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

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Category Archives: Subscribers Microsoft Word

Subscribers: How To Insert A Check Mark In Your Document, Etc.

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A check mark is a symbol. Word comes with myriad symbols as do other applications in the Office Suite. If you would like to add a check mark symbol to your document, worksheet, presentation slide, or page, the process is very simple.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

Word, Excel and PowerPoint

  1. Open the application of your choice.
  2. Click in the Insert tab of your Ribbon.
  3. In the Symbols section on the far right side of your Insert tab, click on the Symbols icon.
  4. If you are working in Word, in the Symbols context menu, click on More symbols.
  5. If working in Excel or PowerPoint, skip to the following step.
  6. In the Symbols window, click on the font drop-down list and select the Wingdings font.
    Below the font list are the wingdings symbols that you can insert into your document, etc.
  7. Scroll to the bottom of the list of symbols and select the check mark symbol in the last row of symbols.
  8. Click the Insert button to insert the check mark into your document.

Second Option:

  1. Open Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
  2. On the Home tab of your Ribbon, in the Font section, click on the Font drop-down and select the Wingdings font.
  3. Create a check mark symbol by clicking Alt + 0252 (depress your ALT key and using your numeric keypad, simultaneously key in 0250).
  4. Once you have inserted your check mark symbol, simply change your font back to the one you were previously using and continue with your document.

Notepad

Follow the steps below to add a check mark in Notepad:

  1. Open NotePad.
  2. In Notepad depress your ALT key and simultaneously key in 251 on your Numpad

Other Windows Programs

On Microsoft Windows computers and most Windows programs, you can add a check mark by using the Charmap (Character Map utility).

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Open your program and Charmap.
  2. To open Charmap simply click on your office symbol on your screen and key in char. Character Map should appear at the top – just click on it.
  3. In the Character Map window, select Wingdings.
  4. Scroll down until you see the check mark symbol (Character code: 0x6FC)
  5. Click the check mark character and then click select.
  6. Once the check mark is entered into the the characters to be copied, click the copy button.
  7. Switch back to the program you are working in and then click Paste or CTRL + V.

HTML Web Page

In the Web page’s HTML source code, add one of the following extended special codes, depending on the type of check mark you would like to insert.

  • ☑ – will insert a box with a check mark ☑
  • ✓ – will add the check mark symbol ✓
  • ✔ – will insert the bold check mark symbol ✔

 

Subscribers: Calculate the Total Word Count in your Document

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It is so much easier to do a total word count in versions 2007 and 2010 than it was in version 2003; a whole step has been eliminated!

There will be times when you would like to know the total number of words in your document, including text boxes, footnotes and endnotes and now it is so very simple to do that.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Launch MS Word.
  2. Open an existing document or create a new document.
  3. On the Review tab of your Ribbon, in the Proofing group, Click Word Count to display the Word Count dialog box.
  4. Select Include text boxes, footnotes and endnotes at the bottom of the dialog box.

Word Count

  1. Click Close to close the dialog box.

Now, if you look down at your Status bar, on the left-hand side3, you will now see your word count and it will include all text boxes, footnotes and endnotes.

Status Bar

  • To bypass the steps above, you can also double-click Word Count on your Status bar to open the Word Count dialog box!

You would then see the correct word count.

  • However, if you had more than one text box, you would have to perform this operation on each box separately and then add the totals to get an accurate word count in your document!

Subscribers: Can’t Find Convert Table to Text in Word 2007 and 2010

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Everybody loves tables in Word don’t they? Why wouldn’t they? A Word table is a wonderful tool to organize your data and they are easy to create and format. A lot of folks like to convert their existing text data to a table format. I have gotten lots and lots of e-mail queries from readers telling me they cannot find this feature in the latest versions of Word.

Trust me, it is there although not readily found! Follow the steps below to find it and use it:

  1. Select the text in your document that you would like to convert to a table.
  2. Select Convert from the Table command.
  3. Select Text to Table.

Convert Text to Table

Converting a table to text is just as easy. Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Select your table.
  2. Select Convert from the Table Command.
  3. Select Table to Text.

What? you say. I do not see that on the Table Command! And you are absolutely correct! I stumbled across an article by Susan Harkins that told me where to find this elusive command. In her article she also stated that Jody Gilbert had written about it as well as James Barash.

So where DO you find it? Read below.

  • The Table to Text command is located on the Layout tab. This tab is only available when you have selected a table.
  • You will find the Convert To Text command in the Data group.

Convert Table to Text

As Susan Harkins says, The placement makes sense in an after-the-fact way, but frankly, I think it is going to confuse people.

Subscribers: What is the Building Blocks Feature in Word?

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The Building Blocks feature came about in Word 2007 and it is a great tool for inserting standardized headers, footers,, cover letters, tables, and many other things into your new documents. Sounds a lot like AutoText in older versions of Ms Word doesn’t it? This feature can save you countless hours and keystrokes. Suppose you work in a law office that specializes in Wills & Estates? You could create a template of all the boilerplate language of your Will and then just create Building Blocks for the special clauses for each client. Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? Every person I know that works in a law office loves to save time and keystrokes just as much as I do!

Suppose, for instance, that you work in a law office that has several different fee agreements that you send to your new clients, which must be signed before you begin work on their matter. Mostly the fee agreements have the same elements but there are different clauses for flat fee agreements, hourly agreements, step agreements, etc. Instead of copying and pasting from previous letters which greatly increases your chances for errors, you can save your clause as a building block. And suppose, in a perfect world, the attorney you work for loves to learn new things and wants you to share your building blocks with him so he can put together fee agreements when you are not there? You now look like the rock star of the firm – a regular genius who really knows how to save time and keystrokes.

Building blocks are essentially parts of a document that can be reused over and over. they are contained in galleries in the user interface for easy use. Where you ask, are these building blocks stored? The short answer is that the contents of all building block galleries ae stored in templates in MS Word. There are several locations where you can save your building block content:

  • Word’s building blocks template
  • Word’s Normal Template
  • Any custom Template (for use with a specific type of document or across all documents)

You will find these options in the Create New Building Block dialog under the field for Save In when you save a selection as a building block.

All default building block content that is shipped with Word is stored in the building blocks template (Building Block.dotx). Word selects this building block template as the default location to store building blocks and the Building Blocks template can be distributed to others as long as it is saved in the appropriate directory.

You can also store general purpose content in the Normal template. This option is only recommended if the Normal.dot is distributed company-wide.

There are two main scenarios where you would save building blocks to a custom template:

To have specific building blocks available to a customized type of document that is based off of a template, such as a Will or Financial Statement.

To have building blocks available for all documents, where building blocks are stored in custom templates.

If you are putting together a template for a specific kind of document (Will) you can save building blocks into your own custom template. When you create documents based on that custom template, you will see cover pages, headers, footers, etc tailored to that specific kind of document. These document-specific building blocks are only available when you are working on documents based upon the custom template. You can distribute the custom template to others within your firm and they will now have those building blocks available to them as well.

For building blocks that you would like to have available for all documents you work on, you can put a template containing them in the Document Building blocks directory (%appdata%\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks). You can put your own templates directly in the main directory or within a sub-folder corresponding to a particular language (e.g., the1033 sub-folder contains parts in English.

Word will automatically load any template added to the Document Building Blocks or sub -folder directories in order to combine all of your building blocks for use in the various galleries. The Building Blocks templates act as libraries, not as templates upon which you would base your documents.

Deploying the document building blocks directory or custom templates within the directory will allow others in your firm to use your building blocks to save time and keystrokes and you will be revered!

Follow the steps below to create a Building Block:

  1. First key in and format your text and insert any graphics you may wish to use.
  2. Then select everything, including any tabs or other formatting you wish to incorporate.
  3. Click on the Insert tab | Text Group | Quick Parts | Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery or click on Alt + F3 which will display the Create New Building Block dialog box.

Create New Building Block

  1. At this juncture, key in an abbreviation in the Name field. This abbreviation combined with your F3 key is what you will use to insert your Building Block into your document so be mindful of that. This name is not case sensitive.
  2. You an add a brief description in the Description field if it will be helpful to you, but this is optional.
  3. You can change the gallery also, if you like.

Note that the default Save in location is the Building Blocks.dotx template. Each user has one.

Building Blocks stored in that template will be available to the user regardless of which template he or she is using at any given time, such as pleadings or letterhead.

Before you go ahead and try this, be aware that if you want to save any paragraph formatting, be certain to select the pilcrow (paragraph symbol) at the end of your paragraph along with any text and graphics. To be certain that you have selected that pilcrow, tabs indicators, etc., be sure to turn on the Show/Hide feature (which should always be turned on).

  • On the Home tab, click the paragraph icon in the Paragraph group or use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + *.
  1. After creating your Building Block, click OK.

To insert your Building Block (such as a signature block), you can either click the Insert Tab | Quick Parts, locate your entry in the list and click Insert or simply use the shortcut you named it and F3,

Signature Block Example

See how much time you can save? I know you will be very busy creating Building Blocks now!

Subscribers: The Style Inspector in Word 2007 and 2010

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In later versions of Word, a new tool, called the Style Inspector has been introduced. This handy little tool allows you to see and remove paragraph formatting and character formatting (Text-level formatting) as the Inspector likes to call it.

After you have keyed in your text and applied your formatting, font size, block quotes, set tabs, bolding, etc. and you see something that looks amiss, you simply launch the Style Inspector to help you resolve whatever issue you may be having.

Style Inspector

Note that the top portion of the dialog box deals with Paragraph formatting and the bottom with character or Text-level formatting. Under Paragraph formatting, the top box shows any style that has been applied to the paragraph and the bottom box shows any formatting you have applied manually via the Paragraph dialog box.

Under Text-level formatting, the top box shows the font that is in use in your paragraph, while the bottom box shows any character or front attributes you have applied to the text.

You can clear paragraph or character formatting by clicking one or more of the buttons at the right side of the dialog box, the ones with the eraser on them. Note that if you want to clear either type of paragraph formatting, it does not matter where your cursor is as long as it is somewhere within the affected paragraph. However, if you want to clear Text-level formatting, you will need to select the text before stripping the formatting from it. As near as I can tell, if you have applied several different font attributes, you cannot clear only one using the Style Inspector. The Clear buttons wipe out all attributes at once, but you can always use the option of opening the Font dialog box and unchecking one or more individual attributes, leaving intact the ones you choose.

You do not need to select text to use the Clear All option. That option works on your entire paragraph.

The Style Inspector does not provide as much information as Reveal Formatting in Word 2007 and 2010, but it does allow you to clear either paragraph or style formatting, or both with just a few clicks of the buttons.

Subscribers: Add Tabs Automatically in Word Footnotes

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Some folks like to have a tab character in their footnotes in Word between the footnote reference number and the text of the footnote. Ms Word does not allow you to this automatically. As a matter of fact, Word will not allow you to specify which character should appear between your footnote reference number and your footnote text. Instead, MS Word will place a space between these two elements for you whether you want it or not.

There is more than one way to get around this and make sure the your footnote includes a tab separator, but all of the methods that will achieve this for you assume that you have the Footnote Text style set up to handle the tab character properly.

When you include a footnote in your Word document, Word formats the footnote itself to that it will use the built in Footnote Text style. You control how your footnote appears by making changes to the built in style. This is where modifying styles comes in handy and I do believe we have covered that in previous newsletters. If you would like a tab character between the footnote reference number and the beginning of your footnote text then you should set a tab stop in the Footnote Text style so that Word knows what to do with it once you put it in your footnote.

Follow the steps below to find out one solution for adding tabs.

  1. Click on CTRL | H which will display the Replace tab of the Find and Replay dialog box.
  2. If available, click on the More button.

Find and Replace 2003

Version 2007 and 2010 look like this

Find and Replace 2007

  1. Be certain that the Wildcards checkbox is selected.
  2. In the Find What box, key in (^) 2 . Please note that there is a space after the closing parentheses.
  3. With your cursor still in the Find box, click on the Format button and select Style. The Find Style dialog box will appear.
  4. In the ensuing list of styles, select the Footnote Text style.
  5. Click on OK.
  6. In the Replace With box, key in \1^t.
  7. Click on Replace All.
  8. Close the Find and Replace dialog box.

Subscribers: Find and Replace Trick to Insert New Text in Word

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There are lots and lots of Find and Replace tricks in Word and the other Office applications too. Find and Replace is a hard working feature that allows you to edit your documents quickly and easily. And we all know how I love quick and easy! One of the little known tricks in Find and Replace is that you can use it to insert text.

Suppose you work in a law office and you have created a pleading with the plaintiff simply referred to as Plaintiff throughout the pleading. Now, the author of the pleading decides they would like it to now read Plaintiff Smith. You could use the Find and Replace feature to search for every occurrence of the word Plaintiff and add the name manually for sure, but that could quickly turn in a very tedious and time consuming task. There is a much simpler way to accomplish this task.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click Ctrl + F to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

Find_What

  1. In the Find What area key in Plaintiff
  2. In the Replace With area, key in ^&, Smith.

Replace_With
Very simply game eh? What a time saver too!

This is truly a very simple example in which it really doesn’t matter all that much, but you could potentially have much more difficult tasks for this feature. You may need to insert text both before and after and existing string or the existing string may be long and unfamiliar, widening the margin for error, which can be very difficult to troubleshoot in a Find and Replace task.

Using ^& to represent the Find What string is a very easy way to insert text and keep the Find What string intact.

I bet you will find many ways to use this little known feature now that you have learned of it!

Subscribers: Table shortcut keys in Word

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Shortcut Keys
Function Editing Key
Select a column Click the columns top gridline border
Select a row Click to the left of the row
Select multiple rows, cells, columns Highlight the column, row or cell
Select the entire table Click the Smart tag on the left top corner of the table.
Select a cell Click at the edge of the cell
Move to next cell Tab or click at the beginning of the cell with the left mouse key
Move to preceding cell Shift + Tab
Move to preceding cell or next row Up or Down arrow keys
Move to the first cell in the row Alt + Home or Alt + 7 (num lock key off)
Move to the last cell in the row Alt + End or Alt + 1 (num lock key off)
Move to the first cell in the column Alt + Page Up or Alt + 9 (num lock key off)
Start a new paragraph Enter
Add a new row Click on the Add a row icon or Table | Insert Rows
Add text before a table Enter
Move row up or down Highlight row, press Alt + Shift up and/or down arrow keys

Note: All of these functions can be performed either by clicking the right mouse button or choosing Table from the menu option.