Spelling and Grammar Checkers  

Provides a few suggestions about how writers and editors can use spelling and grammar checkers more effectively.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Articles>Word Processing>Software

Spelling and Other Tools  

This section shows you how to use Word’s spelling, grammar, and research tools. You also learn how to hyphenate documents, print envelopes and labels, and work with XML.

Glenn, Walter. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Stop Graphics from Increasing the Size of Your Word Documents

When you insert a graphic into your Word document, it increases the file size automatically as Word has to ‘store’ (i.e. duplicate) a rendering of the graphic in the document. To avoid this happening, you can reduce the file size by storing only the links to the graphics and not the actual graphic itself.

Klariti (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word

Strait and Narrow: Using Columns

When you open a new blank document in Word, you begin typing at the left side of the screen/page and continue typing to the right margin, where Word wraps your text back to the left so you can start again. All your lines of text are full width. But sometimes you need to divide your text into two or more columns.

Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Taking Advantage of "Automatic Text" Features  

I recently began looking for a way to eliminate the need to manually perform small repetitive tasks. In Microsoft Word, that way is through the software’s 'automatic text' features: Autoformat, Autocorrect, and Autotext. In this article, I’ll focus on these features in Word, but will also discuss how to lighten the work load in other software.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Technical Writing Using OpenOffice.org Writer

If you're in the business of writing technical documents and you've been using Word in particular, you could benefit by switching to OpenOffice.org Writer. OpenOffice.org Writer is a strong competitor to Word for both drafts and final layout (desktop publishing) of many technical documents because it combines some of the best features of Word and FrameMaker. Indeed, Writer does several things better or easier than each of them.

Weber, Jean Hollis. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice

Ten Obscure Word Tricks to Expedite Common Chores  

Buried within Word are lots of cool tricks that not too many people have discovered. These are small things--shortcuts that, in some cases, may not look much more efficient than pulling down a menu and heading for the dialog box you need. But if you perform a certain task a thousand times a week, being able to bypass some steps or automatically slap a change into a document without having to stop and think about it can be a welcome convenience. The techniques included here include things like making vertical text selections, creating a shortcut to launch Word using a specified template, placing the Calculate command on a toolbar for quickly adding numbers, and duplicating text and objects with the mouse.

Gilbert, Jody. TechRepublic (2006). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

To Use or Not to Use Word

For long Word documents, I never use the main/sub document feature. It's unreliable. Instead I link the graphics without saving in the document. When the document is completed I change it to relative path (using a Find & Replace procedure) for reliable file transfer.

Ring, Peter. TC-FORUM (1997). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Tools of the Technical Writing Trade

In technical writing, the most important tool of the trade is of course your brain. Next come your communication skills and those are followed by language skills. Finally, you will use these tools to create and shape your writing. A word processor is the most important tool of them all.

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Word Processing

Troubleshooting Word 2004 for Macintosh

If you have no clue what is causing your problem with Word, work through The Basics and all the General Troubleshooting topics. Beyond the basics, probably 70% of the problems in Word are caused by a corrupt Normal template or corrupt Preferences.

Word MVP Site, The (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Turning Word into a Pseudo-Database by Using Mail Merge Query Options

Purists might argue that the power it gives ordinary users isn't necessary because they should use Access queries for this sort of thing and link the merge to the query. But in my experience, many people who are very comfortable working with Word and Excel find Access (or any full-fledged database application) very difficult to work with, and can get the job done far more quickly and easily using a combination of Word and Excel. At the end of the day, getting the job done is what matters. The vast majority of the world's databases (in terms of number of databases, rather than in terms of amount of data) are stored in Excel spreadsheets.

Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Databases>Microsoft Word

Typographical Tips from Microsoft Publisher

In one form or another, Word is ubiquitous. If you buy a new computer, chances are good that it will come with some version of Office or Works Suite (which includes Word) installed. Word is a powerful word processing program that incorporates many of the features of a page layout application, but there are times when a page layout or desktop publishing application is what is needed. If you are using the Small Business Edition of Office 97 or Office 2000 SBE, Professional, or Premium, you have such a program: Microsoft Publisher.

Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Typography>Microsoft Publisher

Use Handwriting Recognition to Sign Letters in Word  

Microsoft Word 2002's Handwriting Recognition feature allows you to use a pen and electronic tablet or a mouse to add a signature to your documents. Find out how you can start adding this feature to all your letters.

Richardson, Mary Ann. TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Useful WordBasic Commands That Have no VBA Equivalent

When Microsoft released Word 97, a new programming language VBA replaced the WordBasic language that had been available in earlier versions of Word. For most things, VBA is a much more powerful and flexible programming language than WordBasic, but there are a few very useful WordBasic commands which have no direct equivalents in VBA. Fortunately, VBA includes the WordBasic object, which gives access to most of the old WordBasic commands.

West, Jonathan. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word

Using Computers to Improve Your Writing

One complaint I often here when teaching my courses is that I use computers too much. "What do computers have to do with writing?" students ask. "All I need is a pencil and some paper!" Well, that may have been the case a few decades ago, but now writers are expected to type their documents using a professional word processing program (Microsoft's Word, Corel's Word Perfect, Sun's Open Office Writer, or perhaps Abiword.) Though these programs each have their differences, they perform the same tasks.

Barton, Matt. MattBarton.net (2008). Articles>Writing>Word Processing

Using MacroButton Fields

The macrobutton field can be used as a text marker within a template, or, as the name implies, it can be used to run a macro.

Mayor, Graham, Jonathan West and Hak-lok Ng. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Using Watermarks to Personalize Your Documents

Have you ever wanted the word 'DRAFT' to appear as a light background on the pages of your printed documents? Microsoft refers to this use of words and images as 'watermarks.'

Klariti. Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Using Word Macros as a Single Source Solution  

This paper, and my presentation, focus on the how I developed the idea of using Microsoft Word macros as a single source solution. They also discuss the benefits of these macros and their effectiveness.

McHugh, Brian C. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Word Processing>Single Sourcing>Microsoft Word

Using Word's User Forms  

Mohr explains how to create User Forms--macro-controlled user interfaces that employ standard graphical user interface components--for collecting information from users that can be saved as character-delimited text files and fed into a database.

Mohr, Robert P. Intercom (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Forms

What Do All Those Funny Marks, Like the Dots Between the Words in My Document and the Square Bullets in the Left Margin Mean?

Occasionally a new user of Word is alarmed to discover that his previously pristine document is full of strange symbols – dots, arrows, paragraphs marks, and the like. For experienced users, the usual reaction of such a user seems almost comical because experienced users know how invaluable the display of nonprinting characters can be both in formatting and in troubleshooting documents.

Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

What Word Tries to Do for You  

Word performs many behind-the-scenes actions that some people hate and some people love. You already learned about AutoRecover, which saves files in the background every few minutes. Word offers three other big automated features: AutoCorrect, Smart Cut and Paste, and background spelling and grammar check.

Glenn, Walter. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

When to Use Parentheses to Enclose Subroutine and Function Arguments

The rules are confusing concerning the use of parentheses to enclose argument lists. I have even seen MS Knowledgebase articles that have got it wrong. The rules are as follows.

West, Jonathan. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word

When Word-XML Conversions Get Nasty

One of the first hurdles facing any major content or document management implementation is what to do with legacy documents.  Chances are, many or most of those documents reside in Microsoft Word format, but enterprises often want to get them into a more open format, like XML.  This is particularly the case for STM (Scientific, Technical, Medical) publishing, where you find complicated -- but highly structured -- information along with tantalizingly attractive re-use opportunities.  But it is also true for everyday corporate documents as well.

Gross, Michael. CMSwatch (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Who Says You Can't Use Microsoft Word To Do XML?

Although MS Word can generate XML, it should not be considered any kind of a robust XML authoring tool. Instead, its XML features are best for use with other Microsoft Office applications. However, because XML authoring is gaining in popularity, new XML authoring software tools and utilities are coming to market. In this article, Scott Abel looks at using MS Word for XML and takes a closer look at one alternative XML solution from a Microsoft partner that uses Word's familiar interface.

Abel, Scott. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Word Processing>XML>Microsoft Word

Why Do All the Page Numbers in my Word 2002 Document Display as 0?

Word 2002 will display 0 for all page numbers in headers or footers, and all page numbers in a Table of Contents, in the following circumstances.

Kelly, Shauna. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Document Design>Microsoft Word