Basic writing and editing tips
Word is packed with all sorts
of nifty time-saving tricks. For
example, you can select non-
consecutive blocks of text by
holding down the Control key
while using your mouse to
highlight the text. And if you’re
reviewing someone else’s writ-
ing, you can easily offer them
feedback using the Highlight
and Comment tools. To highlight
text, simply select the text and
then click on the Highlight button
(located towards the right side
of the Formatting toolbar). To
add a comment to a document,
open the Insert menu and select
Comment. Lastly, if you ever
need to spice up your writing
with some mathematical equa-
tions, take advantage of Word’s
built-in equation editor. From the
Insert menu, choose Object, then scroll
down the list until you find Microsoft
Equation (if no such option exists, you’llneed to install the equation editor from
your setup CD). Click OK, and you’ll be
taken to the equation editor.Several of Word’s most useful menus and
toolbars are either disabled or crippled
by default. Working on a group of docu-
ments concurrently? The Work menu is
your friend. To enable it, click Tools, then
Customize, then Commands, and select
“Built-in Menus” from the Categories box.
Scroll down the Built-in Menus box until
you find the Work menu, then click and
drag it onto the Word menu bar. (Note:
From this dialog box, you can also add
new buttons to your toolbars.) Now you
can add documents to the Work menu to
make them easily accessible by clicking
Work and choosing “Add to Work Menu.”
This will allow you to switch back and
forth more easily. Removing documentsis a bit more complicated—hold down
Control and Alt and press the minus sign
(-), then open the Work Menu and click the
document you want to remove from the
list. To cancel the remove command, sim-
ply press Escape.
On a related note, you can also
increase or decrease the number of recent-ly used documents listed on the File menu.
Click the Tools menu and choose Options,
then navigate over to the General tab and
look for the “Recently used file list” setting.
If you’re often forced to work within
strict word limits when writing, you’ll
appreciate the Word Count toolbar.
Right-click on any of the Word toolbars
to view a list of available toolbars, and
check the “Word Count” option. This will
allow you to easily see how many words
you’ve written without needing to wade
through menus.Useful menus and toolbars
Want to leave early? Once you’ve added
the Work menu to your Word menu bar,
you’ll be so productive, you can leave at
3:00 every day.Listen up, Pointdexter! You don’t have to write
your equations by hand anymore. Use the Equation
Editor software that comes with Word instead.APRIL 2004 MAXIMUMPC 67
Smart Tags are a gee-whiz feature included
in newer versions of Word whereby the
program recognizes certain types of text
(such as an address) and offers the user
context-sensitive actions to perform on
that text. Try this one on for size: Open
Word and type in an address, then hit
Enter. A thin dotted line should appear
underneath the address. Hold your mouse
over the line and click on the circled “I”
that pops up. Now choose “Display Map”
from the resulting menu. Pretty nifty, eh?
Smart Tags have plenty of other uses, too.As another example, copy some for-
matted text from a web page, and paste it
into a Word document. Clicking the Smart
Tags Paste icon that pops up will allow
you to choose whether you want to pre-
serve the source formatting or match the
current document’s formatting. nMaking the most of Smart Tags
You know what’s great about Smart Tags?
They’re really smart! Seriously, all you do is
type an address into Word , click on the lit-
tle Smart Tag icon, and you can see a map
of the location or driving directions to it!67
Find out what kind of memory your
PC uses. Each of the major memory
manufacturers has a web utility that
will determine what kind of memory
you have if you provide your PC or
motherboard model number. Some
motherboards require you to add
memory in pairs, so make sure you
check the documentation that came
with your board. Check Crucial.com to
find memory that fits your board.Decide how much memory you need
to add. We wouldn’t run a system with
less than 512MB of RAM, and even
that’s borderline for serious gamers.
Several games are available now that
will absorb one gigabyte of memory.Once your memory has arrived, turn
off and unplug your PC. Open the case
and find your memory slots. Make
sure that the notch in your memory
stick lines up with the key on the
memory slot, then push the RAM into
the slot. The white tabs on the ends of
each bank should snap into place
when the RAM is fully seated. Close
the case, restart your PC, and enjoy
your extra memory.How To...
UPGRADE YOUR MEMORY
5 MINUTE