Most of the settings in MSWord are controlled by Word's data key in the registry. Deleting it can solve many problems in toolbars, title bar, menus, etc. This key often gets corrupt so deleting it can solve many problems (and Word generates a new one). So here we go:

HKEY-CURRENT-USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/Word/7.0 and delete the Data key.

You've probably noticed that Word creates actual hyperlinks (complete with blue text and underlining) as soon as you add a space after typing a Web address--a function of Word's "AutoFormat as you type" feature. And if you gritted your teeth in frustration the last time Word performed this little miracle of convenience, you're not alone. Here are two ways to control the underlining.

To turn off AutoFormat as you type:

1. Choose Tools/AutoCorrect, and select "AutoFormat as you type."

2. Deselect the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" check box in the Replace As You Type group.

3. Click OK.

To toggle underlining on a case-by-case basis:

1. As soon as Word underlines the URL, either select Edit/Undo or press Ctrl+Z to remove the underline.

2. If you want to reapply the AutoFormat underline, you can place your cursor at the end of a URL at any time and press the spacebar once.

What you have to do is change Word's default document template, Normal.dot, to use autohyphenation. Here's how:

1. Close all open documents.
   
2. Choose File + Open.
   
3. In the Files of Type list box, select Document Template.
   
4. Navigate to Word's Template folder (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\).
   
5. Double-click Normal to open it.
   
6. Choose Tools + Language + Hyphenation.
   
7. Select Automatically Hyphenate Document, make any other hyphenation settings you want, and click OK.
   
8. Press Ctrl+S to save the change to the template.
   
9. Choose File + Close.

From now on, whenever you create a new file using the Normal template (that is, the next time you click the New button), that file auto-hyphenates.

Normally when you select text in Word, the shaded selection will jump ahead to grab entire words--great if you intended to select entire words, but a hassle if you're trying to select specific characters. There's a couple of ways to short-circuit this feature. One method is to press and hold the Alt key as you select text. When you use the Alt key to select text, however, it turns on a special Word feature that lets you select a square range of text--handy if you want to grab a column of numbers, not so handy if you want to select a block of text (unless you start in the extreme left-hand margin).

To select text character-by-character in the traditional way--that is, starting at one point and wrapping around entire lines to the ending selection--press Ctrl-Shift as you drag the mouse. Finally, if you want to permanently turn off automatic word selection, select Tools/Options/Edit and uncheck the box in front of "When selecting, automatically select entire word"

Word's AutoRecover feature helps protect you from data loss by saving information about the current document and template. If you experience a power outage or system failure, Word tries to restore unsaved data and template changes the next time you run the program. By default, Word automatically saves your document for AutoRecovery every 10 minutes. If you don't want Word to interrupt your work this often, you can easily increase the interval between automatic saves.

To do so, choose Tools/Options from the menu bar and click on the Save tab. In the Save Options panel, enter the desired AutoRecover frequency in the "Save AutoRecover Info Every..." text box". You can enter a value from 1 to 120 minutes. If you want to turn off the feature altogether, just clear the corresponding check box. When you've finished, click OK.

You type as black letters on a white background, right? That's how nearly everyone does it. But you can be different, if you like. You can change to typing white on a blue background.

1. Open Tools, Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Click a checkmark into the Blue background, white text box.
4. Click OK.

CASE STUDY 1.

If you're like me, you prefer using UPPERCASE LETTERS for your titles or subtitles. Or maybe you like to use capital letters for EMPHASIS. Either way, you probably find the conventional ways of typing in uppercase annoying. Holding down the Shift key while you type? That's uncomfortable. Turning on Caps Lock? Sure, if you can remember to do that--and even then you always forget to turn it off, so yOU gET tEXT tHAT lOOKS lIKE tHIS.

Luckily, there's a better way to type text in uppercase:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+A to switch to uppercase.
2. Type your text. (Note that all the text you type will be in uppercase, whether or not you press Shift.)
3. When you're finished typing in uppercase, press Ctrl+Shift+A again.

Perhaps even more useful, to quickly turn existing text to uppercase:
1. Select the text.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+A.

Note that if you've typed uppercase text using Ctrl+Shift+A, you can "remove" the uppercase--that is, switch back to lowercase--by selecting the text and pressing Ctrl+Shift+A again. However, if you created the uppercase text by using the Shift or Caps Lock key, this method won't work. We'll show you how to handle that situation in the next tip.

CASE STUDY 2.

I just explained how to use the Ctrl+Shift+A shortcut to apply or remove uppercase to text, the same way you would apply or remove any other text attribute. But suppose you were unlucky enough to have applied uppercase by using the Shift or Caps Lock key: Does that mean you have to retype all your text--or worse yet, use the Word menu--if you now want it in lowercase? Of course not. Do the following instead:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Press Shift + F3. This key "cycles" you through three case options--UPPERCASE, lowercase, and Title Case--starting with the one AFTER the case of the selected text. So if you've selected uppercase text, press Shift + F3 once to change it to lowercase, again to convert it to title case, and once again to switch it back to uppercase.

If you don't mind using the Word menu, try this:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Choose Format + Change Case.
3. Choose the case you want and click OK.

CASE STUDY 3.

Let's review, shall we? (all good teachers do that). I showed you the keystroke shortcut for switching to and from uppercase text, and I showed you how to cycle through uppercase, lowercase, and title case. That should cover just about every kind of case issue you're liable to encounter.

Ahem. Aren't we forgetting a little thing called SMALL CAPS? Yes, small caps, those tiny uppercase letters that seem to drive people wild. Is there a way, you ask, to apply small caps to text without resorting to the dreaded Word menu? Sure:

1. Select the text you want to set in small caps.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+K.

   And yes, this works as a toggle, just like the uppercase shortcut previously discussed: Press Ctrl+Shift+K while typing to switch to small caps; press it again to turn off small caps.

Case dismissed

If you need to use foreign characters or other special symbols in your documents, the Character Map can make the process simple. This tool enables you to easily insert special characters into your document.

To add a symbol to your document:

1. Click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Character Map.

2. Make sure that the current font -- the name for the style of the characters on the page -- shows in the Font box. If the current font isn't showing, click the down arrow and click the font you need from the drop-down list.

3. Double-click the character that you need. The symbol appears in the Character to Copy box.

4. Click Copy to send the character to the Clipboard.

5. Click the Close button to close the Character Map.

6. In the document, click the place where you want the new symbol or character to appear.

7. Hold down the Ctrl key as you press the V key. The new character pops right into place. (Give it a second. Sometimes it's slow.)

Hint: The symbols in the Character Map are easier to see if you hold down the mouse button and move the pointer over them.

If you need to change to two or three columns in the middle of a document, that's just fine. Or changing back from multiple columns to one column is all right too. But you can't do either within a single "section." Word insists that each section stick to a particular number of columns. So when you want to make columns:

1. In the document, place the cursor just before the place you want the new column to start.
2. Choose Insert + Break.
3. In the Break dialog box, in the Section Breaks section, click Continue (unless you want this new column set up to start on a new page; then click Next Page).
4. Click OK.
5. Move the cursor into the part of the document that you want to have the new columns.
6. Choose Format + Columns.
7. In the Columns dialog box, specify the number of columns you want.
8. Click OK.

Now try typing some words to see how the new columns arrange them. You'll see that the words fill one column and then start appearing at the top of the following column.

Imagine for a moment that you're using MSWord to create a newsletter or a special report with snaking, newspaper-style columns. You finish an article or item somewhere in the middle of one column, and you want to start the next article or item on the top of the next column. How do you do it? Well, you COULD keep pressing the Enter key until the cursor moves to the top of the next column--but then you've added a whole bunch of blank lines to your document, which could cause problems if you change the length of any of the articles. A better way is to insert a column break, like so:

1. Choose Insert + Break.
2. In the Breaks dialog box, under Insert, select Column Break.
3. Click OK.

OR just press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (a whole lot easier, to be sure).

There are about 250 words on a typical double-spaced typed page. Wait a minute, "about?" This is the computer age. Let's get exact. Choose Tools + Word Count and you'll see the number of pages, words, paragraphs, lines, and characters in your document. Exactly. And if you don't want to count the entire document, just drag your mouse across some area to highlight it, and then use Tools + Word Count. This will only tally the details of that selected area.

Sometimes this weird behavior in Word is caused by the setting in Word's data folder in the registry. This is a folder you can delete and word will recreate it when you open Word. Try this: make sure word is closed,. back up your registry, and in Regedit go to … Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\(your number), and delete the "data" folder (this is where most of Word's individualized settings are stored and deleting it fixes many strange problems). Then open Word again. If this doesn't fix it, try reinstalling Word.

1. Select the text.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+D.

If you double-underline often, and you're as mouse-oriented as a cat, you may want to add the double-underline button to your Formatting toolbar, as follows:

1. Right-click any toolbar and choose Customize from the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Commands tab.
3. From the Categories list, select Format.
4. From the Commands list, find the Double Underline button and drag it into position on the Formatting toolbar.
5. Click OK.

To draw a straight line, type three dashes (-) and press Enter.
To draw a double line, type three equal signs (=) and press Enter.
To draw a heavy line, type three underscore lines (Shift + -), Enter.
To draw a squiggly wavy line, type three tildes (~) and press Enter.
To draw a triple line, type three pound signs (#) and press Enter.
To draw a dotted line, type three asterisks (*) and press Enter.

(Note that you have to type these characters at the START of a new line for these little tricks to work.)

Need to add a special something to a document--something that distinguishes you, the document's author, as a person of intelligence and fine breeding? Well, I've found that nothing indicates breeding like a drop cap--you know, one of those oversized first letters you see in the first paragraphs of chapters in your finer documents. And Word makes creating a drop cap easy, even if you live in a barn:

1. Select the first letter of a paragraph.
2. Choose Format + Drop Cap.
3. Specify the desired Position, Font, Height (in number of lines), and Distance from Text.
4. Click OK

There's a widely circulated rumor that says you can't edit a Word document while it's in Print Preview mode. I'm not sure about the origin of the rumor, but check out Print Preview mode for yourself.

Open a document that you can afford to mess around with, and then choose Print Preview (click the toolbar button, or choose File, Print Preview). Use the magnifying glass cursor to zoom in on the page. Now, click the Magnifier on the toolbar (it looks like a small magnifying glass). At this point, you can add, delete, copy, and paste text.

I'm not suggesting that you should use Print Preview mode for editing; I'm only suggesting that you should be careful what you press when you're in Print Preview. You could lose something.

I know very little about the Excel program, but I once had to do this so I'm sharing it with you:

If you need to type a lot of text into a single cell, you can control the width of your text by typing Alt-Enter to insert a carriage return. When you need to use a Tab, press Ctrl-Alt-Tab.

When you type into a cell, you can press Alt-Enter to add a Carriage Return.

While we're in Excel, how about this trick for inserting the date and time.

One way is to click a cell and enter the date by typing:

=TODAY()

and press Enter. If you're in too much of a hurry for all that typing, try pressing Ctrl-; (semicolon) to insert the time, and Ctrl-: (colon) to insert the date. The inserted information will display using the cell's current format.

Someone asked me how to use the Extend command to help you select text more efficiently. I don't use it (I seem to get along quite well with my mousey), but here goes.

To use Extend, double-click the EXT button at the bottom of the Word window--it's grayed out, but it will work. With Extend active, you can select text using the arrow keys--hands off (you don't have to hold down any keys). When you're finished with Extend, turn it off by pressing Esc.

Dummies points out an extension of Extend, if I may put it that way. If you double-click EXT and then open Find (Ctrl-F) and type in a word you want to search for, EXT will select all the text between the current cursor position and the word located by Find. Don't ya just love it?

You are working in one section of a Word document, have to scroll do another section pages away, enter something or delete something, and want to quickly return to where you were preciously working. No sweat; here's the trick:

Scroll to that new section, (enter/delete whatever), and click Shift + F5. Back you go to the earlier section you were working on. What's more helpful is that you can keep going back and forth to both sections this way, as long as you don't exceed three moves in any one section.

If you want to jump all over the document to different places I use a simple method of putting in a code like place001, place002 etc. and then use Find. There are other ways but I find these two the most useful. Some use a Windows/Split, and then arrange the split to suit you. What I'm doing now is the "Shift + F5" method. Can't you tell?

Following these quick steps makes writing your next term paper much easier:

1. Position the toothpick cursor in your document where you want the footnote to be referenced.

2. Choose the Insert, Footnote command.

3. Choose Footnote.

4. Click OK.

5. Type your footnote.

6. Move your cursor back to your original text and continue writing.

So much has been made of the ease with which it lets you copy formatting from one selection of text to other text in your document. But you hardly ever hear that Fast Format also works BETWEEN documents--that is, you can use it to copy formatting from one document to another. Here's how it works:

1. In the document that contains the formatting you want to copy, select the formatted text.
2. Click Format Painter (OR, if you want to copy the formatting to more than one area of the other document, double-click the Format Painter); format painter looks like a paint brush in the tool bar.
3. Switch to the document containing the text you want to format.
4. Select the text you want to format. (If you double-clicked the Format Painter in Step 2, you can continue to copy the formatting by selecting additional sections of text.)

A work saver, make no mistake about it.

You look at a page of text the way your mom used to look at a room full of furniture: You're always wondering if one or another bit of text wouldn't look better someplace else or decorated a different way. The problem is that you're kind of limited to moving text to another location within the lines or paragraphs of your document--unless you put the text into a frame.

.Here's the fastest way to get the job done:

1. Right-click any toolbar.
2. Choose Forms from the shortcut menu; the Forms toolbar appears. (Why "Forms"? Don't worry--you'll soon see.)
3. Select the text you want to put in a frame.
4. Click the Insert Frame button.

Now your text is in a frame, and you can move it anywhere, position it relative to the margins or edges of your page, and format it in ways only a frame allows.

If you'd like to stop all those grammar errors that get tagged as your write, why not just change the rules? If you're getting grammar errors where you think there should be none, your grammar checker may well be set to follow more stringent rules than necessary. For example, if it tags contractions such as "we're," "they're," etc., you can make some simple setup changes to put a stop to those tags.

Choose Tools, Options, and when the Options dialog box opens, click the Grammar tab. If the Writing Style box is set to Strictly or Business Writing, choose For Casual Writing instead.

Now click Customize Settings and select those items that you want the grammar checker to tag. Click OK to save your changes, and when you get back to the Options dialog box, click OK to close it.

To create a hanging indent at the first existing tab stop, press Ctrl+T.

You can press Ctrl+T again to indent the hanging indent to the next tab stop and the next and the next and so on.

To undo the hanging indent, one tab stop at a time, press Ctrl+Shift+T.

Suppose that you want a hanging indent to hang from somewhere other than your tab stops. What do you do then? It's simple; do this:

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to hang.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Paragraph from the shortcut menu.
3. Click the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. Under Indentation, set Special to Hanging.
5. Set By to the hanging distance--the distance you want all but the first line indented.
6. Set Left to the negative of By.
7. Click OK.

When you place a header or footer into a Word document, the header or footer applies to the entire document--unless you separate the document into sections, in which case you can use a different header and footer for each section.

Open a blank Word document and choose View, Header and Footer. Insert something into the header. Now, press Enter until you get to a new page. Choose File, Print Preview. If you zoom in, you'll see that the header appears on both pages.

Now, go back to Page 1, about halfway down the page. Choose Insert, Break. When the Break dialog box appears, select Continuous and then click OK.

Click in the new section and choose View, Header and Footer. Enter your new header (or footer) text. Make sure the Same As Previous button is NOT selected (it's the fourth button from the left in the Header and Footer floating toolbar). Click Close, and your new header will take effect. To view the headers, choose File, Print Preview and zoom in if necessary.

Printing the header/footer on the first page of a document and not on subsequent pages:

1. Choose File + Page Setup.
2. Click the Layout tab.
   
3. Under Headers and Footers, click Different First Page to put a check mark there.
   
4. Click OK.
   
5. Go to first page of your document.
   
6. Choose View + Header and Footer.
   
7. Create your header as usual.
   
8. Click Close.

The header you just created appears on the first page and on no other pages of this document.

You know that Word maintains a history file of recent documents that you can access that from the File menu. If you want to delete a single document from prying eyes, hold Ctrl + Alt and press the hyphen key (don't confuse this with the minus key to the right of the number pad). The mouse pointer will change to a minus sign, then use the File menu to display the history list and click on the single file you want deleted.

On your keyboard there is a key that says "Insert". This key is usually above the "Delete" key, and to the right of the "Enter" key. If you press this key several times while you are in Word, you will notice that on the bottom of your screen three letters "OVR" will become dark and then light again. When the letters "OVR" are darkened, you are in Overwrite mode. Whatever you type will replace what is already there. Press the "Insert" key again, and the "OVR" will become gray. Now typing will insert your new text, and move the existing text over.

Sure, you've justified paragraphs. But have you ever tried to justify a one-line paragraph? It doesn't work, does it? The reason is that the justification command is designed to justify all but the last line of a paragraph. And if the paragraph is just one line long, well, that line is the last line.

So to get Word to justify a one-line paragraph, you have to TRICK it into thinking that line is, in fact, NOT the last line in the paragraph. We figured out a way to do this, as follows:

1. Press Ctrl+J (to use justified text).
2. Type the line of text you wish to justify.
3. Put the insertion point at the end of the line and press Shift + Enter.

Amazing--Word justifies the line. That's because Shift + Enter inserts a non-paragraph-ending return (also called a "soft" return). As far as Word knows, that line is NOT the last line in the paragraph.