Microsoft Word is a word processor, part of the Microsoft Office suite of computer applications. It is commonly used by technical writers, sometimes in combination with document design applications.
#21678
Five Steps to Update Word Templates
You can customize the templates that come with Word in a few easy steps. In this exercise, we will change the Memo template's font type and size.
#27234
Floating Objects in Word 2000 Table Cells are Vertically Aligned Wrongly
Whenever I insert a graphical object (picture, drawing object, etc.) into a Word 2000 table cell I lose the vertical formatting. The text is always aligned at the top of the cell, instead of being centered or at the bottom of the cell. Why, and what can I do about it?
Meister, Cindy. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27706
Format Comparison Between ODF and MS XML
There has been a lot of attention to the legal encumbrances in Microsoft's new MS XML format. In this article we'll look at the technical side, and try to show you how the design of these formats affect interoperability. After all, that is the purpose of open standards.
Hudson, Alex, J. David Eisenberg, Bruce D'Arcus and Daniel Carrera. Groklaw (2005). Articles>Information Design>Standards>Microsoft Word
#30364
These are some formatting/word processing tips for Microsoft Word.
Leigh, Heather. Crazy for Words (2007). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27229
Getting Help With Calling Word's Built-In Dialogs Using VBA
There are two Help topics in Word VBA Help that are required reading to get you started with built-in dialogs: 'Displaying built-in Word dialog boxes' and 'Built-in dialog box argument lists'. Unfortunately, in the latter article, Microsoft listed the arguments you can use but forgot to mention what the arguments mean or what values they can take! Fortunately, the dialog box arguments are almost identical to the arguments of the commands of WordBasic, so if you know one, you can work out the other. Therefore, the WordBasic Help file is at present by far the best resource for programmers wanting to use the dialogs. It is an absolute must-have.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#27218
Getting to Grips With VBA Basics in 15 Minutes 
I can't turn you into a VBA expert but I can suggest a way to explore VBA that you may find helpful. Below, I've listed 22 steps that can be completed in approximately 15 minutes, assuming someone is kind enough to read them to you as you sit at your keyboard. If you have to read them by yourself and turn your attention alternately to the keyboard and back to the steps, then you may need a half hour or longer to complete the steps. Either way, the steps should give you a feel for what it's like to program in Word.
Coan, Bill. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#31885
Going from Word to Wiki: A Few Thoughts
An overview of how one technical communicator moved a Word document to a wiki, and some of the issues involved.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>TC>Wikis>Microsoft Word
#27232
Graphics Don't Appear or Won't Print
Objects in the drawing layer are visible in Page Layout (Print Layout) view and Print Preview but not in Normal view. Interestingly, a frame is a sort of hybrid object that can appear to float (and text can be wrapped around it), but it is actually inline and can be viewed (though not in position) in Normal view.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Graphic Design>Software>Microsoft Word
#27085
Hidden Information for All to See
While it takes special forensic tools to access most of the hidden information in computers, some of it is in plain view and can be seen without forensic tools. This article is about one of the 'plain view' instances: information Microsoft Word saves about you, your company, and the topic you are writing about, all of which can be seen by anyone who has access to your document.
Molisani, Jacki. Indus (2006). Articles>Information Design>Privacy>Microsoft Word
#27190
How Can I Insert Special Characters, Such as Dingbats and Accented Letters, in My Document?
Many Word users don't realize how easy it is to insert special characters. There are at least four ways to do it: through the Symbol dialog, using shortcut keys, automatically with AutoCorrect, or by direct keypad entry.
Barnhill, Suzanne. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27207
How Can I Recover a Corrupt Document or Template – and Why Did It Become Corrupt?
Saving when resources are low can cause corruptions. If you notice Word start to slow down noticeably it's always best to quit and restart Word immediately; to close any other applications that are open; and to clear the clipboard, by selecting any character and copying it.
Rado, Dave and John McGhie. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27201
How Do I Generate an Index in Word?
The Microsoft Word Help suggests that you can automatically generate an index. Sorry, but you can't (the 'result' looks like an index, but the reader can't use it). You can automatically mark index entries: however, the amount of work required to edit the result into a usable index is usually double the effort required to manually mark the index entries one-by-one.
McGhie, John. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Indexing>Microsoft Word
#27216
How To Add Pop-Up Lists to any Word Document, So You Can Click Your Way Through Changes in Seconds
Do you re-use some of your documents over and over again, making slight changes just before you print, fax, or email it each time? Do you, for example, send the same basic letter to each new customer, but edit the letter each time so that it refers to the specific product purchased by that customer? Starting with Word 97, there's an easy way to add a pop-up list of choices to any Word document. This new feature lets you point at a word or phrase and simply right-click the mouse to switch to some other word or phrase.
Coan, Bill. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#27202
How to Control the Page Numbering in a Word Document
Word's page numbering scheme isn't directly obvious but it isn't needlessly complex, either. Indirect might be a good term for it. Once you understand how it works, all sorts of possibilities open up. Unfortunately, the built-in tools that simplify the insertion of page numbers also happen to make it more difficult to tell what's really going on. So, for the moment, forget everything you've learned or think you know about page numbers.
Coan, Bill. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Document Design>Microsoft Word
#27194
Mail merge is for simplifying repetitive documents and tasks. Mail merge can be used for creating many documents at once that contain identical formatting, layout, text, graphics, etc., and where only certain portions of each document varies. Mail merge is also used for generating mailing labels, envelopes, address lists, personalised training handouts, etc. As well as hard copy mailshots, it can be used to generate multiple emails and electronic faxes. And it can even be used to create a 'friendly' front-end to spreadsheet or database information.
Melton, Beth and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Databases>Microsoft Word
#27219
This example will step you through the process of creating a template that contains an autonew macro which, when you create a new document from the template, will cause a Userform to be displayed, into which you can enter some information that you want to appear in the document.
Robbins, Doug. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Forms>Microsoft Word
#26753
How to Create Different Page Numbering Formats
Large documents often require several page number formats in the same document. In this article, we describe how to setup different page numbering formats.
Klariti (2005). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word
#26752
How to Create Macros in Microsoft Word
A macro is an action, or a set of actions, that automate tasks. Macros are recorded in the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language. You can use the macro recorder to record a sequence of actions as a macro, or write VBA code in the Visual Basic Editor.
Klariti (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word
#27230
How to Customise the Control Toolbox in the VB Editor
Supposing you frequently need to add Multiline Text Boxes to your UserForms, with the EnterKeyBehavior property set to True. Or let's say you want to drag a 'Next' button straight onto your userform and not have to change the text in it to say 'Next', and not have to change the dimensions of the button.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#27223
Most of us write routines that do similar operations more than once. It makes your code much less cumbersome and much easier to follow if you hive off all such repetitive chunks of code into separate subroutines or functions. The difference between a sub and a function is that a function can return a value. Within the function itself, you can treat the function name like a variable, and give it a value and then you can call the function and get that value.
Rado, Dave. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#23675
How To Generate A Table Of Contents in Word
Using heading levels and styles in Microsoft Word, you can automatically generate a table of contents. It is useful when doing a long document that needs a table of contents and generating a table of contents is much faster than doing one manually.
Austria, Arden Paul. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27208
How to Recover a Master Document
Notice how this article starts off with the cheerful assumption that you want to 'recover' a Master Document? I bet you were hoping that we would tell you how to 'fix' one! We can't. If you are having a problem with a master document, the problem is the master document. Any attempt you make to repair one will inevitably make your problem worse.
McGhie, John. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26751
How to Recover Lost Word Files
Microsoft Word will 'lose' documents in certain situations. For example, it may lose a document if Word is forced to quit unexpectedly, if your computer has a power interruption while you're writing, or if you close the document without saving changes. In this article we explain different ways to recover these lost documents.
Klariti (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word
#26746
How to Reduce Microsoft Word File Size
Bloated file sizes are a real problem. No-one will deny this. But, in the course of creating some long documents in MS Word, I've learned a few small secrets.
#27237
How to Remove Manually Typed Numbering from a Document
You can use the old Word 2 command: WordBasic.ToolsBulletsNumbers Replace:=0, Type:=1, Remove:=1 This command is particularly useful for removing manually typed numbering from Headings in a document you have been emailed, prior to applying List Numbering.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
