Tips for working on a long document in Winword 6.0

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.