Copywriter, technical writer, translator (FR>EN, ES>EN, IT>EN), journalist

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Avoid overformatting your documents

If you’ve ever felt like you spend too much time formatting your documents, you aren’t alone. Part of the problem is the level of detail to which you CAN format a document. One solution: Draft documents using a word processor that doesn’t give you as many formatting

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Using Print Layout view for a document

Will your word processing document end up on a printed page? Yes? Then work with it in that format onscreen.

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Don't open your computer to strangers

Most parents tell their kids not to open the door to strangers. Most computer users could use the technological equivalent of that talk.

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Better Word formatting in 20 minutes

Microsoft provides great learning resources for people who want to master its products. For example, Microsoft published a course called “Format Your Document by Using Styles”. Claiming it takes about 20 minutes to complete, it gives you a basic handle on style usage in Word. You can

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Find and eliminate double non-printing characters

In a Word document, few circumstances call for “double formatting” like double spaces, double paragraph breaks and double page breaks. And quite often, those “doubles” foil attempts at automating a Word document’s formatting. If your document is short, finding and fixing doubles doesn’t take long. If your

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Layout tips for legal documents

Last month, I read a document produced by a law firm, then one produced by Adobe Systems Incorporated. The Adobe document? Attractive. The legal document? Not so much. Could legal documents use an Adobe-inspired layout makeover?

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Changing the look of a Word style

You can change the look of a given set of paragraphs throughout a document by making a change in just one place.

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Smartpens the way of the future?

Lawyers, pens and pads of paper. The three seem a natural fit, even in a technology-driven present. Digital pen manufacturers are betting that fit lasts well into the future. They’re marketing their wares as devices that reduce time spent on non-billable tasks. Are lawyers buying it?

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Exposed: the server farms behind Farmville

Editors at InformationWeek Magazine outdid themselves with the cover story in the May 16, 2011 issue. For starters, the thought bubble on the cartoon character gracing the cover said this: I can add millons of customers in a week I can add 1,000 servers in a day

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Using nonprinting characters (formatting symbols) in a document

Non-printing characters (NPCs) show formatting in your document. When you first see these symbols, you might think they’re cluttering up your screen. In fact, they’re designed to be both easily perceptible when you want to see them and easy to ignore when you don’t. And the headaches

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