FIELDS
Copy Text Without Formatting
The Annoyance:
When I copy text from Word and paste it into another application, all kinds of extraneous formatting tags go along for the ride. Then I have to reformat the text in the other application.
The Fix:
There are two possible fixes here.
First, see if the application into which you're pasting the text has a Paste Special command. In the resulting dialog box, select the option called Text Only or Text Without Formatting, and then click the OK button.
If the application doesn't offer Paste Special, use Notepad to produce the same effect. Paste the text into Notepad, select it, copy it, and then paste it into the other application. This shuffle is ugly and clumsy, but it does remove the formatting, because Notepad doesn't support any formatting.
Warning: You might be tempted to use Word's own Paste Special command (Edit
Paste Special) to paste the material back into the same document (or into a different document) as unformatted text, select it again, copy it again, and then paste it into its destination application. The problem with this approach is that when you paste the text back into Word, it picks up the formatting of the paragraph into which you paste it, so it will still contain formatting when you copy it the second time and paste it into the destination application. If the spaces aren't in regular blocks, use Find and Replace to select the whitespace. Choose Edit Replace, enter ^p^w in the "Find what box and ^p in the "Replace with" box, and then click the Replace All button. See "Find Any Character, Digit, or Letter," earlier in this chapter, for more details.
Eliminate the "Delete Block? No (Yes)" Message in the Status Bar
The Annoyance:
When I try to delete a word I've selected, Word shows "Delete Block? No (Yes)" in the status bar instead of simply deleting it.
The Fix:
Help for WordPerfect Users is turned on. To turn it off, choose Tools Options, click the General tab, uncheck the "Help for WordPerfect users box, and click the OK button.
Set Realistic Expectations for AutoSummarize
The Annoyance:
I needed to produce a summary of my thesis quickly, so I used the Tools AutoSummarize commandand got complete drivel. Correctly spelled drivel, mind you, but the text seemed to be chosen at random.
The Fix:
Well, what did you expect? AutoSummarize has no idea what your document is about. It doesn't understand the contents. All it does is count the relative frequency of nouns, verbs, and so on and decide which are the most "important" based on frequency. Your chances of getting a usable summary for your thesis using AutoSummarize are negligible.
This suggests AutoSummarize is uselessbut that's not entirely so. Say someone dumps a hundred-page report on you 10 minutes before the meeting at which you're supposed to elaborate on itand the report is completely unformatted, so you can't skim through it and read the headings. You might try siccing AutoSummarize on the report and seeing what it produces. It doesn't take long, and you have nothing to lose.
Get an Instant Word Count
The Annoyance:
I'm not paid by the word (though I'd love to be), but I use the Word Count feature to track my progress. The problem is, I'm getting bored with choosing Tools Word Count to open the Word Count dialog box each time I want to check.
The Fix:
All you need do is display the Word Count toolbar (see Figure 3-20): go to View Toolbars or right-click any displayed toolbar and click the Word Count item. To force a recount, press Alt+C or click the Recount button.
Figure 3-20. Keep the Word Count toolbar openor copy its controls to the menu bar or a toolbarso that you can quickly see how many words your document contains.
Tip: If you don't want to waste space by leaving the Word Count toolbar open, Ctrl+Alt-drag its controls to the menu bar (if there's space) or another toolbar that you keep open all the time. When you close the document or exit Word, save your changes to the template if Word prompts you to do so.
Correct a Way-Off Page Count
The Annoyance:
When I open a long document, Word repaginates part of it, but the total number of pages is wrong.
The Fix:
You might suspect that Word is just as lazy as your average donkey and that this partial repagination is its attempt to fob you off with a half-completed chore. But in fact, Word is probably more anxious to spend your precious processor cycles on spellchecking and grammar-checking your document to within an inch of its life. Repagination can wait until squiggly underlines of both colors have been applied.
If your need for repagination is transitory , press Ctrl+End to go to the end of the document, choose View Print Layout to force repagination, and give Word a moment or two to comply . Press Shift+F5 to return to your last edit in the document. (Alternatively, if you have the Word Count toolbar displayed, click the Recount button. That too forces repagination.) If you need to force repagination on a regular basis, add the Repaginate command to a convenient keyboard shortcut (see the sidebar "Customize Your Keyboard Shortcuts) or menu, as described here:
-
Choose Tools
Customize to open the Customize dialog box, and then click the Commands tab. -
Drag the Repaginate command from the righthand list to the menu on which you want it to appear. For example, drag it to the Tools menu, wait for the menu to display, drag the command to the appropriate position, and then drop it.
The next time you exit Word, save your Normal template if Word prompts you to do so.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS To customize your keyboard shortcuts, select Tools To add a keyboard shortcut, click the appropriate category (for example, File) in the Categories listbox, and then select the command in the Commands list. Click in the "Press new keyboard shortcut" box, and then press the shortcut you want to use. Check the "Currently assigned to" readout to see if the shortcut is already assigned to a command; if so, decide whether to overwrite it or try another shortcut. Click the Assign button to assign the new shortcut. To remove a keyboard shortcut, click the category and then select the command. Click the shortcut in the "Current keys" list, and then click the Remove button. When you've finished customizing shortcuts, close the Customize Keyboard dialog box and the Customize dialog box. Shift-click the File menu, choose Save All, and save your changes to the document or template if Word prompts you to do so. |
Remove Useless Smart Tags
The Annoyance:
Some Smart Tags are usefulespecially "paste to match existing text"but Smart Tags for dates and names seems fairly useless to me. How likely is it that you will type a person's name and suddenly realize you need to email her?
The Fix:
You tell me. But if you circulate a report, the recipients might want to be able to click a Smart Tag to grab the phone number or address of someone mentioned in it who has done something egregious.
Still, if you want to get rid of the Smart Tags you don't use, choose Tools AutoCorrect Options and click the Smart Tags tab (see Figure 3-21). Uncheck the boxes in the Recognizers list for the items you dont want Word to use Smart Tags for, or uncheck the "Label text with smart tags" box if you want to stop using Smart Tags altogether. (Word 2000 doesn't offer Smart Tags, so you need worry about them only in Word 2003 and Word XP.)
Figure 3-21. The Smart Tags tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box lets you tell Word which types of Smart Tags you want to create, or turn off Smart Tags completely.
To remove the Smart Tags from a document, click the Remove Smart Tags button. Word then reads you the riot act (see Figure 3-22) to make sure you really want to get rid of the Smart Tags. Click the Yes button to proceed.
Figure 3-22. You can easily remove all Smart Tags from a document.
Tip: If you want Word to save your Smart Tags in a document, click the Save Options button on the Smart Tags tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box to display the Save dialog box, and then check the "Embed smart tags" box.
Stop Word from Searching the Web for Help
The Annoyance:
Almost every Help search I do makes Word 2003 hit the Web for the response rather than reading a local help file.
The Fix:
Word is usually searching both locally and on the Web. And not without reason: many of the best results for complex problems are in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com) rather than in the help files. But if you're looking for a quick answer to a straightforward question, or if you have a slow Internet connection, this can drive you up the wall.
To stop this annoyance, choose Help Customer Feedback Options to display the Service Options dialog box and click the Online Content item in the Category list (see Figure 3-23). Clear the "Show content and links from Microsoft Office Online box to prevent Office from accessing Microsoft Office Online at all. If you want to prevent Help from searching online but leave Microsoft Office Online available for other purposes, clear just the "Search online content when connected" box.
Figure 3-23. The Service Options dialog box is about the last place most people would look for the option that controls whether Word searches the Microsoft Office Online site for Help.
Get Rid of the Office Assistant
The Annoyance:
The wretched animated paperclip keeps appearingevery time I try to get help from Office, and sometimes even when I'm just working. How can I get rid of it?
The Fix:
Some people presumably love the Office Assistant charactersClippit (the paperclip), Rocky the Dog, the Office Cat, the Genius, Mother Naturebut I've never met these people. Everyone who mentions the Office Assistant wants to get rid of it.
To prevent the Office Assistant from appearing, right-click the Office Assistant character that's currently bugging you and click Properties on the shortcut menu. On the Options tab of the Office Assistant dialog box (see Figure 3-24), uncheck the "Use the Office Assistant" box and click the OK button.
Figure 3-24. Even if you choose not to disable the Office Assistant fully, you can curb its interfering habits here.
Tip: The Options dialog box also lets you control what the Office Assistant does if you decide to use it. The top section of the tab gives you options for controlling whether the Office Assistant offers help with wizards, displays alerts when something is wrong, moves when it is in the way (a good idea if you're using the Assistant), makes sounds (usually a bad idea), and searches for both product and programming help when you're programming. The Show Tips About section lets you control which items, if any, the Office Assistant offers you tips about. For example, the "Using features more effectively" option controls whether the Office Assistant pops up suggestions about letter writing when you type one of its trigger phrases for letters .
What if you want the Office Assistant back? Simply choose Help Show the Office Assistant, and the brute is back with you. Invoking the Office Assistant like this checks the "Use the Office Assistant box on the Options tab of the Office Assistant dialog box, so you'll need to uncheck this checkbox when you want peace and quiet again.
Tip: Want the Office Assistant off your computer for all eternity (or until your next "upgrade" of Office)? Open the Control Panel and use the Add or Remove Programs feature to change your installation of Office. Expand the Office Tools item, click the symbol box next to Office Assistant, and then choose Not Available in the drop-down menu. Finish the installation routine, and the Office Assistant will be gone for good.
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 91