14 March 2018

Insert a Cross-Reference in MSWord

Dear Ms. Bytes, Word

Dear Ms. Byte,

I am working on a document that contains several charts. I would like to refer to a chart within my document by indicating the page number the chart is on. If I type the page number, but then later on the chart is moved to a different location, I have to remember to go back and manually change the page number reference. I’ve heard about the possibility of inserting a field to help me with this – am I on the right track?

Sincerely – Susie M.

Dear Susie M.,

You are on the right track! Yes, you will insert a cross-reference field. This field will update, so no matter where the chart is in the document, the reference will always reflect its current location. Following the steps below will help you insert a cross-reference.

Sincerely – Ms. Bytes

Insert a Cross-Reference in MSWord

Insert a cross-reference if you want to refer to another part of your document, i.e. a chart or specific paragraph. Clicking the reference link will take you to that location. If you need to link to a different document you would need to create a hyperlink.

Creating a Bookmark

Select the text you want to be cross-referenced. In Susie’s situation, she would select the chart.
Assign this text/object a Bookmark name.
First, click on the Insert Tab.

Then, click on Bookmark.

Next, type a name for the bookmark. It is not case sensitive, and spaces are not allowed. You may use an underscore character.
Last, click Add. The bookmark will be named, and the dialog box will close.

Insert the Cross-Reference

The next step is to position the insertion point where you want the cross-reference to appear. In Susie’s situation, she would place her insertion point in the paragraph she wants the page number to appear (i.e. “Please see the graph on page _“).

Insert the Bookmark.
- If necessary, click on the Insert tab.
- Then, click on Cross-Reference (it is to the right of Bookmark on the Insert ribbon).
- The Reference Type = Bookmark.
- The Insert Reference To = Page Number.
- Select the Bookmark, then click Insert.
- Finally, click Close.

At this point, you will see the page number of the chart! If you point near or on the cross-reference, you will see the tip telling you to Ctrl+Click to follow the link.

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7 March 2018

Remove Extra Spaces Between Words

Dear Ms. Bytes, Word

Dear Ms. Byte,

After copying text from a web source, I pasted the text into my Word document. Now, there are a lot of extra spaces between words. I can delete the spaces manually, but there has to be a faster way to remove extra spaces between words.

Sincerely – Frustrated Fran

Dear Frustrated Fran,

I’m so glad you asked – yes! There is a faster way to remove the extra spaces between words. Following these steps will save you a bunch of time.

Sincerely – Ms. Bytes

Remove Extra Spaces Between Words

Obviously, you would like to have one space between words, right? Since you don’t want to remove all the spaces in your document, the secret will be using Word’s powerful Find & Replace feature. You are going to “Find” all of the extra spaces and “Replace” them with only 1 space.

In the steps below, step #4 indicates that you should enter 2 numbers in brackets. The first number is the minimum number of sequential spaces to find, and the second represents the maximum number of sequential spaces to find — in the example below, {3,20} is asking Word to find a minimum of three and a maximum of 20 consecutive spaces.

Pressing Ctrl+H will open the Find and Replace dialog box.
In the lower section, click on the More button. This will display the search options.
Select the Use wildcards check box.
In the Find what field, press the spacebar once followed by {3,20}.
In the Replace with field, press the spacebar once.
Click Replace All.

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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!

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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!

3 July 2015

Help Generating TOA

Dear Ms. Bytes, Word

Dear Ms Bytes,

I took the Table of Authorities class last month and loved it, but I still need some help. When I generate the TOA, my page numbers are incorrect.

Sincerely,
Mary in Los Angeles

Dear Mary,

Thank you for writing. We love to hear from our users. When generating a table of authorities, make sure to turn off Show/Hide, (Ctrl+Shift+8) and hide the TOA codes before generating a table of authorities, or for that matter a table of contents if you’ve manually marked the TOC.

Sincerely,
Ms. Bytes