Thank you in advance, Vicky

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Dear Vicky,

Word does have some good search tools. Since you didn’t specify what version of Word you are using, I will give you directions that will work in Word 2007 and Word 2010.

1. Open your document in Word.
2. Make sure you have the “Home” tab selected in the ribbon area at the top of your window.
3. On the right edge of the window, there is a “Find” tool. Click on the word, “Find” and a small bar will appear on the left edge of your window.
4. Type the first name that you want to search for in the box at the top of the bar.
5. The number of matches will be displayed, and each instance of that name will be displayed.
6. Click on each small box to go directly to that location in your document.

This is a quick and easy way to locate information in a large document.

Elizabeth

Thank you,    John in California

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Dear John,

I guess my first question would be, “Do you have Word installed on your computer?”

If you do have Word installed on your computer, what version of Word do you have?

If you don’t have Word installed on your computer, you need to either have Word, or another program that can open and read Word (.doc) files installed. You can either head over to your local computer and/or office store (Staples is a great place to start) and purchase Word, or you can download and install Open Office which is a free office program that has the ability to open Word files.

If all you want to do is read the files, you can download the free Word Viewer from the Microsoft Website at:
www.microsoft.com

If you do have Word installed on your computer, we would need to figure out why it is not opening other Word files correctly. Since you have said that the attachments are in Word form, I am assuming that they end with the .doc file ending.

If the attachments you are trying to open end with the newer .docx file ending, it was created in Word 2007 or Word 2010. If your version of Word is older than 2007, you would not be able to open the newer file type. You can either ask the person sending you the attachments to save them in the original .doc format, or download the Word Viewer to be able to view those files.

Elizabeth

Thanks so much, Alison in York, ME

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Dear Alison,

First, you want to be sure you are using the correct view in Word. In this case, it is my favorite view. It sounds like you are already using this view, but just to make sure…

Just open Microsoft Word, click on “View” in the menu bar, then click on “Print Layout” in the drop down menu.

In most cases, Word will display what looks like a sheet of paper with the insertion point inside the margins.

If the margins are not showing, click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then on “Options”. Click on the “View” tab in the options window, and look for the section that says “Print and Web Layout Options”. In this section, there is a setting that says “White space between pages”. Make sure there is a check mark in that box, and then click “OK”.

Your view will now show the margins on the page.

Elizabeth

I am using Office 2007. Help! Leanne

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Dear Leanne,

Microsoft Word is capable of displaying your document to you in several different views.

Lets take a look at what views are available, and how you can change your document back to the correct view.

First, in Word 2007, you can change the view you are using by clicking on the “View” tab in the ribbon, and then looking in the “Document Views” section.

You will see that there are 5 views available, and the view that you are currently using is highlighted. I am currently using the “Print Layout” view.

The Print Layout view displays your document on the screen just like it would look when you print it out on a sheet of paper. If you are creating a document that will be printed, this view is probably the most useful one for you. It shows you the edges of your paper and where on the page the text will appear.

The next view available is the Full Screen Reading view. When you click on this view, most of the toolbars in the Word window will disappear, and your document will open up like it is a book on your screen. If your document has more than one page, the pages will be side by side and you will be able to scroll through the pages by clicking the small arrows located in the lower corners, or you can use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.

When you are finished with the Full Screen Reading View, click the “Close” button in the upper-right corner of the window.

You can use Microsoft Office Word to create web pages in addition to printed pages. In order to see what a Word document would look like if you published it as a web page, click on the “Web Layout” view button. You will notice that your document no longer resembles a sheet of paper, but instead, it looks like a basic web page.

The Outline view allows you to view the document in an outline format and use some special outlining tools. If you tend to write your document first, and then rearrange the content later, the outline view will make that easier for you. When you are done with the Outline view, you can use the “Close Outline View” button to get back to your regular document.

The Draft view is another view that is useful when you are editing your document. It shows the document in draft form, focusing more on the text than the formatting. This allows you to quickly proofread and edit your text without worrying about things like headers and footers.

I would encourage you to take some time to get used to the different views in Word, and discover how they can help you work more efficiently. When most of us are working in Microsoft Word, we tend to use only one view, and never get to take advantage of additional views.

Elizabeth

Can you please help me? Mary

Dear Mary,

You can insert pictures in Word, but it is not always the easiest program to use for combining pictures and text.

Here is how I like to insert a picture in a word document. You did not specify what version of Word you are using, so my example is with Word 2007.

1. Start by placing your insertion point in the paragraph or spot on the page where you want your picture to be placed.

2. Click on the “Insert” tab at the top of the window, and click on the “Picture” icon to open the Insert Picture dialog box.

3. In the dialog box, locate the picture that you want to insert in your document (this assumes that you know where your picture is stored) and click once on the picture to select it.

4. Click on the “Insert” button at the bottom of the dialog box, and the picture will be added to your document.

5. If the picture is too large, click once on it and then drag one corner of the picture to make it smaller.

1. Click once on your picture to select it.

2. When you click on your picture, a “Picture Tools” tab will appear at the very top of the window. Click on the “Format” tab just below Picture Tools.

3. In the Format bar, click on the “Position” icon, then select one of the “Text Wrapping” settings until you find the effect you are looking for.

4. You can drag the picture around in your document until everything looks perfect.

Elizabeth

Any info you may have would be great, thanks, Michelle

Dear Michelle,

Your custom dictionary is a file that is usually located in your user folder. You can copy the file, and then replace it on your new computer.

First, you need to locate your custom dictionary file.

Since you say you have been using Windows XP for the past 5 years, I am going to assume that you are also using Microsoft Office XP.

1. Open Word. 2. In the menu bar, click on “Tools and then “Options”. 3. In the Options window, click on the “Spelling & Grammar” tab. 4. On the Spelling & Grammar page, click on the “Custom Dictionaries. ..” button. 5. In the Custom Dictionaries dialog box, you will see the name of your custom dictionary (usually custom.dic) and at the bottom, you will see the Full Path. Make a note of the name of the dictionary, and the path. 6. Close Word, and open “My Computer”. 7. Double click on your “C” drive. 8. Double click on “Documents and Settings” 9. Double click on your user name. 10. Double click on the “Application Data” folder. (If you can’t see the folder, click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click “Folder Options”, and click on the “View” tab. Click “Show Hidden files and folders”, then click “OK” You should now be able to see your Application Data folder.) 11. Continue to follow the path that you copied to get to the custom. dic file. 12. Drag the custom.dic file to a disk so that you can transfer it to the same location on your new computer.

Elizabeth

I have Word 2007 on my new Del laptop and Word 2003 on my Dell XPS 400 desktop.
Documents from the laptop will not print when I copy them to my desktop computer. How can I make them compatible?
Thank you, Harry

Dear Harry,

The problem you are having stems from the fact that Word 2007 saves files in a new, .docx format that the older, 2003 version cannot read.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to your problem.

When you save a document on your laptop, follow these directions:

1. Click on the Office Orb in the upper left-hand corner of Word 2007.
2. In the menu, point to “Save As”. You will see a menu with 6 options.
3. Click on the option that says, “Word 97-2003 document”. This will save the file in the older .doc format.

If you want to save all your documents in the older format, you can change a setting in Word 2007 so that it will automatically save documents in the 2003 format. Here is how:

1. Open Microsoft Word 2007.
2. Click on the Office Orb in the upper left-hand corner of the window.
3. Click on “Word Options” at the bottom of the menu.
4. In the Word Options dialog box, click on “Save” in the left-hand column.
5. Under “Save documents” the first item says, “Save files in this format:”
6. Click on the drop down list, and click to select “Word 97-2003 Document(*.doc)”
7. Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the dialog box to save your changes and close the window.

After making this change, all you have to do is save your documents the normal way, and they will automatically be in the older, .doc format.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Sandy in Fryeburg, Maine

Dear Sandy,

I have been using windows 7 since December, and I like it. It is different from windows XP, but that is to be expected. Every operating system is a little bit different from the one before it.

Wordperfect 6.1 Is an older version of wp and was designed for windows 95. Corel (the company that created wordperfect) also supported it on windows 98, but is no longer creating updates for it, or supporting it on newer operating systems. There is always a chance that it might work in windows 7, but I would not assume that it will.

You have a few options available to you for simple, and inexpensive word processing programs. I think that open office at www.Openoffice.Org is an excellent option. It is free, and will allow you to open documents created in word.

There is also a free word processing program at http://Www.Abisource.Com called abiword. I have not tried this program, but it is open source (which means that it is created by volunteers) and it works with all major document types including word and wordperfect. I was so impressed by the description on their website that I decided to download it and give it a try. It downloaded in 6 seconds, installed without any problem and even has spell check.

So, even if your older version of wordperfect does not work on a new windows 7 computer, you still have options that are free, and simple to use.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Nancy

Dear Nancy,

Microsoft Word 2007 has a new file format for documents. Previous versions of Word used the .doc file format while Word 2007 uses a . docx format that older versions, and other word processing programs can’t read.

You can, however, save your documents in the old format, here is how:

1. With your document open in Microsoft Word 2007, click on the “Office Button” in the upper left hand corner of the Word Window, point to “Save As” and click on “Word 97-2003 Document”.

2. In the “Save As” window, type a file name for your document and then click the “Save” button.

If you want to have Word 2007 automatically save all your files in the old format, you can do that by changing some settings. Here is how:

1. With Word 2007 open on your screen, click on the “Office Button”.

2. At the bottom of the drop down menu, click on the button that says “Word Options”.

3. In the Word Options window, click on the “Save” tab on the left of the screen.

4. On the right side of the Word Options window, find the setting that says “Save files in this format” and change it from “Word Document (*.docx)” to “Word 97-2003 Document(*.doc)”

5. Click “OK” to save your changes.

Elizabeth

Can you tell me how to do that? Thank you, Judie

Dear Judie,

While I can’t really tell you a way to reverse the order of your Word document without a lot of copy and pasting, I can tell you a great shortcut to quickly get to the end of your document.

1. Open your word document

2. When the document has loaded, hold down the Ctrl key and then press the End key on your keyboard.

3. This will instantly take you to the end of your document.

If you are having trouble locating these keys, the Ctrl key is on the bottom row of your keyboard, there are actually two of them, one on each end.

Elizabeth