Microsoft Word

Trivia, some of it about Microsoft Word

Statistics    History    Formatting    Three ways to move a paragraph    Three ways to avoid embarrassment    See what's going on in Word    Five ways to lose your work    Having Fun    Four things I miss about WordPerfect   

Statistics

• Most important key on your keyboard: F1.
• Number of users of Word claimed by Microsoft: 300 million (that's 3,000 MCGs-full).
• Maximum number of words you can put into your Custom Dictionary in Word 2002: 5,000. (The Custom Dictionary is where Word stores words when you run a spell check and choose Add to Dictionary.)
• Maximum number of styles that Word 2002 can store in one document or one template: 10,000.
• Minimum size for a Word document in Word 2002: 19.5KB. In Word 95: about 10KB.

History

• Year the first commercial typewriter was introduced: 1874. Fundamental problem for users: the typewriter printed on the underside of the roller. Typists couldn't see the typing until they had finished the page.
• Year the Shift Key was invented: 1878.
• Year Word version 1 was released: 1983.
• Year that automatic numbering was first identified as a problem in Word: 1983. (See How to create numbered headings for information on how to get round the problems.)
• Year Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web: 1989.

Formatting

• Default Body Text style in Word 2002: Times New Roman, 12pt, 6pt space after each paragraph. How to change it: modify the style.
• Real name of the ¶ sign used as the end-of-paragraph marker: pilcrow. How to get Word to display end-of-paragraph markers: click the ¶ button on the Standard toolbar.
• Minimum number of mouse clicks needed to make a heading in Word look like the headings on this page, if you use direct formatting: 21. If you use a style: 2.
• Easiest way to see what styles you have applied to all the paragraphs in your Word document: Tools > Options > View. Set Style Area Width to be 2.5cm (or about 1 inch for those using the British Imperial system). Click OK. Now, View > Normal.

Three ways to move a paragraph from one place to another

• Place the Insertion Point or cursor in the paragraph you want to move. Use Shift-Alt-Up Arrow or Shift-Alt-Down Arrow to move up and down.
• Triple-click within the paragraph to select the whole paragraph. Choose Edit > Cut. Place the Insertion Point or cursor where you want the paragraph to go. Choose Edit > Paste.
• Delete the text and re-type it where you want it to appear. (Only joking!)

Three ways to avoid embarrassment when using Word

• How to run the spell checker in Word: Tools > Spelling and Grammar, or, press F7.
• How to make sure that your fields will be updated every time you print the document: Tools > Options > Print. Tick Update Fields.
• Check your Headers and Footers before you send out important documents. For example, it is very easy to send out the latest version of your resume with a Footer that has a date several months old.

Making sure that you can see what's going on in Word

Working with a blank page in Word is like trying to drive without a speedo or cook without a thermometer on the oven. Make sure you can see what's going on.

• Make sure you can see all available menu items: Tools > Customize > Options. Tick "Always show full menus".
• Make sure you can see the margins of your page in Print Layout View or Page Layout View: Tools > Options > View. Tick "Text boundaries".
• Make sure you can see the end-of-paragraph markers: click the ¶ button on the Standard Toolbar. Or, Tools > Options > View. Tick All..

Five ways to lose your work (and five ways to make sure your work is safely saved)

Don't do this	Do this to make sure your work is safe
Don't save your document. (You'd be surprised how many people write to Word newsgroups saying "I didn't save my document. Then I exited from Word. Can I get it back?" Answer: No.)	Save often. Save frequently. Create backups. Teach your fingers the shortcuts. Ctrl-s or Alt-F then S will save your document.
Don't create backups.	Tell Word to create a backup every time you save. Tools > Options > Save. Tick Always Create Backup Copy. With this ticked, Word keeps the last copy of your file as a backup. Each time you save, the backup is discarded, the present file becomes the backup, and your new work is saved in your document.
Save your document to a floppy disk (or open from a floppy).	Save your document to the hard drive. Then use Windows Explorer to copy the document to a floppy. (Or, copy from the floppy to the hard drive, and open from there.)
Open a document attached to an email, edit it, then do File > Save.	If you open a file attached to an email, Windows creates a temporary copy of the document in a temporary folder. If you edit the document straight from the email, your changes won't be saved. Save the file from the email to your hard drive. Then open that new file in Word, and work on it.
Use Master and Sub-Documents	John McGhie, Microsoft Word MVP, has said "A master document has only two possible states: Corrupt, or just about to be corrupt." See How to recover a Master Document, and Why Master Documents corrupt.
Keep FastSaves ticked.	FastSaves sounds like the kind of thing an industrious user of Word would want, doesn't it? Nope! FastSaves is a sure-fire way to lose your work. To turn it off, Tools > Options > Save. Un-tick Allow Fast Saves.

Four things I miss about WordPerfect

Some people think I'm an apologist for Word. Not so! Word is a great program. But there are things I miss from old WordPerfect 4.1, which I started using in about 1986, and which Word still can't manage. Here are four.

• Alt-F6 caused the remaining text on a line to be flush right. (No, that's not the same thing as using a right-aligned tab at the right margin.)
• The status bar in WP displayed the distance from the left margin to the cursor. In centimetres, not completely useless "columns".
• WP let me create complex sorts on, for example, the 3rd-last word in the second line of a series of labels.
• WP let me create different formatting for page numbers at different levels of a table of contents.

Having fun

• Easiest way to personalize your version of Word so it suits your personality: re-design the toolbar buttons. Tools > Customize. Right-click any button, choose Edit Button Image. Release your artistic soul. Just don't expect that anyone else using your machine will recognize that the blue daisy means Bold.
• Easiest way to re-set the toolbars if you tire of the blue daisy: Tools > Customize > Toolbars. Click the name of the toolbar, then click Reset.

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