly used styles has created major headaches for experienced users of Word.

This is my personal solution. It is messy to set up but works well once you are used to it.

Place your most commonly used styles on the Styles Gallery

Establish how many styles display in the Styles Gallery without using the More arrows. On my screen this is 8.
Assign these a value of 1 using the Manage Styles option. They will then be permanently visible when you have the Home tab selected.

I use the Styles Group much of the time if I am only using a few styles. I have these styles on the top row (Body Text, Bullet 1, Exercise Text, Exercise bullet, Heading 1, 2, 3, 4) which takes care of the bulk of the formatting I do on my books for example.

Place your most commonly used styles on the Styles Pane

Establish how many styles display in the Styles Pane without scrolling. For me this is 28 if the Pane is fixed and 36 if it is floating.
Give the next 20 most important styles a value of 2. This way your most important 28 are always visible with the Styles Pane open.

I keep the Styles Pane open all the time and if I am using my lesser used styles, I tend to work from it and ignore the Styles Group.

Place the Style dropdown on the Quick Access Toolbar

I use the Style dropdown, placed to the left of the Quick Access Toolbar.

if I have two documents side by side and so do not have room for the Styles pane.
when I am doing some kind of search with the Navigation Pane open. I can easily see what style is applied to the selected Search result.

You will find it under Popular Commands.

Upgrading to Word 2010 – in a perfect world

2011-02-11T19:19:00.027+11:00

I have been asked a few times what the priorities should be when upgrading from 2003 to 2007 and now from 2003 to 2010 in a large scale business environment.

First and foremost, the upgrade from 2003 to either 2007 or 2010 should be regarded as a new product rollout, not an upgrade. 2007 and 2010 are so different from earlier versions, so much more powerful, and with so many new features, that simply working in the product the same way as 2003 is not going to harness the value of upgrading. Users are not only confronting a new interface; they are confronting a new way of working.

PLANNING THE ROLLOUT
In a perfect world, the technical rollout personnel should form a team with an expert in using each major products, for example a technical writer who uses Word, and accountant who uses Excel etc. On top of this, there should be a trainer.

The rollout personnel should study all the Microsoft resources on what can and does go wrong. There are Microsoft resources to help with this. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303401.aspx . Often rollout personnel make decisions regarding how the products are restricted without reference to the experts and how users work. In one rollout they simply locked down all new functionality, meaning staff had to learn the new interface for no net gain – not good politics.
The experts should set about learning their nominated product intimately and customising templates to suit the new version. Although legacy documents will work just fine in 2010, old, over-engineered and dirty templates are likely to cause trouble. Often the expert staff are given the job of managing the templates and training users when they do not understand enough of the new product themselves. They must have learned all the new features so that they can work out which of them will give productivity gains in their specific environment.
Central to all this should be a trainer who takes responsibility for making sure the users love the upgrade. They should start developing a training plan for the staff. This is a significant change. Staff must be trained if the organisation wants to achieve productivity gains that are possible with this upgrade.

Now to Word 2010 itself.

LEARNING WORD 2010
Templates should, where possible, be re-designed and developed on a new, clean, Normal template. As it is unlikely that in-house staff not currently using 2010 are expert enough to do this effectively, my recommendation would be for an expert in earlier versions to be assigned the role of designing the new templates while working through a resource that will teach them all there is to learn about 2010. They will be amazed at all the new options that they will choose to use if they know they are there. These are my resources for:

MANAGING WORD 2010 TEMPLATES
While they are learning the product they can develop their new, clean, beautifully designed templates. I would recommend that they do each of the following, preferably in the order shown.

One major issue is the loss of the toolbars, and significant re-design needs to be completed to make up for their loss. They can be retained but will sit one layer lower, on the Add-ins tab of the Ribbon, meaning there is no advantage to keeping them over adding new tabs on the Ribbon and learning new ways of working without them.

Learn about Themes and start in-house discussions on corporate colours and fonts. Is it time for a change? If so what? The new fonts that came with 2007, Calibri and Cambria are designed to be readable in both print and on-line format, so perhaps now is the time to look at font use again and determine the best fonts for the job.

With the new master template, design and apply the Theme in Word, so that corporate colours and fonts are the default for selection.

Learn about the Quick Access Toolbar. The main Quick Access Toolbar is user specific and resides on the user’s computer. However it is possible to add document specific commands so that they are specific to the master and secondary templates and will appear by default whenever a corporate template is used. The advantage of this system is that you can put core commands in the master template, different commands in each of the secondary templates to suit that document, and the users can still add their own. Note that you cannot put styles on the Quick Access Toolbar.

Determine which Commands should go onto the Quick Access Toolbar of the corporate master template and any secondary templates.
Do any of the commands you choose to put on the Quick Access Toolbar replace commands on existing toolbars?
The document specific Quick Access Toolbar commands will append to the right hand end of the user selected commands. If the Quick Access Toolbar gets too long it gives you More arrows to see the hidden end rather than scrolling down to a new line. This can be a problem, but if you design the Quick Access Toolbar well enough users may be discouraged from customising their local Quick Access Toolbar, thus keeping your default commands displaying.
Will you need to cover in training the best way for users to modify their own Quick Access Toolbar so that they can still see the template specific commands?

Learn about the Ribbon and how to create new tabs.

For Commands and Macros from all existing Toolbars that you are not already placing on the Quick Access Toolbar, design and develop new tabs. Take the time to work out what should be on the QAT and what should be on the ribbon and where.
Normal navigation around the Ribbon is by using the mouse. Do you also need to train users to use shortcut keys to navigate between tabs?

Learn about styles and how to customise the Styles Pane.

Work out how many styles the Styles Pane displays on your most common screen size. If it is 30, for example, work out which are you most important 30 and gives these value of 1 so that they appear at the top of the list and are visible at all times in the Styles Pane. The remaining styles you can assign a value of 2 or more, so they appear below your top 30.
In the process, determine if you really need all these styles and rationalise what you can.
You can also lock styles so that certain users are only able to use certain styles. If you want to keep your documents clean, you might want to limit the range of styles to particular user groups.
Make sure that the option to create new styles out of modified styles is turned off (that is the source of the char char problem)
Ensure that you teach users to work with the Styles Pane open, to replace having a styles toolbar.

Learn about bullets and numbers. Complete the Microsoft on-line training which you will find at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/training-presentation-word-2007bullets-numbers-and-lists-TC010220963.aspx?CategoryID=CT102036981033 so that you understand exactly how Microsoft intends you to use them. This is critical to getting them under some kind of control.

Completely re-do all your bullet and list styles, using the built-in list styles rather than creating your own. Just modify them to suit your layout. If you need more than Microsoft has catered for, there is something wrong with your template design.
If you have worked out a way to make them reliable in your old templates, they should work in 2010. If not, and you still get all sorts of indent issues, then adopt the solution I have documented on my blog for 2007, which still applies to 2010. http://christinekent.blogspot.com/2008/08/bullets-and-numbering.html

Learn what Building Blocks are, and establish if there are any repetitive tasks around your organisation that should be stored as Building Blocks.

Learn about them here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_office_word/archive/2008/12/15/building-blocks.aspx
Learn how to manage them here http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2009/02/03/managing-and-administrating-building-blocks.aspx

Build any Building Blocks you need at template level.

Macros work pretty much the same way they always have.

Bring in all the macros you still need and test them. They should be fine.
You can dedicate a new tab on the Ribbon just for macros.
You can place them in the appropriate groups of other tabs.
You can put the most important of them on your document specific Quick Access Toolbars.

Have you worked through the whole book? What else might bring about productivity or quality gains in your environment?

Do you have use for translation, collaboration, document sharing, accessibility features, security features, content controls for forms design, publish to web options?

TRAINING USERS
Once your templates are re-designed, you can work out what to train. I would think you would have to train at least:

The layout of the ribbon, and how to use keystrokes as well as the mouse to navigate between tabs. That way they can get to your customised tabs from the keyboard rather than having to stop to use the mouse.
How the Quick Access Toolbar, how to add and organise their own commands, and what to take into account in terms of your template specific QATs.
How to work with the Styles pane open so that they can see the styles.
Where the various toolbars and toolbar commands have disappeared to, and how to get to the old toolbars if they want.

Seems like a lot of fuss? Not really. For a few weeks of labour before the rollout, you will gain significant productivity improvements and save the inevitable years of headaches that will ensue if you do not get it right.

How to get the most out of 2007 and 2010

2011-02-08T23:52:00.003+11:00

One of my observations is that inexperienced users adapt to both 2007 and 2010 very easily, but the more experienced the user, the less they like it. Is this just prejudice, or "resistance to change", or are there legitimate concerns?

Firstly, the interface has changed considerably, and the more experienced the user, the more habits they have to change. If you have no need of the new features, then the changes are a nuisance, and the time taken to learn them is time lost.

But is there anyone who does not need, or cannot benefit from the new features? I adapted quickly to 2007 and now 2010 because I took the time to learn the new features. I had to learn them to write about them and train others in how to use them. This forced me to realise the benefits they have for me. It is not simply a case of learning the new interface. It is also necessary to learn to work differently.

Here are some of the benefits of new features and functions.

Productivity gains
Features like Building Blocks and the Navigation pane improve work speed and efficiency for everyone. For many, the Ribbon is a significant gain, as is the Quick Access toolbar, and now both are fully customisable, they are more efficient than the old toolbar system.

Publishing gains
Some gains are made in the visual appeal of the final document. The improved graphics handling capability, better tables layout, and features like SmartArt result in much nicer looking documents that are now directly competing with desktop published documents.

Accessibility gains
There are many gains for those with significant difficulties using a standard product. One example is the new keyboard shortcuts system based on the Alt key, which enables every single command to be accessed through shortcuts, assisted with memory aids. This has been done without significant loss to existing users of the Ctrl keyboards shortcuts.

Collaboration and sharing gains
The corporate world seems to be very slow to adopt the collaboration and sharing features that are a big part of the new releases. The Office suite is now much more integrated between Office products, and also enables on-line publishing, and a range of collaboration options. These all make off-site and remote working simple for those working through the Office suite. Maybe Microsoft missed the boat here as most corporate environments have their own facilities for remote logging in and collaboration, where it is permitted. Time will tell as to whether the simplicity of the Microsoft interfacing eventually takes over from the complex and often slow corporate alternatives.

Specialist gains
In addition there are specific gains for specialist niche areas. For those designing forms, the Content Controls brought in with 2007 offer a great improvement. For anyone needing translation facilities, this is a great new addition to 2010.

So just how good is Word 2010

2011-02-08T23:22:00.003+11:00

Initially I thought 2010 was really just a more reliable form of 2007, but it seems there are many new features that are worth taking a look at.

The fully customisable ribbon is probably the single most important change between 2007 and 2010
It is great to go back to having a File menu, and even more to have all the file organisation commands available on one page. Options are now here, and File Properties.
In the Recent documents menu you can now pin file paths as well as documents.
The Navigation pane is now much more powerful, and although the organisation is not particularly intuitive, there are some great new features. Editors will love the new Search feature which displays all instances of the searched for text in context.
It is now possible to do simple screenshots directly from within Word. Those used to the sophistication of SnagIt will not be impressed, but it is an improvement on the print screen function.
You can edit a document and change page layout in Print Preview - which is a nice feature now in the File, Print menu.
Saving to PDF is now fully integrated.

Perhaps a significant area of development are all the new or expanded features that involve interaction with on-line services. Most of these can be regarded as "immature" - in other words, too difficult or poorly designed to follow as they stand, but I am sure we can expect their design to be simplified in later versions.

It is now possible to complete some pretty sophisticated translation options directly within Word and to interface between Word and an on-line translation facility to translate entire documents. The help files for this are either inadequate or wrong, but it is worth ploughing through and making sense of it if you ever need to translate.
Two or more people can work on the same document, simultaneously with the co-authoring feature. This is a very complicated to follow, but will presumably "mature" in later versions.
You can edit your documents using your mobile phone. I haven't tested this so I cannot comment.
You can save to the web, to SharePoint, and to a nominated blog.

Web 2.0 and Microsoft Word 2007

2009-01-24T11:30:00.003+11:00

I am a member of a few groups of professional writers and editors, and have found, to my amazement, that many of these people seriously dislike Word 2007. This came as a shock to me, because within two days of starting to work with it myself, I loved it and my own productivity sky-rocketed.

This has led me on a quest to understand. How am I, and the others who enjoy Word 2007, different from those who detest the new format and have experienced a decline in their productivity?

Is Web 2.0 literacy the key? Once there was a gulf between those with a home computer, an internet connection and email, and those without. That gulf may now be between computer people who have adapted to Web 2.0 and those who have not.

Corporate environments tend to lock down internet access so their workers cannot use applications like Facebook and Twitter in work time. I wonder; have they inadvertently done themselves a disservice? In addition, people who work on computers all day – apart from computer enthusiasts – may be disinclined to go home and sit on Facebook all night. I am suspecting that there has been a serious paradigm shift out there in "user land" that professional and corporate IT people have been locked away from and haven't really spotted.

I'm not sure what it really is or really entails and I doubt anyone does. It is all moving far too fast for that. But it is a rollercoaster I would rather jump on than miss.

So back to Microsoft. My observation is that Microsoft may have FOLLOWED this Web 2.0 lead. They have observed what is happening with Web 2.0, and taken the lead amongst desktop software systems in shifting themselves into this new world. I know that many people do like Office 2007, and I am wondering of Web 2.0 literacy is the key.

Windows Live is a good example of Microsoft's attempts to enter the Web 2.0 world. When they first devised Windows Live, it was effectively an online document collaboration tool; not a huge shift from the Microsoft core business, just an extension of it. Over time it has evolved into something that looks like it is trying to compete with Facebook. Again, Microsoft seems to be following, not leading.

Web 2.0 affects more than just Microsoft. It is changing the entire web development industry. I bought a copy of DreamWeaver to create my own web pages, and found it very heavy going. At about that time, I discovered Weebly, BlinkWeb and Google Blogger. My Dreamweaver has sat, unloved and un-mastered on my desktop ever since. The free drag and drop technologies do enough to satisfy my sole trader, home business needs. How will this impact on web development professionals, and on the high level web development tools? Will they drift into obscurity? It won't take long – maybe a year or two to get the answer to that question. Will Adobe bring out the Rolls Royce of on-line web development tools? Now that would be interesting!

The Web 2.0 revolution has also affected publishing. I found my publisher was not promoting my books into the global marketplace as they had promised, so I have self-published using Web 2.0 resources. Others have been unable to get published at all, and so have self-published, to find themselves with best sellers on their hands and conventional publishers offering them million-dollar contacts. Print-on-demand technology is revolutionising publishing as we speak. I can supply my book as a PDF file to a printer who can cost effectively print and despatch a single copy; no more huge print runs resulting in volumes of remaindered stock.

What else is being radically changed as Web 2.0 developers get better and better at what they do, and are enabling ordinary users to do more and more of what they once had to pay professionals to do?

I am writing this using the Blog template in Word 2007 and will hit a button in Word to save it to my Google blog. From there it will distribute itself across a range of other sites with no human intervention. Now how sweet is that?

Did you know? Some handy Word 2007 tips

2009-01-14T07:44:00.018+11:00

…you can download an add-in to convert to PDF from within Word?

Click 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF .

…you can do much more with Find and Replace than meets the eye?

Click Microsoft Word 2007 help for full instructions.

...you can search by code.

Click Use codes to find letters, formatting, fields, or special characters to see list of codes you can search on.

…you can browse by object such as graphics, tables etc?

Click the grey ball towards the bottom of the scroll bar.
Select one of the options.
Press Ctrl Page Down to find the next instance.

…you can suppress page number in TOC

Type \n 1-1 outside the inverted commas in your TOC code to suppress the page number for TOC 1 style.

Type \n 1-2 to suppress line numbers for the first two TOC levels etc.

…you can bold your Index page numbers without bolding the Index entry

Add \b to your index entry, for example, {XE"business overview" \b}.

You can tick the checkbox for each index entry you add through References, Mark Entry, Page number format, or you can edit all your field codes.

If your Index style is bold, /b will un-bold the page number.

…you can autogenerate text

On a new line in Word, type =rand() and press Enter.Word will insert several paragraphs of text taken from the HELP pages.

To control the amount of text displayed, type two numbers, separated by a comma inside the parentheses, the first figure for the number of paragraphs and the second for the number of sentences per paragraph. So, typing =rand(2,4) will generate two paragraphs with 4 sentences each.

Myths and fears, and the disappearance of the toolbars

2009-01-11T14:20:00.010+11:00

Word 2003 users are resisting upgrading to 2007 because they fear loss of functionality and most importantly, loss of workplace efficiency. There is a pretty hefty body of misinformation and myth perpetuating and supporting these fears, but they are groundless with a single proviso.

If you upgrade and do not take the time to learn some functions and to customise your system, your productivity WILL DECLINE.
If you take that time out to set your system up properly, your level of productivity WILL INCREASE.

The really critical and perhaps major complaint of new users is the disappearance of the toolbars. This is the only potentially big issue as far as I can see for converting from 2003 to 2007. To someone who has not yet worked logically through 2007, that would seem like a terrible loss, but it is not as bad as it seems initially. It will consume some time, if you are a big toolbar user, to re-think your use of toolbars and to re-configure, but not as much as you think.

Where are my toolbars?

If you open your 2003 documents in 2007, your toolbars are still there but one layer deeper. If you have toolbars, you will see an Add-ins tab.

From the Ribbon, click the Add-ins tab. Your toolbars will be displayed.
Select the command you want from the toolbar.

The Quick Access Toolbar

The toolbars have been partially replaced by a single, mostly user-defined Quick Access Toolbar.

You can place any command and any macro on the QAT. I have 44 buttons on my QAT, and there is room for more. I do have a wide screen, so part 1 of your upgrade solution is:

Get a wide screen monitor if you do not already have one – there are two reasons you need a wide screen as you will see later.

Then you must:

Learn how to use your QAT and start setting it up to suit your personal needs. It is so easy to add and remove buttons that you do not need to get it right first time; you can let it evolve. You can also set up QAT components that are document, add-in or template specific. For instructions for how to set up your Quick Access Toolbar click here.

Styles

The one thing you cannot put on the QAT is styles - which is perhaps the most common thing we do put on toolbars. If you remove styles from all your toolbars, you will probably find you have more than enough space on the QAT for the rest. To get round the issue of no styles on the QAT I work with my Styles pane open, and I rank my styles so that the most commonly used 30 or so (defined by the height of my screen) are ranked number one and so always show. As these are template dependent, my ranking can change from template to template.

Learn how to use set up your Styles. For instructions for how to set up your Styles click here.

This is the second reason I like a wide screen. It makes it much easier to leave the Styles pane open.

This combination of QAT and the Styles pane has effectively replaced toolbars for me. Perhaps there are some users with such complex needs that they cannot be satisfied by 40+ commands on the QAT and 30+ styles, but for most of us, we have more than enough commands that are visible on the screen at all times and that can be accessed with one click.

But what about the keyboard shortcuts?

There is a vast amount of misinformation about keyboard shortcuts.

There are now TWO systems for keyboard entry, the 2003 system that uses the Ctrl key and a new one that is ribbon and command based and uses the Alt key. If you can't find a command in one system, you certainly will find it in the other. I am told that a very few of the old keyboard shortcuts have changed, however, you are still able to assign your own keyboard shortcuts, so if you are unhappy with the given shortcut you can change it.

If you are a shortcut user, check out both systems, and redefine any shortcuts you can't accommodate. For instructions for how to re-define shortcuts click here.

What's new in keyboard shortcuts?

2009-01-11T13:55:00.013+11:00

There are now two types of shortcut in Word 2007:

Key Combination shortcuts
Access Keys

They define keyboard shortcuts for you, but if you do not like the key combinations you are given, you can:

Define or change a Key Combination Shortcut

Key Combination Shortcuts

Key Combination Shortcuts are mostly the same as those in Word 2003. They are a fast easy way to apply commands. If you have trouble remembering them you can set screen tips to display them when you run your cursor over a command. Most of these shortcuts use the CTRL key. You will find a full list of key combination shortcuts at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP101476261033.aspx.

Turn on screen tips

Click the Office button, Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box. Popular will be highlighted by default.
Click the More down arrow for the ScreenTip style field.
Select Show feature description in ScreenTips.
After you close and re-open Word, you will have detailed screen tips when you run your cursor over a command.

Set shortcuts to display in screen tips

Click the Office button, Word Options. The Word Options dialog box displays.
On the Word Options dialog box, click Advanced.
Scroll down to Display.
Make sure Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips is ticked.
Click OK to save changes. After you close and re-open Word, you will see both Screen Tips and Shortcut Keys when you run your cursor over a command.

Define or change a Key Combination Shortcut

If some of the pre-defined shortcuts do not suit you, you can redefine them.

Go to Office, Word Options, Customize.
Click Keyboard shortcuts: Customize.
From the Categories box, identify the Menu, Tab or other location for the command you want.
From the Commands box, find and click your command.
In the Press new shortcut key field, press the key combination you require.
Specify the template or document to which you want to save it.
Click Assign, Close.

Access Keys

You can also use the new range of Access Key keyboard shortcuts. These take you through the Ribbon, Tabs, and the Office button to find a command. They use the Alt key, which gets you out of text entry mode and into command mode.

They can be tricky to use until you get used to them, but you will find them very useful if you have an issue with using a mouse, and also with remembering the vast number of Key Combination Shortcuts.

They give you access to every single command on:

the Ribbon
the Microsoft Office Button menu, and
the Quick Access Toolbar

Explore Access Keys and the Ribbon

With your cursor anywhere in your document, press the ALT key to display letters and numbers called Key Tip Badges. For example there is an F over the Office Button and an H over the Home tab.
With the letters still visible:
1. press the F key on your keyboard to be taken to the Office menu where there are more Key Tip Badges available.
2. Press the O key. The New Document dialog box opens. To do this quickly you would press ALT+F+O.
3. To exit, press Cancel to close the dialog box.
Press ALT to see the badges for all the tabs.
Press ALT + the displayed badge for any tab to display the second level badges for that tab.
You can even display contextual tabs this way, for example, press ALT + F + W + V to display the Print Preview tab.

Clearly some of these combinations are not user friendly, so if you are a user who remembers shortcuts, you may want to customise your Key Combination Shortcuts to suit.

How to turn Keep Track of Formatting on and off

2008-10-29T10:02:00.004+11:00

Keep track of formatting is tricky and is much more powerful in Word 2007 than in previous version. (For users of past versions, this relates to the old Char problem.)

It pays to pay attention to it. It is a critical setting almost hidden in the Options setting in the bottom right corner of the Styles Task Pane.

View the settings

Click Options from the Styles Task Pane.

The critical function on this page is the Select formatting to show as styles: setting. This works together with Keep track of formatting which you will find in Office, Options. They both have to be set to get the required outcomes.

Set Keep Track of Formatting to ON

Click the Office button, Word Options, Advanced.
Tick Keep track of formatting if you want Word 2007 to remember your manual formatting changes and store them as styles.

The safest option is to un-tick this, but if you leave it ticked, you can manage what shows in your style list in the Style Pane Options box.

Set Mark formatting inconsistencies to ON

Tick Mark formatting inconsistencies if you are disciplined with using styles and want Word 2007 to underline any manually formatted text.
Leave them both ticked for now and click OK.

Set Select formatting to show as styles

These options are disabled if the Mark formatting inconsistencies checkbox is un-ticked.

Back in your Styles Task Pane, click Options again.
With the Mark formatting inconsistencies checkbox ticked, the Select formatting to show as styles: options are enabled and control what you see in your Styles Task Pane.
Select which manual formatting you want Word 2007 to track (if any).

Set Keep Track of Formatting to OFF

If you decide you don't want Word to keep track of any formatting, click the Office button, Word Options, Advanced.
Untick Keep track of formatting.

Create a document with Normal template

2008-10-15T20:51:00.005+11:00

What is Normal template?

The most commonly used template is called Normal. If you create a document in Word without selecting a template, Word will select and use Normal template on your behalf.

Normal defines document elements such as the size and layout of a page, headers and footers, margin settings and many other types of formatting applied to an entire document. Normal template also contains some Styles that help you format your text.

Create a document with Normal template

To look at Normal template, create a new file.

Open Word 2007.
Click the Office button in the top left hand corner.
Click New. The New Document dialog box below displays.

In the left hand panel, you will see a list of Templates. There are templates designed to help you do just about everything, but we will select Blank for now. When you select Blank you are selecting Normal template.

Click Blank and recent if it is not already highlighted.
Click Blank document in the centre panel.
Click Create. A new blank document displays on your screen.

About Styles

Templates contain many commands that define how your document will look. One of the components of this is Styles. A style is a set of formatting instructions that can be applied to a piece of text with a single action. The set is given a meaningful name so you can remember what it is. When you select some text and apply a style, that text is automatically formatted with ALL the attributes carried by the style. There are a number of advantages with using styles:

They speed up the formatting process.
They help you achieve consistency throughout your document.
They are used by advanced features in Word such as creating tables of content, and creating cross references.

Look at the Styles in Normal template

With the Home tab selected, look at the "ribbon" across the top of your screen. You will see a group labelled Styles, with a highlight around Normal. That is Normal style in Normal template.

Turn the Show all button on

Before you start, find the Show all button on your Home tab, Paragraph group.
Click so it is highlighted. From now on, work with this button highlighted at all times. With the Show All button selected, you will see a hard return symbol at the end of each paragraph (¶). These will not print.

Apply styles from the Styles Gallery

In your new document type your name. Your text has been automatically formatted with Normal style, but how do you know this and what does it mean?
You can find what style is applied to your text by looking at the Home tab, Styles group. The command box that says Normal has a yellow highlight around it. That tells you that you have formatted your name with Normal style.
You can also see what font is applied by looking at the Home tab, Font group. You will see the font name Calibri with an 11 next to it, which is the size.
With your cursor at the end of Your Name, press Enter. You are taken to a new line.
Type Heading 1.
Press Enter.
Place the cursor back anywhere in the word Heading.
From the Home tab, Styles group, click Heading 1. Your text will now have changed to font Cambria, size 14, blue and bolded, with quite a lot of space before it.
Look at the Home tab, Font group to see the font name Cambria with a 14 next to it, which is the size. You will also see the B for bold highlighted, which tells you the text is bolded so that it stands out more.
Now place your cursor under Heading 1, if it is not already there.
Type Heading 2.
Press Enter.
Place the cursor back anywhere in Heading 2.
From the Home tab, Styles group, click Heading 2. Your text will now have changed to be font Cambria, size 13, a paler blue and bolded, with a bit less space before it than Heading 1.
You can see this by looking at the Home tab, Font group. You will see the font name Cambria with a 13 next to it. You will also see the B highlighted, which tells you the text is bolded.

Quick Styles set

Look at the styles shown in the Styles group. These are called Quick Styles. They are the ones Microsoft thinks you are likely to use the most.

Back in your document, type some more text.
Apply another style from the Quick Styles gallery.
Press Enter to move to the next line.
Do this with each of the styles you find on the Quick Styles gallery. Make sure you have a line of text formatted with each style.

Look at styles in the Styles Task Pane

So far, you have typed some text, applied some different styles and seen what font and size is associated with those styles, but you will have seen that there are more differences between the styles than just font and size. There were different colours; black, dark blue and a lighter blue and also different spacings before and after the text. We will look at these next.

Styles can be displayed in the Styles Task Pane with or without their formatting. When you are first getting used to a template, you may want to see what the styles look like. Once you know your template, it is easier to view the list with the formatting turned off.

On your Home tab, Styles group, in the bottom right corner click the little arrow: the Styles.
The Styles Task Pane displays on the right of your screen. Unlike the Quick Styles set in the Home tab, Styles group, the Styles Task Pane displays all the styles available on your template. From now on, work with Styles Task Pane open.
Place your cursor somewhere in Your Name.
Scroll up and down the Styles Task Pane until you find Normal, which will have a blue outline around it.
Run your mouse over Normal in the Styles Task Pane. Leave your cursor there for a moment and an information box will display all the formatting for Normal. Every time you apply Normal to some text, you will get everything on that list.
Place your cursor in Heading 1 in your document.
Run your cursor over Heading 1 in the Styles Task
Pane. Leave your cursor there for a moment and an information box will display all the formatting for Heading 1. Every time you apply Heading 1 to some text, you will get everything on that list.
Now repeat this exercise with each other line of text that you have formatted with different styles.

Select "Show Preview" in the Styles Task Pane

In the Styles Task Pane tick the Show Preview checkbox. Tick and untick it to see what happens. Pick the view you prefer.
With the Show Preview check box ticked, you will have a list of styles in your Styles Task Pane (they display once you have applied all the styles to a piece of text). Note that styles apply to paragraphs. You end a paragraph when you press the Enter key. Word inserts a paragraph mark (¶) to show you that the paragraph is ended. When you start a new paragraph, you can apply a different style.
Experiment with applying styles to paragraphs of text until you are comfortable with the process and have a feel for what you are doing with them.

When you are finished, you can close this document without saving it by clicking the X in the top right corner of your screen.

How to create an auto-generated Table of Contents

2008-10-15T11:33:00.004+11:00

You should never need to create a manual table of contents. Word can do this for you, but you must have used styles to format your text. If you do not already have one, create a document with a Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 style.

Insert Table of Contents

Place your cursor where you want your Table of Contents inserted.
Click References tab and find the Table of Contents group.
Click Table of Contents. A menu displays.
Click Automatic Table 1 or Automatic Table 2.

A table of contents is inserted at the location of your cursor showing each heading you formatted with a Heading1, Heading 2 or Heading 3 style.

View styles used in Table of Contents

From your Home tab, Styles group, in the bottom right corner, click the angled arrow (the Dialog Box Launcher) to open your Styles Task Pane so that you can see which styles are applied.
Still with your cursor in your TOC, click up and down each heading entry. You will see that each:

Heading 1 has the style TOC 1 applied.
Heading 2 has the style TOC 2 applied.
Heading 3 has the style TOC 3 applied.

Update TOC

When you change the headings in your document, these can be reflected through into your TOC automatically.

Place your cursor in your table of contents. It will highlight and you will see a Content Control at the top.
Click Update Table. The Update Table of Contents dialog displays.
Click to select Update page numbers only or Update entire table.
Click OK.

Modify TOC

Place your cursor in your table of contents.
Click References tab.
Click, Table of Contents, Insert Table of Contents. The Table of Contents dialog box displays. From this page you can modify the look of your TOC.

Show page numbers (defaults to ticked).
Right align page numbers (defaults to ticked).
Show number of heading levels (defaults to 3 but you can change to show more or less heading levels).

Change TOC Options

Click Options. The Table of Contents Options dialog box displays. You can see here the three heading levels that have been included by default. You can change this to any styles in your document.
Click Cancel to exit.

Modify TOC Styles

Click Modify. The Style dialog box displays. This is where you can change how each entry level in your TOC displays.
Click Cancel to exit.

What are Content Controls?

2008-10-10T07:08:00.015+11:00

Content Controls are another new feature of Microsoft Word 2007. They partially replace form fields. You may want to create customised templates, such as corporate forms, or letter or fax templates, that use your own theme and that use Content Control fields. The best way to see what these are is to open one of the new boilerplate templates in Word 2007 and have a look.

Use Content Control fields

In Microsoft Word, click Office, New to display the New Document dialog box.
From the Templates frame click Installed Templates. These are the templates supplied by default with Microsoft Word 2007.
Find and click on Median Letter, then click Create.
Look at the instructions surrounded by square brackets – these are called Place Holders. When you click on one of these, a box displays around it. When you type your own text in the brackets, the Place Holder disappears and just your own text remains.

Remove Content Control

Right click on the Place Holder.
Click Remove Content Control. You are returned to the document and there is no longer a Place Holder. (Note that this option is only available if the template designer made it available.)

Create Content Control fields

If you are creating templates for others to use, you may want to create content control fields like these. For this you will need the Developer tab.

Click the Office button, Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box.
With Popular highlighted, tick Show Developer tab
in the Ribbon and click OK.
Back in your document, click on the Developer tab, and identify the Controls group.
Click Design Mode. This is a toggle.
Click the Aa button to insert a Rich Text content control.
Type any changes you want to make to the Place Holder text. You can type very detailed instructions here, formatted in any way you like. You can set an option that automatically removes all your content when the user starts typing in the control.
With your cursor in the field you have just created, click Properties, to display the Content Control Properties dialog box.
Complete the fields in the dialog box as required.
Click OK to save Properties.
Click Design Mode to toggle Design Mode off and see how the Content Control will display in a document.

For full instructions on working with each of the following Content Controls, use the on-line help system, run a search on "Content Controls" and select the help option: Word > Creating specific documents > Forms.

You can build forms using Content Controls. This is a significant new area that is well documented in the on-line help system. For full instructions on developing forms using Content Controls, run a search on "Create forms that users complete in Word 2007" and select the help option: Word > Creating specific documents > Forms.

For the developer perspective on Content Controls, you may want to check out this overview.

Go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264571.aspx

Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists

2008-08-23T20:02:00.012+10:00

Bullets and numbering pose a problem in Word. They are complicated. Word tries to be very helpful and predict what you want, with sometimes very peculiar consequences.
It is easy enough to insert bulleted lists or numbered lists, but it is not so easy to control exactly how they look and behave once you are working with larger or more complex documents.
If you don't use styles...
...then your best course of action is to do the Microsoft on-line training to learn exactly how Microsoft intends you to use them. There are good PowerPoint instructions, but you must be using Internet Explorer Browser to access them.

Click this link. Training presentation: Word 2007—Bullets, numbers, and lists
Click the Download button, save, and print if required.
Follow the instructions and good luck. If you are writing small documents and not sharing them with others, this system will probably work for you.

If you do use styles...
...there are two main tricks to getting this right:

If you are working in a document that has lots of complex lists, use the built-in Multilevel List styles and re-define them to suit.
Associate those styles with a single gallery box from the Numbering Library accessed through the Ribbon.

Display multi-level lists

Create a new document based on Normal template.
Click Home tab, Styles group, dialog box launcher, to display the Styles pane and see all the styles displayed.
Click Manage Styles to display the Manage Styles dialog box.
Click the Recommend tab.
Scroll down the list to near the bottom where you will find styles starting with the word List. They are likely to be greyed out and have the words (Hide Until Used) next to them.
Highlight all these items and click Show .
Click OK.

Re-define styles to suit
Work out what numbered lists you want and how deep you want them to go. For example, I often use a three level list for normal text, a three level list inside tables and a third three level list for special formatting, which makes 9 styles in all.

Apply the pre-defined list style to some text.
Re-format the text to look the way you want.
Locate the style in the Styles pane.
Right click and click Update *style name* to match selection. The style now possesses the formatting of your selected text which will be applied to all other text formatting with that style.

Do this for all the styles you want to create. To change style names:

Right click on style in Style pane.
Change the name.
Click OK.

Associate styles with numbers

Click Home tab, Paragraph group, Multi-level list button down arrow.
Identify and click a number format from the Numbering Library that is closest to the required numbering style.
If you exit the dialog box, click Home tab, Paragraph group, Multi-level list button down arrow again.
Ensuring your selected box is still highlighted, click Define New Multi-Level list. You will work in this dialog box to define how every numbered list you have will work.

Style 1

With level 1 selected, click the More button.
In the Link level to style box, select your first style in a sequence, for example "table list 1".
In the Enter formatting for number, enter the numbering type you want.
In the Start at field, enter the start number, usually 1
In the Aligned at field, enter the identical left margin defined in the style.
In the Text indent at field, enter the identical indent defined in the style.
In the Add tab stop field, enter the same indent tab defined in the style.

Style 2

Click level 2.
In the Link level to style box, select your second style in a sequence, for example "table list 2".
In the Enter formatting for number, enter the numbering type you want.
In the Start at field, enter the start number, usually 1
In the Aligned at field, enter the identical left margin defined in the style.
In the Text indent at field, enter the identical indent defined in the style.
In the Add tab stop field, enter the same indent tab defined in the style.

Repeat this process with all your remaining styles - try to get every list style you will use defined in this one gallery box. It doesn't matter that they are not the same list sequence, just link your styles and define your number format, number style, number alignment, indent and tabs.
Place re-start numbering button on Quick Access Toolbar

Right click in any blank area of the Ribbon.
Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
In the Choose Commands from field, click All Commands.
Scroll down to Restart numbering and highlight.
Click Add.
Click OK.

This should work reliably for all your styles providing they are all defined in the one Gallery box in the Numbering Library.

Where did autotext go?

2008-08-12T09:37:00.018+10:00

Forget autotext and enter the brave new world of Building Blocks and Quick Parts, Galleries and Live Preview.

Building Blocks are pre-designed and pre-formatted text, images or other document parts that are displayed in Galleries of thumbnail images organised according to their function. You can add your own Building Blocks to these galleries. Quick Parts are simply Building Blocks you design for yourself that don't belong in any other Gallery. You can store any combination of text and images that you have created in a document as a Building Block.

The difference between autotext and Building Blocks is mostly visual. Galleries of thumbnails make it easy to select the entry you want and Live Preview allows you to hover your cursor over a Building Block in a Gallery to apply it to your document below, and see what it will actually look like.

It only takes one or two keystrokes to insert the Building Block into your document.

Building Blocks are stored in a separate template - Building Blocks.dotx - that is made available to all your documents. However, if you want the Building Blocks to be available for only a specific template, this is also possible.

Make sure Live Preview is turned on.

Click the Office button, Word Options.
In the Top options for working with Word area, tick Enable Live Preview.

Define a Quick Part

Highlight the text and/or graphics for which you want to create a Quick Part.
Press Alt F3, or select Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. The Create New Building Block dialog box displays with some fields completed.
Give your Quick Part a short and memorable name.
Choose the Gallery you want it displayed in.
Specify where you want it saved. Building Blocks.dotx is the default, but you can choose a template here.
Complete other fields as required.
Click OK.

View a new Quick Part

Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, and you will see that your entry has been placed in the drop down gallery, displayed graphically so it is easy to identify and insert.

Insert a Quick Part

Place your insertion point in the position you want your Quick Part entered in your document.
Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, and click on your new Quick Part. Your Quick Part is placed in your document.
Alternatively type the name of your Quick Part – this is why it needs to be short and memorable and press F3.

Manage Quick Parts and Building Blocks using the Building Blocks Organiser

Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, Building Blocks Organiser to display the Building Blocks Organiser dialog box.
Click on any Building Block to see a preview in the right hand column.
You can edit, delete or insert a Building Block into a document from here.

Remove Quick Part from Gallery

Right click on your gallery item.

Click on Organise and Delete. The Building Blocks Organiser dialog box displays, with your entry highlighted.

Make sure the correct Building Block is highlighted and click Delete.

Save the Building Block template (building blocks.dotx)

Close Word 2007. A dialog box below displays, naming the template to which you elected to save your Building Block/s.
Click Yes to save your changes.

Tips

User defined Building Blocks normally appear at the bottom of a Gallery. To place a new Building Block at the top of the list, use a symbol or a blank space at the beginning. This will send it to the top of the list.
Quick Parts automatically appear at the top of the Quick Parts Gallery.