Recently, a server upgrade caused my office XP system to reset to its defaults. I knew as soon as I heard the Windows startup chime that something was wrong. The first change I make on any new or renewed PC is to set the Windows sound scheme to No Sounds.
As I reset Windows' default sound settings for the umpteenth time, I got to thinking about the many Windows customizations I make on any machine I use on a regular basis. Here are my five favorite Windows interface tweaks. (Note that the last two default-beaters apply only to Vista.)
Tell Windows to shush
As I mentioned above, the Windows startup sound drives me batty. In fact, I do just fine with none of the operating system's sound effects. To shut them off in XP, open the Sound and Audio Devices Control Panel applet, click the Sound tab, and choose No Sounds in the drop-down menu under Sound Scheme. In Vista, right-click the sound icon in the system tray, choose Sounds, and select No Sounds in the Sound Scheme drop-down.
Put a muzzle on Windows' sound effects by choosing No Sounds in the Sound Scheme drop-down menu.
(Credit: Microsoft) Move shortcuts off your desktop and onto your taskbar
Most people load the Windows desktop with shortcut icons pointing to all manner of programs, files, and folders. I prefer to keep my desktop clear, though technically, I drop just about every file I save and program I download there. To access them, I click the Desktop toolbar in my taskbar and scroll through the list that pops up.
To rid your desktop of icons, right-click it and choose Arrange Icons By (XP) or View (Vista). Uncheck (or deselect) Show Desktop Icons. To replace them with the Desktop toolbar, right-click the taskbar, uncheck Lock the Taskbar (if necessary), and choose Toolbars > Desktop.
Save taskbar space by dragging the Desktop toolbar to the right until only the word "Desktop" and the double chevrons show. Then click the chevrons to scroll through and select your shortcuts in a pop-up window.
Press Ctrl to locate a lost mouse pointer
When you think of all the text, icons, and other elements that fill up a standard computer screen, it's no wonder that you sometimes lose track of your mouse pointer. There's a quick and simple way to make it easier to spot. Open the Mouse Control Panel applet, choose the Pointer Options tab, and check "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key."
Make your mouse pointer easier to see by choosing this setting in Pointer Options.
(Credit: Micrsoft) Give your blinking cursor more heft
If your mouse pointer is easy to miss on a crowded screen, finding that skinny blinking cursor in text boxes is the proverbial needle in a haystack. In Vista, you can make the blinking vertical bar more visible by making it thicker. Open the Ease of Access Center in Control Panel, click "Make the computer easier to see," and scroll to and check "Make the focus rectangle thicker." Choose a thickness (any setting greater than "3" might be overkill), and click either Apply or Save.
Show menus in all Vista folder windows
I can appreciate Microsoft's efforts to streamline Windows Explorer and other folder windows in Vista, but getting rid of the standard File-Edit-View-Tools-Help menu was a mistake, in my opinion. You can see them by pressing the Alt key, but the one-time fix is to click Organize > Folder and Search Options > View, and then check "Always show menus" in the "Advanced settings" window.
Show menus in Vista's Explorer and folder windows by checking this option in Advanced settings.
(Credit: Microsoft)Tuesday, I described how to convert the outline of a Word document into a Powerpoint presentation automatically. I stated that this feature was missing in Word 2007, but Tim Anderson explained in his ITWriting blog that the function was still there, though you had to dig a little to find it: Click the Office icon in the top-left corner, choose Word Options at the bottom of the dialog, click Customize in the left pane, select All Commands in the Choose Commands From drop-down menu, scroll to and select Send to Microsoft Office Powerpoint, and click Add to place this option in Word's Quick Access toolbar, which appears just to the right of the Office icon.
That got me thinking about the other useful features that Word makes difficult to find. Here are five neat tricks in Word 2003 and 2007 that you may not know about.
1: Keep your paragraphs together
Too often Word breaks pages in exactly the wrong place, making printouts of your documents difficult to read. The Paragraph dialog box gives you more control over the appearance of your printouts. To open it in Word 2003, click anywhere in the paragraph and choose Format>Paragraph; in Word 2007, click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph section under the ribbon's Home tab. In both versions, check Keep with next (which is selected by default in Word 2003), and Keep lines together, which prevents a paragraph from being split between two pages. If you'd like a paragraph to begin a page, check Page break before.
Control the appearance of your printed documents by selecting these options under the Line and Page Breaks tab in Microsoft Word's Paragraph dialog box.
2: Change a document's date automatically
I frequently reuse the same Word file, changing only the date and one or two other items. It's simple enough to select the old date and start typing the new one until Word's auto-fill feature kicks in to display the current date, which it adds when I press Enter. Now I save myself even those few keystrokes by using a Date and Time field set to the current date: Place the cursor where you want the date to appear, and in Word 2003, click Insert>Field. In Word 2007, choose the Insert tab and click Date & Time. In Word 2003, click Date in the Field names window. In both versions, choose your preferred date format. In Word 2007, check Update automatically. Finally, click OK.
Add the current date to your documents in Word 2003 via the Date and Time options in the Field dialog box.
3: Fit more text on a single page
In addition to the file backups you create yourself, Word keeps backups of the files you've opened recently by default. Still, there may be times when you want to print an archival copy of a lengthy Word document. Save paper by reformatting the document to fit more text per page.
Start by pressing Ctrl-A to select the entire file, and then in Word 2003, click Format>Font. In Word 2007, click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Font section under the Home tab. Choose a smaller font size, though keep in mind that anything smaller than 6 points will be difficult to read without a magnifying glass.
Next, make the margins smaller by clicking File>Page Setup in Word 2003, or Page Layout>Margins>Custom Margins in Word 2007. Change the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right settings in Word 2007 to .16", and in Word 2003, set Outside to 0.07", Inside to 0.5", Left to 0.25", and Right to 0.25". These are the smallest you can have while fitting all text on the printout.
4: Print on two sides of the paper
You can print on both sides of the paper even if your printer doesn't support duplex printing by default, though you may have to flip and collate the paper yourself. In Word 2003, click File>Print; in Word 2007, click the Office icon and choose Print. If you see a "Manual duplex" option, select it and click OK. After the first side prints, you'll be prompted to place the paper back into the input bin, blank side up. Do so and click OK again to print the second side.
If you don't have a Manual duplex option in your printer settings, you can achieve the same effect by choosing Odd pages in the Print drop-down menu, then flip and collate the pages, return them to the paper tray, and click Even pages. Your printer may also have an option to print more than one page per sheet, though this option may render the text unreadable, so test it on a sample page before using it to print a long file.
5: Place an object on its own page
Suppose you have an Excel worksheet you want to place on its own page in the middle of a Word document, and you want the page to print in landscape orientation while the rest of the document is in portrait mode. Piece of cake!
Place the cursor where you want the new page to begin, and click Insert>Break>Next page>OK in Word 2003, or Insert>Page Break in Word 2007. Copy and paste the worksheet into the Word file, and repeat the steps to create another page break at the end of it. Now select the page, and in Word 2003, click File>Page Setup>Margins>Landscape; in Word 2007, choose Page Layout>Orientation>Landscape.
Tomorrow: The safe and easy way to create and share a Web-based calendar.
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