Editing

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Editing' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding an Optional Break
The no-width optional break is primarily used for Asian languages in Word. It can have value for English-speakers, as described in this tip.

Adding Hyphens to Phrases
It is often necessary to add hyphens (dashes) between the words in a phrase. If you need to perform this editing task often, you might appreciate the macro in this tip. Assign it to a shortcut key, and you can hyphenate phrases very quickly.

Adding Parentheses
Need to add parentheses around some word or phrase? Here's a quick macro that makes this simple edit in one step.

Adding Parentheses in WordBasic
Want to add parens around a word or phrase in a single click? Here's a WordBasic macro that can help you.

Adding Quotes
This tip presents a handy little macro that adds quote marks around any selected text. The macro can be assigned to a shortcut key to make adding matching quote marks even faster.

Adding Quotes to Text
A quick little WordBasic macro that allows you to add quotes around selected text.

An Automatic Two Spaces After a Period
Should you put two spaces after a sentence or just one? Ask different people and you will get different answers. To Word the answer isn't really important; it can help you enforce either type of spacing you want. This tip explains how.

Arranging Paragraphs
Need to move a few paragraphs around in your document? Word provides a couple of handy shortcuts that make it very easy to move them in any direction you want.

Asking for Delete Confirmation
When you select some text and then press the Del key, the text should immediately be removed from your document. If you see a message on the status bar asking if you are sure you want to make the deletion, this is an artifact of the WordPerfect support built into Word. This tip explains how to get rid of this prompt so you can get on with deleting.

Automatic Non-breaking Spaces in Dates
It drives some people crazy to have a date break across two lines. If you find yourself in this mindset, then you'll appreciate the ideas presented in this tip for easily making sure that a date stays all on the same line.

Automatically Determining a Due Date
When you are doing a mail merge in Word, you may need to calculate a date sometime in the future. Word doesn't include an option to do this, but there are a couple of workarounds you can try.

Breaking Your Text
Want to modify the way your text flows between pages in a document? Word allows you to insert several types of breaks that control the flow for you.

Calculating Expressions
Want to figure out the result of a math expression? Try this neat trick.

Capitalizing the First Letter after a Colon
There are many rules in English grammar (and many exceptions to those rules.) One common rule of grammar is to capitalize the first letter appearing after a colon, provided that what follows the colon could stand on its own as a sentence. Word does not include a way to do this capitalization automatically (too many grammatical exceptions to make a hard-and-fast rule), but you can create your own macro that will take care of the capitalization for you.

Capitals After Colons
Do you want Word to always capitalize the first letter appearing after a colon? The program won't do it by default, but there are a couple of things you can try to get the capitalization you want.

Changing AutoComplete Words
AutoComplete allows you to easily complete words you are typing in your document. If AutoComplete is presenting you with the wrong suggestions, you need the information in this tip.

Changing Many Link Locations
If you have dynamic links in your document to locations accessible through your network, you probably know the frustration that comes when you open a document and find out that someone changed the names of the servers you previously relied upon. This tip explains a quick way you can update the links in your documents.

Checking for Matching Parentheses
There are lots of little "gottchas" that can make the difference between a finished document and a polished document. One such thing is making sure that you have matching parentheses—a closing parenthesis for every opening one. This tip presents a macro that can make quick work of this check and notify you if there is a potential problem.

Checking for Words and Phrases
Word includes a simple way to search for individual words or phrases in a document, using the Find and Replace dialog box. If you have a number of words and phrases you want to search for, it is more efficient to use a macro to do the checking for you.

Clearing All Tabs in a Document
Did you get a document from a co-worker or friend, and you want to reset all the tab stops in the document? Doing so is easy if you know the proper steps.

Collecting Highlighted Text Selections
If you use highlighting extensively in a document, you may want to copy all your highlighted text to a different document. This can be done one highlight at a time, but there are faster ways to perform the copy.

Comparing Documents Top and Bottom
Word has a feature that allows you to compare two documents side-by-side. What if you actually want to compare the documents one above the other (top and bottom)? You can make this change in orientation rather easily, as described in this tip.

Compound Page Numbering
Simple page numbering is easy to add to your documents. More complex numbering (such as two numbering schemes in the same document) are a different story. This tip provides some guidance on how you can approach your more complex numbering needs.

Controlling Overtype Mode
Overtype Mode is easily controlled with a click of the mouse. Here is a tip on Overtype's function and how to turn it on and off easily.

Copying and Pasting Field Codes
Want to copy a field code and paste it in some other Windows program? This can be trickier than it sounds. Here's the lowdown on why this is, and a macro you can use to make copying and pasting field codes easier.

Creating a Quick Letter
Some versions of Word provide a handy wizard that is helpful in creating basic letters quickly and easily. This tip discusses the Letter Wizard and how you can use it.

Creating Compound Characters
Some characters are actually created by overprinting one character on top of another. You can create these compound characters either by using a special font or by using the EQ field, as described in this tip.

Creating Custom Document Properties
Word allows you to keep track of any number of custom properties about a document. Here's how to create those properties and later use them in a document.

Creating New Windows
A great way to work on different parts of the same document at the same time is to create windows. These function as different views of the document.

Creating the 'Mils' Symbol
Different industries use their own terminologies and symbols. In the military, one symbol is referred to as the "mils" symbol. This tip explains what it is and how to create it.

Dealing with Run-On Sentences
A common task when editing documents is to break up run-on sentences. You can make this task a little easier by using the editing macro described in this tip.

Default Click and Type Paragraph Style
When you use the Click and Type feature, Word uses applies the Normal style to the paragraph created. You can specify a different style of paragraph by using the steps in this tip.

Deleting All Text in Linked Text Boxes
Text boxes are nothing but graphic objects that can hold text. Deleting the text in text boxes—without deleting the text box itself—can prove a bit tricky, particularly if you have quite a few text boxes in your document. This tip explains how you can delete the text.

Deleting Words
Tired of pressing the Delete or Backspace key for every character you want to delete? Here's a way you can make your editing much faster, with just a simple change to your deleting keypress.

Differences Between Deleting, Clearing, and Cutting
When editing a document, it is important to understand that there is a difference between deleting, clearing, and cutting text. This tip explains the differences, and in the process explains how you can accomplish each task in Word.

Displaying Nonprinting Characters
There are several different characters that are routinely contained within a document, yet these characters don't show up on any printout. Things such as spaces, tabs, optional hyphens, and the like are all important parts of your document. A handy feature is to configure Word so it displays these characters on-screen. This tip explains how.

Editing an AutoText Entry
Once you've created an AutoText entry, you may believe that it is "set in stone" and cannot be changed. Not so! You can redefine it very easily using the steps in this tip.

Ensuring Consistent References with AutoText
AutoText is a great time saver when it comes to creating documents. One little-known way to use AutoText can actually save you time in the long run if you feel that your AutoText may change at some point.

Entering a "Slashed Zero" in Your Document
Need to add the occasional zero with a slash through it? There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this task.

Entering a Page Break from the Keyboard
Page breaks allow you to divide your document into, well, pages. A handy shortcut to memorize is Ctrl+Enter, which allows you to add a page break without removing your hands from the keyboard.

Finding the Previous Occurrence
Using Word's Object Browser, it is very easy to move among different instances of what you want to search in your document. This tip explains how this tool can be used effectively to enhance your searching efforts.

Generating a List of Dates
When creating tracking documents in Word, you may need to come up with a series of dates in the document. You can type these by hand, or you can use the macros described in this tip to enter the dates very easily.

Getting Rid of a Bunch of Frames
A few tips on how to get rid of many frames at the same time.

Getting Rid of Automatic Page-Break Lines
A little trick to get rid of pagination marks when you have background pagination turned off.

Getting Rid of Overtype
If jumping into Overtype mode by mistake drives you crazy, here's a way you can disable it.

Getting Rid of the Paste Options Box
Paste something in a Word document, and you may notice a dynamic little set of options appear right next to what you pasted. If you find these "paste options" distracting, you can configure Word so that they aren't displayed.

Getting the Proper Type of Ellipses
Type three periods in a row, and the AutoCorrect feature in Word kicks in to exchange that sequence for a special ellipses character. If you don't like the ellipses that Word uses, you can define your own using any number of methods.

Hyperlinks Not Found
When creating hyperlinks in a document, it is important to remember the difference between absolute and relative referencing. If you use the latter, you could end up with hyperlinks that are broken if the target of those links becomes unavailable for some reason.

Inserting a Bullet
Need to place a bullet in the middle of a sentence? There are a couple of easy ways you can do this, as described in this tip.

Inserting a Copyright Mark
The copyright symbol is quite common in many types of documents. Here's several quick ways you can add the symbol to your documents.

Inserting a Non-Breaking Hyphen
Non-breaking hyphens can come in helpful for some types of writing. They force the words (or characters) on both sides of the hyphen to stay on the same line. There are two ways to add such hyphens to your document, as described in this tip.

Inserting a Non-Breaking Space
Don't want Word to split two words up between lines? Here's how to modify Word's default behavior with the quick insert of a special character.

Inserting a Section Mark
Need to insert the special section mark character in your document? It's easy if you use the Symbol dialog box.

Inserting a Special Symbol
Symbols, in Word, are the individual characters that make up a font. Using the Symbol dialog box you can quickly insert any character you want in a document.

Inserting Different Dashes
Word allows you to use a variety of dashes in your document. These dashes, all of different widths, are easily inserted using the Ctrl key in conjunction with the numeric keypad.

Inserting Foreign Characters
It is not unusual to need to insert foreign characters (often called diacritical marks) as part of your typing. Word provides several different ways you can easily insert the characters you need.

Inserting Special Spaces
Do you need to frequently add en spaces and em spaces to your documents? You can add special tools to Word that make inserting these characters a snap.

Inserting Text with a Shortcut Key
The AutoText capabilities of Word are quite powerful, allowing you to insert all sorts of "boilerplate" information in your document. Expanding an AutoText entry is easy when you use the F3 key, but there are ways you can create special shortcut keys for individual AutoText entries.

Inserting the Edit Time
One of the things that Word keeps track of is how long, in minutes, you've been editing your current document. This information can be inserted into the document using the EditTime field.

Inserting Today's Date
A common task is adding today's date to your document; it happens all the time in letters, faxes, and reports. The easiest (and most flexible) way is to use the Date and Time dialog box, described in this tip.

Line Breaks After a Slash
Some writers use the slash to combine words and as shorthand to signify "or" or "and." This, of course, makes for some very long words that may not break from line to line in your document as you desire. This tip discusses ways you can use the slash so that line breaks will occur after it.

Meaningless Text
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, or so the story goes. Here's how to put this type of meaningless text into a document.

Messed-up Typing
It is not uncommon for newcomers to Word to overwrite their existing document text as they are editing. There is a reason for that—and a fix. Here's the information you need.

Moving Breaks Quickly
Breaks in a document can be easily moved from one place to another using familiar editing techniques. The trick is to make sure that you are viewing your document in Normal or (in Word 2007) Draft view.

Moving Section Breaks
Section breaks can be edited just like any other character in your document. This tip explains how you can use standard editing techniques to move a break to exactly where you need it.

Moving Text Using the Mouse
One quick way to edit your text is to use the mouse to drag blocks of text around the screen. Word supports this type of editing, but you need to make sure that the program is properly configured. This tip explains how.

Moving Text without Affecting the Clipboard
Want a quick and easy way to move text (or other document elements) from one place to another in your document? Check out this little-known editing method.

Navigating Your Document Using Outline View
When you need to get around a long document, a really helpful method is to use the Outline view built into Word. This tip explains how this view can make your navigation tasks easier.

Non-breaking Em Dashes
Need an em dash to be "sticky" on both ends of the dash? Word doesn't provide such formatting, but there are a few workarounds you can use to get the stickiness you need.

Noting Changes at the Left of the Text
The Track Changes feature allows you to easily see where changes have been made in a document. Resolve those changes, and you can' no longer see where the changes were. If you want to still note where changes once existed, you may be in for a lot of manual work.

Overcoming Automatic Word Selection
When you select text with the mouse, Word usually selects entire words for you. If you don't want to do this, you can use the technique described in this tip to select just the text you want.

Paragraph Mark Behavior Differences
Believe it or not, different versions of Word handle paragraph marks differently.

Pasting a Hyperlink
When you paste information into a document, you can specify that it be inserted as a hyperlink rather than as normal text. Doing so allows you to establish a link between the text and the original source of that text.

Pasting Clean Text
One of the most helpful tools in Word is the ability to paste straight text into a document. This is used so much on my machines that I created a small macro that saves me time in using the tool.

Pasting Text with Track Changes
Track Changes is a great tool for developing documents. If you want to copy text from one document to another, with tracked changes intact, you'll need the info in this tip.

Picking Up in the Last Document Edited
If you work on the same document over and over again, you'll like the very quick macro in this tip. It loads the last used file and jumps to the location in the document where you last made an edit. Also includes a version of the macro that jumps to the end of the last-used document.

Picking Up Where You Left Off
How to continue editing where you last were.

Placeholders for Stamps
Got a reply envelope you want to create? Why not put a placeholder for the stamp on the envelope? It's easy to do if you know how.

Plain Text Pasting as the Default
Pasting "plain text" into a document is one of the most common ways of pasting information. Wouldn't it be great if this could be the default method of pasting text?

Problems Pasting Large Pictures
If you insert a large picture in your document and your text jumps all around and the picture seems to disappear, don't worry. The information in this tip will help you get matters back to normal in record time.

Processing Information Pasted from a PDF File
When pasting information copied from a PDF file, you can end up with a paragraph for each line of the original document. It would be much better to process the information to remove the extra paragraph breaks prior to pasting. This tip provides a macro you can use to do just that.

Putting a Bullet In the Middle of a Sentence
Bullets provide a nice design touch to many documents. Some people think they are just for bulleted lists, which is not true. You can also place them in the middle of sentences or between words. Learn how with this tip.

Putting Character Codes to Work
If you know the character codes for some characters of interest, you can use those codes to do lots of tasks. This tip explains some of the ways you can use those codes.

Quickly Finding Synonyms
If you need to find some synonyms for a specific word in your document, here's how you can do it. (Hint: All you need to do is right-click.)

Quickly Moving Text With the Mouse
Drag-and-drop editing is a handy feature when you love to use the mouse. There are two ways you can move text using the mouse, both of which are described in this tip.

Removing a Split Window
If you previously split your document window, here's how to go back to a single window.

Removing Breaks
Word supports all types of breaks in a document. Once they are in place, it can be confusing figuring out how to get rid of them. As described in tis tip, breaks are nothing but a special character that you can edit just like other characters.

Removing Extra Paragraph Marks
Part of working with other people's documents is cleaning them up so that they are easier to maintain and format. One common task is removing extra paragraph marks in the document. The macro in this tip makes short work of removing all the extra paragraph marks.

Removing Extra Paragraph Marks with WordBasic
Use this handy WordBasic macro to quickly remove extra paragraph marks from a document.

Repeating Actions
Pressing F4 or Ctrl+Y allows you to repeat the last action you took in Word. If you want to repeat an action more than a single time, you'll need a macro to do the task. This tip presents a simple one that you can use to repeat an action any number of times.

Repeating Your Typing
Want to repeat your last little bit of typing, or perhaps the last command you invoked? It's easy to do with the F4 shortcut key, as described in this tip.

Replacing the Last Comma
When you need to perform certain editing tasks over and over again, you start to look for ways to make your work faster and more automatic. This tip presents a macro you can use to automatically perform one of those repetitive tasks—replacing the last comma in a sentence.

Selective Undo
Ever wonder why you can't undo just a single edit you made a few minutes earlier? The short answer is that it could make your document unstable or unusable, as described in this tip.

Sharing Headings with Others
The headings in your document are very important. The constitute the outline of what your document conveys. If you want to share those headings with others (without sharing the document itself), you'll love the information in this tip.

Single-Character Fractions
When typing in Word, some fractions are converted into a professional-looking character, while others are not. This tip explains why that occurs and provides some ideas on how all your fractions can look their best.

Slowing Down Mouse Selection
We've all experienced the problem: You start selecting a large block of text using the mouse, and before you know it the screen is zipping by at incredible speeds. This tip discusses techniques you can use to get text selection under better control.

Spacing After Sentences
Word can check to see if you have a consistent number of spaces at the end of your sentences.

Specific Capitalization
How to get around Word's AutoCorrect feature for having uncapitalized words at the start of a sentence.

Splitting the Window
How to view two different portions of your document.

Strip Trailing Spaces
A common nuisance in documents is unnecessary trailing spaces at the end of paragraphs. This tip provides a macro that makes quick work of those spaces, removing them from the document completely.

Stripping Trailing Spaces with WordBasic
A quick way to remove trailing spaces from a paragraph.

Talking to Yourself Using Hidden Text
Got a few notes you want to add to a document? You can do it with comments, but another way may be better: Add notes that won't print out, right in the regular text. This tip explains how that is done and even provides a macro that makes it easier.

Talking to Yourself Using WordBasic Hidden Text
Using Word's hidden text attribute, you can easily add notes for just your use. This tip includes a WordBasic macro to make the task a snap.

Transposing Letters
Looking for a way to easily switch the position of two adjacent characters? Word doesn't include such an editing command, but you can easily add one using a macro. This tip provides two macros for this very purpose.

Transposing Two Characters
If you have two characters in the wrong order, you might be interested in a shortcut you can use to switch their order. There is no such tool built into Word, but with a handy (and simple) macro, you can create your own shortcut.

Transposing Two Paragraphs
There is no command in Word to transpose (switch the position of) two paragraphs. Such a command would be a real boon for some editing tasks, and it can be easily implemented by using the macro in this tip.

Transposing Two Paragraphs with WordBasic
A WordBasic macro that transposes two adjacent paragraphs.

Transposing Two Words
Want to swap the position of two adjacent words? This tip provides a quick macro you can use to handle the switch for you.

Transposing Words
Presents a WordBasic macro that allows you to transpose (switch) two adjacent words.

Turning Off Paste Options
Paste information into a document and you'll immediately see a small icon next to the pasted information. This icon allows you to access options that affect the pasting operation. Don't like the icon? Here's how to get rid of it.

Turning Off Word's Second Guessing with Quote Marks
When you type quote marks in a document, Word normally changes them to Smart Quotes. They look better on a printout, but Word can sometimes mess up and make changes to the quotes that it shouldn't. Here's some things you can try when you get tired of Word making mistakes.

Typing Pronunciations of Words
Take a look in a dictionary at the way that words are phonetically spelled. Those special characters used to type those pronunciations can be added to your documents, if you know where to look for them.

Unable to Edit Document with Embedded Fonts
What are you to do if you embed fonts in a document and then someone else cannot make changes to that document? Chances are good that this scenario has to do with the characteristics of the fonts you are embedding. Here are some things to check out.

Understanding Click and Type
The Click and Type feature of Word allows you to use the mouse to click somewhere on a blank page, and then begin typing. Understanding how the feature works can mean better results when using it.

Understanding Hard and Soft Returns
Do you know the difference? There is a big difference to Word.

Understanding Hyphens and Dashes
Word provides you with three types of hyphens and two types of dashes that you can use in your documents. Understanding the differences between them all can help you make better decisions about which you should use (and when).

Understanding Nonprinting Characters
Even characters that print nothing still take space in your document. Characters such as tabs, spaces, breaks, and the like all are accounted for and tracked by Word. It is a good idea to display these special characters on the screen so that you can track them, too.

Understanding Smart Cut and Paste
Editing is generally made easier by a feature that Word calls smart cut and paste. If you prefer, you can turn the feature off by making a change on the Edit tab of the Options dialog box.

Understanding the Big Three Autos in Word
Three of the tools provided in Word are AutoText, AutoCorrect, and AutoComplete. It is easy to confuse what these tools do, unless you know the information in this tip.

Understanding the Clipboard
You can use the Windows Clipboard to move information around in Word. To make the most of the Clipboard, it is helpful to understand how it works.

Understanding the No-Width Characters
Search through the Symbol dialog box, and you may see some special characters whose names seem odd. These are the no-width characters, and here's an explanation of what they are for.

Understanding Views
Word allows you to view your document in any of four different methods. This tip describes the four methods completely so you can decide which viewing mode is best for you.

Using ASCII and ANSI Characters
Word natively supports several types of character sets. The most common characters sets are known as ASCII and ANSI characters. This tip explains what these are and how to use them in Word.

Using Consistent References
Some text references need to be consistent in many places throughout a document. Learn different ways you can ensure that your references are consistent.

Using Document Properties to Ensure Consistent References
You can define custom properties for your document. These properties, if used properly, can help you ensure consistency in how you reference different items in the document.

Using Extend Mode
One of the most overlooked shortcut keys in Word has to be the extend key. Yet, learning how to use this simple key can save your hours in your editing efforts. Here's how to use extend mode to make your editing more productive.

Using Manual Line Breaks with Justified Paragraphs
If you use justified paragraphs, you know that if you press Shift+Enter, it can lead to some odd spacing between words and characters in the paragraph. You can avoid this problem by using one little character: the lowly tab.

Using Optional Hyphens
Adding hyphens to your document can affect the way in which Word wraps text from one line to the next. Optional hyphens, described in this tip, can make hyphenation even more powerful and flexible.

Using Overtype Mode
Word has two typing modes: insert mode and overtype mode. You can tell when overtype mode is active because every character you type replaces an existing character. This tip explains this editing mode and how to control it.

Using the Copy or Move Text Keys
One of the lesser-known editing tools in Word are the shortcuts to copy or move text. Using these shortcuts, Word actually prompts you to indicate where you want the selected text copied or moved.

Using the Spike to Edit
Everyone uses the Clipboard to make edits, but few people know of another powerful way to edit—using the spike. Once you understand how to use the spike, the way you do your editing may change forever.

Viewing More of the Left Margin Area
If you are using Word in Normal View, you may want to see the area just to the left of the margin displayed by Word. You can use the Shift key in conjunction with the scroll bar to control exactly how much of he margin area is visible.

Viewing Your Entire Document Width
The Zoom tool is very useful to help you see all of your document information. Here's how to make sure you can see all the document information horizontally.

Viewing Your Spaces
Seeing where every space is within a document can be very helpful in polishing your editing. Here's how to make those pesky spaces all appear, like magic.

Wrapping Spaces
Add more than one space after the end of a sentence, and you may find that the extra spaces wrap to the start of new lines. Here's how to get Word to treat those extra spaces as you expect.

 

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