#138 - Customizing Word #1

I thought today we would go through some Word customization tricks. These apply to Word 2002 & 2003. All bets are off in Word 2007 (almost as useful as Vista!).

If you type the same long phrase over and over you can have Word type it in for you. For example I do the minutes for the Highlands Community Bank board. That means typing Highlands Community Bank many times. In word you can set up an AutoCorrect item so that when you type in HCB it will automatically put Highlands Community Bank in all your Word documents. To do this click on Tools then AutoCorrect options. Type in the letters or keys in the REPLACE: box then type in the complete phrase in the WITH: box. Now make sure you haven't made a mistake (you can edit it later) and click on OK. Now when you type in your short cut and then press the space bar your complete phrase will appear in Word.

Would you like to add a command to your Word toolbars? It is fairly easy. For example we use the Envelope command alot. To add this command to the formatting toolbar we follow these steps. Click on Tools and then Customise. Make sure that the Commands tab is selected. Then find the menu item you want to look at in the left Categories: box. For the Envelopes command we go to the Tools in the Categories: box and then scroll down in the Commands: box. We find the Envelopes and Labels item. We now drag that item into the Formatting toolbar at the top of Word and Viola the icon for Envelopes and Labels is now on our toolbar. We can take it off by just dragging it off the toolbar. This works with hundreds of Word Commands.

Would you like Word to open up a different folder then My Documents for your Word files? We have a Word subfolder in My Documents that we keep all our word files and use that when we click on Open or Save/Save As. To set up a different folder click on the Tools menu then Options. Click on the File Locations tab, then click on the word Documents and then Modify. You can navigate your PC for any directory. I know some customer that save all their files on an External Hard Drive and use this system to open a folder on that drive.

More on customizing Word next Blog!