You can print Word documents without opening them on the screen. To do so:

1. Click on File on the menu bar
2. Click on Open...
3. Navigate to bring the file name into view
4. Click on the file name with the right mouse button
5. From the pop-up menu that appears, click on Print

Note that this technique does not provide a way to control printer options, such as which pages are printed, the number of copies, etc.

By default, the printer button on the Standard Toolbar sends the print job directly to the printer without first displaying the Print dialog box. You can replace this button with one that does pause and display the Print dialog box. To do so:

1. Right click on any displayed toolbar (such as the Standard or Formatting toolbar)
2. From the pop-up menu, click on Customize...
3. Click on the Commands tab on the Customize dialog box

At this point, you must decide if you want to replace the standard Print button on the toolbar with the display-the-dialog box button, or add it to the toolbar (e.g., have 2 Print buttons). If you add the second button, the two will look identical. However, you can edit the image of one of the buttons in order to distinguish it from the other. Assuming you wish to replace the button, do the following:

4. Drag the Print button down from the toolbar and into the document

As you drag into the document, the mouse pointer will look like this:

5. Release the mouse button

The Print button should disappear from the toolbar. Don't worry; you can always restore it by dragging a fresh copy from the dialog box.

6. In the Categories list in the Customze dialog box, make sure File is selected
7. In the Commands list, scroll down to bring the 2 Print buttons into view

The printer button displaying the ellipse (3 dots) causes the Print dialog box to be displayed. The printer button without the ellipse is the standard Print button:

You can insert the new button wherever you wish on the toolbar. You should probably insert it where the original had been, particularly if you share this PC with other users. To insert a button from this list, drag it with the mouse up onto the toolbar.

7. Drag a copy of the Print... button (e.g., the one displaying the ellipse) from the dialog box up onto the toolbar
8. When the button is in the desired position, release the mouse button
9. Close the Customize dialog box by clicking on its Close button

One way this new Print button distinguishes itself from the original is the ToolTip that appears when you hover the mouse pointer over it. You should see:

Although this tip may not appear significant, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl P is used to display the Print dialog box in most Windows applications. Hence, this button will do the same, whereas the original Print button sent the print job directly to the default printer.

If you add a second Print button, you can distinguish it from the original button by following these steps:

1. If necessary, invoke the Customize dialog box
2. Right click on the button whose image you wish to customize
3. From the pop-up menu, click on Edit Button Image...

You will see this dialog box:

To erase portions of the current image, click on the small box labeled Erase:, then click on the portion of the image you wish to remove. To erase the entire image and start a new one from scratch, click on the Clear button.

To create an image, first select a color from the palette, then click in the desired square on the grid. You may need to start, erase and restart several times to get the hang of it. The four arrow buttons in the Move section can be used to shift the entire image up, down, left or right.

4. When finished, click on the OK button
5. Click on the Customize dialog box's Close button

Applying a "Canned" Image to a Button. If you don't have any artistic talent or the time to design your own button image, you can use one of the 42 "canned" images that Word provides. To do so:

1. Right click on the button whose image you wish to customize
2. Point to Change Button Image

You will see this palette:

3. Click on the image you desire

The button will immediately adopt the image. If you wish to restore the original image, right click on the button and click on Reset Button Image.

4. Click on the Customize dialog box's Close button

If you've used Word for a while, you are probably familiar with its dictionary, which is used to check for spelling errors in a document. You may also know that, in addition to the standard dictionary, Word allows you to create a supplemental list of words not found in the standard dictionary.

This is useful if you are creating or editing a technical manual or other document that uses a lot of special jargon not found in the standard dictionary. By adding these specialized words to the supplemental list, Word will not complain (by displaying a red squiggly line) each time you use them.

This supplemental list is called a custom dictionary. You can add words to this list, and you can also delete words from it if they are inserted accidentally. When Word is checking for spelling errors, it uses both the standard dictionary and the custom dictionary. Any word in either list is assumed to be spelled correctly. You cannot add words to the standard dictionary.

Suppose Word encounters a word in your document that is not in its dictionary. It will display a red squiggly line beneath the word. If the word is in fact correctly spelled, you can add it to the custom dictionary by right clicking on it.

One of the options in the pop-up menu is Add. Clicking on it will add the word to the custom dictionary.

Editing the custom dictionary. Sometimes a word ends up in the custom dictionary by accident. To edit the contents of the custom dictionary:

1. Click on Tools on the menu bar
2. Click on Options...
3. Click on the Spelling & Grammar tab

The custom dictionary supplied with Word is called custom.dic. It is a text file. To edit it, you click on the Dictionaries... button.

4. Click on the Dictionaries... button:

You should see the Custom Dictionaries dialog box.

5. Click on the Edit button

You will probably see this warning:

6. Click on the OK button

The contents of the custom dictionary should appear. It looks like an ordinary Word document, but you should see the file name, CUSTOM.DIC, at the top of the screen. The words that are in the list (if any) appear one per line, usually in Courier New font.

To delete a word or words, highlight them as you would normal text and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

If you wish, you can also add words to the custom dictionary at this time. Be sure to press Enter after each word, as Word permits only one per line.

7. When finished, click on the Save button on the toolbar

You will probably see this message:

8. Click on the Yes button
9. Close the document

As the first message above states, this action has the effect of disabling the automatic spell checker function. To re-activate it:

1. Click on Tools on the menu bar
2. Click on Options...
3. Make sure the Spelling & Grammar tab is selected
4. Click in the empty Check Spelling As You Type checkbox
5. Click on OK

Suppose you are using Word's Envelopes and Labels dialog box and decide to change the font. Clicking on the Format button on the toolbar will not work while the dialog box is active.

1. Instead, right click in the box where you type the label:

You will see this small menu:

2. Click on Font...
3. Choose the font options from the Font dialog box
4. Click on OK
5. Type the label in the new font

You may have encountered Word field codes without realizing it. For example, if you insert a date in a letter by clicking on Insert on the menu bar and then clicking on Date and Time..., you'll see a checkbox in the Date and Time dialog box labeled Update automatically. If this box is checked, the current date is inserted in the letter. However, this is not just text. It is actually a code. Each time you retrieve the letter, Word will check the current date with the internal clock & calendar that your PC maintains. If the date is different (say, the following day), Word will change the date to reflect this.

Field codes, then, store data that is subject to change. If you insert page numbers in a multi-page document, Word automatically increments the page numbers because they are actually field codes. If you perform a mail merge, Word uses field codes to insert the next name and address in the next copy of the letter or mailing label.

Field codes are usually recognized by the gray background displayed behind the text. For example, a date code looks like this when you click on it:

If you are adventurous, you can insert field codes manually in a document. To do so, place the cursor where you want the text to appear. Then:

1. Hold down the Ctrl key and press the F9 function key

You will see a pair of brackets with a flashing cursor between them:

2. Type date
3. Press the F9 function key

The current date should now appear. Its format will probably look like this:

3/26/02

If you wished to change its format, you would need to learn how to add formatting codes inside the brackets. The process is not complex, but most of us don't want to take the time. To make the task easier, Word provides a complete list of field codes and switches that can customize the output. To access this list:

1. Click on Insert on the menu bar
2. Click on Field...

You will see the Field dialog box:

In the illustration, (All) is selected in the Categories list. Hence, all the field codes are displayed alphabetically in the right column. To restrict the list in the right column, choose a more specific category in the left column.

One very useful field code, which can be entered manually or via this dialog box, is:

{filename \p}

This inserts the name of the file. The \p is called a switch. In this case, it appends the file's pathname to the filename. It helps you remember which folder and/or drive the file is stored in the next time you need to retrieve it.

Without question one of the best ways to improve your efficiency when using Microsoft Office applications is through the use of keyboard shortcuts. Moving your hands off the keyboard to grab the mouse, point to an object, and click is a tremendous time waster. The more you can keep your hands on the keyboard, the faster you can generate text.

To process data , Microsoft provides 3 techniques:

• Menus
• Toolbar buttons
• Keyboard shortcuts

Do you think this is accidental? No! The menus are intended for beginners. They provide visual cues to allow a novice to track down the right command. However, you'll notice that many menu commands include both a button and a keyboard shortcut:

The example above is from Word's Edit menu. To invoke the Copy function, you click on the word Copy. However, this command also shows you what the Copy button looks like and that the equivalent keyboard shortcut command is Ctrl C.

So, the next time you need to copy some text, you can locate the Copy button on the toolbar. Better yet, if you copy a lot, you can memorize Ctrl C. Tapping these keys means you don't have to slow down to find the mouse, point to the button and click.

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts available. Many require a combination of the Ctrl, Shift or Alt key (Windows version) plus a second key. Many of these key combinations work exactly the same in different applications.

For example, Ctrl C captures whatever object is selected (text or graphics) in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook to a special memory location called the Clipboard. Ctrl V is the universal key combination for pasting the contents of the Clipboard. You could capture an Excel pie chart using Ctrl C, then load a document into Word and paste the chart into it (using Ctrl V).

Below are some text formatting keyboard shortcuts you might find useful in Word:

• Ctrl ] Increases the font size of the selected text by 1 point. First highlight the text you wish to enlarge, then hold down the Ctrl key and press the ] (square bracket key). To increase the size 1 point each time, repeat.
• Ctrl [ As you might guess, this shrinks the highlighted text 1 point. Repeat to shrink the text even more.
• Shift F3 Toggles the selected text through upper case, lower case and initial caps. First highlight the text, then hold down the Shift key and press the F3 function key. Repeat this to toggle to the next case option.
• Ctrl Shift K Converts the highlighted text to small caps.
• Ctrl B Boldfaces the highlighted text.
• Ctrl I Italicizes the highlighted text.
• Ctrl U Underlines the highlighted text.
• Ctrl Shift D Double-underlines the highlighted text.
• Ctrl Shift W Underlines the highlighted text but skips spaces between words.
• Ctrl R Right-aligns the current paragraph.
• Ctrl L Left-aligns the current paragraph.
• Ctrl E Center-aligns the current paragraph.
• Ctrl J Fully justifies the current paragraph (makes both the right and the left edges flush with the margins).
• Ctrl Shift F Allows you to change the font face of the highlighted text by typing a new font name in the Font list box on the Formatting toolbar.
• Ctrl Shift P Allows you to change the font size of the highlighted text by typing a new point size in the Font Size list box on the Formatting toolbar.
• Ctrl = Changes the highlighted text to subscript.
• Ctrl Shift + Changes the highlighted text to superscript.

When you first load Word, a blank document is automatically displayed. You probably take this for granted. However, it is a rule of Word that every document must be based on a template. You can think of a template as a blueprint of what the document should look like. Some templates even contain text, such as the fax cover sheet available in the set of templates Word provides.

When Word begins loading, it searches for a special template called the Normal template. Microsoft usually stores templates deep in the Windows sub-folder system, specifically c:\windows\application data\microsoft\templates. This keeps them away from curious troublemakers who might try moving, renaming or deleting them. The Normal template is a file (its name is normal.dot) that can be manipulated like any other.

Clicking on the New button (it appears as a white piece of paper and is usually the left-most button on the Standard toobar) or pressing Ctrl N also insert a new, blank document on the screen based on normal.dot. In fact, almost every document you create is based on it. Even if you select a template from Word's list, that template in turn is usually based on normal.dot.

If you accidentally delete normal.dot, what happens the next time you start Word? Once it discovers the file is missing, Word will generate a new copy on the fly. While this may suggest that deleting normal.dot is no big deal, it actually is.

In addition to storing basic formats such as margin settings and the default font, normal.dot also stores AutoText entries, styles and macros. If you accumulate a lot of these over the years, the value of this little file increases. Losing it will probably mean losing a lot of valuable settings.

Some authors even recommend backing up a copy of normal.dot from time to time to a floppy disk so if it should ever get deleted, you can restore it.

Normally, you don't need to worry about where normal.dot is stored. If you are curious, you can locate it using the Find command:

1. Click on the Start button on the Taskbar
2. Point to Find
3. Click on Files or Folders...
4. When the Find dialog box appears, type normal.dot in the Named box
5. Make sure the Look in box is set to C:\ and that a check appears in the Include subfolders checkbox
6. Click on Find Now

You can make changes to the normal.dot template from within Word. For example, if you change the font using the Font dialog box and click on the Default... button, you will see a message asking if you wish to make the change and warning that "This change will affect all new documents based on the NORMAL template". It's OK to proceed, because you can change it again by repeating the process and choosing a different font.

The font you change to is recorded to the normal.dot template, so all new documents based on this template will adhere to the new font.

Suppose you are creating a document that includes a date, which you need to write out as the month, day and year (e.g., September 23, 2003). It just happens that the date comes at the end of the line, so that the month fits, but the day and year wrap to the next line:

Because you want the entire date to appear on one line, it can be tempting to press the Enter key just before typing it so that everything moves to the next line. This is not a good idea, however, because Word will treat that hard return code as the end of the paragraph. This in turn can cause problems when you edit or print the document.

Instead, Word provides a special code that prevents a phrase from wrapping in the middle. Actually, there are two: one to provent wrapping at a blank space, and one to prevent wrapping at a hyphen. The technical term for these are non-break space and non-break hyphen.

• To create a non-break space, hold the Shift and Ctrl keys down while pressing the Spacebar on your keyboard.
• To create a non-break hyphen, hold the Shift and Ctrl keys down while pressing the dash key on your keyboard.

Suppose you use Word to create a flyer that you wish to email a customer. Chances are the flyer will contain graphics and perhaps other formats that display properly only in Print Layout view. How can you be sure that the document will not be displayed on the customer's screen in Normal view, thus hiding your design?

The solution is to simply be sure and save the document while in Print Layout view. When your customer opens it, this display request will be included along with the actual content.