Tips for working on a long document in Winword 6.0

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Suppose somebody asks you whether you truly believe that today's word processors are better than the ones we had back in the middle of the 1980s. What would you say? Although it might have been impossible to create tables and insert pictures in our documents in those days, how many of us who use a computer regularly really know how to do it on our own even now?

Each time a new word processor is introduced, the software publisher never fails to tout a legion of new features that, according to their claims, are going to make our life much easier. I remember two or three years ago when WordPerfect held a public demonstration of the features found in its Version 6.0 for Windows at Sahid Jaya Hotel. The audience continuously cheered every time a new tool was shown in action. People shook their head when they saw that the new word processor could do magic tricks, such as fitting a string of text into an ellipse or adding shadows to the headings. However, when I got home, I did what the majority of us usually do with our computers. We type, or we create documents with a little spice here and there, and that's about all.

Only once in the blue moon are we faced with the really challenging task of formatting a long document using a word processor. Just last week I found myself in such a situation, when a colleague asked me to edit and lay out his 200-page document in three days. The word processor of choice was Winword 6.0, which was the preference of the printer who was going to print it in book form. This proved to be one of those times when I have had to desperately ask for help from seasoned Winword users.

This time, let me share with you two of the tips that I learned along the way, as I believe more and more of us are using Winword nowadays. Sorry, it may sound pathetic, but it doesn't seem to make sense anymore to use any other word processor than Winword now, given this program's wide popularity -- regardless of whether or not we like Microsoft.

Create sections

First, here's a tip that a friend mercifully shared with me, when I had become more than just a little bit frustrated because I hadn't been able to eliminate the page number on the first page of each new chapter. "Don't just press Ctrl and hit Enter to insert a Page Break," he said, "insert a Section Break before the new chapter." Yes, you guessed right: The Insert Section Break is found under the Insert menu item. The dialog box that appears looks like the one in the middle of the screen.

On the first page, for instance, we can insert a page number that follows the page number of the previous section. While the dialog box is still on the screen, we can uncheck the option "Show Number on First Page" that you see on the bottom left of the screen.

Placing a new chapter in a separate section has another benefit. Suppose you're laying out a book that contains several articles written by different authors. For each chapter, the footnote and endnote number should start from number one again. If you have placed each chapter in a separate section, you'll have no problem telling Winword to start the footnote number from one, as the option is clearly available in the dialog box.

There is still another use for the section breaks: If you number the first few of your document pages in Roman numerals and the rest in Arabic numerals, you cannot do it unless you insert the Section Break in between. Thus the power of the Section Break.

Keep it together

Have you ever been upset at seeing one or more of your tables be split into two consecutive pages instead of staying together in one single page as all tables should always be? Or, have you ever cursed the computer for placing the subheading right on the bottom of the page and its text on the next page?

Well, I have experienced both. Fortunately here's the method that we can use to make sure the tables are indivisible and that the subheading and its text are inseparable, thereby allowing us to live a little bit more happily by knowing that we will not get an unpleasant surprise after printing out hundreds of pages.

First, we have to highlight the entire part of the text that we would like to stick together. In the accompanying example, for instance, the subheading The Good Fortune should be selected together with a couple of lines from the following paragraphs. While these lines of text are highlighted, we can click on the right mouse button and click on the Paragraph... item from the list that pops up. You'll see a dialog box like the one on the accompanying screen. Click on "Keep with next" to turn it on, and the highlighted text will glue itself together.

Once these lines become inseparable, we can safely add text above them. When the newly inserted text pushes them down toward the page break, they will stay together. When the body of the text has to move to the next page, the subheading will follow it. And that's just how a well laid out a document should look.

Sometimes we need to include tables that are too wide to fit horizontally and therefore we need to place them vertically. There's a quick way of achieving this.

First, we have to highlight the entire section that we want to print vertically. This will include the heading of the table, the table itself, and the reference source. Once all of them are highlighted, we click on File, Page Setup, and change the paper orientation from Portrait to Landscape. Usually, since we have a part of the document already selected, Winword will know that we wish to change the orientation of the selected section only. However, it's always a good idea to make sure that it will not affect the entire document. You can check this in the dialog box.

Once you click OK, the table heading, the table itself, as well as other text included in the selection will have a landscape orientation. Both the preceding and the following pages will remain unaltered.

However, here's a challenge for you: If we do this, the header, footer and footnote -- including page number -- will also be printed vertically.

If you have a better solution that will leave these components where they should be in the document, please fax your answer to me.