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Overcoming Office 97 Annoyances1

Word 97 Annoyances

  1. "Word ate my fonts!"
  • Symptom – Typing along, backspace, and original font gets zapped!
  • Understanding Annoyance (UA) – ¶ mark at end of a paragraph is a container and stores paragraph formatting.
  • Workarounds (WAs)
  • Erase more carefully; turn on Show/Hide Icon (¶) while you work
  • Change default font: Format | Font | choose font | Default button
  • Use templates: Make selections of margins, fonts, fixed text like letterhead, etc.
  • To create template: File | Save As | Document Type as Document Template (*.dot)
  • To use template: File | New (must be from menu, not icon on toolbar) | choose template
  1. "Move that table!"
  • Symptom – Create a table right away and try to move it. You can’t!
  • UA – Unlike good ‘ol WordPerfect, there are no reveal codes to place cursor before; just the paragraph container at the end of the paragraph
  • WA – Select table, cut, press ENTER, paste
  1. "All gone!"
  • Symptom – Select text and press ENTER
  • UA – That’s Windoze folks!
  • WA – Undo – that’s Windoze also.
  1. "Is it cc:, pc: or just c:
  • Symptoms – type cc: and it becomes Cc:, backspace, make correct, backspace, etc.
  • UA – AutoCorrect thinks it is the beginning of a sentence and must capitalize the word.
  • WA – Tools | Autocorrect | Exceptions won’t work, unchecking Capitalize first letter of sentence will work but not recommended. Simply cursor ¬ to beginning of word, delete, make correction, and either cursor right or Ctrl + ® to beginning of next word. It’s still a pain.
  1. "Misbehaving Tab"
  • Symptom – Whole paragraph indents, not just the first line of the paragraph
  • UA – Option set in Tools | Options | Edit tab | Tabs and backspace set left indent
  • WA – Disable option or Ctrl+tab. Moving First Line Indent (top portion of "candy kiss" on ruler) least desirable alternative, but it also works.
  1. "Help the blind see, help the deaf hear, help the unformatted format!"
  • Symptom – Stuff appears as you type and you didn’t do it.
  • UA – Format As You Type is formatting as you type: indents, bulleting, numbered lists; 1/2 becomes ½ (well, that one I like).
  • WA – Disable the sucker: Format | Autoformat | Options | uncheck the ones you don’t want
  1. "Disappearing Tab Settings"
  • Symptom – You set the tabs, you want to change them, you select what you think is your columnar data, and your tabs are gone but not forgotten.
  • UA – You didn’t select the same data for which the tabs were set or you aren’t a mind reader
  • WA – Carefully select the exact set of data, no more and no less
  1. "Where did that come from?"
  • Symptom – Out of no where, your bullets are underlined or otherwise become strange
  • UA – It’s the end of ¶ marker again
  • WA – Turn on Show/Hide (¶), select just the ¶ symbol , and click on the offending format icon to toggle it
  1. "Where’d they go?"
  • Symptom – Vertical scroll bars disappear
  • UA – They are document specific
  • WA – Tools | Options | View | check Vertical Scroll Bars and Save document
  1. "My thesaurus speaketh!"
  • Symptom – Type "It’s not my fault, Bill", Tools | Language | Thesaurus
  • UA – No, but "it's like falling off a log."
  • WA – None, that’s the way it is, folks.
  1. "Line up, please!"
  • Symptom – Notice the number list doesn’t line up on the decimal point on 10 or higher.
  • UA – They are left justified, besides it’s oxymoronic to make ten brief points.
  • WA – Format | Bullets and Numbering | Customize | change Number Position from Left to Right

Excel 97 Annoyances

  1. "January Fractions!"
  • Symptom – Enter ‘1/4’ and it becomes ‘4-Jan.’
  • UA – Interpreted obviously as a date in the current year
  • WA – Enter 0 1/4
  1. "No Print Gridlines Default" Symptom – Create spreadsheet, Print Preview, and voilą, no gridlines
  • UA – Complete turnabout from previous versions
  • WAs
  • Long way: File | Page Setup | Sheet tab | check Gridlines or same from Print Preview
  • Short way: Create a template with gridlines enabled: File | Save As | choose Save As Type Template (*.xlt)
  • Real short way: Create shortcut to template just created and use it to open Excel
  1. "What was I thinking?"
  • Symptom – Developers take note: Spreadsheets by their very nature are poorly documented.
  • UA – Formulas typically use cell references ‘=B29*$C100, duh??’
  • WAs
  • Insert Comments
  • Use Range Names: =SubTtl*TaxRate
  • Use instruction page with hyperlinks
  • Use Ctrl+~ to display formulas, display row and column headings as well as gridlines on Sheet tab of Page Setup, and Print out a hard copy
  1. "AutoComplete, Grrr!"
  • Symptom – Start typing in a column and data from above starts to appear. Press ENTER to accept.
  • UA – Nice feature for data entry, but can be a pain for certain kinds of data
  • WA – Disable: Tools | Options | uncheck Enable AutoComplete for cell values. You can still use right-mouse click, Pick from List option
  1. "So what about Y2K?"
  • Symptom – Type in a date, such as 5/1/2000 or May 1, 2000, but only 5/1/00 displays.
  • UA –There is no Y2K date format
  • WA – Format | Cells | Custom | enter m/d/yyyy. Save as part of template. Also check out www.microsoft.com/y2k for latest service releases and patches.
  1. "My money won’t line up "
  • Symptom – Some numbers are flush right, and some numbers seem to have an extra space
  • UA – Different formatting was used. The default general lines up flush right, but truncates trailing zeroes. The Currency ($) icon actually formats in an accounting style, ($9,999.99), the last space for the parentheses. Format | Cells | Currency gives various formatting options
  • WA – Choose your flavor.

Remember: It’s not your fault!

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1Disclaimer - The Freehold Computer Training Center is not associated in any way with similarly titled books.
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