Word 97/2000: Increasing Efficiency

• Is This Document Right for You?
• Checking Spelling and Grammar
• AutoCorrect
• AutoFormat As You Type
• AutoText
• Customizing Toolbars
• Word 2000: Displaying Hidden Menu Commands
• Moving and Deleting Text
• Working with Multiple Windows
• Navigating Within Documents
• Find and Replace
• Get Around Quickly with the "Browse By" Option
• What's Next?

Is This Document Right for You?

This document builds on the skills you've already developed on your own or by completing Word 97/2000: Introduction and Word 97/2000: Basic Formatting. Those skills include creating new and opening existing documents, changing the size of Word windows, using Word menus, saving documents to different folders, formatting characters and paragraphs, using the ruler, setting tabs and indents, changing paragraph alignment, and bulleting or numbering paragraphs.

With this document, you'll continue to learn about several features in Word 97 and Word 2000 that can help you work with your documents more quickly and efficiently, including Word's proofing tools, automatic text insertion and formatting, and customized toolbars to suit your needs. You'll also learn about more ways to move and delete text, as well as how to move through a document and make changes to it more quickly.
 
 

Please note: in this document, information unique to Word 2000 appears in a shaded box.

Checking Spelling and Grammar

Word can check your spelling and grammar for you as type, or it can check your entire document at once. Be aware, though, that the spell-checker does not pick up words spelled correctly but used mistakenly, such as when you use "there" instead of "their" or "form" instead of "from." It will not mark words in uppercase letters and words containing numbers unless you tell it to. The spell checker also ignores Internet and file addresses. The grammar checker marks some mistakes, but it is unreliable. Nevertheless, although these tools are not substitutes for proofreading, they do catch a lot of mistakes. Always spell check your document, but also read through it yourself.

Checking Spelling and Grammar as You Type

As you type, Word can automatically check your document and underline possible spelling errors with a wavy red line and possible grammatical errors with a wavy green line. To correct an error, right-click the underlined word, and select the correction you want from the shortcut menu. You can also Add the word to the dictionary or Ignore All occurrences of the word. If you select AutoCorrect, Word not only corrects the error but also corrects the same error automatically if you make it again. (You'll learn more about AutoCorrect later). To see additional options, right-click the misspelled word and select Spelling or Grammar from the shortcut menu. The Spelling or Grammar window appears, and contains options to Change All misspellings of the word in the document, or Ignore All occurrences of this spelling.

How's My Spelling? Checking Your Spelling Status

The Spelling and Grammar Status button on the right side of the status bar at the bottom of the Word window indicates whether your document has spelling errors. One of three images appears on the button.As you work, a pencil appears to write across a book's pages, indicating that Word is busily checking your spelling.A book with a big red check mark indicates that your document has been spell-checked and, according to Word, is error free.A book with a big red X on it indicates that Word has detected errors, but this can easily be remedied by double-clicking the same button. Word goes to the closest misspelled word and automatically brings up the spelling shortcut menu, you can fix the error or tell Word to ignore it.

Turning off Automatic Spelling and Grammar Checkers

To turn off the automatic spelling and grammar checkers, go to the Tools menu, select Options, and click the Spelling and Grammar tab. Uncheck the boxes next to Check Spelling as You Type and Check Grammar as You Type. You can also tell Word to ignore words with numbers or in uppercase.

Checking the Whole Document at Once

If you want to spell check your entire document, you can activate the spell-checker in three different ways:

• By selecting Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu. 
• By pressing <F7> on your keyboard.
• By double-clicking the Spelling and Grammar button on the Standard Toolbar.

Word searches the document, and the Spelling and Grammar window appears if it finds a misspelled word or grammatical error.

Excluding Text from the Spell Check

If you have ever quoted Old English or included a list of personal names, you know that this can really slow down the spell-checker. Fortunately, Word lets you omit a range of text from spell-checking. To do this, highlight the text that you want to omit. Go to the Tools menu, and click on Language and then Set Language. Scroll to the top of the options and select (no proofing). Word will now skip over this text when it spell-checks the document. Note that the menu lists several languages for proofing, but spell-checker cannot proof languages other than English unless a dictionary for that language is installed. 

Thesaurus

Word also has a built in thesaurus to help you find the right word quickly. Highlight the word for which you want a synonym. Go to the Tools menu, select Language, and then Thesaurus. As a shortcut, you can type <Shift> <F7>. In the Thesaurus window, select the shade of Meaning closest to what you want, and then select the Synonym you want. Click Replace. If you don't see the word you want, select the closest synonym on the list and click Look Up to see the synonyms for that word. You can also return to the Previous list of words at a click of a button.

Word 2000: you can select from a list of synonyms for a word by right-clicking on it and selecting Synonyms. Note that this shortcut does not work for words contained in bulleted or numbered lists.

AutoCorrect

Word automatically corrects common spelling and grammatical errors as you type. For example, if you mistakenly type "adn," Word will change it to "and" as soon as you press the space bar.

Let AutoCorrect Do the Typing

You've already seen how to add spelling corrections to AutoCorrect as you run the spell-checker. But you can also create AutoCorrect entries so that you can quickly add oft-repeated phrases to your document:

Select AutoCorrect from the Tools menu and click on the AutoCorrect tab to bring up the AutoCorrect window. The bottom half of the AutoCorrect window lists the text and symbols that Word automatically replaces.  In the "Replace" box, type the abbreviation or misspelled word that you want to change automatically. We typed "fyi" in the example.  In the "With" box, type what you want to use as a replacement for the word in the Replace box. We typed "for your information."  Click Add.  Now in the example, every time we type "fyi," Word automatically changes it to the phrase, "for your information." If you have text highlighted when you open the AutoCorrect window, that text will appear in the With field, so you only need to type in what you want that text to Replace.

CApitalization ERrors

The top half of the AutoCorrect window lists common capitalization errors that word corrects as you type. A check beside a feature indicates that it is turned on. To turn off a feature, simply click in the check box to uncheck it. To turn off AutoCorrect (including the Replace feature), make sure the box next to Replace Text as You Type is not checked.

Making an Exception to the (AutoCorrect) Rule

Occasionally, the AutoCorrect feature can be overly helpful, and you may want to create exceptions to its rules. For example, if the option is turned on to Capitalize First Letter of Sentence, and you type a sentence with an abbreviation, such as, "Add a tsp. of sugar," Word sees the period (after "tsp" in the example) and rushes in to help, capitalizing the next word ("Of" in the example) You can correct Word either by going back and re-typing the letters as necessary, or by pressing Ctrl-z, the keyboard shortcut for the Undo command. After a time or two, Word remembers your correction of it, and adds the abbreviated word to your list of exceptions, so that it does not make the unwanted correction again.

You can also create your own exceptions to the rules set for AutoCorrect by following these steps:

 
1. Select AutoCorrect from the Tools menu and click the AutoCorrect tab.
2. Click the Exceptions Button.
3. Select the tab either for Initial Caps, First Letter, or Other Corrections.

4. On the line labeled Donít capitalize after or Don't Correct , type the word or phrase you want to be an exception to the AutoCorrect rules. For example, we might type tbsp. in the Don't capitalize after box., so that Word does not try to capitalize words following the abbreviation for "tablespoon."
5. Click Add.
6. Optional: if you do not want Word to make exceptions automatically, you can make sure the box next to Automatically Add Words to List is not checked. Then you will have to make your own exceptions as needed, and Word will continue to correct what it determines to be errors according to the AutoCorrect rules.
7. Click OK when you have finished.

Now if you type the exception, AutoCorrect does not make the changes it did before. To continue the example, if you now type "tsp. of cocoa," Word does not capitalize the word "of."

Autoformat As You Type

 

Word makes other common formatting changes automatically as you type. For example, if you start a paragraph by typing an asterisk (*) followed by a space or tab character, Word creates a bulleted list for you when you press Enter at the end of the paragraph. (Press Enter again to end the bulleted list, or press Ctrl-z to undo Word's formatting change). It can also replace "straight quotes" with ìsmart quotes.î You can see and modify the automatic formatting options by selecting AutoCorrect from the Tools menu, and then the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Again, you can turn any of these features on or off by checking or unchecking the box next to it.

AutoText

AutoCorrect corrects errors and expands abbreviations automatically, but what if we want to automatically insert a longer string of text by using just a few letters? For example, you might want to type "MyAdd" and have Word automatically insert your address. This is what AutoText is for.

Word 2000: you already have some AutoText options available in the Insert menu. Select Insert, then AutoText, and then select an option from the list of categories. For example, you can select "To Whom It May Concern" from the Salutations category. You can also add your own entries, as described next.

Using the AutoText toolbar, you can quickly create an AutoText entry:

1. Turn on the AutoText toolbar by selecting it from the Toolbar options in the View menu.
2. Type and format the longer string of text exactly as you want it to be inserted. Highlight the text.
3. Click New on the AutoText toolbar.
4. In the window that opens, type in a nickname, and click OK.

Now when you type the nickname in your document, a yellow box appears over the word with the AutoText entry in it. Press <Enter> to accept it, and Word will automatically replace the nickname with the text. To reject the AutoText entry, just keep typing. Other options for AutoText include the following:

• Insert AutoText from the AutoText toolbar by selecting the All Entries menu.
• Create an AutoText entry by typing it in the AutoText window.
• If you do not want the yellow AutoText message to pop up when you type a nickname, click the button on the far left of the AutoText toolbar, and make sure the box is not checked next to Show AutoComplete tip for AutoText and dates.

Customizing Toolbars

After using Word for a while, you will realize that the things Microsoft thinks you will use the most often are not necessarily the things that you actually do use the most often. Hunting through toolbars for the right button may seem inefficient, and toolbars take up space on your screen. You also may want a button for an AutoText entry that you use all the time, or to change from single to double spacing. For these reasons, you might want to customize an existing toolbar or create your own toolbar with just the items that you use the most. Follow these steps to create your own toolbar or modify an existing toolbar.

1. From the Tools menu, select Customize, and click the Toolbars tab.


2. If you want to create a new toolbar, click New. In the Toolbar name box, type a name for the toolbar. Click OK. A blank toolbar appears in the Word window.
3. To add buttons to the new or existing toolbar, click the Commands tab.
4. In the Categories box, click a category for the command you want to add.
5. To see what a command does, select it from the Commands list, and click the Description button.
6. To add a button to a toolbar, simply click and drag an option from the Commands list to the toolbar.
7. If you want to change the button for a particular command, select the button on the toolbar, and click the Modify Selection button in the Customize window.
8. To change or add an icon to the button, select Change Button Image from the dropdown menu, and select an icon.
9. To select an option for displaying text or a graphic on the button, click the Modify Selection button again. Select either Text Only, Image and Text, or, to display just the image, Default '(Default Style in Word 2000).
10. To reset an existing toolbar or to delete a custom toolbar, click on the Toolbars tab, select the toolbar, and click the Reset button or the Delete button.
11. When you finish making your changes, click Close.

Tip: If you click the Keyboard button in the Customize Commands window, you can create keyboard shortcuts for commands. Be careful that you do not accidentally delete a pre-existing keyboard shortcut.
 
 

Word 2000: You can create a custom button to link to a Web page. From the Tools menu, select Customize, and then the Commands toolbar. Any button will do the trick, but to give yourself a visual cue for what the button does, select the Web category, and drag the Open button onto an existing toolbar. With the Open button selected, click the Modify Selection button from the Customize window, Assign Hyperlink, and then Open. You can complete the box labeled Type the file or Web page name in one of several ways: type the Web page address, connect to the internet and browse for the page by selecting the Web Page button, or select from the list of Recent Files, Browsed Pages, or Inserted Links. OK your changes and Close the Customize window. Now, when you are connected to the Internet, you can click the Open button you created and Word starts your Web browser, which visits the link you specified.

Word 2000: Displaying Hidden Menu Commands

 

You learned in Word 97/2000 Introduction that not all menu commands are available at first in Word 2000. If you want Word to stop being so coy about its menus and just go ahead and show you everything, select the Tools menu, Customize, and then the Options tab. Then make sure the box is not checked next to Show Recently Used Commands First..

Moving and Deleting Text

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Edit menu lists keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste, but you can use other keyboard shortcuts to speed your editing. You'll use special keys on your keyboard to make these edits: , , , the up, down, left and right arrows, and keys (or "function" keys). To move or delete an object in Word, press the keys in the combinations specified in the table below.
 
 

Move or Delete	Key Combination
Delete one word to the left of the cursor.	Press <Ctrl><Backspace>
Delete one word to the right of the cursor.	Press <Ctrl><Delete>
Move selected text (without replacing the clipboard contents)	Press <F2>.  Place the cursor at the new location.  Press Enter.
Copy selected text (without replacing the clipboard contents)	Press <Shift><F2>.  Place the cursor at the new location.  Press Enter
Move a paragraph up	Press <Alt><Shift>?
Move a paragraph down	Press <Alt><Shift>>?
Copy formats	Press <Ctrl><Shift>C
Paste formats	Press <Ctrl><Shift>V

The Spike

The Spike, named for old-fashioned desktop spikes where messages and notes were impaled, is a way to cut multiple bits of text, pile them, and then paste them into a new document in the order in which they were compiled. To put text onto the Spike, simply follow the steps below:

 
1. Select the text you want to move.
2. Hold down the <Ctrl> key and press <F3>. Your text is removed and placed on the Spike.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each item you want to collect in the Spike.
4. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the contents of the Spike.
5. Do one of the following:
6. To keep a copy of the text on the spike and place a copy on your page, type spike and press the <F3> key.
7. To "empty" the spike onto your page, press <Ctrl><Shift><F3>.

Word 2000: in addition to the spike, you can use Word's collect and paste feature to cut or copy up to 12 different items to the clipboard, and paste them in your document. For details, see the document, Word 97/2000: Introduction or look for the phrase "collect and paste" in Word Help's Answer Wizard.

Working with Multiple Windows

 

Word 2000 opens a separate window for each Word document. Each of the following commands still works, however, in each separate document window you open.

Splitting a Document Window

Splitting a document window can speed your document editing by allowing you to see two parts of a document at the same time. For example, in one pane you can see what you're cutting from page 1 of a document, and in the other pane, you can see where you paste it on page 15. You can also work in a different view in each pane: one pane may be in Outline View, while the other is in Normal View. Word gives you two ways to split a document window:

Double click on the split window button, which is just above the up arrow button at the top of the vertical scrollbar. When the mouse is on the split window button, it appears as an up-and-down arrow divided by two short lines. Your window will divide evenly into two panes.
• Go to the Window menu and select Split. This will attach a horizontal bar to your cursor. Click where you want the bar to go in the document.

To move the split, click and drag the horizontal bar. Switch to a windowpane simply by clicking in it. To remove a split, double click on the bar, or select Remove Split from the Window menu.

Arranging Windows

You can also use multiple windows to increase your efficiency when cutting and pasting between documents. To see all open documents on the screen at once, selecting Arrange All from the Window menu. Again, click in the pane in which you want to work, and continue editing.
Note: windows that are minimized stay minimized when you click Arrange All. To include them in the arrangement, restore or maximize them and then click Arrange All (see Word 97/2000: Introduction for details about resizing windows).

New Window

To open a second window for a document, select New Window from the Window menu. As with splitting the window, you are working in the same document but in two different views.

Navigating Windows

From the Windows menu, you can navigate between multiple windows or documents by selecting from the list of open windows at the bottom of the menu. The following keyboard shortcuts will also help you navigate between open windows: 

To do this ...

Navigating Within Documents

Keyboard Shortcuts

Try using the following keyboard shortcuts instead of the scroll bars or mouse to move around the document:
 
 

To move the cursor...	Press these keys:
One word to the right	<Ctrl> ?
One word to the left	<Ctrl>?
To the end of a line	<End>
To the beginning of a line	<Home>
One paragraph down	<Ctrl>?
One paragraph up	<Ctrl> ?
One screen down	<Page Down>
One screen up	<Page Up>
To the top of the next page	<Ctrl><Page Down>
To the top of the previous page	<Ctrl><Page Up>
To the end of the document	<Ctrl><End>
To the beginning of the document	<Ctrl><Home>
To a previous revision	<Shift><F5>
To the location of the insertion point when the document was last closed	<Shift><F5>

Bookmarks

Use bookmarks to define a location in the text by name so that later you can jump directly to that place, even if its location has shifted during revisions. To create a bookmark, place your insertion point at the location in the text or highlight the text where you want the bookmark. From the Insert menu, select Bookmark. (You can also bring up the Bookmark window by pressing <Ctrl><Shift><F5> on your keyboard.) Type a name in the Bookmark name box, and click the Add button. To go to the bookmark later, you can select the bookmark here again, and click Go To. To delete an existing bookmark, select it from the list in the Bookmark window, and click Delete. You can also go to a bookmark with the aptly named option, Go To, which is discussed next.

Go To

You can jump to particular portions of your document, including bookmarks, by using the Go To window. Word provides three options for opening the Go To window:

 
• Select Go To from the Edit Menu.
• Press <F5>.
• Double click on the page number on the far left of the bottom status bar.

Use the scroll down menu to select what you want to "Go To": a bookmark, a page number, a footnote, or an endnote, for example. The box in the center of the window changes depending upon what you select ("Enter page number" in the example). In this box, type the specific place you want to go to (perhaps a page number), or select from the drop down menu if one appears. Then click Go To.

Find and Replace

The Find and Replace feature speeds your editing and navigating within a document by allowing you to search for or to replace specific text, formats (such as a certain font or style), and special characters (such as paragraph marks).

The Find Command

To go to the next occurrence of a particular word or words, select Find from the Edit menu or press <Ctrl> F. In the Find what box, type the word (or string of characters) you want to find and click Find Next.

Modifying Your Search

Click More to modify your search with the following options:

• In the Search box, select All to search the entire document, Down to search from the current location to the end, or Up to search from the current location to the top.
• Match case to find text that matches the upper- and lowercase letters of your search text.
• Find whole words only: if you select this option and search for "pot," for example, Word finds "pot" but not "pothole" or "potpie."
• Use wildcards to search using special operators. Click Special to see a list of wildcards that you can select from. A useful wildcard is * (asterisk) which you can use to find any combination of characters. For example, if you search for ambi*, Word might find "ambivalent," "ambidextrous," and "ambitious." You can use the wildcard ? (question mark) to find a single occurrence of any character. If you search for h?t , for instance, Word can find "hat," "hit," and "hot."
• Use Sounds like if you are not sure you spelled the word correctly. You might search for "bred," for example, and find "bread" as well as "bred."
• Find all word forms is similar to the * and ? wildcards. It will find the root of the word plus any ending and any different forms (such as the different forms of irregular verbs). If you have this box checked and you search for "sing," word will find "sing," "singing, "sang," "sung," etc.

Finding Formats and Special Characters

The bottom of the Find window features two buttons labeled Format and Special. The Format dropdown menu allows you to search for specific fonts, tab settings, styles, or highlighted text. The Special drop down menu allows you to search for special characters, including hidden characters such as paragraph marks and manual page breaks.

Replace

You can choose not only to find text or formatting but also to replace it. You can open the Replace window by selecting Replace from the Edit menu, pressing <Ctrl><h>, or by clicking the Replace tab in the Find window. This Replace window looks remarkably similar to the Find window, except that a Replace With box is added. Follow the same steps that you used to find text, but in the Replace With box, specify the text you want to use to replace the original text or formatting Word finds.

Get Around Quickly with the "Browse By" Option

On the right side of the Word window, at the bottom of the vertical scroll bars, you'll find a set of double-headed arrows that you can use to quickly move through the document, browsing page by page or by other options. To see what option Word currently uses to "browse by," point at the double-headed arrow and read the description.To see what other options are available, click the button that separates the two double-headed arrows. Again, if you place the pointer over one of the options that appears, a yellow flag appears to describe it. Try changing to the option to browse by Page. To browse page by page, click the up or down double-headed arrow.

Notice that you can also choose options to find your last edit, repeat the last Find operation you performed, or bring up the Go To window and browse by bookmarks or other option. As you work more with Word, you'll become familiar with some of the other options by which you can browse through your document.