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Would using a Heading1 here help?

chocolate_butch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:54:07 -0800

Aside from ease of editing and maintaining individual documents, are there arguments for the use of styles in Microsoft Word? Specifically, I was thinking about this from a semantic markup perspective and company-wide document search and retrieval. Would using a stylesheet make finding documents easier / more relevant / more accurate than if the stylesheet was not employed?

My Google-fu is failing on a search that tells me either way. Lots of info about semantic HTML out there, not having much luck on semantics in Word docs.

Multi MSWord documents in Separate Window?

rexruff — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:08:14 -0800

MS Word 2007, PC - how to open second document in SEPARATE window? I know there's an option somewhere in MSWord 2007 that will let me have two completely separate MSWord windows with two different documents open at once. This is NOT the same thing as working with two documents side-by-side in one main Word window.

But damned if I can remember how. Anyone?

s.

MS Word - Compare and Merge Documents

thewalrusispaul — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:26:05 -0800

My company has decided to change our style guidelines to use straight quotes rather than smart quotes. We frequently run document comparisons of revised documents. Is there a way to stop the quotes from showing up as a revision when we compare versions of a document? I turned off the setting for tracking formatting changes but that didn't work.

Pretty Up My Word

Miko — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:37:48 -0800

How can I make my Word documents look less....boring? Seeking tips & tricks from people with an eye for design. As part of my job I have to write a lot of Word documents...reports, summaries, proposals, etc. These are for mainly internal consumption, but still, I hate the way they look: dull, and always the same. I don't know many ways to use design to state things like: this is important. This is professional. This is hip. I am proud of this product. This is for sharing.

Are there any simple tweaks I can use to avoid handing out page after page of 12-point Times New Roman? It would be great if things that come from my desk look like someone actually thought about their appearance.

I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Tracking only insertions in Word

Apollo's Favorite Mistake — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:28:10 -0800

Tracking Changes in Word 2007: I want to only see the insertions. Word only allows me to choose Show Markup -> Insertions & Deletions. How do I hide the deletions?

A class in L.A. to help my mom stop worrying and learn to love Excel and Word?

tyrantkitty — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:04:33 -0800

Please recommend beginning MS Excel and Word classes (offline) in Los Angeles for a computer-antagonistic but somewhat -knowledgeable almost-senior. After about forty years in publishing, my 61-year-old mother is out of a job. While she managed to make it through all forty years without learning any Microsoft programs, she reluctantly agrees that it's a good idea to learn the basics of these programs so she can beef up her resume for the job hunt.

Due to personality conflicts, assume it will not work for me to teach my mother. Though she is not dumb, she tends to get frustrated with new technology/software. Despite this, not only is her Google-fu strong, she's familiar and comfortable with multiple publishing programs (including PageMill, Quark and Publisher), all of which she's learned on-the-job. So she's not computer-illiterate. I think it's just hard for her to immediately see how one set of software skills can translate to another program. For whatever reason, it's just not intuitive for her, but once she gets the hang of a particular program, she's off to the races.

The main goal is to get her familiar and comfortable with the way Excel looks and acts on a very basic level. So I'm looking for recommendations for Los Angeles-area courses or instructors that would teach her the basics of document editing in Word and the basics of data entry in Excel (while it's probably always included, I don't think graphs or charts will ever come into play for her in a job), with patience but without condescension. Please do not suggest online classes; she and I (and an uninvolved third party I consulted before posting this question) agree that way madness lies. Physical classroom only. I would like to mimic a workplace setting (where she's done all past successful computer learning) as much as possible.

Other preferences (but not necessities): close to the Miracle Mile area, course duration of just a few days and 2-3 hours per day, the less expensive the better.

Recurring text box in Word?

Shepherd — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:03:17 -0800

I need to make a sticker sheet in MS Word updatable -- all the stickers on the sheet look the same, but if I type "Q" in the first sticker, "Q" will appear on all the other stickers. Is this possible? Working on making an Avery-compatible label sheet for a company that only sells eight different things, but in a range of varying sizes. So ideally, he'll be able to print label sheets one sheet at a time, with the same product type on every label on the sheet (say, GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA), and then a space to the left of the first GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA sticker, where he can type an XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL or XXL and see every other sticker on the sheet update automatically.

Idea being this saves (a) the time-consuming process of typing S on every single sticker on the sheet when he needs a bunch of "S" stickers for GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA, and (b) saves the time-consuming process of doing that ourselves, and then creating 64 label templates when all we really need are 8.

I would think that there's a simple way of doing this, but everything I look at veers abruptly into Visual Basic programming and odd form-driven functions that don't really work. Is there some way of just making a text box whose contents will be copied in linked text boxes across the same document?

Maybe it's just metafilter making me paranoid about copyright issues...

silkygreenbelly — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:46:44 -0800

If I slap a ms word clip art image on a business flyer, are their any legal issues to take into consideration? I was approached someone about whipping up a flyer for her cleaning business. Nothing special, just the basics with "...maybe a little broom or something." My understanding is that she'd use it to post on bulletin boards, or hand out to interested people as kind of a business card. She's an incredibly sweet woman who is eeking out a living and trying to make a better life for her and her kid, I don't want to expose her to any potential problems.

Also, what is a good way to sum up "weekly, monthly and 'custom cleaning intervals'"?

Give me your widows and orphans, your stray lines and stranded words from paragraphs yearning to breathe free.

MasonDixon — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:22:39 -0800

MS Word insists on keeping lines of paragraphs together even after I turn off Widow/Orphan control. How can I stop this? Formatting a thesis with specific formatting rules, and the rules care more about excess spaces than Widow/Orphan problems. There is clearly plenty of space at the bottom of some of my pages, as the reviewer noted, for another line or two and I cannot force Microsoft Word to let this happen.

It is double spaced, Palatino Linotype 12 point font, Office 2003 not Vista.

How can I find all the acronyms in a large Word document?

Naberius — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:20:23 -0800

Is there a Word plugin or standalone program that will search a Word doc and list all occurrences of a given string, preferably with surrounding words for context? I work with Federal contract proposals. Very long, arcane documents packed with acronyms. Each acronym is spelled out the first time it appears in a top level section. Then it can stand alone through the rest of that section, but has to be spelled out again on first appearance in a new top level section. That sounds simple, but sections are usually written by different people, or pulled from the boilerplate library and modified, so what we end up with is acronyms being spelled out randomly, way more often than they need to be. Tracing each acronym (usually hundreds) through a document that may well run 75 pages and making sure each one follows that style is a hugely laborious process that comes right on top of deadline. It's not so much that I object to the tedium as that we usually just don't get the time to do this properly. So I'm looking for a tool to help automate it.

Yes, there's Word's find command, but that's proving terribly awkward in practice. I figured there had to be a plugin that would handle this, but the only acronym-related software goodies I've found for Word want to look the acronym up and tell you what it means. I know what it means. I just need to find all instances of it and figure out which ones should be spelled out and which ones actually are.

Next I considered advanced search toys, but things like Google Desktop want to go through all your stuff and identify multiple files. That's not the problem. Only the current file matters.

What I think I need is something that will search the particular file I'm in for a term and give me something like what Google gives you for the whole net. A list of hits for that term in that file, with maybe ten words on either side for context, and a page number. If it could tell me what numbered section each one is in, that would be ideal. But that's probably pushing it.

Anyone got any ideas for something that will do what I'm asking? Or a better question to ask in order to get the ultimate result?

Help me delete America!

the latin mouse — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:42:59 -0800

No matter what I do, the US-ENGLISH setting on my spellcheck keeps returning from the dead like a bad guy in a horror movie. Is there any way to delete American English permanently and irrevocably from Microsoft Word 2007?

Suggestions I've found via Google which haven't fixed the problem...

Change your language in Control Panel
According to my settings in Control Panel I'm in the UK and speak British English. Word doesn't seem to care.

Go to the Office 07 Language Settings application on the Start Menu and change the default to British English.
I've done this countless times. When I go back, American English has somehow become the default again.

Change your Normal Template.
This only affects docs I create myself from scratch. Most of the docs I work with are being emailed to me by other people.

Start doing a spellcheck and change it from within there. / Change it from Word Options in the ribbon. / Use the little language tab at the bottom of the screen.
This only fixes things for the document I am currently working on. Any subsequent docs I open default back to American English.

Any other ideas? This is seriously eating into my productivity.

snsranch had an oopsie! (computer wise)

snsranch — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:05:52 -0800

I Screwed Up My Wife's Computer and I'm In TROUBLE!! HELP! My wife is a teacher and somehow I screwed up her MS Word. It now asks for a key code and I don't have one that works.

Instead of fooling with it and MS, I'd like to find a suitable replacement for MS word for her, and hopefully for free.

Any recommendations for free software that is functionally similar to MS Word?

I'm sure I'll eventually work this out with MS, we have legit copies of Office for students and teachers.

In the mean time, she's on MY machine, and will be until I rectify this!

Many thanks in advance!

Quickbooks form letters without MS Word?

zippy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:27:06 -0800

I have Quickbooks Pro 2008 for Windows. How can I tell Quickbooks to use OpenOffice, or some other free non-Word app, when I want to print or edit Quickbooks form letters? Quickbooks lets you generate form letters via Company -> Prepare Letters with Envelopes.

It demands that I have Word installed to see / edit / print these letters.

I don't have Word.

How can I tell Quickbooks to use OpenOffice or some other free Word alternative?

I checked the preferences window and didn't see anything in this direction.

Please help me covert my pdf pleadings to Word

Sheppagus — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:13:14 -0800

How can I best OCR an oddly formatted document using Adobe 9 Standard? I am trying to convert to Word/OCR some pleadings with line numbers on the side and a caption at the top with multiple names and addresses. The footer has the title of the document, case number and a line in it.

The line numbers seem to be causing the primary formatting problem and making weird numbering intersperse with the text. The caption and footer are also causing problems, although not nearly as much as the line numbers.

In the past I have used a whiteout tool to remove the line numbers and captions/sig blocks, but can't seem to do this effectively in Adobe Standard. I'm trying to avoid using Pro.

Does anyone have any suggestions/brilliant ideas on how to do this? Adobe 9 Standard and MS Word are the only options for this project.

How do I get Word and Excel to work together?

cheeken — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:07:52 -0800

I need MS Excel and Word to play together nicely. I can do what I need to in Word, and I can do what I need to in Excel; it's the Relationship that's Complicated. Maybe I need workflow advice? Basic knowledge? Please, please keep reading. I'm putting together a quarterly report for an ongoing evaluation of a county youth program. We're currently in Q2. We get lots of quantitative data, run it through SPSS and Excel to make lovely charts and graphs (like the average number of tutoring hours for females across tutoring agencies, that kind of thing). Then, my job is to write up a narrative description of what's going on, and put it together in ONE document.

This is the problem.

So, the final document will have a couple paragraphs of text, and then a chart that I've copied over from Excel, then more text, and on and on. Writing up the text and charts takes 20% of my time. Formatting, moving, adjusting, placing, chasing paragraphs around takes up the other 80%. It seems to me that with two programs that are part of a "Suite," it can't possibly be that hard.

Here's how I currently do it:
1) Write paragraph of text in Word.
2) Go to line after paragraph.
3) Copy chart from Excel.
4) Post Special...Microsoft Excel Chart Object
5) (Because now the text looks all goofy from how it looked in Excel) Right click > Format Object... > Layout > Click 'Square' and 'Center'
6) Then I have to go back above the chart and start typing the next paragraph, but I have to move the chart up manually to push the new text below the chart. [This is where it starts to suck.]

Now, god forbid that, after I have all my text-chart-text-chart sequences done, I have to go back and add a sentence or a paragraph, or move (or, *gasp* resize slightly) a chart, because then my charts will suddenly move behind each other, or on different pages, or they'll move to above the top margin on a page and become Completely Immovable.

So, I need some advice on how you create a document in Word that has 20+ pages of text and 25+ charts pasted in from Excel in a way that you can then make adjustments to the document and not have everything completely screwed up. What's your Word+Excel workflow?

Changing author name in MS Word's "Track Changes"

nebulawindphone — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:16:14 -0800

I'm using "Track Changes" in MS Word (or, well, its near-clone in Open Office). I've already made a number of changes — under the wrong name! How can I get those changes attributed to the right name? When I registered my copy of Open Office, I did it under a goofy name rather than my real name. Now, years later, I'm helping edit a grant application with some big-deal researchers, and lo and behold, the changes I make are attributed to "Miles J. Handlebar" rather than my real name. Not the end of the world, but it's a little unprofessional — and it's likely to cause unnecessary confusion on a big project where we've already got dozens of real names to keep track of.

If I change my name in the "Preferences..." dialog, all subsequent changes I make are attributed to my real name. But the changes I've already made are still attributed to this Handlebar character.

Is there any way I can change the attribution on the changes I've already made? Or has my imaginary friend Mr. Handlebar left his mark on the project for good?

make bigger dictionary/thesaurus in Word

cogneuro — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:01:43 -0800

Simple q: a way to supplement the dictionary/thesaurus in, ugh, MS Word, Macintosh, to extend its vocabulary and synonym choices? I don't want to have to pop out of word to go look elsewhere. I just want the built in dictionary/thesaurus enlarged. I know there have been N previous queries about dictionaries but I didn't see anything about this specific issue. thanks.

Express help with MS Word pagination requested!

Mr. Gunn — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:28:29 -0800

How do I use two different pagination styles in one MSWord 2007 document? The dissertation guidelines state that I must use two different numbering styles, one for the front matter (acknowledgement, TOC, etc) and another for the rest of the document. The front matter gets a lower case roman numbering, centered at the bottom, the the rest gets Arabic in the upper right. Additionally, the copyright notice page must not be included in the numbering, but can't be at the beginning or end and the title page has to be counted in the numbering, but not displayed.

Leaving aside for a moment questions as to whether this is all strictly necessary, how do I do this? I can get the arabic numbers placed right, but I can't make them start later in the document. I've considered simply having two files which I later assemble.

What can I use to write my PhD in?

Augenblick — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:38:57 -0800

PhD Filter: First year into my course, one chapter written, MS Word can no longer take the strain. It's a humanities PhD, I need a cheap/free alternative... all help appreciated. I've been using Microsoft Word since the beginning of the Phd and just slightly bankrupted myself on the EndNote software to use as bibliography. Up till now I'd been using Zotero and Word. The amount of references I have in one chapter seems to be throwing Word off entirely, my word count is 20,000 and at around 55 pages, it no longer seems to be functioning. This may be due to the section breaks for some of the tables and figures I have as well.

I've read many previous and similar questions but they seem to be more science based - I don't need anything that can formulate equations. I do need something that could deal with tables however, columns for translation of poetry, and a serious mountain of references. What do other humanities students use? I know lots of people seem to have the same problem re: Word.

What I need is something free or else fairly cheap, easy ish to use (though I am quite techie, and could learn it if necessary). At the very most I could spend about £60.

How can you set a background color in Word that can be viewed on screen and printed

willnot — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:03:15 -0800

Can you help me view and print background colors in Word? I'm trying to reproduce a form that has a purple background. This form will be completed on screen, but may also be printed. For reasons that we won't go into, it has to be in Word. I'm having trouble getting a purple background that shows up when viewing it on the screen and also when printing. Is there a way to get both? Setting the background to purple allows me to view it on screen, but it doesn't print. Putting a purple box in the header allows me to print it, but it appears to be a much lighter purple when viewed on screen. Putting a purple box in the main page sent to back covers up any text in the header or footer. Is there some other option that would make it show up when viewed on screen and also when printed?

how do you construct a correlation matrix in APA format in Microsoft Word 2007

esolo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:12:39 -0800

how do you construct a correlation matrix in APA format in Microsoft Word 2007 without killing yourself? I have 12 variables, and I need to construct a matrix of correlations preferably in portrait orientation. I have spent hours on this, and I still can't get my table to look like it should.

Each cell with correlation value should hold at least 5 characters. Is there a tool out there that would help me do that? APA came out with a plug-in, but it doesn't work with MS 2007, which is what I have. Please help!

is there a way to combine a set of Word documents into one large file without cutting and pasting?

Nayano — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:59:54 -0800

is there a way to combine a set of Word documents into one large file without cutting and pasting? I am using Office 2007 and I have a folder of about 20 files, all of which are lists of references. I need to have them all on one document. Is there a quick or easy way of doing this?

Why doesn't Word work right?

BeerFilter — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:56:21 -0800

Word 2003 won't open after double-clicking on a document, and the mouse doesn't work in the document area. If I double-click a Word file, the mouse hourglasses for a moment, then nothing happens. If I run Word by itself, I can open documents just fine, but outside of Word, I got nothing. I've already checked the file types and everything seems to be in order.

In addition, my mouse doesn't work in Word, but only in the actual document window. I can mouse all around the menus and toolbars and such, but I can't do anything with the mouse to the document. I can't highlight, I can't insert a cursor, I can't get the scrollbars to move. I CAN change the page view with the clickys in the lower left, but nothing else in the document window works.

Since Outlook 2003 uses Word 2003 for its rendering, I have the same problem in Outlook 2003. Menus & toolbars work fine but I can't highlight or do anything with the mouse to the actual text. I can use the keyboard to highlight and navigate.

In all other application, including the rest of MS Office, the mouse works fine.

Here's what seems like the key to figuring this out:

I already completely uninstalled Office 2003, ran CCleaner (my S.O.P.), and reinstalled it, and it's exactly like it was before. No opening documents outside of Word, no mouse in the text field.

I'm a FOSS guy at home, but this is at my relatively new job (in the IT dept, no less) and I haven't been inflicted with Word in a long time, so I'm not real hip to fixing MS Office screw-ups. Anyone got any ideas on this?

MS Word's Undo is Making Me Come Undone

foxy_hedgehog — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:08:55 -0800

Another infuriating episode with your favorite source of aggravation and psychological trauma: MS Word! Experts and embittered veterans, click here and help me figure out where my "Undo" function went. All of a sudden, my Word "Edit" menu no longer displays the "Undo" option- it only gives me the option to "Repeat" what I've just typed. This is making me want to pull my hair out and throw my computer out the window.

I've tried changing toolbars and looking in all of the hidden menu items in "Options." I even tried all sorts of phrasings to find the answer in MS Word Help, to no avail. It just seems to be gone. Closing and reopening the program doesn't work either. Clippy the animated paper clip keeps showing up on a bicycle and being useless.

The specs: running XP/Word 2002 on a PC.

I'd be grateful for any help or insight you can offer. PS Yes, I know about Open Office and Scrivener. For now, I need help with my Word problem.

Thank you!

Using 'Insert' to stop over-writing

Nayano — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:20:50 -0800

Since I transferred all my data to a new mother board, when I switch from writing emails to writing in Word the 'insert' function changes, that is, if I have been writing an email and something getrs overwritten and I press 'insert' to overcome that, all is good until I switch to Word and the stuff gets overwritten until I press 'insert' and so on, ad infinitum. Is it possible to set the same default for both? I use Windows XP, and am in South Australia.