Carol Bratt

A reader recently wrote to me and inquired about having the month and day of a date staying together in a document. In other words, he didn't want the word "February" to be at the end of one line and 14 be at the beginning of the next line. He said ... that he knew that he could use Shift + Enter to move down to the next line to put the date in, but wondered whether there might be a better way. The Shift | Enter method has many different problems, but if you ever had to edit a large document with this method employed I am sure you know what I mean...lots of problems with big blank spaces, etc. So ... (view more)

Have you ever found that you need just a smidge more space between two paragraphs in your MS Word document? I just bet you have, at one time or another, wished for a quick and clever way to add a 12 point space before a paragraph, just another ... little trick to file away in your repertoire. Well, your wish has been granted! Follow the steps below to insert that extra space before a paragraph. Simply place your cursor anywhere in the paragraph and click on CTRL + 0 (zero). Need that same space above multiple paragraphs? Not a problem: follow the steps below: Highlight all paragraphs and use CTRL ... (view more)

I am sure there have been times in your life when you had an MS Word or PowerPoint numbered or bulleted list when you decided that you really did need a blank space half way through it. I'm right aren't I? I knew it! I also know that you probably ... tried several times to insert that blank visual space and finally decided to give it up. I know this because a lot of folks have written to me to ask me how to make it happen! There are ways to make this happen but most of them are slow and laborious. As you all know, I am all about saving time and keystrokes and so I will show you today how to ... (view more)

A reader wrote to me this weekend inquiring how to receive a beep noise to indicate that he had accidentally turned his Caps Lock on in MS Word. My Reply: To make your computer beep at you when you turn on the Caps Lock key, follow the steps below: ... Click Start | Settings | Control Panel. Click on the Accessibility Options Icon. On the Keyboard tab, click the Use Toggle Keys checkbox. That will do the trick for you. If, however, you also want your screen to flash at you as well, follow these steps: From the Accessibility Options screen, click the Sound tab and check the Use SoundSentry ... (view more)

I received an e-mail from a reader asking for help because every time he opens a document in MS Word or Outlook, everything is underlined when he types. He wanted to know why this had happened and how to rectify the situation. My Reply: The blank ... document that you start with when you open MS Word (Document 1) and all the documents that you create by pressing the New button on the Standard toolbar or by choosing Blank Document in the File | New dialog are based upon the Normal.dot template, that also stores most of your customizations, such as changes to styles or your toolbars. If you change ... (view more)

I use the Status Bar in MS Word quite a lot. Do you? Do you know where your Status Bar is and what it does for you? Your Status Bar is located at the bottom of your Word screen and it contains lots of useful information, such as the page number, ... total number of pages, etc. A reader wrote to me recently because like me, she had come to rely heavily on her Status Bar and all of a sudden she couldn't find it! She wanted to know why it had disappeared and how she could get it back. I could not tell her why it had disappeared as I wasn't there to see what had precipitated its disappearance, but I ... (view more)

Let's say you have just finished a document and you decide you don't like the formatting. Oh geez, do we have to go back and reformat each and every paragraph? Luckily, the answer is no. Follow the steps below: Click on CTRL + A to select the entire ... document, or select the portion of the document to be changed. Then click CTRL + SHIFT + N. Pretty slick, isn't it? When you become a member at CarolsCornerOffice.com, you have access to this and many, many more articles that include screenshots. Don't delay: visit us today! (view more)

Once you have created a document you notice that one or two lines flow over onto the next page. What do you do? Wouldn't it be nice if you could make it all fit onto one page without going through a lot of rigorous formatting changes? Well you can! ... There is a nifty feature in MS Word that will allow you to shrink your document to fit on one page. Follow the steps below to learn how: Click on File | Print Preview. Click on the Shrink to Fit button. That's how simple it really is! When you become a member at CarolsCornerOffice.com, you have access to this and many, many more articles that ... (view more)

Sometimes you create a great PowerPoint presentation and just wish you had the expertise to convert it to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) so that you can put it on your Web page. It doesn't require a whole lot of expertise. Follow the steps below ... to learn how: Launch MS PowerPoint if it is not already open. Open the PowerPoint presentation you would like to convert to HTML. Put all finishing touches on the slides and notes area if you have speaker notes. From the File menu, select Save as Web Page. Click Publish in the center of the dialog box. In the Publish as Web Page dialog box, make the ... (view more)