Archive for June, 2009

How to Easily Create a Round Trip Fill-In Client Intake Form in MS Word 2003

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

I recently created a copyrighted tutorial article for Technolawyer entitled Create a Fill In Form in MS Word and they changed the title to that above and published it with only one or two of the step-by-step screenshots that are a signature of my tutorials.

I have found, after years and years of training folks in the intricacies of MS Office that there are many methods of teaching. Not everyone learns from the written word; some folks need to see what I am describing to them with words. I really did not want to have something published under my name without step-by-step screenshots but Technolawyer told me that they “couldn’t handle images.” 

So, I am just letting my loyal readers know that if you want to see the original tutorial that I created, complete with screenshots for every step, I cannot give you access to their article, but I can certainly make my original copyrighted article available to you.

My tutorial showing you, step-by-step, how to create a fill-in form in MS Word,  will give you the wherewithal to create any kind of fill-in form that you like in MS Word for any topic or need within your company. You can then e-mail your form to customers, family, etc. who can fill in the required data and e-mail it back to you. If you are a teacher, you can even create a test  for your students using a fill in form!

The sky is the limit!  Once you learn how to create a fill in form you can let your imagination run wild and I know you will find many, many uses for fill in forms.

Die Cast Model Cars

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

If anyone is interested in or collects model cars, I have a very big collection of Fairfield Mint and Franklin Mint die cast model cars that I am offering for sale. I also have the display cases for the collection.  The model sizes vary from large to small.

If you are interested, please leave me a comment here and I will get in touch with you.

Calculate Totals Within a Table in MS Word

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

When you have a list of numbers and you want to show totals, you do not need to start Windows’ built-in Calculator to sum them.

MS Word can calculate totals and averages and do other simple calculations. In order to do this though, you must have your Tables and Borders toolbar visible.

Before you start, click on View | Toolbars or right-click on an empty space on an existing toolbar and select Tables and Borders.

Follow the instructions below to begin summing figures:

Simply place your cursor in a blank cell of your table, below or to the right ofthe numbers you would like to total.

Click the AutoSum (resembles a sideways letter M) button on the Tables and Borders toolbar to calculate totals automatically.

To make other types of calculations, Click on Table | Formula. This will open the dialog box.

If your figures should change, you must recalculate the formual. To do this, select the formula and press the F9 key.

When you place a formula in a table, the numbers appear with grey shading. They will not print in grey though. The grey shading simply lets you know that you have a formula, not just typed figures.

You can also total figures in paragraphs in MS Word. The Calculate function in MS Word ignores any text that is not a number, except for currency symbols, periods and commas, which it recognizes when they are part of a number.

For operations other than addition, you must include the mathematical operator. To force a calculation out of precedence order, enclose the expression in parentheses.

You can add the Tools Calculate button to any toolbar or shortcut menu by following the steps below:

  1. Select Tools | Customize.
  2. Click the Commands tab.
  3. In the Categories column, select All Commands.
  4. Scroll down until you find Tools Calculate.
  5. Drag the command to the Tools menu and place it wherever you  like or, you could just drag it to your toolbar.

It may appear greyed out as Tools Calculate is only available when you have selected text. By default, the Calculate command will add any set of selected numbers separated by white space. Word tmporarily displays the result in the status bar and also places it on the clipboard.