Tech Tip 1

 

Copying/Pasting Multiple Items from the Word Clipboard

Turning Off the Task Pane in Office Applications

Turning Off the Drawing Canvas in Word!!!

*Faster Documents à All About AUTO-CORRECT*
                Auto-Correct excerpt: The true power of this feature emerges when you customize it with your own information. We suggest that as you create documents, if you see a sentence that you particularly like and might want to reuse—such as a quick description of a behavior, need, or observation—add it to your AutoText library. Over time, you will be able to insert these sentences with a few clicks on Word's menu.

 

 

 

 


Copying/Pasting Multiple Items from the Word Clipboard

 

We’re all familiar with copying & pasting individual items in Microsoft Word, but did you know you can copy multiple items before pasting them?

 

When you select text and “copy” it in Word, it is stored in the “Clipboard.”  When more than one item has been copied, the Clipboard usually appears on its own.  If it does not appear, go to “Edit”… and click on “Office Clipboard,” then copy a few (or several) items and they will appear on the Clipboard as you copy them. The image on the right is an example of how it looks.

 

When you want to past an item from the clipboard into your document, you first position your cursor where you want the text to be placed, then you click on the item on the clipboard that you want to paste.

 

To delete all items on the Word clipboard, you can click the “Clear All” button.

 

To delete just a single item, right-click on the item and select “delete”

 


 

 

 

To prevent the task pane (pictured at left) from opening when you start your Office program

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the View tab, clear the Startup Task Pane check box.
     

Note   You can only turn off the task pane in the program you are currently working in. For example, closing the task pane in Word does not close the task pane in Microsoft Excel.

 


 

To Turn Off the Drawing Canvas


(pictured at right) in Word

When you insert a drawing object in Word, a drawing canvas is placed around it. The drawing canvas helps you arrange a drawing in your document, and it's helpful if your drawing consists of several shapes.

While you can easily delete the drawing canvas on a case-by-case basis (drag the drawing object off the drawing canvas, select the drawing canvas, and then delete it), you may wish to prevent it from being created to begin with. (yes!!!)

To stop the automatic creation of the drawing canvas

  1. Open Microsoft Word.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  3. Click the General tab.
  4. Under General options, deselect the last option, Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes.

 

Faster Documents with Word: The AutoCorrect Feature

Do you find yourself typing the same phrase over and over again? Or do you need to apply the same fonts and formatting to something each time you type it? Perhaps your computer automatically changes your formatting as you type, forcing you to fix it each time?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, understanding Microsoft Word's AutoCorrect feature will save you time when creating documents.

What it Does

Word's AutoCorrect feature can:

 

 

Automatically fix common grammatical errors as you type them, such as helping to capitalize the days of the week.

 

Automatically substitute real words and phrases for predetermined "shorthand" keys. For example, if you type "noradd", AutoCorrect could substitute “Norwood School 8821 River Rd. Bethesda, MD 20817”

 

Automatically apply formatting when it recognizes a pattern in your text. For example, if you type a list of words, each preceded by an asterisk, AutoCorrect will interpret them as bullets and format them by replacing the asterisks with bullets and indenting the text.

 

Allow you to build up a library of phrases and sentences that you need in your writing, so you can quickly select one and insert it in a document.

 

AutoCorrect can also identify actual information, such as an address or name, and make it easy for you to perform specific tasks with that information, such as send an email to the contact. Microsoft calls this the Smart Tag feature.

When to Use It

By default, AutoCorrect is on all the time and works automatically as you are typing your letter, report, brief, or any other document. Here are some ideas on when to modify the default AutoCorrect settings:

Simplify Repetitive Tasks
If you find yourself typing or formatting the same words or phrases over and over in your documents, you should consider adding an AutoCorrect substitute to streamline your writing effort.

“For example, to maintain the distinct look of the names of our IT services, SENTRYSM and GUARDIANSM, we must format them identically each and every time we use them in print. This requires quite a few keystrokes because, with their small caps font and superscript servicemark, they are complicated to format. Assigning the shortcut "/sen" for SENTRYSM and "/guar" for GUARDIANSM has saved quite a bit of typing—and allows us not to break the creative writing process with formatting issues.”

This same methodology applies to any words or phrases, specially formatted or not, that you use regularly.

A simple idea that is useful to nearly everyone is to find a quick abbreviation for your company name, and enter that as an AutoCorrect substitute for your company's full name.

Identify Sentences for Re-use
The AutoCorrect feature that allows you to build up libraries of phrases and sentences for easy inclusion in your documents is called AutoText. By default, Word only has a few AutoText phrases stored, for example: some salutation lines ("Dear Mom and Dad"), mailing instructions ("CERTIFIED MAIL"), and some other basic elements that you might want to insert in a letter or document.

*** However, the true power of this feature emerges when you customize it with your own information. We suggest that as you create documents, if you see a sentence that you particularly like and might want to reuse—such as a quick description of a member benefit or maybe a tax law—add it to your AutoText library. Over time, you will be able to insert these sentences with a few clicks on Word's menu.***

Stop Word from Changing Your Text
By observing many people and the types of documents they regularly create, Microsoft has identified certain common formatting and grammatical standards. AutoCorrect tries to apply these standards to your writing as you are typing. These formatting changes include the bullets described above, capitalization, numbering, paragraph indentations and so forth.

If you ever find Word's changes to be an intrusion on your work, it would be a good time to review what the program is actually doing. You can do this by examining the available options in the AutoCorrect screens—and simply turning off the automatic formatting that is frustrating your productivity.

How to Use It

Step-by-step instructions on the AutoCorrect feature are available within Word's help system, but most of it is self explanatory. In Word XP, select Tools | AutoCorrect Options... to see the full menu of features, and also to see the AutoCorrect word substitution list and the AutoText library.

Some usage tips:

 

If you want to add a specially formatted word or phrase to the AutoCorrect list, select and copy that word or phrase into the clipboard before entering the AutoCorrect options menu. Then you will be able to select "Formatted Text" for the substitution.

 

You can insert AutoText into your document by selecting Insert | AutoText... Word will store any new AutoText entries under the "Normal" menu item.

 

If you don't want Word to automatically format your document as you are typing it, but you do want Word to format when you are finished, you can disable the "AutoFormat as you type" feature and format the whole document at once by selecting Format | AutoFormat.