Office 97 - Word Tips

1. In Outlook, create a new Contacts folder: click the Contacts icon in the Outlook bar, select File/New/Folder from the menu bar, name the folder, and click OK.
2. Select View/Folder List from the menu bar.
3. In the main Contacts window, hold down the Ctrl button, select the contacts to whom you want to send the mail merge, and drag the names to the folder you just created in the Folder List.
4. Switch to Word, open the document you want to mail-merge, and select Tools/Mail Merge from the menu bar.
5. In the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click the Create button, then select a type of document (Form Letters, Mailing Labels, Envelopes, or Catalog). Click the Active Window button.
6. Click the Get Data button, then select Use Address Book/Outlook Address Book, and click OK. In the "Mail merge from contacts folder" dialog box, select the folder you created in steps 1 through 3, and click OK.
7. If you haven't yet inserted merge fields into your document, Word will display a message to that effect. Click the Edit Main Document button. In the main document, place the cursor where you want to insert a name, address, or any other information that changes for each contact. In the Mail Merge toolbar (which appears automatically when you activate the Mail Merge Helper), click Insert Merge Field, and select from the options there to insert fields for first names, last names, addresses, and more.
8. When you're done, select Tools/Mail Merge/Merge from the menu bar, choose from the sending options in the Merge dialog box, and click the Merge button to activate the merge.

1. Select View/Document Map from the menu bar to bring up a scrolling outline of the document.
2. To reduce the Document Map to main headings, right-click in the map, and select Show Heading 1.
3. 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.
4. To turn off Document Map, right-click in the map, and select the top Document Map option.

Even better, you can create a customized grammar checker:

1. Select Tools/Options from the menu bar, then click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
2. Click the Settings button, and remove or add any of the more than 20 options you find there. If, for example, you don't think clich�s are like a red rag to a bull, click to remove the check mark from Style-Clich�s.

To track everyone's changes, select Tools/Track Changes/Highlight Changes from the menu bar, and check all the boxes in the Highlight Changes dialog box. To review a document's changes, right-click any toolbar, select the Reviewing toolbar from the shortcut menu, and click the Next Change icon.

To review comments, click the Next Comment icon in the Reviewing toolbar (right-click any toolbar and select Reviewing to bring it up). Hold the cursor over the highlighted text, and a box pops up with your comment inside. Note that online comments, previously called Annotations, let you see the reader's comments in place, without having to open another window.

This same technique works for numbered lists, too. Type 1), a space, and a sentence. When you press Enter, the indention will be adjusted, and the new line will be ready with the next number. As with bulleted lists, pressing Enter twice ends the list and returns the spacing to normal.

To add a term to the AutoCorrect list, select Tools/AutoCorrect, and make sure the AutoCorrect tab is showing. Place a mark in the "Replace text as you type" check box to turn the feature on, then fill in the fields under it as follows:

1. In the Replace box, type the abbreviated version of the word.
2. In the With box, enter the version of the word that you want to replace the abbreviation.
3. Click OK.

1. Select View/Header And Footer to open the Header And Footer toolbar.
2. Click the Show/Hide Document Text button on the Header And Footer toolbar. (This step is not mandatory, but seeing the full page, without the document's text, may be useful.)
3. Select Insert/Picture to get a selection of graphics choices. Office 97 provides some clip art and word art options, or you can insert an image that you've created or saved in your own files.
4. Once you've selected the image you want to insert and clicked OK, use your mouse to drag the image to the place you want it to appear on the page. Remember, the image will fade into the background once you exit the Header And Footer screen, so don't worry if it appears too bright or bold.
5. Click Close on the Header And Footer toolbar. Your document now has a watermark that will appear on every page.

If you use clip art or import an image, you may find that wherever the image extends into the document, the document text wraps around it rather than overlaps it. To correct this, display the Header And Footer screen, right-click the image, and select the Format item option from the menu. From the dialog box that opens, choose the Wrapping tab, and select None from the top row, then click OK. The image should now appear under the text instead.

Here's how to use the Conversion Wizard:

1. Using the Windows Explorer, put the files you want converted into one folder, like C:\convert. All the files need to be of the same type.
2. In Word, choose File/Open.
3. Navigate to the Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office/Macros folder.
4. Change the Files of Type listing to All Files (*.*).
5. Double-click the convert8.wiz file.
6. If a warning box appears, click Enable Macros. The Conversion Wizard box appears and asks you what kind of task you want to perform.
7. Select "A batch conversion of files."
8. Follow the Wizard prompts to select the files and formats to be converted.

Turn off "AutoFormat as you type"

1. Choose Tools/AutoCorrect, and select the "AutoFormat as you type" tab.
2. Deselect the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" check box in the "Replace as you type" group.
3. Click OK.

1. As soon as Word underlines the URL, either select Edit/Undo or press Ctrl-Z to remove the underline.
2. If you want to reapply the AutoFormat underline, you can place your cursor at the end of a URL at any time and press the spacebar once.

To paste a table that will automatically reflect changes made in Excel, use Edit/Copy to copy the table (or portion of the table) from Excel. Then, in Word or PowerPoint, choose Edit/Paste Special (not Edit/Paste or Edit/Paste Cells). From the dialog box that appears, select "Microsoft Excel worksheet object," and click the Paste Link option. A picture of the Excel table will be inserted into your Word/PowerPoint File, and any changes in the Excel source file will be automatically noted in the new file as soon as the changes are saved in Excel, even if the Word/PowerPoint file is closed at the time.

To add a bullet, right-click the page, and select Bullets And Numbering from the pop-up menu. From the Bullets tab, choose the style you want to use, and click OK.

Web builders with more advanced skills should note that using Word's graphical Web bullets does not create a real HTML unordered list (using the <UL> tag), so wrapped lines will not be indented.

To create a table, either click the Tables And Borders button or select Table/Draw Table. You'll see the Tables And Borders toolbar. As you would in any Word document, use your mouse to click and drag the outline for the table. Once you've created the outside border, click and drag the edges to create horizontal and vertical lines to create the table cells. If you've already saved the file as an HTML document, the Table menu includes Table Properties and Cell Properties options that allow you to adjust alignment, background colors, and cell colors. You can also get these options by right-clicking anywhere within the table.