When I edit a document in Microsoft Word, I do everything I can from the keyboard. I avoid using the mouse because reaching over to get it interrupts the flow of work and slows me down. Sometimes, though, for a change of pace, I like to see how much editing I can do without even touching the keyboard, using the mouse as a sort of electronic pencil. If you're interested in trying this, here are some things to consider:

1. Using the mouse, you can (obviously) access any of the commands on Word's menus or toolbars, which include such things as changing case, changing format, cutting, copying, and pasting.

2. You can access the commands on Word's shortcut menu by clicking text with the right mouse button. For editing purposes, the most important commands are Cut, Copy, and Paste. (You can use the Cut command to delete text.) If you have Microsoft Bookshelf installed, you can use the Define command to look up words in the Bookshelf dictionary. In addition, Word 2000 includes a Synonyms command so you can replace a selected word with a suggested synonym or use Word's built-in thesaurus.

3. You can use the mouse to drag and drop selected words and phrases. You may need to turn this feature on under Tools/Options/Edit/Drag-and-drop text editing. Once it's on, you can select a word (double-click it), grab the word (hold down the left mouse button), drag the word to a new position (move the mouse), and place the word (let go of the mouse button). To copy the selection rather than move it, hold down the CTRL key with your left hand (if you're right-handed) before dragging the text.

4. You can use the mouse to copy and paste a word from nearby text rather than typing it in. You might also try resting your left hand on the keyboard (if you're right-handed) to type in the occasional space or other character. If you find yourself typing a lot, though, you may want to revert to using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

5. If you move through your document by dragging the vertical scroll bar, you'll see the page numbers in a small box at the right of your document window.

With some experimentation, I've learned which features I use most with the mouse, and I've placed them on the text shortcut menu (right mouse button) in our Editor's ToolKit program. Some of these are regular Word functions; others are unique to Editor's ToolKit. Here they are:

Cut

Copy

Paste

Delete (a single character or text you've already selected with the mouse)

Delete Word

Add to Spike

Insert Spike

Cap or Lowercase Word (toggle)

Make Word Italic or Roman (toggle)

Transpose Characters

Transpose Words

Apply Heading 1 Style

Apply Heading 2 Style

Apply Heading 3 Style

Apply Heading 4 Style

AutoStyle Block Quotation

AutoStyle List

AutoStyle Poem

Using all those features, you may be surprised at how much editing you can do without ever touching the keyboard. Give it a try! You'll soon be mousing around with the best of them.

for a particular purpose, and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and use of this document.

The Editorium is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft Word comes with a collection of secret macros. Well, okay, they're not really secret, but they're often overlooked. And they can be pretty useful if you know they exist and understand how to use them. Editors may be particularly interested in the following:

FindSymbol: A macro that allows you to find and replace symbols in your documents.

InsertFootnote: A wizard that helps you create footnotes in the MLA or Chicago Manual of Style format.

CopySpike: A macro that changes Word's spike functionality to copy to the spike rather than cut to the spike. (If you don't know what the spike is, please see your Word documentation. You'll find the feature very useful.)

The path and template names where you can find these macros are:

For Word 6, C:WinwordMacrosMacros6.dot

For Word 7 (95), C:MsofficeWinwordMacrosMacros7.dot

For Word 8 (97), C:Program FilesMicrosoft
OfficeOfficeMacrosMacros8.dot

For Word 9 (2000), C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeMacros [or Samples]Macros9.dot

If you don't find the template in the folder for your version of Word, you may need to install it from your Word installation disks. For Word 2000, you may need to download it from the Microsoft Web site at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/supmacros.htm.

To use the macros, simply open the template into Microsoft Word. You'll see complete instructions in your Word window.

You'll find other useful macros at:

Microsoft: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadCatalog/dldWord.asp

The Technical Editors' Eyrie: http://www.wrevenge.com.au

The WORDinfo WEBindex from Alki Software:
http://www.wordinfo.com/links/ailist.htm

And, of course, the Editorium: http://www.editorium.com

If you know of other macros for editors, please don't keep them a secret. Let us know so we can share the information with our other subscribers. Thanks!

for a particular purpose, and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and use of this document.

The Editorium is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

One of the advantages of editing on paper is that you can lay out the various pages, one here, one there, for reference and comparison with each other. For example, you may need to refer to a certain paragraph on page 10 while editing a paragraph on page 300. On the computer, this is a problem. You can scroll back to page 10 for reference, but then you'll have to scroll forward again to page 300 to make your changes.

If you do this kind of thing a lot, you may want to try using Microsoft Word's Go To feature (CTRL + G) to jump to the specific pages you need. Many editors never even think about this; they just hold the Page Down key and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll until they reach their destination. Go To may get you around more efficiently.

However, switching from one page to another over and over can get pretty tedious. Wouldn't it be nice if you could open the *same* document twice, with page 10 on the top of your screen and page 300 on the bottom? You can, with an often-overlooked feature called New Window. To use it, click the Window menu; then click "New Window." To see both windows at once, click the Window menu again; then click "Arrange All." You can tell the windows apart by looking at the title bar at the top of each one. Your original window's title will end with a 1. The new window's title will end with a 2.

You can move around each window freely, and you can have page 10 visible in the top window and page 300 visible in the bottom. Because each window contains the *same* document, any changes you make in one window will be reflected in the other. If you need to refer to more than two pages at the same time, you can open another new window. (If you're like many editors, you'd prefer to see the windows side by side, not one above the other. Our Editor's ToolKit program includes an "Arrange Windows" feature that puts one window on the left and the other on the right for easy comparison.)

You can also compare different pages with Word's Split feature, which lets you split a single window and scroll the two halves independently. To use it, click the Window menu; then click "Split." Position the split by moving your mouse and clicking the left mouse button. You can switch from one pane to the other by pressing SHIFT + F6. To get rid of the split, click the Window menu; then click "Remove Split."

If you work on long documents (such as books) and need to compare pages often, you may need a larger monitor. I recommend 17 inches at a minimum. Once you've tried a 21-inch monitor, you'll never want to go back. With a monitor that large, you can see a full page on your screen, and working on two documents side by side is a pleasure. You may never work on paper again.

for a particular purpose, and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and use of this document.

The Editorium is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

After reading our last newsletter, which offered an automatic way to insert dashes as you type, Sam Mills wrote: "Excuse me, but why can't you just type shift-option-hyphen to get an em dash as you type? and option-hyphen for the en dash?"

The answer, of course, is that you can (if you're using a Macintosh). PC users have it a little more difficult. To get an em dash, they have to hold down CTRL + ALT and then hit the hyphen key clear over on the numeric keypad. For an en dash, they have to hold down CTRL and then hit that distant hyphen key. Neither of these key combinations is very convenient, which is why I came up with an automatic way to create those dashes. Thanks, Sam, for pointing out the key combinations for those who want to use them.

Our Editor's ToolKit software provides two more ways to get dashes:

1. By holding down the ALT key and then pressing the M key to get an em dash or the N key to get an en dash--nice and easy.

2. By clicking the "Insert" menu and then the dash of your choice. (We've included the dashes right at the top of the menu.)

You can also get dashes by clicking the "Insert" menu, then "Symbol," then "Special Characters," and finally the dash you want to insert. While you're in there, take a look at the other "special characters" (as Microsoft calls them) that you can insert into your document. To the right of each character is a key combination that lets you insert the character from the keyboard.

For your convenience, these characters and key combinations are (in Word 2000):

Em Dash: ALT + CTRL + NUM-

En Dash: CTRL + NUM-

Nonbreaking Hyphen: CTRL + _

Optional Hyphen: CTRL + -

Em Space: [no key combination given]

En Space: [no key combination given]

1/4 Em Space: [no key combination given]

Nonbreaking Space: CTRL + SHIFT + SPACE

Copyright: ALT + CTRL + C

Registered: ALT + CTRL + R

Trademark: ALT + CTRL + T

Section: [no key combination given]

Paragraph: [no key combination given]

Ellipsis: ALT + CTRL + .

Single Opening Quote: CTRL + ``

Single Closing Quote: CTRL + ' '

Double Opening Quote: Ctr4l + `"

Double Closing Quote: CTRL + ' "

No-Width Optional Break: [no key combination given]

No-Width Non Break: [no key combination given]

If you try inserting these characters with their key combinations, you'll notice how clumsy some of them are, particularly the various quotation marks. Luckily, Microsoft Word makes it easy to assign new key combinations. To do so:

1. Go to the Special Characters menu by clicking the "Insert" menu, then

"Symbol," then "Special Characters."

2. Click the character whose key combination you want to change.

3. Click the "Shortcut Key" button.

4. Press the key combination you want to use to get the special

character. (For example, if you want to insert an em dash by pressing

ALT + M, hold down the ALT key and press the M key.) The new key

combination will appear in the box labeled "Press New Shortcut Key."

5. Click the "Assign" button.

6. Click the "Close" button.

Want to get crazy? Click the "Symbols" tab instead of the "Special Characters" tab. The "Shortcut Key" button is still there, which means you can assign anything in the symbols chart to the key combination of your choice. That's about as easy as it gets.