A few months ago J. Carlton Collins, wrote an article in the Journal of Accountancy about adding check marks to a Word document. He was writing in response to a question about getting a decent looking check mark in Word and one suggestion was to use copypastecharacter.com to accomplish that. That appears to work but you probably don’t have to go outside Word to find what you need. Here’s another way to get decent checkmarks. This works in Windows, but some symbols will not be visible until you have the font installed (OpenSymbol, Wingdings, Symbola).
Other Checks
You don't have to take special steps and use Flash Player to get a good check mark in Word. Symbol is not the only symbol font in Word. After you "Insert Symbol, More Symbols...", you can select a different font to use. One symbol font on my system that has decent check marks is OpenSymbol. The check mark can be found near the bottom of the list, along with an X, and a version with both symbols in a box.. oh, and an empty box. And some alternate checks.
In my 2007 version of Word there are several other symbol fonts, and they are easy to find since they are at the bottom of the font list. There is Wingdings, Wingdings 2, and Wingdings 3, all from Microsoft. Wingdings has the same set of check characters as OpenSymbol.
In order to get a list of symbol fonts on your own system, using Windows Explorer and open C:\Windows\Fonts. The list of fonts is normally displayed with several columns showing various characteristics of the fonts. Two characteristics are Category and Designed for. Click on the header to sort by Category, and then scroll down to the list of Symbol/Pictograph. Not all designers set these characteristics, so there may be others (like Symbola) you can use.
If you don't have many, you could also search the web for Symbol fonts and find some that would be useful to you. Of course, that sounds easy, but most sites only display some of the alphabetic characters which may or may not include symbols so you may not be able to see what symbols are available until you download and install.
Word Remembers
But wait!! There's more. Once you use a symbol, Word puts it in the list of recently used symbols so you probably won't have to search for it again. Some of them are shown in the main Word screen when you click Symbol. Others are shown at the bottom of the More Symbols... dialog box under Recently used symbols. How many? I'm not sure. At first I only saw about a dozen but as you widen the window you can see others. I counted 36 that I've used.
Embedding
One other issue that you may want to consider, whether or not you use symbols, is how your font will be viewed by a recipient of your document. If they don't have the font on their system they may see garbage. In order to embed (or include the font) in your document, select Word Options and Embed fonts under Save.
The more you know about how Microsoft Word works the less you will have to take drastic measures to get something to work.
]]>If you are not familiar with OpenOffice, it is a free office suite that is developed as open source software. It includes editor, spreadsheet, database, and other programs. Although I have had problems with it, most of the problems have to do with editing or importing Word documents. Files created in OpenOffice are reliable.
The name of the editor in OpenOffice is Writer, and one of the things that Writer doesn't really have are themes, at least not in those terms. (Writer actually does have what are referred to as themes, but they refer to collection of graphics which is different from Word themes I'm discussing here.) In Word you can create a document and by using styles associated with the selected theme you can make sure the design is consistent throughout, without having to change a lot of fonts and colors. You could also create a document and then select an alternate theme and totally change the design of the document (colors, fonts, etc). While OpenOffice Writer doesn't have themes, you can actually do much the same thing in OpenOffice.
Demonstrating the OpenOffice feature will require some definitions. Three terms are used in describing the design of a document. Since they are inter-related, discussing document design tends to have some fuzziness. The three terms are themes, styles (or stylesheets), and templates.
While OpenOffice Writer doesn't have themes, by setting all of the styles in the document and then saving as a template, you can store the styles for other documents. When you create a document based on the template, you can use the styles associated with it.
The steps required to create such a template are quite elementary. Create a Writer document and modify the styles to your tastes and save as a template. Maybe change or add color to the headings, or select a different body font. You can add items that you want defined in the template to see how they look and then delete them if you don't want them to appear in a new document. Styles will still be saved with the template.
The traditional use of templates is to have a starting point for a document. You may have templates for memos, letters, flyers, etc. The second use is to have only the document styles (quasi-themes) available. You might want to coordinate the design of the company, have separate designs fordifferent document types. Heck, you might be doing work for several different companies.
Not only can you create these quasi-themes in OpenOffice Writer, you can also convert them from Word files. This is one way to do it in an orderly manner. Say you've created a custom theme in Word and now want to use it in Writer.
1 First, open Word and create a Word document
2 Add text and format. Add something for each style being used and format it accordingly. You could use a standard format that includes all common styles. A good beginning is to copy this text into the document. Some are paragraph styles and some are text styles.
Title
Subtitle
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Heading 4
Heading 5
Heading 6
Normal
List Paragraph
No Spacing
Subtle Emphasis
Emphasis
Intense Emphasis
Strong
Quote
Intense Quote
Subtle Reference
Intense Reference
Book Title
[Insert Table of Contents]
3 Then for each line, mark and format for that particular style. A sample of the result is shown here. Optionally save the file as a docx file.
4 Third, save the file as an OpenOffice document (.odt) file in Word and close it.
5 Finally, open the file in OpenOffice Writer, delete all of the text, and save as an OpenOffice Template (.ott).
Word has a collection of themes from which you could create additional templates in Writer. I would assume that you have to have legal copies of Word that allows you to use the files but you will also need to be careful not to violate copyright laws related to that use.
Note: You can't just open a document in Word set the theme and save to odt. Only the styles in use are saved. Also, don't just change formatting and colors of text. Modifications must be to the styles.
Tip: Save all of your templates in the same place, a location that you can remember and won't be deleted. One good choice is to save in your My Documents folder, or a Shared Documents folder.
Now you can create new documents using that template. In OpenOffice, create a new file based on a template you select. In Writer, create the file by going to File > New > Templates and Documents and then select the template to use. The OpenOffice interface also has an option to create a document based on templates.
There is also an extension for OpenOffice that is invaluable for using templates. Template Changer adds two items to the File menu. These items allow you to assign a template to the currently open document, or to a folder of documents.
If you will have many such templates you may want to add them to the OpenOffice Template library, or "My Templates." In OpenOffice Writer select File > Templates > Organize. Select My Templates and select the option under Commands to Import Template. Navigate to the template and select it. When you double click on "My Templates" all of the imported templates will then be shown.
You can also set the default template here as well by selecting the template and setting it as the default from the Commands. You might want to set the the default template for several reasons, including setting it to match the style names with Word or just to add color to OpenOffice documents.
As I just mentioned you create files by selecting the template when you create the document. Save will prompt for a new filename for that document. If you want to edit the template itself instead of creating a document based on the template, right click the template name in the Template Organizer and select Edit. There are other ways to get to it, but this one displays all templates in the library.
]]>If you believe the endorsements of others I'm an expert in Access and Excel. I certainly don't know everything about either program, but compared to others, I’ve probably better harnessed the power of those programs than most. I suspect I could probably be considered an expert in Word too, although that expertise may not be as understandable. Employers and evaluators probably consider expertise in Microsoft Word as the ability to do basic formatting of Word documents since there are many that don’t know how to do that. Although basic formatting is really nothing to brag about, it may be all they really need. If people really knew what you can do with Word they might be able to see the different levels of expertise that might be possible.
As I evaluate the documents of others, I see the sloppiness of others in formatting Word documents. Many of the documents I see use indents when they should set margins correctly, use multiple generic tabs instead of setting up the tabs they need, and even use spacing to arrange columns. With this inconsistent use of formatting I can see how they struggle to get documents to look right. It's true, the document may look okay, but there are proper ways to set up and use tabs, indents, margins, and when you learn to use them, they are much more efficient. There are rules behind the formatting options provided by Microsoft, and using those rules is one way to keep document formatting organized.
Being organized is one of my characteristics and one way I do that is by using the features provided by a software package such as Microsoft Word. With Word's outlining you can really stay organized. Organized outlining helps you create longer documents without being confused by all the details. Word outlining helps by providing levels of details, and if the outlining is linked to Microsoft styles the aesthetics are more appealing as well.
Outlining is not the same as multi-level lists. Multi-level lists are ordered lists with multiple levels. Depending on the options selected, you can list items numerically and, using tabs you can indent and add levels of detail with different numbering schemes. Legal documents (like the Internal Revenue Code I’ve been studying) are quite often presented with such lists.
The option to create a multi-level list is available from the Paragraph panel. One listing format is shown here. Incidentally, you can also create multi-level lists that also include outlining styles and levels.
Document Outlining, instead, is guided by the styles/outline level being selected. This type of outlining can be seen in most textbooks, with chapters, section heads, subsections, etc., Each level is characterized by a change in font formatting rather than numerical indicators. Using outlining in this way helps the reader to follow the discussions in the text. This outlining can also help a writer organize his thoughts as he presents the content to the reader.
Document Outlining is actually relatively easy to implement. Common built-in styles in Word have outline levels built into the style. The style names that contain outlining naturally are Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. In conjunction with these styles, I usually use the Title and Subtitle styles for the same document although they do not have outline level settings.
Some of the outlining styles show up automatically in the styles panel.
You may not be able to see all of the built-in outlining styles by default. You can see a more complete list of the outlining styles by selecting the Styles expanding pop-up at the bottom right of the Styles menu. You can also use Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S to open the same menu.
Even then, some of the outlining styles may not be shown if have not used them. To change that you can go to Manage Styles > Recommend and change the option of Hide until used to Show for the styles you want to see every time.
I don’t use this personally. Instead I use keyboard shortcuts to change levels for a paragraph. You do this with the Alt-shift and Arrow key combinations. If I want to change a Heading 2 to a Heading 1, I just press Alt-shift-left arrow when I am in that heading. Alt-shift-right arrow moves heading in the other direction.
One of the best features of Word's outlining feature is the Document Map. The Document Map shows the headings in a panel to the left of the document. To show the map, go to the View menu and check the Document Map box.
The map shows the headings in an indented list and with that map you can see what items are subheadings of a subject. By clicking on one of the headings there you can also go to that point in the document.
Each heading that has subheadings has an expanding icon to the left, with [+] or [-] depending on whether it has been expanded or not. By collapsing the subheading you can show only the main headings in the map. By default, Word shows all headings in the Document Map. If at one time you want to quickly see only a certain number of levels you can specify the number of levels by going to outline view and selecting the number of levels. By selecting Level 3, levels 1 through 3 will be shown by default. Then switch back to Document View. You can still use the Document Map to expand or collapse the levels.
Speaking of outline view, there are a few features there that you can use to re-organize a document.
In Outline View you can see how the levels and text are organized. For a better overview of the document you can select the number of levels to show, or expand/collapse individual levels by double-clicking on the circled + sign, much like in the Document Map.
The Document Map is usually all I use, but Outline View will also let you move sections up or down in the document. Simply select the header and drag it up or down. Be careful to put it in front of a header with the same level. You can also promote or demote a section in the document by dragging the + sign to the left or right. Unless you’ve marked a specific area, this promotion affects every level in the section. For example, if I promote from Heading 2 to Heading 1, the subheadings are also moved, i.e. from Heading 3 to Heading 2. That’s something you can’t do in Document View.
When using the styles to do this outlining, keep in mind that the outline level is a setting in the style being used. To see what outlining level is associated with any style, select formatting > paragraph > indents/spacing and change the Outline Level. Heading 1 is Outline level 1. Though the standard headings can't be changed you can add other styles with the same level number if you have a good reason for that.
You actually may have to use this menu option to fix formatted or imported text. When formatting or importing text, some paragraph may have an outline level set so you may have to set it to Body Text so it doesn’t mess up your outlining.
Word has options to allow you to paste text as formatted, unformatted, paste as plain text, and other options depending on the source. You can also set the default (Word Options > Advanced > Cut, copy, and paste) for pasting from different sources. Unfortunately, Word apparently doesn’t have an option to clear outline level for imported text.
Another reason to use this option may be due to formatting automatically taking on outline levels, usually Level 1. Sometimes it doesn't show until the document has been saved/closed and then reopened. There may be some Word logic that dictates this, but I consider it a flaw in Word. If there is a lot of that going on, you can use Find/Replace. In Find/Replace, select More and select the formatting you want to find and/or replace.
If you are like me, you might consider using a shortcut button added to the Quick Access toolbar In fact, there is a menu icon that allows you to change the outline level without going through the Paragraph formatting dialog. You can set this up by going to Quick Access > More Commands > Show All and adding Outline Level.
If you use this method on text that has been formatted in other ways, make sure the results are what you expect. It may clear some of your formatting. The paragraph formatting dialog doesn’t have this side effect.
Other than the organization and consistent formatting of a document, using outlining has another perk. When your document is formatting with outlining, you can easily create a table of contents for it. Position your cursor where you want the Table of Contents to appear in the document and then from the References menu select the Table of Contents option in the first panel. You can then select one of the built-in Table of Contents or select Insert Table of Contents at the bottom and select the options you want.
You may notice one of the standard options in the menu is to “Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers” under Web preview. See my previous article on creating CPA study notes to see how I used that feature.
Yet another advantage of outlining is you can use it to create quick PowerPoint slides. You do this by importing slides from a Word document. In PowerPoint, in the Insert New Slide drop-down select Slides from Outline.
This creates a new slide for the Title style and each Level 1 heading, with subheading as subpoints on the slide. If your document is long with a lot of level 2 or higher headings you may want to reformat a copy of the document with Heading 1 styles to work with this PowerPoint feature. That’s one place where Outline View might come in handy.
Finally, a cool thing about using outlining and styles is that if text and heading is styled in a Word document you can quickly change the look of it by selecting a different theme from the Page Layout menu. You can either change the whole document theme, or just change the color or font theme.
]]>If you are intense about studying for the CPA exam, you have probably found times when you could be studying except that you don't have anything with you, except your cell phone. Waiting for a spouse to pick out clothes was a recent example of mine. Yes, you can view word documents and pdfs on most smartphones, but when you enlarge them enough to read you have to scroll left/right to read each line.
My solution to this was to create a web document of my study notes. As flexible HTML web documents (web pages) adjust to the width of the screen as you zoom word wrapping goes into effect as well. Also, it's difficult to navigate a long document, so some type of navigation would be helpful. That problem has a solution as well. Microsoft Word allows you to create a Table of Contents that is clickable when saved as a web page.
This example involves, of course, creating a document with your notes, but you can use the insights here to create web documents from other sources with the same features and advantages. Do be careful not to violate any copyright laws by republishing other people's intellectual property.
Here's the step-by-step guide you can use to create a portable set of your notes that you can view on your phone.
If haven't done so (as mentioned in a previous entry), import the CSO outline from the AICPA guide. You can do that by displaying the PDF and then copying and pasting the text into a Word document. Edit it to only have one section of the exam (i.e. REG) if you want. I did. Or you can use your own outline...
With the CSO imported, make everything Normal style. To do that Select all and click the Normal style on the home tab of the ribbon. That just sets everything to a default.
Next, create the outline with Heading formatting. What that means is for each item in the outline, change the style to the appropriate heading style. One way to do this is, for each outline item put cursor somewhere in the line with text you want to style and then click on the heading you want. For example,
As you move through the outline, select the appropriate style for that level. It's a little tedious but something you may be able to manage in less than 10 minutes.
The shortcut version of this uses the Alt-Shift-Arrow keys. When you are on a paragraph, use the left arrow to increase the heading priority, or right arrow to decrease the heading priority. Using this method allows you to do everything from the keyboard.
You may notice that lines are double spaced so that each heading is followed by a blank line (previously formatted as Normal). That is where you can add your own notes in Word, creating new headings if desired. Also, note that pressing enter after an outline heading defaults to setting the next line to Normal.
After you've added some notes, you can create a table of contents that enables you to navigate your document. Word has a convenient tool to enable you to create a full TOC in a couple of minutes. Go to the References tab of the Word ribbon, click the Table of Contents button and select Insert Table of Contents. In the menu, select the number of levels and make sure "Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers" is checked under the Web Preview.
If you wish, select the number of levels to show. I didn't, but you can try using the default of 3 to begin with. When you are done, click OK and Word creates the Table of Contents with an entry for each heading that you styled. In Word you can control click on an item and it will go to that area.
After you have finished doing all of the editing you want, save the document in Word format. That's the version you should use to edit with.
Afterwards, select Save As... and select style Web page (*.htm, *.html) and enter a new filename. I usually add the date to the end of the filename.
Finally, close the document or Exit Word. Don't edit the web document, or save to Word after saving web document. The next time you want to add content, open the Word formatted document and use the same save routine to create a revised web document.
When Word creates an HTML web document it creates a bunch of other files with it. All you need to use is the file with .htm or .html as the extension, or if extensions are not shown, the file with the HTML document icon (IE, Firefox, or whatever you use). After you have identified the file, put it on your cell phone someway. Here's a few ways to do that.
1) If you have email on your phone, email it to yourself and then save it to the phone
2) If not, you may be able to Bluetooth it
3) Saving to a Dropbox folder that is synced with your cell phone may be the easiest way
When the file is saved to the phone, you can read it with some kind of HTML viewer. DB HTML Viewer (part of Dropbox I think) works best. Moonreader doesn't do so good. Some browsers may also work.
]]>One of the most frustrating things for me is to be in a meeting or activity and be inundated with stuff I've already heard before. This is particularly true when it comes to computers and on Sunday morning at church. Similarly it is quite exciting when I do learn something in one of those scenarios.
In much of Office software other than VBA I've heard or read the same tips for years. Today I got a new tip that I hadn't heard of before. I have thought before how neat it would be if you could do that.
What I'm talking about is spike. Spike is a separate method of cut/paste that you can do in Microsoft Word. Instead of cutting though you append that section to the spike buffer. Mark something press Ctrl-F3 mark something else press Ctrl-F3 switch to another document (or whatever) and press Ctrl-Shift-F3 and everything shows up in the order that you "spiked" it.
This is one of the neatest features about Word 2007. It is also demonstrative of how there is very often very little functional difference between versions. At each upgrade you may add one or two features that you (or your staff) actual use; and there are many many other features that you don't know about don't use or don't need. That is of course except for the ability to read the files in the new version's file format.
The spike feature mentioned here is also available in Word 2000. The tip comes from today's Office Watch newsletter one worth subscribing to even if you already know it all.