Follow the Format: 5 MS Word tips for managers

[Jen Darr]

Clean, polished correspondence is important, especially when you are the boss. As simple as such a goal sounds, Word nevertheless makes it a challenge to achieve. Here’s a rundown of some recent PC Helps formatting tips to help you along.

Stray Bullets (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

When using bullets or numbered lists in a Word document, the list items should be neatly aligned with minimal effort. But when the bullets and numbers do not line up properly, it can be a frustrating experience. Here is a tip to get your lists back in order.

The first method involves using Word's ruler tool to modify the alignment of the bullets or numbers.

1. Highlight a bullet or number in the list.
2. At the top of the document, on the ruler, you should see the tab marker for this list item.
3. Click and drag the tab marker to the right or left to align the bullet or number with the others in the list.

Another option to try is correcting the alignment using the text align buttons.

1. Highlight all the bullets or numbers in the list.
2. Click the left-, center- or right-align buttons on the toolbar (Word 2007: in the Paragraph group of the Home tab on the Ribbon) to make sure all the bullets or numbers are aligned together.

If these methods do not work, you can also check the tab stop positions for the bullets or numbers to make sure they have the same tab stops. Check the tab stop position on the correct bullets or numbers first, and then check and change the tab positions of the incorrectly aligned bullets or numbers using the following steps.

Word 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Make sure the bullets or numbers you want to check are highlighted.
2. Click Format and select Tabs. The Tabs dialog box allows you to set, reset and delete tab stops.

Word 2007:

1. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph section, click the bottom right button to launch the Paragraph dialog box.
2. In the bottom left of this dialog, box click the Tabs button to display the Tabs dialog box. The Tabs dialog box allows you to set, reset and delete tab stops. (David McQueary)

Off the Mark (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

Nothing is more frustrating than errant alignment. In situations where a line of bulleted or numbered text is not lining up correctly with the other items, you can use a tool called the Format Painter to correct it.

1. Highlight a line of bulleted or numbered text that is correctly aligned. The number or bullet itself may not highlight, but as long as the text itself is highlighted, it should work.
2. Click the Format Painter button (it looks like a paintbrush). In Word 2007, it is located under the Home tab, in the Clipboard group (on the far left, next to the Paste button). In Word 2003 and previous, it is on the Standard toolbar. If you do not see it, click View, move your mouse over Toolbars, and click Standard to display the toolbar.
3. Once you have clicked the Format Painter button, your cursor will change to a paintbrush next to the standard "I-beam." Click and drag to select the line of text that is not aligned correctly. (Once again, the bullet or number may not highlight.) When releasing the mouse button, the line of text will adjust to match the alignment of the text you highlighted in Step 1. (Eric Clevinger)

Where Does It Stand? (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

On Microsoft Word's Formatting toolbar (Word 2007: Home tab), there are four buttons that control the alignment of text in a paragraph -- Align Left, Center, Align Right and Justify. The buttons have parallel horizontal lines to represent how the text will look when the alignment is applied.

These buttons will always display on the Home tab in Word 2007, but you can use these steps in Word 2000, 2002, and 2003 if you do not see the buttons:

1. Click View and move your mouse over Toolbars.
2. If Formatting is checked, the Formatting toolbar is already displayed. If it is not checked, click Formatting to activate it.

If you want to change the alignment of just one paragraph, you just need to click anywhere in that paragraph. Alignment is applied to an entire paragraph, regardless of how much of the paragraph is selected. If you want to align several paragraphs at once, simply select them all. Then click the appropriate alignment button to align the text.

• Align Left is Word's default. Text lines up evenly at the left margin and is uneven or ragged on the right-hand side of the page. The lines on the toolbar button line up along their left edges and are uneven on the right.

• Center aligns each line of the paragraph between the left and right margins. The text does not line up at either margin. The lines on the toolbar button also do not line up at either margin and look centered on the button.

• Align Right aligns the text up at the right margin and is uneven on the left side. On the toolbar button, the lines are aligned on the right and are uneven on the left.

• Justify aligns your text on the left and right, giving it a symmetrical appearance like you see in magazines, books or newspapers. The toolbar button looks like several parallel lines of equal length.

If you prefer using the keyboard instead of clicking buttons, here are default alignment shortcut keys:

• Ctrl+L to left align
• Ctrl+E to center align
• Ctrl+R to right align
• Ctrl+J to justify

(Albert Fulton)

Start a Tab (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

Have you ever wanted to have two instances of text on the same line in a document; one that was aligned on the left, and one that was aligned on the right? If so, you may have found yourself placing the cursor just after the text on the left, then hitting the Tab key repeatedly until the rest of the text was just far enough to the right that it would not break onto the next line. While this method does work, it does not give you a true right alignment for that text. Besides, it's messy. A better method for achieving this effect involves setting tab stops. This tip will show you how to properly set tabs in a Word document.

The default setting for tabs in Microsoft Word is every half-inch, and while pressing the tab key repeatedly can work, it often results in unnecessary keystrokes and possible formatting problems down the line. If you set a tab stop at the desired position instead, you only have to press the tab key once.

The four common types of tabs are Left, Center, Right and Decimal align tabs. Using the ruler at the top of your document, click at the 4.75" mark to create a tab and you will notice that you get a left-aligned tab. But what if you need a center- or right-aligned tab? Take a look at the left edge of the ruler. There is the Tab Alignment button, which by default will have an L on it, the symbol for a Left Tab. Clicking this button will toggle the tab alignment.

Symbol Tab type Aligns

L: Left Tab
Upside-down T: Center Tab
Backward L: Right Tab
Upside down T with Decimal: Decimal Tab

Incidentally, when you are working with the ruler and are trying to get exact measurements, you can hold down the Alt key as you click on the ruler to display a precise measure of where your tab stop will be.

Another way to set your tabs is by using the Tabs dialog box. To get there, click the Format menu and choose Tabs (Word 2007: on the Home tab, click the Paragraph dialog box launcher button, then click Tabs). There you can type in your desired tab stop position (for example, 4.75"), choose your alignment, set a leader if desired, click Set, and then click OK. (FYI: Leaders are those dots you normally see that take up the empty space before the tab stop is reached.) Now you only need to press the tab key once to get the insertion point to the 4.75" position.

When you apply tabs to your text, remember that it is paragraph-level formatting, so you will either need to have your text selected before formatting your tabs or format your tabs before you begin typing your text.

If you are wondering about the Bar tabs: they are undocumented, but unlike the other tabs, they do not take you to an exact position when you use the Tab key; they just insert a vertical bar at the position for that paragraph. (Ariella Zamorski)

Get to the Point (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

People often line up text or numbers using a combination of tabs and spaces. We sometimes see this when it comes to lining up columns of numbers in a document.

You could easily use the Tab and Spacebar keys to line up the numbers on the decimal points, but you would have to repeat the process for each column. But if you set up decimal tabs instead, you will make your task much simpler.

There are four different types of tabs: Left, Center, Right and Decimal align tabs. The quickest way to set a tab is to click on the ruler at the top of your screen. Take a look at the left edge of the ruler. There is the Tab Alignment button, which, by default, will have an L on it, the symbol for a left tab. Click on it until you get an upside-down T with a dot to the right, which is the symbol for decimal tab. Select the text that you want to apply the tab to. Then, with your mouse, click on the ruler to place a tab on it in the position where your decimal tab should be. (You can also use the Tabs dialog box to set decimal alignment. See previous tip.)

Now you should have perfectly aligned numbers without having to use the spacebar or hit the tab key more than once for each column. (Albert Fulton)

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