MS Office 101

An Alternative to Ctrl + A In MS Word

We all know that Ctrl + A in MS Word selects the entire document—works great, and for everyone who likes to keep their hands on the keyboard, it's a necessary tool.

But what about people who are more "mouse oriented"?

You know, people who have duties that require regular or constant mouse contact? It's a bit annoying to keep removing their hand from the mouse to the keyboard and back again. (Basically, on the other side of the coin, as annoying as my keyboard enthusiasts find the mouse.)

So, is there some easy way for these people to accomplish the selection of everything without Ctrl + A (or the all too messy dragging of the highlight through the document)? And we could never forget the ever-popular click at the beginning, hold the Shift key and click at the end.)

I'm happy to report that there is a one-key / one-click solution to the situation. You can select it all and never take your hand off the mouse.

Next time you want it all move your mouse pointer into the left margin, hold down the Ctrl key then click.

Success!

Everything selected, no dragging, hand still in place on the mouse.

Office Tip of the Day

Quick MS Tabs And "Stuff"

A couple of weeks ago (back on October 2nd ) we discussed using the MS Word ruler to set indents—but, as you may or may not know, there are other uses for the Word ruler.

One major, easy to do, item on the ruler is the ability to set tabs with just a click.

Yep, that's right—you can set a tab stop with just a click or two. No menus or windows needed.

Interested?

Glad to hear it.

Let's get busy.

The first thing you need to do is to display the ruler on your document. You'll need to be in either the Normal or the Print / Page Layout view. (Use the View menu to select a view.)

Now turn on the Ruler feature. This too is on the View menu. (Alt then V then R works too.)

Once the ruler is displayed, you need to look to the left of the ruler.

See it?

It's the little L shaped symbol—find it?

Good, because that's the key to the whole thing.

You click on this symbol to rotate through your options, then, when you find the type of tab you need simply click on the ruler at the place you want it. (Yep, that's right, I never said to drag the symbol—nope—no dragging this time, just click on the ruler to place.)

So, now that you know how to set the tab it's time to learn what type of tab each symbol sets.

Sets a left aligned tab.

Sets a center aligned tab.

Sets a right aligned tab.

Sets a decimal aligned tab. (Numbers on a tab of this type will put the decimal point on the tab mark.)

Ok, so that seems to be it...

But wait - what about the "stuff" mentioned in the title you ask?

Good question and fortunately I have a good answer.

If you're working in Word 2000, did you keep clicking the tab symbols?

(If you're working in Word 97 then another click rotated you back to the left aligned tab. Sorry—no cool extra "stuff" for that program today.)

Did you by chance notice the next couple of symbols that popped up?

Yes, that's right, you can do more than set the same old boring tab stops with this clicker.

In addition to the tab stops mentioned above you can also set these items:

Sets a bar tab. (This one inserts a vertical line at the tab stop location.)

Changes the first line indent location. (Yes, that's right, no more dragging the setting back and forth across the ruler. Just click in the new location and poof—it's there!)

Changes the hanging indent location. (Same no dragging needed thing we discussed above.)

And there you have it—quick tabs with extra "stuff" on the side.

~ April

PS... If you need to remove a tab stop you need to click on the symbol, hold and drag it into the document. Tab stop all gone!