Add a border to a title page

Word's Borders And Shading feature allows you to control exactly where to place a border in a document. For example, let's say you want only your title page to have a border along the left and right margins.

Follow these steps:

1. Select the title page, and go to Format | Borders And Shading.

2. On the Page Border tab, choose a setting.

3. Decide on your formatting by making selections from the Line Style, Art, Width, and Color drop-down lists.

4. In the Preview section, click the buttons to turn off the border at the top and bottom margins.

5. Select This Section - First Page Only from the Apply To drop-down list, and click the Options button.

6. Select Text from the Measure From drop-down list.

7. Deselect the Surround Header and Surround Footer check boxes to prevent the border from printing in the header and footer areas, and click OK to exit both dialog boxes.

You can also add a border to a page in the middle of the document by making that page a new section and selecting This Section from the Apply To drop-down list.

Add a button to a toolbar

You can't access all of Word's built-in buttons from the default toolbars. To use some built-in buttons, you'll have to add them to a toolbar.

For example, suppose you regularly use the Tools menu to check a document's word count, but you'd rather use a button. Follow these steps to add the Word Count button to the Formatting toolbar:

1. Right-click the Formatting toolbar, and select Customize.

2. On the Commands tab, select Tools from the Categories box.

3. Drag Word Count from the Commands box to the Formatting toolbar.

To delete a button from a toolbar, press [Alt] while clicking and dragging the button off the toolbar.

Add numbered arrows

When you write out instructions for a process, you typically number each step in the instruction set. If the instructions describe performing an operation on a specific computer, for example, you might include a graphic image of that computer in your document. You can help the reader by adding to the drawing a series of numbered arrows corresponding to the steps in the written instruction.

To draw the arrows, click the Drawing toolbar's AutoShapes button, select Block Arrows, and then select an arrow style. Click-and-draw in your document to create the arrow, then position it on or near the drawing. Once the arrow is in place, you have a couple of options for labeling it with a number. The easiest way is to right-click the arrow, choose Add Text, type the number, and then format it to your liking.

For a fancier touch, number your arrows with billiard balls instead of plain numbers. To add the "billiard ball" symbol, right-click the arrow and choose Add Text. Go to Insert | Symbol, click the Symbols tab, and select Wingdings 2 from the list of fonts. There you'll find two sets of billiard-ball-style symbols, numbered zero through 10: One set has white numbers on a black ball and the other has black numbers on a white ball. Insert one of those symbols, then select the symbol and increase its point size to make sure your readers don't miss it.

Add text above a table

Say you've just created a table at the top of a page, and you want to add some text above it. But when you try to place your pointer at the top of the page, it goes no further than the first cell in your table.

Pressing [Ctrl][Home] doesn't help, and attempts to add a blank line at the top of the page only add a blank line to the top row.

Fortunately, Word offers two methods for placing your pointer above the table: One uses the mouse, while the other uses the keyboard.

To use the mouse, click inside the first cell of the table, and go to Table | Split Table. This adds a new paragraph mark above the table and automatically places the pointer at the mark.

To accomplish the same thing using the keyboard method, click inside the first cell of the table, and press [Ctrl][Shift][Enter].

Adjust column width with the AutoFit feature

If you routinely adjust column widths to fit table contents, you can save time by using Word's AutoFit feature to adjust them automatically. To activate the AutoFit feature, click inside the table, and go to Table | AutoFit | AutoFit To Contents.

Once you've activated AutoFit, all column widths will adjust to fit the contents of the cells. Word automatically adjusts all columns in the table as you type within the cells.

To adjust the width of a single column to fit its contents without activating the AutoFit feature, move your pointer along the column's right boundary until it becomes a double-arrow, and then double-click.

Attach a different template to your document

When you need to reformat a document according to a new custom template, you don't have to start over. You can make Word reformat it for you by replacing the document's template with the custom template.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the document, and go to Tools | Templates And Add-Ins.

2. Select the Automatically Update Document Styles check box.

3. Click the Attach button, and browse to the appropriate template.

4. Select the template, click Open, and click OK.

Word automatically replaces each style in the document with a style of the same name in the new template; you may have to manually change other styles. Word also replaces AutoText, macros, and custom command settings available in the original template with those of the custom template.

AutoFormat dashes

You don't have to memorize complicated shortcut keys to insert dashes into your documents. Word's AutoCorrect feature lets you insert them by typing one or two hyphens. First, activate the feature in AutoCorrect by following these steps:

1. In Word 2002, go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options (or AutoCorrect in Word 2000).

2. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

3. Under Replace As You Type, select the Hyphens With Dash (or Symbol Characters With Symbols in Word 2000) check box, and click OK.

Once you've activated this option, you can insert a dash between ranges of numbers or dates by typing the first number or date, a space followed by a hyphen, and the second number or date. To insert a longer dash, type the text and type two hyphens followed by the rest of the text.

Automated Action

To perform an action (such as inserting the current date) when a new file based on a template is created, open the template in Word, and record a macro that performs the action. Name it Autonew. When the Record Macro dialog appears, choose Store Macro In, and specify the template you've modified. For a macro that runs when you open a document based on your custom template, record a macro, and name it AutoOpen. Then store it in the template.

Automatically Update a Table of Figures

When I type my papers, I need to include a table listing all the figures. When I change the order of the pages, the table is no longer correct. Is there any way to make the page numbers in the table of figures update automatically?

To do this, you must ensure that each figure is identified by a caption field, not just by a caption typed below it. Go through your text from start to finish, click on the line just after each figure, and choose Caption... from the Insert menu. Enter the desired caption. If you already had a plain-text caption below the figure, delete it.

Now navigate to the page where you want the figure table. Select Index and Tables from the Insert | Reference menu, then click the Table of Figures tab. Set the options for the table's format and click OK. Any time the page numbers change, just click on the table and press F9 to update the table with current information.

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Better Copying in Word 2002

Often while using Microsoft Word I want to copy three or four paragraphs to the Clipboard, or I may want to move various paragraphs to the bottom of the document. This is easy to accomplish if the paragraphs are next to one another: I just highlight them and drag them. Is there any way to do the same thing with paragraphs that are not together?

Yes, as long as you have the newest version of Word. One of the more welcome features in Word 2002 is the ability to select multiple passages of noncontiguous text. You do so by holding down the Ctrl key as you highlight the individual passages. If you have a 15-paragraph document, for example, and you want to copy 6 of the paragraphs to a new document, highlight the first paragraph as you normally would, then scroll down to the second and hold down the Ctrl key as you highlight it. Do the same for the remaining 4 paragraphs, then use the Edit menu, the right-click menu, or the drag-and-drop function to place the selected paragraphs wherever you want them.