Tech

Eliminate unwanted blank Word pages with pagination formatting

Microsoft Word

You just sent your Word document to a colleague in another office. When she prints out the document on her computer, the pages break at odd places; it even prints out a blank page in the middle of the document. When you print it out on your printer, however, it prints perfectly.

What could have caused these pagination errors?

Different printers paginate differently. You can avoid many of these pagination errors by eliminating manual page breaks in your document. Instead, use pagination formatting.

For example, to type a bibliography on its own page, you could click after the last paragraph of your document and press [Ctrl][Enter] to set a manual page break; or, to use pagination formatting, follow these steps:

1. Begin typing your bibliography in the line immediately after the last paragraph of your document.
2. Click in the first line of your bibliography.
3. Go to Format | Paragraph. (In Word 2007, click the Home tab, and then in the Paragraph group, click the Dialog Launcher.)
4. In the Paragraph dialog box, click on the Line And Page Breaks tab.
5. Click the Page Break Before check box, then click OK.

Pagination formatting also lets you keep two paragraphs together on the same page, as well as all lines of a single paragraph on the same page. To use pagination formatting to keep all lines of a paragraph together, follow these steps:

1. Click in the paragraph.
2. Go to Format | Paragraph. (In Word 2007, click the Home tab, and then in the Paragraph group, click the Dialog Launcher.)
3. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line And Page Breaks tab.
4. Click the Keep Lines Together check box, then click OK.

To keep two paragraphs together on the same page, follow these steps:

1. Click in the paragraph.
2. Go to Format | Paragraph. (In Word 2007, click the Home tab, and then in the Paragraph group, click the Dialog Launcher.)
3. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line And Page Breaks tab.
4. Click the Keep With Next check box, then click OK.

Microsoft Excel

Excel 2007's data visualization feature automatically gives every cell in a range a color, icon, or data bar according to its value. If you are analyzing a small number of values, this makes it easy to see which ones met your target goals. But what if you are examining a list with 100 rows of data? In this case, you will want to use Excel's conditional formatting feature to build rules for marking only the cells outside your target range of values.

For example, say you want to mark only those cells that have a value greater than 100 with an X. Follow these steps:

1. Select the range of data.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting, then click Icon Sets.
3. Click 3 Symbols (Uncircled).
4. Click Conditional Formatting, then click Highlight Cell Rules | Less Than.
5. In the Less Than dialog, enter 100.
6. Click the arrow in the With drop-down box and select Custom Format, then click OK twice.
7. Click Conditional Formatting, then click Manage Rules.
8. Click the Stop If True check box for the rule Cell Value < 100.
9. Click the Icon Set rule, then click the Edit Rule button.
10. In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog, click the Reverse Icon Order check box at the bottom of the dialog window.
11. Click the >= drop-down arrow of the first Value list and select >.
12. Click the Type drop-down arrow of the first Value list and select Number.
13. Click in the first Value text box and enter 100.
14. Click the Type drop-down arrow of the second Value list and select Number.
15. Click OK twice.

Now, an orange X denotes all values above 100. An exclamation point denotes values equal to 100, and values below 100 remain unformatted.

Microsoft Access

Rather than add a command button to your form to open another object in your database, you can use a hyperlink. Using images, labels and command buttons as hyperlinks is an easy way to add a control that allows users to open and display an object without programming.

To create a hyperlink that opens the Product Categories List table from an unbound form in your database, follow these steps:

1. Open a blank form in Design view.
2. Place a Label control on the form.
3. Type Click to display the Product Categories List to change the label's caption, then press Enter.
4. Right-click Label and select Properties.
5. Click in the Hyperlink SubAddress property in the Label property sheet.
6. Click the Build button.
7. Click the Object In This Database button.
8. Click Tables.
9. Click the Products Categories List, then click OK.