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

Posts Tagged format

Make long Word tables understandable

When a Microsoft Word table is so long it runs over two pages, it can cause consternation for readers in at least two ways: The header rows – those rows at the top of tables that serve to label the contents of each column – don’t repeat

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Before you send a document…

Most people run spelling and grammar checks on their documents before sending them to clients, collaborators and other people. If you use more sophisticated tools in Word (like cross-references, tables of contents and page numbers, generally known as fields), you also need to: make sure the fields

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What page was that on again?

If you create a long business document, chances are you need to use the same concepts in more than one place. So to prevent redundancy, you create a cross reference that says something like “as discussed in topic X on page Y.” If you type this, then

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Rearranging a long document the easy way

Ever tried rearranging sections in long Microsoft Word documents? Even if you use Heading styles and can quickly find your headings, even if you created a table of contents to help you navigate the document, finding and moving stuff using the onscreen page is a cumbersome process.

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Tabling your prose

Want to make data-dense text more understandable in your document? Consider putting the information in a table instead of straight text. And when you do so, create the table the easy way.

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Reuse your own genius

Have you completed a document using Microsoft Word (or another word processor) and made it look exactly right? Did you hone the styles so that formatting is practically automated? Congratulations! You accomplished a grand feat, one that likely took lots of learning, work and revision. Here’s the

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Creating new Word styles – the easy way

While you’re drafting a document, you might want to create a new character style or paragraph style. (The difference? You can apply character styles to words, even individual characters, while paragraph styles apply from one pilcrow to the next.) Chances are the style you want to create

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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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