Crabby Office Lady

To harness the power of Microsoft Word, you know you have to go beyond cut, paste, and format. From mail merge to customized lists, you're working hard at getting the most out of Word — too hard, perhaps. It’s time to learn some new tricks.

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Microsoft Word is one of the most popular Office programs. People use it to draft dry and lengthy dissertations, create padded resumes, make greeting cards, and send flowery love letters. The great thing about Word is, the more you use it, the more features you discover. So I've answered some of your questions to help you learn more about the features Word offers.

Creating watermarks: Don't drown in the process

A watermark is a faint image or word that appears behind the text of a document. It's intended for printed documents, and it's used to identify the document status (such as DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL) or to just spice up the document.

The reader below has pulled out all the stops to create a text watermark when she could have just looked in Help in Word or on the Assistance Center Web site.

"If I want the word DRAFT or SAMPLE to be a watermark set diagonally throughout a page, I use WordArt and change the colors to light gray and the font size (to a very large size) and then I have to set it to "transparent." Then I have to set the "layout" for text to show on top of the object (like a watermark). This is not a "true" watermark, but it will do the trick. How's that for creative customizing?!?!

Is there an easier way???"

— Workaround Wanda

Dear Wanda,

You're working much too hard, and you deserve a break. Take a glass of lemonade, go sit on the porch, and read my solution.

Word has a handy little feature called the Printed Watermark dialog box.

To add a text watermark to your document

1. On the Format menu, point to Background, and then click Printed Watermark.
2. Click Text watermark, and then select or enter the text that you want.
3. Select any additional options that you want, click Apply, and then click Close.
4. To view a watermark as it will appear on the printed page, on the View menu, click Print Layout.
   
   Note   To add a watermark, you must be using a view other than Web Layout view.

Now drink up and get back to work.

Customizing views, lists, and templates

When you move into a new house that has orange shag carpeting and an avocado-colored oven, maybe a little customization is in order. (And with Word, it's usually easier than picking out appliances that match orange flooring.)

"Whenever I go into a new Word document in the Print Layout view, I have a page full of gridlines showing on my screen. I have no idea how they got there, and of course, I have no clue how to get rid of them."

— Grumpy with Grids

Dear Grumpy,

Maybe you're not getting enough gridlines in your diet; have you considered that? Or maybe grids are the way the universe ensures that the various aspects of your life are in harmonious order (you know, all lined up in a grid and such).

But of course, that is not my area of expertise, so I'll make this short and sweet.

To turn gridlines off and stop being grumpy

1. On the Drawing toolbar, click Draw, and then click Grid.
2. Deselect Display gridlines on screen.
   
   Note   If the Drawing toolbar isn't showing, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Drawing.

My next reader is working much harder than necessary. Why jump in and start programming when we have built-in features that will save you time and energy?

"I transcribe court trials, and I use Word. I have my template for my page, but I need some help to set up a macro that repeats Q. and A., such as:

Q.
A.
Q.
A.

...instead of 1. 2. 3. or a. b. c. in a continuous manner.

I would appreciate your assistance or your guiding me to someone who can help me."

— Attorney Annik

Dear Annik,

Why go to all that trouble of writing a macro when we provide a feature for customizing lists?

To customize a list

1. On the Format menu, click Bullets and Numbering, and then click the Outline Numbered tab.
2. Click a list format that does not contain the text "Heading" or is not a graphic, and then click Customize.
3. Under the Cancel button, click More.
4. In the Level box, make sure 1 is selected.
5. In the Number format box, replace what is in there with a Q. (period included).
6. In the Level box, click 2 to select it.
7. In the Number format box, replace what is in there with an A. (period included).
8. In the Level box, click 3 to select it.
9. In the Number format box, delete anything text in there.
10. Toward the bottom of the dialog box, make sure that the box that says Restart numbering after is selected and Level 2 is displayed in the drop-down box.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 for each level.
12. In the ListNum field list name box, give your new list a friendly name (such as Q&A).
13. Click OK.

Now in your Word document, on the Format menu, click Bullets and Numbering, and then click the Outline Numbered tab. Your new list type should show up there and you can use it just like you would a regular outline.

On the Format menu:

• Click the Increase Indent button to make a level two entry.
• Click the Decrease Indent button to start another level one entry.

Mail merge: It's not just for the postman anymore

Listen up because I'm only going to say this once (more): Using the Mail Merge Wizard in Word 2002 is about as easy as it gets when it comes to creating form letters, envelopes, directories, or mass mailings. Or, if you prefer not to use it, you can address 10,000 letters to your stockholders one address at a time. Then you can make a visit to the physical therapist

"I want to do a mail merge but it seems Office XP does not have the "edit data source" button.

— Editing Edith

Dear Edith,

Humph! Office XP most certainly does offer the option to edit your data source. I looked for it in the Mail Merge Wizard, and it just about jumped out at me!

 Note   Before I launch into this, some readers may be unfamiliar with what a data source is. It's a file that contains the data that you want to insert into each copy of a merged document. For example, your Microsoft Outlook® contact list is the data source that you want to access to address a bunch of envelopes. The reader above wants to be able to make a change to that list while in the process of doing a mail merge.

If you're using the Mail Merge Wizard (on the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and then click Mail Merge Wizard), you can always make changes to the data source you're referencing by clicking...um...Make changes. This command opens the data source, and off you go!

"Is there any way to print 100 envelopes with the same delivery address on them without having to go in and out of the envelope print screen 100 times? Please help."

— One-Friend Frieda

Dear Frieda,

Three words: Mail Merge Wizard. (It sounds scarier than it really is.)

 Note   To use the Mail Merge Wizard to access a data source such as an e-mail contact list, your system must include a Messaging Application Program Interface (MAPI)-compatible e-mail program, such as Microsoft Outlook. MAPI allows you to send e-mail from within a Microsoft Windows® application and attach the document you are working on to the e-mail message.

To create and print envelopes for a mass mailing

1. Open a new document in Word.

2. On the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and then click Mail Merge Wizard.

3. In the Mail Merge task pane, under Select document type, select the Envelopes option, and then click Next. (Remember to click Next after each of the following steps.)

4. In step 2 in the wizard, under Select starting document, select the Change document layout option.

5. Under Change document layout, click the Envelope options link, select the envelope size and address font options you want, and then click OK.

6. In step 3 in the wizard, under Select recipients, click Select from Outlook contacts.

7. Click Choose Contacts Folder.

8. In the Select Contacts List folder dialog box, click the contact list you want, and then click OK.

9. All of the contacts in the folder appear in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box.

10. Select the names you want to include and click OK.

11. Complete the wizard.

 Note   By default in the Mail Merge Wizard, your return address is omitted. If you want to print your return address on the envelope, add your return address to your envelope in step 4 or step 5 in the Mail Merge Wizard.

The wizard will take you through the steps and, for the last step, the Print dialog box will pop up and you'll be able to select how many copies of each envelope you'd like to print! For other tasks you can accomplish with mail merge, .

Images, drawings, and artsy-fartsy stuff

Sometimes you need art and just don't know it. And sometimes you have more art than you can handle.

"I know that I can change the direction of my text, but how can I get it to print upside down? I can get it to go left vertical, right vertical, and almost every other way, but not completely upside down. Is there a way? Please, please, please help me!!!!"

— Acrobatic Angelina

Dear Angelina,

The only way you can print text upside down is to use the WordArt feature.

To print upside-down text using WordArt

1. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click WordArt.
2. Double-click the type of WordArt you want to use.
3. Edit the text, and then click OK to insert it into your document.
4. Select the WordArt object.
5. On the Drawing toolbar, click Draw, point to Rotate or Flip, and then click Flip Vertical.
   
   Note If the Drawing toolbar isn't showing, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Drawing.

There is one more option of course: You could print the document normally and then stand on your head to read it. (This is a special yoga pose, but I can't remember the technical name for it.)

"I have set up more than 500 Word templates with headers that have an obsolete image, which I need to replace with an updated image. Is there anyway to create a macro, which will automatically open each template and replace the old image with the new one."

— All-At-Once Alan

Dear Alan,

I read your mail, and my eyes started to glaze over. So I skipped down the hall to the office of Paul Cornell, one of our Power User Corner gurus.

Here is what Paul had to say: "Yes, it is possible to do this. However, I am not aware of any existing macro code to solve Alan's problem.

Basically, provided that all of the templates and the new image were in the same directory, Alan could write a macro that uses the Word object model and the Microsoft Scripting Runtime (scrrun.dll) to open each template, locate the image, delete it, and replace it with the new image. It is fairly straightforward, but it would, of course, require knowledge of the Word object model and the Microsoft Scripting Runtime, as well as Microsoft Office Visual Basic for Applications."

So there ya go. Paul also recommended finding a developer to do this for you: Find a Microsoft Certified Partner

"I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. " — Blaise Pascal

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain.

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