BOOT CAMP 414 (07/03/06)

TOP 10 WORD TIPS

Trawling through the archives I was surprised to see that it has been almost two years since we last carried a roundup of tips and tweaks for the three most popular PC applications, namely Word, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. This annual event has been a consistently popular feature of Boot Camp since it began back in 1998 and it would be a pity to let it drop so without more ado here’s the first batch of ten things you can do to make Microsoft Word more flexible, productive and easier to use.

Given its complexity Word is a surprisingly reliable program but when it does go wrong most faults can be traced to a file called Normal.dot. This is the ‘normal’ document template and it contains all of your preferences, formatting, macros and custom dictionary entries. It’s constantly updated, which means it’s liable to corruption and when that happens Word can do all sorts of odd things or even refuse to open.

Tip number one is to make a backup copy of normal.dot whilst Word is working properly. If you are using Windows 9x (98/SE/ME), you’ll find it in C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. In XP it lives in: C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Templates.

Don’t worry if you haven’t made a copy and Word throws a wobbly, all you have to do is rename normal.dot to normal.old and the next time Word opens it will create a new normal.dot, though this will reset Word to its default condition and you’ll loose all of your changes. By the way, copying normal.dot to the same location on another PC using the same version of Word is a quick and easy way of transferring your Word customisations, macros and so on to a new PC.

One of the most popular Word tips we’ve ever published is how to enable the hidden Work menu, so here once again is how to put a drop-down menu on a toolbar that gives you one-click access to any documents that you need to open on a regular basis. It’s really easy, just right click into an empty area of the toolbar select Customize then the Commands tab. Scroll down the Categories list, highlight ‘Built In Menus’ then on the Commands list scroll down to ‘Work’ and click hold and drag and drop it onto the toolbar. To include a document on the Work menu simply open it then Click on the Work menu button and select ‘Add to Work Menu’. To remove a document from the menu press Ctrl + Alt + - (hyphen), the cursor changes to a thick horizontal bar, place it over the entry you want to delete and click the left mouse button.

This next tip has saved me countless hours or worry and frustration over the years. It’s a simple Macro that makes a backup copy of the document you are currently working on with a simple keyboard shortcut. Where the copy goes is up to you, it could be another HDD or partition, a floppy, USB pen drive or a UDF formatted CD in your CD-writer (see Top Tip). Don’t worry if you’ve never used Word Macros before, they’re just a string of commands that tell Word to do carry out a sequence of actions. This macro should work in all versions of Word from W2000 onwards (if anyone wants a version for W97 please drop me a line).

The Macro is set to save the copy to drive D: but you can switch this to the location of your choice by changing the drive letter or path in line 4, for example, to back up to a floppy line 4 would read ‘ChangeFileOpenDirectory "A:\".  To begin go to Tools > Macro > Macros and click Create, give it a name. Click the Create button again and the Visual Basic window opens with a flashing cursor after the line ‘Macro created….’ Now copy and paste the following block of text from ‘Sub RickSave()’  to ‘StatusBar…’ into the box at the cursor insertion point and close the window.

Sub Ricksave()

Dim Pathroute

Pathroute = ActiveDocument.FullName

ChangeFileOpenDirectory "D:\"

ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=ActiveDocument.Name, FileFormat:= _

wdFormatDocument, LockComments:=False, Password:="", AddToRecentFiles:=True, _

WritePassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False, EmbedTrueTypeFonts:=False, _

SaveNativePictureFormat:=False, SaveFormsData:=False, SaveAsAOCELetter:= _

False

ChangeFileOpenDirectory "C:\"

ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=Pathroute, FileFormat:= _

wdFormatDocument, LockComments:=False, Password:="", AddToRecentFiles:=True, _

WritePassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False, EmbedTrueTypeFonts:=False, _

SaveNativePictureFormat:=False, SaveFormsData:=False, SaveAsAOCELetter:= _

False

StatusBar = ActiveDocument.Name & " saved in active directory and on backup drive"

Now all you have to do is assign the macro a memorable keyboard shortcut. Right click on an empty area of the toolbar and select Customise then the Keyboard button. In the Categories windows scroll down to Macros then in the Macros list click on Ricksave. Click into the ‘Press new shortcut’ box and enter the two keys you want to use (I use Ctrl + S). It will tell you if this combination is already in use and ask you to confirm that you want to change it. When you are happy click Assign. Exit the dialogue boxes and give it a try. 

NEXT WEEK - More Word Tips

JARGON FILTER

MACRO

Simple programming function in Word (and many other programs) used to automate frequently used commands and functions

UDF

Universal Data Format or ‘Packet writing -- allows files to be added and deleted on a recordable CD so that it acts like a giant floppy disc (see Top Tip)

USB DRIVE

Small self-contained memory module, designed to connect with a PCs Universal Serial Bus port, used to transport data from one computer to another

TOP TIP

UDF or Packet writing turns a blank recordable CD (CD-R) into a giant 700Mb floppy disc, allowing data to be written and erased at will. The only downside is that the disc can only be read in the PC it was made on (or another PC with suitable software) until it is ‘finalised’, after which it behaves like a normal data CD that can be read on any PC. The option to format a disc using UDF is included in Roxio Easy Disc Creator (DirectCD) and Nero Burning (InCD).

---end---

© R. Maybury 2006, 0103