From TNPC issue #4.12...

Office XP: What's New in Word - Part 2

by Lee Hudspeth
June 14, 2001

In the last issue #4.11 I ran out of space in which to cover all of Word XP's new features (I count 32 in all). Here are the remaining features complete with user interface tips and my grade (scale of 1-10). You'll recall that I gave Word XP's new features a grade of 7.7.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/412/tr.cgi?lee1

Continued...

19. Custom table styles -- Yes, Word now has table styles and you can create your own.
UI: Task Pane, Styles and Formatting, New Style, in the "Style type" list choose Table.
Grade: 10

20. Sort by more than one word inside a table column -- When a column's cells contain multiple words separated by tabs, commas, or another character you specify, you can now sort by each term. For example, sort a "lastname, firstname" column by both lastname and firstname.
UI: Table, Sort, Options, use the "Separate fields at" settings.
Grade: 10

21. Picture rotation and compression -- All objects can now be rotated, including pictures. You can compress just the selected picture(s) or all pictures in the document.
UI: Right-click the picture or object, Format <object type name>, Size, Rotation (can also use Drawing toolbar's Draw control). For compression, right-click the picture, Format Picture, Picture, Compress.
Grade: 10

22. Diagrams -- Word 2000 supported organization charts, Word 2002 supports a richer set of diagram types including cycle, radial, pyramid, Venn, and target.
UI: Insert, Diagram.
Grade: 8

23. Drawing Canvas -- This new structure is like, well, a canvas that contains the objects that you draw or insert on it. On screen it looks like a frame and has its own toolbar with features like Fit, Expand, Scale, and so on, but it doesn't print.
UI: Tools, Options, General, check "Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes".
Grade: 7 (this one might grow on me, though)

24. Web Archive -- This file format allows you to save all your HTML and linked files in a single MIME encapsulated aggregate HTML document (MHTML) file for easy storage or distribution via email.
UI: File, Save As, choose "Web Archive (*.mht; *.mhtml)".
Grade: 8

25. Introduction field -- When you send a document inside an email (Word converts the doc to an HTML message), the new Introduction field allows you to provide a preamble for anyone with an HTML-compliant email client.
UI: File, Send To, Mail Recipient, Introduction.
Grade: 1 (this gets a thumbs-down because I don't endorse sending documents inside bloated email messages; instead you should always include documents/files as zipped attachments)

26. Mail Recipient (for Review) - Integrates Word and Outlook in such a way that a document's author can track changes made by reviewers, all via email.
UI: File, Send To, Mail Recipient (for Review).
Grade: 5

27. Booklet printing -- This is now built in, but offers a somewhat limited set of options.
UI: File, Page Setup, Margins, from "Multiple pages" control select "Book fold".
Grade: 6

28. Remove personal information -- Strip a document of information that might identify its author. Knowledge Base articles have been around on this procedure for a while, but now it's built in.
UI: Tools, Options, Security, "Remove personal information from this file on save", Save.
Grade: 8

29. Block access to Visual Basic projects -- Default protection setting that denies macros access to Word's currently loaded Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) projects.
UI: To open this gate select Tools, Macro, Security, Trusted Sources, check "Trust access to Visual Basic Project".
Grade: 8

30. Save My Settings Wizard -- This Wizard is now built right into Office.
UI: Select Start, Programs, Microsoft Office Tools, Save My Settings Wizard.
Grade: 8

31. Crash management -- I'm lumping several new features into one category. It's now much easier to recover a document that was open/damaged during a crash, and to see what Word did to recover it (The Document Recovery task pane appears automatically when Word re-opens after a crash). Use the "hang manager" feature when Word is locked up and you can't close it (Start, Programs, Microsoft Office Tools, Microsoft Office Application Recovery). Force Word to attempt to recover a potentially damaged document (File, Open, click Open button's down arrow, Open and Repair). New Microsoft System Information (Msinfo32.exe) tree for "Office Event/Application Fault" logging.
UI: See above.
Grade: 8

32. Expanded object model -- Developers will want to study Word 2002's new objects, properties, methods, and events.
UI: Select Tools, Macro, Visual Basic Editor, in the "Ask a Question" box type "what's new for microsoft office developers".
Grade: 6

Are you loving Office XP? Hating it? Other XP-rated thoughts? I'd like to hear from you. I'll be following up this article with coverage of another of my beloved Office applications: Excel (I was tempted to type in Multiplan just for grins, but didn't, and yes, I did use it).

Microsoft Office XP Standard Upgrade, $229 & free shipping:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/412/tr.cgi?lee2

Microsoft Office XP Professional Upgrade, $299 & free shipping:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/412/tr.cgi?lee3

Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition Upgrade, $549 & free shipping:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/412/tr.cgi?lee4

Microsoft Office XP Professional, $539 & free shipping:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/412/tr.cgi?lee5

Note: If you have a Microsoft Office consulting project, development idea, macro quandary, or are just plain stuck trying to get something--easy or hard--done with Microsoft Office, WE CAN HELP YOU! This is what we do for a living: handle Office projects of all shapes and sizes. You can reach our software consultants by email 24x7 at: mailto:code@PRIMEConsulting.com
or you can call us in the U.S. at 310-318-5212 (someone's usually on hand Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time, or leave us a voice mail anytime).

You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

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