Required (or Nonbreaking) Spaces
When you’re inputting content in a legal or other professional document, there are some conventions that should be followed. One of these is ensuring certain related words are not split onto two lines. For example, when referring to a person, Title and Last Name should always appear together, such as “Mr. Jones.” Allowing Mr. to languish at the end of its own line is bad form. Another example is dates: May 12 should not split. It’s okay to let the year fall on its own line, but never split the month and day. Nor should you allow a section or paragraph symbol to be separated from its reference, e.g., § 4(b).
Controlling this is very easy. Instead of pressing the space bar, press and hold Ctrl+Shift while hitting the space bar. This inserts a space character that doesn’t print but looks similar to a degree symbol when Show/Hide is toggled.
In the date example, here’s how it will appear on-screen:
If the entire string (May and 12) can’t fit on the same line, the string is dropped to the next line.
Cleaning Excess Cell Formatting on an Excel Worksheet
Formatting cells that aren’t being used (especially entire rows and columns) can cause your workbook’s file size to grow quickly. This can slow down not just Excel, but the overall performance of your computer when you have an excessively formatted worksheet open. Excessive formatting can also cause printing problems in Excel.
To rectify this, use the Clean Excess Cell Formatting command, available on Excel’s Inquire tab in Microsoft Office 365 and Office Professional Plus 2013.
If you don’t see the Inquire tab in Excel, do the following to enable the Inquire add-in:
1. Click on File > Options > Add-Ins.
2. Make sure COM Add-ins is selected in the Manage box, and click on Go.
Quickly Locate Program in Windows 10
When looking for a specific program from the Start Menu in Windows 10, you may be accustomed to scrolling through your All Programs list.
Apps (programs) are arranged alphabetically, except for the “Most Used” category at the top. Those are dynamically updated as you access apps over time.
If the program or app you’re looking for starts with a “W,” for example, that could lead to lots of scrolling.
But wait! There is a better way!
Troubleshooting Vertical Lines in Word
Have you ever had a document with a vertical line that you can’t seem to remove? You may have checked for a rogue shape lurking on the page, and there is none. You’ve looked in the Header and/or Footer and… nope – no shape there. The more text you add, the longer the line gets!
What in the world is going on here?
A quick thing to check is the Vertical Bar feature in Tabs. This is something that is not often utilized in legal documents but does have some real-world benefits. (However, one person’s benefit might be your nightmare.)
To fix this, first make sure your Ruler is displayed. From the View tab, check the Ruler box.
Shape Alignment in Word and Excel
When you draw a straight line using the Shapes gallery and want it horizontally or vertically aligned, no problem. Hold down the Shift key while drawing the line. As you draw by dragging, it properly aligns. But, as soon as you start changing the length or direction of the line, it no longer looks horizontal (or vertical). One side ends up misaligned!
The shorter the line, the more obvious it is when it’s not properly aligned.
This…
becomes this…
when the line is selected.
When you attempt to stretch or shrink the size of the line, this happens:
One of the ends jumps up or down. Which, of course, makes YOU want to jump up and down.
Let’s figure it out.