MS Word

You can use sections to vary the layout of a document within a page or between pages.

Just insert section breaks to divide the document into sections, and then format each section the way you want. To create sections and section breaks:

1. Place the cursor where you want the section to begin.

2. Choose Break from the Insert menu.

3. Under Section break types, click the option that describes where you want the new section to begin.

Once you have sections defined, then commands that ordinarily would affect the whole document can be applied only to the current section. For example, the Page Setup command (on the File menu) has an Apply to: list the allows you to select This Section, This point forward, or Whole document.

There are several places to look to turn off Word's various automatic features:

1. Choose AutoCorrect (or AutoCorrect Options) from the Tools menu, then click on the AutoCorrect tab.

2. Clear the check boxes for the AutoCorrect items that you want to disable.

3. Do the same for the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

4. On the AutoText tab, clear the Show AutoComplete tip check box.

5. Choose Options from the Tools menu, then click on the tabs and clear any check boxes for features that you want to disable. For example:

* Edit tab (Tabs and backspace set left indent).

* Spelling & Grammar tab (Check spelling as you type and Check grammar as you type). When these features are on, spelling and grammar that Word does not recognize are underlined with wavy red and green lines.

Indexes can get complicated. It is recommended that you read through all of the information in Help about indexes, then decide how to proceed. Here are the steps for creating a simple index: Mark an index entry:

1. Select the text to mark as an index entry.

2. Choose Index and Tables (or Reference, then Index and Tables) from the Insert menu, then click the Index tab, or press Alt+Shift+X. Mark the all index entries, then generate the index:

1. Place the cursor at location for the index (usually a new last page), then open the Index dialog box.

2. Click on OK to create the index.

If you edit your document after creating the index, you will have to update it:

1. Click to the left of the index you want to update.

2. Press F9.

Note: When you update the index, any text or formatting you added to the finished index or table is lost.

When you open a program, usually the "normal" or "default" template opens up and it's already been set up to contain pre-set formatting defaults, including the font. Here is how you do it in Word:

1. If your document already contains text formatted with the properties you want to use, select that text.

2. On the Format menu, click Font.

3. Select the options you want to apply to the default font. If you selected text in step 1, the properties you want will appear in the dialog box.

4. Click Default.

Any new document you open will use the font settings you selected. If you want to know how to change the default font in other programs, see Help in those particular program

You can control the startup behavior in Word (and most Windows programs) by adding one or more switches to the command line that points to the executable file. For Word, this file is Winword.exe, found in the Program Files folder where you have installed Microsoft Office. To change Word's startup behavior, you have to locate a Word shortcut icon that points to Winword.exe. These icons may be found on your Programs menu, on your Desktop, on the Quick Launch toolbar on the Taskbar, or on the Office Shortcut Bar. Some Word shortcut icons cannot be modified using the procedure outlined below.

1. Click the shortcut icon using the right mouse button, click Properties, then click the Shortcut tab.

2. In Microsoft Windows NT, click the Word program icon, then click Properties on the File menu.

3. In the Target box or the Command Line box, you should see the path to Word. This path is usually "C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeWinword.exe", but this may be different in your installation.

4. At the end of the path, outside of the quotes, type one or more of the switches shown in the table below.

(no switch)

Start Word with a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have the same list of documents on the Window menu.

/n

Start Word without a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have their own list of documents on the Window menu.

/w

Start Word with a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have their own list of documents on the Window menu.

/ttemplatename

Start Word with a new document based on a template other than the Normal template.

/a

Start Word and prevent add-ins and global templates (including the Normal template) from being loaded automatically. The /a switch also locks the setting files so that they cannot be read or modified.

/m

Start Word without running any AutoExec macros.

/mmacroname

Start Word and then run a specific macro. The /m switch also prevents Word from running any AutoExec macros.

You can control the startup behavior in Word (and most Windows programs) by adding one or more switches to the command line that points to the executable file. For Word, this file is Winword.exe, found in the Program Files folder where you have installed Microsoft Office. To change Word's startup behavior, you have to locate a Word shortcut icon that points to Winword.exe. These icons may be found on your Programs menu, on your Desktop, on the Quick Launch toolbar on the Taskbar, or on the Office Shortcut Bar. Some Word shortcut icons cannot be modified using the procedure outlined below.

1. Click the shortcut icon using the right mouse button, click Properties, then click the Shortcut tab.

2. In Microsoft Windows NT, click the Word program icon, then click Properties on the File menu.

3. In the Target box or the Command Line box, you should see the path to Word. This path is usually "C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeWinword.exe", but this may be different in your installation.

4. At the end of the path, outside of the quotes, type one or more of the switches shown in the table below.

(no switch)

Start Word with a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have the same list of documents on the Window menu.

/n

Start Word without a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have their own list of documents on the Window menu.

/w

Start Word with a new blank document. If you start more instances of Word, they will all have their own list of documents on the Window menu.

/ttemplatename

Start Word with a new document based on a template other than the Normal template.

/a

Start Word and prevent add-ins and global templates (including the Normal template) from being loaded automatically. The /a switch also locks the setting files so that they cannot be read or modified.

/m

Start Word without running any AutoExec macros.

/mmacroname

Start Word and then run a specific macro. The /m switch also prevents Word from running any AutoExec macros.

New documents open in a separate window (in previous versions of Word, a new document took over the Word window). You can switch from one document to another by choosing a document from the list on the Window menu or by clicking the document's button on the Windows Taskbar. To view all open Word documents at the same time, choose Arrange All from the Window menu. You can also switch documents (or applications) by pressing Alt+Tab. To see more rows of buttons on the Windows Taskbar: Position the pointer on the inside edge of the Taskbar (the pointer becomes a two-headed arrow when it is in the correct position), then click and drag its border toward the center of the screen.

There are some other options on the Shortcut tab. You can specify the folder Word points to when it starts (this setting can also be changed another way (see How do I change the default folder for Open and Save?). You can program a shortcut key sequence (click in the Shortcut key box and press the key combination you want to use). In addition, you can set the window size Word uses by default (maximized, minimized, or normal) and you can choose a different Word icon (click the Change Icon button).