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Use Your Tools - Getting Inside MSWord 2000Do you look at your interface for MSWord 2000 and think "what's all that junk for???" You're not alone! Did you know you can customize it? Did you know there's a keyboard combination for almost anything you want to do in Word? If you got really good at it, you could unplug your mouse and be a lot faster with that program… it's true! People ask how I get things done so quickly… it's keyboard combinations. Not only did Microsoft think of lots, but you can create custom ones too! Now, back to that interface. First - "interface"? Yes, that's all the stuff around the space where the words go… the buttons ,and scroll bars, and rulers, and icons. THAT is your interface. It's called a GUI, actually - Graphical User Interface. It's what brought computers out of the geek-age and into modern homes. So - do you see stuff you have NEVER used? Get rid of it! Wish there were buttons there for things you do all the time? Add them in! Here's how: Select the COMMANDS tab. Now you should see two windows - one with "categories" and one with "commands". The "categories" window on the left lists all the different menus available - File, Edit, View etc (same as on the standard toolbar across the top of your GUI). In the "commands" window on the right you'll see each of the different available commands/actions/functions of the "category" you select. You may recognize some of the icons as you scroll through them all. To customize your GUI, simply drag and drop… to remove an icon from your existing GUI, using your left mouse button, click and hold on the icon of choice, drag it off the toolbar, release the mouse. Voila! Gone!. To ADD an icon from the "commands" list, do the same thing - click and hold, drag the icon to a spot on the toolbar. Some useful ones I like are: From Insert Category: "picture from file", "page numbers",
"text box" Some really useful, timesaving keyboard combinations: Ctrl + Shift + > to increase selected font size (use < to decrease) (NOTE: capital letters in these commands DOES NOT indicate using the shift key, it's just easier to read that way). So, that's the insides of Microsoft Word 2000 - at least the first layer. I still don't know why it goes into hyperdrive when you try to select more than a paragraph, but I'll see if I can figure it out for next time. If you have a specific query, feel free to write and ask me: kera@time4somethingelse.com. Happy wording. Article © 1999-2002 Kera McHugh. Kera is the creator and owner of somethingelse web+graphics in the beautiful Sunshine Coast of Canada. She does everything from website to print to bring her clients in the speaking and entertainment industries integrated creative promotional materials. In her spare moments, she is a featured columnist and mother to an amazing thirteen-year-old. www.time4somethingelse.com Free reprinting/redistribution of this article is allowed with intact copyright, contact and link information. somethingelse web+graphics [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
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