Posts Tagged ‘style’

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Transparent Text Boxes in Word

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Everyone knows you can create text boxes in MS Word.  They certainly come in handy at times. I have clients in law offices that use them to create line numbering in a sidebar and other clients who use them to box text, like I do when creating a tutorial that includes screen shots. There could be a time however, when you might like whatever is behind your text box to be visible.

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this:

  • You can make your text box partially transparent; or
  • Completely transparent.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Create your text box as you normally would.
  2. Right-click on your text box to display a Context menu.
  3. Select Format Text Box from the context menu to display the dialog box.
  4. Be certain the Colors and Lines tab has been selected.

  1. Click the Semitransparent check box for a ghosted image of what is behind your text box to be visible.
  2. If you want your text box to be fully transparent, use the Color setting in the Fill area to select No Fill.
  3. Display the Layout tab.

  1. Be certain the Wrapping style is set to None or In Front of Text.
  2. Click on OK.

Versions 2003, 2007, 2010

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Assign a Shortcut Key to your Styles in MS Word

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

I have covered using styles in previous blog posts, but did you know you could assign a shortcut key combination to your styles?  And why wouldn’t you want to do this??  After all, it does save you valuable time and keystrokes!

Follow the steps below to define a shortcut key combination for a style:

  1. Display the task pane by first clicking on the Home tab of your Ribbon and then clicking the small icon in the lower right-hand corner of the Styles group. In earlier versions MS Word displays the Styles and Formatting task pane at the right-hand side of your screen.
  2. In the list of styles, hover your mouse over the name of the style whosse shortcut key would would like to change and a drop-down arrow should appear to the right of the style name.
  3. Click the down arrow and choose Modify or right-click and select Modify to display the dialog box.
  4. Click on Format and select Shortcut Key from the menu and the Customize Keyboard dialog box will appear.
  5. Click the key combination you would like to apply to your style. Any current assignments for that particular key combination appear just below what you just keyed in.
  6. Click on Assign.
  7. Click Close.
  8. Click on OK to close teh Modify Style dialog box.

That’s all there is to it!

 

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Highlight Information in MS Word Using Shading

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Word provides you with a very handy method of shading text in your documents. Shading can be added together with any border you may specify for your paragraph. This is a great little feature – it even allows you to precisely control the level of shading.

 Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Place your cursor in the paragraph that you would like to highlight.
  2. Click the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  3. In the Paragraph group, click the down-arrow to the right of the Shading tool that resembles a paint can to display the shading palette.
  4. Select one of the ten theme colors at the top of the palette. Each color has options under them to represent a different level of shading for that particular color.

If you are using an earlier version of word:

  1. Place your cursor in the paragraph that you would like to highlight.
  2. Click on Format | Borders and Shading to display the dialog box.
  3. Click on the Shading tab.
  4. Using the Style drop-down list, select a degree of shading you want to use for your paragraph.

  • Click OK.

Highlighting your text using the shading settings is completely different than highlighting text using the highlighter tool.  Personally, I think it is easier to do using shading and you have a lot more flexibility as well.

You can apply the shading technique to styles and create a character style that incorporates shading. You can then apply the character style to anything you would like to shade and you can easily remove the style, replace it with other formatting or search for the style.

The process is much more inolved when working with highlighting that has been applied using the highlighting tool.

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