Topic: Character Formatting

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Accurate Font Sizes Word provides you with complete control over the size of the characters in your document. This tip explains how font sizing works, and shows how easy it is to specify very precise font sizes for your text. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Adding a Box Around Selected Text You can use a special field to put a box around text within a paragraph. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97

Adding a Font Menu You can customize Word so it includes a Fonts menu. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Adding a Little Color The normal way to change the color of selected text is through the use of the Font Color tool. If you have to use the same color over and over again, there is a different way—you can create your own color tool as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Adjusting Small Caps Text Small caps can be a handy text treatment that makes selected text stand out from the text around it. It is often used for headings within a document. This tip explains how to apply the small caps attribute, and includes a macro that allows you to apply it very quickly. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Adjusting Small Caps Text with WordBasic Make your small caps text look its best with this handy WordBasic macro. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Animating Your Text As you format text, Word can even animate the text, if desired. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Applying Bold Italics A handy VBA macro that allows you to apply bold and italics attributes with a single click. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Applying Formatting to Words In Word 2000 or later versions, Word allows you to apply character formatting to entire words, without the need to first select the words. This is a great time-saving feature, provided you have Word configured properly to enable this type of formatting. Microsoft Word versions: 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Applying the All Caps Format If you absolutely need for some text to appear in capital letters, one way to accomplish your goal is to format the text using the All Caps check box. Accessing the check box via the menus can be bothersome if you need to do it over and over again, so Word provided a shortcut key to apply the attribute. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Automatically Using Smart Quotes Smart quotes can add “polish” to a document, but not everyone knows what they are. This tip explains smart quotes and how you can use them in your documents. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Character Color Need to easily change the color of some selected text? A quick way to do it is with a custom macro that sets just the hue that you want. This tip describes such a macro and explains how to modify it for any color desired. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Character Color with WordBasic Presents a handy little WordBasic macro that changes the color of the selected text. (Came in real handy before Word provided a Font Color tool.) Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Changing Font Size Using a Shortcut Key Word provides the Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut for changing font size. The behavior of the shortcut differs, however, based on whether the Formatting toolbar is displayed. This tip provides the details on how to use the shortcut. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Kerning Kerning, or the process of adjusting how closely letters are placed to each other, can be done quite easily in Word. You have complete control over the horizontal positioning of adjacent letters. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Strikethrough Lines When you apply the strikethrough attribute to text, a single line appears horizontally through the text. If you want to change the appearance of that line, your options are very limited. This tip explains why this is the case and discusses a simple workaround. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Text Case If you need to easily change the upper- and lower-case configuration of your text, Word has you covered. All you need to do is use the Change Case feature, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Changing Text Case with WordBasic Learn a shortcut for changing the case of your text, as well as a WordBasic macro for changing multiple instances in a document. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Changing Text Color How to create an icon on a toolbar to automatically add a color to your text. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Changing the Formatting of All Instances of a Word Key words in a document may be more effective if they are formatted to stand out from the surrounding text. This tip discusses two different ways you can make sure that all instances of a key word really do stand out from the crowd. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Copying Character Formatting The Format Painter is a handy tool for copying formatting from one text selection to another. This tip provides a quick recap of how to use this tool. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Creating a Drop Cap Drop caps can be a nice finishing touch for some types of documents. Word allows you to create three types of drop caps, and to adjust how those drop caps appear. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Creating Custom Underlines Word provides a wide variety of underlines that you can apply to text. What happens if you want to create a custom underline, however? This tip explores some of the options that are available to you. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Creating Thin Spaces Thin spaces are a typographic device that allows you add a bit of space between elements of a document. There are no thin spaces available in Word (as separate characters), but you can create the same effect produced by thin spaces by using the ideas presented in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Embossing Text Word can make your text look as if it has been embossed on the page. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Fonts Don't Work in Word on New System When you upgrade from a system with an older version of Word to a system that has a newer version, your fonts may not work in the same way as they did on your old system. The solution may lie not within Word, but in the operating system. This tip examines some ways you can deal with the problem. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Fonts in the Font Drop-Down List The Fonts drop-down list is one of the tools on the Formatting toolbar. When you select fonts from the list, they are moved to the MRU at the top of the list. This tip describes how to turn the Fonts list MRU on and off. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Formatted Merging When you use the mail-merge capabilities of Word, the information merged takes on the formatting of your source document, not your data source. If you want to apply different formatting to some of the information you merge, you’ll need to use the technique illustrated in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Icon-based Fonts How to paste toolbar images into a Word document. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Intelligent Title Case You can instruct Word to make changes to the capitalization (case) of selections of text. One case change method, title case, is not as helpful as it might be, however. This tip describes what you can do to make title case changes even more intelligent. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Letters Turn into Squares Imagine that you are typing away, and all of a sudden your beautiful prose turns into a series of small rectangles that are worthless. If you run into this problem, there are a few things you should check out. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Making Text Bold You probably already know that there are a number of ways you can make text bold in Word. Here's a quick discussion of two ways, one of which is a surprising adaption from the online world. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Overlining Characters You know how to underline, but do you know how to overline? Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Printing Hidden Text One of the formatting attributes you can add to text is to make it “hidden,” which means you can control whether it is displayed or printed. This tip explains how you can control the printing of hidden text, independent of whether it is displayed or not. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Printing without Headings Want some quick and handy ways to not print certain information in your documents, such as headings? This tip outlines a couple of things you can do to banish the unwanted text, at least from the printout. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Protecting Hidden Text How to stop others from seeing your hidden text. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Decreasing Point Size A shortcut for decreasing the point size of a font. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Displaying the Font Dialog Box Want to quickly format some text in your document? Select, right-click, and make a selection, and you can get to the heart of character formatting. This tip shows how easy it is! Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Quickly Increasing Point Size Need to increase the point size of some text in a hurry? You can do it using the Ctrl+] shortcut, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Replacing Quoted Text with Italics In many documents it is preferable to have special terms formatted as italics when they are first used. Some people, however, often place quote marks around such text. This tip provides a handy macro that can step through a document and make sure that any text surrounded by quote marks is converted to italics text. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Replacing Quoted Text with Italics with WordBasic Got a document where lots of quoted text appears? Want to change all that quoted text to italics? This WordBasic macro makes short work of the task. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Resetting Default Character Formatting Sometimes you want to remove all the formatting from a text selection. This tip explains a fast and easy way to remove the formatting and return the text to whatever format is possessed by the underlying style. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Retaining Explicit Formatting after Applying Styles If you apply paragraph styles to paragraphs, that application may result in the unwanted removal of some explicit formatting, such as italics or bold. This tip presents a technique that allows you to easily retain the explicit formatting you want to keep. Microsoft Word versions: 2002 | 2003

Scaling Characters You can adjust the horizontal size of characters in a document. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Searching for Character Formatting Word doesn’t limit you to searching only for text. You can also, among other things, search for text formatted in a specific manner. This tip explains how you can easily perform such a search. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Smushing Text Together Text is linearly spaced according to the specifications set up by the makers of the font you are using. Word allows you to override the spacing so that letters appear closer together. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Stepping Through Common Point Sizes A shortcut for, well, stepping through common point sizes. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Strikethrough Shortcut Key One common type of formatting is strikethrough, which is normally applied from the Font dialog box. There is no built-in keyboard shortcut for the format, but you can make your own following the advice in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Superscript and Subscript at the Same Place Do you want a superscript and subscript character to appear directly above each other without using the Equation Editor? There are multiple ways you can accomplish this task, and this tip examines all of those ways. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Text Prints as Bold, but Displays as Regular What to do when text looks one way on the screen but prints a different way? This tip provides several different approaches you can use to correct the disparity. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Toggling Animation Turning text animation on and off. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Underlining Section References Automatically If you have a document that has some sort of keyword within it (such as “Section”) you may want to automatically format that keyword in some way. This tip addresses just such a situation, and shows how you can apply the formatting you need. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Understanding Font Styles Font vendors usually provide fonts in more than one style, such as regular, bold, and italic. Word supports multiple font styles, and this tip explains how you can discover what styles are available for any font installed on your system. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding Monospace Fonts Monospace fonts allow you to easily achieve a specific “look” with your text or to line up information in a certain way. This tip explains what makes monospace fonts, well, “mono.” Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Understanding Underlines Part of the formatting you can add to your text is underlining. That simple word (underlining) represents quite a few different types of formats in Word, however. This tip discusses all the different types of underlines you can use. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Unwanted Numbering on Pasted Tables When you copy information and then paste it into your document, you may get some things pasted that you didn’t count on. There are a couple of things you can try to get rid of these unwanted artifacts of pasting, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using Non-Printing Notes If you have some notes you want added in the text of a document, just type them in and then format them as Hidden text. This tip explains how you can use Hidden text to your benefit with notes of your own making. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using Very Large Font Sizes You can format your text to use some very, very large font sizes. The results you see from formatting with large fonts depend on the typeface used. This tip discusses some of the considerations to keep in mind. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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