What cell is that? Identifying table cells in Word

When you're working with Word and doing math in your tables, you need to know the name of each table cell. In a largish table it can be difficult to keep track of everything.

Back in the days of Word 97 a macro shipped with Word that would tell you the name or cell reference of a given table cell. Here's how to take a step back in time and get that macro, install and use it, with later versions of Word:


Visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q172492/ and download the file Wdtlupd.exe which is referred to on this page. This is a self-extracting zip file which includes various documents, the one we're using is not version specific. Run this file and select a location to save the extracted files into.


Open the folder containing the extracted files and double click the file macros8.dot to open it in your version of Word. If prompted to do so, click the Enable Macros button and the file will open automatically in Word. Now choose Tools, Macros, Visual Basic Editor if you are using Word 2003 or earlier. In Word 2007, make sure the Developer tab is visible (Office button > Word Options > Popular > Show Developer tab in the Ribbon). Choose Developer tab > Visual Basic.


Locate the Macros8.dot file in the Project list on the left of the screen and click to open its Modules collection. Locate the module called TableCellHelper and double click it open the code window. Select the code and copy it by choosing Edit, Copy.


Locate the file Normal in the Project collection and click its Modules collection. Choose Insert, Module to add a new module, double click to open this new module and choose Edit, Paste to paste the copied code into the module. In the Properties area (choose View, Properties Window to display this if needed), alter the module name to TableCellHelper and, when you're done, close the Visual Basic editor and close the file created using Macros8.dot.


In Word 2003 and earlier, run the macro by clicking somewhere inside a table and choose Tools > Macro > Macros from the Macros in list choose Normal.dot and locate and run the macro called TableCellHelper. In Word 2007 click the Developer tab > Macros and from the Macros in list choose Normal.dotm and locate and run the macro called TableCellHelper. The macro will report the cell address and the total number of rows and columns in the table.


If you'd use this macro repeatedly, add it as a button to your Word 2003 (and earlier), toolbar by right clicking a toolbar and choose Customize. Click the Commands tab, select Macros from the Categories list and locate and drag the macro TableCellHelper on to the toolbar. Right click the new button and edit the name so it is shorter and more helpful. Close the Customize dialog.

Word does Math - in tables!

Lots of folk do things like use Word for invoices simply because it's easy to do. When it comes to laying out data for an invoice a table makes a good choice as everything looks very neat.

It is also a good choice because, once your data is in place, you can get Word to do the calculations for you.

So, for example if a column contains a series of numbers that you want to add up, click in the blank cell at the bottom of the column of numbers and choose Table > Formula (in Word 2007 choose the Table Tools > Layout > Formula button). Make sure the formula reads =sum(above) and click Ok. Now the total is in place in the cell.

If you change the numbers in the cells above, you'll need to recalculate the formula. To do this, click in the cell containing the formula and press F9.

The Table Formula dialog also includes an option for formatting the numerical result so it looks the way you want it to - with numbers after the decimal point and even a leading $ or £ symbol.

Word 2003 - Disable the Insert key

If you still use Word 2003 or earlier you're at risk of Word suddenly taking off and gobbling up text as you type. The problem is that the Insert key toggles insert/overtype mode and if you press it by accident you can end up in overtype mode so everything you type just replaces something else! Yikes it can be frustrating.

Now, Microsoft solved the problem in Word 2007 by disabling the Insert key so it no longer switches into overtype mode any more. That annoys some folks so I wrote a post here about fixing it so it goes back to its old behaviour. But this post is for hapless Word 2003 users and I'll show you how to disable the Insert key so it won't switch into overtype mode. The solution only affects Word so your other programs work as expected.

To disable your Insert key, choose Tools > Customize and click the Keyboard button. Scroll to find the All Commands category and scroll the Commands list to locate the Cancel option. In the Press new shortcut key box click once and then press the Insert key. Click Assign and then Close. This assigns the Insert key to the Cancel command so that it no longer operates OverType mode.

If you ever need to use OverType mode, double click the OVR indicator in the status bar to enable or disable it.

Send to PowerPoint missing? Not really!

In Word 2003 you could create an outline in Word and then send it to PowerPoint where it would be converted to a PowerPoint slide show. Level 1 became the slide title and level 2 the first level bullet points and so on.

I hear a lot of grumbling that this feature has been removed from Office 2007 – not so! It just isn’t quite where you expect it to be. In fact, you have a few options in PowerPoint 2007 and Word 2007.

Option 1
You can add the Send to PowerPoint button to the Word 2007 Quick Access toolbar by clicking the Office button and choose Word Options > Customize and from the Commands not in Ribbon collection choose the Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint option and click Add to add it and then Ok. Now you can click it to send the outline file to PowerPoint.

Option 2
You can also approach the task from PowerPoint 2007 which is really the better option. One alternative is to open the Word outline file in PowerPoint and the slides will be automatically created for you. To do this click the Office button and choose Open and from the Files of type list choose All Files so you can see and open your Word file.

Option 3
This is my fave!

Open PowerPoint 2007 with a new slide show and make sure your Word 2007 outline file is closed.

Choose the Home tab on the Ribbon and click the little arrow on the New Slide button. This opens a menu which includes the option Slides from Outline – select this and open your Word 2007 outline file. The slides are automatically created for you.

So, the option to Send to PowerPoint is not there in Word 2007 but you have so many more ways to complete the task now.

Cool Word 2003 and 2007 Breakout Boxes

Breakout boxes or pull quotes are a great way to add visual variety to a very text heavy document. Even if you don't have images you can use you can still add some color and interest to the page. To do this, you will need some text to use – ideally it will be an interesting quote or sentence or two from the document itself. You will copy this so it appears in the correct position in the text but so it is also a feature element on the page.

Create a textbox
Start by selecting and copying the text. Click outside the text so it is no longer selected and choose Insert > Text box and draw a textbox on the page. Click inside it and choose Edit > Paste to paste in the text on the clipboard.

Format the text
Text in a breakout box looks better if it is formatted differently to the surrounding document, for example you may want to center it, change the font and adjust the line spacing to double line spacing so that the text looks very different.

Format the text box
You can add a colored background behind the textbox by selecting the textbox and choose Format > Textbox and from the Colors and Lines tab select a Fill Color for the textbox. To remove the border line, choose Line Color > No Line (or choose a line option that you like), and click Ok.

Add quote marks
Adding an oversize pair of quotation marks helps delineate the breakout box or pull quote from the remainder of the document. In this instance it’s best to place the oversize quotation marks each in a separate textbox, format them so they are very large, set the textbox so that the fill color is set to No Fill and the line color to No Line and then drag it into position over the textbox that contains the breakout text.

Set the wrapping
If you set this small textbox’s wrapping to in front of text the text will not be forced to wrap around it and the textbox with the pull quote will control the wrapping not the double quote marks. Format the double quote marks in an interesting font that has an attractive shape for the quotes so that you create an interesting effect.

Instant text boxes in Microsoft Word

Just a short tip today, I just tripped over this and thought "WOW! I didn't know that!" so I wonder if you know it too?

Ok.. step back a bit. I'm doing a column on columns in Word and I'm showing how to place a text box or image in a document laid out in 2 columns so the text box or image travels with the text and how to take it out of the line of text so it floats independently.

To create the text box, I select my text, then realize I need to create the text box first and click the Text box button without deselecting the text. [insert WOW moment in here].

What happened was that the text box got created automatically and the selected text appears inside it - just like that - how cool is that?

So, next time, instead of creating a text box and then copying and pasting text into it, select the text and click the Text Box button on the Drawing toolbar in Word 2003 and earlier and it will all be done automatically for you in one smooth step. The same process works in Word 2007 too but you must click the Insert tab, click the Text box button and choose Draw Text Box for it to happen.

Instant text in text boxes in Microsoft Word - can't ask for anything more simple than that.

Protect part of a Word document

You know when it happens. You're developing a template or document for someone to work on and you know that they will clobber part of it when you least expect it. So, you want to protect this from happening and make sure your document never gets destroyed.

Problem is how to do it?

Solution? Read on..

Ok.. so, Word has a document protection feature you can use but it only protects the whole document. But, it can be tweaked to protect only part - but we have to set it up to work this way. So, you have to add section breaks around the area to protect. Pretty easy to do. Click just above where the protection is to start and choose Insert > Break > Continuous - this adds a continuous section break in at this point and, because it's continuous there isn't really any indication it's there.

Move to just beyond the area to protect and repeat to add another continuous section break. If you just want to protect the beginning or end of your document you only need one section break.

So far, so good. Now for the protection bit. Choose Tools > Protect Document and in the Editing Restrictions area, click the checkbox and from the list choose Filling in Forms. Now click Select Sections and check the sections to protect (ie leave the ones you want to be able to edit unchecked).

Then click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection and, if desired, add a password.

Now users are locked out of the protected area of the document and they can't change it.

In Word 2007 it works just the same. Find the section breaks in Page Layout > Breaks > Continuous and the protection tool in Review > Protect Document > Restrict Formatting and Editing.

Neat huh?

Zap those hyperlinks

When you copy and paste text from the web into a Word document, typically the hyperlinks come too. If you don't want them - if blue underlined nonsense peppering your text offends your sensibilities (as it does mine) - here are some thoughts for removing hyperlink formatting from your text.

One option is to select the link and choose Insert > Hyperlink (or press Control + K) and click the Remove Link button in the dialog. That's the hard way in my book.

Easier still is to select the text and just press Control + Spacebar. That strips the formatting from the text - leaving it as plain text. It also works to strip formatting from any text, a handy shortcut to know.

Now, if you get hyperlinks whenever you type a URL or email address you can stop this from happening by choosing Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat as you Type tab and disable the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks option. Now you can type all you like and the AutoFormat won't affect your text.

MIA - Word 2007 loses Versions

There was a handy utility in Word prior to and including Word 2003 which disappeared without ceremony in Word 2007 called Versions. The premise was that you could save multiple versions of a document - like a snapshot of the document at different stages of its development - inside the one file. The document took with it a history of what it had looked like at various times in its past. To use it, choose File > Versions and then just save a version now or set it to save one automatically each time you close a file.

If you didn't use versioning, you may not mourn its passing. If you did use it you are left wondering why it got axed. It was a handy tool, it worked, it did a job that meant many folk who might otherwise have lost work permanently actually had the backups of their work on hand when they needed it. Nice work Microsoft - NOT!

Anyway the clever folk at Edenic Software have created a neat little add-in which puts Versions back into Microsoft Word. The tool is called Document.Versions and it installs as a new Ribbon entry. It works pretty much like the old tool but this one is nice and visible and made by folks who care so it's likely to be around for quite some time. I've been trialling a Beta version and the final release is out very soon.

If you loved versions and if you're annoyed (I'm trying to be polite here) that Microsoft took away a great tool, then take yourself over to OfficeVersions.com and grab a trial version of the add-in. You can trial it for 30 days and then buy a licence for less than it will cost in your time to get back information you've lost when someone edits your document without turning on Tracked Changes, for example!

Oh, and look out for other .Version tools coming soon. Versions add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint are planned - called Spreadsheet.Versions and Slideshow.Versions. While versioning was never a feature of either Excel or PowerPoint that doesn't mean these won't be very handy additions to Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 too.

Setting tabs in Word

If you only ever use the toolbars in Word you are missing out on a lot of functionality. One thing you can't do using the toolbar that you can do with menus is to set a dot leader tab.

Choose Format > Tabs and not only can you select the type of tab and its exact position on the ruler but you can select from one of four leader styles. These leader characters appear before the tab stop, so they extend from the last character on the line to the tab position and they are the tool to use when creating lines for users to handwrite text into, for example.

Images in Word tables

It is possible to place an image inside a table cell in Word. To do this, first create a table, click inside the cell and then choose Insert Picture > From File and select the image to insert. You can size the image inside the table cell as requiredby dragging on its sizing handles.

If you set the image's Text Wrapping to Behind Text or In Front of Text the image will no longer be constrained to the table and will jump out of it and operate independently of it. To wrap text around the image inside the table cell use the Square or Tight options for best results. In Line With Text only wraps one line and it's pretty awful.

Help!? WTF?

First up today, a pet peeve of mine. Why do folks head up emails with Help! or Information wanted? It's so damn inconventient to have to open an email just to know you can't help. Is it so difficult to say, Chart formatting issue or Contact details for XYZ needed? Obviously it is for some people. Sheesh!

Ok, rant over.

Problem: What do you do if a macro won't run. You've opened a file with a macro in it and you go to run it and nothing happens? Problem is, most likely, that your copy of Word is configured so you can't run macros. It's a security thing but it's no good if you need to run the macro is it?

Solution: Choose Tools > Options > Security, Macro Security and select an option that will let you run macros - go for the most secure option which still lets you do your work. Close and reopen the document and try again. Interestingly enough you might encounter this problem as you're developing your macros. Word lets you create macros by may not let you actually run them.

Making Columns in Word

There are lots of ways to create text in columns in Word but the easiest is to type the text (or at least some of it) and select it or position the cursor where the columns should begin. Then choose Format, Columns and select the number and spacing of columns.

From the Apply To dropdown list choose what to apply the columns to. If you have text selected, you'll typically select Selected text. If you haven't selected text you can apply them to the Whole Document or This Point Forward. Using This Point Forward lets you create a heading on the page with the text in columns under it.

Image Autoentry - Word 2003

If there is an image that you typically use in a document such as your company logo you can create it so that it can be automatically inserted into your documents.

To start, first place the image into the document and size it and format it to suit your needs - this will include setting its Text Wrapping properties.

Now select the image and choose Insert > AutoText > New and type a descriptive word to describe the image such as logo. Click Ok.

In future, type the word logo and press F3 and the image will automatically appear in the document. This saves you from having to insert it and format it manually each time you need it. It's a big time saver.

Quickie calculations in Word 2003

Older versions of Word included a Calculate option on the Tools menu which let you make quick calculations.

If you're using Word 2003 you can add the tool back by right clicking any toolbar and choose Customize. Select the Commands tab and, from the Categories list choose All Commands and scroll the Commands list to locate ToolsCalculate. Drag this onto the Tools menu and hold your mouse there until the menu opens and then drop the option into place. If desired, right click the new entry and remove the word Tools from its name so it simply reads Calculate.

Now test your new menu item by typing some values eg 24, 25 & 26 and select them. Choose Tools, Calculate and the status bar will display "The result of the calculation is 75". If you later click Control + V you can paste the result of the calculation (75) into your document.

To sum a column of numbers, hold Alt as you drag over the column with your mouse then choose Tools, Calculate. It also works inside tables and you can type a more detailed calculations such as 25*25 and it will calculate the result for you (answer: 625)

So, put away the calculator and let Word to the work for you.

Toolbar buttons..

Last post I showed you how you can compress the font in a document to give it a classier look. Today, now that you have the font compression value sorted out, I'll show you how to make a toolbar button for it so you can apply it with a single click.

Right click any toolbar in Word 2003 or earlier and choose Customize then select the Commands tab and, from the Categories list choose All Commands. Scroll to locate the Condensed: item and click it. At the foot of the dialog a box appears from which you can select a point size to adjust to, for example, if you use 0.3 pt the type that. Now drag the Condensed option onto the toolbar and close the Customize dialog.

In future to condense your type, select it and click your toolbar button.

Smaller and better looking fonts

When you're writing newsletters, company reports and other documents in Word you may find that they look more professional if you condense your font slightly. Even a reduction as small as .3 points changes the look of the font significantly and makes it look, well just a little more classy.

To do this, select the text to alter and choose Format, Font, Character Spacing tab and set the Spacing to Condensed and the By value to, say, .3 points.

If it's too tight, loosen it up a bit, if not, try a little more compression until you get something you like.

Formatting table cells in Word

Since Microsoft Word 2002, it has been possible to format a series of cells in a table all at the one time, even if they are not contiguous (a lovely word that means not side-by-side).

To do this, select the first cell then Control + click on the other cells that you want to share the same formatting. Once all the cells are selected you can apply a formatting such as a shading to those cells. Note, that the Shading button on the Tables and Borders toolbar in Word 2002/2003 is the one to use, the one on the Drawing toolbar is the Fill button - it looks the same but doesn't work the same!

Selecting and formatting non contiguous cells all at ones makes it a quicker process to format a table than it would be if you selected and formatted each cell individually.

However, of course, the F4 key still works in cells in a table so you can, for example, fill a cell with a shading color or a format option and then click in another cell and press the F4 key and have that format applied to this cell too. The F4 key is a repeat key which repeats the previous command and it's a great key to learn to use anytime you're working with Word.

Watch your language!

I write for magazines and online providers all across the world. One day, I'm typing a Canadian article, another an Australian one and later in the week my work gets sent off to the UK and the USA. I'm constantly juggling color/colour, labor/labour and tricky ones like jewelry/jewellery. It's confusing to say the least and the last thing I want to do is to miss obvious misspellings. That's why I rely on Word's language tools.

Prior to Word 2007 I can set the language for a document by selecting it and choose Tools, Language, Set Language and choose the proofing language.

In Word 2007, of course, everything is different but it's easy to find - thank you Microsoft!

In Word 2007, select your document (Control + A works just fine) and click the language indicator on the Status bar - the Language dialog appears and you can choose the language to use to proof the text.

Print in Reverse - Word

Are you one of those people who print long documents in Word and then spend a few mintues reversing the page order because they come out printed back to front? Or do you print multiple copies of a document and then have to collate them by hand?

If you are, it's probably cause you haven't read this blog post! You see, life doesn't have to be this difficult. Word will collate for you and it will print in the order you want and if it's not doing it right you can change it.

First things first, if you need to reverse your print order, choose Tools, Options, Print and change the setting in the Reverse Print Order checkbox - if it is checked, uncheck it and if it is clear then check it. This setting remains for all documents so now you don't have to shuffle paper any more.

The collating options are in the printing dialog. Choose File, Print and you can click to set one of two collating options for multiple prints.

In Word 2007, find the print options by clicking the Office button, choose Word Options, Advanced and scroll down to locate the Print options.

Don't spell check this!

You know how it happens. You type something that is HTML or Javascript into a document or you type the famous "Lorem ipsum ... " text or a French phrase or two and suddenly your document is littered with red underlines. The Spell check can't handle it all. Now I like my documents to be pristine and neat so I tell Word to bypass spell checking these words since I'm happy they are spelled just fine.

To do this, select the text you DON'T WANT to be spell checked. Choose Tools, Language, Set Language and click the Do not check spelling or grammar option and click Ok. Now Word spell checks all your document and just skips the stuff you don't want checked.

What style is that? Word

I use styles all the time to format my documents as it just makes such good sense to do so. When I get documents from others, however, often they haven't used styles or haven't been consistent (read: anally retentive) in their use. If I need to clean up the mess, I need to see what the problem is. Enter Normal view (choose View, Normal) and you see a Styles list down the left of the page. If not, choose Tools, Options, View tab and set the Style area width to around 1.5 inches (3.5cm). Now you can see the style names, identify which are misused and then fix them.

Instant order to sad, mixed up documents.

A trip down memory lane - Word Perfect 5.1

I seriously think that the best ever word processor was Word Perfect 5.1. I loved that program and held onto it well after the awful (in my opinion) version 6 was launched. Only with the advent of Word 97 did I make the change.

Sometimes I like to recall the heady days of white text on a blue background and so I turn the Word 2003 screen into a faux Word Perfect 5.1 look. To do this, choose Tools, Options, General tab and select the Blue background, white text option. It's a trip down memory lane. However, don't expect to get an indent by pressing F4 or Bold type by pressing F6, the change is on the surface only. You still have to use Word key strokes but you can at least recall some of the greatness of this very cool word processor.

Fixing misspellings - Word

It happens just when you don't want it to - you press the wrong key and all of a sudden you've saved an incorrectly spelled word to your dictionary. Unless you fix the problem, Word won't pick up this misspelling ever again.

To solve the problem, choose Tools, Options, Spelling & Grammar and click the Custom Dictionaries button, click Custom.dic and click Modify. Locate the misspelled word, select it and click Delete.

Now click Ok and you're done.

Word - Quick and easy columns...

One thing I do amongst all the things I do is to tech edit articles and books.

You learn a lot when you do this, on the one hand you learn how much you don't know and on the other you learn how much you do know... it's an eye opening experience both ways.

One thing that came out of a recent experience is how to do columns in Word. In this case, I liked my solution lots better than the one in front of me.

To turn a piece of text you have already created into a series of columns in Word, select the text and choose Format, Columns. Now choose how many and the width of your columns and instantly - columns to go!

I won't disclose the solution I was editing... it simply wasn't this simple.

Versioning in Word

Ever had that "Woops! I shouldn't have deleted that!" feeling? If you use versions in Word, you never will. Versions let you save a copy of the document's current status in the document file. Each new version is stored in the same file so you can return to a previous 'version' any time.

To save a version and configure it to happen automatically, choose File, Versions and click Save Now. You can also configure it so a version for your file is saved each time the file is closed. Then, using the same tool you can view and use an older version of the file whenever you need it.

If you're prone to changing your mind, it could be just the tool you need!

However a word of warning, versioning isn't supported in Word 2007 and you'll lose your versions if you open and save a versioned document using Word 2007. So, this tool is only for those of you who haven't yet upgraded.

A map to find your way around - Word

The Document map tool in Word is a cool way to find your way around a long document. Click the Document Map icon on the toolbar in Word 2003 or earlier or choose View, Document Map and it appears down the left of the page. In Word 2007, the Document Map checkbox is on the View ribbon tab.

If you use styles, in particular the heading styles, the items formatted with these styles appear in the list. Simply click one to move automatically to that item.

It's simple and a smart way to find your way around a seriously big document.

Copying Styles in Word

If you often work on documents that need to use custom styles, you can easily copy the styles from one document to another - if you know how. Since you're reading this, you're about to be invited into the inner circle of knowledge.

So, start with the document open into which you want to copy the styles. Choose Tools, Macro, Macros, Organizer - yep! sounds weird but it works!

Now click the Close file button on the right to close Normal.dot and then click Open File and browse to find the file to copy the styles from. If this is a regular file and not a template, you'll have to select the correct file type from the Files of Type list. When you open your file, click the Styles tab and you can select and copy styles from one document to the other. Simple when you know how?

Languages and Word 2007

I write articles for magazines all over the world. One day I’ll wake up and think Canadian and other times I’m English or an Aussie or American.

Each country spells differently, it can be color or colour or honor or honour and there are really tricky ones like dialing and dialling. To help out, I use the Language options in Word. It used to be easy in Word 2003, select the document using Control + A, and apply the language to it using the Tools options.

I spent a horrible amount of time in Word 2007 en-route to New Jersey recently looking for the Language tool. Yikes, could not find it anywhere. Ring the alarm bells, I need this feature. My solution, use the Customize tool and add the Language option to the Quick Access toolbar. Now it’s where you want it, handy and accessible. Bummer it can’t be found on the Ribbon anywhere but at least this now works and probably it's better than even in Word 2003.

It's an oldie but a goodie - Adjustable font sizes in Word

This tip has been circulating around the traps for many years but there are still many users who don't know it exists.

It’s a simple technique for increasing the size of the font in a document. To do this select the text and press Ctrl + ] to increase the font or Ctrl + [ to decrease the font size by one point.

To scroll through the range of font sizes available in the font dialog use Ctrl + Shift + > and Ctrl + Shift + <.

If you want a font size that is not in the font dialog, type it in the font size box by clicking on the curretn font size and type the font size that you want, for example 140 and press Enter. This is a quick way of getting a very large font particularly when the options in the font dialog cease at 72 points - the rough equivalent of one inch high characters.

Smarter replacement in Word

When what you need to do in Word is to find some text and then add extra text to it there’s a smarter way to do this. In Word choose Edit > Replace and in the Find What box type the text that you want to find.

In the Replace With box type the text to add to the text that you’re searching for, but don’t retype the existing text. Instead, use ^& to refer to the text that you’re searching for. So, for example, to replace Los Angeles with Los Angeles, California search for Los Angeles and replace with ^&, California. It’s faster and smarter.