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Sunday, September 25, 2011 – Permalink –

Lables by Merging

Demos

As part of their series of demos, Microsoft has information on creating mailing labels from a database, or mailing list.

Create labels with mail merge

Here is another entry concerning some of the fine points.

More label info

Also, if you place a graphic in the first cell, it will be duplicated in each box.

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Labels: Documents, Formatting, Merge, Tables, Templates, Tips, Tutorials

<Doug Klippert@ 3:25 AM

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – Permalink –

Index Concordance

Order!

Creating a Table of Contents can be easy if you use Styles. Word will automatically insert a TOC when you place the insertion point and then use Insert>Reference Index and Tables and choose Table of Contents.
(2007 – Reference Tab>Table of Contents group)

An Index or Concordance can be more difficult.

In a larger document, you may want the reader to be able to locate key words. You could go through the whole document and mark each word you want included, but there is an easier way.

Make a list of the important words.

Create a two-column table in a new document.

In the first column, enter the word or phrase.

In the second column, enter the index entry
(If you need a sub-category, type the main entry followed by a colon (:) and then the sub category.)

Save the file.

When it comes time to create the Index, place the insertion point, go to Insert>Reference Index and Tables. Choose Index and then AutoMark. (2007 – Reference Tab>Index group) Browse to the location of your Index file. Word will now automatically use your list to mark the main document and insert an Index.

Also: Word for Word: An Index or a Concordance for Your Book?
Microsoft KB: How to create a table of contents and index with field codes in Word

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Labels: Documents, General, Lists, Reference, Tips, Tutorials

<Doug Klippert@ 3:40 AM

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Friday, September 16, 2011 – Permalink –

Legacy Files from 2007

Go back

Read this article closely. If you work in a situation where you need to work with legacy (pre-2007) files, it may be handy.

If you do most of your work in 2007, I wouldn't bother.

"When you use Windows Explorer or the desktop to create a new 2007 Microsoft Office file, a new Office file is created in an XML file format (.dox or .xlsx). For example, this behavior occurs when you right-click the desktop, you point to New, and then you click Microsoft Office Word Document. By default, files that you create in the 2007 Office system are in XML file formats.

This article is about how to create legacy Office files, such as .doc files, .xls files, .ppt files, or .mdb files in the 2007 Office system. You can create legacy Office files without opening any Office applications. To do this, you must modify some settings. The modified settings will apply to all the users who log on to the computer."

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Labels: Reference

<Doug Klippert@ 3:45 AM

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011 – Permalink –

Troubleshoot

Problem solvers

If you have trouble opening a Word document, or it is not working well, try these suggestions:

FIRST
Delete all of Word's temp files.

Go to Edit>Replace

Make sure to include all of your local drives in the search and that "include subfolders" is checked.

Search for:
*.tmp

Then delete all these temp files.

Word leaves shards of temp files wherever the document file was stored. Word's temp files start with a tilde (~), so in most cases you can delete: ~*.* SECOND

Use Edit>Find to locate Normal.DOT.

Rename it (Normal.OLD) or delete it. Word will create a new copy when it restarts.

The only caveat here is be careful that you don't have important macros stored in Normal.DOT. If you rename, you can recover them. THIRD
If that does not correct the problem, try this next step:

Go to Start>Run and type:
winword.exe /a
(Note that there is a space before the /a)

Then press ENTER. This starts Word without any add-ins, global templates, or Normal.DOT.
Look in Tools>Templates and Add-ins to see if there are any files that can be un-checked.

If you need even more help, go to:
Knowledge base: How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start Word or when you work in Word

How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word 2007, Word 2003, or Word 2002

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Labels: General, General2007 Tutorials Reference2010Tips, Reference, Troubleshoot

<Doug Klippert@ 3:21 AM

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011 – Permalink –

VBA, Named Arguments

An easier read

Use named arguments for cleaner VBA code.

Most likely, you use positional arguments when working with VBA functions. For instance, to create a message box, you probably use a statement that adheres to the following syntax:

MsgBox(prompt[, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])

When you work the MsgBox function this way, the order of the arguments can't be changed.

Therefore, if you want to skip an optional argument that's between two arguments you're defining, you need to include a blank argument, such as:

MsgBox "Hello World!", , "My Message Box"

Named arguments allow you to create more descriptive code and define arguments in any order you wish. To use named arguments, simply type the argument name, followed by :=, and then the argument value.

For instance, the previous statement can be rewritten as:

MsgBox Title:="My Message Box", _ Prompt:="Hello World!"

(To find out a function's named arguments, select the function in your code and press [F1].)

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Labels: VBA

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Thursday, September 08, 2011 – Permalink –

Word Math

An Add-in, of course

Microsoft has a downloadable add-in for Word called Microsoft Math.

"To use the add-in, open Word 2007, type Alt-= to create a RichEdit math object, type an equation or expression, and right-click on the equation to see options for solving and graphing within Word."

Math Add-in

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Labels: Addin, General, Reference, Tips

<Doug Klippert@ 3:54 AM

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Sunday, September 04, 2011 – Permalink –

Merge to more than one document

Custom content

In the Data Source, include a field for the type of letter the recipient requires.

In the Main merge document, enter IF fields, such as:

{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=1} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter1" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}
{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=2} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter2" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}

The curly brackets { } cannot be entered from the key board. Either use Insert>Field, or Ctrl+F9.

Word uses spaces in the If..Then..Else statement.

The last two quote marks "" are "empty" , so nothing will be entered.

Notice the \\ in the path statement. A path is not needed if the Main document is in the same folder as the letters.

To see the field codes, use Alt+F9 to toggle the view on and off.

Letters 1 and 2 can have completely different texts, formats and layouts. One can be an invitation to a sale, the other can be a dunning letter. (To carry over different formatting, leave out the \* MERGEFORMAT switch)

After setting up the main document for mail merging, insert all of the fields you want to merge.

Copy the individual fields and paste them in the correct locations in Letter 1 and 2.

Go back to the main document and erase all of the text and fields EXCEPT for the IF statements.

Letters 1 and 2 do not have to be set up a merge docs, or connected to a data source. Their text will be inserted in the Main document depending on the field type.

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Labels: Documents, Merge, Reference, Tips, Tutorials

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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