Just recently, one of my clients needed the ability to automatically generate letters to a select list of customers from their custom CRM program - which is a .NET Windows application written in C# with a SQL Server database. Instead of creating a SQL report (which is difficult to maintain); the idea came to me to use Microsoft Word mail merge. However, this meant that I was in need of finding a way to accomplish this using code.

I found several articles (like this one from Microsoft) that showed how to automate the mail merge, including how to create a data source and a form letter from scratch. But since I would already have the data and would simple reuse the same form letter each time, I needed to find a way to open an existing data source and the form letter from code.

After a little more digging, experimenting, and tweaking - I was able to discover a simple, effective way to do so. I've outlined this solution in the following article (the first one I've written in a couple of years - and my first ever programming article):

How to Automate a Mail Merge from Microsoft Word 2003 Programmatically in .NET

One of the things I learned about configuring mail merge data sources in a ODC file is that you can't use a SQL query to sort or filter you data result; you can only specify a table. Not a big deal, I just used a view instead that sorts and filters the data for me.

Happy Programming ... and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Here's another opportunity to flex your Microsoft Office muscle. Unlike the Access 101 Quiz, this one is a little tougher - so you gotta know your stuff.

But before you start, it's good to have an understanding of what makes up a database. Perhaps you feel like you already know. Well, here's a way to know for sure ... take a pop quiz! Dian Chapman, a long time Microsoft Word MVP, has created a 10 question quiz to test your basic knowledge of Microsoft Access databases.

Quiz: Word 201

If you already took the Access 101 Quiz, all you need is your login info and you're all set. If this is your first time taking one of their quizzes, you'll need to do is sign up as a FREE subscriber to her TechTrax community. Be sure to check out Dian's Microsoft Office resources for more expert advice. Good luck on the test!

And no ... I did not score 100 this time (that's what I get for second guessing myself.) 

It's always proper to have headings and subheadings to be formatted the same throughout a document. Sure, you can use the AutoFormat button to accomplish this - even when you make a change to them down the road, it's easy to use over and over (especially on smaller documents.) But experienced Word users know and apply the popular Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 styles to their headings and subheadings, making life a lot easier (especially on larger documents.)

There are two reasons for this. First of all they are easy to apply to text; I use the dropdown on the Formatting toolbar. Secondly, when you need to make a change on any of them - modifying the format of the style changes all the headings in your document automatically. Basically, it's what they were originally created for. But is this all that these styles are good for? Of course not.

They're called built-in heading styles (by the way, there's actually 9 of these), and they are the foundation for setting up other documents and scenarios in Microsoft Word. Shauna Kelly, Microsoft Word MVP, post an article on her FAQ site called "Why use Microsoft Word's built-in Heading styles?", where she outlines 15 reasons (other than the one I explained above) to use them.

I've used them for creating Table of Contents pages (Reason #3) for several years; but even I learned a few other reasons for using them - like Reason #10, creating bookmarks in a PDF. The best reason, according Shauna, is Reason #15, the Outline View:

You can use other styles in Outline View, and you can choose the Level at which they'll appear. But it's easiest to use the built-in Heading styles, because they're already set up ready for you. Outline View is probably the most useful, and least used, resource in Word. See How to save yourself hours by using Outline View properly at the MS Word MVP FAQ site for a full (and enthusiastic) description of what Outline View can do, and how to use it.

This is more than a worth while read for any Microsoft Word user, and you will learn a great deal about its capabilities other than built-in styles. Thank you, Shauna.

Happy Labor Day!

When businesses (especially small businesses) market their products and services, tri-fold brochures are and will remain a popular choice. They are for easy to give and to receive, effective in organizing your content into small, precise chunks of content, and they're inexpensive to create (particularly if you can make them yourself.) In a previous post about tri-fold brochures, I referenced an article that I found a long time ago that details how to create one in Microsoft Word when desktop publishing software (like Adobe Pagemaker or Microsoft Publisher) is not available.

This week, I found another article on tri-fold brochures, only this time it gives pointers on how to properly design it. It also references a sample tri-fold brochure template that you can download, along with several other links to get more help on them. Though this article focuses on "educational" brochures, the suggestions given can still be applied on all types of brochures.

I just ran across a great Yahoo! Groups discussion. A user posted the following question to the Word_DocDesign group:

"I'm creating a document where my client wants to be able to fill in his client's name on the first page of the document and then have that information automatically inserted into the header of any subsequent pages. Is there something already set up to do this type of thing or do I need to use some VBA coding?"

This may seem impossible to some, but this user was presented with several ways to tackle this. The first reply was from Dian D. Chapman, MVP, MOS who refers the user to an article she wrote to accomplish this task. It says this:

"Actually, the solution is pretty simple. You just need to record a macro that unlocks the form, goes into the header, selects the content, updates the fields, closes the header and re-locks the form. Then you add that macro into the Run Macro on Exit option in the form field."

I encourage you to check out these things to give you a better understanding of macros, and the flexibility you have with headers and footers in Microsoft Word.

If you don't have (or need) accounting software to produce invoices for your business, there are other options you can take advantage of. Some businesses create their own database program (or pay some to create it).

Others (like me) just use their own document template for creating invoices. And as I discussed in my last post, having your own set of document templates enhances your company identity and helps you to stand out among others. But since Microsoft Word doesn't come with a sample invoice template, you'd either have to find one in the Microsoft Office Template Gallery, or create your own from scratch. Below is a sample of the template that I use for my invoices:

Invoice Template

The only two drawbacks of using a Word invoice template are that the calculation isn't automatic and it doesn't automatically number them sequentially for you. However, since I don't create a ton of invoices every week, I'll live.

In my view, the templates that come with Microsoft Word (or any other program for that matter) were always provided to get ordinary tasks done quickly. They also serve as great examples of how you can produce great looking documents. However, I think Microsoft Office users in general have taken templates too far. I don't think they were ever supposed to be used as a part of a company's corporate identity.

Take fax cover sheets. How many times have to seen this one?

Probably over a thousand times, right! If it were up to me, this one would be outlawed from further use. However, with 2 simple changes; you can use this template to create a look of your own. First, replace the black block with your logo, and then simply change the font face to something different that goes with your logo.

Small changes like this can be done with all of the templates provided in Microsoft Word to give yourself a unique identity that stands out from others and makes a good impression on your clients. Some take some work to figure out because they're laid out differently than you're used to, but you should be able overcome them with some effort. Besides, you can also just use the templates as a guideline to create your own from scratch.

To make your templates in even more unique, go to the Microsoft Office Online site and use the updated templates there to start with.

I believe that the key to being proficient using any software is not being afraid of it. In other words, you need to take the time to learn what an application has inside and how to use those features effectively. Microsoft Office is not exception. Here's what Stuart J. Stuple said about it in his post called "Ten Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Word" found on the Joe Friend blog:

"Mastering Word isn’t about understanding the architecture or the intent of the designers; it’s about finding the features and shortcuts that make your day-to-day job easier."

The only one I don't agree with is #9 "Show or hide the gridlines for tables." I don't believe knowing about this adds anything important to your reportoire. It's nice to know you can hide gridlines, but you can also use Print Preview to see how a table looks without them, too.

But definitely pay attention to the other nine things he list. If you don't already know about them, you will find yourself more productive by adding them to your Word game.

I'm sure most of you have seen this sentence before: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Some of you may be wondering why it's special. The reason for it's popularity is because it's one of a few unique sentences that uses every letter of the alphabet, which is called a pangram.

In addition to a brief history on pangrams, Jensen Harris shares with us a cool trick in Microsoft Word to automatically generate this pangram in a sample paragraph by typing "=rand()" and pressing Enter.  Check out this post about this trick and to read more about pangrams.

Now that my kids are out of school, they suddenly have a lot of time on their hands. They are all restless out of their minds!  Particularly my daughter, who only has one thing on her mind ... her 6th birthday party!

Here's the problem; her birthday isn't for another 40 days. We could either be pestered with the question "Is it my birthday yet?", or come up with something she could use to monitor this on her own. So my wife told her to ask her father to create a calendar for her to mark the days leading up to her birthday in July. Here's what I came up with:

Birthday Countdown

This Microsoft Word document uses a combination of three tables, each placed in their own column and accented with simple clipart.  Of course, this could be used for any countdown you like. Also, you may opt to delete all the flower images that I put in for my little girl and add your own clipart.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

In case you haven't heard, there's a new virus exploiting Microsoft Word called the Zero-Day Attack. Here are some links to get you up-to-speed. Please read them and protect yourself!

Official Advisory from Microsoft
Beware of Word Attachments
Using Microsoft Word Safe Mode
Other Things You Can Do

Using the Drop Cap feature in Microsoft Word is a great way to add a little something special to documents that need more elegance. It's very easy to do, you simply click inside the paragraph where you'd like to have a drop cap (dropped capital letter), and then select Drop Cap from the Format menu. From there, you'll be able to select the type you want, how many lines to drop the capital, and the font for it (I always change it to a pretty script font

What you may not know is that you can drop more than just the first character of a sentence, but actually an entire word. To do so, simply click your cursor right behind the drop cap you created (but inside the frame of it), type the rest of the word, and delete the duplicate in the paragraph itself.

The Drop Cap can also be found in Microsoft Publisher; however, you won't be able to drop an entire word like you can with Microsoft Word.

In Microsoft Word, you may have noticed 3 buttons at the bottom of the vertical scroll? Aren't you curious what they do? Perhaps you either tried them and didn't know what to do with them, or you were too scared that you'd mess up something.

Well, have no fear ... Jensen Harris has written a great post on exactly what these buttons do, that have actually existed since Microsoft Word 97. After you learn what they are, you'll find them quite useful.

When I begin my IT career, I started out as a computer instructor. I learned a lot of different programs, and then I got to teach others how to use them. Some of them I already knew like the back of my hand ... WordPerfect. Back then, it was king of all word processing programs - whether you used WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, or old faithful WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.

But I was forced to also teach this new word processing program called Microsoft Word (perhaps you've heard of it.) There was resistance at first, being so used to WordPerfect. So I complained about subtle differences from the start, including how you couldn't see the "Reveal Codes" behind the document like you can in WordPerfect.

Despite my concerns, I was scheduled to teach it anyway. But then I began feeling comfortable using Microsoft Word. It was easier to use, so much so that I never needed to see Reveal Codes. This also made it easier to teach to others, which was good because we taught Microsoft Word about 5-7 times more than the WordPerfect class. Once it was packaged with Excel, PowerPoint and Access in Microsoft Office, I was hooked.

After my teaching days were over, I hardly ever used anything but Microsoft Office. But a few years ago, I was given a free copy of Corel WordPerfect. After trying it out, found WordPerfect to be as great a word processing program as ever. It still had all of the important features that you could find in Microsoft Word; but the fact remained that Microsoft Word was still easier to use.

Aside from that, QuattroPro was no match for the spreadsheet capabilities found in Microsoft Excel; and there's nothing out on the market to this day that can compete with Microsoft PowerPoint when it comes to creating presentations. Overall, I found it to be a solid office suite, and still is with its latest version Corel WordPerfect Office X3.

You can now get a 30-day free trial of the Standard Version when you register to their website. I'm pretty sure that I'll download later on and post a product review. It'll be interesting to see if Reveal Codes is still there, and more importantly if it's more user-friendly. However, I imagine it won't be enough to overcome my favoritism towards Microsoft Office 2007.

Most of you have probably never even asked yourself this question, simply because it didn't really matter. In many cases, it's simply a virus that you're trying to get rid of; even Microsoft Word and Excel warn you when they encounter one. Below is a link to the article I wrote that explains what a macro is, what they were used for, and why it doesn't matter:

What Is A Macro? Does Anyone Really Care?

But as I state in the article, macros were quite useful before Microsoft Windows came along. That was when we used DOS instead of Windows, no mouse (that's right) and relied heavily on keystrokes to save time. In those days, WordPerfect 5.1 was the undisputed heavyweight champion of word processing programs and basically put macros on the map (man, I've really dated myself, haven't I?)

Needless to say, word processing applications (along with all office suite packages) have involved quite nicely since then - so much so that saving time isn't really an issue anymore. This makes the use of macros just about useless, with the exception to mostly programmers. In Microsoft Office Word 2007, you have to save your document as a DOCM in order to even have your document macro-enabled.

So my answer to the original question is this ... unless you're just curious, don't worry about what a macro is. Of course, I'm sure some of you are asking yourselves "DOS? What in the world is DOS?" My answer to that question is the same.

Maybe it's the little kid in me, but I always enjoy the chance to add colors to anything that I'm working - whether its Word documents, websites, walls, or even my mailbox garden. With so many colors to choose from, it's a great way to express your personality; but it's also easy to get carried away and to be irresponsible in your color selection, which results in a loss of effectiveness in what you’re doing.

It's probably the reason why I end up correcting the same mistakes whenever I look at someone's brochure, a flyer, a newsletter, or any document that has color text. The following article represents the basic guidelines I follow in regard to color documents:

The Right Way to Use Text Colors

When I wrote this article, I was tempted to add one more guideline in relation to color selection; but I decided not to at the last second. In my many years of using colors on the computer, it seems that there are certain colors that I stay away from simply because they never work in any of the documents I create; but that doesn't mean that they won't work for other documents, so I left that part out.

I sure I could submit a post on someday; for now, I think it's important to point out that just because you like a particular color that doesn't mean it's going to work for a document. As I've mentioned before (and will again), the goal is to make it work for the reader, not you. Keeping this in mind should lead you to the color scheme that's right. That, my friend, is what it means to be responsible in your document design.

Well, alright, that's not fair. Of course you can touch the spacebar; we all need it to insert spaces between words when we type sentences. But that's where I draw the line! If you're using the spacebar for anything else other than that, this post has your name written all over it.  You know who you are! The ones that are still using spaces to line up your text in your documents.

If this is you, then I strongly suggest that you either take a Microsoft Word class, or buy a Microsoft Word book and learn it on your own - it's definitely worth the time. However, to address your spacebar problem immediately, I'd like for you to read this article:

Why Using Spaces To Line Up Text Is A Bad Idea

Those of you that have this habit, don't despair - you're in good company! I was inspired to write this article by someone with the same habit ... my wife. For as long as we've been married, I've been the proofreader of her documents. Spaces everywhere! After about five years of replacing her unnecessary spaces with tabs or tables, I finally had enough.

So I began teaching her how to fish, instead of always giving it to her. At first, it was a tough adjustment, as I kept finding spaces where they didn't belong; but with time, that occurred less and less. Not only has she broken the habit, and she has become to be very proficient in Microsoft Word - creating her own flyers, calendar, forms, and all sorts of things.

The moral of the story (and the article) is that learning the proper way to use Microsoft Word will lead to better document design and will open the door to accomplish more with your documents. There's a lot you miss out on if you don't know how to use what you have, which applies to just about anything.

Enjoy the article (I hope it's helpful!)

The Document Gallery will soon have many more documents available for anyone to download. Admittedly, this will be a slow, gradual process; but my goal is to provide hundreds of document templates and samples, including hard-to-find documents from other websites that you might be able to use. For now, I'm going to start simple, with mostly MS Word documents; but later you'll be able to find speadsheet & presentations, also.

Here are some simple office templates for your business:

• Letter Template
• Letterhead Template
• Memo Template
• Press Release Template

If there's a document that you need, leave a comment on this post and let me know and I'll see what I can do (or maybe someone else can help). 

Enjoy!

I can't stand Times New Roman! There, I said it. I hate Times New Roman ... habitually. I'm a habitual Times New Roman hater!

Don't get me wrong, I respect Times New Roman as a good basic font that's been around a long time; but the truth is that it's time to move on to something else. So why haven't we? Maybe because it's easier to stay with what worked in the past. The problem is ... if we stick with the past, we can never embrace the future. This article I wrote years ago attempts to address this problem:

One font that has grown in popularity since I wrote this article in both documents and websites is the Georgia font. In fact, I predict that it will become the new default font. Until then, it is my new recommendation for anyone who wants there documents to stand out amongst the others.

But if you decide not to use the Georgia font to replace Times New Roman, please ... replace Times New Roman with something.

When it comes to prospective clients, I believe the second most important document they will see is ... your website (yes, it is a document - I will address this in another post).  However, the most important document they will see from your business is your proposal. For that reason, you will find many products and resources dedicated to making good proposals.

There are two approaches you can take: 1) Use a software package (like Proposal Kit - which I highly recommend); or 2) Create your own.  I would say that using software is for those that have never done a proposal before and need more help than normal; but I suggest creating one from scratch for those that have the experience, time and resources to gain the advantages of it being custom and (in most cases) a lot more direct. I have added a sample of proposal template that I've used successfully for a long time:

Proposal Template

You will find it very straight forward, clean in design, and easy to modify in Microsoft Word for your own use.  Feel free to download it anytime and let me know what you think about it.

As I was digging through my web archives, I found a link to an article I found years ago that explains how to create a tri-fold brochure using Microsoft Word. However, the article is no longer found on ZDNet's website. Luckily, my web archive still had the text for it, and is now available here:

Creating A Tri-Fold Brochure In Word

There are other desktop publishing applications (like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe Pagemaker) that makes these type of publications easier to make. But if you don't have any of them, create a tri-fold brochure is now well within your reach. Furthermore, the principles taught in this article can also help you to create other types of publications and business forms in Microsoft Word.  In fact, it could end up being easier using Microsoft Word than learning how to use another desktop publishing application.

Microsoft Word can certainly do a lot more than most people think.

Another article that has been viewed quite a bit on BetterDocuments is about a Microsoft Word feature that I believe is still declining in popularity. Perhaps the fact that this article is viewed a lot is an indictor that we all need to be reminded to use it:

Thesaurus: One of the Greatest Tools Rarely Used

Two reasons come to mind that may explain the decline in use. First of all, what would you use to look up synonyms when you're not using Microsoft Word (or any word processing application?) My kids always use Thesaurus.com, or other websites with a thesaurus. Why? Because the Internet is first place we look to find anything - so why would we bother with Microsoft Word for a synonym?

The second reason has to do with not needing a thesaurus (even online) as much. You don't usually worry about how you sound in a personal e-mail message or text message, or when you're using instant messengers, chat rooms, etc. I believe this proclivity is prickling into the way we write all the time(see, doesn't that just roll off the tongue?)

I don't think it matters what thesaurus you use, even if you do it the old fashion way ... a book (yes, Roget's Thesaurus back in the day was just a book.) The point here is that there are still very appropriate and useful opportunities to take advantage of them to make our documents even better.

Luxuriate in the article!