Some More Word Processing Tips

In Vol 3 #6 - or July 2001 were some word processing tips - so here's something else.

Remember the Rule of Three

Whenever opening or saving a file (or document), remember there are three things you must always tell the computer about the file you're opening or saving. If you fail to supply any of the three lots of information the computer will supply its own choice, which may not be what you want. The three things to remember:-
1) Where to find the file (for opening), or where to put it (for saving)
In the Open and Save As dialogue boxes there is a slot at the top with the label look in, and a downwards pointing reveal arrow at the right hand end of the slot. It's here you are able to tell the computer where to go, to find the file you want to open. For example, if the file is on a floppy disk you would click the reveal arrow and scroll in the small drop-down window until you could see the 3 1/2 in floppy, then click this to indicate this is the location of the file you want to open. You can find your way round in this navigation window, and open folders by double clicking them until you end up where you want to be. In the same way, this slot is used for the Save As facility so you can specify where you want to save the file you've been working on.

2) What kind of file do you want to open (or create)
At the bottom of the Open or the Save As dialogue box is another slot, usually labelled Files of Type. If you ignore this slot, you may not be able to see the file you want to open.
This is because most word processors only display files of their own type, with their own extension, even though they are generally capable of opening several types of files. If someone has sent you a file and you can't see it displayed when you want to open it in your word processor, check this slot at the bottom of the dialogue box.
Click the reveal arrow and scroll down until you find an entry that says something like All Files, or All Documents, and click this entry. This should display all the files contained in the folder you are currently looking in.
When Saving a file you will not normally need to use this slot, as the word processor will automatically save the file in its own format anyway.
However, there are times when you may want to override the computer's choice:-
Suppose you want to send the file you've been working on to someone else, who has a different word processor to the one you use. The safest course of action would be to sent the file in rich text format (.rtf file extension). Files of this type can be opened by virtually any word processor - it's a common or generic format.
To do this, you would simply click the reveal arrow on the right of the Files of Type slot and scroll down the list of file types to find one labelled rich text or .rtf, and click it. The extension .rtf would then be automatically added to the end of your chosen file name, and the file would be saved in this format.

3) The File Name.
Everyone knows this of course - you have to provide the name of the file you want to open (by clicking on it in the list), and the computer requires a name when you save a file. When saving, don't type in the file extension letters - the computer does that for you .
John Selby - technical bloke.

First printed SNN Newsletter September 2001