May 2010 - Word

ChristchurchTCANZ Meeting Report

Round Table Event May 18^th2010

On Tuesday May the 18^th, the Christchurch Branch of TCANZ held its first ever round table discussion at a local bar, with the theme being Microsoft Word – Tips and Tricks. The turnout was excellent with around 20 attendees, most arriving before 6pm and leaving around 8.30pm.

It was great to catch up with the usual crowd, and also meet a few new faces.

We adopted a very informal approach, with people initiating their own conversations across the table, although we did encourage plenty of chair-swapping so that everyone could get a chance to talk to some different people, and also have access to our resident Guru, John Yarrall.

Listening in on a few conversations, the main discussions appeared to be revolving around Word 2007 (who is using it? Where do you find the…? and so on). It was interesting to note that many organisations have not moved to Word 2007, and are not likely to in the next year.

I also heard several tips and tricks being exchanged, although I never did get someone to tell me what the “table grid” style is for. Here are a few of the gems that our members came up with.

• If you are having trouble with styles in Word 2003 reverting back to Normal, try changing the name of Normal to something completely different.
• A great resource on Word is a book called Microsoft Word for Medical and Technical Writers by Peter G Aitken and Maxine M Okazaki (published by Piedmont Medical Writers).
• Another great resource is the Office Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide, which is a flash-based interactive tool showing you where to find things in Word 2007. You can find this at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx
• In Word 2007, select the Show Developer Toolbar option to access all sorts of useful options.
• In Word 2007, the Prepare option, which is available from the Office button, gives you access to the document properties fields.

All in all, the night was very successful and everyone seemed to be having a good time. We hope to try this format again in the future, along with some more traditional meetings and other social events.