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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 – Permalink –

Grammar Rules!

Could Of or Could Have?

This web site sells a grammar and spell checker, but they also have a compendium of rules for free.

"Looking for a specific rule to help you in your writing? Trying to decide between two similar words? A grammar checker helps you, but does not tell you why. Grammar checkers also miss many errors, especially those having to do with names, punctuation, sounds, and style.

Some of you may have a full grammar textbook stored on your disk somewhere, but it is a nuisance to access and use.

Grammar Slammer takes care of both problems in an easy-to-use format. Grammar Slammer contains the rules and tips you need to write your best and make yourself clear. Grammar Slammer uses the familiar Web Page format to make it easy to find what you are looking for. It even has an easy-to-use glossary to help with those grammatical terms you can't remember. It will truly Slam your Grammar Agony!"

Grammer Slammer

(Could of does not exist. Neither do should of, will of, or would of as verbs.)

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Labels: Reference

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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Thursday, May 21, 2009 – Permalink –

Styles not Applied to All Text

Word makes judgments

When text is selected, Word must examine the styles that have been applied and determine which to keep and which to overwrite.

Type the following text:

This line will test how styles and formatting work in Word.

Select all the text, and then apply italic formatting.

Select all the text, and then apply a style such as Heading 1.

You notice that italic formatting is not retained.

Select all the text, apply the Normal style, and then remove the italic formatting.

Select "work in Word" in the text, and then apply the italic formatting.

Select all the text, and then apply the Heading 1 style.
You notice that the italic formatting is retained.
'This behavior occurs because Word uses a specific rule to determine whether to apply a style to selected text. According to this rule, Word applies a style depending on the percentage of the selected text that already has formatting applied. For example, if you already applied formatting to less than 50 percent of the selected text, this formatting is retained when you apply a style. If the selected text includes multiple paragraphs, Word first calculates the percentage of text that is formatted in the first paragraph. Then, it examines the paragraphs in the same range. If the formatting that is applied to the text in the paragraphs that follow the first paragraph differs from most of the formatting in the first paragraph, Word does not apply the style to the following paragraphs. Therefore, the formatting is retained in these paragraphs."
Support.Microsoft.com:
A style is not applied to all the selected text in Word

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Labels: Formatting

<Doug Klippert@ 3:24 AM

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Saturday, May 09, 2009 – Permalink –

Custom Properties

Use your own

If you look at Properties on the File menu, you will see a number of entries. You can also create your own custom properties.

Click the Custom tab and add what you want.

To insert your own properties in a document, use Insert>Fields

Choose Document Information in the list of Categories

In the list of Field Names, choose DocProperty

Click the Field Codes button

Add the property name to the Field

Click OK

Click OK. Word to inserts the value.

Here's the "click path" for 2007:

Also: Office-Watch.com:
Creating word custom doc properties from code

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Labels: Documents, Formatting, General, Reference, Tips

<Doug Klippert@ 3:45 AM

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009 – Permalink –

Who was that font I saw you with last night?

That was no font, that was my typeface

You can find the Fonts supplied with some Microsoft products
Select a product name from the list to get a list of fonts supplied with that product.

Microsoft's Typography is an interesting site to poke around in.

Here are some books I use for reference material:

Words into Type
by Marjorie E. Skillin, Robert Malcolm Gay ISBN 0139642625

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works

by Erik Spiekermann, E.M Ginger ISBN 0201703394

The Elements of Typographic Style

by Robert Bringhurst ISBN 0881791326

A font can be defined as a collection of characters with the same style and size. A typeface is the design of the characters regardless of size or style. The terms are used interchangeably today.

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Labels: Fonts

<Doug Klippert@ 3:13 AM

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Friday, May 01, 2009 – Permalink –

Vertical Selection with ALT

Old trick

This trick has been around for awhile, but it might be forgotten as new information in the right ear shoves old knowledge out the left.^*

If you hold down the ALT key while selecting in a Word document, you can select a block. This could be a vertical area, such as the prefixes of a list.

The selection can then be formatted or deleted.

^*Also see Michael Feldman's "Something I Said: "Innuendo and Out the Other""

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Labels: Shortcuts, Tips

<Doug Klippert@ 3:25 AM

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