Marking Directly Formatted Text

Styles are very powerful, but they can be messed up if someone chooses to use direct formatting with document text. If you want to see if direct formatting has been applied to some text, Word provides a couple of tools you can use.

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(Thanks to Dick Margulis and Michael Avidan (MVP) for contributing to this tip.)

Document Shows as 'In Use' by Another User

Word tries to constantly track who is using various documents, in order to prevent two users from clashing in their edits to a single document. What if Word reports that a document is being used by someone else when you know that it isn't? Here's how to get back control of the document with a minimum of fuss.

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Word Macros, from the Ground Up

Macros are the key to making Word do what you really want it to do. I've written a complete tutorial that explains, from the ground up, how you can harness the power of macros. Word VBA Guidebook provides the information you need to finally conquer Word macros.

Unwanted Numbering on Pasted Tables

When pasting text from another document or from the Web you can have unexpected characters sometimes show up. Many of them may be eliminated during paste by using Paste Special capabilities of Word.

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Changing Lots of Title Properties

Word maintains a collection of descriptive properties for each document you create. One of these properties is the Title property. If you want to change this specific property in a large number of documents, you'll need to resort to using a macro, as described in this tip.

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