How you ever wanted to get the contents of a table in MS Word? There’s a few ways to do this in Word. For example,

• Do you want to get the table’s contents only, ie the plain text? Or
• Do you want to get the table’s contents and keep the format of the table, for example, keep the content in rows?

Here’s how to do both.

How To Convert Tables Into Plain Text

In this example, we’re going to extract the contents of the table. The simplest way to do this is to convert the table to text.

Depending on your version of Word, it’s as follows:

• Select the table. (Table, select Table in Word 2003).
• Click Table, Convert and then Table to Text.
  
• Choose Convert Paragraph Marks to Text
  

This converts the table into text and then adds a paragraph mark for each character. The result is that you get a long list of words.

How To Convert Tables Into Plain Text And Keep Table Format 

How about if you wanted to keep the formatting?

You can use the Convert Tabs to Text option to convert the table to textANDadd tabs between each word.

To do this:

• Select the table.
• Click Table, Convert and then Table to Text.
• Choose Convert Tabs to Text.
  

This means your table settings are removed but the layout looks the same.

Related posts:

1. How to Convert Boring Text into Stunning Tables
2. How to Convert Word Tables into Plain Text
3. Converting Tables to Text

What’s the best way to select text in Microsoft Word? There’s different ways you can do this depending on what you want to select.

For example, do you want to select text one word at a time?

Or do you want select text, starting on the left and working your way into the document? Or maybe from right to left?

5 Ways To Select Text In Microsoft Word

1. Mouse – Click and drag the mouse to select text.
2. Shift + Arrow – Hold down Shift and an arrow key on your keyboard. If you hold down, for example, the right arrow key, then Word will select text as you move to the right.
3. Shift + Ctrl – To select one word at a time, hold down Ctrl and Shift at the same time and also use the left or right arrow keys.
4. Shift + Mouse – Another option is to use the Shift key and the Mouse. For example, hold down Shift and click to select the text between the insertion point and where you clicked. If you move the mouse around the page, while holding down Shift, you’ll see how it works.
5. Shift + Down Arrow – Let’s say you want to select a large block of text below where you’re typing. Maybe you want to select and delete it. To do this, hold down Shift and the down arrow, i.e. the arrow on the keyboard that points downwards.

Those are five ways to select text in Microsoft Word.

What others can you think of?

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1. How to Resize Fonts in Word 2003
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3. How to Resize Fonts in Word 2003

There are two ways you can go to the end of a Word document. The first is to use a keyboard shortcut and the second is to create a macro. There are pros and cons of each approach. Here’s how to do it.

Using Keyboard – Go to end of MS Word document

If you want to go directly to the end of a Word document when its opens:

Press Ctrl+End

This takes you to the very last character in the document.

If you want to go back to the start of the document:

Press Ctrl+Home

Using Macros – Go to end of MS Word document

You can also setup a macro to do this.

To create a macro, add the following lines of code in the Autoopen macro:

Sub AutoOpen()
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory
End Sub

Which is better?

If you simply want to go to the end of the document, then use Ctrl+End.

However, if you want to run several macros at the same time, for example, to change fonts, format the document and so on, then use the macro to bring you to the end of the document when it’s finished processing.

Does this work on your keyboard? What other shortcuts do you use in Microsoft Word?

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3. How to Remove Your Name from Word Macros

Yesterday, we showed you how to count the number of words in your documents. To do this, we used Microsoft Word’s Word Count tool to count the text.

But, how about if you want to go a bit deeper and count the number of words in footers, headers, or footnotes?

Where is the Word Counter?

This word count tool is built into Microsoft Word but you may have it turned off on your menu settings. I did!

To turn it back on:

• Click Tools
• Click Customize
• Select Word Count from the list of items

Now, you’re ready to count the number of words in your Marketing Plan, Technical Documents, User Guides, or Business Plans.

And if you’re a freelance writer or make a living working online, it’s ideal as you can see how many words you’ve written and how many more you need to make your page count!

How To Count Footnotes And Endnotes?

You can also include footnotes and endnotes in the count.

If you want to count part of a document rather than the entire document, Word can count the footnotes or endnotes that refer to the selected text.

To do this, select the Include Footnotes and Endnotes option.

How To Count Blocks of Text

You can also select multiple sections of text to count. Sections do not have to be next to each other.

How many words do you think are in this article?

What tools do you use to count the number of words you’ve written?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh shares small business tips for smart people on Klariti. Ivan also shows you how to connect blogging and marketing, and finally start making money working with your blog.

Related posts:

1. How To Count the Number of Words in MS Word Documents
2. How to count the number of words in a technical document
3. How To Insert Your Chapter & Paragraph Titles into MS Word’s Footer

On Monday, I showed you how to add a Chapter Heading to your Microsoft Word documents. The nice thing about this is that it shows the reader where they are in the document at any give time.

That is very effective in long technical and financial documents, such as Business Plans, where the reader may have hundreds of pages to read through.

Why Format the Headers and Footers?

If you write for a living, you’ll want your documents to look at professional as possible. I use the Header and Footer section to include content that makes the document look more professional, have more use to the reader, and ultimately makes my material look better than other writers.

One way I do this is to add the Document Name into the Footer. This reminds the reader what they are reading, especially when the scroll to the end of the document or when the document is printed out and, for example, the cover sheet is missing.

Without this information in the footer, the document looks unfinished.

We don’t want that, do we?

How To Insert the Document Name in the Header or Footer

What if you only want to show the document title in the footer? What’s the fastest way to do this? In Microsoft Word, there are usually a few ways to do the same thing. Which is good and bad

Here’s one way to add the document title to the header or footer.

1. Open Word.
   
2. Go to File, Properties. This is where you can add metadata about the file, such as the document name, owner, date and keywords.



3. Enter the document name in the Title Field (i.e. first field)Close this and return to the Word document as usual.
4. On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
5. From the Insert drop-down menu, select Filename.



6. This adds the Filename to the Footer.

If you have other questions about Microsoft Word, let me know in the comments below.

Word 2003 v 2007

As the menu is different in both versions, I have included the steps for 2003 first. To do this with 2007, click the Start button and then look for the Options.

How do I?

You can also add the date, page numbers, and other information this way. It’s the simplest way to keep your Microsoft Word documents organized.

If you have other questions about Microsoft Word, drop me a line.

As most readers use Microsoft Word 2003, these steps will apply to this version of Word. If there is any confusion, please let me know.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh shares small business tips for smart people on Klariti. Ivan also shows how to make a full-time living working online his Web Plan blog

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1. How To Insert Your Chapter & Paragraph Titles into MS Word’s Footer
2. Word 2003 Printing Tip, how to print the Body text before the header and footers
3. How to count the number of words in a technical document

I use the Header and Footers in my documents to add information that helps readers navigate through the report, see when it was written, and also its date, status, and page count.

You can add an incredible amount of information into the Header and Footers. Here are some ways to add in the Document Title, for instance, My Shiny New Annual Report, into the footer.

One way to make your Microsoft Word documents more professional is to use the Header and Footers to include information that helps the reader.

Today, I’ll show you how to add some useful information to the header/footer areas.

How to Get Started

A simple example is to include the Document Name or Chapter title in the footer. This helps the reader if they print out the document and also gives me a better sense of what they’re reading.

What you put in the header and footer can be used to remind the reader of what their reading and also to guide them through the document, especially with business proposals and marketing plans.

Something I’ve found very useful is to add the Chapter title to the footer. As the reader moves from one chapter to the next, the header or footer is updated dynamically.

It’s a small point but it looks well. It also reinforces to the reader that you know how to prepare a professional-looking business document.

How To Put Chapter Title In the Header or Footer

1. Open Microsoft Word.

2. On the View menu on the main toolbar, click Header and Footer. If you can’t see this, click the small arrows at the end of the menu to show this option. They may be hidden by Word.

3. Click inside the header or footer that you want to change.

[Optional] On the Header and Footer toolbar, click ‘Same as Previous’ to break the connection between the header and footer in the current section and the previous section.

4. On the Insert menu, click Reference, and then click Cross-reference.

5. In the Reference type box, click Heading.

6. In the For which heading box, select the heading that contains the chapter number or title. In this example, it was My Book Title.

7. In the Insert reference to box, select what you want to insert in the header or footer.

For example:

Click Heading number to insert the chapter number, and then click Insert.

Click Heading text to insert the chapter heading, and then click Insert.

This adds the document name to the header or footer.

How to Update Headers and Footers?

If you want to change the document title, update it in File, Properties and then open the footer again.

1. Click on the field you want to update.

2. Right-click and then select Update Field.

Did it work?

Why Format Microsoft Word Docs?

Think of it from the reader’s perspective.

You get a business proposal, white paper, or marketing plan that you’ve been waiting for and… it looks terrible.

The content may be fine but… why is the layout so poor, why didn’t they make more effort, why are the fonts different throughout the document?

You get the idea, right?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll show you how to improve the appearance of your business documents.

How do I?

If you have other questions about Microsoft Word, drop me a line.

As most readers use Microsoft Word 2003, these steps will apply to this version of Word. If there is any confusion, please let me know.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh shares small business tips for smart people on Klariti. Ivan also shows how to make a fulltime living working online his Web Plan blog

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Last week we showed you how Bullet Lists can crash MS Word documents, especially if you cut and paste from several different documents. We outlined some techniques to reduce the file size, mostly by creating pre-formatted bullet lists and re-creating bullet lists the correct way.

How to fix Corrupt & Damaged MS Word files

But what happens if you’re given a document that’s already oversize and looks like it will damage your Word settings?

Here’s what to do.

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.
2. Cut and paste every graphic from the document into an image-editing tool, such as Snagit. Create a naming convention, (e.g. Page1-A.gif, Page1-B.gif etc) and name each graphic using the same naming convention.

   WARNING: DON’T SAVE THE FILE YET!
   

3. In Word, select File, Save As HTML.

   Name the file with an HTML extension, e.g. Proposal.html and then Exit Word.

4. Re-open Word.
5. Select File, Open and open the Proposal.html file.
6. Now, save the file using File, Save As. In other words save Proposal.html with a .doc extension, e.g. Proposal.doc.

   TIP: This process of converting the Microsoft Word file into HTML and back into Word, removes unnecessary (usually corrupt) code in the file and will significantly reduce the file size.

7. Insert the images back into the document.

I’ve seen Word files larger than 20 MB reduced to less than 3MB in less by using this technique.

Might be worth a try!

The reason you don’t save the file at Step 2 is because this would trigger Word into action (e.g. I WILL now save this file etc) and as it.

Did this work for you?

Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter.

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Let’s say you have a table that you want to convert back into text. How do you do it?

I write technical documents for a living. Part of my work is extracting text from excel files and other documents where technical information is located. Sometimes this is text inside tables that I need to get out and reformat. What’s the quickest way to do this?

1.    Open Word and select the Table you want to convert to Text.

2.    When you do this, the Layout tab appears in the ribbon.

3.    Click the Layout tab

4.    Click Convert to Text.

The table is magically converted into unformatted text where you can play with it.

If you want to convert the text back into a table, click CTRL + z

If you want to convert new back into a table, read this article here.

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1. How to Convert Boring Text into Stunning Tables
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3. Converting Tables to Text

Let’s say you have a large block of text that you want convert into a table. How do you do it?

I write many technical documents. This means that many times I need to reformat text so that it is more attractive and easier to read. One way to do this is to place the text in tables. This lets the reader see the information in a more structured format. You can also do this by pasting the text in Excel but you then have to bring it back it Word, which defeats the purpose.

How to convert text to a table

1. Before you start insert separator characters — such as commas or tabs — to define where you want to divide the text into columns. For example, in a list with two words on a line, insert a comma or a tab after the first word to create a two-column table.

2. Select the text that you want to convert.

3. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table, and then click Convert Text to Table.

4. In the Convert Text to Table dialog box, under Separate text at, click the option for the separator character that is in your text.

5. In the Number of columns box, check the number of columns.

If you don’t see the number of columns that you expect, you may be missing a separator character in one or more lines of text.

6. Select any other options that you want and click OK.

If you want to undo what you’ve done, click Ctrl-Z.

Next week, how to convert a table into text!

Related posts:

1. Converting Tables to Text
2. Create Subscript Text
3. How to Fix Damaged & Corrupt Word 2007 Documents – Part 2

You can change the background color of Microsoft Word from White to Blue.

For some people, this makes it easier on the eye as it reduces the glare from the screen.

I have to admit, I prefer blue to white but have difficulties when adding images or inserting text with different color schemes.

Anyway, it’s a nice option to have. Here’s how I do it:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.

2. Click Blue Background, White Text.

That’s it!

Related posts:

1. How To Change The Default Font?
2. Word 2003 Tip – How to Change the Background Color in a Word Document
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How do I animate text in a Word Document? For example, to make dancing ants or add sparkles to the 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.

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Portable Document Format (PDF) is the defacto file format for presenting device-independent documents on and off the Web. While PDFs have become quite popular on the Web, many PDFs used in web sites are designed for high quality print output and are not optimized for the Web.

Creating Small PDFs

The main factors in creating small PDFs are image resolution, image type (bitmap or vector), the number of fonts used and how they are embedded, PDF version, and the level of compression. In general the higher the PDF version number, the smaller the file. Acrobat 5 (PDF version 1.4) added JBIG2 compression, which is superior to the CCITT or Zip algorithms when compressing scanned monochromatic copy.

JBIG2 (Joint Bilevel Image Experts Group) encoding compresses monochrome (1 bit per pixel) image data from 20:1 to 50:1 for pages full of text. Like other dictionary-based algorithms (LZW, ZIP) JBIG2 creates a table of unique symbols and when a subsequent symbol matches one in the table, it substitutes a token pointing to the table index. JBIG2 also compresses the entire table.

Acrobat 6 (PDF version 1.5) added the ability to compress the entire file (Clean Up Settings dialog). However, since over 90% of Acrobat users have version 5.0 or greater, using PDF 1.4 is a safer alternative. Acrobat will usually display (with a warning) a more recent PDF version, but new compression schemes will spawn an error when opened in older versions of Acrobat. At the time of this writing, Adobe says that of those 90%, 50% use version 5 and 40% use version 6.

To create the smallest possible PDFs file size for the Web minimize the number of fonts, bitmapped images, and substitute vector based-graphics instead. Minimize the number and complexity of forms in your PDF document, and avoid the use of multimedia.

There are different methods to create PDFs, including outputting to PostScript and Distilling, GDI/Printing, one-click “Direct to PDF,” and dynamically on the server-side. However you create a PDF, the techniques and tools listed below can help you enhance and optimize your PDFs for the Web.

Avoid Refried Graphics

For graphics that must be inserted as bitmaps, prepare them for maximum compressibility and minimum dimensions. Use the best quality images that you can at the output resolution of the PDF. Inserting compressed JPEGs into PDFs and Distilling them may recompress JPEGs, which can create noticeable artifacts. Use black and white images and text instead of color images to allow the use of the newer JBIG2 standard that excels in monochromatic compression. Be sure to turn off thumbnails when saving PDFs for the Web.

Use Vector Graphics

Use vector-based graphics wherever possible for images that would normally be made into GIFs. Vector images scale perfectly, look marvelous, and their mathematical formulas usually take up less space than bitmapped graphics that describe every pixel (although there are some cases where bitmap graphics are actually smaller than vector graphics). You can also compress vector image data using ZIP compression, which is built into the PDF format. Acrobat Reader version 5 and 6 also support the SVG standard.

Minimize Fonts

How you use fonts, especially in smaller PDFs, can have a significant impact on file size. Minimize the number of fonts you use in your documents to minimize their impact on file size. Each additional fully embedded font can easily take 40K in file size, which is why most authors create “subsetted” fonts that only include the glyphs actually used.

Fix Fat Forms

Acrobat forms can take up a lot of space in your PDFs. You can use PDF Enhancer from Apago to reduce forms by 50% by removing information present in the file but never actually used. You can also combine a refried PDF with the old form pages to create a hybrid PDF in Acrobat.

Optimizing Existing PDFs

In many cases you won’t have access to the original document, just the resulting PDF file. Many PDFs we’ve seen are not fully optimized for the Web, using conservative settings more appropriate to high-resolution printers. For computer monitors viewing web-based PDFs, you don’t need high resolution images and exact reproduction of font faces, you just want to convey your information in an efficient way. Using the techniques outlined below, you can shrink your PDFs, while still maintaining the textual data for search engines, and reasonable quality for print output. Some webmasters offer two versions of their PDFs, once for fast web display, and one for printing.

Save As…

Once you’re done making changes to your PDF document choose File -> Save As and overwrite your existing PDF file. By default, save as removes changes that are appended to PDFs by the Save command, linearizes the file for fast web viewing, and removes unused objects.

The result is a compact, linearized PDF that displays the first page (or an arbitrary page) quickly, while the rest of the file downloads in the background. Although linearized PDFs are slightly larger, they also increase perceived speed. Note that optimizing a signed document will invalidate its signature.

By Andy King
http://www.websiteoptimization.com

More at: http://www.usedarticles.com/view/web-design-and-development/294.html

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Want to know how to Create Keyboard Shortcuts in MS Word?

In MS Word you can assign frequently used commands to a keyboard shortcut. To create a shortcut, follow these steps:

1. Right-click in the toolbar area.

2. Select Customize and click the Keyboard button.

3. To auto fix a table’s content, highlight Table on the Categories list, and then click AutoFixContent in the Commands window.

4. Type the keyboard combination into the Press new shortcut key box.

5. Click Assign.

If this combination is already in use, Word will advise you to find another combination or replace an existing one.

Did this work for you?

Related posts:

1. Print Out All Your Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Create Underlined Spaces That Remain When Typed On
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Instead of using field codes to add filenames and file paths to your document, you can setup Word so that it displays these in the toolbar. You can then add these links to any page in an open document.

1. Right-click on the toolbar.

2. Select Customize and then the Commands tab.

3. Scroll down the Categories list and click on All Commands.

4. Scroll down the Commands list to Web Address.

5. Drag the Web Address onto your toolbar.

The web address bar is now displayed on your document’s path and filename.

6. To add the file path to your document, click anywhere in the page, right-click in the web address bar, and then copy and paste it into your document.

Related posts:

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2. Updating Your Word Toolbar
3. Word Tip – How to create Screentips that enhance your documents

If you use a laptop to write, then get this free download from Microsoft. It gives you improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays, such as laptops and flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be 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.

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