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| Greetings!
Here Comes Sunshine!
Welcome to the sailing-into-summer 2009 issue of KB CommEntary, the KB Comm e-newsletter. At KB Comm, we provide mission-critical communication and learning services to clients in a variety of industries.
This issue of KB CommEntary includes a tip for making Microsoft® Word 2007 work for you, instead of the other way around. |
What's Up at KB Comm?
Thanks to our loyal clients for keeping us fully engaged. Recent and ongoing projects include:
- Developing instructor-led technical training courses for clients in the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing industries
- Rewriting web site content for a medical device manufacturing company
- Writing and formatting chemical residue studies intended for regulatory submission on behalf of a federally funded cooperative program
- Writing supplements and formatting modules of electronic submissions to FDA for a pharmaceutical manufacturing company
- Creating a Microsoft® Word template that includes macros for automation and conforms to the style guidelines of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company
- Revising a style guide to include instructions for Microsoft® Word 2007 for a pharmaceutical manufacturing company
We might be busy, but we are always ready for more. Please keep us in mind for help with your communication or training projects.
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Tips and Tales
How to Stop Worrying and Love Microsoft® Word 2007
Several of our clients now use Microsoft Word 2007. They and we quickly discovered that, with Word 2007, we aren't in Kansas any more. Gone are the old, familiar menus and toolbars, replaced by a newfangled Ribbon with tabs. There's a big Office button in the upper left-hand corner (what's up with that, anyway?). Commands and functions are organized differently. Nothing is where it used to be. It seems like everything is hidden somewhere. How are we supposed to get any work done?
Yes, Word 2007 takes some getting used to, but fortunately the items on the Ribbon are grouped logically. With just a little tab-clicking, it doesn't take long to find most of the commands' new locations. Even so, you probably will wish that there were an easier way to navigate to and select a handful of critical commands and options.
Enter the Word 2007 Quick Access Toolbar, located at the upper left of the Word window (just to the right of the big Office button). The Quick Access Toolbar is a Very Good Thing™, because it:
- Is always accessible, regardless of which Ribbon tab is currently selected.
- Is customizable, so you can add to it whichever functions and options you like.
Spending just a few minutes adding those critical functions, options, or commands to the Quick Access Toolbar will save you many mouse clicks and a lot of time and aggravation. We're pretty sure it saved our marriage.
For example, at KB Comm, we create many new documents that use customized templates. To do this in Word 2007, Bill Gates decided we should click the big Office button, select New, and then select the appropriate template for the document. Well, that's just crazy! We can't remember that New is under that big Office button. New is supposed to be under File, which isn't even there any more. Hey Bill, what shouldn't be there is that big Office button!
Our solution to this nonsense was to add a New... button on the Quick Access Toolbar. Voila! Problem solved! We also added a Track Changes button, so now we can turn on or turn off Track Changes with one click, right from the toolbar. That's more like it!
The good news is that you can add virtually any Word 2007 function, option, or command to the Quick Access Toolbar. So no matter how obscure or inaccessible the command or option, you can make it easily and prominently available.
To customize the Quick Access Toolbar:
- Right-click any item in the Quick Access Toolbar and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar. The Customize page of the Word Options dialog box appears.
- In the Choose Commands field, scroll through the list and select a category. (We found the New... command under Office Menu and Track Changes under Review Tab.)
- Select the desired command and click Add. You can choose to have the command added for all documents (recommended) or for just the document you have open.
- Click OK. Note that your new button now resides in the Quick Access Toolbar.
That's it! It's that easy to customize the Quick Access Toolbar, and you won't have to remember which Ribbon tab contains the command you need.
P.S. Although we've enjoyed beating up on Microsoft, we hasten to assure you that most of the Word functions, options, and commands you probably use are actually very easy to find on one of the Word 2007 Ribbon tabs. Just poke around a bit and you will quickly become accustomed to the new layout. Happy authoring!
Ideas?
To help us make KB CommEntary more useful to you, feel free to suggest topics you would like to see addressed. Send your ideas by clicking the e-mail link in the footer at the bottom of the page (kathy@kathybcommunications.com) and we will consider featuring it in an upcoming edition of the newsletter. | |
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And please remember, when it has to be right, KB Comm is here to help.
Sincerely, |
Kathy Breuninger
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