For Techies by Techies

I know a lot of people often get frustrated with several features of Microsoft Office.  Automatic formating being the biggest culprit.  In an attempt to help deter some of that frustration, here is another tip on disabling a specific auto formating feature, Bullets and Numbering.

Word 2003

• Click Tools
• Click AutoCorrect Options
• Click AutoFormat As You Type
• Uncheck “Internet and Network Paths”
• Uncheck ”Automatic bulleted lists”  and/or ”Automatic numbered lists”

Word 2007

• Click the Office Button

• Click Word Options

• Click Proofing from the left-hand pane

• Click AutoCorrect Options

• Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab
• Uncheck ”Automatic bulleted lists”  and/or ”Automatic numbered lists”
• Click OK
• Click OK

Although it seems that most users in my work environment have made the switch over to Microsoft Office 2007, there are still a few clinging to what they know.  I also have the issue of having Office 2007 at work and Office 2003 at home.  So, the easiest thing I have found to avoid compatibility issues is to set my default ‘Save As’ to 2003 format.

Word 2007

• Click the Office Button

• Click Word Options

• Click Save from the left-hand pane

•  Select “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)” from the “Save files in this format:” dropdown

•  Click OK

I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty frustrating when Word automatically inserts a hyperlink when I type a web address.  I’d prefer to maintain the control of when and if I want a hyperlink!  So, here you are, instructions on how to diable the Automatic Hyperlinks in Word 2003 and Word 2007.

Word 2003

• Click Tools
• Click AutoCorrect Options
• Click AutoFormat As You Type
• Uncheck “Internet and Network Paths”

Word 2007

• Click the Office Button

• Click Word Options

• Click Proofing from the left-hand pane

• Click AutoCorrect Options

• Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab
• Uncheck “Internet and network paths with hyperlinks”

• Click OK
• Click OK

And that should do it!

Ok, here is another tip to help stop annoying pop-ups.  When you access a secure website, it normally shows a lock or key to let you know it is secure.  However, sometimes when you exit these pages it displays the following error message.

Secure Nonsecure Error Message

This occurs when some of the data being displayed is not directly on the secured site, i.e. an image that is hosted somewhere else.  While it is nice to know when you have left a secure site, these pop-ups can get bothersome.  Especially if you visit certain webpages frequently.

Its a bit of a security risk, since you won’t be notified when you switch from secure to nonsecure pages, but if you’d like to stop this warning, follow the instructions below.

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools
3. Click Internet Options
4. Select the Security Tab
5. Click the Custom Level button
6. Find the Miscellaneous Section (About half way down)
7. Click Diable under Display Mixed Content
8. Click OK
9. Click OK
10. Close Internet Explorer and Restart It

I recently had an instructor call in with a unique (at least to me) problem. Whenever he double-clicked a Microsoft Office file to open it, he would get the following error: “The document name or path is invalid…” After a few questions, I discovered it was only happening on files that contained spaces in the path and/or filename. Once this was figured out, I was able to give the following solution:

1. Right Click on the Start button
2. Click Explore
3. Click Tools
4. Click Folder Options
5. Select the File Types tab
6. Scroll down until you find the DOC file type
7. Select the DOC file type
8. Click the Advanced button
9. Click on Open (in the Actions text box)
10. Click Edit
11. Click into the field named “Application used to perform action:”
12. Scroll to the end
13. Enclose the %1 in double quotes: “%1”
14. Click OK
15. Click OK
16. Click OK