Hints & tips

Word processing

Which word processor?

Microsoft Office Word was the standard for years and I still mainly use good old Word 2003 and know loads of keyboard shortcuts (eg Alt AIB to add a row to a table). There is a reasonably priced 3 computer version of Office 2010, with Word, Excel and Powerpoint. No Outlook and "for non commercial use".

The obvious alternative is Open Office 3, which is free. It is quite similar to Office 2003 in use and will read and write Word formats. Rather slower to load but it does include a useful export to pdf option and also has quite a good drawing program - Microsoft's Visio is an expensive extra. Here's a slice from an Open Office drawing:

There are also some online word processors but I could never see the point. Even nowadays we quite often seem to be somewhere where there's no internet connection.

How do I do bullets, justify text etc?

Styles are the proper way but for smaller documents it's fine to just use the toolbar icons for alignment, bullets etc. Just experiment until you get the effect you want. You can also use the format painter to copy an effect to other parts of a document. In Word 2003 if you double click the format painter icon it will stay active until next clicked.

How do I get my head around styles?

They are rather over complicated (Ami Pro, many years ago, did it much better than anything current). But for long documents using styles makes things much easier, mainly because if you change the characteristics of a style (eg body text or Heading 3) then you instantly change everything with that style, throughout the document.

So it's well worth learning to use styles if you create and maintain long, complex documents. The detail of how it works will vary depending on which WP package you use.

If you get really good at styles you can assign them to your function keys, making switching between different styles much quicker.

How do insert pictures into a document and make text flow round them?

You generally pull images into a document via Insert, Picture, From File. You can also paste them if they've previously been copied into memory.

To get text to flow around images, click on the image then it’s Format, Picture, Layout, Tight in Word 2003 (or click on the dog icon and choose tight if your picture toolbar is displayed) and Format, Picture, Wrap, Parallel in Open Office. Then slide the picture where you want it (they sometimes then move erratically as you add or edit text).

How do I move & copy text around?

Edit, Copy/Cut/Paste (Ctrl C/X/V) are the usual methods and will very often work even between different types of document, eg text and even images from a web page can be copied into a Word document. First you have to select the area to copy; just hold down the left mouse button at the top left of the area to copy and move it to the bottom right then let go. Anything then highlighted can be copied into memory and can then be Edit, Pasted somewhere else. You can also click at the start then use Shift with your arrow keys in most cases.

Within a document if you want to move rather than copy text, select it then Edit, Cut (Ctrl X) it to make it disappear into memory ready to be pasted elsewhere. Note that only the last item copied or cut is kept in memory in most cases.

How do I use tables?

I use WP tables lots, because they are much easier to make look attractive than lists in a spreadsheet. Even this web page has an invisible table behind it.

First you insert a table, then get the right column widths. Table cells then adjust to fit the content you place in them (including images).

The Table menu and right clicking give you most of the options you need as you develop the table.

It speeds things up greatly if you can learn keyboard shortcuts, eg in Word 2003 Alt AIB for insert a row below and Alt ADR for delete row. Even Word 2007 still responds OK to these.

How to create a Table of Contents?

A table of contents which can easily be updated to reflect changes is great for longer documents and it's difficult enough to impress a lot of people!

First you must use a unique style for the headings you want to appear in your contents table. One way of doing this is to choose a header style you like then (eg via Format, Styles) make a new style based on it. Then once you have a few headings with this style go to where you want the TOC. In Word 2003 it’s then Insert, Reference (!), Index and Tables, Table of Contents. Then Click on Options, delete the other styles suggested and promote yours to level 1. OK and the TOC is created. Update the TOC by right clicking on it and choose Update Field, Update entire table. This collects any changes you’ve made, eg new sections or page changes.

In Open Office it’s similar: Insert, Table of Contents, use a unique style and update via right click.

How do I stop text just overflowing to the next page?

You could just shorten paragraphs that just go onto an extra line or switch from 12 to 11 point text. But the easiest way is to reduce the page margins (File, Page Setup in Word 2003 and Format, Page in Open Office).

How do I get characters not on my keyboard?

In Word it’s Insert, Symbol (Insert, Special Character in Open Office). Then just choose what you want and paste it into your document. You can put them into any application via the well hidden Character Map via Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

If there's a special character you use a lot and you have a full sized keyboard you can learn its code, eg é is Alt 0233 (must be done on the numeric keypad at the right of the keyboard).