Topic: Word's Environment and Interface

The following are additional topics related to the category listed above. A bracketed number after the topic indicates how many articles are related to that subject.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

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

Adding a Little Color The normal way to change the color of selected text is through the use of the Font Color tool. If you have to use the same color over and over again, there is a different way—you can create your own color tool as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Arranging Document Windows Got a bunch of document windows cluttering up your screen? Make them nice and tidy by using the tools that Word provides for keeping them in line. This tip explains the easiest way to make your document windows just the way you want. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Automatically Using Smart Quotes Smart quotes can add “polish” to a document, but not everyone knows what they are. This tip explains smart quotes and how you can use them in your documents. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Button for Leaving Full-Screen Mode If you display your document in full-screen mode, there are a couple of ways you can get back to normal mode. One method relies on a special toolbar, but what are you to do if that toolbar doesn’t display as you expect? This tip provides a couple of things you can do to get operations back to normal. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Text Color How to create an icon on a toolbar to automatically add a color to your text. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Controlling Display of the Status Bar The status bar is used to display all sorts of information about the document on which you are working. Depending on your version of Word, you can easily turn the status bar off if you never use it. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Controlling Field Shading Word allows you to control how fields are presented when the insertion point is within them. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Discovering Where Word Stores Settings How to find your setting information in Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Entering Units of Measurement in Dialog Boxes Word is very flexible in letting you enter measures in virtually any manner you can imagine. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Fonts in Word Splash Screens Ever wonder how you can change the font used in a Word splash screen? Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97

Getting Context-Sensitive Help Word employs what is called a context-sensitive help system. This means that the program tries to direct you to the portion of the help system that is most likely to answer your question, based on what you are viewing or doing. There are several ways to invoke this type of help, as you learn here. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Minimized Word Window When you open a document by double-clicking its icon, does it open maximized or minimized on the screen? This tip explains one of the causes of Word not opening the way you want it to—through making some configuration changes in Windows itself. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Miss Reveal Codes in Word 2000? A quick link to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about reveal codes. Microsoft Word versions: 2000

Nifty Zooming With the Mouse Want to use the mouse to control the zoom level for your document? You can do it by combining your mouse use with the Ctrl key. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Page Layout Zoom Settings The zoom setting at which you view a document can sometimes be saved with a document. This tip explains how the zoom setting is set and reset within Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Resetting Word Menus Word allows you to customize the program’s menus as much as you want. At some point, however, you may want the menus to revert to their default condition. This tip explains how you can quickly and easily accomplish the reversion. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Restoring Lost Window Settings Can't find your Word window, but you know it's there? Try this tip to get things back to normal. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Single Instance of Word Here's a nifty macro that allows you to limit how many instances of Word 97 are open at the same time. Microsoft Word versions: 97

Turning On Picture Placeholders Documents with lots of graphics can slow down the editing of a document, or they can be distracting. One way to deal with lots of graphics is to turn on picture placeholders. This feature, described in this tip, shows positioning information for a graphic, but does not display the graphic itself. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding MRU Files MRU, or most recently used, refers to the files you’ve most recently worked with in Word. You can specify if Word keeps track of these files, and if so, how many it tracks. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding the At and Ln Indicators Word’s status bar includes two positional indicators: At and Ln. The purpose and relationship of these figures may not be immediately apparent. This tip explains what they are for and what they mean. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using Text Boundaries One of the design aids that Word provides is known as “text boundaries.” You might find using them to be helpful. This tip explains what they are and how to control them. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using the Style Area Sometimes it is handy to know what style has been applied to paragraphs. This is where the style area comes in really handy. Turning on the style area is easy, provided you are viewing your document in the proper way. This tip explains how to use the style area. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Viewing Your Document Full-Screen Want to see the absolute most of your document that you can? Then you need to become familiar with the full-screen display built into Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Viewing Your Entire Document Width Learn how you can see the entire width of your document at once. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Working with Document Panes Dividing your document into panes allows you to view different parts of the same document at the same time. This tip describes how to divide the document window into panes and then how to get rid of the panes. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

More Topics

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

Save Time!

Helpful Links

Great Info!

RSS Feeds