Word: The Write Stuff

Time-Savers

We all like to discover new shortcuts, whether they offer a faster route home or a quicker way to enter and edit text in a document. These tricks speed your work.

Do-It-Yourself Shortcuts

Do you find yourself entering the same signature block, address, or other text or object into document after document? Word lets you store these frequently used items--complete with formatting--and insert them with a few simple keystrokes.

Select the text, graphic, or object you wish to enter, and choose Tools, AutoCorrect (in Word 97 and 2000) or Tools, AutoCorrect Options (in Word 2002). Click the AutoCorrect tab in the resulting dialog box. You'll see your selected text or object in the 'With' box. Type a short, nonword abbreviation in the 'Replace' box, check the Formatted Text option, and click OK. To insert this text or object in another document, just type the abbreviation you chose, and press Space. If Word prompts you to save the changes to the global template when you exit, click Yes.

Print Keyboard Shortcuts

Word and WordPerfect offer dozens of useful keyboard shortcuts, but finding them can be a chore. WordPerfect 10 and all versions of Word make it easy to print a list of every shortcut to post nearby as a handy reference.

In Word, select Tools, Macro, Macros or press Alt-F8. In the Macros dialog box, select Word commands from the 'Macros in' drop-down list, and then select ListCommands from the 'Macro name' list box. Click Run, select Current menu and keyboard settings in the List Commands dialog box, and click OK. Word will create a document containing a table of commands and their keyboard shortcuts. Print it for reference.

In WordPerfect 10, select Tools, Settings. Click the Customize icon in the Settings dialog box, and choose the Keyboards tab in the next dialog box. There, the keyboard that you are currently using will already be selected. Click Edit and then click Print Report in the next dialog box.

Get There With Scrollbars

To navigate quickly through a long Word document, you can use the vertical and horizontal scrollbars on the right side and bottom of your document, respectively. But there's more to them than that.

By checking one of the double arrows (pointing up or down) on the bottom of Word's vertical scroll bar, you can jump from page to page in the document. Click the button between the double arrows to see a palette of options that you can assign to them. As you hover the mouse over each option, you'll see an explanation of what it sets--Browse by Graphic, or Browse by Section, for example. After selecting the option you prefer, click the double arrows to go to the next or the previous occurrence of your selection.

WordPerfect 9 and 10 offer almost the same tool on their vertical scrollbars. Click the icon between the double arrows to cycle through your quick-jump options.

Your Documents Folder

By default, Word stores your documents in the My Documents folder. If you want to change Word's default folder, select Tools, Options and bring up the File Locations tab in the Options dialog box. Choose Documents in the 'File types' list and then click Modify. Navigate to and select the folder you want to use; then click OK to make it the new default. If Word prompts you to confirm changes to normal.dot when you exit, click Yes.