…or at least it felt that way. You see, I pride myself on having a fairly extensive vocabulary, which occasionally leads to my being pleonastic or pedantic…but nonetheless I’ve always enjoyed richness in words (such as that discussed in the Word Nerds podcast). Anyhow, today I came across a flattering dialog box in Microsoft Word:

For thirty seconds I considered the possibility that Word was not in err and that I had in fact exceeded its capacity for vocabulary. Continue reading…

By now you’ve probably used Search & Replace in Word, and you may have even tried some of the advanced tools within it. However, as an efficiency trainer, I get to see that there’s a huge difference between those who use this tool versus those who have mastered it. The result of mastery? A heck of a lot of frustration and time saved. Maybe even some bragging rights. But enough talk…

Tip 1. Don’t perform a “Replace All.”

Inevitably there’s going to be something that doesn’t fit a pattern. You have two choices, you can refine your search (see below) to a more specific term (which is a good idea, but can be time consuming) or you can take the extra 20 seconds to review each item before replacing it. And, for the record, you don’t need to keep pressing Find and then Replace. By merely pressing Replace (or better yet, pressing R on the keyboard!), Word will move you between each selection and then replace it. A quick glance before each replacement will ensure much more accurate search & replaces.

Tip 2. Refine your searches

Continue reading…

What software do you love? Jensen Harris, an outspoken Microsoft Office developer, posed this question in his blog last week…and I wasn’t altogether surprised by the responses. In particular, most people loved the nifty, focused tools that make their life easier. No one mentioned Microsoft Word or Outlook, which might strike you as odd–given that the respondents participate in a blog dedicated to the development of Microsoft software. In this post I’ll offer my suspicions for people’s choices and at the same time give Microsoft a little more credit.

Everyone loves their focused software tools, and I chimed in with some of my favorites like hoekey, Firefox, and OneNote. Along the same vein and more in line with others’ responses I could’ve mentioned little apps like KeyTweak, Who Lock Me?, and TotalCopy. What do most of these programs have in common? They’re mostly small utilities that you haven’t heard of. What do all of them have in common? They’re all focused on specific tasks, and all the larger tools improved upon something that could be done (albeit messily, perhaps) using some of the more popular applications. Continue reading…