Tip of the Day

From WordTips:

Summary: If Track Changes is turned on, any edits to a document are accompanied by vertical bars that appear to the left or right side of the changed text. If these change bars distract you, make a quick change to the configuration of Word and you can turn them off completely. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Word includes a feature that allows you to track changes made to a document. This is controlled by using the Track Changes option from the Tools menu. (In Word 6 and Word 95, you would use the Revisions option from the Tools menu.) One of the ways in which Word marks your changes on a document is to include a change bar at the side of a line in which a change was made. This is fairly common in editing, but it may not be to your liking. You can turn off the change bars by following these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Track Changes tab is selected. 
3. If you are using Word 97 or Word 2000, in the Changed Lines section (bottom of the dialog box), change the Mark drop-down list to (none). If you are using a later version of Word, change the Changed Lines drop-down list to (none).
4. Click on OK.

Note that making this setting change hides the appearance of the change bars. Rest assured they are still there and can be redisplayed by choosing to display them again.

Topics: Turning Off Change Bars

From WordTips:

Summary: If you need to make sure that the fonts in your document can be used by another person or on a different system, you’ll need to embed those fonts. Here’s how to make the necessary configuration change. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

If you create a document that you want to share with others, it is helpful for the other people to have the fonts you use within your document. If they don't have the fonts, then Word substitutes a similar font for the original fonts you used. The result may not be to your liking. One solution is to include the fonts with your document. You can automatically embed some types of fonts by following these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Save tab is selected. 
3. Ensure the Embed TrueType Fonts check box is selected.
4. If you will be using a small number of characters in a particular font, choose the Embed Characters In Use Only check box.
5. To save space in the document, choose the Do Not Embed Common System Fonts check box.
6. Click on OK.
7. Work with your documents as normal.

If you are using Word 2007 then you should follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Save.
3. Make sure the Embed Fonts in the File check box is selected.
4. If you will be using a small number of characters in a particular font, choose the Embed Only the Characters Used in the Document check box.
5. To save space in the document, choose the Do Not Embed Common System Fonts check box.
6. Click on OK.
7. Work with your documents as normal.

You should realize that embedding fonts can increase the size of your document files. In fact, if you use a lot of fonts, it can increase the size drastically. In addition, not all fonts are "embeddable." Some fonts are protected by their creators against distribution by embedding. If you are curious about whether a particular font can be embedded, you can either contact the vendor or download a free Font Properties Extension Tool from Microsoft. You can download it at the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/TrueTypeProperty21.mspx

The tool updates Windows so it displays more information when you right-click on a font file and choose Properties. One of the pieces of information displayed is whether the font is protected or not. If it is protected, it cannot be embedded in a Word document.

Topics: Embedding TrueType Fonts

From Technix:

.docx is the new file format recognized only by office 2007, and office 2003 or later versions of office cannot open .docx word document files.

What is .docx?

It is the default file extension for saving documents in word 2007. These docx documents are essentially a bunch of zipped XML documents 

Let’s see how can you change the default file save format to .doc which is widely supported in the backward version of office 2007.

1. Open Microsoft Word, click office icon at the top left.

2. Now, Click the Word Options

3. Select Save in the left pane, then select Word 97-2003 Documents from the drop down.

4. Click OK

We hope you like this small tweak, but if still you have a .docx files which you want to open in office 2003 or later version of office, try using some free web services like Zamzar.com or docxtodoc.com that can convert .docx files to .doc

Change the default files save format from .docx to .doc in word 2007 at Technix Update - All About Computer Tips and Tricks, Vista Tips, Hacking Tutorials, Firefox Tips

http://wordtips.vitalnews.com/Pages/T000331_Keeping_Part_of_a_Paragraph_with_the_Next_Block_of_Text.html

Summary: If you are a WordPerfect user, you may be very familiar with the block-protect feature, and wonder if there is a similar tool in Word. There isn’t, but as this tip explains, there are ways you can work around what may appear to be a shortcoming in Word. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Holly is a long-time WordPerfect user who now finds herself needing to use Word for her job. When she used WordPerfect, she would often use WordPerfect's block-protect feature to keep the last part of a justified text paragraph with, say, a contract signature block. Since switching to Word, Holly has not been able to figure out how to accomplish the same thing.

The short answer is that there is no way to do this in Word. The reason has to do with fundamental ways in which formatting differ in Word and WordPerfect which are too long to go into here. (They have, however, been fully covered in other issues of WordTips.) There is, however, a workaround that you may be able to play with a bit to see if it will provide the desired results. Follow these general steps:

1. Make sure that Word is displaying non-printing characters. (Click the Show/Hide tool on the toolbar, or choose Tools | Options | View tab | All.)
2. At the point where you want the "block protect" to begin (perhaps at the beginning of the second-to-the-last line in the paragraph), insert a hard paragraph break. (Position the insertion point there, and then press Enter.) You should see the familiar backwards-P symbol indicate the location of the paragraph break.
3. Select the paragraph mark (the backwards-P symbol) and format it as hidden text. (Click Format | Font | Hidden.) If you have Word configured so that hidden characters are not displayed, then it may appear as if your paragraph mark disappears. If hidden characters are displayed, then a red dotted underline appears under the paragraph mark.
4. Position the insertion point in the paragraph after the paragraph mark, and format it so that it stays with the following paragraph. (Choose Format | Paragraph | Line and Page Breaks tab | Keep with Next.)

You may need to play with your character spacing a bit to get just the effect you want, but this workaround offers the best potential solution to what you are trying to do.

Another potential solution is more manual in nature, but it may just do the trick, particularly if you only periodically need to force the last two lines from a paragraph to the next page. Simply position the insertion point at the beginning of the second-to-last line of the paragraph and press the Left Arrow key one time. The insertion point should now be at the end of the preceding line. Hold down the Shift key as you press Enter. This inserts a line break into the paragraph. You can continue to hold down the Ctrl key as you repeatedly press Enter, until the two lines are on the new page.

If you use this approach, remember that when you enter these line breaks you are not starting a new paragraph. Word treats the entire paragraph (including the line breaks) as a single unit. This means that if you have the paragraph formatted as "Keep Lines Together" (on the Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box), then inserting the line breaks may force the entire paragraph to the next page. Simply turn off the "Keep Lines Together" setting if you don't want the paragraph to behave in this manner.

Topics: Keeping Part of a Paragraph with the Next Block of Text

http://wordtips.vitalnews.com/Pages/T001149_Controlling_Widows_and_Orphans.html

Summary: You can format paragraphs so that Word doesn’t leave a single line of the paragraph at either the top or bottom of a page. This tip explains the controls in the Paragraph dialog box that allow you to control that level of formatting. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

In typographical terminology, widows and orphans are closely related (no pun intended). These terms refer to one (and sometimes two) lines of a paragraph left by itself on a page. A widow is the last line of a paragraph left by itself at the top of a page; an orphan is the first line of a paragraph left by itself at the bottom of a page. You will want to avoid both widows and orphans in your documents, as they break up the flow of the text and tend to distract the reader.

Word allows you to automatically control single-line widows and orphans in your documents. To control widows and orphans in your documents, follow these steps:

1. Select Paragraph from the Format menu. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
2. Click on the Line and Page Breaks tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Widow/Orphan Control check box is selected.
4. Click on OK.

Topics: Controlling Widows and Orphans