Software : Tutorial: Handy Microsoft Word shortcuts to save you time and effort

---

Tutorial: Handy Microsoft Word shortcuts to save you time and effort Posted: 24 Jul 2011 04:00 AM PDT You don't need to learn touch typing to save time using Office Word; there are plenty of other tips and tricks to try, too. Start by learning all about AutoCorrect – this useful feature doesn't just correct mistakes, it can also be used to provide shortcuts for long words or passages of text. Open Word Options, select Proofing then AutoCorrect Options to set it up. It's worth checking out the AutoFormat As You Type tab while you're here to discover some more time-saving tips, such as surrounding words with the asterisk (*) character to convert them into bold text. Special characters such as © and é can be awkward to enter manually – shortcut keys are available (Ctrl and ' and E for é, for example), but where do you find out about them? Simple, open the Insert ribbon or menu and choose Symbol ➜ More Symbols… Select the symbol to find its shortcut key, or click AutoCorrect to create something more memorable. The best way to keep text looking consistent is to make use of Office Word's Styles. If the default choices don't meet your expectations, change them – the simplest way to do this is to style up your text, select it, then right-click the appropriate style (such as Normal or No Spacing) and choose Update {Style name} to match selection. You may also want to create a special Body Text style to use instead of Normal or No Spacing – click the More button under the Styles section of the Home ribbon then click New Style to get started. If you frequently select text in your document, familiarise yourself with these shortcuts: double-click a word to select it, then click again to select the entire paragraph. To select a sentence within a paragraph, hold Ctrl as you click, or hold Alt as you click and drag the mouse to select a rectangular block of text. Creating your own ribbons If you have Office 2010, you can now customise or create your own ribbons, enabling you to place all your favourite commands on a single ribbon and saving you the hassle of moving between them. Get started by clicking the File tab, selecting Word Options and then choosing Customize Ribbon. Existing ribbons can be customised, or click New Tab to create one from scratch. Commands are then organised into different groups, and you can mix and match commands easily. Office 2007 users wanting this functionality should take a look at the RibbonCustomizer add-in. There's a free cutdown Starter Version available, or you can unlock all its features by purchasing the Pro version for US$29.99. Finally, save even more time when looking for menu or ribbon options by simply placing them on the Quick Access Toolbar where they're always visible; in Word 2007 and 2010 this is in the top-left of the Word window. Click on the down arrow and choose More Commands to access options that are on the ribbon and buried elsewhere – once placed, they'll be just a click away. Copy and paste formatting People who use either Office Word 2007 or 2010 can copy the formatting from one block of text to another; simply select some text that contains the formatting you wish to copy elsewhere, then click on the Format Painter button. The icon changes to a paint brush – just select the text you wish to restyle to see it change. Word shortcuts Ctrl and left arrow/right arrow: Move to previous/next word. Home/End: Move to beginning or end of the current line. Ctrl and Home/End: Jump to beginning or end of document. Ctrl and Shift and Home/End: Select all text before/after cursor point. Ctrl and Shift and : Decrease or increase selected text size by 1 point. Ctrl and [ / ]: Increase or decrease font size by 1 point. Ctrl and L/E/R: Align current paragraph left/centre/right. Ctrl and F/H: Open the Find or Find and Replace dialogue box. Ctrl and Space: Remove formatting from the current text selection. Alt: Reveal shortcut keys for menus, tabs and Quick Access Toolbar.

In Depth: 10 top Pages tips and tricks Posted: 24 Jul 2011 12:00 AM PDT Pages is Apple's word processing and page layout app, part of the iWork productivity suite for the Mac. It's extremely easy to use but is also very powerful - here's our list of useful tips and tricks to help you get more from Pages. 1. Tables of Contents (TOCs) Tables of Contents are useful for longer documents, and so easy to do. First, make sure you use defined paragraph styles for your headings. Now place the insertion point where you want it to be added, then use the Insert > Table of Contents command. This displays the TOC tab in the Document Inspector, and you check the box next to each heading style you want the TOC to include. If you check the 'Make page numbers links' box below, you can click on a page number in the TOC to go straight to that heading. This works both in Page and exported PDF version files. 2. Alignment guides and preferences The automatic Alignment Guides are really useful for lining up any objects you add to your documents and 'snapping' them into position. However, they can sometimes be distracting and get in the way, especially when you're trying to position an object very precisely. But they are easy to get rid of, all you have to do is hold down Command as you drag them and this will temporarily disable them, leaving you to get on with your work. 3. Paste while preserving formatting Sometimes you'll want to paste in text or numbers from a web page, an email or another document, but the original text formatting (font, size, colour and so on) will be used, which means you may then have to re-style the text. The solution is not to use the usual Command+V 'Paste' shortcut, but use Shift+Option+Command+V instead. This matches the new text to the existing style at the insertion point. 4. Option-click tab to bring up multiple inspectors While the Pages Inspector doesn't actually take up that much space on your screen, it does a huge amount of work, and so it can get really tiresome having to continually swap from one tab to another. But if you Option-click on a tab icon instead, you'll see that it opens up a brand new Inspector window. You'll soon find that having a couple of your most-used Inspectors open at the same time will save a lot of clicking. 5. Outline mode Outlines are really useful for planning and organising documents, and here's not one but three outlining mini-tips. First, you can save a lot of manual formatting by choosing a suitable Outline Template. Second, there's a button on the toolbar for reducing images to unobtrusive thumbnails. Third, there's another button that curtails long paragraphs into a single line. 6. Password protection There are lots of reasons why you might want to password-protect your documents, such as you are using a shared computer or you are working with sensitive information. If you take a look at the bottom of the Document Inspector you'll see a 'Require password to open' checkbox. You can choose your own password, or let Pages suggest one for you – and you can type in a hint in case you forget your own password. Duh! 7. Word counts If you're asked to write an essay, a report or a magazine article, you're probably going to be given a word count. So how do you know how many you've written? Take a look at the bottom of the window – the status bar shows you how many words there are in the document and, if you select some text, how many there are in the selection too. 8. Sections and Word Processing Sections are a great way to split up and logically organise long Word Processing documents and make them manageable. Each section can be moved around in the document by dragging its page thumbnail (outlined in yellow in the page thumbnail panel here). You can use different page numbering, headers and footers and column layouts for each section. 9. Tables can be spreadsheets The tables you add needn't just be boxes with words in. They can be used as mini-spreadsheets too, thanks to the functions in the Table Inspector. Format cells to contain dates or currency values, for example, and add a footer row to total up a column of figures. 10. Two Up page display When you're working on Page Layout documents, it can be useful to view facing pages side by side. But don't use the Two Up option on the pop-up page view menu at the bottom left of the screen. This is the wrong way to go about it because it will put the first (front) page of the document on the left and the first inside page on the right, and all the pages will be out of sync. Instead, click the 'Facing Pages' box in the Document Inspector. This will put the first page on the right and will display page thumbnails as 'spreads'.

You are subscribed to email updates from TechRadar: All Applications feeds To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610