Business Computing Tips

By K&K Fainges kfainges@...

Ever had the font change half way through a line and suddenly change
size, type or colour? It is frustrating, but there is a way to fix
it. If everything on your page is meant to be the same, then you can
Select All by typing "Ctrl" and "a" at the same time or going to
EDIT - SELECT ALL in your menus. You can then adjust the font and
size for the whole page by choosing the ones you want in the drop
down boxes on the format tool bar. They cover Style, Font & Font size
from left to right. If you can't see them, go to VIEW - TOOLBARS and
make sure there is a tick next to the word standard. (This goes for
any missing toolbars. It is worth going through them to see what they
offer.)

If you want just one bit of the page changed, the best tool for this
that is the format painter. It looks like a paintbrush in your
Standard toolbar.

To use the format painter, click on the formatting you want to copy,
i.e. where the screen has it looking right. Then click on the format
painter. The cursor will turn into a paint brush. Click at the start
of the text you want to change and drag the cursor over the text
until you get to the end of your piece and let go. Easy. It will
match size, bold, underline, font and usually colour. Good for making
sure all the headings are exactly the same.

If you would like to use a particular scheme again, click inside the
text, and go to FORMAT - FONT in your menu. This will list everything
in the one place so you know the size, effects, font and colour.
Write it down and you can use it anywhere. Format painter does work
across documents, but not programs. So if you want it the same in
Word & Excel, you will need to take notes.

If you find something you really love and want to use all the time,
you can make it the default font. In Word and similar programs, go to
EDIT FONT and there will be a button marked Default. That will cause
all new documents from then on to be in that font, but it won't
change old ones.

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Please feel free to pass it on to your friends, just let them know I
wrote it.

Karen Fainges holds a Bachelor of Business, and a Grad. Cert of
Vocational and Educational Training. All this is nice but it's the 14
years of having to make sales or starve that makes her think she has
really learnt what does and doesn't work. A tutor for all ages, she
specialises in helping people get started on the long road to
technology.

"It has to be practical, it has to be cheap, and it has to work."