Word 2002 boasts several new and helpful features that can save your end users time and effort when creating and editing documents, including: much more flexible text selection, improved word counting abilities, and the ability to disable the Single Document Interface.
Flexible text selection
Word 2002 gives you three new ways to choose separate sections of text simultaneously—a very handy feature for fast formatting and making document-wide changes.
Select non-contiguous text with the [Ctrl] key
Microsoft Excel has always allowed you to select noncontiguous cells by pressing the [Ctrl] key, but now Word also lets you select noncontiguous text. To select multiple words that aren’t adjacent, follow these steps:
- Select a word, series of words, sentence, or paragraph.
- Hold down the [Ctrl] key and select another word, series of words, sentence, or paragraph from any other section of the document. The new selection will also be highlighted as shown in Figure A.
| Figure A |
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| Word 2002 allows you to select noncontiguous text. |
Keyboard buffs take note: This method works only when using [Ctrl] and the mouse. Microsoft has confirmed that this is a known issue with Word 2002; see MSKB article 275969, “Cannot Select Non-Contiguous Text with the Keyboard”.
Style/format based selection
Word 2002 also makes it easier to make document-wide changes to a particular text style or format.
- If it’s not already visible, open the Task Pane by clicking View | Task Pane.
- Click the inverted triangle at the top right of the Task Pane and select Styles And Formatting from the drop-down list, as shown in Figure B. The Task Pane will list the styles.
- Move the mouse over the list to select the required style but do not click the mouse because it will apply the format to the current text location. Click the arrow that appears alongside the selected style and choose Select All Instance(s) from the drop-down list.
| Figure B |
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| From the Styles And Formatting section of the Task Pane you can select all instances of a particular formatting style. |
Word will automatically highlight all text in your document applied with that format/style; you can then necessitate the changes or deletion on all such text at once.
Find multiple instances at once
You can also use Find command to count and highlight the occurrences of a particular word. Open the Find dialog box, shown in Figure C, by pressing [Ctrl]F or going to Edit | Find. Type the word or words you want to locate in the Find What text box. Select the Highlight All Items Found In: check box. Press [Enter] or click the Find All button and Word will display the number of instances of that word occurring in your document. It will also select them so that they’re easy to spot and edit.
| Figure C |
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| Word 2002’s Find dialog box allows you to find particular words and select those words for easy editing. |
Improved word count
To make life easier for users who need to know how many words or characters are in a particular document, paragraph, or selection, Word 2002 has improved upon Word 2000’s Word Count feature by adding a Word Count toolbar. To open the Word Count toolbar (shown in Figure D), click View | Toolbars | Word Count.
By default, the Word Count toolbar is set to display the number of words in a document or selection. You can change this option however, to count the number of lines, the number of characters (both with and without spaces), the number of pages, and the number of paragraphs.
As you’re editing a document, the Word Count toolbar will display <Click Recount To View> where the actual count would be. To find the number of words in the document or a selection, click the Recount button. An even faster way to recalculate word count is to use the [Alt]C shortcut key.
| Figure D |
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| Word 2002’s Word Count toolbar allows your users to count words, characters, paragraphs, and lines more quickly than in previous versions of Word. |
Turn off Single Document Interface
Word 2000 used a Single Document Interface (SDI) feature that created a separate window for each open document. Word 2002 gives you the option of using either the SDI or a multiple document interface by deactivating the SDI. To turn on or off the SDI feature go to Tools | Options and select the View tab (see Figure E). Deselect the Windows In Taskbar option and click OK. From then on, all your documents will be displayed in a single window.
| Figure E |
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| You can view all documents in a single window by disabling Word’s Single Document Interface option. |
