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Subject:RE: Large Documents in Word From:"Margaret Cekis" <Margaret -dot- Cekis -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"'Lin Sims'" <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>, "'TECHWR-L'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:17:49 -0500
Lin Sims asked for tips for creating and managing large documents in Word.
Lin:
A few more Word tips:
When you set up your styles in a new template or clean up an old one:
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Go into the style definitions, and make sure that no style in your document
is based on Normal. I use Body Text as my default paragraph style, and
sometimes base other styles on it.
I occasionally use an empty Normal paragraphs as a spacer after tables. I
define all my paragraph styles with built-in spacing. I have a minimal
number of character styles, which I can apply with a key combination. My
usual style for emphasis is named Emphasis, and is defined as bold, 1 pt
smaller than my body style. For example, if my body style is 11-pt Arial, my
Emphasis style is 10-pt Arial Bold. and I use that for commands or other
items I want to stand out.
I also have a defined style for figures which I name Image or Illustration.
Depending on whether the company style is captions before or after images,
the picture style is automatically called after a Caption paragraph, or
automatically brings up a Caption paragraph after it. The Image/Illustration
style sets the spacing above and below the figures, and centers them or sets
different margins than the Body Text.
I've had the best luck with tables if I enter the text that will become a
table with each column separated by tabs. Add header rows with the same
number of tabs (even if some columns do not have heads). At this point I
apply my Table paragraph styles to the text rows and headers. (I usually
have a plain Table Text, a Table Head, a Table List, and a Table Bullet
style, each with above and below spacing. I usually use 6 pt both above and
below, but will reduce that to fit an orphaned row or two on the same page
with the rest of the table.) Then I select all the text that will be part of
the table and use Table>Convert>Text to Table. Adjust the column sizes, and
add custom borders. If I want to bold a column or a row, I use the same
Emphasis character style I use in the text.
Note: If you have problems fitting text into the tables, go to Table>
Table Properties > Cell >Options, and reduce the default 0.08" left and
right side space between the text and the cell borders.
Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA
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