The bright white text area of most word processors can become a quite tiring on the eyes after a few hours. You can of course jiggle the brightness and contrast settings on your monitor but a far better solution is to give your blank pages a light grey tint. 

1. Open Word so that you can judge the effect. 
2. Click Start, Control Panel and then Display. 
3. Select the Appearance tab and click into the area marked Window Text. 
4. Click in the Color box, open the color palette, and chose the shade of grey that’s most comfortable.

   FYI: The tint only applies to the display and will not affect the way documents look when they are printed. 

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In Word documents, it is possible to format text as hidden. Because hidden text can contain information you may not want to distribute, you may want to unhide and remove it. To remove all of the text in a document that is formatted as hidden, perform the following steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options. Select the View tab. 
2. Click to select the Hidden text check box, and then click OK. 
3. On the Edit menu, click Replace. 
4. Click the More button to expand the dialog box. 
5. Click in the edit box next to Find what. 
6. Click the Format button, and then click Font. Click to select the Hidden check box, and then click OK. 
7. Click Replace All. 

All hidden text is removed from the document. 

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3. Word Tip – How to Automate Inserts into Technical Documents

If you frequently need to insert a word, line or block of text into MS Word documents you can easily automate the process with a simple keyboard shortcut. 

Highlight the text and press Alt + F3, to create an AutoText entry, then give it a name or accept the default that appears in the dialogue box that appears and click OK. 

Now go to the Tools menu; select Customize and the Commands Tab. 

Click the Keyboard button then AutoText in the Categories window. 

Highlight your new entry in the Commands Window, click a cursor in the Press New Shortcut Key field, choose a key combination then click Assign. 

To remove an AutoText entry, go to the Insert menu, click AutoText, then AutoText, select the AutoText tab, highlight the entry and click Delete. 

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3. Save As Shortcut

ScreenTips are those little boxes that appear when you ‘hover’ your mouse over a hyperlink. As the name implies, they usually provide a small tip, or piece of information, about the word or phrase in question.

They can be really useful when you’re writing technical documentation and want to include definitions into your text – without the reader having to revert to the glossary.

To create screentips, follow these steps:

1. Select the word or phrase that needs a screentip.
2. Right-click on it and select Hyperlink.
3. Click the ScreenTip button.
   
4. Enter your screen tip text, click OK, and give it a name in the ‘Type the file or web page name’ box.

To test that it works, go back to the document and hover your mouse over the text. The screentip you entered should appear above the words you selected.

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Let’s say you want to change how Word 2007 list its different options. You can change the way Word displays these options and specify document settings such as editing, printing, spelling and grammar, and change tracking in the Options dialog box.

Here’s how it works:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

2. Click the tab you want

3. Select the option you want.

For information about specific options, click a link in the following list.

You can specify settings for a variety of Microsoft Word features by selecting options in the Options dialog box. The availability of some options depends on the languages that are installed and enabled for editing.

• Change options such as showing the task pane (View tab)
• Change options such as opening in reading layout view (General tab)
• Change editing options (Edit tab)
• Change print options (Print tab)
• Change options such as Prompt to save Normal template (Save tab)
• Change sharing and security options such as setting a file password (Security tab)
• Change Asian language character and spacing options (Asian Typography tab)
• Change locations for saving files (File Locations tab)
• Change Japanese language options (Japanese Find tab)
• Change options such as showing diacritics (Complex Scripts tab)
• Change spelling and grammar checking options (Spelling & Grammar tab)
• Change options for revision marks and balloons (Track Changes tab)
• Change the name, initials, and mailing address that Word uses (User Information tab)
• Change options such as font substitutions (Compatibility tab)

Tip:  Click the Help button on the Options dialog box title bar.

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3. How to find the AutoFormat feature in Word 2007?

I used to use the AutoFormat feature all the time in Word 2003.

Last month I ‘upgraded’ to Word 2007 and have had a very hard time of it. You can tell from my mangled grammar, I guess.

The fact is that AutoFormat, which was part of Microsoft Office 2003, is not included in the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

But, there is a workaround of sorts.

In Word, you can add the AutoFormat command to the Quick Access Toolbar as shown above. 

To add the AutoFormat command to the Quick Access Toolbar in Word, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button.

2. Click Word Options.

3. Click Customize.

4. In the Word Options dialog box, in the Choose commands from list, click All Commands.

5. In the list of commands in the selected category, click AutoFormat, and then click Add.

Tip: You can also add the AutoFormat Now command.

The AutoFormat feature is now displayed in the Quick Access bar.

If you know any useful Word 2007 tips, please let me know.

Where is the Styles menu gone? Any ideas?

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