A Consuming Experience: Microsoft Office

Showing posts with label Microsoft Office. Show all posts

Monday, 1 July 2013

Powerpoint 2010 too slow to update slides? Fix

Here's how to fix very slow display of text and pics on Powerpoint 2010 / 2007 slides on the screen, whenever you change or even edit slides? A big annoyance - it affects productivity, as sometimes Powerpoint becomes unresponsive and won't refresh, redraw or update the screen at all unless you change slides away and back (only a workaround, and slows things down).

Below is a step by step 'howto' solution to solve this problem of the slow graphics rendering in Powerpoint (others have solved it by changing to the Windows 7 Basic theme, this suggestion has the same effect, on my system at least, and changes the theme for you when you use the shortcut icon concerned to launch Powerpoint):

Rightclick the shortcut icon that you use to start Powerpoint
Choose "Properties" from the menu
Now click the "Compatibility" tab (outlined in red below)
Make sure "Disable desktop composition" is ticked as shown (also outlined in red, above).
Then click "OK".

That's it. Worked for me on a Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit desktop, Powerpoint is a zillion times faster now. I hope it works for you too.

Thanks qwerty15!

Background - after a recent Windows update I started getting this problem of Powerpoint is displaying slides too slowly (and it seems a common problem) when moving between or editing slides.

Friday, 27 April 2012

Word footnotes - how to update cross-references to footnotes

In Microsoft Word, if you insert cross-references to footnote numbers and later add or delete any footnotes, the footnote numbering as shown in the cross-references can be wrong.

You can click the cross-reference and be taken to the right footnote, but the footnote numbers that display and print will be the 'old' ones.

Here's a tip on how to fix that problem - it took me ages to find the solution.

You need to:

click inside the footnotes area first
press Ctrl a (hold down the Ctrl key then tap the "a" key then release both)
tap the F9 key, and
OK it all.

This was in Word 2010, but I believe it's the same for Word 2007 etc too.

Monday, 2 January 2012

Can't find Microsoft Office programs inside Program Files?

If you've installed Microsoft Office in Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, and you can't find Office's Winword.exe for Microsoft Word, or other EXE files in the Program Files folder for Excel etc, here's how to find them. They're not actually missing, so you can stop tearing your hair out.

The solution to the problem is this: you may have installed 32-bit Microsoft Office, but the 64 bit Windows system creates two Program Files folders in your C drive - "Program Files", and "Program Files (x86)".

The weird thing is that the "Program Files" folder still contains a "Microsoft Office" folder with "Office14" subfolder (if you have Office 2010, or "Office11" if you're on Office 2007). Which is what threw me at first.

However, those folders will be rather empty - you won't find many Office files within them!

If you want to find the real Office 2010 programs and other Microsoft office files, you will have to look in "Program Files (x86)". It's the "Microsoft Office" subfolder there that you want, probably Office14 (or Office11 for Office 2007).

Some may think this is obvious, but, being new to 64-bit Windows, I missed it at first, and it seems and others have too, so I hope this saves someone else from going mad trying to find the Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc applications inside "Program Files"!

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Word 2010, Word 2007 – how to paste plain text without formatting

This blog post shows how to change the default settings in Word 2010 or Word 2007 so that whenever you use Ctrl v to paste text into Word from a Webpage, PDF file or other source, it automatically pastes it without the original formatting as unformatted text, getting rid of all the font styles, bold etc formatting from the original source.

Paste Special is what I've always used when pasting text into a Word document. But in Word 2003, it took too many steps to go to menu, Edit, Paste Special, which has always been an annoyance for me.

In Word 2010 and Word 2007, there are two ways to paste text in unformatted form much more easily.

I'll cover both, but I'd recommend the quick way, which I cover first.

The quicker way

Here's how to get to the best way to paste unformatted text in Word 2010 and Word 2007. This way sets your defaults, so that whenever you use the Ctrl v keyboard shortcut to paste text into Word, it automatically pastes it as plain unformatted text.

Apart from the "Set Default Paste" button mentioned above, you can get to the correct settings window by going to the menu File, Options in Word 2010 (in Word 2010, it's the Word graphic at the top left, then Word Options button at the bottom). Now click "Advanced" in the list on the left.

Now go to the "Cut, copy and paste" section, and use the down arrows against the various itmes to set "Keep Text Only". I retain "Keep Source Formatting" when it's pasting within the same document (though I may change that to Keep Text Only as it can be a pain when moving text to footnotes from the main body).

Then OK, and that's it.

In future, Ctrl v will automatically paste without the original font style, size etc. You may still have to edit the spacing etc, but it's a lot less annoying, for me.

How to get rid of paste options popup too

While you're at the Advanced options, if like me you hate with a vengeance the "Paste Options" popup that appears as default in Word whenever you paste anything, and gets in the way by blocking what you're viewing.

You can also get rid of that and stop it popping up all the time.

The slower way

In Word, once you've copied text to clipboard, you can press Ctrl Alt V – then arrow up or down (or keep pressing u) to choose "Unformatted text" or "Unformatted unicode text".

Or in Word 2010, for mouse users, in the Home menu, click the down arrow under the Paste icon on the left of the ribbon.

This gets you to the same box as Ctrl Alt v above. However, there's a better solution here. Once you click the down arrow under Paste, you can click the "A" button show outlined in red below, to paste just the text.

Or, if you rightclick in the body of the document, you get the same Paste Options where you can click the A button.

But better still, click "Set Default Paste". This gets to a window that lets you set options permanently. I'll cover below another way to get to that window, and what to set in it.

For Word 2007, it's similar, but you only get a Paste Special option (which brings up the box where you choose Unformatted text), there's no A button.

How to do this - in the "Show Paste Options button when context is pasted" line also outlined in red above, just UNtick the box and OK.

The slower way

In Word, once you've copied text to clipboard, you can press Ctrl Alt V – then arrow up or down (or keep pressing u) to choose "Unformatted text" or "Unformatted unicode text".

Or in Word 2010, for mouse users, in the Home menu, click the down arrow under the Paste icon on the left of the ribbon.

Or, if you rightclick in the body of the document, you get the same Paste Options where you can click the A button.

But better still, click "Set Default Paste". This gets to a window that lets you set options permanently. I'll cover below another way to get to that window, and what to set in it.

For Word 2007, it's similar, but you only get a Paste Special option (which brings up the box where you choose Unformatted text), there's no A button.

Monday, 26 April 2010

Word overwrites tho Insert key is pressed?: fix

A troubleshooting tip: sometimes Microsoft Word (I use 2003) goes haywire and starts overtyping everything instead of inserting new text without overwriting existing text, no matter how many times you keep pressing the Insert key.

How to stop it typing over your text: try doubleclicking the OVR in the grey bar at the bottom of the Word window, so that it becomes greyed out.

A combo of that and the Insert key should work to stop it from over-typing or over-writing when the Insert key alone doesn't.

I guess occasionally it just happens, or maybe you've accidentally done something to grey out the OVR. It's happened to me quite a few times and I spent ages trying to solve the problem. Hope this helps others.

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Open Word document as read-only (one-off)

Previously I covered how to set a Microsoft Word document to open read-only as standard. Now, here's a tip on how to open a Microsoft Word document in read-only mode on just a one-off basis (Word 2003, but I think it's similar in 2007).

When you choose the menu File > Open, single left click on the document you want to open on a read-only basis on this occasion.
Next, on the bottom right of the File Open dialog box, click the down arrow to the right of the "Open" button, outlined in red in the pic below:
Then in the menu that comes up, pick "Open Read-Only", and that's it, the selected document will now open in readonly form!

It's somewhat tucked away, isn't it? Well here's another trick - if you want to open a Word document as read-only through Windows Explorer or My Computer, there's also a way: just hold down the Shift key, rightclick on the filename, and there'll be an "Open as Read-only" option in the rightclick context menu, which you can select (works in Vista anyway):

Sunday, 9 August 2009

Open Word documents as read only

This post is on how to get particular Microsoft Word documents to open as Read Only, as standard.

If like me you've accidentally overwritten important stuff in certain Microsoft Word files that you use mainly for reference, you'll want to set those documents as read only!

These instructions are for Word 2003 but it should be similar for other versions.

How to set a Word .doc document as read only by default

Open the document you want to make read only.
Go to menu Tools > Options:
Click the Security tab and tick "Read-only recommended" (outlined in red below) and click OK:
Save the document.

In future, when you try to open that document (whether direct or through a shortcut), it will come up with a box like this:

Just hit Enter (or Alt+y) or click Yes, in order to open it as read-only.

Then, if you've inadvertently highlighted stuff in the document and your keyboard goes haywire but you don't notice and it wipes out important stuff and you save it anyway without thinking (you can tell I've been through that!), it won't let you overwrite the original document - it will make you save it as a new document with a different name.

This still works if you've password protected the document. After you've entered your password, the "Open as read-only?" box will pop up.

How to edit the "read only" Word document

If you later want to make changes to that document, just click No when the "Open as read-only?" window pops up.

That will open it up in such a way that you can edit it and save your changes as normal.

But do make sure you close it quickly again after you've done your deliberate individual edits, in case something goes wrong and you overwrite other stuff without realising it!

Troubleshooting tip - still read only?

If it won't open for editing (i.e. won't let you save the original document) but keeps trying to make you save your "readonly recommended" document as a new document even after you've chosen "No" to "Open as read-only?", here's one trick to try.

Close all open Word windows (not just that document but any other open Word documents too).
Open the read-only document again, clicking "No" to "Open as read-only?".
This time it should work. (If not, try restarting Windows. If that still doesn't work you have a bigger problem!).

Friday, 8 February 2008

Make links in Word, Excel etc open in Firefox (Windows XP)

Links which appear in Office documents, like http://www.consumingexperience.com/ in the screenshot of Word above, normally open in Internet Explorer when you click them - even after you've set Outlook email links to open in Firefox. But you can force links in Microsoft Office (i.e. Word, Excel and Powerpoint) documents to open in the fab free browser Firefox instead when you click (or Ctrl-click) on a hyperlink that's shown in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet etc.

Here's a tip for how you can make links in a Word etc document open in Firefox when you click the link - in Windows XP at least:

Change your file associations so that hyperlinks generally open in Firefox.
(Non-geeks, skip to item 3 for the easy way!) Make this registry edit having closed all Office apps first (NB, usual warnings: backup your registry first, and you edit or change your registry at your own risk! also don't know if it'll work in Vista):

in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\ create a subkey called Internet if it's not already there
in that subkey create a new DWORD value named ForceShellExecute with a value of 1 (or change its value from 0 to 1 if that value already exists)

If step 2 was gobbledygook to you, not to worry. You can instead - after you backup your registry first, and this is definitely at your own risk! - close all Office programs, then try this .reg file I uploaded earlier (how to use online .reg files - just click the link and run it or save then run it, saying Yes to let to change your registry).
If links still don't open in Firefox after you've re-opened Word etc, try rebooting. And of course you'll need to allow Word, Excel etc to access the internet through your firewall if you haven't already.

It seems that what registry change does is to force hyperlinks in various Office documents to open according to what's been set for their file associations (in Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, File Types). So now you can click links embedded in Word, Excel etc files and they'll in Firefox instead of IE. Good trick, eh?

I've tested it in XP Service Pack 2 and Word, Excel and Powerpoint 2003, but it also seems to work in Word, Excel and Powerpoint 2000 and 2002 versions too.

Warning: note that this doing tweak may muck up any links in Office document to a bookmark location in another locally-saved (i.e. on your computer) document - see this article.