NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, November 2011
A Few Tips for Customizing Word 2007
By Nancy DeMarte,
Columnist, Office Talk, Sarasota PCUG, Inc., Florida
July 2011 issue, Sarasota PC Monitor

http://www.spcug.org
ndemarte (at) Verizon.net (click to email author)

When creating Office 2007 programs, Microsoft added new tools and settings designed to save time and simplify tasks for users. Some of us find that while we appreciate most of these features, a few are getting in our way. Fortunately, many of these default settings can be disabled or modified. Here are a few customizations that I have found to be helpful.

Add commands to the Quick Access toolbar: Let us say that you use a certain command often, like the Spelling & Grammar checker, but keep forgetting where it is located in the Word 2007 ribbon. There is an easy solution. You can copy any command to the Quick Access toolbar, which is always visible in the top left corner of the Word window above the Office button. To place a tool button there, first find it on the ribbon, right click it and select Add to Quick Access toolbar. If you have several commands you want to move there, start by clicking the arrow to the right of the Quick Access toolbar. Then click a command you want from the list, which puts a checkmark next to it and adds it to the Quick Access toolbar. You may have to click More commands to expand the list. In this view, click a command in the left pane, and then click Add to put it on the Quick Access toolbar, shown in the right pane. Repeat for as many commands as you want, then click OK. Tip: Be a bit selective or your Quick Access toolbar may get so long it blocks out the title of your document.

Control the space between lines and paragraphs in your customized Normal template: In August 2010, I wrote a Monitor article about how to customize the Normal Template in Word 2007 on which all new documents are based. Recently, I learned that even making those changes does not rid your documents of the extra space between the lines and paragraphs. Apparently, even Microsoft acknowledges that the Word 2007 line spacing rules are not easy to change.

Word 2003 and earlier versions used single spacing between lines and after paragraphs, which is what many users would like to get back. Word 2007's default setting is 1.15 pts between lines and 1.15 plus a blank line after paragraphs. A fairly easy way to revert your Word 2007 spacing back to the 2003 version is by changing the Style Set. Open a Word 2007 document. Click the Home tab, and then click Change Styles in the Styles group. Point to Style Set and click Word 2003. To make the new style set become the default in Word 2007, click Change Styles again, and then click Set as Default. If you prefer not to go through all those steps, Microsoft has created a little fix-it tool which will make these changes for you. You can download it from the Microsoft website at this address: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921174.

Create Custom Page Margins: If the margins in your document are not set the way you want them, you can fairly easily change the margins to your liking. With your document open, click the Page Layout tab, and then click Margins in the Page Setup group. The Normal setting for Word 2007 is 1 inch on all sides - top, bottom, left and right. Several other choices appear in the drop down gallery. If you like one of these, merely click it and watch your document change to the new margin settings.

If you do not find what you want in the margins gallery, you can create your own customized margins. Open the Margins gallery and click Custom Margins, which opens the Page Setup dialog box. On the Margins tab, type your desired settings in the four boxes, leaving Gutter (the area left for binding or hole-punching) at "0" and "left." If you want these new margins in effect for only the current document, click OK. If you want to use them for this and future documents, click Default, and then OK.

Add the Right Kind of Date to Your Document: Many of us like to put dates in our documents to identify when they were written. But when we open some documents, we find the current date rather than the date it was composed. Word allows us to enter two sorts of dates and times: a date which never changes or a date which updates automatically whenever the document is opened. It helps to know how to enter both types since there are occasions when each is appropriate.

To enter a static date, just type it somewhere in the document or footer. Another way is to click the Insert tab and, in the Text group, click Date & Time. This opens a dialog box where you can choose from several formats for the date and/or time. Be sure to uncheck the box next to Update automatically if you want the date to remain static.

To enter a date that updates each time you open the document, click the Date & Time button as explained above. This time be sure that Update automatically is checked. A way to add a date with specific properties is to add a date "field." Click the Insert tab, then Quick Parts, then Field. In the Field box, select the Date and Time category. Here you will find several specialized fields, such as CreateDate, PrintDate, and SaveDate. A quick way to insert a field for a date is to use the keystroke shortcut, [Shift]+[Alt]+[D].

Get rid of the Mini Toolbar: Whenever you highlight a word or phrase in Word 2007, a mini toolbar of editing commands appears above and almost covering the highlighted text, which can be annoying. The mini toolbar is a new feature of Word 2007/2010. Its purpose is to put the most commonly used editing commands close to where you need them. For some this is a time-saver; for others, it's a pain. Fortunately, you can turn off if it bothers you. To disable this feature, click the Office button, then Word Options (bottom right), and then Popular. Remove the checkmark from the box next to Show mini-bar on selection and click OK.

Do you have problems with Office 2007 that need solving? Let me know, and I'll try to include them in a future article. Send to ndemarte@verizon.net.

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