Number 254 - July 2004

WORD Tips 'N Tricks
compiled by Todd Martin, May 2004 User Friendly, LACS
Creating In-Document Cross-References    Creating a cross-reference within a Word document to another section of your document is a simple matter of typing some fixed text and then inserting a reference to the item. Here's how:    1) Place your cursor where you want the cross-reference to appear, and then type an introductory text.    For example, you might write, "For more information, see." Make sure your cursor ends up at the exact spot where you want the cross-reference inserted.    2) Choose Insert, Cross-reference. The Cross-reference dialog box appears.    3) Select the general reference category in the Reference type drop-down list.    The Insert Reference To and For Which list changes, depending on the reference type that you select.    4) Select an option for the Insert References To drop-down list to specify the information from the reference category that should be inserted in the cross-reference. Note that each reference category contains a Page Number option with which you can refer to the page where the reference item occurs.    5) Specify the exact reference that you want from the For Which list. For example if you choose Bookmark as the reference type, the For Which Bookmark list then contains a list of all bookmarks in the document.    6) Choose Insert. The Cross-reference dialog box remains open so that you can add more info to your reference.    7) When you're finished, close the Cross-reference dialog box. Fix That Weird Letter Spacing    Sometimes when you enlarge text for a heading in Word, one or two letters in the words end up being too close together or too far apart. To fix these problems, you can kern the letter pairs. Kerning means to adjust the amount of space between two letters. Here's how:    1) Select the two letters that are too far apart or too close together.    2) Choose Format, Font or press Ctrl+D.	3) Select the Character Spacing tab in the Font dialog box.    4) In the Spacing drop-down list, choose Expanded to spread the letters out or Condensed to pack them in. Word changes the number in the By box for you, but you can do yet more packing or spreading by clicking the down or up arrow yourself. Watch the Preview box to see how close or far apart you have made the letters.    5) Click the Kerning for Fonts check box and enter a point size in the Points and Above box if you want Word to kern fonts above a certain point size automatically.    6) Click OK. Adding Topics To Your Word Outline    An outline is composed of topics and subtopics. The main topics are your main ideas, with the subtopics describing the details. You should start your Microsoft Word outline by adding the main topics. To do so, just type them out. Pressing Enter after typing a topic produces a new hollow hyphen (shaped like a horizontal rectangle) at which you can type your next topic.    Here are some pointers for a great outline:    1) Press Enter at the end of each topic. This tells Word that you're done typing information for that topic and want to move on to the next topic.    2) Pressing Enter creates another topic at the same "level" as the first topic.    3) A topic can be a single word, a few words, a complete sentence, or a big paragraph. However, your main topics should be short and descriptive, like in a book's table of contents.    4) You can split a topic by putting the toothpick cursor somewhere in its middle and pressing the Enter key.    5) To join two topics, put the toothpick cursor at the end of the first topic and press the Delete key. (This method works just like joining two paragraphs in a regular document.)    Remember, you can outline just about anything that requires more than one thought: the plot to a novel, a speech you're giving, a recipe, an itinerary, a product development cycle, and more!
Number 254 - July 2004