7 August 2019

Working with Headers and Footers

The Big Byte, Word

Working with Headers and Footers

Headers and Footers are great for adding additional information to your document like file names, dates, and page numbers. Generally, the information you add to a Header shows up at the top of every page. And, information you add to a Footer shows up at the bottom of every page. You can specify a Different First Page Header and/or Footer. This will allow you to specify text that is unique and only appears on the first page. Additionally, with the addition of Section Breaks, you can specify different Header and Footer information for each section. You can also specify a Different First Page for each section. This means that each section behaves like a mini-document within the larger document container. Working with Headers and Footers can be as simple and easy as you need, but this feature can also handle more complex page formatting needs for larger documents.

Adding a Header

To add a Header (or a Footer), you have a couple of options. The most direct method is double-clicking in Header (or Footer) area of your document (see figure below).

Double-clicking in this space will automatically open the Header/Footer ribbon and you will see some features worth noting. First, the new ribbon is called the Header & Footer Tools: Design. This ribbon is only available/visible when you are actively in either the Header or Footer area. Second, on the left side of the workspace you will see that the Header area is actually inside the Top Marin space. Using the vertical ruler, you can adjust either the top margin (making it larger or smaller) and /or the space for the Header.

After adding the information you would like repeated at the top or bottom of each page, you will want to click the Close Header and Footer button.

Have fun formatting!

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24 June 2019

Use MSWord Organizer

The Big Byte, Word

Use MSWord Organizer

Built-in styles are combinations of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text to quickly change its appearance. For example, if you have several headings throughout your document and you want them to look the same, you could select them and apply several formatting options i.e. font, font size, bold, underling, uppercase, spacing after, etc. You probably know some faster methods of applying these formats to each heading – using the format painter comes to mind. But the best way is to apply a Style. For an introduction to Styles, click here. If you have created a custom Style in one document and you want to use it in another document, use MSWord Organizer to copy styles so you don’t have to recreate it.

The Organizer

Depending on the version of MSWord you are using, the Organizer can be used to manage, toolbars, AutoText, and macros. Luckily, the one feature that remains consistent between versions is the ability to use MSWord Organizer to manage Styles.

Some of our clients have purchased a third-party macro package and their version of MSWord has been customized – if this is you, your Home ribbon will not look the same as as non-customized (or “native”) MSWord environment. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter which version or which type of environment you have!

Open the Organizer

Press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S. This Styles Pane can be moved around to a location that suits your needs. I prefer to have it docked, so I move it to the far right side of my MSWord window.
Click on Manage Styles. At the bottom of the pane, look for 3 icons and click on the 3rd one “Manage Styles”.

Click on Import/Export. At the bottom of this dialog box, click on the “Import/Export…” button. Note: if you work with Styles in a native MSWord environment, this dialog box should be your best friend.

View the Organizer. There are 2 sides in this dialog box. The left (indicated with #1) shows the document that was open on your screen and displays the Styles in this document. The right (indicated with #2) will show either the Styles in the Normal template but, if you had multiple documents open, could display one of the open documents and the Styles in that document. Whichever side you click on will become your “source” document and the other side will become the “destination” document. Try it out: click into one side and watch the top-center “Copy” button switch direction.

Let’s assume that the document that was open open when you viewed the Organizer is the document that does not have the custom Style you need. Do you see the “Close File” button in the section on the right (indicated by #2)? Click that button and it will turn into an “Open File…” button. You will need to know which document holds the custom Style you need. Click the “Open File…” button and navigate to the document that holds the custom Style.

Changing the Type

The default is to show Templates, or *.dotm, *.dotx, *.dot files. If the document that holds the Style you want is not a template, you can still access it but you will need to change the type to All Word Documents or Word Documents.

Now that you can see all Word documents, it will be easier to find the document you need. Select the document and click “Open”.

At this point, you will scroll through the list on the right and find the Style that you wanted to copy into the document on the left. Select the Style, click the “<-Copy” button and then click “Close” in the lower-right.

The Style will now be available in your document and you can apply it to text.

Have fun using the Organizer!

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7 May 2019

Stop Spell Check in MSWord

The Big Byte, Word

Stop Spell Check in MSWord

It’s okay… sometimes your document will contain misspelled words, names, abbreviations, table names, etc. These words will be caught by the Spell Checker! As you spell check your document, abbreviations and other specialty words (or words unique to you), you can choose to add them to the Dictionary. Over time, your custom dictionary will contain the words you use making spell checking your documents fast. However, you may have the type of document which contain abbreviations that do not need to be added to the Dictionary. Yet, every time you run the Spell Checker, you have to respond to each one of those words which makes running the Spellchecker tedious. The following information will be helpful if you would like to stop spell check in MSWord – or skip certain sections of text – in your document.

Add the Abbreviations to the Custom Dictionary

Adding the word or abbreviation to the custom dictionary is by far the easiest option to stop spell check in MSWord. The downsides are that it may take awhile to organically add each unique word to the custom dictionary as it comes up in your documents. Also, your dictionary could end up containing a bunch of irrelevant abbreviations. The upside is that it will create a faster spell check experience in the long run.

No Proofing

You can easily select a portion of your document and format it as a different language classification called “No Proofing”. Doing this will stop spell check in MSWord for that section. First, select the portion of your document you do not want spell checked. Then click the Language option. Then select Set Proofing Language. Last, check the Do not check spelling or grammar checkbox. You can turn off this option by reversing the steps and unchecking this option.

Happy spell checking!

Online Webinars

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

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2 April 2019

Excel Introduction to Spreadsheet Basics

Excel, The Big Byte

Excel Introduction to Spreadsheet Basics

Excel is fun! There are so many helpful things that can be accomplished in Excel and you do not need to be an accounting major or a financial guru to use Excel’s capabilities. This blog will give you an Excel Introduction to Spreadsheet Basics. We have found that one of the most important things when working and navigating in Excel are the different mouse pointers you will see, so that’s where we will begin.

Excel Workspace

After opening Excel, you will see the menu, ribbon, column/row headers, scroll bars, etc. These features make up the Excel workspace, Additionally, you will notice three Sheet tabs at the bottom of the worksheet grid (there will be another blog on how to work with the Sheets). As you move your mouse pointer around this environment, you will notice that your mouse pointer will change depending on what or where you are pointing. You don’t need to click on anything – just practice using the mouse to point at the different features. The pointers you will see and their purpose is outlined below in the next section.

Excel Introduction to Spreadsheet Basics — excel environment

Excel Pointers

Here are the top 10 Excel Pointers, their names, and their purpose. When we train new users on Excel basics, it always pays off to spend a little time explaining what each pointer does and looking at a few before moving on to other skills.

Excel Environment

Next, we want to identify the various parts of the workspace. Knowing the names of the features of the Excel environment will make everything easier.

Suggested Blog: Navigating in Excel

Now that you have an Excel Introduction to Spreadsheet Basics, we can address questions like: what does it look like when I enter text? how do I change the contents of a cell? how do I work with a range of cells? is formatting easy to do? These are some of the questions we will address in the blog Navigating in Excel.

Online Webinars

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

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7 March 2019

Print a Custom Range in MSWord

The Big Byte, Word

Print a Custom Range

To print a custom range of pages in an MSWord document is usually very straightforward. To print several consecutive pages you would simply type in the range using a “dash”, i.e. 1-3 (this prints pages 1, 2, and 3). If you wanted to print several, non-consecutive pages you would separate the pages using a “comma”, i.e. 1, 3, 5 (this prints page 1, page 3, and page 5). Easy peasy! But that’s not why you came here… you are probably here because you are already know this, you’ve tried to print a custom range, and it is NOT printing. I gotcha!

Multiple Sections

First, does your document contain more than 1 section? If it does, this is probably the reason you are having trouble. Here is the situation: the document below has 8 physical pages. If you were to print the entire document, you would print 8 pages. Please note: the document has 2 sections. In section 1, there are 5 pages (pages 1 through 5). In section 2, there are 3 pages (pages 6-8). If you want to print pages 4 through 7, you will have a problem if you just type in “4-7”. Here’s why: now that the document has been separated using sections, MSWord looks at each section for your custom range. Meaning, it looks in section 1 for pages 4-7 and doesn’t find it. It looks in section 2 for pages 4-7 and doesn’t find it. So it won’t print that custom range.

Custom Range

First, click on Print. Then, select the option Print Custom Range under Settings. If you start typing in the Pages field, Print Custom Range will be automatically selected. In order to print pages 4-7, you would type P4S1-P2S2 in the Pages field. To decipher this, it means print “Page 4 Section 1 through Page 2 of Section 2”. It is not case sensitive, by the way 😛

So to recap, in order to successfully print a custom range in a document containing section breaks, you need to understand that section breaks are taken seriously; they are mini-documents within a larger document and need to be identified in the Pages field. Happy Printing!

Online Webinars

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13 April 2018

Heading Styles – Introduction

The Big Byte, Word

Styles

Styles are one of the most important features to understand when using MSWord. Many components within MSWord use styles – making your job easier – so it is essential to fully grasp the concepts of styles. For this article, we will focus on heading styles, named Heading 1-9.

Heading Styles

Heading styles automatically come with MSWord – they are there whether you want them, or not! For many users, ignoring them is totally acceptable; however, experienced users have learned the benefits of working with them. It won’t take long, however, before you realize that the default formatting of these styles needs to be changed to fit the formatting of most legal documents. So let’s start there…

Applying Styles

Several styles, including a couple of heading styles, can be easily applied to selected text using the Styles section on the Home Ribbon. To apply a style, select the text, then click on a style. Simple!

Helpful Keystrokes

It might be a good time to introduce a couple keystrokes that we really like. Both of these keystrokes will open a separate pane containing style commands. Either of these can be moved around by dragging the title bar, or you can dock them to the left or right by dragging it all the way to either side. Which one is the best? Whichever one fits your needs! Sometimes we have both active in the document; sometimes we switch between them depending on the document we are working in.

CTRL+SHIFT+S will open the Apply Styles pane. It reflects the name of the style applied either to the text where your cursor is placed or to the selected text. The drop-down list will let you change, or apply, a different style to your active text. The Modify button is located in the Apply Styles pane. You will use this make changes to a style. The Styles button display another pane with more commands.

CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S will open the Styles pane (as if you clicked the Styles button on the Apply Styles pane). This pane displays the list of styles (rather than a drop-down list). A favorite in this list is the Clear All – which removes any direct formatting and removes any applied style. This is quick way to strip the active text of all formatting! Each style in the list has a drop-down arrow giving you several commands like Update to Match Selection and the Modify command. At the bottom of the Styles pane, there are 3 more buttons that are very helpful: New Style, Style Inspector, and Manage Styles. These commands are explored more fully in separate articles.

Hopefully these options – the Style section on the Home Ribbon and the 2 keystrokes – will give you access to the commands you need while working with styles in your documents.

Why Use Heading Styles

We have mentioned that there are several elements in MSWord that use heading styles. If you need more motivation to learn about and use heading styles, the fact that the following features use heading styles should give you some incentive:

Numbering
Cross-References
Table of Contents
Hyperlinks
Page Numbering and Captions that use Chapter Numbering
SEQ Fields
HTML (publishing to the internet) uses H1, H2, etc.
Creating Bookmarks in PDF’s
Outline View
Navigation Pane (one of our personal favs!!)
Stability (saved the best for last)

Happy Learning!

Online Webinars

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

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15 March 2018

Making Use of Split Screen in Word

The Big Byte, Word

Making Use of Split Screen in MSWord

There are several ways to navigate a document in MSWord. When you have a large document, the Split Screen option can make navigating faster and easier. No one likes to spend time scrolling backwards and forwards! If you split the screen, you can see two different sections of your document on the screen simultaneously. Use this feature to see your introductory paragraph and compare it to your concluding paragraph. Another reason to use a split screen in Word would be to quickly cut/copy/paste between different sections in your document.

There are a couple of ways to activate the split screen.

Using the Ribbon

The split screen button is found on the View tab. Click View, then click Split. This will activate the horizontal split screen bar.

Move your cursor up or down to move the split screen bar until it appears in the desired location – then click to place the bar. Your screen will be split and you can navigate the two sections independently of each other. You will see 2 separate scroll bars on the right side of your screen.

Notice how the top and bottom screens scroll individually, and each pane has its own ruler and scroll bars.

Removing the Split Screen in Word using the Ribbon

To remove the split screen, simply click on the Remove Split button found on the View tab.

Alternative Method to Activate the Split Screen

You may already know about the Split Screen button on the View tab; it’s pretty easy to discover by looking at the options on the Ribbon. The following option is less known and allows you to activate the Split Screen without using the Ribbon.

On the right side of your Word screen, look for a small, horizontal, black bar at the top (or bottom) of the vertical scroll bar – it looks kind of like a minus sign. When you point at it (with your mouse), the pointer will turn into a double-sided arrow.

Click, and drag down to split the screen.

To remove the split screen

Use your mouse to point at the horizontal split screen bar, then either click and drag the bar all the way up or double-click the split bar to remove the split screen and return the document to a single screen.

Compare Two Different Documents Using a Split Screen

If you would like to compare two different documents – or view them side-by-side – use the View Side by Side button on the View tab.

Both files should be open before selecting this option.

Go to the View tab, then select the View Side by Side button. You can remove this view by clicking the same button again; your view will return to a one-document view.

The Synchronous Scrolling option can be turned on or off. With this feature activated, both documents will scroll simultaneously. Meaning, as you scroll up or down in one document, the other document will also scroll in the same manner.

Happy Learning!

Webinar Available: January 23rd @ 12pm

If you liked this article and want more of the good stuff, join our monthly Webinar Training! Our lead trainer is offering MSWord online webinar classes on the 4th Wednesday of every month @ 12:00pm. Lunchtime is a great time to feed your brain and your belly! You can join the webinar using the GoToMeeting code below – just click on the link 5-10 mins prior to the start of training to make sure you get all set up in time. 60 min classes are $75. If you have questions – or would like to register for the online class – please contact julie@braincandyinc.com.

MSWord Training
Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/606413837

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

27 February 2018

Table of Contents – Generating Multiple in One Document

The Big Byte, Word

Generating Multiple Table of Contents in One Document

If you have a very large document, using more than one Table of Contents in it can make managing the chapters much easier! This option is useful if you are putting together a large instruction manual, training book, or human resources binder – just to name a few.

Heading Styles

Before you can insert a Table of Contents, you will need to identify the text in your document that should appear in the TOC. The easiest way to mark and generate a TOC is by using the Heading Styles. MSWord has 9 Heading Styles to use – which gives you up to 9 levels in your TOC outline. Before generating the TOC, you should apply the Heading Styles. Go do that and come back… I’ll wait right here!

Bookmarks

After applying the Heading Styles, you will create a bookmark for each area (part, segment, zone) in your document that needs its own Table of Contents. You will need to select the entire area (highlight/select all of the pages that contain the text that will appear in the first TOC) and create a Bookmark – one bookmark for each area. I am specifically not using the word “section” to avoid any confusion. You do not need to break your document into sections to have multiple TOC’s. However, if you need to control pagination, page numbering, etc., then you will need to use Section Breaks as necessary.

To Bookmark an area:

First, select the entire first area that contains all the text to appear in a Table of Contents.

Next, select the Insert tab and click on Bookmark.

Type in a descriptive name (no spaces) and click Add. Important Note: you will need to remember the name of your bookmarked area because you will need to type it in a later step… so write it down!

Do this for each area in your document that will need its own TOC.

In my example document, I made the Heading Styles in each area a different color so that it will be easier to see the separate parts.

Generate the Table of Contents

The last step is to generate the Table of Contents. Place your insertion point where you want the TOC to appear. Click on the Insert tab, click Quick Parts, then Field.

Next, select Index and Tables from the Category drop-down list.

Next, click on TOC.

In the lower-left, click on the Field Codes button (it changes to Hide Codes and the Options button appears).

Next, click on the Options button.

Next, click on Add Field. The Field Options dialog box will open.

After the Field Options is visible, select the \b switch and click Add to Field.

Then, click to the right of the \b switch and type the Bookmark name for the section you want. Remember I mentioned that you would need to type in the name of the Bookmark?

Finally, click OK, then OK again.

The Table of Contents will be inserted!

Repeat the steps for each Bookmarked area to generate the TOC for that area.

Happy Learning!

Coming Soon – Webinars

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

6 December 2016

Spellcheck Problems in Microsoft Word

The Big Byte, Word

Spellcheck Problems

There’s nothing more annoying than spellcheck problems. If you have noticed that Spellchecker has not been picking up some of the misspellings in your documents, there could be several reasons and it might take a little bit of detective work to figure exactly why.

The Possibilities

Possibility #1: You ignored the word previously during a typical spellcheck. This means that the misspelled word was added to the dictionary and spellcheck will ignore it.
Possibility #2: You typed the word in uppercase. The default option in MSWord is to ignore words typed in uppercase.
Possibility #3: You applied a style to the word and the format of the style is to skip words formatted with that style.

The Solutions

Solution #1: If you accidentally added a misspelled word to the dictionary, this would cause the spellcheck problem. You can reset the dictionary using the Proofing settings.
- First, click on File, Options, then Proofing:

Solution #2: If you would like to include words typed in uppercase in the spellcheck, you will need to turn off the option to ignore them – otherwise, this causes the second spellcheck problem. First, click on File, Options, then Proofing:

Solution #3: if the other solutions did not fix the spellcheck problems, you could dig a little deeper and see if the word has a style applied to it. If that style has been formatted to be omitted from the spellchecker, this will cause a spellcheck problem. Find out if the word has a style applied to it by clicking into the text and take a look at the ribbon – if a style is selected other than “normal”, that means there is a style applied.

Since this example text has a style applied, the next step will be to look at the properties of the style. While pointing at the style “Movie Title”, right-click then choose Modify.

Here you will see the various formatting options associated with this style. One of them is “do not check spelling or grammar”.

Your next step would be to remove that option from the style format. First, Click on Format, then choose Language.

Next, you will uncheck the option “Do not check spelling or grammar”. This action is taking place inside the Modify Style dialog box and will only affect this style. Lastly, click OK, then OK again. The Spellchecker will now catch misspelled words that have that style applied to it.

Happy Learning!

Coming Soon – Webinars

Would you like to enhance your skills on a specific topic from the comfort of your home or desk? Our 60 minute webinars deliver quick, high quality training, helping you make the most of your valuable time. Some of our webinar classes are: MSWord Essentials, MSWord Styles, MSWord Outline Numbering, MSWord Headers & Footers, MSWord Table of Contents & Table of Authorities, MSExcel Essentials, MSPowerPoint Essentials, and many more! What topic, feature, or skill would you like to know more about? Drop us your wish list in the comments!

27 June 2016

The Text Editor – Simple and Easy Way to Remove Unwanted Formatting

The Big Byte

In our complex, digital world most people have had experience with copying text, bulleted lists, graphics and the like between locations. For example, you want to copy information from an article you found on a website to an email you are drafting. Oftentimes, the information you bring over ends up looking nothing like it did in the original location and you spend your precious time trying to remove the formatting or reformatting it to look like you want.

Fortunately, there is a very simple program on virtually every computer or laptop; it comes with the Window (or Mac) operating system and it’s called the Notepad (for Mac, it’s called TextEdit). While you might know other ways to remove formatting – and I’m sure they are all useful – this is a helpful tool because it is fail proof, easy and every operating system has a built-in text editor. Text editors are very simple programs and only deal with text (letters, numbers and some characters). Text editors do not have formatting capabilities (no font, alignments, line spacing, etc). So, when you copy a selection into a text editor, all of the formatting is removed automatically and you are left with only the text!

To start this process you will need to open the Notepad. The Notepad can be found by clicking the Start menu, then Accessories.
Next, locate the text that you would like to copy – open the file, go to the webpage, etc.
Select the desired text
Press CTRL+C – this places the selection on the Clipboard
Next, click into the text editor and press CTRL+V – you will see the text but no formatting

Now repeat the process from the text editor to your final location:

Select the desired text curretnly in the Notepad
Press CTRL+C – this places the selection on the Clipboard
Next, click into the final destination document at the location the text should appear and press CTRL+V – you will see the text but no formatting.

Done!