Create a Specialized Table
 To create a specialized table with columns and rows in odd widths and heights, use the draw table feature. Be sure the tables and borders toolbar is open. To do so, right click on any toolbar then select tables and borders toolbar. If it appears, floating on the screen, then double click on the Title bar and it will move it below the last toolbar. The first button on the toolbar is called draw table. Click and drag to the size you want the table to be. Click and draw across the table for rows. Click and draw down to create columns. Try playing with this until you are comfortable.
Damaged Goods
The Recover Text converter isn't the only measure for dealing with damaged files. Before you use it, be sure you've exhausted all other available options. First, troubleshoot the problem:
- Check to see if the behavior you're encountering occurs in other documents and other programs.
- Try to open the problem file on another computer.
- Quit other open applications to reduce the amount of system resources being used at once.
- Quit the application you're using to open the document, and then restart it.
- Close all applications and reboot your system.
- If you're attempting to open a Word document based on a template other than the Normal.dot template, attach the problem document to the Normal.dot template instead. To do so, open the document, then select Tools/Templates And Add-Ins from the menu bar. Click Attach, then locate the Normal.dot template. Select it, click Open, and then click OK.
If you experience the same problems after using these troubleshooting steps, then your file is probably corrupt.
Displaying the Style Area
An often-overlooked element of Word's styles feature is the style area. This area is set to 0 by default, but you can adjust it so that you can view all your paragraph style assignments to the left of your text. Of course, you can get by without this display, but it's often helpful to be able to see at a glance what styles a document contains. And there's a bonus: When you display the style area, you can double-click within it to bring up the Style dialog box.
To display the style area, first make sure you're in normal or outline view. Then, choose Options... from the Tools menu and click the View tab. In the bottom-left corner of the tab, you'll see the Style Area Width text box. Enter a measurement that's large enough to accommodate your longest style name. (One inch is usually sufficient.) Now, click OK. Word will close the Options dialog box and create the style area along the left side of the document window.
If the area isn't the correct width, you can adjust it by dragging the split bar (the line that separates the style area from the document text area.) To remove the style area, drag the split bar off the left edge of your screen.
Navigate Long Documents
- Select View/Document Map from the menu bar to bring up a scrolling outline of the document.
- To reduce the Document Map to main headings, right-click in the map, and select Show Heading 1.
- Scroll down the map (it's now much faster) until you find what you're looking for. Click it to zoom right there in the editing window.
- To turn off Document Map, right-click in the map, and select the top Document Map option.
Turn Off Unneeded Features
Word 97 installs itself with a tall stack of features, enabled and ready to go. Dumping the ones you don't need is a quick way to speed up your work and streamline Word. To turn most features on and off, select Tools, Options and uncheck the ones you don't want. Here's a list of likely candidates you might want to disable. You'll find them listed in the Options dialog box by tab. To disable a feature, clear its check box.
Under the View tab
Animated text.
Screen Tips.
Under the Save tab
Save AutoRecover info every (try increasing the time interval.)
Under the Spelling & Grammar tab
Check spelling as you type.
Check grammar as you type.
Other time-gobbling features can be found under Word's AutoCorrect menu. Select Tools, AutoCorrect to control these and AutoFormat features as well. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, look for these features, by tab.
AutoCorrect tab
Replace text as you type.
AutoFormat as You Type tab
Word 97 will automatically apply these features to your document as you type. To speed things up, clear all check boxes that don't apply to your work style.
AutoText tab
Show AutoComplete tip for AutoText and dates.
AutoFormat tab
These Word 97 features are applied to a document all at once when you choose Format, AutoFormat. If you prefer to format documents as you type, you can deselect all the features under the AutoFormat tab and choose those under the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Or, you can turn off all autoformatting features under both tabs.
Make Word Scroll Automatically
There's an undocumented feature in Word 97 called AutoScroll, which turns Word into an automatically scrolling document reader. It's great when you need to read a long document without touching the keyboard or mouse, and it can even be used as an impromptu TelePrompter.
AutoScroll was designed for use with the Microsoft IntelliMouse and works with that mouse's control wheel to scroll documents. However, the feature also works with a conventional mouse, although Microsoft doesn't tell you that. Here's how to make it work for you: Select Tools, Customize, then click the Commands tab. Choose All Commands in the Categories list, then locate AutoScroll in the Commands list.
Drag and drop AutoScroll onto any toolbar. It will appear as a text button. To use AutoScroll, just click its button while a document is on the screen. It will immediately begin scrolling down slowly. To increase scrolling speed or change scrolling direction, move the mouse pointer in the vertical scroll bar, but don't click it. The farther you move the pointer away from the scroll-bar block, the faster Word scrolls the document. To stop scrolling, press any key or click the mouse. |
