Office X for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

94 office x for macintosh: the missing manual

• Most importantly, you must choose a special format for this dictionary. In the

Format pop-up menu, choose Speller Exclude Dictionary.

Click Save. You have to quit and relaunch Word for the exclude dictionary to take

effect.

Five Ways to Type Less

At first glance, the Word window looks much like any computer screen. You type,

and letters appear, just as in that classic Mac word processor, TextEdit. But there’s

actually much more to it than that. While you’re typing, Word is constantly think-

ing, reacting, doing things to save you precious keystrokes.

As noted earlier, for example, Word corrects obvious spelling errors as you go along.

But it also lets you create your own typing shortcuts, and even tries to anticipate

your next formatting move, sometimes to the frustration of people who don’t un-

derstand what the program’s doing. The more you know what Word is thinking (it

means well, it really does), the more you can let Word do the work, saving those

precious brain cells for more important stuff—like writing.

Click and Type

Since the beginning of Word time, our screens have given us a continually blinking

insertion point, located in the upper-left corner of the screen. That’s where you

typed, period. If you wanted to type in the middle of the page—for example, to

create a title page of a report—you couldn’t just click there and start typing. Instead,

you had to take the ludicrously counterintuitive step of moving the insertion point

over and down by tapping the Space bar, Tab key, or Return key until it was where

you wanted it.

No more. The Click and Type feature lets you go directly to your desired spot on the

page just by double-clicking. Here’s how it works:

1. Switch to Online view or Page Layout view.

These are the only views where Click and Type is available; choose from the View

menu to change views.

2. Move the cursor around on the blank page, letting it hover for a second at the

point where you’d like to place some text.

In some cases, you’ll see the cursor change to indicate that Word is about to pro-

vide some free formatting help. If your cursor is near the left or right margin,

Word assumes that you want your text to be left- or right-aligned; you’ll see tiny

left- or right-justified lines appear next to the hovering insertion point (see Fig-

ure 2-12). When you hover in the middle of the page, the insertion-point icon

changes to centered text. If your cursor is near the top or bottom of the page, the

cursor changes shape again to illustrate that you’re about to edit the document’s

header or footer (see page 193).

Spelling and

Grammar

chapter 2: editing in word 95

If Word guesses wrong about the alignment, you can always adjust the text align-

ment later using the Alignment and Spacing tools in the Formatting Palette (see

page 121).

3. Double-click.

The insertion point turns into a standard blinking bar, and you’re ready to begin

typing. (If the insertion point doesn’t end up quite where you wanted it, just

double-click again.)

Note: Behind the scenes, Word actually fills the page with Tabs and Returns, exactly as you did manually

in the old days; that’s how it gets your insertion point to the spot where you double-clicked. Knowing that

(or seeing that, by clicking the ¶ button on the Standard toolbar) makes troubleshooting or adjusting

Click-and-Typed text much easier.

To turn Click and Type on and off, choose Word→Preferences→Edit panel. Check

or uncheck the “Enable click and type” box.

Figure 2-12:

Top: The Click and Type I-

beam cursor is poised to

click and type centered

text.

Bottom: This special

cursor appears to let you

know that you’re about to

create a footer using Click

and Type.

Five Ways

to Type Less