Maybe I'm just dense, but I've found another Word feature that I've been wanting but didn't know existed--document preview. If you've read the past couple of newsletters, you know I've been spending a lot of time poking around Word's Open dialog, and this is my latest discovery. To use the feature:
1. Click File > Open.
2. In the window on the left, find some Word documents and click one of them so it's selected.
3. The toolbar at the top of the Open dialog includes several buttons. At the far right is the "Tools" button. Next to it, on the left, is the Views button, which isn't labeled but looks like a tiny list of files. Just to the right of the Views icon is a tiny down-arrow. Click that arrow to see the different views that are available.
4. One of the views is called "Preview." Go ahead--click it.
5. Wow! In the window to the right, you'll see a preview of the document contents. You can even use the scroll bar on the right of the window to scroll through the document. On my computer, quite a few file types will work, including HTML.
Now you can see what's in a document *before* you open it, so no more opening a document just to find it's not the one you wanted. Very handy!
By the way, this feature works in Word 95, 97, 2000, and 2002. (The Open dialog in Word 2001 on a Macintosh has a "Show Preview" button, but on my Mac the feature never seems to show anything.)
Here's a bonus tip: In Word 2002, you can change the size of the Open dialog by clicking and dragging the lower left corner with your mouse. Make that window as big as you like. Now you can really see those previews. Nice!
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READERS WRITE
Christopher Seal sent the following tip for editing in Print Preview:
I find it annoying that when scrolling through a Word document in Print Preview mode that when the mode is closed the document reopens at the page where you were when you opened Print Preview. You could be at page 1, then go into Print Preview mode, scroll through checking page balancing or whatever, and then see some text you want to change on page 127.
So you exit Print Preview, find yourself at page 1, then find the text on page 127. It is so much quicker to edit the text in Print Preview mode when you see what you want to change. Here's how.
With the main document in Print Preview mode, open another Word document in Normal mode. Now refocus on the main document, which you left in Print Preview mode. The cursor is now an I-bar, allowing you to edit the text.
Works in Word 2000 on Windows 98 and 2002(XP) on Windows 2000.
Many thanks to Christopher!
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