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Category Archives: Word 2010

Free Microsoft Word 2010 articles

Set a Negative Paragraph Indent in Word 2010

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Of course, you know that Word will allow you to specify and indent from your left margin on a need to basis. That is to say, you can have different margins for every paragraph in your document should you desire.

The indent value you set for your paragraph is added to the left margin value for the page, thus knowing how far the left side of your paragraph should appear in relation to the left edge of your paper.

There are some occasions when one may want a negative indent for a paragraph and fortunately, this is extremely easy to do.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Select the paragraph(s) whose margins you would like to change.
  2. On the Home tab of your Ribbon, in the Paragraph group, click on the little arrow at the bottom right to display the paragraph dialog box.
  3. Be certain the Indents and Spacing tab has been selected.

Negative Indent

  1. Use the drop-down at the Left to set a negative value (i. e., 0.5, .25, etc.).
  2. Click on OK.

Text Boxes in Envelopes in Word 2010

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If you work in an office and you are frequently sending out letters, you know that there are occasions when you need that text box to be placed directly under your return address.

Why? you ask? Well suppose you would like the notation: RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED or PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL or INVOICE ENCLOSED to appear on your envelope.  Get the idea?

Of course, you could create a text box every time you need to make one of the above notations, but why reinvent the wheel every time?  You know how I love to save time and keystrokes!

There are a couple of ways you can tackle this.  Firstly, you could create a whole new Word template for your envelope.  All you have to do is create a normal envelope like you usually use and place your text box directly below your return address.  Now, instead of printing your envelope, use Save As to save it as a template. Now, when you have a need for this text box envelope, simply create a new document based on your template. You will then have an envelope you can modify to meet your particular requirements.

Another approach, and my favorite, is to create a text box the way you like it and then assign it to a building block.  Simple right?

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Create a text box and format it to your liking, exactly the way you would like it to appear on your envelope (as I have shown you in an earlier post).
  2. Be certain that your text box is selected. You will see the small black handles around it when it is selected.
  3. Click Alt + F3 and the Create New Building Block dialog box will display.
  4. Change the name in the dialog box to something intuitive (i.e., rreceipt, ppersonal).  I hope you noticed that my examples have double letters at the beginning. There is a reason for that and that is so the words used to trigger the insertion of the building block are unique.
  5. Click OK.

You have now created your building block.

In the future, when you have a need for your building block, simply key in the keyword (see above examples) and click F3. The keyword is then replaced with your text box and you can drag it to any location you like.

Envelope Text Box

Insert Text Quickly With A Shortcut Key in Word 2010

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We should all know about AutoText entries by now right? Ever want to have a shortcut key to enter a sentence or phrase in your document? Well AutoText sort of has a built in shortcut key. Once you have created your entry, you can key in the mnemonic for your entry and tap F3. That key allows the mnemonic to expand .

But if you want a special shortcut key for a particular entry, you can do that as well.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Create your AutoText entry as you always do.
  2. Click on File | Options to display the Word Options dialog box.
  3. At the left of the dialog box, click Quick Access Toolbar.
  4. Click the Customize button to display the Customize Keyboard dialog.
  5. Position your cursor in the Press New Shortcut Key box.
  6. Click the shortcut key you would like to use (i.e., Ctrl + H). That key combination is used to open Find and Replace but you can change that, or you can select another key combination.
  7. In the Categories list, scroll down and select AutoText. You will see the defined AutoText entries at the right side of the dialog box.
  8. In the list of autoText entries, choose the one you defined above.
  9. Click on Close to close the Customize Keyboard dialog.
  10. Click on Cancel to close the Word Options dialog.

You could, instead, create a macro for your text and then assign it a keyboard shortcut. It’s all about choices and the choices are all yours!

How to Paste a Comment in your Word 2010 Document

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Comments in Word are a great tool that allows you and your colleagues to to share thoughts and ideas while collaborating on a document. So, it would follow, that it would be nice if you could just copy one of those comments and paste it right into your document right? Well the truth is that you can and very easily!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. First, be certain that the Reviewing Pane is showing at the bottom of your Word screen, or that the comment balloons are visible on the right-hand side of your document.
  2. Select the text of the comment that you would like to paste into your main document. Select ONLY the text and do NOT select the comment mark or the paragraph mark!
  3. Click CTRL + X to cut the text or CTRL + C to copy it to your Clipboard.
  4. Place your cursor at the spot in your document where you would like the comment inserted.
  5. Click CTRL + V to paste the text into your document.

That’s all there is to it!

How to Mix Column Formats On A Page in Word 2010

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In some instances you may want to mix different column layouts on a single page in your Word document.

Suppose you have an eight page document and you need to center part of page four in three columns and you want the rest of your document to remain a single column.

This is really not a difficult task when you use the tools provided on your Ribbon.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Select the text that will appear in your columns.
  2. On your Ribbon, click the Page Layout tab.
  3. In the Page Setup group, click the Columns drop-down list.
  4. Select the number of columns you would like to use for your selected text.

Word will take over from there and format your selected text into the number of columns you chose.

How to Freeze a Table in Word 2010

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Word has great table features and tools. You can create and modify tables and place data in them.

You can even have Word automatically adjust the dimensions of the cells in your table.

There are times, however, when you may want to freeze the size of cells in your table to a certain size that will not change. What? Not change? Even if you put lots and lots of text in your cell? That’s right! It can be done!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Adjust the column width in your table so that you have them exactly the way you want.
  2. Right-click your table and select Table Properties from the Context menu that is displayed and the Table Properties dialog box appears.
  3. Be certain the Row tab is selected.
  4. Select the Specify Height check box and enter a height for the rows.
  5. Use the Row Height Is drop-down to choose Exactly.
  6. Click on the Table tab.
  7. Click on the Options button to display the dialog box.
  8. Be certain the Automatically Resize to Fit contents check box is deselected.
  9. Click OK to close the Table Options dialog box.
  10. Click OK to close the Table Properties dialog box.

If you do not deselect the automatically Resize to Fit Contents box, Word will adjust the column width to display the most data possible in your table.

Formatting in Word 2010 Lists

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Sometimes after you have finished a list in your document you decide that you would like to change the font characteristics of a bullet or number in your list. But wait, you do not want to change the text in your list! Can you accomplish this? Of course you can!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. First and foremost, you must have the Show/Hide feature enabled. For the uninformed, this simply means that you need to have non-printable characters showing. If it is not, simply click the key combination of Shift + CTRL + * (asterisk),
  2. Select just the Pilcrow (paragraph mark) for the item in your list whose number or bullet you would like to change.
  3. You can now add, remove or change the font characteristics such as font size, color, etc. to your liking.

Any formatting that you apply to the pilcrow as specified above, is applied to the bullet or numbered list items only. The text in your list will remain the same. When you add a new bulleted or numbered item to the list in your document, it will have the same characteristics as the previous item when you hit the enter key.

In case you are wondering, you can also change or add formatting to the text in your bulleted or numbered list items.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Again, the Show/Hide feature must be enabled.
  2. Select any portion of text in your list item you would like to change, as long as the Pilcrow is excluded along with at least one other character.
  3. Apply any font formatting you would like to that selection.
  4. Select the rest of the text except for the Pilcrow and then apply your formatting to that text.

Using your Enter key when adding new items after you have changed an item will ensure that the new items will share the same characteristics as those that you changed.

How to Back Up your AutoText Entries in Word 2010

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The folks I know who use AutoText entries rely heavily on them to save time and keystrokes. Many of them are so dependent on their AutoText entries they don’t know what they would do if they ever lost them. So of course, it just makes sense to periodically back up those valuable AutoText entries doesn’t it?

Unfortunately a lot of folks don’t know you can back up AutoText entries and even if they do know it, they do not know how to go about it. So this tip is for YOU!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Use the Find File feature to locate all the files on your system that use the DOTX or DOTM file extension to be safe.
  2. You can then copy them to a backup file using a flash drive, CD Rom, etc.

Be mindful that some folks save AutoText entries in other template files so this may not work for them, unless they know specifically where they have stored all of their AutoText entries.

How to Rotate a Page of Text in Word 2010

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I am sure there have been instances when you have wanted to rotate a page of text in your document 90 degrees.

There are a couple of methods for doing this within Word 2010. You can insert a text box and rotate your text within the text box or you could insert a table and rotate the text within a cell of that table, or you could use WordArt.

Having said that, it can be quite tedious to use the above methods and it will definitely not save you any time getting it set up and formatted properly.

There is a way however that is fairly easy and efficient. All you have to do is be aware of the fact that MS Word started using Far East language support starting with version 2000. Using that you can rotate an entire section of your text in your document 90 degrees clockwise from your Headers and Footers.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Place a Next Page section break before and after the text you would like to rotate.
  2. Select at least one character between those section breaks, but do not select the actual section breaks. If you skip this step your entire document will be rotated.
  3. Click Alt + F11 to display your VBA Editor.
  4. Be certain the Immediate window is displayed at the bottom of the VBA Editor. If it is not, click CTRL + G.
  5. In the Immediate window, key in the following:
  6. Selection.Orientation = wdTextOrientationVertialFarEast
  7. Click Enter.
  8. Close your VBA Editor.

Subscribers: Adding Special Spaces in Word 2010

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A subscriber wrote to me recently with a problem. He needed to insert an “em” space in his document and could not figure out how to do this.

First of all, an em or en space are types of spaces used for typographical purposes. They insert a wider than normal space in a line of text in your document.

A lot of folks do this using the Numerical keypad on their keyboard or using the Symbol dialog box.

Both of the above methods are simple to do and work very well, but if you find that you are using these special spaces a lot, you may want to use an even simpler method that only requires a single click.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click File | Options, to display the dialog box.
  2. At the left-hand side of the dialog box, click Customize.
  3. In the Choose Commands From list, select Commands Not in the Ribbon.

Insert Em

  1. In the Commands list, select Insert Em Space and click Add.
  2. In the Commands list, select Insert En Space and click Add.
  3. Click on Close or OK.

Now, all you have to do is click on your new tools on your Ribbon to insert those special spaces!