Number 203 - April 2000

Some WORD97 Features
by Cy GalleySIG Leader, Mar 2000 Q-Bits Quad Cities Computer Society
Spike It!     In WORD - How many times have you wished to be able to copy and store a block of text or graphics and still be able to copy and paste something else? Copy and Save, then paste two or more separate blocks of text? Well you can with Spike! Highlight the text or graphic you wish to save for future use, then press "Ctrl-F3".     The highlighted material will disappear. If you highlight another text lock or graphic, it will be added to the Spike just be pressing "Ctrl-F3" again. The process can be continued as you see fit.     Pressing "Ctrl-Shift-F3" will place whatever you have placed on the spike at the cursor location. Once you have pressed the placement command, the spike is totally emptied, so you can't use it for multiple pastes like "Ctrl-V." But you can store things on the spike and still have the contents of the spike available to "paste" into place. "Spike" as far as I can tell from my experiments only works in Word. Hyphenating a Document     When I presented the monthly "Tip" sheet to the SIG I had a second block of text. It was the same except for hyphenation. That way I could show how hyphenation changes the appearance of the text block.     Some people just don't like the look of hyphenation. I feel it makes things harder to read especially on tightly packed or long lines of text. Hyphenating can do several things. It smoothes up the right hand edge of a left justified paragraph. When using full justification, hyphenation helps prevent large "holes" in the middle of a line or "rivers" of white space running down through your text.     So where do we find "Hyphenation?" It is under "Tools", then "Language" of all places. In the menu you can select automatic hyphenation. This does the entire document. I you want just a portion, highlight it and you can approve the hyphenation of each word. Each word is shown in syllables to help you decide whether you want to split the word. You cannot change the point of hyphenation with this operation. Whatever its suggestion is, that is what you get.	Intelligent Cut and Paste     Artificial Intelligenceis coming! When you use Cut and Paste in a WORD97 document, WORD takes care of adding the correct spacing and ndash; that is, if you have the Smart Cut and Paste option selected.     Run WORD and choose Tools, Options When the Options, dialog box opens click the Edit tab. now select the Use Smart Cut and Paste, check the box, and click OK to close the dialog box. This records your new setting.     With Smart Cut and Paste in place, you can paste a word right next to another and WORD will add a space for you. In addition, if you insert a word before a period, Word makes sure there's no space between the end of the pasted word and the ending period. Fonts     Do you ever do sale bills or flyers by computer? Nothing much just some things to post over at the supermarket for your club function or garage sale. You probably tried using a "display" font to get the attention you wanted rather than the text font like Arial or Times New Roman. This is one area that is very weak in WORD97. The display menu only offers the font names. To pick the proper font you need it displayed. If you highlight the text you want to use, WORD will display the text in any font you have installed on your machine if you use the right menu.     To use this option, go to Format, then Font. Here you can play with all the different fonts and combinations. You can display whatever you have selected with shadows, embossing, Outlining, engraving, All caps, Small caps, Bold, Bold with Shadows, Bold with outline, and other combinations just by checking the desired style boxes. Click OK and that's what you get.
Number 203 - April 2000