Merry Christmas

This next week (starting tomorrow), we will have our kids and their families start to arrive in anticipation of celebrating Christmas at our house. Games will be played, hugs will be shared, prodigious amounts of food will be consumed, presents will be exchanged, and memories will be made. Our little home will host 17 people and two dogs, all coming and going and bumping into each other.

Central to our family's celebration is Christmas Eve, when we will gather in the living room and I will read the traditional Christmas story from the Bible. Three generations will listen to the story that has been told for centuries, contemplating the import of a babe lying in a manger.

For me, that is what Christmas is about. I really enjoy the decorations, the anticipation, the music, the lights, and the way everyone is just a bit nicer while wishing well to one and all. For me, though, it all pales in comparison to that first Christmas gift, offered in the humblest of circumstances to all the world.

I know that not everyone sees Christmas in the way I do. That's OK. You may not even believe that the gift of a child was necessary or of any real meaning. That's OK, too. I don't fault anyone their beliefs or their celebration.

Regardless of your beliefs or how you celebrate, what I wish for you is happiness, joy, and peace. I wish you a warm hearth and a full pantry. I wish you health and reciprocated love. I wish you the best that life has to offer.

From me to each of you, may you have a merry Christmas.

—Allen

WordTips (menu) for 21 December 2024

Printing Personalized Copies of a Document

Need to have a series of documents customized for individual users? Mail merge may be overkill, but the macro presented in this tip will help make short work of the individualized printouts.

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Setting Matrix Column Spacing in the Equation Editor

If you are using matrices in your equations, you may want to adjust the spacing used between columns.

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Do You Need an Index?

Word includes dozens of tools that, if used properly, can make your documents easier for readers to use. Chief among these tools are those that allow you to create indexes and special tables. Here's how you can master these tools to benefit your documents and your readers.

Getting Rid of Wizards and Templates

Templates and wizards are used rather extensively in Word to either process a document or define how that document is to look. If you don't need all of the wizards and templates provided with the program, you can get rid of them. How you do so depends on your version of Word.

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Inserting the Date Your Document was Last Saved

Word keeps track of the date each time you save your document. If you want to insert that "save date" in your document, you can use a field to do it.

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WordTips YouTube Channel

Do you like to learn visually? Make sure you check out the WordTips YouTube channel. New videos are added weekly. (I typically try to add them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

New video: Counting a Particular Word
Need to know how many times a particular word appears in a document or a portion of a document? Here's a handy trick that will tell you the count, using a tool with which you are already familiar.

New video: Resetting Tab Stops to the Default
If you get a document that has all sorts of wonky tab stops defined, it is an easy task to get rid of them all and set everything back to the default. This Quick Tip walks you through the process.

Special Note!

I've been publishing WordTips for years. Decades, actually. The newsletter you are reading right now is for very old versions of Word. I still publish it because I know that some people are still using very old versions of Word. Most people, however, are using newer versions of the program. If you are are using a newer version of Word (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, or the version in Microsoft 365), then you should seriously consider changing to the version of the newsletter designed for you. You can do so by clicking this link.

Thanks for your support of WordTips, and I hope you enjoy whichever version of the newsletter you receive. If you have any questions, just let me know.

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