Word 2007, unlike prior versions, doesn’t come with a Pleading Wizard. That fact has left some users in the lurch — especially people who are migrating to Word from WordPerfect. As a result, we periodically see requests on the web for a pleading paper template.

We happen to have a few different templates available, including a couple that use 24 points for double spacing and 12 points for single spacing. (One “suppresses” the page number on the first page; the other doesn’t.) Before offering the templates for sale, we’d like to assess the demand therefor.

Hence, we’ve added a new poll that attempts to gauge the level of interest in buying a (simple) California pleading template for Word 2007. You can find the poll on the Polls page. We would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to respond (no hurry — just whenever you get a chance).

Many thanks for your feedback.

In the meantime, we wish you all of the charms of the holiday season, as well as good health and contentment in the coming year!

Many people who use MS Word are accustomed to turning on the “Track Changes” feature when they want the program to mark revisions (insertions, deletions, and moved text) automatically as they type. This feature is highly customizable. It allows each user to select specific font colors, underlining styles, and other font attributes for text that is redlined, stricken, or moved. For example, I have set my Track Changes options so that insertions appear in blue with double underlining and deletions appear in red with a strikeout line (also in red).

Another convenient aspect of Track Changes is that when someone (whether the document author or a reviewer) positions the mouse pointer over revisions, a pop-up indicates who made the change, as well as the date / time and the nature of the modification.

Word users who also occasionally work in WordPerfect sometimes ask whether WP has a comparable feature. The short answer is, “sort of.”

The feature in WordPerfect that most closely resembles Track Changes is called “Document Review.” It serves some of the same purposes as Track Changes, but — be forewarned — not all of them. Nor does it work exactly the same way.

Before you test the feature, be sure to make a copy of your document, for two reasons: (1) so that you don’t accidentally overwrite a critical file, and (2) so that you have the option of keeping sequential drafts of the doc for purposes of comparing the drafts later on if you wish.

Once you have created a backup, open it into WordPerfect and click the File menu, Document, Review. You will see a dialog box that allows you to act as a reviewer or as the document author. Your first impulse might be to click “Author.” However, even if you are the author of the document, you can — and might want to — work on the doc as a reviewer. The advantage of doing so is that your revisions (insertions and deletions) will automatically appear in color as you work on the document — emulating, at least to a certain degree, the way that Track Changes works. If, instead, you choose to act as the author, your modifications won’t appear in color, but you will be able to go through the document and selectively accept or reject changes that other people have made.

To enable the quasi-Track Changes mode, click the “Reviewer” button. Doing so will open a Reviewer Toolbar that features a drop-down list of reviewers, plus a few buttons. The buttons at the left side of the toolbar let you (1) select a color for insertions or deletions, (2) enable or disable markings in the margin to flag lines that contain changes[1], and (3) display insertions and deletions in the normal text color (similar to the “Final” display option for tracked changes in Word). In addition, there are two buttons at the right side of the toolbar: one to close the toolbar and one to invoke WP Help (which is context-sensitive).

If your name is not already in the Reviewer List box, you’ll see a User Name box and a User Initials box. Type your name and initials. Then open the color picker and select a color. Make sure not to choose a color that has been selected by another reviewer (if any) in the list. (You can select a different color later on if you decide you don’t like the original color you chose.) Then go ahead and edit the document to your heart’s content. Make sure to save the revised document afterwards.

The first thing to point out about Document Review is that, whether you are working on the doc as an author or as a reviewer, your display options are significantly more limited than they are in Word. Your insertions and deletions always appear in the same color, differentiated only by the existence of strikeout lines through the deletions. (Individual reviewers can, and usually do, have their own unique color.) As mentioned above, you can change your revision color, but you can’t apply one color to insertions and a different color to deletions. Nor can you apply other font attributes, such as bolding, italics, underlining, or double underlining, to your changes.

Although WP Help appears to suggest that you can alter the appearance of insertions, deletions, and moved text, any changes you make via the File menu, Document Compare, Settings will apply only if you use the the Document Compare feature itself. They don’t appear when you are using Document Review.

Another difference between Word’s Track Changes feature and WP’s Document Review feature is that pop-ups with information about a particular revision and the person who made the change appear only when you are acting as a reviewer. If you click “Author” in order to view and accept or reject modifications that others have made, you won’t see any pop-ups. However, each reviewer’s markings display in his or her distinctive color, and you have the option of displaying only one particular reviewer’s changes (rather than changes made by all reviewers) by clicking the “View annotations from” drop-down and clicking that reviewer’s name.

When you review a document as the author, you will see a somewhat different Reviewing Toolbar — one with more commands than those on the toolbar displayed for reviewers. In addition to the familiar icons for toggling margin markings on and off and for displaying revisions in the normal text color, there are buttons for moving to (and selecting / highlighting) the previous annotation (WordPerfect terminology for an insertion or deletion) or the next one; for inserting (i.e., accepting) the current (selected) annotation, for inserting all annotations in the document, for rejecting (i.e., deleting) the current (selected) annotation, and for rejecting all annotations. At the right side of the toolbar, you will see Close and Help buttons.

As in Word, the revision marks — and the Reviewing Toolbar — will appear whenever you open a document that has gone through the Document Review process. The only way to make the markings (and the Reviewing Toolbar) disappear permanently is to review the document as an Author and accept or reject each individual modification, close the Reviewing Toolbar, and save the final draft.

If you haven’t accepted or rejected all of the revisions but the markings aren’t visible, it’s possible that you have closed the Reviewing Toolbar. To reopen it, simply click the File menu, Document, Review, then click Author.

Despite its inherent limitations, the Document Review feature can be useful. It allows you to mark insertions and deletions automatically as you type, rather than going back and manually adding strikeout and redlining (which, of course, you can do at any point — even in a document that has undergone a Document Review — by selecting the text and then applying the appropriate marks via the Font dialog or via the redline and strikeout icons on the Legal Toolbar[2]). Also, it lets the author circulate a document to various people for review and subsequently accept or reject modifications suggested by those reviewers.

The point is that Document Review isn’t 100% comparable to Word’s Track Changes feature, so it’s important to keep your expectations in check.

For a relatively lengthy discussion of the Document Review feature, see this WordPerfect Universe thread . It’s more than two years old and involves WordPerfect X3, but as far as I know, the conclusions (and instructions) remain valid.

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[1] By default, WP uses a “greater than” symbol (>) as the margin marker. If you want to use a different character, click File, Document, Review, and click to put a check in the “Place marker in margin of lines with edited text” box. When you do so, the “Marking character” box — normally grayed out — will become available. Type the character you’d like to use, then click either the “Reviewer” or “Author” button. (Don’t click “Cancel,” or WP will revert to the default character when you enable the mark margins feature.)

[2] To display the Legal Toolbar or any of the other toolbars that come with WordPerfect, click the View menu, Toolbars, locate the toolbar you want to use (you might need to use the scrollbar), click to put a check in the box next to the toolbar’s name, then click OK.

There are several default settings in Word 2007 that new users often want to change but have trouble locating. To make that task easier, here is a list a few of the configuration options my clients ask about most frequently. It’s far from comprehensive, and both the items I’ve chosen to discuss and the order of the list are somewhat random. However, the list should help you track down some of the key settings that Microsoft has tucked away in places you wouldn’t necessarily think to look.

Each of these settings can be found by clicking the Office button, then navigating to and clicking the Word Options button at the very bottom of the fly-out menu (under Recent Documents). If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can press the key combination Alt F, I. (In earlier versions of Word, most configuration options are located on various tabs within the Options dialog, which you invoke by clicking the Tools menu, Options.)

In Word 2007, the Word Options are grouped into categories and subcategories. Clicking a category in the navigation area at the left side of the screen produces several subcategories for that category. Depending on the category, you might need to scroll down to see all of the subcategories.

Remember to click OK before exiting the Word Options. Otherwise, Word won’t save your modified settings.

Options Listed Under “Popular”

When you first open the Word Options, you’re taken to the “Popular” category. One of the choices there that people sometimes want to disable is the Mini Toolbar. That’s the toolbar that, by default, pops up automatically when you select text — at first appearing as a faint, ghostly presence, and then solidifying when you move the mouse pointer over it. Many people like it, but if you don’t, simply uncheck it and OK out of the Word Options.

Options Listed Under “Display”

Clicking the “Display” category on the left takes you first to the “Page display options” subcategory.

My clients sometimes ask how to turn on the option that shows the top of a virtual page, including the margin area (i.e., where any header would appear), rather than hiding that portion of the page and having the first line of text appear immediately below the Ruler (if the Ruler is displayed). That is the setting at the top of this subcategory, the one labeled “Show white space between pages in Print Layout view.” To enable it, click to put a check in the box, then OK out.

Note that even with this option enabled, it’s possible to hide the white space by accident. If you are certain that you turned the option on but you’re not seeing white space between pages, move the cursor to the top of the virtual page — into the slim area between the document and the Ruler or whatever is immediately above the document — and, when the mouse pointer becomes a double-headed arrow (one pointing down and one pointing up), double-click. That should display the white space again. (Double-clicking in that area toggles between displaying and hiding the white space.)

It’s unlikely that you’ll want to change the other default settings under “Page display options,” but give them a quick glance just in case. Keep in mind that if you check any of the choices under “Always show these formatting marks on the screen,” those non-printing characters will display at all times — even if you click the paragraph symbol (pilcrow) in the Paragraph group on the Home tab in an effort to toggle them off. This is a potential “gotcha” to keep at the back of your mind.

Options Listed Under “Advanced”

There are a handful of settings listed in the “Advanced” category that you might want to change.

The “Editing options” Subcategory

One of these, hiding demurely in the middle of the “Editing options” subcategory, is “Use the Insert key to control overtype mode.” Surprisingly, this setting is turned off by default — which makes Word 2007 different from previous versions of Word and from nearly all other Windows programs, in which the Insert key toggles between Insert mode (where new typing bumps existing text over to the right, rather than replacing it) and Typeover or Overtype mode (where new typing actually erases existing text).

Upon reflection, it makes sense that Microsoft chose to disable this feature by default, considering how commonly people press the Insert key and end up overwriting existing text by accident. Still, considering what a radical departure this change represents, many people are caught off guard by it. If you want to enable the option, making Word 2007 behave more like traditional Windows programs, just click the first checkbox. Watch out, though: The second checkbox (labeled “Use overtype mode”) makes Typeover / Overtype the default, which is neither the norm nor the mode that most people prefer.

The “Cut, copy, and paste” Subcategory

Perhaps the most common question I get from clients about configuration options is how to disable the “Paste Options” buttons. By default, these little guys pop up whenever you paste text within a document or between docs. They’re designed to make it easy for you to control the formatting of pasted text — to ensure that it appears in the same format as the original text or in the same format as the text in the location where you’re pasting it — but, judging from my clients’ reactions, a lot of people find the buttons more annoying than useful. If you agree, click to uncheck “Show Paste Options buttons” and OK out.

The “Display” Subcategory

The Recent Documents list in Word 2007 allows for the display of a much larger number of docs than in previous versions of Word (where the maximum number was nine). If memory serves, the default setting is 20. You can change this setting via the “Display” subcategory of the “Advanced” Word Options by using the arrows (“spinners”) or by simply typing a higher or lower number under “Show this number of Recent Documents.”

Another useful option that you can configure in the “Display” subcategory is the one labeled “Style area pane width in Draft and Outline Views.” When you type a number higher than zero — and usually greater than 1 (meaning 1″) — Word will show the styles in use in your document in a narrow area in the left margin when you switch to Draft view. There are other ways to display the styles in your document (for example, you can add a button to the Quick Access Toolbar [QAT] that shows the style of the paragraph your cursor is in[1]), but this method has the advantage of showing all the styles in the document at a glance.

Another highly requested option that is located in the “Advanced” Category under “Display” is one that I’ve written about elsewhere in this blog, namely, the one that allows you to display a second set of “control buttons” (Minimize, Maximize / Restore, and Close) that affect individual documents, rather than the program itself. This setting is confusing for two reasons: (1) because the default setting hides the second set of control buttons — such that large numbers of people accidentally close Word when they meant to close a specific document; and (2) the wording of the option doesn’t give any indication whatsoever that the setting affects the control buttons.

The option is labeled “Show all windows in the Taskbar.” When it is enabled, as it is by default, each open document is displayed in the Windows Taskbar, which is well and good. However, the trade-off is that the second set of control buttons — the ones that affect the document rather than the program — is hidden. To display the document control buttons, you have to uncheck this option. But be aware that when you do so, individual documents will no longer display in the Taskbar.

Only you can decide which of the two alternatives you prefer. If you decide you’d rather see the document control buttons, consider adding a “Switch Windows” button to the QAT so that you have any easy way of displaying (and moving among) your open documents. (See footnote [1] below for instructions on adding buttons to the QAT.) Of course, you also have the option of using the “Switch Windows” command at the right side of the View tab, and if you like, you can cycle among your open documents by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl F6.

Although this list isn’t exhaustive, I hope that it goes a long way toward helping you reconfigure Word to make it work the way you want it to.

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[1] To add a “Style” box to the QAT: Right-click the QAT, then click Customize Quick Access Toolbar…. When the Word Options opens, navigate to the “Choose commands from” drop-down on the left and click it, then select “All Commands” (the default is “Popular Commands”). Scroll down about 5/6 of the way until you find “Style” (not “Styles,” plural). Click to select it, then click the “Add” button toward the center of the screen. To move the style box left or right on the QAT, click the up (left) or down (right) button. Then click OK to save your settings and close the Word Options.

To add a “Switch Windows” button to the QAT: Right-click the QAT, then click Customize Quick Access Toolbar… When the Word Options opens, navigate to the “Choose commands from” drop-down on the left and click it, then select “View Tab” (the default is “Popular Commands”). Scroll down until you find “Switch Windows.” Click to select it, then click the “Add” button toward the center of the screen. To move the style box left or right on the QAT, click the up (left) or down (right) button. Then click OK to save your settings and close the Word Options.

Note that you might find it useful to move the QAT below the Ribbon, if you haven’t done so already. When you do so, it will expand all the way across the screen, allowing you to add quite a few icons to help you carry out the tasks you perform most frequently. To reposition the QAT, right-click it and click Show Quick Access Toolbar Below the Ribbon.

The good news is that my calendar is available on Amazon — you can buy it via this link. The bad news is that, although they just posted the description, there aren’t any previews available on the Amazon page.** However, you can preview four images from the 12-month wall calendar on the Lulu.com page. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the main advantage of buying from Amazon is that its shipping costs typically are lower than Lulu’s, although Lulu does offer discounts from time to time, particularly on weekends.

I’ll repeat the description here:

A paean to Lyon, France, showcasing the city’s natural beauty as well as some of its architectural landmarks and monuments. Photos of the historic town center known as “Vieux Lyon,” with its cobblestone streets and medieval towers, alternate with serene images of a sprawling park at the north end of the city and of the majestic Saône River. Toward the end, the calendar depicts some of the shimmering displays that dazzle tourists and residents alike during the Festival of Lights every December. Both American and French holidays are listed.

All photographs © 2006/2008 Jan Berinstein.

PLEASE NOTE: Proceeds from the sale of this calendar will be split 50:50 with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Please let your contacts — Francophiles and others — know about the availability of the calendar on Amazon.

I think the photos capture the essential charm and scenic majesty of Lyon. I hope you enjoy them.

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**Addendum as of 12/15/2009: I’ve just uploaded three additional images from the calendar to the Amazon page, in essence creating a preview. I might add one more at some point in the next couple of days. Also note that Lulu has provided a number of coupon codes on this page; be sure to look at the entire page. These particular coupons expire on December 24th.

As of next Wednesday, December 9, my Lyon, France 2010 wall calendar will be available for purchase from Amazon.com as well as from Lulu.com. That’s great news, given that shipping charges tend to be lower on Amazon (and that the company frequently offers free shipping if you reach a certain threshold — for instance, by ordering multiple items such as holiday gifts).[1]

I don’t have a specific link yet, but I’ll post one as soon as it’s available. And presumably you’ll be able to locate the calendar on or after next Wednesday simply by searching for my name on Amazon.

I’m planning to mail some postcards about the calendar to French businesses early next week. In the meantime, if you know anyone who might be interested (whether or not they have some type of “French connection”), please pass along the news about the listing on Amazon. Let them know that I’m donating 50% of the net proceeds from sales of the calendar to a good cause — The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society — and that the calendar, which represents a unique personal vision of one of the loveliest cities in Europe, makes a great gift.

For previews of four of the twelve months, you can visit the calendar’s page on Lulu. (I’m not certain, but I doubt that previews will be available on Amazon.)

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[1] Note that Lulu often runs promotions, especially on weekends, whereby you can obtain substantial discounts on items you purchase there by entering a coupon code at checkout.

Creating a Header Row

It’s easy to create a header row in a table — i.e., a row containing text that repeats at the top of every page that the table is on — in recent versions of WordPerfect.

To begin, position your cursor in the first row of a table in your document. (You don’t need to select the entire row.) Next, if your version of WP has a Table menu, click the Table menu and then click Format. If your version of WP doesn’t have a Table menu, right-click within the first row of the table and then click Format. [1]

When the Table Properties dialog appears, click the Row tab. At the top, under “Row Attributes,” click to place a checkmark in the box labeled “Header row (repeats on each page).” Be sure to click “OK” to save your settings, rather than closing the dialog by clicking the red “X” in the upper right-hand corner, clicking the “Cancel” button, or pressing Esc (since those methods will discard your settings).

After you have added enough rows so that the table spills onto a second page, you should see the header row at the top of the new page. Note that if you want to edit the header row, you must click in the very first row of the table — you can’t actually put the cursor in the header row on any subsequent pages. It’s almost as if those iterations are copies or images.

If for some reason you split the table into two or more separate tables, the header row will not be copied into any of the additional tables. You’ll have to create it again in the new tables from scratch.

Also, it is possible to have two (and perhaps more) header rows with different text in each of the rows. To set up multiple header rows, you have to select the rows first, then go to Table, Format, Row and click “Header row (repeats on each page),” then OK out of the dialog. The rows must be contiguous. If you change your mind later on and decide you don’t want the second row to appear on every page, put the cursor in that row, go back into the Table Properties dialog, Row tab, uncheck the “Header row (repeats on each page)” box, and click OK.

Some people like to distinguish the header row from the rest of the table by adding gray shading. That, too, is a simple task. Select the row (by clicking and dragging; alternatively, place the mouse pointer inside the first cell near the left border and move it slightly until it turns into a large white left-pointing arrow, then left-click twice) and then do one of the following:

1. Click the Table menu, Borders/Fill, then click the “Fill” button under “Cell Fill”; or

2. Right-click within the selected row, click Borders/Fill, then click the “Fill” button under “Cell Fill”; or

3. Click the “Cell Fill” button in the Property Bar.

Next, choose from among the images in the gallery (my own preference is for 10% or 20% gray fill). WordPerfect provides a preview of what the fill will look like. When you find something that appeals to you, click the image and then click OK to apply the shading or pattern you’ve selected. If you don’t like the way the fill looks, you can go back into Borders/Fill and change the cell fill to none (click the big “X” in the gallery, then OK out).

NOTE: On some computers, borders, fill, and guidelines don’t display properly. If you have applied borders or fill to a table cell or row and you can’t see it on the screen, try test-printing a page. I will address this issue in more detail in the near future in a post about WordPerfect table borders, guidelines, and gridlines.

Tabbing Within a Table Cell

Here’s another tip that answers one of the most frequently asked questions I get about tables (in both WordPerfect and Word): How do you tab within a table cell?

In both WordPerfect and Word, pressing the Tab key when your cursor is within a table moves the cursor to the next cell in the table (if the cursor already is within the last cell, pressing the Tab key creates a new row and positions the cursor in the first cell of that row). But what if you want to indent text in the cell by a certain amount — say, half an inch?

The answer is the same for both programs: Press Ctrl Tab. Ctrl Tab inserts a so-called “hard tab,” rather than moving the cursor to the next cell. When you press that key combination, the cursor will move to the next tab stop within the current cell. (You can, of course, set tabs within table cells in much the same way that you set tabs in regular documents.)

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[1] If the Property Bar has been enabled, you might see a Table-drop-down in the Property Bar when your cursor is within the table. To display the Property Bar, click the View menu, Toolbars, click to put a checkmark next to Property Bar (if it isn’t already checked), then click OK.

The public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 was released last week. I was traveling then, so I didn’t have a chance to download the software until a couple of days ago, but I have been playing with Word 2010 since then. Although I’ve spent only a few hours experimenting, I thought it might be useful to share my early impressions. Do keep in mind that the current release is a beta version, which means it could change significantly between now and the official release, tentatively scheduled for the second quarter of next year.

Because I’m a trainer (and because I’m working on my Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Office Word 2010 book), I downloaded the Professional version. That edition includes Word, Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher. Most people probably will download the Home and Business edition, which consists of Word, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, and PowerPoint (i.e., you don’t get Access or Publisher). For now, I’m interested primarily in Word, so that’s what I’ll write about today.

Just a few highlights (and lowlights), given that I’ve just started working with the beta.

First, the good news:

A Smooth Transition: Word 2010 Maintains Your Customized Settings From Word 2007

NOTE: This section has been revised / corrected as of 12/2/2009.

Apparently Word 2010, like Word 2007, automatically chooses Calibri as the default font and 1.15 as the default line spacing. The good news is that if you have created a customized NORMAL template in Word 2007 (normal.dotm) that uses a different default font and different default line spacing — say, Times New Roman and single spacing — your modified settings from Word 2007 will be retained in Word 2010.

If your NORMAL template (normal.dotm) becomes corrupted, Word will create a new one from scratch. That new template will use the standard Word 2010 / Word 2007 settings. It’s relatively easy to change the defaults — there is a “Default” button at the bottom of the Font dialog and one at the bottom of the Paragraph dialog; once you select the settings you want, click that button and click “Yes” to apply those settings to all future documents based on the NORMAL template. However, it’s always a good idea to make a backup copy of the NORMAL template soon after you’ve customized it. That way, if the first modified normal.dotm is damaged, you can simply close Word and then go into Windows Explorer or My Computer, delete or rename the original normal.dotm, and rename the backup copy (i.e., change the name to “normal.dotm,” without quotation marks). When you re-launch Word, it should use the backup copy, obviating the need to change the default settings again manually.

Added Customizability: An Improved Ribbon

Evidently Microsoft paid attention to the many customers who complained about the near-total lack of customizability of the Ribbon in Word 2007. In Word 2010, it is possible to add custom tabs (and place them in any order you like). You can divide your new tabs into groups if you wish.

Note that you can’t add icons to or delete icons from built-in tabs / groups. That capability is available only for custom (user-created) tabs and groups. However, it is possible to add one or more custom groups to built-in tabs.

Additionally, you actually have the option of removing existing groups from the Ribbon altogether — for example, you can eliminate the Themes group from the Page Layout tab. (If you change your mind later on, you can add it back in.) You can’t get rid of tabs permanently, but you do have the option of hiding tabs, which effectively is the same thing. Plus, you can rename tabs (as well as groups) or move them to a different position in the Ribbon.

The ability to create new tabs provides much-needed flexibility to this version of Word. People who rue the loss of user-customizable toolbars in Word 2007 will be cheered by this added functionality in the new version.

That said, there are a few changes that users might find less heartening, especially if they plan to upgrade from Word 2007. For one thing, you still can’t add a second row to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT); buttons that won’t fit on a single row get added to a drop-down, which simply isn’t as convenient as a second row. That’s a relatively minor disappointment, however, and far less problematic (in my view) than the newly designed File tab.

Read on.

The File Tab (Also Known as the “Backstage” View)

Microsoft has done away with the Office Button (or “orb”) in all of the Office 2010 programs, ostensibly because some users found it confusing. In its stead, there is a sort of File tab, which MS also refers to as the “Backstage” View. I say a “sort of” tab because it doesn’t work the same way as the rest of the tabs; indeed, it isn’t really part of the Ribbon. Like the Office Button, it drops down at the left side of the screen. And in similar fashion, it provides most of the commands that people are accustomed to finding on the File menu in older versions of the program (and in most other Windows applications): New, Open, Save, Save As, Print, and Close (among others), as well as an Exit icon to close out of the program and an Options icon to configure Word.

However, that’s where the similarity to previous versions of the software ends.

First, in Word 2010, these commands are not in the standard order. Rather, the File tab displays Save and Save As at the top, followed by Open and Close. And then, somewhat confusingly, there is a new category labeled “Info,” which is comparable in some respects to “Properties.”

The File tab drop-down opens by default to the “Info” command, which displays information about whether the file on screen (if any) is a native Word (.docx) file or uses Compatibility Mode (.doc) and lets you change the permissions on the document, prepare it to share with others, and/or manage the document versions. Specific document properties — size, number of pages, word count, date created, date last modified, author, etc. — appear at the right side of the Info. screen.

Underneath “Info” there is a “Recent” command, which you need to click in order to see your list of recently used files. A checkbox at the bottom of the expanded “Recent Documents” screen does give you the ability to display a number of your most recent documents in the main portion of the File drop-down (without having to click “Recent” to create a fly-out). Also, you can add an “Open Recent File…” icon to the QAT. While I’m pleased that Microsoft has provide alternate methods of presenting the Recent Documents list, those workarounds strike me as kludgy and less than user-friendly.

The kludgy feeling is heightened by the fact that the File drop-down, unlike the drop-down from the Office Button in Word 2007, fills the entire screen. In other words, it extends all the way across, so that you can’t see any portion of the current document while the drop-down is open. And that fact is likely to frustrate users, who might have trouble figuring out how to close the drop-down. In Word 2007, clicking in the document effectively makes the drop-down go away. But you can’t click in the document if you can’t see it.

Users might think they are supposed to click the “Close” button. Doing so, unfortunately, not only closes the File drop-down but also closes the current document. Needless to say, clicking the “Exit” button would have even more unsettling results.

One solution is to press the Esc key (which also works to close the drop-down in Word 2007). Whether users will find that intuitive is an open question, but based on what I know about how most people use software, it concerns me. (People who use keyboard shortcuts to open the File drop-down and any of its commands might find that they have to press the Esc key more than once.)

Alternatively, you can click the label for any other tab, which will close the File drop-down and bring the tab you clicked to the forefront.

Besides the commands I’ve mentioned so far, the other commands on the File drop-down are New, Print, Share, and Help. Most of those commands appear similar in functionality to their counterparts in Word 2007 (except that Word 2010 makes extensive use of graphics and also includes step-by-step instructions for several of the tasks).

One command that has changed considerably is the Print command. In fact, Microsoft has replaced the familiar Print dialog with a new full-screen fly-out that offers not only the expected range of options — number of copies, active printer, portion of document to print, whether collated or not, portrait or landscape format, paper size, and margins — but also easy access to the Page Setup dialog and a highly manipulable preview of the instant document. The preview can zoom in or out, show one page or multiple pages, and so on.

Overall, the new Print page (I’m not sure at this point what term MS is using in place of “dialog box”) provides a great deal of functionality. However, because it — like the other options available from the File drop-down — takes up the entire screen, users once again face the issue of how to close the instructions.

Note that pressing Ctrl P opens the Print page, rather than the old Print dialog. (In Word 2010, some keyboard shortcuts open the old-style dialogs even where MS has developed alternate methods of using the commands, such as “panes” and these new full-screen instruction sheets.)

Other Changes

There are several other notable changes in the new version, including the replacement of the “Find” dialog with a Navigation pane (the Find dialog actually is still available via the key combination Ctrl H, though the Ctrl F keystroke opens the Nav pane), as well as some additions / modifications to the Ribbon.

Also, Microsoft is providing so-called Office Web Apps — web-enabled versions of Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote — that you will be able to use for light editing when you don’t have access to a computer with the full versions of those programs loaded on it. (You will have to upload your documents in order to work on them online.) Note that “personal” users (presumably that means those who buy the Home and Student edition; I’m not sure about the Home and Business edition) will see some advertisements when they use the Web Apps.

Time is scarce at the moment, so that’s all I’ll say for now about the other changes. I’ll write again when I’ve had an opportunity to do more experimentation.

How to Obtain the Office 2010 Beta

You can download the beta free of charge from this page or from this one.

Before downloading the software, you’ll need to create a Windows Live ID account and sign in. (The process doesn’t always go smoothly. If you really want the beta, be persistent.)

I strongly recommend reading as much information as possible about the beta before downloading it. In particular, take a look at the FAQ sheet, which you can find on this page. To expand the FAQs, click the “Show All” link at the top of the page. If the print is too small to read comfortably online, press Ctrl + (plus sign), which will magnify the text on your screen. You can press Ctrl + as many times as necessary to enlarge the text to a size that is easy to read. To reduce the size of the text, press Ctrl – (minus sign).

Before downloading, make sure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements. Note that Windows XP users must be patched to Service Pack 3 or the download won’t proceed. If you’re not at SP3, you’ll have to go to the Microsoft Automatic Updates web site and download all of the requisite patches prior to obtaining the Office 2010 beta. (Users of Internet Explorer can go straight to the site via this link; if you use another browser, you have to head over to the Microsoft Download Center and navigate to the Service Packs section at the right-hand side of the screen — or simply click this link to go directly to the SP3 download page.)

Another caution: You ‘ll probably be given a chance to indicate whether you want Office 2010 to replace or co-exist with your current version(s) of Office, but you might want to download the beta onto a separate test machine in case there are any problems and/or incompatibilities. In fact, Microsoft warns not to put the beta onto your main personal or business computer, and I agree that it’s wise not to do so. That’s especially true if you use Word (or any other programs in the suite) for mission-critical work.

Be careful — slow and deliberate — when any screen appears that requires your input. In particular, pay attention so that you don’t accidentally click the option to have the beta to replace your existing version(s) of Office. (Thankfully, the default is to keep any older versions, but it’s easy to start clicking too fast and inadvertently make the wrong choice.)

Once you choose a product to download, you’ll probably see a screen containing a unique 25-character product code. Microsoft usually e-mails the product code to you, too, but it’s a good idea to print the page and/or jot down the code. You’ll need it in order to activate the beta during setup.

Depending on which edition of the beta you select, the time for the download can be fairly short or quite lengthy. The Home and Business version can be downloaded using “Click to Run” technology, which supposedly doesn’t take very long. The Professional edition requires more time; my download — using DSL — took more than five hours. Microsoft advises that it should be relatively simple to resume the download if it’s interrupted for any reason.

Once you’ve downloaded the software, close all open programs, then locate the executable file and double-click it to start the setup process. As long as you type the correct product key, setup should go smoothly.

You will be able to continue using the beta until October of 2010, after which time the software will no longer work. At that point you’ll be given the opportunity to obtain the trial version or purchase a full version of Office 2010.

Dear readers,

Best wishes to all of you for an exceptionally relaxing and savory holiday!

At Thanksgiving, I am particularly aware of my good fortune. There are myriad things for which I am thankful, including the wonderful people who follow my blog and who buy my book(s) and my calendar, as well as my terrific clients, students, colleagues, friends, family members, and other acquaintances — physical and virtual — who have provided support and encouragement throughout the past year. Know that I appreciate each and every one of you.

Over the long weekend, I will post a couple of new substantive articles. I’m thinking, too, of allowing comments at some point in the future, although responding to comments might take a fairly substantial amount of time, which already is in short supply. In any case, I will do my best to continue to offer tips that help you to get your daily work done more quickly, efficiently, and easily.

Meanwhile, happy holidays, everybody!

As of 3:10 p.m. PST, the book is listed once again as being “Available.” So anyone who wants to order a copy should be able to do so through Amazon (as well as through Lulu).

Thanks to all the folks at Lulu and Amazon who jumped in and got things fixed. That was pretty fast!

Once again, Amazon is indicating this evening — incorrectly — that my Word 2007 book is “Currently unavailable.” There is some glitch that causes Amazon to display that message from time to time, which is problematic because when it happens the “Add to Cart” button vanishes.

I’ve fired off a note to Lulu Support (it was Lulu that placed the book on Amazon in the first place), so with luck the problem will be fixed soon. In the meantime, you still can order the book through Lulu (via the link in the column at the right side of the blog). The main reason I normally steer potential buyers to Amazon, apart from its familiar interface, is that Amazon’s shipping tends to be less expensive than Lulu’s.

My apologies for this problem — and thanks for your patience.