Quick Source Tips

Here is a really helpful way to use find and replace to quickly format text.

• Click the Replace button in the Editing group on the Home tab.
• Enter the text you want to format in the Find what box.
• Enter the same text in the Replace with box.
• Click the More button.
• Click the Format button.
• Select the format type from the resulting menu.
• Make formatting selections.
• Click the Find Next button.

I use this feature a lot, espeically if I am working on a Word file that someone else created and I can’t seem to figure out the formatting that they applied. To clear all of the formatting and start fresh, click the Clear Formatting button in Font group or press Ctrl + Shift + N.

You can quickly create a line across the page of a Word or Outlook document with just a few keystrokes.

• Type three consecutive hyphens and press the Enter key to get a normal line.
• Type three underscores and press the Enter key to get a bold line.
• Type three equal signs and press the Enter key to get a double line.

Paste Special is a command that most of us know about, but I have rarely used much until recently. I copy and paste tons of information from the Web into my Office documents. But when you do that you get links, formatting, and tables that you might not want in your document. This is where Paste Special comes in handy.

1. In Office 2007 documents, click the arrow on the Paste button.
2. Select Paste Special from the resulting menu.
3. Select Unformatted Text (or Text in Excel 2007).
4. Click the OK button.

You can also use the Paste Special default shortcut in Office 2007: Ctrl + Alt + V

I have to admit that I am a late convert to shortcut keys. I already have too much random information in my brain and adding yet another set of shortcuts to it seemed daunting. But this tip has saved me TONS of time and if you work in Word 2007 it can do the same for you.

1. Click the Microsoft Office button.
2. Click the Word Options button.
3. Click the Customize shortcut.
4. Click the Customize shortcut next to Keyboard shortcuts.
5. Select a Category in the Categories box and select a command in the Commands box.
6. Enter a shortcut in the Press new shortcut key box. (Note it will tell you if it is already assigned to something else.)
7. Click the Assign button.
8. Click the Close button and click the OK button.

You can also assign shortcut keys to fonts, macros, styles, and common symbols.

Don’t you hate it when you open a Word attachment and it automatically opens in Full Screen Reading view? Well, I do. Here is how to fix it:

1. Click the View tab.
2. Click the Full Screen Reading button.
3. Click the View Options button.
4. Select Don’t Open Attachments in Full Screen from the resulting menu.

Check out our Word 2007 Quick Source guide here: www.quicksourceguides.com

This is an easy way to create a logo or graphic file that you can use over and over again from grouped items in Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007.

1. Group the shapes, images, or text boxes that you want included in the image.
2. Right-click the group and select Save as Picture from the resulting menu.
3. Select a location to save the file.
4. Enter a name for the image in the File name box.
5. Click the arrow on the Save as type box and select an image file type from the resulting menu.
6. Click the Save button.

I recently had to do a mailing using Mail Merge in Excel 2207 and Word 2007 and found a glitch in the system that caused the leading zeros to drop out of a zip code in the Mail Merge. I had made sure that the cells in Excel were formatted as a Zip Code, but when I brought the list into Word using Mail Merge the leading zeros all dropped out. To fix this, you have to go back into Excel and format the zip code cells as Text and manually add the leading zeros in that column.

If you need to format a Word document, but don’t yet have the text that you are going to use this is a handy feature. Simply enter =rand() into your document and press the Enter key. Three paragraphs of random text will be added to your document. If you want to add a specific amount of text, enter =rand(paragraphs,sentences). For example =rand(5,10) will produce 5 paragraphs of 10 sentences each.

You can quickly move a paragraph, table row, or bulleted item up or down in Word 2007. Place your mouse pointer in the text you want to move and press the Shift+Alt+Up/Down key.