Saturday, January 15th, 2011
Continuing the short series on working with columns in Word, here’s how to create a column layout in Word.
Create two columns
To turn an entire document into columns in Word 2007 and 2010 click the Page Layout tab and select Columns > Two. This immediately formats all the text in your document into two columns.
In Word 2003 you’ll choose Format > Columns, select Two (or Three etc.,) and click Ok.
Remove two columns
To undo the change and set your document back to one column in effectively undoing the two columns, repeat the process. In Word 2007 or Word 2010, choose Page Layout > Columns > One. The default for any document is one column so all you’re doing is going back to the default. In Word 2003 choose Format > Columns > One.
Make only part of the document into columns
If you want only part of a document to be in columns then select that part of the document first. For example, you may select all the content after the heading, leaving the heading unselected so it will be full width of the page. With that content selected, choose Page Layout > Columns and then select the number of columns.
This will make just the selected text into columns, leaving everything else full width of the page.
Again, if that piece of text ever needs to be returned to a single column just click inside it, choose Page Layout > Columns > One and it will be restore to the way it used to look.
So, that’s how to make text in columns in Word, how to delete columns and how to make only part of a document into columns.
Labels: create text in columns, delete columns, Page Layout, Word, Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 2010
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posted by Helen Bradley @ 9:43 am2 Comments links to this post
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
One of the most difficult things that people find with working with columns in Word is moving between the columns.
The reason is that the process itself is anything but easy.
The Tab key, which will move you between cells in columns in a table, doesn’t work inside newspaper style columns in Word so that key is out.
Instead, to move or jump from one column to the next you’ll press Alt + Page Down to go to the column on the right (the second column) or Alt + Page Up to move to the first column.
When you click Alt + Page Down, if you are in column 1 you’ll go to the very top of column 2. If you keep pressing the key you’ll flip between the top character in each column.
If you’re somewhere in column 2, when you press Alt + Page Up you’ll go to the top of column 1.
These are the only specialist keys for moving or switching between columns – we could use more – like jumping from a line in one column to the same line in the one next to it – but nada! Sorry!
Labels: columns, jump, move between columns, shortcut keys, switch, Word, Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 2010
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 8:03 am5 Comments links to this post
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Ok, so you’ve formatted your text to be two columns in Word and you’ve typed something in the first column. You haven’t filled the first column because you don’t want to. Fair enough – it’s your document – your choice.
But you do want to type something in the next or second column but however hard you try – Word won’t play nice. It wants you to fill column one before you get to fill column two – you don’t want to – so you’re at a stalemate.
The solution is to force Word to the top of the second column and you do this by inserting a break. In Word 2002/2003 choose Insert> Break > Column Break.
In Word 2007 & 2010 choose Page Layout tab> Breaks > Column.
Now you can type at the top of the second column. Yeah!
Labels: columns, Type in second column, Word, Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 2010
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 7:40 am3 Comments links to this post
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
I get a lot of folks at projectwoman.com who come looking for help with columns and Word – anything from Word 2002 through 2003 to 2007 and now 2010. I have to think the reason is that Microsoft doesn’t make it as easy as it thinks to work with columns.
In the next few posts I’ll show you some things to do with columns that I think most folk have trouble with.
First up, how to put a picture in between columns in Word. Start by formatting your text in columns and then add your picture.
Chances are it won’t move and sit between columns. The issue is that Word inserts images as In Line With Text by default which is the setting MOST OF US WOULDN’T USE IN 1,000 YEARS – but Microsoft doesn’t really understand most users and so that’s what we get – images that are stuck – they won’t move where we want them to go and they won’t rotate.
To fix this, in Word 2002/2003 from the Picture toolbar find the Text Wrapping button, click it and choose practically anything except In Line With Text – I choose Square because it is the best all round setting.
In Word 2007/2010 click the Picture and from the Picture Tools > Format tab on the ribbon click the Text Wrapping button and choose Square.
Now your picture does what you expected it to do in the first place – it moves, it can be rotated and when you drag it over the space between two columns it sits where it is put and it pushes the text out of the way around it. Neat huh?
One day… maybe Microsoft will hear our cries of frustration and insert images so they behave like they should without us having to jump through hoops to make them.
Labels: columns, pictures over columns., span columns, Word, Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 2010
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posted by Helen Bradley @ 8:23 pm4 Comments links to this post
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Ok, so its easy to change units of measure in Word by setting the Word Options to measure in inches or cm – depending on where you live. However, if you’re using PowerPoint don’t waste your time looking in PowerPoint for the setting – it ain’t there.
Instead, the measurements in PowerPoint are tied to your geography. If you live in the US you get inches, if you fess up to living else where you get your local units of measure. To change where you live, launch the Control Panel and look for a Regional settings option and set your location there.
For those of us who live in the US but who think imperial measurements suck big time and who yearn for the metrics of our childhood in the far off land of Aus, thanks to Microsoft we are s*** out of luck. You see, if I set my region as Australia or the Uk to get metrics, everything else goes pear shaped and Google starts serving up UK or Australian pages in preference to US ones, or I get £ by default in Excel. It’s all round not a good choice. So, I’ll have to suck it up and learn to embrace feet and inches – but provided you still call the land of your birth home chances are you’ll be just fine.
Labels: PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2010, Units of measure, Word 2007, Word 2010
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 9:48 am2 Comments links to this post
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
I don’t like Word’s basic bullet design and generally I’ll want bullets of my own liking. For example I’ll use bullet lists to create checkbox lists for things I need to do.
Bullet style
To get a checkbox list working in Word 2007 requires a little bit of list knowhow.If you’ve created your list items you can simply select the list and, from the Home tab, select the Multilevel list button and choose Define new list style.
You need to use this rather than the Bullet Lists > Define new bullet options because otherwise you don’t get control over the tabs and Word’s tab settings for bullets don’t always make good sense.
The Define New List Style option gives you the ability to control all of this. Start by typing a name for your list so that you can find it easily again later on. The select Bullets which is a small button to switch from numbers to bullet style. Click Insert symbol and select Wingdings as your font.
You can then select a bullet style such as a shadowed box, select it and click Ok.This is applied as the bullet style.
Spacing
To adjust the spacing between the edge of the page and the bullet and the bullet and the text, click the Format button and choose Numbering. Set the Aligned at value to the distance that you want between the left edge of the page and the bullet itself. I set this to 0 inches.
Set the text indent at a value to the distance you want between the bullet and the text. This is a hanging indent so it ensures that all lines of text are wrapped automatically to the value you set. I like to set this to .75 inches if I’m using large bullets. Click Ok. You can then click Ok again to set this as your bullet style.
You can ignore the rest of the numbering if you’re simply using a one level bullet. Click Ok.
To apply this bullet style to your document click the multilevel list and select the list style from the list styles area of the dialog. If you hold your mouse over it, you’ll see the list style appear in a small dialog with the name that you gave it showing. Click it to apply it to your list.
Labels: bullet list, Custom, list, list style, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 9:01 am4 Comments links to this post
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Word 2007 comes with a range of styles you can use when inserting images into your document.
To see them at work, insert a picture into your document, click the image and choose Picture Tools > Format on the Ribbon.
The Picture Styles are formats you can apply to your image and they include some very attractive looking options.
Once you’ve selected a picture style you can adjust things like the Effects which are attached to it.
For example, you can create a picture reflection by selecting the picture and then choose the Picture Effects > Reflection option to create a reflected edge.
You can also recolor the picture border if desired by using the Picture Border option. If you have a picture inserted in a document and formatted the way you like it but determine that you don’t like the picture and want to replace it, choose Picture Tools > Format and click the Change Picture option and choose an alternate picture to use. The format will remain and only the picture itself will change.
Labels: edge, format picture, picture styles, reflection, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 10:38 pm2 Comments links to this post
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
New to Word 2007 is the Quick Tables feature.
To see what is available, click the Insert tab, choose Table > Quick Tables and choose from a range of preconfigured tables such as calendars and tables with sub headings and other features.
Once the table is inserted into the document, you can replace the text in it with your own text such as the dates for your desired calendar month.
Most of the elements that you’re used to selecting from the Tables menu in previous versions of Word can be found on the Tables Tools > Layout tab and these include the ability to repeat header rows at the top of the table and options for adjusting the text direction and inserting and deleting rows.
Once you have a table formatted in the way you want it to look you can add that particular format to the Quick Tables Gallery so you can use it anytime.
To do this, click inside the table and choose Table Tools > Layout tab. Click Select > Select Table so the entire table is selected. Now, from the Ribbon, choose Insert > Table and click on the Quick Tables option.
Choose Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery and the Create New Building Block dialog will appear. Complete it as you would for a regular Building block element with the exception that this time, leave the Gallery option set to Tables so the table will appears in the Quick Tables Gallery.
Click Ok when you’re done. In future, your custom designed table will be selectable from the Quick Tables Gallery.
Labels: layout, Quick t, Tables, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 10:48 pmNo Comments links to this post
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The table options in Word 2007 allow you to create quite sophisticated tables more easily than you’ve been able to in the past.
Click the Insert tab and click the Table button and drag over the number of cells you want for your table.
With the table selected, choose Table Tools > Design tab and choose a Table Style from the dropdown list.
Many of the styles are linked to theme colors so you can create a table with an attractive style which like other Word objects changes color to match the theme when it changes.
When you have a table style selected you can configure other options for it by, for example, selecting the Banded Rows checkbox in the Table Style Options group and adjusting the look of the first and last columns and header row using the checkboxes.
Labels: format, table style, table tools, Tables, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 10:43 pmNo Comments links to this post
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Microsoft Word 2007 provides styles that you can use to format your documents.
These make it easier for you to change the look of a document very quickly by combining styles with the new Office 2007 themes.
To get started with styles, with a document open on the screen click the Home tab and choose the Change Styles button.
Here you can select a Style Set for your document, for example choose Distinctive or Elegant, Fancy or Formal depending on what you want your document to look like.
Once you have selected a Style Set, the Styles group on the Home tab will display styles from that set.
To apply a style to text, select the text, for example a title, then in the dropdown Style list and hold your mouse pointer over one of the styles to see how it would look if applied to that text. Select the style that you want to use and click it to apply it.
You can also add your own choice of formats as a selectable style. For example, format a piece of text so it looks the way you want your style to appear and select this text. Open the Style list and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style.
Give the style a name, click Modify to change any of its characteristics and click Ok to save it as a Quick Style. This style now appears in the Style list and you can select it to apply to text in your document at any time.
Labels: change styles, formatting and styles, quick style, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 10:16 pmNo Comments links to this post
