Help Screen

Issue: May 1996
Section: Word processing
Pages: 214


Contents

Stamp WinWord files for easier tracking
Move return addresses in WinWord 6.0
Make WordPerfect show its underscores
Create see-through frames in Word Pro 96
Stop shooting blanks
Selecting large text blocks in WinWord
Handy symbol shortcuts in Word 6 and 7


Stamp WinWord files for easier tracking

Q I work on a large network and often print long Word for Windows 6.0 documents that are stored in various places on the network. If I need to find a document later, even if I have a printed copy, it can be difficult. Is there a way I can print the path and file name on the last page?

-- Wayne Camp

A That's easy enough to do. When you get to the end of the document, position the cursor where you want the path and file name to appear, then select Insert-Field. In the Field dialogue box, select Document Information in the Categories list, and select FileName on the Field Names list.

In the Field Codes edit box, type a space and /p after "FILENAME". Click OK to insert your field into the document.

Move return addresses in WinWord 6.0

Q The preprinted envelopes my company uses have a graphic in their upper-left corner. When I use WinWord to print envelopes, my name and return address print on top of the graphic. Can I move the return address about an inch to the right and make this the default setting?

-- Mel Kuhlbander

A Yes, but you don't in fact make the adjustment in the Envelopes and Labels dialogue box. Instead, you adjust the indentation by modifying the Envelope Return style.

Select File-New, choose your letter template, then click OK. Select Format-Style. In the Style dialogue box, choose All Styles in the Lost list, highlight Envelope Return in the Styles list, and click Modify. In the Modify Style dialogue box, select Format-Paragraph.

Type your desired indentation in the Left edit box of the Paragraph dialogue box, or select it with the arrows. Click OK twice, then click Close.

Finish the job by selecting File-Save All. That will store your changes in the current template. From then on, whenever you use this template, your envelopes will print as you want them to.

One caution, though: the preview envelope in the Envelopes and Labels dialogue box won't show the indentation you specified. The printed envelope will be correct, however.

Make WordPerfect show its underscores

Q When I work in WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, something strange often happens. If I type the underscore character to draw a line, the underscore doesn't show on the screen, although it prints properly. This doesn't happen consistently, even within one document. Some lines show, others do not. I can see the embedded codes for the underlines when I select View-Reveal Codes, but they still do not always appear on the screen. This seems to happen whenever I'm viewing the document at any zoom level other than the standard 100 per cent. How can I fix this problem?

-- John Rebers

A You don't need glasses; you just need to upgrade to WordPerfect 6.1. The problem occurred in the initial release of version 6.0 on some monitors at some resolutions with some fonts. The upgrade fixes a number of the previous release's problems and offers a wealth of new features.

If you don't want to upgrade, you can fix the problem by switching to a standard 640 by 480, 16-colour video driver.

Create see-through frames in Word Pro 96

Q I recently upgraded from Ami Pro 3.1 to Word Pro 96 for Windows 3.1. In Ami Pro, I often made transparent frames to put a watermark on the page behind my text. I can't locate this feature anywhere in Word Pro, though. Surely Lotus has not removed transparent frames?

-- Radford Bean

A Not quite. Lotus moved a lot of things around in Word Pro, including the transparent frames feature. In fact, it's so hard to find, it's almost not there. Here's what to do:

1. Right-click the frame and select Frame Properties

2. Click the Colours and Lines tab in the Frame InfoBox

3. Click the Pattern box and choose None

That will convert this frame's background to no colour -- creating a transparent frame you can use as before.

To speed up this process for future frames, click the Style tab in the Info Box after you first set this up, and click the Create Style button. In the Create Style dialogue box, type Transparent in the Style name field, leave the Create in all divisions check box marked, and then click OK. This adds the new Transparent frame style to the current SmartMaster.

Don't forget to save the SmartMaster. In the Save As dialogue box, select Lotus Word Pro SmartMaster from the Save As Type drop-down list.

Now, you can easily add a transparent frame to any document created with the
current SmartMaster.

Stop shooting blanks

Q Often, when I create a one-page document in WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows, two pages print out. The first one prints just right, but the second page is blank. This seems like a waste of paper, and I'd like to figure out why it's happening.

-- Mike Twaddle

A This common question has an easy solution that applies to all word processors. You've probably caused blank lines to spill onto the second page by pressing <Enter> at the end of the text. Your program doesn't care that the lines are blank, so it prints out a blank page.

To stop this behaviour, press <Ctrl>+<End> before starting your print job.

If the cursor moves to page two, backspace until the cursor returns to page one. You can see the page number on the status line at the bottom of the document window.

After you do this, the program will print just the page you want.

Selecting large text blocks in WinWord

Q As I work in Word for Windows 6.0, I often need to select more than just a word or two for formatting. Normally I just click and drag the mouse over the test, but this is not a very efficient way to select whole sentences, paragraphs or even the whole document. Are there any good shortcuts to speed up this job?

-- Donald Goodman

A There are indeed several shortcuts for selecting portions of a document, as shown in the table on this page. Most of these shortcuts work in all versions of WinWord, from 2.0 to 7.0 for Windows 95.

With all these techniques, except for selecting the entire document, you can extend the selection one increment at a time (one sentence, one line or one paragraph) by continuing to hold down the left mouse button and dragging over the additional text.

In relation to the question posed by Bill Bryce regarding accessing AmiPro style sheets (February 1996): there is a better and easier way to display your own style sheets. By default, AmiPro uses the '_default.sty' as its default. Since AmiPro lists the style sheets in alphabetic order, the trick is to name your style sheets in such a way as they are grouped together. I would suggest starting style sheets with your initials and then the name -- for example, in my case 'TOFAX' or 'TOMEMO'.

Once this is done we can go ahead and change the default style sheet that AmiPro selects when a File-Open is done. To change the Default Style Sheet, from the menu choose Tools-User Setup. The following Dialogue Box will appear.

Now choose load and the following dialogue box will appear (the highlighted area contains 'tostyle.sty'). Scroll down and highlight the style sheet that you use the most and press OK.

Now when you choose File-New, your list of styles will be displayed. Another small trick is to name your most commonly-used Style Sheet in such a way so that it appears at the bottom of the list. In this way you can display up to eight of your own style sheets on screen without having to use the scroll bar.

I trust that this tip has been of value.

-- Tom Ottaviano

Handy symbol shortcuts in Word 6 and 7

It can often be tedious to type some of those symbols, which although they're inevitable in business correspondence, don't appear on the keyboard. Here's a list of symbols that you can get to very easily with keyboard shortcuts:

Copyright symbol © <Ctrl>+<Alt>+C

Trademark symbol ™ <Ctrl>+<Alt>+T

Registered trademark ® <Ctrl>+<Alt>+R

En dash - <Ctrl>+<Num keypad minus>

Em dash - <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Num keypad minus>

Ellipsis ... Ctrl>+<Alt>+.

Don't forget that Word is completely customisable. If you don't use these shortcuts, you can set them to something else. Just Select Tools-Customize to set shortcuts.


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