Topic: Customizing Word

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Changing Color of the Insertion Point In your quest to customize Word, you may change the colors used to display your document. After doing so, it may become easier than ever to "lose" the insertion point. Picking a different color for the insertion point might make it easier to use Word, but changing that color may be a quest for the impossible. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Colors of Spelling and Grammar Underlines The red and green wavy underlines used in Word can be a boon for proofing a document, but they are of little use if you have a certain type of color blindness. This tip explains some things you can do to hopefully change those colors to something you can see. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Changing Measurement Units One of the configuration options you can use in Word is to specify what measurement units are used, by default, in dialog boxes and the Ruler. This tip explains how to pick the exact measurement units that you prefer. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing the Insertion Point Cursor Want to change the characteristics of the insertion point used by Word? You may be out of luck, unless you make some changes in Windows itself. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Changing the Startup Directory When you first start Word, it normally looks in the My Documents folder for files. Here’s how you can configure the program to start in a different folder of your choosing. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Controlling Scroll Bars The scroll bars allow you to move the document within the viewable area of the screen. You can turn the scroll bars on or off, according to your desires, using the information in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Displaying Actual Font Faces Instructing Word to show a sample of the font before inserting it in a document. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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

Displaying Screen Tips ScreenTips are those small, yellow boxes that appear when you hover over different objects in Word. You have complete control over whether they appear or don’t appear, all by making a simple configuration change in the Options dialog box. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Displaying Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips You can make ScreenTips even more useful by making Word display applicable shortcut keys in them. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Displaying the Ruler The ubiquitous ruler appears at the top of every Word document. It is so common place, that you may forget that it is easy to turn off or on, as your needs dictate. This tip explains how you can use the View menu to control the display of the ruler. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Factory Default Settings for Word Do you long for a way to reset Word to a “factory default” condition? It is almost impossible to get things to the way they were the day you installed, but there are a few things you can do, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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. Microsoft Word versions: 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Helpful Pop-up Screen Tips You can create your own screen tips in this handy tip. Microsoft Word versions: 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Locking Down Word How to configure Word to avoid changes in the environment. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Locking the Position of Custom Toolbars Is your Custom Toolbar in a new place each time you open Word? Here are some solutions. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Printing Shortcut Key Assignments from a Macro Adding a line to your Macro to print out your shortcut keys is as easy as one line. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Quickly Switching Languages Setting up macros to switch between languages easily. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Retrieving Built-in Commands You can use macros to replace Word’s built-in commands. If you want to retrieve the original behavior of the commands, then you need to either delete the replacement macro or change its name. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Returning Word to Default Settings Want to set everything back to a pristine state in Word? Doing so is more involved than you may believe. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Setting User Information When you install Word, it asks you to personalize your copy of the program with your name and contact information. This info can change over time, so it is helpful to know where you can change it within the program. Here's how to do it. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Speeding Up Document Display Do you work with large, complex documents? You can speed them up by applying this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

The Case of the Disappearing Icons Troubleshooting your custom icons on the Toolbar. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Tiling Documents A quick method of placing your open documents side by side on the screen. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Too-Big Toolbars Work around Words inability to have a multi-row toolbar. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Turning Off Automatic Capitalization When you start typing, do you ever notice those times that Word starts capitalizing words at the start of what it thinks are your sentences? If this drives you nuts, you have complete control over turning it on or off. Here’s how. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Turning Off Capital Corrections If you type two capital letters at the beginning of a word, Word assumes that you made a typing error and will attempt to correct your mistake. If you don’t want Word to make this assumption, you can turn off this AutoCorrect feature. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Turning Off ScreenTips All those little ScreenTips bug you when moving through the toolbars and ribbons of Word? You can turn them off by following the steps in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Turning Off the SDI in Word 2000 Don't like the SDI in Word 2000? Wish you could change it? Microsoft Word versions: 2000

Turning On Property Information Prompting You may want to make sure that users of a document fill in the properties associated with a document. In most versions of Word, you can configure the problem to require this information, or at least prompt the user for the information before the document is saved. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Unchanging Toolbars Create a macro to return Toolbars to the default settings. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding View Options Understanding the options available on the View tab of the Options dialog box based on the view you are using. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Updating Automatic Links If you use links in your documents, you can force Word to update them automatically. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Word Won't Start Right If you can't see the Word window when you start the program, here's the solution. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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