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#1
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How do I get my default new document to always be our company let.
We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are
still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
#2
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Yes, it would be AutoText. You do _not_ want your company letterhead to be
on all new documents. It would get in the way with envelopes and labels, both of which are based on normal.dot. What you want is one or more custom document templates. Take a look at: How to set up letterhead or some other document where you want one header on the first page and a different header on other pages. http://www.addbalance.com/word/headersfooters.htm This gives step-by-step instructions. (It also has the following links) Some other pages to look at: Letterhead Tips and Instructions http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/Letterhead.htm Letterhead Textboxes and Styles tutorial http://addbalance.com/word/download....StylesTutorial Template Basics http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm How to Create a Template - Part 2 - essential reading http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm Word "Forms" http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordw...rces.htm#Forms and Word for Word Perfect Users http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm if you are coming from a WP environment (or even if you are not). If you are interested in creating templates that will work with the letter wizard or use that wizard, you should look at the chapter on Advanced Document Formatting in Using Office 2003 (or whatever your version is), Special Edition, by Ed Bott and Woody Leonhard. It has detailed instructions including instructions on getting the fields you want from your Outlook Contacts for addressing a letter. (Chapter 19 of SE Using Office 2003) You should be able to get this through your public library or at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/IS...ncecheckbookA/ Finally, take a look at the letter templates that come with Word. While they are no great shakes as letterhead, they do use styles and AutoText lists very well. If you use the same style names that are used in those templates in your own letterhead for the same parts of the document, you will have better luck with using the built-in AutoText entries in Word. Hope this helps, -- Charles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. "QuiltDiva" wrote in message ... We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
#3
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I hope my previous post gets you going in the right direction on the
letterhead issue. As for the learning curve... here is some general info on moving from Word Perfect to Word: Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each program's methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you try to use one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. If you are unwilling to take the time to learn to use Word's methods, you should stick to using Word Pad. You'll have a lot less grief, although you'll miss out on a lot of raw power. See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm http://businesssoft.about.com/comput.../blconvert.htm for information on Word for Word Perfect users. For mo http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Number...gExplained.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...latesStore.htm Function Keys In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this. Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys() Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True End Sub Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing. Formatting and Styles Learn about Styles - really learn! http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and now regret every day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you just thought you did. Converting documents Word / Word Perfect Some special characters in Word Perfect documents don't convert well to Word. There is a macro to assist with this described at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/...html#macroword and can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/WPSymbolConv.bas. This was prepared by Edward Mendelson. Otherwise, look at the macro from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212396 Use these on _copies_! As for converting documents from Word Perfect to _use_ in Word... In a word, don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents long-term. They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the worst time. This is especially true of any documents containing automatic numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the following process: In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as text files. Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your formatting to look. Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using styles, not direct formatting. Save it again. To use a template within Word, use File = New and pick your template. This will create a new document for you. Merge documents have special problems and should be recreated from text files or retyped in Word. To convert data files, consider generating labels in WP as a document, converting that to Word, and then using http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels...mail_merge.htm to get a new Word data file. Note that conversions usually do create documents that look passable and print OK; the problems I'm referring to have to do with editing / making changes, that is, using the documents long-term. (See below on reusing documents vs. using templates.) Conversion back to Word Perfect: There is a problem (in addition to the ones mentioned for conversion _to_ Word) with Version 2002 (XP) and later of Word. The conversion file only works for conversion _to_ Word, not from Word to Word Perfect! Earlier versions went both ways. To fix this, you need to find the old conversion file WPFT532.CNV from a Word 97 or Word 2000 installation and copy it to your new installation, replacing the file of the same name. Note, the change making the file one-way was done as a security measure. While I don't know of any problems the old file causes, keep the new installation's file somewhere as a backup just in case. Boilerplate and Forms In WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text - boilerplate. In Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect, not macros. Follow the links at http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebre...s.htm#AutoText for more information on these tools. You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For some form documents, Word's "online forms" work very well. For more about online forms, follow the links at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...nTheBlanks.htm especially Dian Chapman's series of articles. Reusing Documents vs. Using templates General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to create a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word, construct a good, tight, template for your documents and use that template when constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid embarrassing "metadata" (http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm) and things like surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents. It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit each day. In the (short) long run, it will save you both time and grief. -- Charles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. "QuiltDiva" wrote in message ... We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
#4
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Hello Jean-
It sounds like you had a) either a macro or a macro combined with a template file that was b) being triggered by a custom button on your toolbar. Unfortunately, they cannot simply be 'swapped over' to Word, but... Both capabilities are readily available in Word, and there is more than enough to get you up & running available in Word Help. You will also find plenty of knowledgeable people willing to help out through this newsgroup should you encounter any roadblocks. Good Luck |:) "QuiltDiva" wrote: We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
#5
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Thanks for your help. This should get me started in the right direction.
"Charles Kenyon" wrote: I hope my previous post gets you going in the right direction on the letterhead issue. As for the learning curve... here is some general info on moving from Word Perfect to Word: Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each program's methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you try to use one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. If you are unwilling to take the time to learn to use Word's methods, you should stick to using Word Pad. You'll have a lot less grief, although you'll miss out on a lot of raw power. See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm http://businesssoft.about.com/comput.../blconvert.htm for information on Word for Word Perfect users. For mo http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Number...gExplained.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...latesStore.htm Function Keys In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this. Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys() Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True End Sub Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing. Formatting and Styles Learn about Styles - really learn! http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and now regret every day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you just thought you did. Converting documents Word / Word Perfect Some special characters in Word Perfect documents don't convert well to Word. There is a macro to assist with this described at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/...html#macroword and can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/WPSymbolConv.bas. This was prepared by Edward Mendelson. Otherwise, look at the macro from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212396 Use these on _copies_! As for converting documents from Word Perfect to _use_ in Word... In a word, don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents long-term. They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the worst time. This is especially true of any documents containing automatic numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the following process: In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as text files. Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your formatting to look. Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using styles, not direct formatting. Save it again. To use a template within Word, use File = New and pick your template. This will create a new document for you. Merge documents have special problems and should be recreated from text files or retyped in Word. To convert data files, consider generating labels in WP as a document, converting that to Word, and then using http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels...mail_merge.htm to get a new Word data file. Note that conversions usually do create documents that look passable and print OK; the problems I'm referring to have to do with editing / making changes, that is, using the documents long-term. (See below on reusing documents vs. using templates.) Conversion back to Word Perfect: There is a problem (in addition to the ones mentioned for conversion _to_ Word) with Version 2002 (XP) and later of Word. The conversion file only works for conversion _to_ Word, not from Word to Word Perfect! Earlier versions went both ways. To fix this, you need to find the old conversion file WPFT532.CNV from a Word 97 or Word 2000 installation and copy it to your new installation, replacing the file of the same name. Note, the change making the file one-way was done as a security measure. While I don't know of any problems the old file causes, keep the new installation's file somewhere as a backup just in case. Boilerplate and Forms In WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text - boilerplate. In Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect, not macros. Follow the links at http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebre...s.htm#AutoText for more information on these tools. You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For some form documents, Word's "online forms" work very well. For more about online forms, follow the links at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...nTheBlanks.htm especially Dian Chapman's series of articles. Reusing Documents vs. Using templates General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to create a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word, construct a good, tight, template for your documents and use that template when constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid embarrassing "metadata" (http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm) and things like surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents. It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit each day. In the (short) long run, it will save you both time and grief. -- Charles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. "QuiltDiva" wrote in message ... We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
#6
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See also http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/Letterhead.htm
-- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org QuiltDiva wrote: Thanks for your help. This should get me started in the right direction. "Charles Kenyon" wrote: I hope my previous post gets you going in the right direction on the letterhead issue. As for the learning curve... here is some general info on moving from Word Perfect to Word: Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each program's methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you try to use one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. If you are unwilling to take the time to learn to use Word's methods, you should stick to using Word Pad. You'll have a lot less grief, although you'll miss out on a lot of raw power. See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm http://businesssoft.about.com/comput.../blconvert.htm for information on Word for Word Perfect users. For mo http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Number...gExplained.htm http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...latesStore.htm Function Keys In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this. Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys() Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True End Sub Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing. Formatting and Styles Learn about Styles - really learn! http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and now regret every day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you just thought you did. Converting documents Word / Word Perfect Some special characters in Word Perfect documents don't convert well to Word. There is a macro to assist with this described at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/...html#macroword and can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/WPSymbolConv.bas. This was prepared by Edward Mendelson. Otherwise, look at the macro from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212396 Use these on _copies_! As for converting documents from Word Perfect to _use_ in Word... In a word, don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents long-term. They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the worst time. This is especially true of any documents containing automatic numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the following process: In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as text files. Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your formatting to look. Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using styles, not direct formatting. Save it again. To use a template within Word, use File = New and pick your template. This will create a new document for you. Merge documents have special problems and should be recreated from text files or retyped in Word. To convert data files, consider generating labels in WP as a document, converting that to Word, and then using http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels...mail_merge.htm to get a new Word data file. Note that conversions usually do create documents that look passable and print OK; the problems I'm referring to have to do with editing / making changes, that is, using the documents long-term. (See below on reusing documents vs. using templates.) Conversion back to Word Perfect: There is a problem (in addition to the ones mentioned for conversion _to_ Word) with Version 2002 (XP) and later of Word. The conversion file only works for conversion _to_ Word, not from Word to Word Perfect! Earlier versions went both ways. To fix this, you need to find the old conversion file WPFT532.CNV from a Word 97 or Word 2000 installation and copy it to your new installation, replacing the file of the same name. Note, the change making the file one-way was done as a security measure. While I don't know of any problems the old file causes, keep the new installation's file somewhere as a backup just in case. Boilerplate and Forms In WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text - boilerplate. In Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect, not macros. Follow the links at http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebre...s.htm#AutoText for more information on these tools. You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For some form documents, Word's "online forms" work very well. For more about online forms, follow the links at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...nTheBlanks.htm especially Dian Chapman's series of articles. Reusing Documents vs. Using templates General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to create a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word, construct a good, tight, template for your documents and use that template when constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid embarrassing "metadata" (http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm) and things like surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents. It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit each day. In the (short) long run, it will save you both time and grief. -- Charles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. "QuiltDiva" wrote in message ... We have only recently made the switch from WordPerfect to Word and we are still going through a steep learning curve. In WordPerfect you could place a button on the toolbar for our firm letterhead. We could click on that button whenever we wanted to create new correspondence. Is this function available in Word 2002? Jean M. Repik, Paralegal |
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