APC Australia - September 2019

superguide»60 Office tips

Word and Writer

SELECTTEXTQUICKLY

Double-clickawordoncetoselectit,

ortriple-clicktoselectanentire

paragraph.InWord,holdCtrlasyou

clicktoselectthesentence.Holddown

Altandclick and drag to select a block

oftext.

SUPER-SMARTSELECTIONS

There’sahandyoptionunderEditing

onWord’sHometabcalledSelect–

clickthisandyou’llseeanoptionto

‘SelectTextwithSimilarFormatting’,

whichenablesyoutoquicklyselectall

textwiththesamestyleasthecurrent

selection.Thefeatureisn’tavailablein

LibreOfficeWriter,butitisavailable

wheneditingdocumentsonlinein

GoogleDocs–positionyourcursor,

right-clickandchoose‘Selectall

matchingtext’,whichproduces

matchesbasedonfont,style and

colouraswellasstyles.

INCLUDEMISSPELLED

WORDSINSEARCHES

Whensearchingforaspecificword

usingthe‘FindandReplace’dialogbox,

youcanallowformisspellings–for

example,‘there’insteadof‘their’.In

Word,click‘More>>’andtickthe

‘SoundsLike(English)’boxtodoso.It’s

alsopossibletosearchforvariations

like‘went’and‘gone’whensearching

for‘go’bytickingthe‘Findallword

forms(English)’box,too.

InLibreOffice,tick‘Similarity

search’andthenclicktheSimilarities

boxtodefinethelevelsofdifferenceif

toofewor too many variations are

found.

REMOVEUNWANTEDCHARACTERS

YoucanalsoinstructWordtosearch

forso-calledspecialcharacterssuchas

manuallinebreaksortabcharacters

• placeyourcursorinthe‘Findwhat’
  boxbeforeclickingtheSpecial
  drop-downmenutoselectone.Similar
  optionscanbefoundinLibreOfficeby
  clickingthe‘Attributes...’button.

USEANEXCLUSIONDICTIONARY

Whenyourwordprocessorissetto

highlightso-calledmisspellings

(basicallyanywordnotinyour

dictionary),theremaybecertainwords

youwanttoflagupeveniftheyexist

inthedefaultdictionary.Todothisin

Word,pressWin-R,type%AppData%\

Microsoft\UProofandclickOK.

Right-clicktheEnglishexclusion

dictionaryfile–

ExcludeDictionaryEN0809.lex–and

choose‘Openwith’>‘Moreapps’,select

yourtexteditor(untick‘Alwaysuse

this app to open LEX files’) and click

OK.Nowsimplyaddeachwordyou

wanttoexcludeonseparatelines,save

thefileandtheyshouldbeflaggedin

Wordgoingforward.

ThingsareeveneasierinLibreOffice

Writer:gotoTools>Options>Language

Settings>WritingAids.ClickNewto

createauser-defineddictionaryandbe

suretotick‘Exception(-)’tocreatean

exclusiondictionary,whichyoucan

thenaddwordsto by selecting it and

clickingEdit.

SAVEMULTIPLEFILEVERSIONS

Onewaytosavedifferentrevisionsof

thesamefileistostoretheminacloud

folder,butyouhavenocontrolover

whichversionsactuallygetsaved.In

Writer,youcanchooseFile>Versionsto

savemultipleversionsofthesamefile

withinonedocument–eachversionis

accompaniedbyadateandtime,and

youcanaddcomments,thencompare

changes,movebetweenthemandso

on.Thefeatureisalsopresentin

earlierversionsofWordbutwas

droppedfromWord 2013 on.

MAKEUSEOFAUTOTEXT

Savesetblocksoftextincludingtables

andformattingtouselaterwith

AutoTextinWordandWriter.Enterand

formatthetextasyou’dlikeitto

appearinfuturedocuments.Withthe

textselected,chooseTools>AutoText

(Writer),pickacategoryforyourtext,

giveitasuitableshortcutnamelonger

thanfourcharactersandclick

AutoText>New>Close.

InWord,youneedtoclickthe

QuickPartsbuttonontheRibbon’s

InserttabinWordandchooseAutoText

followedby‘SaveSelectiontoAutoText

Gallery’.Completetheinformationin

theCreateNewBuildingBlockdialog,

ensuring that the Normal template is

selectedifyouwanttousethisblockof

textinfuturedocuments.Click‘OK’.

Toaddtheblockoftexttoanyfuture

document,typethephraseorshortcut

youassignedtoitandpressF3.

AUTOTEXTANDPHOTOS

InWord,youcanalsostoreimagesas

AutoTextentriesforquickinsertion

intodocuments.Insertthepictureinto

ablankdocument,selectitandclick

theQuickPartsbuttonasbeforeand

repeatthesamesteps.Again,assignit

asuitablenamethatcanbeusedasa

shortcuttoquicklyinsertintothe

documentbytyping the name and

pressingF3.

GETONLINEDEFINITIONS

Comeacrossawordorphraseyouneed

tolearnmoreabout?Right-clickitin

WordandchooseSmartLookuptoopen

apanewhereyoucanexplore

Wikipediaandotherrelatedweb

results,plusgainadefinition by

selectingDefine.

FINDALTERNATIVEWORDS

Sometimesyoucanfindthatwords

repeatthemselvesinadocument.

Luckily,youcanfindalternativeswith

yourwordprocessor’shelp:just

right-clickthewordinquestionand

select Synonyms for some alternative

WorduserscancreateAutoText

entriesfrompicturesaswellas

format ted blocks of text.

YoucaninstructWordtosearchfor

so-calledspecialcharacterssuchas

manual line breaks or tab characters