Change the spacing between letters December 4, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, How do I ?, Formatting, Templates, Cool Tricks, Tips , add a commentSelect the text you want to change. Click Format, Font, and then the Character Spacing tab.
Choose one of the following:
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In the Spacing box click Expanded or Condensed and enter the amount in the By box. This adjusts the space evenly between all selected characters.
Or -
Select the Kerning for fonts checkbox. Enter the point size in the Points and above box.
Tip: Expanded or Condensed alters the spacing between all selected letters by the same amount while Kerning alters the spacing between specific pairs of letters.
How to Stretch Text December 4, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, How do I ?, Formatting, Style, Templates, Cool Tricks , add a comment
- Select the text you want to change.
- Click Format, Font, and then the Character Spacing tab.
- In the Scale box, enter the percentage you want to stretch the text.
Stretching is also refereed to as scaling.
Change the Windows Desktop Theme November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Troubleshooting, Cool Tricks, Tips , add a comment
Like its brother-in-arms, the Screensaver, the Windows Desktop Themes eat away at your computer’s memory. Unless you really need them, uninstall! You’ll have a much quicker and more reliable machine.To change or remove desktop themes, follow these steps:
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On the Desktop, right-click and click Properties.
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Click the Themes tab.
3. In the Theme box, select the theme you want or click None.
Tip: if you have to use a theme, select one with few graphics.
Modifying Styles November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Cool Tricks , add a commentTo modify a style in Word, follow these steps:
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Got to Format, Style and Formatting.
This opens the Style and Formatting task pane in the right hand side of the screen. -
Click on the style you want to change, for example, Body Text.
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Hover your mouse over Body Text.
An arrow appears in the right corner.
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Click on the arrow and select Modify.
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In the Modify Style dialog box, use the different options to change the font, paragraph, and other settings.
Visio Hyperlink Problem in Internet Explorer 7 November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, Cool Tricks , add a commentVisio is used by many Tech Writers and Programmers to create diagrams and flowcharts.
Some of you have encountered issues involving hyperlinks in Visio’s HTML output and Internet Explorer 7. For example, clicking a hyperlink in a drawing saved as HTML from Visio 2003 results in an error that says “Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site. Operation aborted.”
Then you may want to read this post as it offers some ways to work around it. Visio’s HTML output and IE7
Use ClearType to improves Readability on Laptops and high-quality flat panel displays November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Cool Tricks, downloads , add a comment
If you use a laptop to write, then you have to get this!
This free download from MS ”delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be somewhat improved.
Tip: Use this online tuner to turn on and tune your Windows XP ClearType settings. If you experience problems download the Windows XP PowerToy version of the tuner. The online tuner does not currently work with Windows Vista.
ClearType works by accessing the individual vertical color stripe elements in every pixel of an LCD screen. Before ClearType, the smallest level of detail that a computer could display was a single pixel, but with ClearType running on an LCD monitor, we can now display features of text as small as a fraction of a pixel in width. The extra resolution increases the sharpness of the tiny details in text display, making it much easier to read over long durations.
Hotkey Extender November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Cool Tricks, downloads , add a comment
Donationcoder continue their excellent series of products with TapTap Hotkey Extender, a tiny super-efficient tray-based utility (under <100k) for keyboard fanatics.
It monitors hotkey combinations not supported by most programs (e.g. like doubletap right shift key). When such hotkey combinations are detected, TapTap will simulate a normal hotkey that the user has configured.
In this way, you can configure any of your programs to respond to these extended hotkey events as if they supported it natively.
For Example:
You might have a program which normally triggers on Alt+Ctrl+F5, but you want to configure it to trigger with a double tap of the right control key. You can use TapTap to detect Right Control Doubletap events, and send a Ctrl+Alt+F5 when it does. In this way, you can control your programs the way you want to, and they never know the difference.
TapTap Hotkey Extender is written in lean and mean C++ and highly optimized for insignificant cpu/memory access. It makes no changes to any system files and is completely safe. Comes with an installer but you can unpack the download manually and run it without installing.
Download it here: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/TapTap/index.html
How to Quickly Reduce Microsoft Word File Size - Secret #1 November 29, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Cool Tricks , add a commentEver had your Microsoft Word file explode from 1MB to 10MB in just a few minutes?
In the tech writing world, Microsoft Word tends to get a bad rap.
One of the arguments put against Word is that its fairly unstable and prone to creating ‘horrors’, such as bloating in size until your (Microsoft!) operating system grinds to a halt.
Compared with Adobe FrameMaker, this is true. FrameMaker is very stable, BUT can be awkward to use. Not even cut and paste…
I’ll admit it! I prefer Microsoft Word any day.
Bloated file sizes are a real problem. No-one will deny this. But, in the course of creating some long documents in MS Word, I’ve learned a few small secrets.
And these small secrets are guaranteed to save you ALOT of time.
The first offender is Bullet Lists. If there is one thing that’s guaranteed to destroy Word, its bullet lists.
Here’s what tends to happen.
When you click on the Bullet List from the Word toolbar, Word ‘points’ this Bullet List to the Normal.dot file.
In other words, it uses the default settings in the Normal.dot and applies these settings. Fine. No problem!
But… if you then cut and paste a Bulleted List from another document into your working file, Word gets very confused.
“What Normal.dot file do I now link to?”
AND, if you then use a special bullet style, it has a nervous breakdown…
What happens? Suddenly, your machine starts to grind while Word struggles to resolve this issue. And as it can’t, it crashes!
Here’s what to do instead!
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In Word, create separate styles for each different bullet lists that you need, for example Bullet Regular, Bullet Indent, Bullet Square and so on.
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When you need to use a bullet list, select the correct style from the drop-down menu.
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If you want to import a bullet list from another document, first select the Clear Formatting option from the drop down menu (this removes all formatting) and then cut it into the working document. Then apply the correct style.
Follow these three steps and you’ll keep your Word docs happy and healthy.
In the next article, we’ll look at another way to reduce large word files.
This is our first ‘insider secret’ on taming Microsoft Word. What’s been your experience?
PS: Please drop me a line at ivan
Animating Text November 27, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, How do I ?, Formatting, Writing, Templates, Cool Tricks, Tips , 1 comment so farAnimating Text
1. Select the text you want to animate.
2. Click Format, Font, and then the Text Effects tab.
3. In the Animations box, click the effect you want, for example Sparkle Text.
You can preview the animation in the box at the bottom of the menu.
Only one animation effect can be selected at a time.
Create Subscript Text November 27, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, How do I ?, Formatting, Writing, Templates, Cool Tricks, Tips , add a commentCreate Subscript Text
1. Select the text that you want to format as Subscript.
2. Click Format, Font, and then the Font tab.
3. Select the Subscript checkbox.
Keyboard shortcut: Press CTRL+=