Colored Text
In Word 2000, you can change the color of your text because fonts have a color setting. Normally, Word selects the "Automatic" black-on-white color. To change text color, select the text as a block and then click the down arrow by the Font color tool on the toolbar. Clicking the down-arrow displays a drop-down color palette. Choose a color, and your text takes that color. You can also choose Format, Font from the drop-down menu and select the color you want in the same way in the Font Color area of the dialog box. To remove colored text, select it as a block and choose Automatic from the Font color tool's palette.

Excel to Word
If you need to drag a block of selected cells from an Excel worksheet to a Word document, first select the block of cells in Excel. Now move the mouse pointer over an edge of the selected block. When the pointer turns to a white arrow, press the left mouse button and drag the selection to your Word document. This method moves the cells to the Word document. If you want to COPY the cells, move the mouse pointer over the edge. When it turns to a white arrow, press Ctrl, then press the left mouse button to drag the selection to the Word document. 

File Security
To protect a file from unwanted changes, mark it read-only. This way you can't save any changes to the file or, worse, delete it. In an Explorer window, right-click the file you want to protect and select Properties. On the General tab of the resulting Properties dialog box, next to Attributes, select Read-only and click OK. To see this attribute in action, open the file in its native application. The words "Read-Only" appear in parentheses in the open window's title bar. Change anything about the file, click the Save icon, and up pops a message that reads This File Is Read-only. Click OK, then click Cancel to close the Save As dialog box. Now close the file and try deleting it. If and when you need to make changes to or delete a read-only file, simply open its Properties dialog box, deselect the Read-only attribute, and click OK. Marking a file read-only is not a true security measure because a knowledgeable computer person could easily remove this attribute from a file and then change or delete it.

Line Number
In the world of legal documents, etc., lawyers refer to document text by line number. With Word 2000 it does this task for you. If you need to know a particular line number, select File, Page Setup, and click the Layout tab. Then click the Line Number button and check the Add Line Numbering box and configure the remaining options as you want them. When finished, click OK twice. You will now see line numbers in the Print Layout view and on your printed document.

Macros
If you often perform repetitive tasks in Word 2000, such as time-consuming find-and-replace actions, it’s time to record a macro to automate those tasks. To create a macro, select Tools, Macro, Record New Macro, and then follow the onscreen instructions to name and configure the macros to perform your desired actions. Word’s Help system can tell you more about recording and using macros for everyday work.

Magnification
Word 2000 has a valuable Zoom command feature. Use this command to enlarge or shrink the text on your screen by clicking the down arrow in the Zoom box on the Standard toolbar and choosing a magnification percentage from the drop-down list. Or, click inside the Zoom box, type a percentage of your own, and press Enter. With a mouse that has a scroll wheel, you can zoom in on part of a document simply by holding down the Ctrl key and rotating the mouse's wheel. Scrolling up increases the zoom, while scrolling down decreases the zoom.

Mass Mailing
If there is a message that needs to go out to many people at one time, you can create a form letter and use the Mail Merge function to insert some personalization, such as a name and address by opening a new document, by choosing Tools, Mail Merge. Now Step 1 of the Mail Merge Helper indicates that you should create a document, so click the Create button. In Step 2 of the Mail Merge Helper, you define a data source. It can be one that you create now or a data file, such as a spreadsheet or data base, that contains the needed information. After defining a data source, you have the option of editing the document to insert the fields in the proper locations. Now complete the merge by selecting Tools, Mail Merge again, and then click the Merge button under the third step. When the merge is complete, it should generate a separate letter for each record of your data source. At this point you can print out and send your letters.

Moving Menus
If you want to add a little flair to your Word 2000 menus, select Tools, Customize, and then choose the Options tab. On the bottom of the Options tab you'll find a Menu Animations option. Use the drop-down list to choose the behavior, Random, Unfold, or Slide, you want your menus to perform. After you've made your selection, click Close.

Multiple Word 2000 Documents
In Word 2000, you can work on more than one document at the same time. You can even work in two different places in the same document. When you open a new document, a new button is placed on the taskbar. To go from one document to another, click its taskbar button. You can also open the Window menu and click the name of a document to see it onscreen. And, if you want to see all open documents at once, choose Window, Arrange All. To go from one document to the next, either click in a new window pane or press Ctrl+F6. Upon completion of your work, you can easily close all of them at the same time by holding down the Shift key, choosing File, and Close All. The Close All command only appears when you hold down the Shift key.

Multiple Reviewers
There may be a time when you are working on a document to be reviewed by several people. However, you want to control the order of who reads it. You can do this with Word’s Routing feature by choosing File, Send To, Routing Recipient. Now click the Address button and select the appropriate people from your Address Book. When finished, click OK to return to the Routing Slip window. Review the list of people and use the Move arrows to adjust the order of the recipients. Finally click the Route button to send the document immediately. If you want to return to the document to add more information, click Add Slip. Then start the routing process by choosing File, Send To, Next Routing Recipient.

New Characters
If you are working with foreign languages you may have need for special accent marks. To access them, click on Start, Control Panel, and double-click the Keyboard, click the Language Tab, and click Properties. Now select United States International and click OK twice. To use the new characters, press a key in combination with the AltChar key, which is the right Alt key on your keyboard, or ShiftAltChar. Another component of the International layout uses the apostrophe (‘), the circumflex (^), the back quote (`), the double quote (“), and the tilde (~). These characters act as assistants in making an acute accent, a grave accent, a hat over a vowel, an umlaut, and a tilde squiggle, as over the “n” in the Spanish world “senor.” To type an E with an umlaut having two dots over it, press the double quote (“) and then press the letter E. To type an O with a hat over it, press the circumflex (^), and then the letter O.

Newsletter
Word 2000 has a simple way for you to create professional and contemporary newsletters. To use the Newsletter Wizard, choose File, New. The New dialog box appears. Now click in this order the Publications, Newsletter, and OK. If you don't have that template, get it from the Microsoft Office Template Gallery. The template opens, and you can fill it in with your information and even add graphics.

Nonbreaking Space
A great feature of Word is that it senses when your typing gets close to the margin and automatically begins a new line when necessary. Unfortunately, this characteristic sometimes breaks separate words over two lines rather than keeping them together. To keep words, like proper names together no matter how close they are to the margin, enter a non-breaking space by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar. A non-breaking space looks like a regular one, but Word does not use it to begin a new line.

Objects
With Word you can draw squares, ovals, lines, and other shapes on your computer screen. Unfortunately one of the annoying aspects of drawing these objects is that once you’ve drawn one, that drawing turns off. If you want to draw another object, you must click the rectangle Tool again. However, if you double click the Tool, it stays on. Now you can draw as many objects as you want. When you want to turn the tool off, simply press the Esc key on your keyboard.

Object Insertion
Do you have a really neat Visio or Acrobat file you'd like to include in your Word document? At the point of insertion, choose Insert, Object, and Create from File tab. Use the Browse button to navigate to the Visio or Acrobat file. Select the appropriate file, click the Insert button, and then click the OK button. Word inserts the object into your document; and, when you go to edit the object, the native application opens.

Shortcut Menus
Of the applications in Office 2000, only Word, PowerPoint, and Access allow you to customize shortcut menus. To do so, click on Tools, Customize, open the Customize dialog box, and click on the Toolbar’s tab. Now check the Shortcut Menu toolbar. A floating toolbar will appear listing the shortcut menus that can be changed. You modify these menus by dragging commands from the Command tab to the Customize dialog box to the menu.

Summary
Word is the most versatile program that comes with MS Office 97/2000. You can even use Word to publish a Web page on the Internet. Word is rapidly becoming the standard word processing program throughout the business community and among individual computer users.