Microsoft Office 2011 is vast and powerful, but there are secret techniques you’ve got to know to get the most out of it. Our latest collection of tips features power-user tricks for Microsoft Word 2010.
Microsoft 2010 is such a feature-rich package that we presented an initial set of 10 Office tips and tricks and then followed it up with another set of Office tips and tricks a few weeks later. We’re back for a third run. The latest tip collection focuses on Microsoft Word, and it covers advanced customization options. Unless the tip specifically refers to Word 2010 only, it will work in Word 2007 as well. You can follow these tips as they’re presented, or adapt them to make Word work the way you want it to operate. Here are 10 tips to expand Word’s functionality.
1. Create and Use Building Blocks As Reusable Document Parts
Microsoft Word 2007 introduced a Building Blocks feature that lets you create standardized cover pages, headers, footers, and tables—a feature still available in Word 2010. A Building Block is a powerful, reusable tool. Once you create a Building Block, you can insert it into any new document. For example, to create a header for confidential documents, go to the Insert tab, click Header, and choose Blank from the gallery. Type “Confidential” into the header and format it any way you like (for example, press Ctrl-E to center it). With the text cursor in the header, press Ctrl-A to select the entire header. Return to the Insert tab, click Header, and then, from the foot of the gallery, click Save Selection to Header Gallery. In the Create New Building Block dialog, give your header a name (for example, “Confidential”), and click OK to save it as a Building Block. To insert this header in a new document, go to the Insert tab, click Header, scroll down through the gallery to the list of General items, and click on the name you gave to your header—”Confidential,” in our example. When you exit Word, you’ll be prompted to save your changes to the special-purpose Word file that contains your building blocks, BuildingBlocks.dotx, so you can reuse your new Building Block in future Word sessions.
2. Back up and Edit Word’s Default Document Template
Many of the tips in this selection tell you to edit the “default template” (Normal.dotm) that Word uses to specify the formatting of new documents. Before you proceed, turn off the Windows option that hides most filename extensions like .dotm. To do this in Vista or Windows 7, enter Folder Options in the Start Menu’s search box, open the Folder Options applet, and in the View tab, remove the checkbox next to “Hide extensions for known file types”, and click OK. Then, from Word’s File menu, choose Open. Next, in the sidebar, depending on your Windows versions, either click on Microsoft Word, then Templates, or click on Trusted Templates. This will open a list of files that includes Normal.dotm. Before doing anything else, make a backup copy of Normal.dotm. First highlighting the file, press Ctrl-C to copy it, then Ctrl-V to paste a copy into the same folder. The newly-created copy will be named “Copy of Normal.dotm,” but you can rename the backup copy anything you like, as long as you keep the .dotm file extension—for example, “My customized Normal.dotm.” When, when you’ve made a backup copy, double-click Normal.dotm to open it for editing
3. Create a default header or default page numbering
If you want all your documents to include page numbering by default, Word doesn’t make it obvious how to do so. But, if you’ve read Tip number 2, above, it’s not all that hard, either. Open your default template, Normal.dotm, as described in the previous tip, go to the Insert tab, choose Page Number, and choose a location and format for the page numbering. Close and save Normal.dotm, and all your new documents will use the page numbering you specified. But what if you want no page number on the first page of your document, or a number in a different location? Read on to the next tip.
4. Create default page numbering that starts on the second page
Use this trick after setting up default page numbering in Word using the previous tip, you decide that you do not want a page number to appear on the first page of your documents, but you do want it to appear on all other pages. Open Normal.dotm, go to the Page Layout tab. In the Page Setup group, click on More Arrow (the diagonal arrow at the lower right of the group) to open the Page Setup dialog. Once that’s opened, go to the Layout tab, and, under Headers and Footers, add a check box next to Different First Page, and click OK. Finally, close Normal.dotm. Any new document you create will have no page numbering on the first page, but will start page numbering on the second page.
5. Delete Normal.dotm and Restore the Default Version or a Backed-up Copy
If you ever need to delete or rename Normal.dotm, you’ll need to close Word and navigate to the folder that contains the template, because you can’t modify Normal.dotm while Word is running. The location of that folder varies in different Windows version, so the quickest way to find it is to enter this string in the search or run box in the Start Menu:
Your Templates folder will open in Windows Explorer. If you simply delete Normal.dotm, Microsoft’s original version of the file will be recreated the next time you launch Word. Alternately, you can take a backed-up copy of Normal.dotm that you customized earlier and rename this backed-up copy as Normal.dotm, and then Word will use it as your default template.
6. Give Word a more readable default font
The default font in Word 2010 is Calibri, which looks elegant on screen but isn’t very readable because it’s a “sans-serif” type—in other words, it doesn’t have the small horizontal strokes at the top and bottom of the letters that help guide the eye across the page. To change Word’s default font to something more readable and appealing, press Ctrl-Shift-F to open the Font dialog. I recommend that you change the font to Palatino Linotype, 12 point. Click Save as Default, choose “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template,” and click OK
7. Change other layout defaults in Word
You can change other default settings the same way you changed the default font. Press Alt-O, then P to open the Paragraph dialog (or click the More Arrow in the Paragraph group on the Home tab). Set spacing and other options, and click Save as Default. Go to the Page Layout tab, click the More Arrow in the Page Setup group to open the Page Setup dialog. Set margins and other page-layout settings, and click Save as Default
8. Put the Autoformat command on the Quick Access Toolbar
If you’re a longtime Word user, you may remember the AutoFormat command, which was a great timesaver when someone sent you a badly-formatted document, such as an e-mail message with paragraph break) at the end of every line that you needed to turn into an easily-editable Word document. When Microsoft introduced the Ribbon interface with Office 2007, the AutoFormat command wasn’t on it, but you can make it return. You can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar that appears above the Ribbon’s tabs by clicking on the down arrow at the right-hand end of the Quick Access Toolbar, and then clicking on More Commands. In the dropdown menu under “Choose commands from,” select Commands Not In the Ribbon. From the list that appears, click on Autoformat, the Add button, and then OK. Follow a similar procedure to put any other command on the Quick Access Toolbar that you want to access quickly.
9. Make Word warn you when you save or print a file with tracked revisions
If you ever use revision tracking in your Word documents, you’ve probably made the mistake of sending out a document with your revisions still present in your file, and easily visible to anyone who turns on the option to display revisions and changes. Word 2010 finally adds a dignity-saving security option that warns you whenever you try to save or print a document that contains revision information, or when you try to e-mail it from Word’s menus. To turn on this warning, go to the File menu, then Options, then Trust Center. Click on Trust Center Settings…, then Privacy Settings, and add a checkmark next to “Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
10. Save and Restore Your Macros
If you want to share your Word macros with other users, or import them into other systems, but you don’t want to share all the other customizations stored in Normal.dotm, save your macros to a file that contains just your macros and nothing else. Start by pressing Alt-F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor in the Project pane at the upper left, then click on the plus sign, Modules, and select “NewMacros.” From the File menu, choose Export File to export your macros to a file.
The file will have a .BAS extension, and, if you want to remove some macros or add explanatory comments, you can edit the file in Notepad or any other text editor. To import your macros into another copy of Word, press Alt-F11, select Normal in the Project pane, and choose Import File from the File menu
Microsoft 2010 is such a feature-rich package that we presented an initial set of 10 Office tips and tricks and then followed it up with another set of Office tips and tricks a few weeks later. We’re back for a third run. The latest tip collection focuses on Microsoft Word, and it covers advanced customization options. Unless the tip specifically refers to Word 2010 only, it will work in Word 2007 as well. You can follow these tips as they’re presented, or adapt them to make Word work the way you want it to operate. Here are 10 tips to expand Word’s functionality.
1. Create and Use Building Blocks As Reusable Document Parts
Microsoft Word 2007 introduced a Building Blocks feature that lets you create standardized cover pages, headers, footers, and tables—a feature still available in Word 2010. A Building Block is a powerful, reusable tool. Once you create a Building Block, you can insert it into any new document. For example, to create a header for confidential documents, go to the Insert tab, click Header, and choose Blank from the gallery. Type “Confidential” into the header and format it any way you like (for example, press Ctrl-E to center it). With the text cursor in the header, press Ctrl-A to select the entire header. Return to the Insert tab, click Header, and then, from the foot of the gallery, click Save Selection to Header Gallery. In the Create New Building Block dialog, give your header a name (for example, “Confidential”), and click OK to save it as a Building Block. To insert this header in a new document, go to the Insert tab, click Header, scroll down through the gallery to the list of General items, and click on the name you gave to your header—”Confidential,” in our example. When you exit Word, you’ll be prompted to save your changes to the special-purpose Word file that contains your building blocks, BuildingBlocks.dotx, so you can reuse your new Building Block in future Word sessions.
2. Back up and Edit Word’s Default Document Template
Many of the tips in this selection tell you to edit the “default template” (Normal.dotm) that Word uses to specify the formatting of new documents. Before you proceed, turn off the Windows option that hides most filename extensions like .dotm. To do this in Vista or Windows 7, enter Folder Options in the Start Menu’s search box, open the Folder Options applet, and in the View tab, remove the checkbox next to “Hide extensions for known file types”, and click OK. Then, from Word’s File menu, choose Open. Next, in the sidebar, depending on your Windows versions, either click on Microsoft Word, then Templates, or click on Trusted Templates. This will open a list of files that includes Normal.dotm. Before doing anything else, make a backup copy of Normal.dotm. First highlighting the file, press Ctrl-C to copy it, then Ctrl-V to paste a copy into the same folder. The newly-created copy will be named “Copy of Normal.dotm,” but you can rename the backup copy anything you like, as long as you keep the .dotm file extension—for example, “My customized Normal.dotm.” When, when you’ve made a backup copy, double-click Normal.dotm to open it for editing
3. Create a default header or default page numbering
If you want all your documents to include page numbering by default, Word doesn’t make it obvious how to do so. But, if you’ve read Tip number 2, above, it’s not all that hard, either. Open your default template, Normal.dotm, as described in the previous tip, go to the Insert tab, choose Page Number, and choose a location and format for the page numbering. Close and save Normal.dotm, and all your new documents will use the page numbering you specified. But what if you want no page number on the first page of your document, or a number in a different location? Read on to the next tip.
4. Create default page numbering that starts on the second page
Use this trick after setting up default page numbering in Word using the previous tip, you decide that you do not want a page number to appear on the first page of your documents, but you do want it to appear on all other pages. Open Normal.dotm, go to the Page Layout tab. In the Page Setup group, click on More Arrow (the diagonal arrow at the lower right of the group) to open the Page Setup dialog. Once that’s opened, go to the Layout tab, and, under Headers and Footers, add a check box next to Different First Page, and click OK. Finally, close Normal.dotm. Any new document you create will have no page numbering on the first page, but will start page numbering on the second page.
5. Delete Normal.dotm and Restore the Default Version or a Backed-up Copy
If you ever need to delete or rename Normal.dotm, you’ll need to close Word and navigate to the folder that contains the template, because you can’t modify Normal.dotm while Word is running. The location of that folder varies in different Windows version, so the quickest way to find it is to enter this string in the search or run box in the Start Menu:
Your Templates folder will open in Windows Explorer. If you simply delete Normal.dotm, Microsoft’s original version of the file will be recreated the next time you launch Word. Alternately, you can take a backed-up copy of Normal.dotm that you customized earlier and rename this backed-up copy as Normal.dotm, and then Word will use it as your default template.
6. Give Word a more readable default font
The default font in Word 2010 is Calibri, which looks elegant on screen but isn’t very readable because it’s a “sans-serif” type—in other words, it doesn’t have the small horizontal strokes at the top and bottom of the letters that help guide the eye across the page. To change Word’s default font to something more readable and appealing, press Ctrl-Shift-F to open the Font dialog. I recommend that you change the font to Palatino Linotype, 12 point. Click Save as Default, choose “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template,” and click OK
7. Change other layout defaults in Word
You can change other default settings the same way you changed the default font. Press Alt-O, then P to open the Paragraph dialog (or click the More Arrow in the Paragraph group on the Home tab). Set spacing and other options, and click Save as Default. Go to the Page Layout tab, click the More Arrow in the Page Setup group to open the Page Setup dialog. Set margins and other page-layout settings, and click Save as Default
8. Put the Autoformat command on the Quick Access Toolbar
If you’re a longtime Word user, you may remember the AutoFormat command, which was a great timesaver when someone sent you a badly-formatted document, such as an e-mail message with paragraph break) at the end of every line that you needed to turn into an easily-editable Word document. When Microsoft introduced the Ribbon interface with Office 2007, the AutoFormat command wasn’t on it, but you can make it return. You can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar that appears above the Ribbon’s tabs by clicking on the down arrow at the right-hand end of the Quick Access Toolbar, and then clicking on More Commands. In the dropdown menu under “Choose commands from,” select Commands Not In the Ribbon. From the list that appears, click on Autoformat, the Add button, and then OK. Follow a similar procedure to put any other command on the Quick Access Toolbar that you want to access quickly.
9. Make Word warn you when you save or print a file with tracked revisions
If you ever use revision tracking in your Word documents, you’ve probably made the mistake of sending out a document with your revisions still present in your file, and easily visible to anyone who turns on the option to display revisions and changes. Word 2010 finally adds a dignity-saving security option that warns you whenever you try to save or print a document that contains revision information, or when you try to e-mail it from Word’s menus. To turn on this warning, go to the File menu, then Options, then Trust Center. Click on Trust Center Settings…, then Privacy Settings, and add a checkmark next to “Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
10. Save and Restore Your Macros
If you want to share your Word macros with other users, or import them into other systems, but you don’t want to share all the other customizations stored in Normal.dotm, save your macros to a file that contains just your macros and nothing else. Start by pressing Alt-F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor in the Project pane at the upper left, then click on the plus sign, Modules, and select “NewMacros.” From the File menu, choose Export File to export your macros to a file.
The file will have a .BAS extension, and, if you want to remove some macros or add explanatory comments, you can edit the file in Notepad or any other text editor. To import your macros into another copy of Word, press Alt-F11, select Normal in the Project pane, and choose Import File from the File menu
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