The Best Computer Tips and Tricks: Microsoft Office 2003

Edit Outlook E-mails with Word

Want to use Word to handle viewing and composing rich e-mail messages to send via Outlook? You can view inbound mail using Word by opening Outlook, clicking Tools > Options, and then selecting the Mail Format tab. Click the box next to "Use Microsoft Word 2003 to read Rich Text e-mail messages." Click the box above it to use Word to edit your e-mail messages. If you just want to use Word to create a single e-mail message, go to Actions > New Mail Message Using and then decide if you want to compose in an HTML or Word document (or even Excel spreadsheet) format.

Auto Recover in Excel

Don't let all your number-crunching go down the virtual drain if your system crashes. Tell Excel's AutoRecover feature to save your file automatically and at regular intervals by going to Tools > Customize and selecting the Save tab. Under Settings, check the box next to "Save AutoRecover info every . . ." and then select how often you want the information saved (anywhere from every minute to every 120 minutes). You can also change the AutoRecover save location.

Simplify Hyperlinks

If you hate having to hit the Ctrl key along with clicking on a hyperlink when you want to go to a Web site listed in a Word document, you can save yourself the extra keystroke by heading to Tools > Options and selecting the Edit tab. Then uncheck the box that says "Use CTRL + click to follow hyperlink."

Change from 1st to 1st

Not everyone wants a superscript when they type in "1st" or other ordinal numbers. If that includes you, select Format > AutoFormat and click the Options button. Under the "AutoFormat as You Type" tab, uncheck the box next to "Ordinals (1st) with superscript" that's in the section labeled "Replace as you type." The same section allows you to stop Word from automatically replacing Web and e-mail addresses with hyperlinks.

Configure Auto Correct

You can program Auto Correct to automatically change text to the format you prefer. If you use copyright and trademark symbols often, head to Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoCorrect tab, then highlight the text that Word will automatically convert to the symbol (like "(tm)" for "™"). You will see the text you select pop up in the blank fields under the "Replace" and "With" headings, below "Replace text as you type" (the box next to it is checked by default). Now, any time you input that selected text, Word will instantly change it to the related symbol.