Getting the Scoop on Smart Tags

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One of the exciting features Word 2003 offers is smart tags, which have been significantly improved in this release of the Microsoft Office System. Smart tags deliver what their name suggests—they provide links to additional information that gives you more data on a recognized item, person, place, or thing. They make you "smarter" by giving you wider access to the data in your applications.

Smart tag functionality is included with Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, and smart tags can be displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer. A smart tag is meant to be an intuitive link, an easy connection to more information about the tagged item. For example, suppose that you're writing a report that summarizes new research your department has recently completed. When you type the list of contributing writers, you see the name of a person you recognize, but you can't recall her department. In theory, if the information about the employee has been entered, you should be able to position the pointer over the employee's name and see a ScreenTip containing information about her, complete with her name, e-mail address, and other contact information. The fact that this data is retained in Excel and potentially in Web documents makes this transfer of data smarter and more consistent.

Note 

In earlier versions of Word, this kind of "smart" technology helped users locate URLs and e-mail addresses. In the Microsoft Office System, "smart tags" have been expanded to offer more meaningful information, including full contact information and customized data. In addition, tools for developers make it easy for organizations to create their own customized smart tags that deliver information relevant to the tasks and procedures information workers most need to accomplish.

Changes to Smart Tags in Word 2003

Smart tags in Word 2003 now do more, reach farther, and are more flexible than ever before. Developers will find they have more control over the smart tags they create and will be able to develop and deploy smart tags easily. Support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) throughout Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 adds an extra boost by enabling developers to use XML to extend Microsoft Office Smart Tag List Tool (MOSTL), the smart tag recognizer and action handler, without going back into the code.

How will your organization use smart tags? In terms of corporate possibilities, companies that want their employees to be able to link to critical resources inside the company will use smart tags. Smart tags will be ideal for documents that have to be processed such as invoices or expense reports. For example, suppose that a user enters a tracking number. A smart tag recognizes the item and when the user clicks the smart tag, the menu offers the user the ability to view—right from the current document—that particular order in the inventory system. Another option in the smart tag menu might fill in the details from that invoice automatically, saving the user keystrokes, time, and error checking.

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Smart Tags: Quick Facts for Developers

Here are some quick facts about the changes in smart tags in the Microsoft Office System:

  • Smart tags recognize regular expressions and context-free grammatical rules.

  • New properties enable developers to create customizable smart tags that perform specialized functions.

  • Smart tag actions can run as soon as a recognizer identifies a string as a smart tag.

  • Cascading menus give developers the option of providing users with additional choices.

  • Developers can control tag properties and customize the look of smart tags that appear in user documents.

  • Developers can create temporary smart tags with limited functionality.

  • Smart tags can be assigned a time limit so they expire automatically.

  • Developers can use XML to create and modify smart tags.

  • Developers have more control over hiding, displaying, or changing the look of customized smart tags.

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Inside Out: Learn more about smart tags

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If you're interested in finding out more about developing custom smart tags, visit www.microsoft.com, enter "Smart Tags" in the Search box, and click Go. To learn more about planning, implementing, and deploying enterprise smart tags, you can download and read the Smart Tag Enterprise Resource Kit from the same site.

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Following a Smart Tag

A smart tag in your document appears the way a ScreenTip appears in other uses. The first item you see is a small circular tag and a purple dotted underline. When you click the circular tag, a menu appears, as shown in Figure 7-23. Table 7-3 describes the different functions of the smart tag choices.

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Figure 7-23: Smart tags expand the ways you can use data among applications, enabling you to create mail, schedule meetings, add contacts, and insert addresses as you work.

Table 7-3: Smart Tag Choices

Smart Tag Option

Description

Send Mail

Opens an e-mail message with Word as the editor

Schedule A Meeting

Opens Outlook so that you can schedule a meeting and invite the selected person

Open Contact

Displays the Outlook Contact List so that you can look up, add to, or edit the person's information

Add To Contacts

Adds the selected person to Outlook's Contact List

Insert Address

Inserts the address of the person at the current insertion point

Remove This Smart Tag

Deletes the smart tag at this occurrence in the document

Smart Tag Options

Displays the Smart Tags tab, enabling you to choose additional options

Turning Off Smart Tags

If you decide that you don't want to use smart tags in your document, simply display the Smart Tags tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box (as shown in Figure 7-24), clear the Label Text With Smart Tags check box, and then click OK. Smart tags will be disabled for the current document.

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Figure 7-24: You turn smart tags on and off and select the options you want in the Smart Tags tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Understanding Recognizers

A recognizer is an item that the smart tag recognizes: a person, place, date, time, or thing that has been added to your application data. By default, all types of recognizers are selected. To disable any type of recognizer, simply clear the check box to the left of the item. Word will then use only the selected item to display information in smart tag form.

Rechecking Your Document

After you make a change to smart tags, you should recheck your document by clicking Recheck Document in the Smart Tags tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box. Word warns you that changes made by the grammar checker might be reversed as you recheck smart tags. If you want to continue, click Yes; otherwise, click No.

Getting Additional Smart Tags

You can get additional smart tags from the Microsoft Web site. Start by establishing your Internet connection, and then display the Smart Tags tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box. Click More Smart Tags, and Word will start Internet Explorer and take you to a page where you can find out more. Follow the prompts on the screen to navigate to and download the smart tags you'll use to extend the functionality of Word 2003.

Removing Smart Tags

You might want to remove selected smart tags in your document, depending on how many you have and how often you need them. Word gives you the option of removing selected tags or getting rid of all of them at once.

Removing an Individual Smart Tag

To remove a specific smart tag, follow these steps:

  1. In your document, click the smart tag to display the menu for the tag you want to remove.

  2. Choose Remove This Smart Tag from the menu. The underline and the identifier are removed for that smart tag.

    Note 

    If you've cleared the Label Text With Smart Tags check box and then copied text with a smart tag into your document, the smart tag will appear even though you've turned smart tags off.

Removing All Smart Tags

If you want to do something really drastic and get rid of all the smart tags in your document, display the Smart Tags tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box, and then click Remove Smart Tags. Word will display a warning that the action will remove all smart tags permanently—both in the existing document and in any copies of this document that are on someone else's computer. If you want to remove the smart tags, click Yes; otherwise, preserve them by clicking No.



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Microsoft Office Word 2003 Inside Out
Microsoft Office Word 2003 Inside Out (Bpg-Inside Out)
ISBN: 0735615152
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 373

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