Microsoft Office Tips, Tricks, and How-to's to help you use MS Office like a pro!

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Monthly Archives: August 2016

Subscribers: How to Remove Double Spaces in your Word Document

Posted on by Posted in Subscribers Word 2013

Double spaces are a pet peeve of mine. They are archaic and in my opinion they should not be placed after a period in your document. It should ALWAYS be a single space. There are many, many folks who rebel against this and you are entitled to your opinion, but I’m right!

If, on the other hand you agree with me and most editors, it is fairly easy when you receive a document from a colleague full of double spaces, to remove them and replace them with single spaces.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Select all the text in your document by clicking CTRL + A.
  2. Open Find and Replace by clicking the View tab on your Ruler.
  3. In the Show group, select Navigation Pane.
  4. OR – click CTRL + H.
  5. Place your cursor in the Find What field , then press your Spacebar two times to insert two spaces.
  6. Place your cursor in the Replace With field and press your Spacebar one time to insert one space.

Find Replace

  1. Click Replace All to clear the double spaces.
  2. Click OK.

Now your document is done correctly with one space between each sentence!

How to Copy & Paste Text Without Using your Keyboard in Word

Posted on by Posted in Word 2013

So, you have copied a very large amount of data from your worksheet in Excel  and it is sitting on your Clipboard waiting for you to paste it into your Word document. But, wait, you’re a very busy person today and you also have to move or copy some other piece of information first. Oh no!  You don’t want to have to go back and select and copy all that other information from your worksheet again!

Luckily for you there is a simple method to accomplish this without overwriting the data you have already copied to your Clipboard!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Highlight the part of your document that you would like to move or copy.
  2. Keep it highlighted.
  3. Now navigate to the location in your document where you would like to move it, but do not click there yet.

Now do this:

To move your text:

  • Click CTRL and right-click on the new location. You can also click F2 | move to the location |click Enter.

To copy your text:

Click CTRL + Shift and right-click the new location. You can also click  Shift + F2 | move to your location and click Enter.

You can now do your usual Copy & Paste to insert your Clipboard data into your document.

How to Use Find & Replace for Images in your Word Documents

Posted on by Posted in Word 2013

We all know that the Find & Replace feature in Word is a lifesaver when we want to replace sizable amounts of text in Word quickly.

However, did you know that you can use the very same feature to replace all instances of an image in your document with another? Perhaps not. I would not call this a perfect solution because it will replace all images with the same image. BUT, if you have a company logo in a large document that has to be replaced, this tip will definitely make it a lot easier for you!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Place your new image at the top of your document.
  2. Right-click it and select Copy.
  3. Delete the image.
  4. Click CTRL + H to open the Find & Replace tool.
  5. In the Find What area, key in ^g. (^ is found over the number 6 on your keyboard).
  6. In the Replace With field, key in ^c.

Find & Replace

  1. Click Replace All.
  2. Click OK.

The ^g tells Word you are looking for graphics and ^c is your Clipboard, and it tells Word you want to replace all graphics with the last saved item on your Clipboard.

Subscribers: How to Make Word Read Your Documents Aloud

Posted on by Posted in Subscribers Word 2013

If you are a high powered business person or a lawyer, professor, teacher, a harried housewife, a busy assistant trying to do a read against in a long document – really the who of it does not matter – perhaps you just do not enjoy reading or have bad eyesight  or like to multitask – now you can make Word read your document to you! This feature can really come in handy if you choose to use it.

Windows has the ability to read text  by default. This is how a blind person makes use of their operating system.  Unfortunately, it is not very intuitive how to use this feature. This is not a problem now that you have my article because I am going to show you how you can “trick” Word into being your personal reader.  There may be a bonus at the end of the article as well, so keep reading!

Actually, the ability to read your documents to you is built into Word itself. The problem is, of course, that it is not included in your Ribbon interface. No worries though, I am going to show you how to add a “Speak” button to your Ribbon.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Over your Ribbon you should see a smaller toolbar. This is your QAT (Quick Access Toolbar). It contains only Save, Undo and Redo buttons unless you have already customized it. If not, you can place additional buttons on it, including one for speaking highlighted text.
  2. Click the arrow to the right of your QAT .

word-speak-custom

  1. Click the More Commands button to begin looking at all of the functions.
  2. Under Choose Commands From, use the drop-down and select Commands Not in the Ribbon.
  3. Now you can either scroll through to see everything housed there or you can simply click the letter S on your keyboard and then scroll to where it says Speak and select it.

word-add-speak

  1. Click the Add button, which you will see between the two columns.
  2. Click OK.
  3. A Speak button now resides on your QAT!
  4. I am not sure if you will have to take this last step, but I did. I had to exit Word and start it again.
  5. Now open a document that you would like read to you, and make sure your sound is turned on.
  6. Highlight the text you would like read aloud and click your Speak button on the QAT.

word-speak-button

You will now hear the text you selected being read to you.

If you only need to have reading done for you in Word, you are good to go now,  simply click the key combination CTRL + A to highlight your entire document and click your Speak button!

Ok, now, as I mentioned at the top of this article, Windows also comes with a built-in screen reading technology called Narrator. It is mostly intended for use by the blind.

If you start it up, Narrator will immediately begin reading every bit of text on every single window that you have open – which is great if you are blind, but not so much if only wanted Windows to read a small portion of text.

So here is the bonus I hinted at:

If you are an intrepid computer user and like to explore new and different features, you should try out Balabolka. The user interface is not as intuitive as some options, but you also gain control over speed and pitch, which is a big plus.

bala1

Balboka is known for its ability to open DOC/DOCX/TXT, PDF, EPUB, and ODT files. This means that you can open your favorites in seconds. It also can convert files to MP3, making it very easy to listen to a document on your phone or MP3 player. There is also a batch conversion if you would like audio copies of more than one document.

You can learn more about Balabolka here.

But wait, there’s more!

TypeIt ReadIt

This is a very good piece of software, has a very simple interface, and also has the ability to export your writing to a text or WAV file.  If you past any text into its window or open a TXT file directly and it will be read to you.  The user interface is a bit odd with how the buttons scale if you make your window larger but is still very functional. And its FREE!

You can download TypeIt ReadIt here.

Believe it or not, there’s more!

Natural Reader Free for Windows/Mac

The free version of this software cannot export to MP3, but if you want a simple interface for pasting and hearing your text, you will like this one. Paste any text into the window and click the pay button.

natural-reader-free

If you like this program but would like more features, the Personal version is for you.  The price starts at $69.00 and you can add addition features such as exporting to MP3 and different voices.

One more!

eSpeak (Windows/Linux/Mac

Want some voices completely different from those that come with Windows? eSpeak may be the one for you! The program has its own engine and is completely difference from Microsoft voices.

espeak-windows

e-Speak can open TXT files and export to WAV. It also has weird lips that move! It is primarily a Linux program, but the Windows version comes with a very unique GUI shown above.

You can download e-Speak here.

So now you have learned how to do something using Word that you may or may not have known before and you are now way more knowledgeable about different options you can try if you are not happy with the way Word reads to you!