FIND AND REPLACE

AUTOCORRECT AND AUTOTEXT

Enter Any Amount of Text Quickl-y in a Document

The Annoyance:

I'm sick of typing the same thing over and over. Can't Word do it for me?

The Fix:

You bet: in any number of ways, depending on what you're trying to achieve:

Enter a short text item automatically

Create an AutoCorrect entry for the text. See the "Use AutoCorrect Most Effectively" sidebar for details. Alternatively, create an AutoText entry (see the next Annoyance, "Use AutoText, or Don'tIt's Your Choice").

Enter a large amount of text in a document

Create a template for the document type (see "Templates" in Chapter 2). Put all the standard text in the template, and it will appear in each new document you create based on that template.

Reuse a section of text once from another document

Copy the text from the source document and paste it into the destination document.

Reuse the entire contents of a document

In Word 2003, choose File New and click "From existing document in the New Document task pane; in Word XP, choose File New and click "Choose document in the New Document task pane. In the New from Existing Document dialog box, select the document and click the Create New button. In Word 2000, open the existing document, choose File Save As, and save it under a different name . You can also use the Insert File command to insert an existing document in the current documen-t.

Reuse the entire contents of several documents

Create a new document, and then use the Insert File command to insert each of the existing documents in turn .

Enter Sample Text

You can create sample text quickly by doing some typing and then using Copy and Paste, but Word also offers an automated way: type =rand(x,y) , where x and y are numbers , and press Enter. Word creates y number of paragraphs containing x number of sentences each, describing what the canonical quick brown fox did to the lazy dog. For example, =rand(10,5) creates 10 paragraphs, each of which contains 5 sentences.

Use AutoText, or Don'tIt's Your Choice

The Annoyance:

Back in the good old days of Word 2 (and the horrors of Windows 3.11 for Workgroupsno, I don't miss 'em), I used to use glossaries all the time for storing chunks of text so I could lump them quickly into my documents. Then Word 6 introduced AutoCorrect and killed glossaries stone deadfor me, anyway. But all the subsequent versions of Word still have glossaries, except that they're now called AutoText. What's the point? I can see that entries like "Page X of Y" are good for inserting fields in a header or footer. But nobody in their right mind is going to wade through three levels of menu to save typing "Dear Sir or Madam"or are they?

The Fix:

You've got a point. Most of the canned AutoText entries are practically useless. And given that AutoCorrect entries can be triggered automatically by the right sequence of letters , AutoText seems like a step backward.

AutoText has a couple of advantages over AutoCorrect, though. First, you can move AutoText entries from one template to another, while your unformatted AutoCorrect entries are stuck in a file deep within your user profile and your formatted AutoCorrect entries are locked inside Normal.dot . Second, because AutoText isn't triggered simply by your typing, you can use real words as the short versions of your AutoText entries. Consequently, they can be much easier to remember than AutoCorrect entries.

USE AUTOCORRECT MOST EFFECTIVELY

AutoCorrect's "Replace text as you type" feature is great for fixing typos, but you can save much more time by creating AutoCorrect entries for text items that you need to enter frequently in your document. What these entries consist of depends on your work, but you might consider anything from creating short versions of long words (for example, "orgl" for "organizational") to creating entries for boilerplate text items of a sentence or two. Plain-text AutoCorrect entries can be up to 255 characters long, while formatted-text AutoCorrect entries can be as long as you like.

Make sure that each AutoCorrect entry is not a real word in any language you use in your documents. One way of doing so is to start each AutoCorrect entry with a little-used character, such as X, Z, or J. You can also use a punctuation character to make AutoCorrect group your entries at the top or bottom of the list of entries. Make the rest of the name something easy to remember, such as an abbreviation taken from the beginning of the replacement text.

One of the easiest ways to create AutoCorrect entries for your idiosyncratic typos is when spellchecking a document. Use the AutoCorrect submenu on the context menu for a single-word spellcheck or the AutoCorrect button in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.

If that doesn't work, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (Tools AutoCorrect in Word 2000), check the "Replace text as you type box on the AutoCorrect tab, and then try again.

AUTOTEXT IN FOUR EASY STEPS

If you haven't worked with AutoText before, you can quickly get up to speed:

1. To create an AutoText entry, enter the text (or other objects) in a document, select them, and press Alt+F3. In the Create AutoText dialog box, type a name for the new AutoText entry and click the OK button. The name provides the easiest way of inserting the AutoText item in a document, so make it as memorable as possible. If you need to be able to identify your AutoText entries easily, consider starting them with a punctuation character, such as an underscore or an equals sign.

2. To insert an AutoText entry, type the first four or so characters of its name. When Word displays a ScreenTip that shows the first part of the entry, press Enter.

3. If you can't remember the AutoText entry's name, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (in Word 2000, choose Tools AutoCorrect), click the AutoText tab, select the entry, and click the Insert button. From this page, you can also delete AutoText entries.

Transfer Your AutoText Entries Between Templates

The Annoyance:

AutoText is great! I've created several hundred AutoText entries for boilerplate items that go into my documentsand I've got a bunch more to create. But Word seems to start slowly, and when I look at Normal.dot , I see it's several megabytes.

The Fix:

Well, you've hit the downside of AutoText: by default, every AutoText entry you create goes into Normal.dot , so you can eventually clog it up so much that Word becomes lethargic.

What you need to do is transfer as many AutoText entries as possible into other templates and then load them only when you need them. For example, if some of the AutoText entries are for projects related to a particular template, transfer them to that template. That way, they'll be available when you're working in that template, but not at other times. For AutoText entries that you want to have available for a variety of projects, use a global template other than Normal.dot .

To transfer AutoText entries from one template to another, choose Tools Macro Macros, click the Organizer button, and click the AutoText tab (see Figure 3-5). Make sure that "Normal.dot (global template)" is selected in one of the "AutoText available in drop-down lists, then click the Close File button on the other side of the dialog box. Click the resulting Open File button, and open the destination template. In the "In Normal" list, select the AutoText entries you want to copy to the other template, and then click the Copy button. Close the Organizer dialog box and save your changes to the destination template.

Remove Mystery Lines from Your Documents

The Annoyance:

Word suddenly inserted a decorative line as I was typing in a document. I've tried dragging across it, but I can't select itso I can't get rid of it.

The Fix:

This is the AutoFormat As You Type feature being helpful again by automatically applying a border when you type a string of text that matches one of its entries.

Figure 3-5. Use the AutoText tab of the Organizer dialog box to copy AutoText items from Normal.dot to another template.

If you haven't done anything since Word inserted the line, press Ctrl+Z to undo the line.

If Word 2003 or XP is displaying a Smart Tag button, click it and choose Undo Border Line to get rid of the line (see Figure 3-6). Click the button again and choose Stop Automatically Creating Border Lines to suppress this behavior in the future.

Figure 3-6. The AutoFormat As You Type feature can automatically insert lines that you can't select manually to delete.

If Word isn't displaying a Smart Tag button, delete the line by selecting the paragraph marker before it and pressing Delete. Alternatively, select the paragraph containing the line and press Ctrl+Q to reset its formatting to the style's default formatting. You can also choose Format Borders and Shading, click the None button, and then click the OK button, but the other methods tend to be faster.

To prevent Word from applying these borders, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (or Tools AutoCorrect in Word 2000), click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and uncheck the "Border lines box ("Borders" in Word 2000) in the "Apply as you type" area. Click the OK button.

Here's how to use this feature to decorate your documents quickly.

1. Start a new paragraph.

2. Type three or more hyphens (for a thin line), underscores (for a thick line), asterisks (for a dotted line), tildes (for a zigzag line), equals signs (for a double line), or hash marks (for two thin lines with a thick line between them).

3. Press Enter.

Turn Off "AutoFormat As You Type" Options

The Annoyance:

Word keeps changing the text I type. The smart quotes are actually helpful, but I just got a bulleted list out of nowhereand exactly where I didn't want it.

The Fix:

Choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (or Tools AutoCorrect in Word 2000), click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and uncheck most of the options. Figure 3-7 shows the options for Word 2003 and Word XP; Word 2000 has one or two fewer options.

Figure 3-7. AutoFormat As You Type provides a dozen or so options for having Word apply formatting automatically to your documents when you type particular combinations of characters. Turn off all the options except those that suit you.

Most of the options are straightforward, but it helps to know the following:

• Automatic bulleted lists are triggered by paragraphs starting with an asterisk, hyphen, or greater-than sign followed by a space or tab.

• Automatic numbered lists are triggered by paragraphs starting with a number or a letter followed by a period and either a space or a tab.

• Automatic border lines are triggered by three or more hyphens, underscores, asterisks, tildes, equals signs, or hash marks. (See the previous Annoyance for more details.)

• Tables are triggered by combinations of hyphens and plus signs, where the plus signs mark the column borders. For example, if you type +--+--+--+--+ , Word creates a four-column table. You can vary the column widths by using different numbers of hyphens. (For example, typing +-------+--+------+ produces a three-column table with a narrower column in the middle.) However, most people find it far easier to create tables with the Table Insert Table command or the Tables & Borders toolbar.

Save Work and Time with AutoFormat

The Annoyance:

Oy! I've just received another "report" from our loquacious new rep: 40 pages of "news" formatted with no styles beyond Normal. Yes, you've guessed it: I have to make this presentable.

The Fix:

You might as well try AutoFormat on it. It can't do any harm, and it might do some good.

Open the document and choose Format AutoFormat to display the AutoFormat dialog box (see Figure 3-8). The first time you try this, click the Options button to display the AutoFormat tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box, and uncheck the boxes for any types of styles you dont want AutoFormat to apply and any items you don't want it to replace (for example, fractions with fraction characters).

Figure 3-8. If you receive an unformatted or skimpily formatted document, AutoFormat may be able to help.

Click the OK button to return to the AutoFormat dialog box. Choose between the "AutoFormat now" option and the "AutoFormat and review each change" option. The latter option tends to produce a bewildering array of revision marks that takes ages to work through. It's usually best to choose "AutoFormat now" and simply undo the entire AutoFormat if you don't like the results, but you may prefer to vet the changes individually. Whichever option you choose, use the "Please select a document type to help improve the formatting process" setting to tell Word which type of document your victim is: general document, letter, or email. This setting helps Word identify items such as an address block in a letter or unnecessary returns in an email.

Click the OK button and see what AutoFormat produces. If you selected the "AutoFormat and review each change" option, Word displays another AutoFormat dialog box that lets you choose to accept all the changes, reject all the changes, plow through the changes one by one, or visit the Style Gallery to apply a different look to the document.

Stop Word from Adjusting Your Capitalization

The Annoyance:

Word keeps capitalizing words even though I'm trying to type them as lowercase. This makes it hard to create lists, write poetry, or use acronyms. I much prefer to make the choices myself rather than have Word make them for me.

The Fix:

And make the choices yourself you can; you just need to reclaim a little autonomy from AutoCorrect. More immediately, you can press Ctrl+Z or choose Edit Undo to undo any unwanted change that AutoCorrect has applied.

To change Word's behavior, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (or Tools AutoCorrect in Word 2000) and uncheck the "Capitalize first letter of sentences box and the "Capitalize first letter of table cells " box (in Word 2003 and Word XP, but not in Word 2000).

If necessary, uncheck the "Capitalize names of days" box as well; most people find this automatic correction unobjectionable, but your poems may disagree .

Scan down the list of "Replace text as you type" entries and delete any acronyms (or other entries) that you don't want to use.

Escape Unwanted Copyright Symbols

The Annoyance:

Every time I type (c) in my document, Word changes it to a copyright symbol. (a), (b), and (d) are fine.

The Fix:

This is a built-in AutoCorrect entry intended to help you insert the copyright symbol easily. Similarly, (r) produces a registration symbol, , and (tm) produces a trademark symbol, .

To prevent Word from doing this, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options (or Tools AutoCorrect in Word 2000). On the AutoCorrect tab, click the (c) entry to load it in the Replace box and the copyright symbol in the With box, and then click the Delete button. If youd still like to be able to enter the copyright symbol via AutoCorrect, type your preferred entry in the Replace box (the copyright symbol will stay loaded in the With box) and click the Add button. Click the OK button to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Transfer Your AutoCorrect Entries to Another Computer

The Annoyance:

I've built a great AutoCorrect listbut now I've got a new computer that doesn't have it. How can I transfer the entries?

The Fix:

There are several possible fixes here. Word stores your AutoCorrect entries in two locations:

• Unformatted AutoCorrect entries are stored in a text file with an .ACL extension in the Application Data\Microsoft\Office folder in your user profile. (To open a Windows Explorer window to the folder, choose Start Run, type %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Office , and then press Enter.) The file is named MSOnnnn.ACL , where nnnn matches the code for the language you're using. For U.S. English, the code is 1033, so the file is named MSO1033.ACL .

• Formatted AutoCorrect entries are stored in Normal.dot , which is in your user templates folder. (If you're not sure where your user templates folder is, choose Tools Options, click the File Locations tab, and check the "User templates readout.)

Once you know that, you can simply copy the .ACL file and Normal.dot to the appropriate folders on your new computer. That works fine, but there are three alternatives:

• Use the AutoCorrect Backup macro in Support.dot , a template included with a full installation of Office. (This template should be in the Macros folder in the Office folderfor example, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Macros . If you can't find it, choose Start Search and search for it. Double-click Support.dot to open a new document based on it, click the AutoCorrect Backup button, and follow the instructions for creating a backup copy of your AutoCorrect entries. On your new computer, open a new document based on Support.dot , click the AutoCorrect Backup button, click the Restore button, and then follow the procedure for restoring your AutoCorrect entries. This method is simple, but sadly it isn't foolproof: some complex AutoCorrect entries can cause the macros to fail.

• Use the Save My Settings Wizard (see "Move Word to Another Computer" in Chapter 1) to save your Word settings and key files to a shared location and then restore them on your new computer.

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  Tip: If a search doesn't find Support.dot, install it: choose Start Control Panel Add or Remove Programs, select the Office item, and click the Change button. Select the Add or Remove Features option. In Office 2003, check the "Allow advanced customization of applications box. Expand the Word item and the Wizards and Templates item under it, then click the More Templates and Macros item and choose "Run from My Computer." Finish the installation routine. You may need to provide your Office CD if the installation files aren't cached on your computer.

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• Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Files and Settings Transfer Wizard) to transfer all (or most) of your Windows application settings from one installation of Windows to another.

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Tip: Another possibility is to create a macro that extracts the AutoCorrect entries you want to keep. See "Export Your Auto-Correct Entries" in Chapter 8 for one approach to this problem.

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Insert Symbols and Special Characters

The Annoyance:

Insert Symbol, change character set, scroll, scroll, scroll...click, click. Boring! Theres got to be an easier way of inserting special characters than dredging through the Symbol dialog box.

The Fix:

There isthree ways or four, depending on how you count:

• AutoCorrect includes entries for standalone symbols such as , , , and the ellipsis (...). You can add further entries manually if needed. Choose Insert Symbol, select the symbol, click the AutoCorrect button, type the entry in the Replace box, and then click the OK button.

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  Symbol, click the Special Characters tab, and check the readout for the desired special character. To change a shortcut, or create a new shortcut, click the Shortcut Key button and work in the Customize Keyboard dialog box.

• The Symbol dialog box in Word 2003 and Word XP keeps a "Recently used symbols" list that enables you to easily insert one of the last 16 symbols you've used.

Insert a "Hard Space"

The Annoyance:

My recently departed, late-lamented, and highly dedicated word processor let you insert a "hard space" that kept the words around it together, so if you wrote "Jose[hard space]Public," "Jose" and "Public" wouldn't be split at the end of a line if that was where the phrase happened to fall. Word doesn't offer hard spaces, even though it's a basic feature.

The Fix:

Word does offer this feature, but it calls them "nonbreaking" spaces. To type a nonbreaking space, press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar. If the key combination slips your mind, choose Insert Symbol, click the Special Characters tab, and look for the "Nonbreaking Space item.

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Tip: Word also offers nonbreaking hyphens, which you can insert by pressing Ctrl+_ (that's Ctrl and the underscore key).

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Nonbreaking spaces appear as normal spaces unless you display all punctuation marks (click the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar) or display spaces (choose Tools Options, click the View tab, and check the Spaces box). Spaces then appear as dots, and nonbreaking spaces appear as degree symbols (see Figure 3-9).

Figure 3-9. Use nonbreaking or "hard" spaces to keep words together. Nonbreaking spaces appear as degree symbols when you have spaces displayed.