Keith O Hudson

Archive for the ‘Microsoft Word’ Category

Do you hate the numbering feature in Microsoft Word like I used to?  I’ve had a longstanding love-hate relationship with it.  I love the idea that once I’ve set up numbering, when a document is changed, new sections added or existing sections deleted, the numbering will automatically adjust. I find it much easier to discuss a long document with others by phone when every paragaph is numbered. 

However, it seems that just when I’ve got things numbered the way I want, I make a change to something in the document (like removing bolding on a word) and the entire numbering system changes. I call it Word Numbering Hell.

After struggling for a couple of hours with numbering a document yesterday, I found an article by Shauna Kelly that showed me how to escape Word Numbering Hell, by using numbered headings.  It takes a little work to set up the first time, but it simplifies numbering immensely and makes it reliable, as well as giving you complete control over your document. Thank you Shauna!

(How to get rid of formatting changes in Track Changes)

Here’s a tip for those who use Microsoft Word 2003 for editing documents, and want to quickly see the differences between two documents. Open the first document, then select “Compare and Merge Documents” from the Tools menu. In the dialog box that opens up, select the second document, then use the drop down arrow on the Merge button in the bottom right hand corner to select “Merge into new document.”

 To hide the formatting differences, choose “Show” on the Reviewing toolbar, and uncheck formatting.

 To remove the formatting differences all at once, choose “Show” on the Reviewing toolbar, then uncheck everything BUT the formatting changes.  Then use the drop down beside the Accept All icon in the Reviewing toolbar to “Accept All Changes Shown”.