question about formatting

[twestover]

I'm so pleased to find this group to get some help with my question. I
have a folder full of about 75 recipes in Word. They have gone in that
folder over the years in various formats. Now I would like to print
them all out with the same format (type style, size, etc). How do I
get them all to have the same characteristics without doing each of
them individually?
Thanks so much for any guidance you can give me.
Terri

 

[Sol Apache]

You can make all the styles the same by having a template, In the template
you should create styles, for example one for the recipe heading, one for
the ingredients, one for the instructions, etc. Save it as a template and
Word will automatically place it in the folder called ³My Templates²

Once you have made the template, create a new document based upon it (using
Project Gallery) then copy and paste all your recipes into it, or use the
Insert/file... Command in the insert menu.

Unfortunately you will have to go through each recipe (and there is only
around 75 of them so it won¹t take long) to apply the styles, but there are
a couple of shortcuts. You can attach a keyboard shortcut to a style when
you create it. For instance the heading style can be control+option+1, or
you can apply the style, find and click into the next heading and press
command+y which repeats the last action you did. However, if you use the
repeat command you have to focus on doing that one action continuously. Then
go back to the beginning and apply the ingredients style, etc.

Hope this helps

 

[twestover]

Thank you so much. Could you go over with me just a bit more detail
about how to make a template?
Terri

 

[Sol Apache]

Open a new blank Word document. Set the margins, the page layout and create
the styles. Then use ³Save As...² in the File menu and choose ³Document
Template² from the drop down menu to the right of ³Format:³ below the files
window. The suffix .doc (if it is showing) will change to a .dot and Word
will automatically open the ³My Templates² folder for you to save your
template therein.

You can really do all this in a document and save it as an ordinary document
if you wish, and insert your recipe files into it. With the template you can
create different files with all the same styles. It is much more complicated
to restyle your already created recipe files if you keep them separate.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Terri,

Sol is spot on. Doing the "Repeat Action" is the key to re-formatting
quickly -- it takes far less time than one usually expects.

Put your insertion point into a paragraph that is formatted as you want the
most commonly occurring text paragraphs to be (e.g. body text in an ordinary
document; different in yours, I expect). The "unformatted" text, when
pasted, will take on the same characteristics -- a good start.

It occurs to me that if you only want to have one recipe document, you don't
really need a template -- just do the formatting in the one document. One of
the pains in formatting a document that doesn't have a precedent is to
discover that a formatting change is needed in the template (as a result of
work done in the document; you have to re-format both).

In lieu of a template, it's safe to duplicate the first recipe document,
delete the text and (after saving a copy of the empty document) populate it
with new text. The saved empty one then forms the basis for future documents
of that type.

(I still use templates; just not in the context I expect you are in.)

I do a lot of re-formatting of material received from websites and other
people. I describe how I go about it ("Document from someone else ‹ checking
and fixing formatting of", on pages 133-134) in some notes on the way I use
Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a
free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

You might also like to read "Styles and templates ‹ the keys to consistency
and saving time", starting on page 86, and especially "Templates ‹
convenient places to store styles and other formatting" on page 103.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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