Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we used two different typefaces: Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. Sans serif type indicates the names of files and the names of commands and instructions users should type into the computer.

Q. How do I get AutoComplete to automatically type out the “long” date (July 4, 2004) instead of the “short” date (7/4/2004)?

A. Before getting into how to set the default for the date format, let’s take a moment to describe AutoComplete . It’s a handy function that recognizes when you’re typing a date and completes the task for you—writing it in the format of your choosing.

To initiate AutoComplete , click on Insert on the toolbar, on AutoText and then on the AutoText tab and place a check in the box next to Show AutoComplete suggestions and click on OK .

Now you’re ready to see how AutoComplete completes a date that you begin to type. Start to type March in your Word document. After you type a few letters, Word will surmise you’re about to type a date and the following will appear on the screen:

If you follow the pop-up instructions and press Enter, Word will insert the current date. If, on the other hand, you were actually going to type, March into the fray , just keep typing and ignore the pop-up date suggestion.

Now, to answer your question: How to format the date? The date format is controlled by a setting in your Control Panel . To access it, click on the Start button (lower-left corner of the screen), Control Panel and then on Regional and Language Options . That will bring up this screen, which displays your current format settings for numbers, currency, time and date:

If you wish to change any of the settings, click on Customize , and that brings up this screen:

Notice now you can adjust the default format for numbers, currency, time and date by clicking on the appropriate tab. If you want to change any of them, click on the subject you want to change and then click on Customize again. Use the upside-down arrow to make your choice.

A. You’re right, and the software engineers did just that; in fact, they figured out several ways to speed things up in Find . One method works in all editions of Word editions; and starting with the 2000 edition, you have an additional option. Here’s how they work:

In any edition of Word, press Ctrl+F to open the Find and Replace screen and then type in the target text or number(s)—for example find (see screenshot below).

When you click on the Find Next button, Word will jump to the first instance of the word find . Now I warn you: The next step is counterintuitive. Close (that’s right, close) the Find and Replace screen by clicking on the X in the top right corner. You won’t realize it, but the Word insertion point will stay with the found text and Find still will be working, hidden in the background, and you can edit the surrounding text at will.

To locate the next occurrence of the word, press Shift+F4, and presto, it will be highlighted even though the Find screen will remain hidden. Again, edit the surrounding text. Each time you press Shift+F4, Find will track down the target and at no point will the Find screen appear on the screen to get in your way.

If you have Word 2000 or later, here’s the other option: After closing the Find screen, look at the lower-right side of your screen. You’ll see, among other things, up and down blue arrows on the bottom of the vertical scroll bar (see screenshot at right).

Click on either one (the up arrow if you want to search up and the down arrow if you want to search down) and Find will move to the next location of the sought-after word or number—again, without the Find screen getting in the way.

A. Oddly enough, it’s done with the Format command as a display function; and for that reason it’s not the kind of data Excel can calculate. Let’s say you want a cell to contain two words, High and Low, separated by a slash. Begin by putting your cursor in the target cell and click on Format , Cells and Border and then select the diagonal box in which the slash mark rises from the lower left to the upper right (see screenshot below).

Type your two words into the cell—High and Low. The words also will appear on top of your screen in the Formula box (see screenshot below).

Once the words and the diagonal are in the cell, you have to adjust the position of the words: move High up and Low down. To do that, highlight the word you want at the top of the cell— High —and click on Format , Cells and then on the Font tab. Now, under Effects , click on Superscript ; notice when you click on it, the letters in the adjacent Preview box move up. Click on OK .

Do the same with the word Low. Only this time, when you get to Effects , click on Subscript and the Preview letters will move down. You’ll probably have to tinker a bit with the position of the words in the Formula box to get them to line up properly.

A. Obviously you aren’t aware that you actually have total control of which name to list first. When you first type a name in Contacts (such as Stanley Zarowin ) next to the Full Name box, the name appears again, to the right of File as. Depending on how your default is set, Stanley Zarowin may appear or Zarowin, Stanley . If you click on the upside-down arrow on the right of that line, you can reverse the order (see screenshot below).

You can set a default sorting scheme, placing either the first or the last name first. To do that click on Tools , Options , the Preferences tab and Contact Options and follow the screen instructions.

A. It is true, and yes, it is scary. Recently a major public company was embarrassed when someone was able to uncover the tracked changes in one of its financial press releases. It revealed that, to make its negative news more palatable, the original document had been revised before it was released.

The good news is that, after you’ve finished editing a document and you’re ready to distribute it, there are things you can do to eliminate all traces of the tracked changes. (For more on Track Changes , see “ Collaboration Without Headaches, ” JofA , Mar.03, page 71).

The first thing to do after employing Track Changes —and making whatever editorial adjustments you want to make—is to turn it off. As obvious as that sounds, the reality is most people forget to do it because the tool sits quietly in the background and the only way to know it’s still functioning is either to make an editorial change and see the colored type appear or to call up the Toolbar menu and see the check mark next to the Reviewing icon. A shortcut to get rid of the check mark: Click inside an unoccupied place on the toolbar and uncheck Reviewing .

To eliminate all stored track changes in a document, open the Reviewing function. In Word 2002 and 2003, you can alternatively click on View and Markup . From that point you can look at each change and decide whether to accept or reject it individually. If you want to accept all the changes that have been made, on the Reviewing toolbar click on the down arrow next to the “check” icon and pick Accept All Changes in Document. To reject all of them, click on the down arrow next to the X icon and choose Reject All Changes in Document .

Blessedly, Microsoft has a memory aid for such forgetfulness: You can set it to warn you when you save a document that contains tracked changes or comments. To enable this feature, click on Tools , Options and Security and check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments . Forewarned is forearmed.

Q. Every now and then I have to transpose a range of cells in a spreadsheet—similar to switching the X and Y axes. In other words, if January, February and March run across the top of the spreadsheet and the corresponding figures are in rows under the months, I need to transpose the months to the rows column and the figures across the columns. That’s a tedious job to do manually. Is there a shortcut?

A. Yes, there is a wonderful shortcut—and it’s conveniently built into the Copy command (Ctrl+C). Let’s say your spreadsheet looks like this:

Highlight all the cells you want transposed and copy—from A1 to D3—with Ctrl+C. Place your cursor where you want the transposed cells to go and right-click, bringing up the screen at left.

Then click on Paste Special , which brings up the screen at right.

Now place a check in the Transpose box at the bottom of the screen. When you click on OK , the cells will look like this.

A. You’ll be pleased to know that it hasn’t been eliminated. All Microsoft did was give you the option: full-time underlines or only when you press the Alt key. To restore them full-time as a default (or hide them until you press the Alt key), right-click on any empty space on the desktop (the screen that appears when no application is selected) and then on Properties and the Appearance tab. Now click on Effects and uncheck (or check) Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key.

A. Go to Tools , Options and then click on the View tab and uncheck the Sheet tabs box under Window options (see screenshot at right).

Once you click on OK and return to the spreadsheet, the tabs will be gone.

To bring them back, use the same process and replace the check.

STANLEY ZAROWIN, a former JofA senior editor, is now a contributing editor to the magazine. His e-mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com .