Shortcuts in Word

The image by KnowWonNose captioned 'Treasure map with 'shortcuts'' (flickr.com/) is very apt, as the best way to learn Word, as with any software, is to relax and not try too hard:

Here are shortcuts in Word that you can use anywhere in Windows or in any of the Microsoft Office software:

Close window, any window: Alt F4 (repeat for any number of windows)
Copy: Ctrl C
Paste: Ctrl V
Select All: Ctrl A
Return to Normal text: Select text, press Ctrl Spacebar
Print with controls: Ctrl P
Save: Ctrl S
Save As: Alt F, A
Find: Ctrl F
Find & Replace: Ctrl H
Find Again: Shift F4
Select word: F8
Select sentence: F8 2 times
Select paragraph: F8 3 times
Repeat any command: F4
Undo: Ctrl Z

Format shortcuts
Bold: Ctrl B
Italic: Ctrl I
Underline: Ctrl U
Font format menu: Ctrl D
Space before: Ctrl Y (same command to remove space before)
Justify: Ctrl J
Flush Left (Normal): Ctrl L
Flush Right: Ctrl R
Center text: Ctrl E
New file: Ctrl N
Go to page: Ctrl G (also Go to footnote, comment etc)
Indent paragraph to right: Ctrl M
Hanging indent: Ctrl H
Soft return: Ctrl Enter (if you want to break the line without separating it from the rest of the paragraph, for layout purposes, or for lines of poetry).

To remove the font formats, repeat the command you just did, or do an Undo.

To remove the paragraph formats:
Do an Undo. Or, click Format, Paragraph, then change alignment, indentation whatever, Or click Format, Style, Clear Formatting.

Symbols in Word
To see the symbols, click the icon ¶ in your Word menu. You should know all these if you want to make your life using Word easier and happier:

Tab: ^t (not capital T)
Paragraph: ^p (not capital P)
Spaces: ......
Soft return: ← (smaller than that)

The many powers
of Find & Replace

The image says it all

The image says you can Find & Replace:
Font
Paragraph
Tabs
Language
Frame
Style
Highlight

Never mind Language and Frame and Highlight for the time being. Let’s concentrate on Find & Replace Font, Paragraph, Tabs.

Find & Replace Font

To change Times Roman to Arial Narrow, for instance:

Click Edit, Replace. With the cursor or pointer in Find what, click Format, look under Font, click Times Roman, click OK.

Then bring cursor to the next blank, Replace with, click Format again, look under Font, click Arial Narrow, click OK, then click Replace All.

Done!

You have changed all the Times Roman texts in your file, no matter how long, with Arial Narrow, in only one command.

If you want to change font size only, repeat the commands above, except look for font size under Font.

If you want to change Bold to Italics, repeat the commands above, except look for Font Style.

Remember, if your Find & Replace is a mistake, do an Undo: Press Ctrl+Z immediately before you do anything else!

Find & Replace Paragraph

For Space Before, do this:

Click Edit, Replace. With the cursor or pointer in Find what, click Format, Paragraph, go to Spacing before, type 0, click OK.

Then bring cursor to the next blank, Replace with, click Format, Paragraph again, go to Spacing before, type 12, click OK, then click Replace All.

Done! (Click Ctrl+Z to undo.)

For Firstline indent, do this:

Click Edit, Replace. With the cursor or pointer in Find what, click Format, Paragraph, look under Special, select None, click OK.

Then bring cursor to the next blank, Replace with, click Format, Paragraph again, look under Special, select Firstline indent, click OK, click OK, then click Replace All.

Done! (Click Ctrl+Z to undo.)

This is good for any length of file where all paragraphs don’t have any firstline indents at all (they are all flush left).

You can experiment with the other Find & Replace items for Paragraph.

For Find & Replace Tabs, do this:

Click Edit, Replace. With the cursor or pointer in Find what, type ^t (exactly like that, a caret and a small t), then bring cursor to the next blank, Replace with, type a space (press spacebar once), then click Find Next, press Replace if you want to replace or press Find Next if you don’t, and Word will continue your Find & Replace.

For Find & Replace Enters, I’ve already written about that in ‘Enter, the dragon.’

Enter, the Dragon

Enter is often the enemy of typers (not necessarily typists) who use word processing software like Word and not know enough to use the command efficiently or with the least effort. Enter is a hidden dragon that you should flush out from its hiding place and conquer with knowledge.

Here's an example: When I copy text from the Internet and insert into Word, I usually get something like this (I am italicizing the text for emphasis):

This is actually a problem of not understanding automatic text flow.
When you type in Word (or any word processing software for that
matter), you just type and type the words until the end of the
paragraph, in which case you press Enter. The words will
automatically flow to the edge of the margin and then flow to the next
line – that’s text flow.

There doesn’t seem to have a problem with the paragraph, is there? There is. But first, to be able to see the problem, in Word you have to click Tools, Options, View, Formatting Marks, All, OK. Then you will see this:

This is actually a problem of not understanding automatic text flow.¶
When you type in Word (or any word processing software for that¶
matter), you just type and type the words until the end of the¶
paragraph, in which case you press Enter. The words will¶
automatically flow to the edge of the margin and then flow to the next¶
line – that’s text flow.

Every ¶ mark you see is where an Enter has been made. You cannot format the whole paragraph with only one command if you have all those ¶; there should be only one ¶ and that is at the end of the paragraph, like this. ¶

If you have 100 such paragraphs with an average of 5 ¶, if you go and delete all those marks manually, you will need to press Del 500 times, not to mention move the cursor at least 1000 times. That’s what I call hard labor. So what is the best solution?

You can save time and effort by using the Find & Replace command of Word. Actually, there are many ways of using this command. Here's one fast solution (that's what the image is trying to show):

Bring your cursor to the beginning of the paragraph, press click Edit, Replace (or press Ctrl+H), type ^p in the space for Find what, press Tab, press spacebar once, then click Find Next, then click Replace (not Replace All); to continue, click Find Next again, then click Replace again. Repeat until all those ¶ marks are gone.

Be sure you don't replace even the 'good' ¶, or the one you find at the end of a paragraph that is not a problem paragraph. To do that, instead of clicking Replace, click Find Next.

In any case, at any point when you make a mistake, press Esc to get off the Find & Replace command, then press Ctrl+Z to restore the file before the mistake was made. Then click Find & Replace again and continue.

I have all the answers!
When it comes to Bill Gates' Word (Word 97, Word XP, Word 2003), this is the truth:
I have all the answers to some of your questions; I have some of the answers to all of your questions - but I don't have all the answers to all of your questions. -- Frank A Hilario, The Word Professor, 24 May 2006

I have been trying to learn more of OpenOffice but outlining still bugs me. Outlining is one of the best features of Microsoft Word, and I can't live without it, writer, editor, publisher me, a one-man band. Yes, I just finished one-man-banding my book, indios bravos! Jose Rizal as Messiah of the Redemption using of course Microsoft Word. Entirely? 100%. I've been using Word since 1987 and I have not abandoned it. Which all goes to show that there's life in this old friend yet. What I have not mastered yet, without learning how to edit Html, is to format my posts using Word and cut&paste everything with no problem at all. What I'm doing right now is not using Word but typing and formatting directly into this box. But I can't write long entries if I do this.

Learning outlining in OpenOffice 2 Writer

It’s ‘Nice meeting you’ to Microsoft software for my writing, editing and desktop publishing because I can’t afford to pay 17K for Windows and Word. So I have downloaded the free OpenOffice 2 from Sun Microsystems and am now trying to master it faster than government agents in the country can catch those using pirated copies of software.

I can imagine that in a little while, the conversation will go like this:

Me: You’ll never catch me using pirated software.

You: Don’t be too sure!

Me: I’m sure, I’m absolutely sure.

You: And why is that?

Me: I never use pirated software.

My workhorse is a word processor. So now I’m in the Navigator of OpenOffice Writer, as I want to reorganize the book I’m writing and editing at the same time. I have 4 levels of heading: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and Heading 4. My file, along with my template, is from Word, and Writer can read it perfectly. On Writer’s Navigator panel to the left of the screen, with the mouse pointer I hover on the icon for ‘Heading Levels Shown’ and I click on the number 4. Nothing happens. I am expecting that Navigator will show me those 4 levels of heading that I have in the panel or on the main window. I am disappointed. I repeat the procedure. Nothing happens. Defiantly, Writer shows me Heading 2 only, not down to Heading 3, not down to Heading 4. I am frustrated.

In Word, to switch to outline, I can simply click on View, Outline, then press Ctrl+Shift + 2 if I want to look at the headings down to the 2^nd level only; Ctrl+Shift + 4 to go down to Headings level 4. Then I can easily review my outline and decide which one goes up and which one goes down, which ones to merge, or which ones to split. This is a Word feature that I find very creative. Writer isn’t quite there yet, but I have no choice but to wait.

Setting world records with Microsoft Word

I am the Editor in Chief of the PJCS (Philippine Journal of Crop Science) published by the CSSP (Crop Science Society of the Philippines), a technical journal of 60 printed inside pages that comes out 3 times a year. When I came in January 2003, the journal was 10 issues late; in effect, since I had to publish my own 3 issues for the year, the PJCS was late by 13 issues.

With the help of the CSSP Board, I made the PJCS up-to-date in 28 months; that means, I devoted an average of 2.15 months per issue. That should be a world record for a technical journal.

In fact, from January to April of 2005, I worked on and published 8 issues, or 15 days per issue, or 2 issues per month. That should be another world record.

In fact, I used a non-standard software for desktop-publishing the journal: Microsoft Word XP. I used it for typing, formatting fonts, layouting pages, inserting and moving about in any of the pages what illustrations there were: photos, graphs, tables, graphics. I imported .JPG and .WMF and such using Word; I received e-files in Word; I critiqued and outlined and edited and commented and revised in Word; I retyped and reformatted tables using Word; I compared the original text with the edited one side-by-side using Word. I proofread and copyread using Word. I did everything with Word.

Word as my very own PageMaker or personal Publisher: Where did I get that idea? From my head. I have been using Word for a good 17 years and I have come to respect this software, if not love it. I know its quirks; I also know its virtues. I am familiar with its idiosyncrasies; I am also familiar with its abilities. I am happy always working with Word; I am also happy always looking for new ways how it can help me in what I’m doing and want to do. You might say we are a perfect team.

Now, what happened when I delivered the goods, when I achieved the impossible? Nothing. No applause. No congratulations, no commendation, no recommendation. Nada, zero, zilch. It was as if my achievement was a non-achievement, an ordinary happening. Scientists can be so clinical, if not cynical. Whatever.

If they cannot act locally (no official recognition), can we think globally about it all (apply the lesson to publishing)? I was running 13 issues late in the first stage of the race; in 28 months, I made the journal up-to-date. yes, a great deal of that was a one-man job. I mean, it is now legitimate to ask: What was the impact of what I did in the world of publishing? And my answer is, let me count the ways:

(1) I introduced Microsoft Word as a complete desktop publisher of choice. Using Word throughout, from handling text to tables to figures to photographs to pages, starting with contributor’s copy to camera-ready copy.

(2) I showed that Microsoft Word is the fastest writing-editing-publishing software in the world.

(3) I proved that age is not a limit to discovering the wonders of software – I’m 65.

(4) I demonstrated that you must understand the basis/heart of a problem before you can shortcut the process that underlies it. For instance, I had the idea that the sequence of the stages in publishing was the key to solving the problem of the backlag (my word). The current process may be summarized into these stages: 1^st, layout. 2^nd, edit. 3^rd, revise. 4^th, check & correct. 5^th, finalize. Most if not all publishers (people, Editors and layout artists included) would like to do the layout first before anything else – when they have to edit in or out, they have to redo the layout; when they have to revise, they have to redo the layout; when they have to check & correct, they have to redo the layout – a never-ending process. My experience with those 13 issues in 28 months showed me that I was right the first time: finish the editing first, or do at least 3 edits before you do the layout. I do a maximum of 9 edits per paper, reading word-for-word everytime.

(5) I successfully and single-handedly transformed the publishing process by reversing the sequence of the stages: 1^st, edit. 2^nd, revise. 3^rd, check & correct. 4^th, layout. 5^th, finalize. And when I say ‘edit,’ I mean edit at least 3 times, that is, reading 3 times word-for-word in 3 different days looking for errors, nitpicking.

(6) I dramatized the fact that the first backlag happens when the peers review the papers, the next when the authors revise their papers following their review. In my journal, each paper is necessarily reviewed by 2 peers and, ay, there’s the rub! The reviewing suffers from jetlag: it’s laissez-faire. The same thing happens when the authors revise their papers: it’s lackadaisical. (The review and revise stages are not in the hands of the Editor; I don’t get paid to oversee that, that’s why I don’t include these two in what I call the publishing process.)

(7) I short-circuited the whole publishing process by fusing 4 stages, doing all these at the same time: edit, revise, check & correct, layout. (Note: Revise is both the Editor’s job and the Author’s.) You need a one-man band to speed things up, not to mention to do the impossible.

Be those as they may, did I hear applause? I must be imagining things. Did the Board say ‘Congratulations?’ No, but perhaps I wasn’t paying attention. Did I receive any commendation, or recommendation, or reward? No, but I believe with Steve Jobs that ‘the journey is the reward.’

Nobody seemed to notice that we made history, that I made history 7 times over. Perhaps people thought that if a 65-year-old man could do it (that would be me), surely it hadn’t been that difficult after all. Anyone could have done it himself.

Well, if you are 25 years old, or 35, or 45, why don’t you try and come up with 8 issues of well-edited, well-popularized, desktop-published technical journal of 60 single-spaced pages with illustrations in 4 months?

My 13 issues were not perfect but I’m rather proud of all of them. They represent the genius of Filipinos and non-Filipinos doing crop science, from studying soils to manipulating the genetics of rice to produce a superior plant type – and my own genius as writer-editor-publisher.

I thank God I lived in the Age of Genius with the Computer.

Do I have a choice with Word?

By some marketing savvy, Microsoft has made Word the word processing software of countless millions of computer users (I like t call them compusers) the world over. I first used Word in 1988; I’m still using Word today, 17 years later. And I’m still looking for a better program: a better Word or a better other software. That’s my choice.

Why can’t Word be as simple as 1,2,3 or as easy as ABC? They claim that Word is user-friendly, and yet up to now, more than 20 years after Word was created, users still can’t get the hang of, for instance, the firstline indent (so, instead, they use the Tab, typewriter-style), or the hanging indent (so they use Enter and Tab, Enter and Tab).

In the meantime, since I’m stuck with Word, I have another choice: If you can’t beat them, join them and then beat them in their own game. So, I have been mastering Word since the beginning of (its) time, and now I know its strengths and weaknesses, what I can do with it and what I cannot do with it. For instance, I can reprogram the whole menu, but I cannot print a poster.

It can be a superb desktop publisher; it can be a builder of a dictionary of my own native language; it can help me be very creative with its stylesheet (template) menu along with its outline-organize feature.

But because it’s command-driven, Word makes me memorize so many layers of command; it’s not intuitive, not user-friendly really. Word has thousands of commands and it wants me to master them all. So, if I want a firstline indent, why do I have to remember to click on Format, Paragraph, Special, Firsline indent, Okay when I just want to click once on an icon that shows a firstline indent (even if I didn’t know a firstline indent from a hanging indent)? That’s programming. Word is a programmer’s program, not a user’s program. A user doesn’t want commands – he wants results. But the programmers don’t understand that, so they keep adding commands, that is, complexity, to an already-complex program. When will they stop?

A Biker’s Word

I give you my word: I ride ‘my’ bike like I use ‘my’ Microsoft Word everyday. They both bring me to places I want to go, and with the ease and speed that I like.

I’d like to share with you a secret: I ride my bike like I open my Word files – instantly.

Here’s what I do with the bike: I sit on the seat first, then I press on the pedal with my right foot, balancing myself as the bike and I move forward. I don’t care if it looks like I’m just learning how to ride, or like I can’t ride any other way.

When I first learned to ride, I did it like everybody else: I stepped on the left pedal first, pushed the bike, then jumped on the seat, and pressed on the right pedal. Those were the years when I was in high school, almost 50 years ago. Three years ago, when my son Jomar bought two ‘Mountain Bikes’ for himself and his girlfriend Cla-Cla to ride on weekends, I decided to ride the bike again, this time thinking differently, starting differently, as I have just described.

What’s the difference? It’s like the difference between (a) the long cut of opening Word first, then clicking on File, Open and looking for your file and (b) the short cut of simply clicking on your file and letting Word open it for you. I reach for the seat of the bike first to get to the ride faster; I reach for the file first to get to work on it faster.

So, excuse me while I go look for other Word shortcuts.

A Biker’s Word

I give you my word: I ride ‘my’ bike like I use ‘my’ Microsoft Word everyday. They both bring me to places I want to go, and with the ease and speed that I like.

I’d like to share with you a secret: I ride my bike like I open my Word files – instantly.

Here’s what I do with the bike: I sit on the seat first, then I press on the pedal with my right foot, balancing myself as the bike and I move forward. I don’t care if it looks like I’m just learning how to ride, or like I can’t ride any other way.

When I first learned to ride, I did it like everybody else: I stepped on the left pedal first, pushed the bike, then jumped on the seat, and pressed on the right pedal. Those were the years when I was in high school, almost 50 years ago. Three years ago, when my son Jomar bought two ‘Mountain Bikes’ for himself and his girlfriend Cla-Cla to ride on weekends, I decided to ride the bike again, this time thinking differently, starting differently, as I have just described.

What’s the difference? It’s like the difference between (a) the long cut of opening Word first, then clicking on File, Open and looking for your file and (b) the short cut of simply clicking on your file and letting Word open it for you. I reach for the seat of the bike first to get to the ride faster; I reach for the file first to get to work on it faster.

So, excuse me while I go look for other Word shortcuts.