Move text to the next column permanently
Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:38 AM
Word may not be a full-featured layout program, but it does offer some tools that let you control the position of text on a page. Here's how to use a column setting to get text where you want it.
Microsoft Word
Move text to the next column permanently
You've just finished typing the text in columns for the newsletter shown in Figure A. Now you'd like to move some text over from the first column to the second column so that you can insert a picture in that space.
You could use the Enter key to move the text, but any edits to the first column will likely move the text back into the first column or push it farther down the second column.
Figure A
Follow these steps to avoid having to reposition the text again:
- Click at the beginning of the block of text you want to reposition in the next column.
- Go to Format | Columns. In Word 2007, click the Page Layout tab and then click Columns in the Page Setup group and select More Columns.
- Select This Point Forward from the Apply To drop-down list (Figure B).
Figure B
- Select the Start New Column check box.
- Click OK.
You can now insert your picture into the first column without having to reposition the text in the next column, as shown in Figure C.
Figure C
Microsoft Access
Automatically fill in Access text boxes based on a combo box selection
Your employees would like a quick way to look up each others' business phone numbers. They want to be able to choose an employee's last name from a list and have Access output the employee's first name and phone number.
To create this form, follow these steps:
- Open the Employees database.
- Click Forms under Objects in the Database window, click the New button, and then click OK. In Access 2007, click the Create tab and then click Forms Design in the Forms group.
- Click the Combo box control in the Controls toolbox. In Access 2007, click the Design tab under Forms Design Tools and click Combo Box (Form Control) in the Controls group.
- Click and drag in the form where you want to locate the control.
- Click Next.
- Select the Employees table and then click Next.
- Select the Employee ID, Last Name, First Name, and Phone Number fields.
- Click Next.
- Click the drop-down arrow in the first text box and click Last Name.
- Click Next.
- Adjust fields as necessary and then click Next.
- Enter Employee Contact Form and click Finish.
- Click in the Combo Box label control and change the label to Last Name.
- Click the Text Box control in the Controls toolbox (Access 2003) or the Controls group (Access 2007).
- Click and drag to create an unbound text box control below the combo box.
- Change the text box label to First Name.
- Click the Text Box control in the Controls toolbox (Access 2003) or the Controls group (Access 2007).
- Click and drag to create an unbound text control below the first text box.
- Change the text box label to Phone Number (Figure A).
Figure A
- Right-click the combo box and select Properties.
- Click in the On Change property box in the Event tab and select Event Procedure.
- Click the Build button and enter this code (Figure B):
Me.Text19 = Me.Combo17.Column(2) Me.Text21 = Me.Combo17.Column(3)
Figure B
- Add an error handler to the On Change event subroutine.
- Press [Alt] + [Q].
Employees can now use this form to scroll through a list of employees sorted by last name, and Access will immediately fill in the person's first name and business phone number (Figure C).
Figure C
Microsoft Excel
Always open Excel workbooks using a specific zoom factor
Sharing a workbook helps you and other users work smarter, but you often have to contend with settings you don't like that are left behind by other users.
For instance, people seldom work at the same zoom percentage. Depending upon their hardware and other factors, people often reduce or increase the zoom setting.
The problem is that Excel saves the zoom factor with the workbook. Regardless of how many times you reset and save the zoom factor, it's just as likely to be different the next time you open the workbook because other users are also saving their favorite settings.
The most efficient solution is to determine the most common zoom factor and let the workbook reset it each time someone opens the workbook. Some people will still set the zoom factor to something else, but most people will find the automatic setting adequate.
Simply add the following macro to the workbook's This Workbook module:
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
ActiveWindow.Zoom = 100
End Sub
Be sure to save the workbook after adding the macro. You can replace 100 with whatever zoom factor is the most common. Regardless of the setting each user saves with the workbook, Excel will reset it to 100 (or whatever zoom factor you specify in the macro) each time a user opens the workbook.
You can use this technique to standardize a number of common environmental settings.
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