Move Text in Word with F2

Shortcuts are wonderful. I've used CTRL+X and CTRL+V for a simple cut and paste, but have you used the function key F2?

1. Select the text to move.
2. Press the F2 function key on your keyboard.
3. Place the cursor (insertion point) where you want to move the text to and then press ENTER.

Happy Birthday, Word!

In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers, and the primary developers of Bravo, the first GUI word processor, They started work on a word processor called Multi-Tool Word for MS-DOS in 1983. Its name was soon simplified to Microsoft Word. Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first program to be distributed on-disk with a magazine. Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a mouse, and it was able to display some formatting, such as bold, italic, and underlined text, although it could not render fonts.
This takes me back to high school when I learned to type on WordPerfect 4.0 for DOS. Can anyone tell me what F7 did? It's been years, but I still remember it is to print. 

Get "Click Happy"

"Click Happy" is a term I use with people to describe my unconscious clicking of everything. I see something, and I must click on it. Sometimes once, other times twice or more. I get this from my use of clicking to select things in Microsoft Word. There are a bunch of shortcuts to select in Word, and most options work in many other application programs as well. Here they are, and happy clicking!

To select this	Click this
A character	Drag across the letter
A word	Double-click
A line	Move the pointer to the left of the line until you see the left-pointing arrow, and then click
A sentence	CTRL–click anywhere in the sentence
A paragraph	Triple-click the paragraph OR Move the pointer to the left of the paragraph until you see the left-pointing arrow and double-click
Multiple paragraphs	Move the pointer to the left of the paragraphs until you see the left-pointing arrow, and then click and drag up or down
A large block of text	Click at the start of the selection, scroll to the end of the selection, and  SHIFT-click
Entire document	Move the pointer to the left of any of the document text until you see the left-pointing arrow, and then triple-click
A vertical block of text	Hold  ALT , and then drag over the text

Office 2013 Quick Start Guides

Get to know the new Office 2013 with these downloadable and FREE Quick Start Guides. These printable guides contain useful tips, shortcuts, and screenshots to help you find your way around. If you are a Windows 8 user, you can open and view these guides in the Windows 8 Reader app without any additional steps.

E-mail Merge using Microsoft Word

People have been asking for this in Lotus Notes for so long. Now that UNL is converting to Outlook for our e-mail, I can finally show everyone how incredibly easy this is. This video includes both 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac. 

For this example, I'll be using Word for my message, Excel for my data source and Outlook to send the email.

In Microsoft Word, you can use an existing letter or type a new one from scratch. I already have a letter I'd like to repurpose for this message.

1. In Windows, click the Mailings tab.On the Mac, go to the Tools menu and select Mail Merge Manager.
2. In Windows, click Start Mail Merge and select E-mail Message.On the Mac in the Mail Merge Manager, click Create New and select Form Letters.
3. Click on Select Recipients and select Use Existing List.On the Mac in the Mail Merge Manager, select Get List and Open Data Source...
4. Navigate to find your list. When using Excel, you'll be asked to select which worksheet to use.
5. In Windows, select the fields to replace and click the words Insert Merge Field and select the name of the field to insert.On the Mac, from the Mail Merge Manager, simply drag and drop the field to its proper location.
6. Click to Preview Results (View Merged Data on the Mac) and double check everything is okay.
7. Use the record selector to double-check to be sure everything is in the proper location.
8. When satisfied, go to Finish & Merge and Send E-mail Messages.On the Mac, select Generate e-mail messages in the Mail Merge Manager.
9. Select the field which contains the e-mail address.Type the Subject line you'd like to appear on the e-mail message, and then click OK (Mail Merge to Outlook on the Mac).

Back in Outlook, in the Sent Items folder, you'll find all the e-mails that have been sent.

No Handouts from PowerPoint

PowerPoint is for presentations. Let me say that again and you disect what I’m saying: PowerPoint is for presentations, not handouts. A copy of miniture slides with tiny little lines next to each one is NOT a handout; regardless what PowerPoint says.

Handouts are to be more indepth and expand on what the presentation is. For this, you should be creating handouts in a program such as Word. “But, I want the visual and I’m too lazy to copy and paste everything from PowerPoint to Word,” you say. Quit your whining and use the Create Handouts option in PowerPoint.

With your presentation open, go to the File tab, click Save & Send, then click Create Handouts and click the Create Handouts button. (In 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Publish, and then click Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.) All that is left is to select your layout and click OK.

Small pictures of your slides will be included with your text. I suggest you delete slides that are not visually important to the text, such as where text is duplicated. Slides can be resized to make charts and images more readable. Slide titles will format as a Heading 1 style. Text on the slides will be formatted as Heading 2, 3, etc. You will have to add the body text to make the information useful and understandable.

Clippy is My (Ribbon) Hero

It's a fact. I'm a Ribbon Hero. I took the test to prove it, too. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should check out Ribbon Hero 2 from Microsoft. It's an add-in that will watch what you do and you earn points as you work. You can also launch the game-based learning and it will open the Microsoft programs (OneNote, Excel, PowerPoint and Word) where you perform the tasks asked of you. Best of all, it's the return of Clippy. If you think he got a bad rap back in 1997-2003, he is back to redeem himself. You start by helping him with his resume.

It's really kind of fun and a great example of game-based learning. If you don't know how to perform a task, you can ask for a hint to help you. If you are a "power-user" you'll find this easy. Too easy. If you are a casual user and want to explore a little more of what you might not know, this is definitely for you.

I'd recommend Ribbon Hero 2 for anyone who needs to brush up on their skills because it does have varying levels from beginning to advanced and covers a variety of tasks. You also can pick and choose your tasks and still progress through the levels so everyone can have a sense of accomplishment. For example, I'm not a OneNote user, so I chose the tasks for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and was able to work through the levels. When I was done, I was able to go back and tackle the tasks I skipped in those programs, too. I look forward to learning more about OneNote and taking on those challenges as well.

Have fun, and let me know if you're a Ribbon Hero like Clippy and me!

Microsoft Word: Quick Parts

As a toddler, I’m sure many of you played with building blocks. As we get older, we can continue to play with building blocks. To make it sound more efficient, let’s call them Quick Parts. I’m all about being lazy (for the polictically correct, efficient), and Quick Parts works for me.

Words comes with many of these built in Quick Parts (cover page, header, footer, etc.) You can use one of the built in cover pages, headers or footers, but I really prefer my own. NU Central Administration provides some nice letterhead templates where the header and footer are already done for you. You can use one of these or open a document that already has the header, footer or cover letter you want. The point is, you need something to copy or save for use later.

Got it? Now select it. Next, go to Insert ribbon, Text group, click Quick Parts and select Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery… Add the necessary information in the dialog box. Be sure the name is something you’ll remember, like “UNL Header.” You will also need to select the appropriate category, like “Headers.”

To insert your new Quick Part, place the insertion point where you’d like the part to appear. Go to Insert ribbon and select the item, like “Header.” In the gallery of optoins, you’ll find your part neatly alphabatized with the rest. Select it and there you go.

Did you know you can also do this with boilerplate text? If you remember AutoText but didn’t know where it disappeared to in 2007-10, you’ll be happy to know it’s a Quick Part, too.

Word for Mac 2011 at CES 2011

Reading view in Mac 2011 is so much better than in PC 2010/07. And don't even get me started on the layers. Come on Word for PC development staff, we want this, too!

Microsoft Office: Open documents that Office wants to block

Old stuff ain’t safe. At least according to Microsoft. Therefore, when you try to open files in the 97-2003 file format (or earlier), Office 2010 will block editing (and macros) of these files until you decide they are safe. The problem arises when you upgrade, all your files are in the previous format and blocked from editing. You can easily click the Enable Editing button that appears in the yellow bar under the ribbon, but if you want to be proactive, you can change this setting.

In Word or Excel, go to the File tab, click Options, click Trust Center on the left, and then click the Trust Center Settings.. button. On the left, select File Block Settings, and remove the checkmarks from the older Office files that you want Office 2010 to open. There are additional settings for how to open at the bottom of the dialog box.

Office 2010 Migration Guides

Making the jump from Microsoft Office 2003 into 2010? There are some handy migration guides just for you.

Word 2007: Convert text to a table or vice versa

When I create a document, I tend to change my mind after it is all done how I want to format it. I used to cringe at the thought of changing text to a table, it was a lot of work, until I learned there was a tool for that.

1. Select the text that you want to convert. It should have a common delimiter (separating character) that will convert to columns and rows. Typically, tabs separate columns and line returns separate rows.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table, and then click Convert Text to Table.
   
3. In the Convert Text to Table dialog box, under Separate text at, click the option for the separator character that is in your text.
   

In the Number of columns box, check the number of columns. If you don't see the number of columns that you expect, you may be missing a separator character in one or more lines of text.

To convert a table to text...

1. Select the rows or table that you want to convert to paragraphs.
2. Under Table Tools, on the Layout tab, in the Data group, click Convert to Text.
   
3. Under Separate text at, click the option for the separator character that you want to use in place of the column boundaries. Rows are separated with paragraph marks.
   

Word 2007: AutoSummarize

Word has a little used but handy feature called AutoSummarize. It identifies the key points in a document. You can select whether to highlight key points in a document, insert an executive summary or abstract at the top of a document, create a new document and put the summary there, or hide everything but the summary.
Please note that AutoSummarize works best on well-structured documents, such as reports, articles, and scientific papers.

Before you can use AutoSummarize in Microsoft Office Word 2007, you need to add AutoSummary Tools to the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Customize.
3. In the list under Choose commands from, click All Commands.
4. Scroll through the list of commands until you see AutoSummary Tools.
5. Click AutoSummary Tools, and then click Add.

Show me

Have you played Ribbon Hero?

This week Microsoft released a new concept test prototype for Office called Ribbon Hero. It's a new approach to Office training that’s designed to deliver a fun, engaging experience to help people explore the features available in Office…whether it’s to help you learn how to do things faster, or uncover features you never knew existed. Unlike traditional training, Ribbon Hero presents a game-like environment for learning and lets people compare their scores and feature usage on Facebook. It currently works with Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Download it here.

Install Word Add-In to upload your resume to Monster.com

Download an easySubmit resume template from Office.com, and install the add-in from the Word 2007 ribbon. Complete your resume, save it, sign-in to Monster.com, upload, and you're done! You can learn more at the Inside Office Online Blog.

Word 2007: Rearrange Paragraphs in Word

Swapping paragraphs in Microsoft Office Word can be complicated. As well as having to cut and paste, you often have to reformat line breaks afterward to make the paragraph line up properly. You can use the mouse to drag and drop paragraphs to a new location or, you can use the SHIFT+ALT keyboard shortcut.

Click the paragraph that you want to move, hold down SHIFT+ALT, and move the paragraph up or down by using the arrow keys. Each press of an arrow key causes your selected paragraph to jump over one adjacent paragraph.

Format mergefields to be currency

When doing a mail merge into Word using an Excel file, any field formatted as currency or accounting in Excel does not carry the formatting into Word. Although you can just add a dollar sign prior to the mergefield, it doesn't help when some numbers are whole and others are decimals. Who wants to view the amount they owe as $15.3? I'd prefer the forced placeholder for the cents (decimal places) to see it as $15.30.

1. Right-click the mergefield and select Edit Field.
2. Click the Field Codes button in the lower-left corner.
3. Click behind the mergefield name and then type the switch for a numeric picture (\#).
4. Use # for optional numbers and 0 (zero) for required numbers.
5. Click OK and preview your results.

Here's an example how some may look:
MERFIELD Price \# $#,##0.00 = $1,234.56 or $789.00
MERFIELD Price \# $#0.00 = $12.34 or $56.00
MERFIELD Price \# $#,##0 = $1,234 or $567.00

Still confused? Try watching this video to see how it's done.

OffiSync to bring Google Docs to Word

Do you prefer the ease of file sharing that Google Docs provides, but wish you could use Word as the editor? Soon, you can. OffiSync will be an add-in toolbar to Word that will allow you to open and save Google documents and collaborate on them or define collaborators from within Word. Sorry Mac users, it's not available for you yet. [Read more about it at Information Week]

Word 2007: Line Breaks Without Bullets or Numbering

When you're creating a bulleted or numbered list in Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you might want an item to appear in the list without a bullet or without incrementing the number. You can start a new line without a bullet by pressing SHIFT+ENTER. This will create a manual line break in the paragraph, but not a new paragraph. The next time you press the ENTER key, the new line will continue the bulleted or numbered list.

#1 Most read article online at Office.Microsoft.com, two versions running

#1 Most read article online at Office.Microsoft.com is "Turn on or off automatic bullets or numbering in Word 2007." I've kept an eye on this for a while, and back in the Office 2003 days, that was still the most read article online. It's probably the most asked question of me, too.