IT Tip #6 - Back to Word

With this entry, I've decided to return to my first subject and concentrate on Word.

• Use Your Keyboard to Quickly Change the Case of Text
• Select the text you want to change and press SHIFT+F3.
• Each time you press the F3 key, the text case switches between Title Case, UPPERCASE, and lowercase

Save All Your Word Documents at Once

• Hold down SHIFT and click the File menu. When you hold down SHIFT, two new options appear on the File menu: Close All and Save All.
• To save all your open documents at once, click Save All. Or, to close all your open documents, click Close All; Word will prompt you to save your changes before closing any documents.
  

Speed Up Your Typing with AutoCorrect
If you find yourself typing long words again and again, you should consider setting up typing shortcuts, so you only need to type in part of the word and Word fills in the rest. For example, if I need to type Universal Solutions 4 Business Limited, I just type US4B; then I press the SPACEBAR, Word automatically spells out all the words.

To set up this shortcut:

• On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect. Select the Replace text as you type check box.
• In the Replace box, type an abbreviation you will remember—for example, US4B.
• In the With box, type the complete spelling of the word—for example, Universal Solutions 4 Business Limited
• Click Add.
• Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add additional terms, then click OK.
• You can also use this tip to quickly type people's names, technical terms—anything you want. And once you add a term to your AutoCorrect list, it also works in Excel, PowerPoint and (if you use Word as your default e-mail editor) Outlook.
  

Increase or Decrease Line Spacing in Word
To quickly change the line spacing of a paragraph in Microsoft Word:

• Select the text you want to change, then (using the numbers along the top of the alphabetical part of the keyboard):
• To set line spacing to single-space lines, press CTRL+1.
• To set line spacing to double-space lines, press CTRL+2.
• To set line spacing to 1.5-line spacing, press CTRL+5.
  

Insert Current Date and Time in Word
You can insert the current date or time in a Word document using keyboard shortcuts. Here's how:

• Position the cursor where you want to insert the date or time.
• Do one of the following:

1. To insert the date, press ALT+SHIFT+D.
2. To insert the time, press ALT+SHIFT+T.
   

Automate Repetitive Typing Tasks—Use AutoText
To create an AutoText entry for later use:

• Select the text (or graphic) you want to store as an AutoText entry. (To store paragraph formatting with the entry, include the paragraph mark in the selection.)
• On the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then click AutoText. You will see your selected text in the Enter AutoText entries here box.
• Make sure your entry contains at least four characters. Then click Add.
• Word stores the AutoText entry for later use.

To insert an AutoText entry:

• In your document, type the first few characters of the AutoText entry.
• When Word suggests the complete AutoText entry, press ENTER or F3 to accept the entry. (To reject the entry, keep typing.)
  

Add Fake Text to a Word Document
Here's a handy function you can use whenever you need to fill a page with fake text—for example, to demonstrate a feature in Word or to work with page layout and design.

• In a Word document, type =rand(4,5) and then press ENTER.
• The numbers in parentheses correspond to the number of paragraphs (4) and the number of sentences per paragraph (5). You can change the numbers in parentheses to put more or less text on the page. Or if you want one long paragraph, just place one number in the parentheses, which will designate the number of sentences that should appear in the paragraph