MS Office 101

Seeing Blue

Are you one of the many people who find it easier to read light printing on a dark background?

Would you like to see the "light" in MS Word?

Word has the option of setting your screen to display a blue background with white lettering!

And I don't mean actually changing text to white and the background to blue. No, this setting in Word that makes the color change for easy reading on the monitor without messing with the printing of the document. This means the good news is that while you get to see things a little easier, you don't have to spend a bunch of time setting everything back to black and white in order to print.

vs.

See the difference?

To make the change simply go to the Tools menu, Options choice.

Then in the General tab check the box for Blue background, white text.

Click OK.

That's it. Now you should see blue, which is certainly better than feeling blue, unless you're in a jazz band, then it's your lively hood...

P. S. If you don't like it or it isn't helping, then simply go back in and uncheck the box.

Office Tip of the Day

Working With Multiple Files In MS Word Simultaneously

Last Thursday, we went over the Split feature in MS Word - a handy little option of working in two places of the same document simultaneously. This is awesome if you're working in one document, but what if you need to work in several different files simultaneously?

Split doesn't help with that and let's just face it, it's a big pain to flip from file to file to file. (Even with the Ctrl+F6 thing to switch between them, it can still get tiresome.)

So, is it possible to arrange your files so you can work on two or more at the same time without all the flipping between documents?

No, there isn't a way. This tip is over. Please, stop reading...

Hey, why are you still reading this?

Alright, there is a way and I guess I'll share it with you...

First, you'll need to open all of the documents that you will be working on. Once open, you're ready to "be in two places at once."

Simply go to the Window menu, Arrange All choice.

Instantly you should see the difference.

Every file that was open at the time you made the Arrange All choice is now visible on the screen, each in its own little window.

In order to work in one of the files, just click inside it's window to give it the focus. (You should see that its window title bar will have the familiar buttons for minimizing, maximizing, closing, etc. in the upper right corner.)

You're free to click back and forth between the files without any of the others disappearing. Because of the way they are spaced next to each other, all files will be visible at all times regardless of which one currently has the focus.

To return to viewing just one file, simply click on the maximize button in the file you wish to work on.

Or, for the users who prefer the keyboard, Ctrl+F10 will maximize the window currently with focus.

I find this tip is very helpful when I'm transferring information (cut and paste) from one file to another or when I find I need to read one file in order to work in another.

I'm sure most of us have devoted a lot of time and energy to the flipping back and forth between two MS Word documents.

Now the only question that remains is what will you do with all of the free time?

~ April