Word 2007: Using Table Styles

You have an existing table in a Word 2007 document. It’s pretty plain and you want to jazz it up a little. Here’s how to quickly change the styles applied to your table.

Applying a table style to an existing table

1. Select the table. The Design and Layout tabs for Table Tools are added to the ribbon (A).
2. Select the Design tab.
3. In the Table Style group (on the left [B]), select the check boxes for the effects you want. For example, if this table has a header row, select that check box; if you want banded rows, select that check box; if you have a Totals row, select that one, etc. (See also: Tips for using built-in table styles.)
4. In the Table Styles group (C), click the drop-down arrow to the right of the example styles to see ‘thumbnail’ views of various table styles; scroll down to see all the variations.
5. Hover over various thumbnails (D) to see how each one looks when applied to your table.
6. Click on the thumbnail for the style you want to apply.

Modifying an existing table style

NOTE: Modifying a table style will change it for the future – at least for this document and possibly for all new documents based on this document’s template. Be certain you want to do this before you start.

1. Select the table. The Design and Layout tabs for Table Tools are added to the ribbon.
2. Select the Design tab.
3. In the Table Styles group, the style applied to the table is shown with a faint orange border around its thumbnail.
4. Right-click on the thumbnail, then select Modify Table Style.
   
5. The Modify Style dialog box displays, showing the overall table settings (Apply formatting to is set to Whole table by default).
   
6. To change settings that apply to the entire table, use the icons and drop-down lists in the Formatting section of this dialog box, as well as the settings under the Format button.
7. To change settings that apply to various parts of the table (e.g. the header row, odd or even row banding, etc.), select that element from the Apply formatting to drop-down list, then use the icons and drop-down lists in the Formatting section of this dialog box, as well as the available settings under the Format button. Note: Not all settings are available. You can see some of the changes in the preview window.
8. Select whether you want your table style changes to apply Only in this document or to New documents based on this template.
9. Click OK.
10. When you save your document, you will be asked to save the changes to the template if you selected that option in step 8.

Creating a new table style

1. Insert a new table (Insert tab, Table icon).
2. Select the table. The Design and Layout tabs for Table Tools are added to the ribbon.
3. Select the Design tab.
4. In the Table Styles group, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the example styles then select New Table Style (below the thumbnails). The Modify Style dialog box displays.
5. Give your new style a Name.
6. Leave the Style type set to Table.
7. The default Style based on is set to Table Normal. While you can set up a table ‘from scratch’ using this, you will save quite a bit of time if you click the drop-down arrow for the Style based on field and work your way through the long list of existing table styles. As you select each, it displays in the preview window. When you find one that most closely matches the style you want, select it.
8. Select an element from the Apply formatting to drop-down list, then use the icons and drop-down lists in the Formatting section of this dialog box, as well as the available settings under the Format button to style that element. Note: Not all formatting settings are available for all elements. You can see some of the changes in the preview window.
9. Select whether you want your new table style to apply Only in this document or to New documents based on this template.
10. Click OK.
11. When you save your document, you will be asked to save the changes to the template if you selected that in step 9.

Setting a table style as the default for new tables

You’ve styled your table perfectly! Now you want that style to be applied to every table you create. Well, you can do it the slow way – insert a new table, then apply your table style to it. But it’s much easier to set your table style as the default. That way, whenever you insert a new table, it will be styled just the way you want. (Hint: If you only want the table style applied to some – not all – of your tables, add it to the Quick Tables list.)

1. Select the table. The Design and Layout tabs for Table Tools are added to the ribbon.
2. Select the Design tab.
3. In the Table Styles group, the style applied to the table is shown with a faint orange border around its thumbnail.
4. Right-click on the thumbnail of the style you want as the default, then select Set as Default.
5. You are asked if you want to set it as the default table just for This document only or for All documents based on the (this document’s) template. Select an option, then click OK.
6. To test that it’s now the default, go to the Insert tab and click the Table icon.
7. As you drag your cursor over the rows and cells, a preview of the table shows in the document. It should look like the table style you selected as the default.

Warning

Applying table styles to an existing table can be problematic and may not work as expected, depending on the paragraph styles used in the exiting table. No-one seems to have documented exactly how table styles and settings are meant to work and how conflicts are resolved. Better people than me (e.g. Microsoft MVPs) have tried to get them to work, but have failed. See these comments/discussions that apply to table styles from Word 2002 to 2007. Bottom line: There are issues…. Seemed like a good idea, but no-one appears to have got them to work as I had hoped.

• http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/tablestyles/index.html
• http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/word-tables/4609/Table-styles-new-in-2007
• http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/word-tables/6460/Word-2007-table-styles-do-they-work

[Links last checked September 2009]

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Word 2007: Using Quick Tables

Quick Tables are a quick and easy way to insert a pre-formatted table. However, the default tables are probably not what you want, so you need to know how to add your own.

Adding a Quick Table to your document

1. Go to the Insert tab and click the Table icon.
2. Select Quick Tables to open the panel of built-in tables.
   
3. Scroll down to the table you want to add (tables are listed alphabetically by category name first [look for the heading (A)], then table name (B) within a category).
   
4. Click on the table to insert it. Hint: To specify exactly where you want the table to go (e.g. header, footer, beginning, end of the document etc.), right-click on it and select from the list of options.
   
5. Complete the table as you normally would.

Adding a table to the Quick Tables list

1. Insert a blank table.
2. Format the table the way you want — e.g. borders, shading, row height, alignment, emphasis, font size, etc. for the heading row and the table rows. You can use manual formatting, or one of the built-in table designs (with or without modification). Hint: If your table always has the same column heading names, add those too.
3. Select the table.
4. Go to the Insert tab and click the Table icon.
5. Select Quick Tables to open the panel of quick tables.
6. Click Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery (this option is immediately below the panel).
7. On the Create New Building Block dialog, give the table a Name and a Description, and consider changing the Category (see ‘About Categories’ below).
   
8. Click OK.

About Categories

From the testing I’ve done, it seems that categories are listed alphabetically in the Quick Tables panel. They display as a heading with a pale background, which makes them hard to see, and are followed by the tables in that category.

By default, Built-in quick tables are the only ones you see until you’ve added quick tables to other categories. The categories are listed alphabetically in the panel, with the tables in each category listed alphabetically *within* each group. So, Built-in tables are listed before General tables because B comes before G. If you want your quick tables to be listed at the top, you can use one of these tricks:

• Create a new category that lists alphabetically before ‘Built-in’. If your category name doesn’t start letters alphabetically before Bu, use an underscore or other symbol in front of the name to force it before ‘Built-in’ – e.g. _CompanyName.
• Change the category to Built-in and add an underscore or other symbol such as an asterisk to the beginning of the name – this will force your table to the top of the Built-in list.

Changing a Quick Table’s category

1. Go to the Insert tab and click the Table icon.
2. Select Quick Tables to open the panel of built-in tables.
3. Scroll down to the table for which you want to change the category.
4. Right-click on it, then select Organize and Delete. The Building Blocks Organizer dialog opens with the table selected.
   
5. Click Edit Properties.
6. Make the changes.
7. When you are finished, click Close.

Deleting a table from the Quick Tables panel

If there are some tables in the Quick Tables panel that you’ll never use, you can delete them. This deletes them fully, so make sure this is what you want to do.

1. Go to the Insert tab and click the Table icon.
2. Select Quick Table to open the panel of built-in tables.
3. Scroll down to the table you no longer need.
4. Right-click on it, then select Organize and Delete. The Building Blocks Organizer dialog opens with the table selected.
5. Click Delete. You are asked to confirm the deletion.
6. When you are finished, click Close.

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Word: Quickly moving between headers and footers

Scenario

You have a long document, or a large one filled with lots of big images, a mix of landscape and portrait pages, lots of section breaks, etc. You need to do stuff in the headers and footers (add/remove text, shift tabs, insert page numbers, adjust page margins etc.), but skipping from one header/footer to the next takes longer than you’d expected.

Solution

Hide the main document while you’re working in the headers/footers. You should find that you can skip between them really quickly once you do that. Turn on the document display after you’ve finished making your header/footer changes.

Here’s how:

Word 2003

1. Double-click in the header or footer to open it and display the Header Footer toolbar.
   

   Word 2003 Header Footer toolbar

2. Click the Show/Hide Document Text icon to hide the main body of the document from view.
   

   Show/Hide Document Text icon

3. Use the ’skip’ and ’switch’ icons to move backwards and forwards through the headers and footers, and to quickly switch from a section’s header to its footer and back again.
   

   Skip and switch icons

4. When you’ve finished making your changes to the headers/footers, click the Show/Hide Document Text icon again, then return to your main document.

Word 2007

1. Double-click in the header or footer to open it and display the Header Footer Tools > Design tab.
   

   Word 2007: Header Footer Tools > Design tab

2. In the Options group, clear the Show Document Text check box icon to hide the main body of the document from view.
3. Use the Navigation group icons to move backwards and forwards through the headers and footers, and to quickly switch from a section’s header to its footer and back again.
4. When you’ve finished making your changes to the headers/footers, select the Show Document Text check box, then click the Close Header and Footer icon to return to your main document.

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Word: Superscripts and subscripts

Here are two quick keyboard shortcuts for formatting selected text as superscripts or subscripts:

• Superscript: Ctrl+Shift+= (e.g. ft³)
• Subscript: Ctrl+= (e.g. H₂O)

See also:

• Replacing text containing superscript and subscript characters

[Link last checked September 2009]

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Free quick reference guides to popular software applications

CustomGuide, a computer software training company, have made available — for free — their quick reference guides for all Microsoft Office products, some other Microsoft products, some Adobe products, etc.

You can get these two-page illustrated guides here: http://www.customguide.com/quick_references.htm

[Links last checked September 2009; thanks to @onemanwrites for tweeting this site]

Word: Deleting a bookmark

Surprisingly, you delete a Word bookmark from the Insert menu, which I guess shouldn’t be so surprising coming from a company that gets you to click Start to shutdown your computer! ;-)

Before you delete a bookmark, you need to know if you have any in your document and if they serve a purpose (e.g. a marker for an Appendix could be a legitimate bookmark).

Viewing bookmarks

A quick and easy way to see bookmarks is to turn on the visual indicators for them:

• Word 2003: Tools > Options > View tab, Show group, Bookmarks check box.
• Word 2007: Office button ,  click Word Options then Advanced on the left. Scroll down to the Show document content section, and select the Show bookmarks check box.

(See this post for pictures of these Options windows)

Once you’ve turned on the bookmark indicators, you can identify any bookmarks in your document by the gray square brackets.

Bookmarked text is surrounded by gray square brackets

So, how do these bookmarks get there when you know you haven’t added them? Well, sometimes they seem come in when you copy/paste from another document. I don’t know how or why — I just know I’ve seen them appear under those circumstances when I’ve received a Word document that’s been written and revised by multiple authors.

Deleting unwanted bookmarks

Once you’ve found bookmarked text, you need to check if has a legitimate purpose being there and delete it if it doesn’t.

1. Click anywhere within the bookmarked text.
2. Open the Bookmark dialog box:
   • Word 2003: Select Insert > Bookmark from the menu.
   • Word 2007: Go to the Insert tab > Links group, then select Bookmark.
3. Look at what’s on the automatically selected line. If it has OLE_LINK followed by a number, and the text you clicked in is just text, not an object, then you can delete the bookmark without upsetting anything in your document.
4. Click Delete. The selected OLE_LINK line is removed from the list.
5. Click Close.

Bookmark dialog box

“But I’ve still got gray brackets around the text!”

Often, the bookmark doesn’t go on the first deletion. I think this is because bookmarks have an opening and closing bracket and both must be removed.

So click in the text again (if you’re not already there), then re-open the Bookmark dialog box. The correct line for the other ‘end’ of the bookmark will be selected automatically, so you don’t need to try to figure out which one it is. Click Delete then Close. The gray brackets for that bookmark should now be gone for good.

No bookmarks around the text!

Alternative method

If you notice there are lots of OLE_LINK items in the Bookmark dialog box, you can check and delete them directly from that box.

Here’s how:

1. Select any OLE_LINK item (or other unrecognizable item) listed in the Bookmark dialog box.
2. Click Go To. You get taken to the place in the document where the bookmark is located and the bookmarked text/object will be selected. It may be a word or a phrase, or an entire section of the document, depending upon how the bookmark was created.
3. Make sure you’re OK with deleting the bookmarks for the selection, then click Delete. If you’re not sure, then leave them there.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for all other unrecognizable bookmarks.

Note: You can only delete one bookmark at a time.

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Word: Separate out macros and attach them to all documents

(Many thanks to Hamish Blunck for helping me with this tip)

I needed to make some macros available to all Word documents I opened. I wouldn’t need the macros for every document, but I would need them for many documents. The documents I was working on used different templates, so adding the macro to each template was not an option. In addition, some of the documents came from organizations where I had no access to, nor control over, their templates. Adding the macro to my Normal.dot template wasn’t an option either — if Normal.dot gets corrupted or deleted, Word will create a new one based on the ‘factory defaults’ — and I would lose all my macros.

What I wanted was a place where I could store all my handy Word macros, and I wanted the macros to be available to all my Word documents, whether I used any of them in a particular document or not.

The ‘quick and dirty’ solution for those who know about these things is to:

1. Create and save a new blank document as a template (Word 2003: *.dot; Word 2007: *.dotm).
2. Add your favorite macros and any keyboard assignments to this template. Save and close.
3. Move your macros template to the Word > STARTUP folder.

For those who require more steps…

Create a new template document for your macros

1. Create a new document in Word.
2. Immediately save it with a meaningful name (like macros) as a Document Template file type (Word 2003: macros.dot; Word 2007: macros.dotm).

Don’t close your new template yet — you’re going to add your macros to it next.

Add your macros to your macros template

Macros can come from various places — existing Word documents or templates, the internet, or you can create or record them from scratch.

The critical thing is to locate them then add them to your new macros.dot(m) document.

1. Open the Macros dialog box (Word 2003: Tools > Macro > Macros; Word 2007: Developer tab > Code group > Macros button).
2. Type anything in the Macro name field (you’ll be deleting it in a moment, so don’t worry about what it is).
3. Click Create.
4. Delete the macro information just created, then paste your favorite macros into the Code window. Each macro should start with a Sub line and end with an End Sub line.
5. Close the Code window and the Microsoft Visual Basic window to return to your blank document.

Add any keyboard assignments to your macros template (optional)

If you like to run your macros using the keyboard, then now is the time to assign your keyboard combinations to your macros.

1. Go to Tools > Customize (Word 2003) OR Office button  > Word Options > Customize (Word 2007).
2. Click Keyboard (Word 2003) OR Customize (Word 2007; Hint: This button is near the bottom of the window).
3. On the Customize Keyboard dialog box, select Macros from the Categories list.
4. Select one of your macros from the list of macros on the right.
5. Click in the Press new shortcut key field.
6. Press the keys you want to assign to this function.
7. Select the template where you want to save this keyboard combination (select your new macros.dot(m) template).
8. Click Assign.
9. Click Close to close the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
10. Close the Customize dialog box (Word 2003) OR the Word Options dialog (Word 2007).
11. Save and close your macros.dot(m) document.

Move your macros template to your Word STARTUP folder

1. Copy your macros.dot(m) template document to the clipboard.
2. Paste it into your Word STARTUP folder; by default, it is located here:
   • Word 2003: C:\Users\<UserName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
   • Word 2007: C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData
     \Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
3. You can check your Startup folder location here:
   • Word 2003: Tools > Options > File Locations tab. Select Startup, then click Modify to see the full file path.
   • Word 2007: Office button > Word Options > Advanced > General section (near the bottom). Click File Locations, then select Startup. Click Modify to see the full file path.

Now whenever you open a Word document or create a new one, the macros in your macros.dot(m) file will be available for you to use.

Very clever. Thanks Hamish!

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Word: Macro to fix Track Changes/Cross References issues

The problem

When all Track Changes have not been accepted, you may not be able to insert a cross-reference to a table or figure caption correctly. Either you see multiple instances of the caption listed in the Cross Reference dialog box, OR you don’t see the caption at all, OR you see an incorrect table/figure number for the caption (e.g. you see Table 5.1 instead of Table 1.1).

This is a known issue with Word since at least Word 2000 (see the list of resources at the end of this post).

The issue

You’d think that accepting all changes would be sufficient. And it is. But accepting all changes is not appropriate where you have a document that MUST keep Track Changes on, such as one that has to go through a regulatory compliance process through all its revisions. I have been working on these types of documents. In Word 2003, it was never really an issue – double-upped cross-references were an annoyance more than anything, and we never noticed any that were missing. But as soon as my client started using Word 2007, we came across serious issues with existing table and figure captions not being listed in the Cross Reference dialog.

A little testing showed that it was related to Track Changes being on and the acceptance of all changes in the document. Armed with that knowledge, I headed off to trusty Google to try to find a solution — a solution that allowed cross-reference and caption fields (and lists of tables and figures) to be updated without affecting other parts of the document.

Solution

Macropod (clever name!), a Microsoft Word MVP, had posted a macro that solved the problem (http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-31716892.php). It worked great, but it dropped me into the footer and into Draft view at the end of the document when it was finished. So I posted my request to the Microsoft Word Programming Discussion Group, and the ever-helpful Macropod tweaked his/her original macro to get me what I wanted, which was to return to where I was when I ran the the macro.

Here’s Macropod’s revised macro:

Sub AcceptTrackedFields()
Dim oRng As Range ' All Range objects - includes ranges in the body, Headers , Footers & Shapes
Dim Fld As Field ' Field Object
Dim oView As Variant ' The original document view
Dim SelRng As Range ' The original selection
' Turn Off Screen Updating
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument
  oView = ActiveWindow.View.Type
  Set SelRng = Selection.Range
  ' Loop through all range objects and accept tracked changes on fields
  For Each oRng In .StoryRanges
    Do
      For Each Fld In oRng.Fields
        Fld.Select
        Selection.Range.Revisions.AcceptAll
      Next
    Set oRng = oRng.NextStoryRange
    Loop Until oRng Is Nothing
  Next
End With
With ActiveWindow
  If .View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
    .ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
  Else
    .View.Type = wdPrintView
  End If
  .View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
  .View.Type = oView
  SelRng.Select
End With
' Restore Screen Updating
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
 

Thanks heaps, Macropod! The generosity of the Microsoft MVPs and community is humbling.

Some websites that discuss this issue

• http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Word/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement/2008-12/msg02350.html (or http://bit.ly/zY0fh)
• http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Word/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement/2008-12/msg02346.html (or http://bit.ly/3RsWxT)
• http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html (question and answer near the bottom of this page)
• http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3715892.php (macro solution)
• http://robsnotebook.com/ms-word-track-changes-printing-crossrefs
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252619 (shows that it was an issue back in Word 2000!!)
• http://www.mcse.ms/archive/index.php/t-2809819.html (option to lock fields??)

[Links last checked October 2009]

 

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Word: Can’t add a comment

Scenario

Track Changes is turned on but you’re working in the Final mode of the document (in other words, you can’t see the balloons etc. for the tracked changes). You want to add a comment to the author so you click the Comment icon. The Comments pane displays in the lower section of the document (this is in Word 2003; I’m not sure if it works the same in Word 2007). You start typing your comment, then realize that it’s not showing or only part of it has gone in. Or, you’ve already added a comment without any problem, then realized you’ve made a typo, so you go back to fix it and now anything you type isn’t displayed.

Why?

If you look carefully, you might see a message in the status bar telling you ‘This modification is not allowed because the document is locked.’ Of course, you wonder why it’s locked — after all, you have full permission on this document.

Well, I can’t answer the ‘Why is it locked?’ question, but I suspect it has something to do with Word repaginating the document to allow for the comment balloon (as if Final Showing Markup mode was on).

Solution

Wait! That’s all you have to do — wait for Word to finish doing whatever it’s doing. After a few seconds, the message disappears and you can make the changes or finish typing your comment.

If anyone knows why this happens, and importantly, how to turn this background repagination off (yes, all the usual settings are turned off), then please feel free to add your solution to the Comments for this post.

BTW, the ONLY information that the Microsoft Support website has on this message is cryptic, to say the least: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818852/en-us. And all the documents I’ve worked on where I had this message were NOT protected for comments or anything else.

[Links last checked September 2009]

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Word: Turn off pagination

If you’re working in a long or large document, Word’s background pagination can become a productivity killer. While it’s occurring, you can’t work as fast as usual, and sometimes, you can’t work at all until the paginating stops.

You can turn off this background pagination, but only in certain view modes in Word. You cannot turn it off when you are in Page Layout or Print Preview modes for example, as Word needs to repaginate to correctly display page and section breaks, as well as when printing. In these view modes, the check box to turn off Background Pagination remains checked and grayed out.

To turn off Background Pagination:

1. Switch to Normal view (Word 2003 — shown below) or Draft view (Word 2007) by clicking the relevant icon in the bottom left corner or your document’s window.
   
2. Turn off the background pagination option:
   • Word 2003: Go to Tools > Options > General tab and clear the Background repagination check box. If it is grayed out, repeat step 1 as you aren’t in a view mode that allows background pagination to be turned off.
   • Word 2007: Click the Office button , then click the Word Options button. Select Advanced on the left, then scroll down to the General area on the right. Clear the Enable Background Repagination check box.

Note: Microsoft states “Repagination in Word cannot be totally turned off. This is because Word has to repaginate the document in page layout and print preview in order to correctly display the document.” in this Support article:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120106. Although the Support article says it applies only to early versions of Word (Word 6.0 anyone?!), I couldn’t find a more recent one, and I suspect the same provisos still apply. The only other statement I could see about it in a quick search of the Microsoft site was this for Word 2003: “Background repagination Repaginates documents automatically as you work. This option is unavailable when you use page layout view because it works automatically in that mode and you can’t turn it off.” (http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/word/HP051895231033.aspx)

[Links last checked September 2009]

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