Office 2010 beta expires on October 31

Just a quick reminder that the Office 2010 beta will expire on October 31, 2010. If you want to continue using Office 2010 after that date, you will need to download a trial version (which will expire after 60 days) or purchase a retail version of the software. I will write a longer post sometime in the next few days with more information about the various purchasing options.

Meanwhile, take a look at this FAQ page on Microsoft’s site — and, in particular, FAQs Nos. 8 and 9. The FAQs are somewhat perfunctory but are a good starting point for your research.

“Dressing Up Your Word Documents With Styles” tutorial available as an e-book on Lulu

Inspired by several talks I’ve given to legal secretaries’ associations about using styles in Word, I have turned one of my styles tutorials into a ten-page e-book that I’m offering for sale on Lulu.com.

The tutorial, called “Dressing Up Your Word Documents With Styles,” is based on — but goes beyond — portions of my Word 2007 and Word 2010 books that introduce users to styles. It explains the advantages of using styles in Word 2003, Word 2007, and Word 2010, as well as a few potential “gotchas.” In addition, it provides step-by-step instructions for creating simple styles from scratch and by example in all three versions of the program.

Toward the end of the e-book, I suggest some style “dos” and “don’ts.” At the very end, I’ve included an exercise that involves setting up a style (and a keyboard shortcut) for an indented quotation, also sometimes known as a block quote. Actually, there are two such exercises: one that covers Word 2003 and another that covers Word 2007 / Word 2010.

The e-book costs just $1.15 (as of April, 2016); it is available as a PDF file. You can purchase it via this link. You should be able to download the e-book as soon as you have paid for it.

Thanks in advance for buying the tutorial!

Finding and replacing a style in Word

Did you know that you can replace one style with another style in Word?

Here’s how:

With your cursor at the very top of your document, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl H to open the Find and Replace dialog. (There are other ways to open the dialog, but Ctrl H is easy and it works in all versions of Word.)

Your cursor should be in the “Find what” box. If any text is displayed there, delete it.

Click the “More” button at the left side of the dialog. (After you do so, the label on the button will change to say “Less.”)

When the dialog expands, click the “Format” button, then click “Style…” A small Find Style dialog appears, listing all available styles.

Scroll down until you locate the style you wish to replace. Click to select (highlight) it, then click OK.

Position your cursor in the “Replace with” box.

Click the “Format” button, then click “Style…” When the Replace Style dialog opens, scroll to the style you want to use in place of the style in the “Find what” box. Click to select (highlight) it, then click OK.

Depending on what you want to do — whether your goal is to replace just a few instances of the first style with the second one or to replace the first style everywhere it appears — you can click “Find Next” to move through the document to each paragraph that is formatted with the first style and click “Replace” on a selective basis or, alternatively, you can click “Replace All.”

Sometimes “Replace All” doesn’t catch every occurrence of the first style, so you might need to re-run the find and replace operation.

Also, after you have made the replacements, be sure to clear both the “Find what” box and the “Replace with” box. To do so, position your cursor in the “Find what” box, then click the “No Formatting” button at the bottom of the Find and Replace dialog. Then position your cursor in the “Replace with” box and do the same.

If you don’t see the “No Formatting” button, it’s possible that you clicked “Less” and collapsed the dialog. In that case, click “More,” which will expand the dialog again and make the “No Formatting” button visible.

Deadline rapidly approaching to upgrade to Office 2010 for free

Update as of October 2, 2010:   The “Technology Guarantee” program expired at the end of September. The next deadline to be aware of is the October 31, 2010 expiration of the Office 2010 beta.  See this brief post and the link contained therein. I am planning to write a longer post sometime in the next few days about obtaining a full retail version of Office 2010 (or, if you prefer, an individual component of the Office 2010 suite, such as Word 2010 — which in fact is sold separately from the other programs in the suite).

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Microsoft’s “Technology Guarantee” program, which enables people who buy certain versions of Office 2007 during a prescribed time period this year to upgrade to Office 2010 for free, expires on September 30, 2010 (i.e., at the end of this month). To be eligible, you must purchase — and also install and activate — a “qualifying version” of Office 2007 by that date.[1] If you’re interested, be sure to read the details and place your order fairly soon, especially if you plan to buy the software from Amazon or another online store (in other words, you’ll need to allow extra time for shipping).

Although the offer appears somewhat complicated because of all of the fine print, it’s actually a pretty good deal. For specifics, including information about which versions of Office 2007 qualify for the free upgrade, see Microsoft’s Technology Guarantee FAQ page. Also, take a look at this article on the Office Watch web site, as well as a couple of related articles (there are links below the first article). According to Office Watch, at least one of the qualifying upgrades — from Office 2007 Ultimate, Professional, or Small Business to Office Professional 2010 — can save you roughly $175.

Essentially, there are a few things to be aware of:

• As mentioned above, only certain versions of Office 2007 qualify. Most legitimate, new versions of the suite are eligible; used versions (and versions sold on eBay) are not. Also, you must buy the software from an authorized seller.
• The offer doesn’t apply to all language versions.
• You will need Internet access, and in particular, a Windows Live account, in order to register the software.
• You’ll need to confirm your purchase date and your product ID, so hold onto (and keep handy) any sales receipt or other proof-of-purchase document you receive when you buy the software, as well as your product key.
• You can take advantage of the tech upgrade up to 25 times — i.e., you can buy up to 25 copies of qualifying Office 2007 products and upgrade each for free — but you will receive only one copy of Office 2010 for each copy of Office 2007 you purchase (and install and activate) between now and September 30, 2010.
• No refunds are available with this offer.
• Upgrading from a qualifying Office 2007 product you buy, install, and activate by September 30, 2010 is free if you download a comparable version of Office 2010. If you prefer, you can order a disk, but Microsoft imposes a fee for a copy on disk.[2] Also, if you request a disk, you might not receive it by the September 30 deadline, so downloading is probably preferable (unless Microsoft will allow you do both, which is unclear from a reading of the terms and conditions in the FAQ).

Before taking action, it’s essential to read the fine print on Microsoft’s Technology Guarantee FAQ page. This blog post merely highlights the main features of the offer.

Also, when deciding which version of Office 2010 you want, make sure to choose a version that will run on your computer.  After you’ve established that the version you have in mind is compatible with your hardware, you’ll need to determine which Office 2007 product(s) will upgrade to that version under the tech guarantee.

And, as Office Watch recommends, check prices (and availability) carefully before making a purchase.

Once you’ve got the details worked out, take care to buy the software far enough in advance so that you can install and activate it by September 30, 2010.

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[1] You actually can request the free upgrade through October 31, 2010, but you will have to buy, install, and activate the software by September 30 in order to qualify.

[2] I don’t know how much Microsoft charges for a disk copy.