Word Annoyances: How to Fix the Most ANNOYING Things about Your Favorite Word Processor

2017-07-07 02:10:07

FIELDS

Make Fields Visible

The Annoyance:

I keep tripping over the hidden fields in my documents. Isn't there a way of making them visible?

The Fix:

Choose Tools Options and click the View tab. In the "Field shading drop-down list, choose "When selected" or "Always," as appropriate, and then click the OK button. Fields then appear with gray shading.

Use Cross-References to Keep Text Updated in Different Parts of the Document

The Annoyance:

I need to enter the same text in several different parts of a document. Copy and paste works well enough, but I need to keep the text updated.

The Fix:

The best solution is to keep the text updated in one part of the document and use cross-references to insert it in the other places. You can then update the cross-references automatically after you change the text. The easiest way to update all the fields in a document is to select the entire document (press Ctrl+A or choose Edit Select All) and then press F9 or Alt+Shift+U.

You can make a cross-reference refer to a bookmark, a heading, a footnote or endnote, a figure or table, an equation, or a numbered item (such as a page number). For a text item in a paragraph, use a bookmark. Select the text, choose Insert Bookmark, type the bookmark name , and click the Add button.

To insert the cross-reference, choose Insert Reference Cross-Reference. In the Cross-reference dialog box (see Figure 3-25), select "Bookmark in the "Reference type" drop-down list, select "Bookmark text" in the "Insert reference to" drop-down list, choose the bookmark in the "For which bookmark" list, and click the Insert button.

Figure 3-25. A cross-reference to a bookmark is the easiest way of keeping text updated in multiple parts of a document.

Tip: If you check the "Insert as hyperlink" box in the Cross-Reference dialog box, Word creates a hyperlink that you can Ctrl-click to access the original text. (In Word 2000, you click rather than Ctrl-click.) This is useful if you might otherwise lose track of the original text. If you're referring to a bookmark, you can always access it quickly via the Bookmark dialog box.

Insert a Date That Doesn't Change

The Annoyance:

When I use a template that includes a date field (for example, on a letter), the date shown is always the date when I print the letter, even if I'm printing a fresh copy of a letter that was last changed five years ago.

The Fix:

As is often the case, Word is trying to help, but you just don't appreciate its efforts.

If the date field you want to affect is in a document you just opened, and it's showing the correct date (for example, five years ago), click in the field and either lock it (press Ctrl+F11) or unlink it (press Ctrl+Shift+F11) so that it won't change. Then save your document.

To prevent the problem from occurring in new documents you create based on the template containing the field, open the template and choose Insert Date and Time. In the Date and Time dialog box (see Figure 3-26), select the date format, uncheck the "Update automatically box, and click the OK button. Choose File Save to save the changes, and then choose File Close to close the template.

Figure 3-26. To prevent the date (and time) in a document from being updated when you save or print it, uncheck the "Update automatically" box in the Date and Time dialog box.

FIELDS

Make Fields Visible

The Annoyance:

The Fix:

Use Cross-References to Keep Text Updated in Different Parts of the Document

The Annoyance:

The Fix:

Figure 3-25. A cross-reference to a bookmark is the easiest way of keeping text updated in multiple parts of a document.

Insert a Date That Doesn't Change

The Annoyance:

The Fix:

Figure 3-26. To prevent the date (and time) in a document from being updated when you save or print it, uncheck the "Update automatically" box in the Date and Time dialog box.

Категории