Grammar Rules

Terminate a List Quickly!

Did you know you can turn off a bulleted or numbered list with just one key?

The next time you get to the end of your list, hit the Enter key.

You should get another bullet or number.

I know, I know, that's the exact thing you're trying to avoid, but hold on, we're almost there!

Next, hit the Backspace key. (In Word 2007, I found that hitting the Enter key again was the way to go).

The bullet or number is gone and you're returned to the left margin to pick up right where you left off, no messing with the mouse required.

What Grammar Rules Are You Using?

Have you ever found yourself wondering about the rules MS Word is using to make its grammar recommendations when you check your documents?

Ever wish you had a little peek into the madness behind it all?

Wish you could tell Word to stop checking a few things that just drive you crazy?

If any of this sounds familiar, read on to take a look into the grammar rules used to check your documents.

In older versions of Word, you need to start with the Tools menu, Spelling and Grammar choice.

At the bottom of the Spelling and Grammar window, click the Options button.

This will take you to the Spelling and Grammar tab.

In Word 2007, you can get there directly through the Office Button, Word Options button, Proofing choice.

Once there, you can select and deselect a variety of options. One to pay attention to is the Writing Style choice.

Using the drop down list, you can choose to have Word check either the "Grammar Only" or "Grammar & Style."

Interested in what the specific differences are between the two choices?

No problem!

Click the Settings button.

The Grammar Settings window will open, displaying the choices for Grammar checks.

When you select "Grammar Only," you only get the grammar portion of the list. In contrast, the "Grammar & Style

We've all done it before. We prepare an e-mail message and we're 100 percent sure it's ready to be sent off, but as soon as we click the Send button, we realize we made a big mistake! is there's any way you can recall that e-mail and try again

Well, to be honest, there really isn't uses Outlook, you can read here for instructions on how to do that. . Unfortunately, in most e-mail programs, once the e-mail is sent, there's no way to retrieve it again. There's no way to do it in Outlook Express or any of the more popular Web based e-mail clients, such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail or AOL. The only program that allows it is Microsoft Outlook.

There are a few things you can do to prevent it from ever happening again though. One of the best things to do is address the e-mail last. Go ahead and type out your e-mail first and put the recipient's e-mail address on the To: line last. Your e-mail program won't send the e-mail without an address, so once you see that, it will make you think harder about who you're sending it to. Also, that may lead you to look over the e-mail one more time to make sure it's error free. So, even though you can't get certain e-mails back, you can keep yourself from making the same mistake twice

See the Whole Page

A reader inquired about how you could see a document that's a whole page of labels in Word. You It's a very useful thing to know. I use this all the time at work and very rarely does the page contain all the same labels.

So, if a page of labels is something you've ever found yourself looking for, this tip is for you!

In older versions of Word, you need to start as usual in the Tools menu, Envelopes and Labels choice.

If you have Word 2007, you need the Mailings ribbon, Labels button.

Either way, once you're looking at the Labels tab, you'll need to select the correct label size.

Now, if you want them to be all the same, you can enter the label text in the address area provided and click the New Document button.

However, if you want a blank sheet of labels as well, just leave the address text box empty and click the New Document button.

A new document will be created with your labels visible.

That's it. That one little button certainly makes editing and multiple label pages easy to manage!

Selecting Multiple Files

Have you ever needed to open, move or delete several files all at one time? Well, if you have, I can show you a few techniques on how to select those files much faster and easier than what you may have done in the past. Let’s get to it, shall we?!

First off, I will show you how to open a couple files at the same time. You can start by locating the files you wish to open, preferably in your My Documents folder. Once you've found them, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the last one, but don’t click yet! Before you click, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then finally, double click the last file. When you double click the last file, your files should pop up together, as shown here:

The second method I’m going to show you is for opening large groups of files at the same time. It's similar to the first technique, but it is slightly different, so be sure to pay attention! First, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the next one. Next, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click your mouse through the whole list of files. Be sure to hold the Ctrl key down until you have finished selecting all of the files. Once you've finished choosing your files, you can go ahead and double click on the very last one. Just like before, all of those files will pop up together, as shown here:

Now, you can do a few other things with both of these techniques. You can drag them into another folder, to your hard drive or even to the Recycling Bin. If you can’t see the folder you want to put them in, cut them by right clicking on any file in the selection and choosing Cut from the shortcut menu. Then just navigate to the folder you want to put the files into, right click on it again and select Paste.

You can now open your files much faster than ever before