Session 3 - More Advanced Word tips and tricks

Building Blocks

Quick Parts

Building Blocks are part of Quick Parts, which you will find on the Insert ribbon.

Quick parts can be used to store snippets of text or even text/images that are used regularly. An example could be a signature line.

I actually have a signature that I did with black pen on white paper, scanned, and cleaned up. In Word, I removed the background to make it transparent. I then saved it out as a PNG file so it can be used in lots of applications, including acrobat reader.

The following example was created by taking a photo of my signature on white paper and using my phone. I then emailed it to myself to get it quickly on to the computer, I had to clean it up a bit using Pixlr as my camera picked up shadows etc. I removed the background and saved it as PNG

In Word, I inserted it and added my titles and other details, just as I would if I had signed it.

Image inserted with appropriate text

Use Select All to select the signature

Choose Add selection to Quick Parts Gallery

Give it a name and description

And here it is now available.

If you want items in your Quick Parts to be available for future documents, you need to make sure that you save the Building Blocks that are a part of the current template. When I close this document, Word will prompt me to see if I would like to save it.

Class Activity 1

Try to create a signature or Signature block for reuse in Word.

There are also lots of built-in Building Blocks that you can add. Have a look in the Building Blocks Organiser to see the different categories of Building Blocks.

Text Boxes

If you are looking for some quick fancy text boxes, there are lots to choose from. You can also create your own and save it to the text box gallery. If you break one down, you will see that it is just made up of shapes of different colours and layered.

Here is one that I created and saved to the gallery.

Class Activity 2

Add a text box to a document.

Class Activity 3

Create a text box and save it to the text box gallery.

Fields

Fields can be used to place some standard information into your document. If things change, they can be easily updated. It includes things like page numbers, date, author and filename. For quality documents or policies, it can be useful to add some of this information into the footer of a template or document.

Review

Comments

Comments are used during a review when there are multiple people who will collaborate on a document. One person may create the document and then allow a few other people to review the document and suggest changes.

You can add comments using the New Comment button. You can also use Ink Comments, which allow you to write a comment freehand using the mouse or a stylus if you have one.

When you load the document, you can view all of the comments and make any changes that were suggested,

Tracking

Tracking is very similar to comments - when multiple people are needed to collaborate on a document - such as an editor for a book publisher - the main person can review the document and decide which changes they may want to keep and discard those that they don't want to keep.

You need to turn tracking on before you start to make changes or review the document.

Once tracking has been turned on, any changes are tracked and the main user can review the changes and decide whether they want to keep them or not.

Text inserted and text deleted - note the markup

Adding inked comments - comments, whether inked or types, can help explain why  the changes were made

Inking Tools

Inking tools include highlighter pens and hand drawn doodles

Use the Review panel to see who made the changes and then the buttons to accept or reject the changes.

Class Activity 4

Use the document 2019 Long Document_Styled_Reviewed.docx from the shared folder.

Use the review tab to see comments and changes that have been recommended for this document. Accept those that you think are OK and reject them if not. Also note the comments that have been included.

Compare (and Combine)

This is useful if you wish to compare two versions of the same document - this will highlight any differences there may be. A new document will be created highlighting the differences. Great if you have different versions stored and you lose track of what changes have been made along the way.

I have made some changes to a version of  2019 Long Document. I can use this to find out what those changes are.

The compare document is opened up in Review mode - you can review the changes in the document and decide whether you want to accept or reject the changes.

Class Activity 5

Use 2019 Long Document from last week and the
2019 Long Document_Styled_Reviewed_Changed.docx from this week and compare the two documents.

Class Activity 6

Use 2019 Long Document from last week and the
2019 Long Document_Styled_Reviewed_Changed.docx from this week and combine the two documents.

Insert Links

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are mainly used to link to web pages, but you can also link to an email address as well as a program.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are used to link to a particular spot in a document. To create a bookmark, you need to go to where you want the bookmark and highlight the text or spot to mark it. You create the bookmark by giving the area a name.

Once you have created your bookmark, you can easily navigate to it by opening up the Bookmarks dialog, select the bookmark name and click on Go To or you can double-click the bookmark name.

Cross-reference

Cross-referencing allows you to refer to tables or figures that may be in your document. Cross references will look like Hyperlinks when inserted into a document.

Table of Contents

While we are looking at linking, this is an opportune time to point out that you can use a table of contents as hyperlinks to navigate through your document.

You will find Table of Contents under the References TAB. To get the dialog box, select Custom Table of Contents from the table of contents drop down.

Creating a Macro

Recording a Macro is a simple way of being able to automate things in your document. It could be as simple as adding a table or even adding a logo and address details. It could also be adding a building block....

Start by adding the Developer tab.

In the developer tab, start the record.

Assign a name, decide whether you want all new documents to access this, and click OK

Perform the tasks that you want to record.

When complete, click on the stop record button at the bottom of the screen.

You can then run your Macro.

N.B. You can also assign Macros to your toolbars. To do this, select Button under Assign To.

This Macro will appear on the Quick Access Toolbar.

Class Activity 7

Try creating a macro that will add your signature line to a document and then print.

Opening PDF Files

You can use Word to open and edit PDF files, While it is not perfect, you can view the document and make changes, so long as the document is not too complicated.

Here is a playlist of some Word tutorial videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_iwD7O7FG7iZ_Ammd16DtJyIyyGEHKga

Office 365 - Word

Office 365 is the online version of Office, which you all have access to as a student of Chisholm. It provides cloud storage and easy collaboration with classmates or colleagues.

Simplified Ribbon

Sharing

You can also easily share files with Office 365