Tips and Techniques for Publishing Professionals

Recently a colleague said to me, "Look at this manuscript. All the ordinal numbers are superscripted." What he meant was that "1st," "2nd," "3rd," and so on had the "st," "nd," and "rd" in superscript. Then came an interesting question: "Do you think I should leave them that way?"

Now, I don't know about you, but I've never in my life been tempted to set ordinals with superscript, so my answer was basically "Are you kidding?" Later I started thinking about where the superscripts had come from: Microsoft Word's AutoFormat feature. And that led me to ponder a broader question: Are editors beginning to let Microsoft Word dictate editorial style?

It's tempting here to get off on a discussion of how the means of production influences the things produced, but instead may I just say that if we let Word dictate editorial style, we're in trouble. In my opinion, such "helpful" features as AutoFormat were created mainly as one more whizbang feature for Microsoft's marketing staff. The value to everyday users is negligible or worse. So I thought it might be helpful to identify "style by Microsoft" items to watch out for. Here's my list:

* The aforementioned superscript ordinals. You can learn how to turn off such items here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700237543

* Superscript note numbers in footnotes and endnotes. You can learn how to change these to regular numbers here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1703696660

* Automatic capitalization of articles, conjunctions, and prepositions when using Format > Change Case > Title Case. Our Editor's ToolKit program solves this problem with its "Make selection title case" feature. You can learn more about Editor's ToolKit here:

http://www.editorium.com/14857.htm

* Opening single quotation marks rather than apostrophes. For example, if I write "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves," I want the character in front of the "T" to be an apostrophe, not an opening single quotation mark. Our FileCleaner program (also included with Editor's ToolKit Plus) will correct most such problems:

http://www.editorium.com/14845.htm

* The tiny, ugly ellipses "character" (ASCII number 133 on PC, 201 on Macintosh). Brrr. If you need ellipses, properly spaced periods look vastly better. Again, FileCleaner will fix the problem.

* Arial and Times New Roman. Everywhere I look, I see documents with headings in Arial and text in Times New Roman. Just because Microsoft uses these fonts as its default doesn't mean *you* have to. Go ahead, modify the styles in your Normal template. Be different! Be daring! Be tasteful!

Have you noticed other examples of "style by Microsoft"? If so, please let me know, and I'll include your nominations in next week's newsletter:

mailto:editor [at symbol] editorium.com

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

For more on Word's annoying eccentricities and how to turn them off, see Elizabeth Burton's article here:

http://www.simegen.com/school/business/manuscriptpreparation/taketioff.html

Also, if you haven't already done so, be sure to check out Jean Hollis Weber's book Taming Microsoft Word 2002. It's a great resource, well worth the modest price:

http://www.jeanweber.com/books/tameword.htm

[Editor's note: This week's feature article comes from Dan A. Wilson, a true gentleman and an editor's editor. Dan explains how to modify even the *built-in* buttons on Word's "My Places" toolbar. Don't want a "Desktop" button getting in your way? Dan explains how to remove it--and much more. I really appreciate Dan's generosity in supplying this information. If you're not already familiar with Dan's work, you'll definitely want to visit his Web site, the Editor's DeskTop, where he has still more useful information that every editor should read:

http://www.editorsdesktop.com/index.html

While you're there, check out Dan's editing services. Then, when you really need a professional, you'll know where to find one.]

This information applies to Word 2002 (Word XP). The My Places bar was not fully customizable prior to the appearance of the 2002 (XP) version. It is easy to add new icons to the My Places bar in Word 2002, to re-order the icons, and to remove any icon(s) you have added, as Jack pointed out in the Editorium Update of July 9, 2003. But a small amount of registry tweaking will give you complete control over the My Places bar icons, and let you consign the standard, default icons to distant memory.

Entries on the My Places bar are contained in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice10.0CommonOpen FindPlaces

The Places key contains the following two subkeys: StandardPlaces and UserDefinedPlaces. These subkeys contain the following keys:

StandardPlaces. This subkey contains five keys that correspond to the five default items that appear on the My Places bar.

KEY NAME MY PLACES ITEM

Desktop Desktop

Favorites Favorites

MyDocuments My Documents

Publishing My Network Places

Recent History

UserDefinedPlaces. This subkey contains keys that correspond to items you have added to the My Places bar.

Example:

KEY NAME MY PLACES ITEM

Place0 firstplaceadded

Place1 secondplaceadded

Place2 thirdplaceadded

The following values can be used for keys contained in the StandardPlaces key and the UserDefinedPlaces key:

NAME TYPE DATA OPTIONS

View DWORD {1=List, 2=Details, 3=Summary, 4=Preview}

ArrangeBy DWORD {1=Name, 2=Type, 3=Size, 4=Date}

SortAscending DWORD Boolean to sort ascending/descending

Index DWORD Relative position on the My Places bar

Show DWORD Zero to hide a Standard place

Okay, now, here's the trick: If you locate a DWORD "Show" in one of the StandardPlaces keys (or create a new DWORD "Show" in one of the StandardPlaces keys) and modify its value to "0", that folder will not appear in your Word MyPlaces bar in the Open and SaveAs dialogs. I'll explain this step-by-step below.

There must be at least one icon in the MyPlaces bar. If nothing else is there, Desktop will remain. But if there are other icons showing, you can get rid of the (essentially useless for most users) Desktop icon, the MyDocs icon, or any (or all) of the other default icons.

The standard, low-tech way to access the registry is:

1. Click the Windows Start button.

2. Click "Run..."

3. Type "regedit" (don't include the quotation marks).

4. Press Enter or click OK.

The Registry Editor opens.

To hide the Desktop item on the My Places bar, open this registry key (click the plus to the left of a key's name to expand it, then scroll down to the next subkey listed here and click the plus to its left ...):

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice10.0CommonOpen FindPlacesStandardPlaces

Now, before you do anything else, save a copy of the registry key you are about to change. If anything goes wrong when you close the Registry Editor, all you have to do is locate your saved copy of the key (it has a name you assigned to it, and the extension .reg), double-click it, say Yes when you are asked whether you want to add this to the registry, and all will be the way it was.

Here's how you save a copy of a key: First, click the name of the key. In the example below, that would be the Desktop key. Click File in the Menu Bar at the top of the window, and click Export. Type a name of your choice in the blank, and navigate to a folder you choose to use as a storage folder for the saved-key file you are about to make. Now just click Save, and the key's entire image is saved as it is before you change anything. If you ever had to restore the key to its prior state, all you would have to do is double-click the name of the file you saved, answer Yes, and the changed key would be restored.

Now that the Desktop key is saved, let's change it. [Editor's note: Be careful not to change anything else or go merrily messing around while you're in there. If you do, you could foul up your computer fairly seriously. Also, don't continue unless you've followed Dan's instructions for saving a copy of the registry key.]

1. Right-click Desktop.

2. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

3. In the New Value#1 box, type Show, and then press ENTER.

4. Right-click Show, and then click Modify.

5. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 0 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

That's it.

Reboot.

If the StandardPlaces key you want to hide already has a Show item in the right-hand panel of the Registry Editor window, simply right-click the word Show, click Modify in the pop-up that appears, and type the number (not the letter) 0 in the value box, where the number 1 will already be selected, waiting to be changed. Once you have made a change, click OK and close the Registry Editor.

If the StandardPlaces key you want to hide does not already have a Show item, create one as above. You simply right-click the key you want to create a Show DWORD value in, and go from there. It's a snap.

I added a Show DWORD with a value of 0 (zero, not "O," remember) to each of the StandardPlaces keys when I had added several of my own folders to the My Places bar. I now have five (large) folder-icons showing in Word's My Places bar with no arrowhead at the bottom or top to indicate that there are more icons offscreen. I have icons for my folders called Admin, Editing, Current, Archives, and Computing. They're the ones I use most often in Word, and it's really handy and efficient to have them readily available in the My Places bar, so that I don't have to click through other folders to reach them.

After all, *handy* and *efficient* are descriptors it would be wonderful to be able to use for everything Word. This information can move you a step closer to that goal.

Copyright (c) 2003 by Dan A. Wilson

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

After reading today's article, you may want to know more about the registry and how to use it. If so, a great place to learn the basics is the WinGuides Web site, here:

http://www.winguides.com/article.php?id=1&guide=registry

Then you'll find more Word-specific stuff at the Word MVP site, here:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm

This week I've been editing a new project in Microsoft Word and decided to try something new--editing in Print Layout in Full-Screen mode. I didn't think I'd like it, but I do--a lot. If you want to try it, you can activate the feature by adjusting some items under the View menu, in this order:

1. Turn on Print Layout.

2. Set the Zoom level to "Whole page."

3. Click "Full Screen."

Whoa! Your Word menu bar has disappeared! That's okay; just move your mouse pointer to the top of your screen to bring the menu bar out of hiding. Move your mouse pointer back down, and the menu bar will vanish again, leaving a full page of your document floating over a gray background.

(To turn *off* Full-Screen mode, press the Escape key, or display the menu bar and again click View > Full Screen.)

What about your toolbars? They're probably still at the top of your screen, which keeps your document page from being displayed as large as possible. But who said toolbars have to stay at the top of the screen? You've now got lots of gray space at the sides of your page, and you can use that space to hold your toolbars. Just click and hold the vertical bar on the left of a toolbar, drag the toolbar to a new location, and release your mouse button. You can leave the toolbar "floating" in the gray space around your document (and resize it, if necessary), or you can "dock" it on either side of your screen.

With Full-Screen mode turned on, you'll immediately notice how tiny the type is in your document. "I can't work like this!" you'll say. And you'll be right. To overcome this problem, you'll need to attach a new template to the document--a template formatted especially for editing. I'd recommend making body type at least 18 points and headings even larger--whatever you need for nice, legible type, even if that means you no longer have as many words on a page. Don't worry; after you've finished editing, you can attach a template with the final formatting the document needs for publication. You can learn more about this here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700934923

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1704544112

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1704628448

Also, to really make this work, you'll need a big monitor. I do most of my work on a 21-inch screen, but a 19-incher will do. On 17 inches, it's iffy. If you're still using a 13- or 15-inch monitor, it's time to upgrade, and I'd recommend getting the biggest monitor you can afford (the ideal would be an LCD that can pivot to a "portrait" orientation!). You can learn more about this here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1705314503

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1705425420

Some of the advantages of working in Full-Screen mode, are:

* You can see a full manuscript page on your screen.

* The information on your screen is "digital" rather than analog, resembling pages rather than scrolls. In other words, it's presented in discrete, self-contained batches, and hitting the Page Down key really does take you a full page down. (In our Editor's ToolKit program, it also places your cursor at the *top* of the next page; sweet!) You can more naturally perfect a page before moving on to the next one. You don't have that feeling of not knowing where you are or that you're in an unending, scrolling mass of words.

* The discreteness of the pages allows for positional memory and a better sense of proportion--editing seems more natural, like working on paper. You can learn more about this here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700396609

* All the distraction of toolbars and menus is gone, leaving you free to concentrate on your editing.

As mentioned earlier, you can still access Word's menu bar by moving your mouse pointer to the top of the screen, but you can also access it by pressing the ALT key. Then you can activate menu items by pressing the key for the letters that are underlined on those items. For example, the File menu has an underline under the F, so you can press F to access the File menu. If you already know what those underlined items are (without looking), you can press both keys at once to access the menu: ALT + F.

Here are some additional tips for editing in Full-Screen mode:

1. Click Tools > Options > View and turn off the following items (to maximize the space on your screen):

* Status bar.

* Horizontal scroll bar.

* Vertical scroll bar.

2. Click View and turn off the ruler.

3. Get more text on a page by reducing the size of your margins under File > Page Setup.

4. If your pages aren't already numbered, insert page numbers. With the status bar gone, you'll need them to gauge your progress as you work through that manuscript.

5. Use Word's "Go To" feature (CTRL + G) to move around in your document.

All of this makes it possible to have a clean screen and see each page as a unit--a pretty nice way to edit! If you've never used Full-Screen mode, why not give it a try?

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

Juanita Hilkin wrote:

One last tip on document preview. If you have a wheel mouse, hold down the control key while you roll the wheel, and the view of your document will become larger or smaller depending on which way you roll the wheel. This makes it easy to quickly adjust the view on the screen but still lets you type in the document.

After reading last week's article on modifying the "My Places" toolbar, Claes Gauffin wrote:

As you said, there are no ways to modify the toolbar in earlier versions. But what you can do, is to modify the contents of, for example, the "My documents" folder to something useful. If you normally organize your different projects in separate folders, you simply create shortcuts of all these project folders and put the shortcuts into the "My documents folder." And presto! You suddenly have a swift way of reaching all your current work.

Nan Bush wrote:

An add-on I couldn't live without on Word 2000 is Woody Leonhard's WOPR Places Bar Customizer. With it, you can customize up to ten directory links on the Places bar. It's very easy to install and has worked flawlessly for me for two+ years. As a technical writer juggling many documents, I can't imagine (well . . . yes, I can) trying to navigate without it. HIGHLY recommended. I just looked it up to be sure of its availability and found the WOPR Places Bar Customizer and other WOPR products from:

http://www.wopr.com/html/order.shtml

Thanks to all for their great suggestions.

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

High on the mountaintop, the wizard waves his wand, intoning the words of power. "OLEFormat.DoVerb wdOLEVerbShow!" he cries. "Application.OnTime Now!"

Trembling, you approach. "O mighty one," you plead, "I am weary and frustrated. I seek to make Word do my bidding rather than follow its own will, as it is so cursedly wont to do. Will you not teach me your wondrous spells?"

The wizard eyes you carefully, measuring your sincerity. Satisfied, he nods his assent. "We will begin with the spellbooks," he says, drawing a large, dark volume from his voluminous sleeve. The teaching has begun.

Steve Hudson, the Wizard of Word, really has published his spellbooks, which contain the power to bring Word under your control. The spellbooks are three:

1. Word VBA Beginner's Spellbook. This is the perfect reference for any Word user who has ever had to think about recording a macro or automating templates. Whether novice or expert, there are few Word users who won't benefit from the unique topics covered in this book.

2. Word Spellbook. A book for the experienced novice or intermediate user who is ready to move to a more advanced level. It does not cover writing techniques or other secondary information; it is dedicated to the functionality behind Microsoft Word--and nobody understands that better than Steve.

3. Word VBA Spellbook. This more advanced book assumes that the reader already has some programming knowledge. Then it explains how to get results from the inside out. The book is not so much for professional Word developers but rather for Word users who need to develop solutions for their own use.

The price for these collections of powerful knowledge? Just $20 each. For what you'll get, that is ridiculously cheap. The information would be a bargain at twice the price. Better get 'em now before Steve changes his mind. Then you too can be a Word wizard. The way to the mountaintop is here:

http://www.geocities.com/word_heretic/spellbooks.html

In the Open, Save, and Save As dialogs in recent versions of Word, there's a large vertical toolbar on the left-hand side of the dialog. The toolbar has buttons on it that make it easy to get to such places as My Documents and Desktop. Appropriately enough, the name of the toolbar is "My Places." Or maybe that's not so appropriate, since in any version of Word before 2002, there's no way to modify this toolbar--at least no way I've been able to find.

But in Word 2002 there is a way to add places (folders) to the toolbar. Why should you care? Because doing so will give you quick and easy access to your latest editing projects without having to navigate all over the place. Here's how to add a folder you want to use:

1. Click the "File" menu and then click "Open," "Save," or "Save As."

2. In the dialog that opens, navigate to the folder you want to add to the My Places toolbar.

3. Click the folder so it's active.

4. Click the "Tools" menu at the top of the Save As dialog.

5. Click "Add to My Places."

That will add the folder to the My Places bar. You may need to click the down arrow at the bottom of the bar to see the folder you added. However, you can move the folder up in the list by right-clicking it and then clicking "Move Up." (You can also move it down by clicking "Move Down.") If you want to remove the folder from the bar, right-click it and then click "Remove." You'll notice that you can't remove the existing folders, such as My Documents. They're there to stay.

If you eventually accumulate too many folders to handle, you can better manage them by reducing the size of their icons (which, by default, are *huge*). To do so, right-click one of the folders and then click "Small Icons."

Thanks to Michael C. Coleman for suggesting this article.

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

I've received so many great tips from readers that there's just not room to include them all in a single newsletter. So if your tip isn't here, please be patient. I'll be including it soon.

The previous newsletter included a tip for editing in Print Preview. A number of readers wrote to say there's an easier way: click the Magnifier button (it looks like a magnifying glass over a piece of paper) on the Print Preview toolbar. You'll then be able to edit away. The Magnifier button is a toggle, so after you're through editing, you can click it again to return to Print Preview. Many thanks to all who sent this tip and the others below. Keep those email messages coming!

Bill Rubidge sent some additional tips for working in Print Preview:

You can invoke print preview with a macro, and set yourself to edit mode, with this bit of VBA:

ActiveDocument.PrintPreview

ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Magnifier = False

You might also use this bit of VBA to set a page-width zoom:

ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit

I also believe you can enter full-screen view with this:

ActiveWindow.View.FullScreen = True

Full screen view is nice if you want to edit in a true WYSIWYG mode, without distraction from any tools, and if your computer is powerful enough or your document simple enough that editing in this mode works fast.

You also have access to all the standard Word commands in print preview mode, even if you can't see the icons and the menus. I avoid using the mouse and icons as much as possible, and just invoke the commands I want using the keyboard shortcuts for the menu bar.

One final suggestion--if you have a document set up to print on both sides of the page, so that you will have facing pages in the final bound document, you can set print preview to show you two pages side by side. If you use full screen view, you can usually read the documents, if you have a big enough display and set the resolution to a good size like 1024 x 768. This view in edit mode is especially useful if you are trying to do nice layout in Word. You can adjust your page breaks to balance your layout across pages. (I recommend fixing page breaks with keep-with-next paragraph commands and start-new-page paragraph commands, rather than page breaks. That way, you won't have as much to undo if you make text edits and the content gets pushed around.)

___________________________

Phil Rabichow wrote:

Just thought I'd mention something in follow-up to your article on Document Preview. You would think that if you open a document, go to File > Properties, and check the "Save preview picture," then you would have a picture as you describe in your article--one that you can see, read, and scroll through.

However, it's just the opposite! If you check that box, two things happen:

1. The file size grows.

2. You only see a snapshot in preview mode in the File > Open dialog box--and you can't scroll. The snapshot is so small (in Word 2000, anyhow), you can't read anything. Moral: never check that box.

___________________________

Eric Fletcher wrote:

I've been away for a bit and just caught up on the last few newsletters. I see you've been delving into one of my favorite features of Word: the document properties dialog.

Several years ago we had a huge job coordinating publication of ~300 publications in three languages from numerous authors. Each publication would be in any of several different phases at any time so I knew document management was going to be critical. To deal with it, I set up a template with a "cover page" consisting of styled fields to show information from the document properties, then very fastidiously followed a rigorous naming convention with the "Show document properties when saving" option set on.

I've attached a sample document so you can see what I mean. [Editor's note: To maintain privacy, I have not made this document available, but you should still be able to get an idea of what Eric is talking about from his comments.] Here are a few of the features:

1. The cover page has fielded info from the Summary part of the properties dialog. Title, subject, keywords, and comments are styled to display. The "comments" field has a running history of where the file has been. Our procedure copies the subject each time the file is saved with a new name (actually, it migrates through sets of folders; in our case, CHP-A through CHP-D as it moves through various set stages) and appends it to the end of the comments field so I keep the history with the file.

2. Some of the other fields are in the statistics tab: pages, words, creation date--and even some math to show things like average number of words per page (for our client's purposes originally but now very useful for quoting on similar work).

3. I set up a custom field "Default language" to identify the default spelling dictionary and display it on the cover page. We often do work in English, French, and Spanish, so it is helpful to be able to see at a glance what language is set as the default. The value and the setting is managed by a custom macro. (Custom fields can be very useful but the feature is poorly documented.)

4. Since we include the cover page for the client, we type any notes they need to see here so they can send the document off to their author without the notes if they choose. The page number references are fields referring to bookmarks, so we can be quite specific without having to worry about pagination differences. (Sometimes the files are sent electronically and printed at their site.)

5. Although this is a bit removed from the properties dialog, I've included sample portions of the proforma table of contents for the styled headings (we provide all levels at the interim stages so they can see the structure of their work--often handy for reducing confusion without having to be a heavy!) and the ToC for figures. The latter is seldom used in finals but we've found it helps a lot in author reviews since many of them are most keen to see that aspect of the text rather than re-reading the entire content.

I've cadged together various macros to generate summary documents using the properties fields: for example, I can list all files in the CHP-B stage in French and show the number of words. Such macros usually end up being job-specific, but they can be real lifesavers if there are large numbers of files. Of course, a well-thought-out naming convention is critical as well--but if you use the properties, you can greatly extend the number of variables to uniquely identify a particular file.

Oh, and a final tip: since I never use the Insert key, I map the File > Properties command to it. So, to see my properties dialog, I just hit Insert. (And if your finger slips going for Delete or Home, having a dialog pop up is pretty harmless--and reminds one of the usefulness of the feature!

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

MyInfo is an outlining and organizational tool I've been using for the past few weeks to keep track of all kinds of ideas, notes, and projects. The program's Web site describes it as a "tool for individuals who need a better way for storing and working with their personal and business information," noting, "It was designed to help you organize documents, ideas and projects easily."

The program certainly does that, and it has a number of features that I think sets it apart from other such organizers:

* Customizable, sortable columns. For me, this is the big one. It means I can sort my many notes by category or deadline or status or just about anything else I can dream up. I can even create my own drop-down list of items to choose from. This is a *nice* feature that I've seen nowhere else.

* Item cloning. If I have a note in one folder, I can have a duplicate in another folder, and whenever I make a change in either one of them, that change is also made automatically in the other. In effect, I can file a note under many different category folders at the same time. If I have a note about creativity, for example, I can store it (cloned) under "Thinking," "Writing," and "Inventing" without worrying about keeping the clones in synch.

* Save options. You can save all or selected items in RTF format using all kinds of slick options, such as automatic item numbering, custom dividers, and comments.

* Fast, intuitive navigation.

* Usability. MyInfo has one of the cleanest program interfaces I've seen, making even its most advanced features simple to use.

If you're looking for an easy, effective way to organize your projects and your life, you'll definitely want to look at this program. You can learn more (and try it!) here:

http://www.milenix.com/myinfo.php

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!

_________________________________________

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!

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

Scribendi, a multi-service editorial company, features some great pictures and a screensaver especially for editors. You can join the fun here:

http://www.scribendi.com/screensave.htm

While you're there, check out the company's editing services:

http://www.scribendi.com/

Last week's newsletter introduced the idea of using Microsoft Word to search for Word documents to which you've assigned certain properties, such as categories or keywords. This week we'll look at how to sort by those properties in a folder. I've learned, however, that this will not work in Windows 95 or 98. In XP, it works great, and it may work in some other versions.

Before you can sort by document properties, you'll have to assign those properties. Here's the basic procedure:

1. With a document open in Word, click File > Properties.

2. Click the Summary tab.

3. Enter the information by which you'll later want to sort. For example, you could enter a category, keywords, or a comment.

4. Save the document.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for other documents. Note that you should really do these steps whenever you create a new document. Word can help you with this by automatically opening the Properties dialog the first time you save a document. To activate this feature, click Tools > Options > Save > Prompt for document properties.

You can also assign properties outside of Word by right-clicking a file in a folder and then clicking "Properties" and the Summary tab.

After assigning the properties you want to use, you can sort by those properties in Windows Explorer or any Windows folder. To do so:

1. Open the folder you want to use.

2. Click the View menu and then "Details." You should now see a line of buttons above your list of files. The buttons will have names like "Name," "Date Modified," and "Size." To sort your files by one of these properties, click the button for that property. For example, to sort your files by the date they were modified, click the "Date Modified" button.

3. Now, the good stuff. Take your mouse and right-click that button bar. Wow, look at all the properties you can include on the button bar!

4. For the really good stuff, click "More . . ." at the bottom of the menu.

5. Put a check in the box for the items you want to use, such as "Subject" and "Category." Then click the Okay button. Wow again! Now you can see those properties in your file list. (Note that you can apply these settings to all of your folders, if you like. To do so, click Tools > Folder Options > View > Apply to All Folders.)

6. Click the button for the property by which you want to sort. Pretty slick!

How can you use this feature? Well, how about keeping track of all documents from a particular author? Or maybe you'd want to group chapters that belong to a certain section of a book. How about using the feature as a document database that allows you to group all documents (from a variety of projects) by a particular subject? There are lots of possibilities.

On a Macintosh, life isn't quite so glorious. There's no way (that I know of) to sort by Word document properties in a folder (at least in OS 9.1, which I'm using). You can, however, sort by properties that you assign to files *outside* of Word. To do so:

1. Open the folder you want to use.

2. Click View > View Options.

3. Under "Show Columns," put a check in the box for the properties you want to display and sort. "Comments" and "Label" are really the only customizable properties available here. Note that you can also set these for all folders under Edit > Preferences > Views.

4. Select a file to which you want to assign properties.

5. Press Command + I to bring up the General Information dialog.

6. In the Comments box, enter the text by which you want to sort. For example, you could type a category or keyword here.

7. If you like, click the Label button and assign a category such as "Essential," "In Progress," or "Project 1."

8. Close the dialog to save your changes.

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

William T. Buckley wrote:

When I went to test your instructions in the DOCUMENT PROPERTIES portion of the Editorium for this week--06.11.2003--I found they did not work, at least not on my setup.

I am using Word 2002 (10.4524.4219) SP-2, running on Win2K professional.

After I read your discussion of the usefulness of the document properties capability, I then moved on to your detailed instructions:

* I clicked File > Open.

* I located the "Tools" button on the upper right of the dialog.

* BUT, when I went to look for "Find" under "Tools," there was no such option available in the dialog.

So I am unable to go forward with your instructions. And I'm at a loss to explain why. Is it me, my Word software, my OS, all of the above, none of the above?

I responded that before publishing these instructions, I really should have checked to see how the feature has changed in Word 2002, which now uses the term "Search" instead of "Find." Also, after clicking "Search," it's now necessary to click the "Advanced" tab, which will get you into the fancy features I described in the newsletter.

Thanks to William for his questions and comments.

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

Jim Cronin wrote:

Anyone who appreciates acerbic wit will love this screensaver from Deloitte Touche Consultants:

http://www.dc.com/bullfighter

The free Bullfighter program, which roots out consultant-speak, also uses the same biting comments as it diagnoses one's writing.

Thanks, Jim!

I've been thinking a lot lately about document management--that is, how to keep better track of all those Microsoft Word files I have floating around my computer. One tool I've neglected is Word's Properties feature. If you work in a law office, you probably know all about it. But if you work in a publishing house, like me, you may not even know this tool exists.

To see the Properties feature in action, open a Word document (or create a new one). Then click File > Properties. The Properties dialog will open, and you'll see five tabs:

General

Summary

Statistics

Contents

Custom

I'm not going to cover all of these tabs or their contents, but I would like to call your attention to the one that looks most useful for document management--the Summary tab.

Most of the items on the Summary tab are self-explanatory, but the important thing to note is that you can enter or modify any of them. In particular, I'm interested in the Subject, Category, and Keywords boxes. Why? Because if I type information into these boxes, I can do two very cool things. One of them is to search for files with a particular subject, category, or keyword.

Here's how:

1. Click File > Open.

2. Locate the "Tools" button on the upper right of the dialog. Did you know that was there?

3. Click "Find." Wow, is that a nifty dialog or what?

4. In the "Property" dropdown list, find the item you want to search, such as "Subject."

5. In the "Condition" list, find the conditions that fit the search you want to do, such as "Includes words" or "Begins with phrase."

6. In the "Value" box, type the words or phrase that you want to find in the property you selected from the "Property" list.

Here's an example. If I wanted to find all my files on the subject of elephants, I'd choose "Subject," "Includes words," and "elephant." Note that this won't find the *word* "elephants" in the text of a document. Rather, it will find all of the files whose Subject *property* includes the word "elephants."

7. Click the "Add to List" button. The search element you just defined will appear in the big box at the top of the dialog.

8. Click the "Find Now" button.

Word will search through your files and display those that match your search. Then you can open the files you want to work on. Note that you can narrow your searches by adding more than one item, that you can save your searches to use again later, and that there are various other features to help you refine your searches. You can learn more about each feature by clicking the Help button (labeled with a question mark) and then clicking the feature you want to know more about.

I mentioned that there were two cool things that can be done with document properties. One of them is searching. The other one is to sort by document properties in Windows Explorer. I'll reveal the details next week.

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

After reading last week's newsletter on using styles in Word 2002 while avoiding the Task Pane, Jim Cronin wrote:

Prior to Word 2002, you could redefine a style by making direct formatting alterations in a paragraph then clicking on the style name in the toolbar's Style drop-down list and pressing Enter twice. This was a lot easier and quicker than using Word 2002's Task Pane. The solution is to click Tools > Options from the toolbar, select the Edit tab and ensure the "Prompt to update style" checkbox is selected.

Romke Soldaat sent some other useful style commands to add to your custom Styles toolbar as mentioned in last week's newsletter:

Apply Heading 1

Apply Heading 2

Apply Heading 3

Style by Example

Modify Style

Redefine Style

Rename Style

Delete Style

Style

Style Gallery

Romke also sent a nifty little macro that you can add to your toolbar. The macro displays Word's Organizer feature, all set so you can organize styles:

Sub OrganizeStyles
With Dialogs(wdDialogOrganizer)
.DefaultTab = wdDialogOrganizerTabStyles
.Show
End With
End Sub

If you don't know how to use macros like that one, you can find out here.

Thanks to Jim and Romke for these great tips.

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

I have been sick, sick, sick of my computer running so slow. Then it dawned on me: spyware! I quickly downloaded, installed, and ran Spybot Search & Destroy, from PepiMK Software. Now my computer is back under my control. If you've got similar problems, you might want to check this out:

http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=start

There's no charge for the program, and on my computer it worked well. Your mileage may vary. If you want to try it, be *sure* to read the documentation before proceeding.

The Styles and Formatting Task Pane in Word 2002 is a useful feature, but, keyboard junkie that I am, I just hate reaching for the mouse every time I need to create or modify a style--and the Task Pane doesn't seem to work with the keyboard. Isn't there a way to get back Word's old Style dialog? Or better yet, how about a way to access Word 2002's fancy new Modify Style dialog (which has the most commonly used options right there) without having to drill down through the Task Pane and a couple of other dialogs?

The beauty of Word is that almost anything is possible, and although I'm unhappy with some of what Microsoft has done to increase the "marketability" of my favorite word processor, I'm glad they've had the good sense to leave in (and even add) some great features, even if they're sometimes buried pretty deep.

If you want to get back the keyboard-controllable Style dialog, do this:

1. Click Tools > Macro > Macros.

2. Click the "Macros In" dropdown list.

3. In the list, click "Word commands."

4. In the "Macro name" list, use the scroll bar to find "FormatStyle."

5. Click "FormatStyle."

6. Click "Run."

Wow! There's the friendly Style dialog, ready to be controlled through keyboard commands (or, if you insist, with your mouse). No Task Pane needed!

Of course, you're not going to want to drill down through Tools > Macro > Macros every time you want to use the dialog, so you might as well put the command on a toolbar button, a menu, or a keyboard shortcut, as described here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707286867

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707444986

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1713088939

While we're playing around with style commands, there are some others you might want to add to a toolbar, menu, or keyboard shortcut. If you work with styles a lot, you could even create a Styles menu or toolbar devoted entirely to these commands:

* FormatStyleModify (which lets you modify styles)

* FormatStyleNew (which lets you create new styles)

* FormatStyleGallery (which lets you see the styles in your various Word templates)

* FormatStyleVisibility (which lets you hide or display text depending on the style applied; where has *this* been all my life?)

Now are you happier with Word 2002? I know I am.

Note: If you're a Mac user, the procedure should be basically the same in Word 2003.

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

Wordmeister Steve Hudson sent an interesting response to a question about why Word's features sometimes seem to work differently depending on where they are accessed in Word. (His references to Maggie, Douggie, and Mal will mean more if you subscribe to the WORD PC-LIST; for more information, see today's Resource column.) Steve's answer is complex and has to do with the inner workings of Microsoft Word and VBA programming, so if you want to know more about that, Steve's your man. Here's what he had to say:

Word is like this really complex programme beastie, right? I mean HIDEOUSLY complex. If it were a house we could pack it with all the Word PC List users and play a single game of hide and seek that went for WEEKS! So, we go searching for the Queen, Maggie. We find her sensibly hidden in the backwaters of a partial wing known as Table Properties. She is in a long corridor with many doors off it, one of which is labelled Sort, and you have a squizzy down there and see a corridor branching off into a few other corridors.

You know Father Douggy is into macros, so you think you'll look there for him. You backtrack and begin looking. Your wanderings lead you into the room of Macros, off the main wing of Tools. You find the venerable Cardinal Mal, poking around with some suspicious-looking strings attached to a strange object. He is calling it a Guitar and wants to implement a new RocknRoll method. But you still haven't found Douggy yet, so you ask Mal where he is. "Oh, he was with Maggie." You think, "Uh huh! I know he's near here, and he's near Maggie, so I'll look in the Sort Ascending room!"

You go through the door marked Commands, and it opens out into a long, winding corridor full of doors and stairways. You wander along until you come to the Sort Ascending room, and you walk in on the ground floor. No Douggy. Then you look up and realise Douggy is standing on a balcony with no way up for you. You ask, "How did you get there?" He replies, "I came via a different way than you."

So, there's our analogy; let's get a little more "real world" with the next pass, huh? 🙂 Mind you, this all in generality can be applied to many facets of the facade (Word's user interface); it's not just applicable for SortSuspenders.

Word is a complex beastie full of little snippets of code that do things. These snippets are called on by other snippets until we have a facade full of bugs, err features, undocumented or otherwise. My tools are developed in a similar fashion, so this is quite normal. I have really generic routines hiding behind the walls of methods that then present exact instances of their usage.

Let's take a simple example. I write a piece of code to strip styling from a range; I don't care what the range is, just give me a range. Now that's useless to tie to the GUI (graphical user interface); how does the user specify the range? We are much better off giving access to it using sensible ranges that the user scenario requires: one to strip the selection only, one to strip the whole document, and one to strip every document in the folder. All of these call the same backing routine; thus, in a sense, they are wrappers to the hidden method.

A method is just a Sub or Function in OOL-speak (object-oriented language). A Document is an object. It has a Save method. This means there is a Document class definition somewhere that has a little function sitting in it called Save that has the code to do the saving business. This manifests in our IDE (the VBE--Visual Basic editor) as a Document.Save method! Clever, huh? You can build your own classes to play further with this.

So, I write this dialog for dealing with tables. I whack all sorts of extra smarts into it to give a nice user experience. These smarts then finally end up calling the basic routines to provide the functionality--such as Sort. My first attempt, I don't bother selecting the whole table, and the support phone starts ringing like someone whose spouse is two days late home from the pub. "I keep getting an error when sorting," they all say. Moron users. What do they know? But I have to do something with my time other than keep the coffee machine empty, so I include the smarts to select the whole table if pressing the button through the smarty dialog. I do not alter the base function at all.

I then sit down and have a caffeine-free moment and realise, hang on, what if some GENIUS dudes, like me, come along and want to sort just bits of a document? I know, I'll write a quick wrapper to give them access to the sort function. I have no idea what their data will look like, so I can't provide any trickery; that's all up to them as I have a pizza to order. You have to order pizza early, otherwise it is still warm when you go to eat it.

So now we have two different ways to get at the same underlying functionality. One way has all sorts of extras chucked in. The other doesn't. They are both merely wrappers to get to the routine that actually does the sort work; one is fancier but less flexible than the other.

Thanks to Steve for his comments.

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

The WORD PC-LIST is, in my opinion, *the* place to go for expert online advice about using Word:

To join, send an email message here:

mailto:word-pc-subscribe-request@liverpool.ac.uk (no subject or command text required)

You can read the list archives here:

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html