Tools

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

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

Adding an Equation Editor Tool
Add Equation Editor to the Word Toolbar.

Auto Creation of an Acronym List
If you use a lot of acronyms in your documents, you may want a quick way to compile those acronyms and their definitions into an appendix. This tip provides several different approaches you can use to creating just such a helpful addition to your document.

Automatic Scrolling
One of Word's undocumented commands is the really cool AutoScroll command. This tip explains how to add it to your toolbar and then how to use it to navigate quickly through a document.

Automatic Sound Clips
Want to add some sound to your documents? It's easy. What isn't so easy is configuring a sound clip to play whenever a document is opened. Here's some ways you can accomplish this task.

Automatically Saving Versions
Setting up the Versions function to save a copy each time the document is closed.

AutoText Entries Don't Stick
AutoText can be a great tool, but it is of little worth if you can't get Word to remember the AutoText entries you create. This tip examines some of the things you can check out if your AutoText entries disappear each time you restart the program.

Breaking a Document Link
Word allows you to link external information into your documents. If you no longer need to maintain the active link, you can easily break the link by just a mouse click or two.

Can't Place Merge Field In Header Of a Catalog Merge Document
Word can perform several different types of mail merge operations, and the type you choose can affect how you are able to use merge fields in the merge document. This tip explains how catalog merges are different from other types of merges, and how that affects placing merge fields in a header or footer.

Catching Single-Letter Spelling Errors
There have been times when I've reviewed my writing and found lots of "lone letters," detached by a single space from the words to which they belong. Word, however, didn't mark these lone letters as spelling errors. Here's why, along with how you can approach this problem.

Changing an AutoShape
Got an AutoShape you previously added to a document, buy you now want to change to a different shape? You can change AutoShapes at will, using the techniques described in this tip.

Changing Between English Variants
What is the easiest way to switch between English spelling variants in a document? This tip examines a couple of ways you can handle the desired conversion.

Changing Document Links
If your document contains links to information in other documents, you can modify the source document that is linked to without actually getting rid of the link. This is done by using the Links dialog box, as described in this tip.

Changing Label Printing Order
When creating labels during a mail merge, the labels on a page are filled out from left to right and top to bottom. If you want the fill order to be different, you must make some changes to your data or use one of the other workarounds in this tip.

Changing the Office Assistant
How to change the Office Assistant character in Word.

Changing to UK English
Understanding how Word uses the Language settings.

Checking for Commonly Confused Words
Word will check your document for Commonly Confused words to ensure the proper verbiage is used.

Comments In Text Boxes
If you use text boxes in your documents, you may sometime want to place a comment in the text box, the same as you can do with text not in the text box. Word doesn't allow you to add comments to text boxes, but there are a couple of workarounds you can use to get the same result.

Comparing Document Versions
If you've got two separate versions of the same document, you'll undoubtedly want to compare the two so you can figure out where the differences are. Word provides a way you can check for differences between versions, as described in this tip.

Converting a Text Box to a Frame
These days, most people using Word know what text boxes are but have no idea about frames. Yet, for some purposes, frames are a better choice. This tip focuses on how to convert an existing text box into a frame.

Correcting Student Papers
If you are a teacher, you may be looking for ways you can use Word's features to correct papers your students send to you electronically. Word provides a wealth of features that can be used toward this end.

Counting Characters in Text Boxes
When you do a word count, the value that is returned does not include any text contained in text boxes. This may not be a significant problem, unless you have a large amount of text in those boxes. This tip discusses ways you can deal with this issue.

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 an Executive Summary
Word includes an "executive summary" tool that allows you to automatically summarize a document. This tool provides a great starting place for creating almost any summary.

Creating Custom AutoText Categories
Want to categorize your AutoText entries? You can easily do so using the techniques described in this tip.

Creating Custom Labels
There is a whole passel of labels pre-defined in Word. You are not limited to this passel, however; Word allows you to define the layout of almost any label you can think of.

Creating Files with Mail Merge
When you use mail merge to create a document that incorporates all your data source records, you end up with a large document that is divided into sections. You can use a macro to easily split such a document into individual files, one for each data record.

Creating Labels
Using Word to create and print labels is a snap. All you need to do is provide the text you want on the labels, pick a type of label, and then format the text to best fit the label you chose. This tip shows how to do it all, step by step.

Curving Text Around the Edge of a CD
Word works great with text, but not so great if you need to do some specialized things with the text, such as printing it on a curve. This tip discusses some of the options you can follow when trying to print text on CD and DVD labels.

Default Envelope Margins
When you create envelopes in Word, you may want to adjust where the return address and main address are printed. Doing so is not as easy as you might desire, but it can be done.

Deleting All Comments
Got comments in your document? Want to get rid of them all? The easiest way to do so is going to depend on the version of Word you are using and the complexity of the document you are editing.

Deleting an Old Document Version
How to go about deleting old Versions of a Word document.

Disappearing AutoText Entries
Some detective work on disappearing AutoText entries in Word.

Displaying Quick Document Statistics
Need to see how many pages, words, paragraphs, or lines are in your document? Word makes it easy to retrieve such information.

Embedding an Excel Worksheet
How to place Excel data into a Word document.

Equation Editor Font Color
If you want to change the color used by the Equation Editor, you may be out of luck. In fact, the best solution may be to upgrade to MathType, instead.

Filtering a Discussion
See exactly what you want to see during your Discussion.

Finding Changes by Editor
Creating a Macro to find changes made by different editors.

Fonts in WordArt
Ensuring the proper fonts are available for WordArt.

Getting Rid of Blank Labels in a Filtered Merge
If you are filtering a mail merge in Excel, and you get blank labels in the printout, chances are good that something is going wrong. (Filtering should suppress those blank labels.) This tip provides some guidance on what you should look for in your merge document to get the desired results.

Getting Rid of Fields Inserted by Third-Party Programs
Third-party programs can be used to affect a document and change what is contained therein. Of course, getting rid of what those programs add to a document can be a challenge, as discussed in this tip.

Getting Rid of the Office Assistant
How to turn off the Office Assistant in Word.

Handling Long Lines In Address Labels
When creating address labels using Word's mail-merge feature, some of the information you merge may be too long for a single line on the label. This tip explains how you can edit or format those long lines so they look better.

Ignoring Punctuation in Names
If you have a word that includes punctuation as part of the word itself, then you may be frustrated by how Word treats that word when checking spelling and grammar. Here's how you can get Word to ignore the punctuation.

Importing AutoCorrect Entries
The AutoCorrect feature in Word is quite handy, but getting a lot of entries into the feature can be tedious. This tip provides a macro that will allow you to enter entries quite a bit faster.

Inconsistent Adding of Words to a Custom Dictionary
Custom dictionaries are a great way to adapt the spelling and grammar checkers to your needs. If you find that Word isn't adding words to the custom dictionaries consistently, here's some things you can check to correct the situation.

Increasing Envelope Address Lines
Envelopes in Word are created through the use of styles that define specific elements of the envelope, such as return address and recipient address. You can modify the space allocated for these addresses by modifying the styles used by Word. This tip explains how easy it is to do this task.

Inserting a Sound File in Your Document
Got an audio file you want to insert in your document? It's easy to do when you use the Object dialog box, as described in this tip.

Managing the AutoCorrect List
If you need to delete all the entries in your AutoCorrect list, the easiest way to do so is with a macro. This tip describes just such a macro.

Merging Only a Date from Access
When you are merging data from an Access database, you may get more information than you want, especially when it comes to times and dates. There are two potential solutions to this problem, both of which are detailed in this tip.

Only Showing Readability Statistics
Perform a grammar check, and Word displays some statistics that represent an analysis of your words. By writing a macro you can access these statistics and display whatever part of them you want.

Pop-up Windows in Word
Want to add a small pop-up window over a word in your document? There is no way to do this directly in Word, but you can use the Web features of the program to simulate such a feature.

Printing a Discussion
There are times you may have to work offline. Here is how to print out your discussion.

Quickly Accessing Spelling and Grammar Options
Do you need to change the options by which Word checks your spelling and grammar? Here's a quick way to display the necessary dialog box without the need to traverse the menus.

Randomly Resetting Numbering
Using automatic numbering—such as numbered lists—can be a hit-and-miss proposition in Word. Some people use them just fine, while others run into lots of problems. This tip explains some other workarounds you can use to implement numbering that is more reliable.

Recovering Corrupt Document Files with StarOffice
A possibility to try if you have a corrupt document.

Refreshing the Discussion
To keep up with the Discussion, you will need to refresh the comments to make sure you are in-the-know.

Removing All Bookmarks
Got a file that has a bunch of bookmarks you no longer need? Removing them manually can quickly get tiresome. This tip includes a short macro you can use to remove the bookmarks very, very quickly.

Safely Relocking Forms
In order to use a form in Word, it must be protected. This means that you cannot make any changes to the form, even if you need to. If you unlock the form to make changes, then when you relock it, the data in the form is wiped out. This tip provides a solution you can use to safely relock your forms without losing data.

Select All Changes By a Particular Reviewer
If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003, and you've been tracking changes in a document, you can display all the changes made by individual editors. This tip shows how easy such a task can be.

Setting the AutoRecover Directory
When you are using Word, it normally saves temporary AutoRecover files that reflect the latest state of your document. If you want these AutoRecover files to be stored in a certain place, you can configure Word to make that specification.

Sharing AutoText Entries in a Network
Want your AutoText entries to be available to other people on your company network? Since they are stored in templates, the key is to make sure that your templates are accessible (and used) by the network members.

Small Red Dots under Addresses
Does your document have all sorts of different colored underlines on it? Tracking down what most of them are can be easy, but what are those red or purple dots that appear under some things? This tip explains not only what they are but how to get rid of them.

Specifying Sub-entries in an AutoMark File
An AutoMark file allows you to quickly and easily create an index from a document. This can be a great boon for large documents. This tip explains more fully what an AutoMark file is, how to use the file, and how it should be put together.

Starting a Discussion
Tips for getting your Discussion started.

Turning Off Spell Checking
For some documents, you may not want spell checking turned on. There are two ways that you can turn it off, depending on whether you want to affect the entire document or only a portion of one. This tip covers both methods.

Understanding Discussions
Discussions in a valuable tool for workplace collaboration on the same Word document.

Understanding the Organizer
The Organizer is a great tool for, well, organizing the information stored in your templates. This tip introduces the Organizer, gives an overview of what it can do, and provides information on how to display this handy tool.

Updating Document Links
If you establish dynamic links between documents, then you can force Word to update those links whenever you want. How you do the update depends on the version of Word you are using, as described in this tip.

Using AutoComplete Tips
AutoComplete tips are a nice, handy reminder of what you can enter into your document with just a keypress or click. In some versions of Word, you can turn off these tips if they bother you. This tip explains how to turn them on and off.

Using Mail Merge to Complete Documents
Mail merge can be used to put together groups of documents that rely on common information. This tip shows how mail merge could be used to make your document generation easier.

Using the Discussion Pane
Tips for using the Discussion pane during a Discussion session.

Using the Organizer to Manage AutoText
There are times you need to move your AutoText entries from one template or document to another. Use Organizer to do this with ease.

Using the Organizer to Manage Macros
There may come a time when you want to copy or rename macros. You can do this quite easily by using the Organizer tool provided by Word.

Using the Organizer to Manage Styles
One of the things that the Organizer is great at doing is managing styles. You can use it to move them between templates and documents, rename them, or delete them. This tip shows how.

Using the Organizer to Manage Toolbars
The Organizer is a great tool for managing different elements that can be stored in documents and templates. This tip shows how you can use the Organizer to manage toolbars.

Using the Reviewing Toolbar
The Reviewing toolbar is a handy location for many of the tools often used by editors when working on a document. Here's an overview of which tools are available and what they do.

Versions Not Saving Correctly
If you use Word's versioning tool, you may notice that you sometimes get errors with the versions in your documents. This is not uncommon in large, complex documents, as explained in this tip.

Vertically Centering Labels
Want the text printed on your labels to be centered vertically? It's not that hard, and this tip shows the easiest method.

 

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