Unlike some of your readers, I like Word’s Track Changes feature because it provides an easy way to edit and add comments to a document. However, I am having trouble printing documents with comments. How do I get the choice of whether to print with or without comments?

When you’re ready to print, either click on File , Print or use the Ctrl+P shortcut to evoke the Print screen. If your document contains comments and/or edits, the default Print what command usually is Document showing markup, which means it will print with comments. I say usually because Microsoft Office being what it is, the default command is sometimes unpredictable, so just be careful what you select from the drop-down menu.

In general, if the document was prepared without Track Changes or they already have been cleared, the usual default is Document .

As the officer manager of a midsize firm, I review all documents created by the accountants for spelling, grammar and style. No matter how often I tell them that the period at the end of a sentence is followed by one space—not two—I get memos with mostly two spaces. The writers tell me they learned to use two spaces in school and it’s a typing habit they can’t break. You’re in the editing business, what do you suggest?

I suggest you accept reality and add a macro to your computer that corrects every sentence end to one space with the click of a mouse.

To create the macro, click on Tools , Macro to open the Record New Macro wizard. Give the macro a name (remember, it must be one word)—such as Replace2Spaces —and click on OK . While the macro recorder is running, press Ctrl+H, which evokes the Find and Replace screen. In the Find what box enter a period (.) followed by two spaces and in the Replace with box enter a period followed by one space and then click on Replace All .

Finally, click on Stop Recording on the Recording toolbar.

To make it easy to engage the macro, place a macro button for that command on one of your toolbars or set a keyboard command. To create a button, click on Toolbars ; to create a keyboard command, click on Keyboard (see screenshot below).

Important : In the Store macro in box be sure All Documents (Normal.dot) is showing. If not, engage the drop-down menu until it appears. Then follow the wizard’s directions.

I usually work with a spreadsheet that contains as many as 24 worksheets. When I do a search using the Find command, I have to repeat the command for each worksheet. Is there a way to command Find to search all the worksheets in one swoop?

Yes, not only can Find search all the worksheets in a file, it also can search across multiple worksheets. However, for a worksheet to be available for a search, it has to be open (as indicated by its color, as shown below). In the example below, Sheets 1, 3 and 5 are open.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “I can’t get more than one sheet open at a time.”

Here’s where a little Microsoft “sleight of hand” comes in handy. If you want all the sheets in a file to be opened, highlight the tab at either end; then, while holding down the Shift key, click the tab at the other end. To open just selected sheets, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the tabs of the sheets you want open.

Once you’ve got the target sheets opened, click on Find . To find them one at a time, click on Find Next . To find them all in one swoop, click on Find All , as shown in the screenshot below.

I get so wrapped up in my work that I often forget to check my incoming e-mail for hours at a time. Is there some way to program Outlook to give me a nudge or even ring a bell when a message comes in?

Outlook does AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” option one better. It has several ways to alert you to new mail.

While in Outlook, click on Tools , Options and the E-mail Options button (see screenshot below).

Then click on Advanced E-mail Options , which evokes a new screen with many more alerting options (as shown in the screenshot below).

Although I check them all, the most effective alert is the default selection: Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only). Each time an e-mail arrives, a message with the sender’s name and subject appears on my screen for a few seconds. The message is transparent—that is, words behind it can be seen (see screenshot).

You can adjust the duration of the message, the level of transparency (see screenshot below) and move it anywhere on your screen just by dragging it. Test it by clicking on Preview .

In the December 2005 column , I suggested a way to place a stamp ( Prepared By: Reviewed By: ) in a spreadsheet. Reader Allison A. Schultz, CPA, CFO of Southern Aluminum, Magnolia, Ark., suggests an alternative method. After creating the stamp in Excel, highlight it and press Shift+Edit, bringing up this menu:

Click on Copy Picture, which evokes this screen:

Then click on As shown on screen and Picture and OK .

You now have two options: If you want to paste the stamp immediately, place your cursor where you want the stamp to appear and click on Edit and Paste Special . If you want to paste it later, highlight it and copy it (Ctrl+C). That will store it in the Clipboard, which you can evoke later by clicking on Edit , Office Clipboard .

In the February 2006 item “ Out, Out and Stay Out, You Stubborn Reviewing Toolbar, ” several readers correctly noted that the macro I suggested be recorded to Personal Macro Workbook , not New Workbook ; in that way it can be accessed whenever needed.

In the February 2006 item “ Overcome Excel’s Sort Function Shortcoming,” reader Rick Childs, CPA, CFA, a Crowe Chizek executive, suggests using Excel’s custom format to overcome its Sort function limitation. He selects the 0 format category (see screenshot below) and then adds the necessary letters in front of the numerals. He also uses this method to add text after a numeral, such as turning 17.0 in the 17.0x (a P/E number) or by adding the word Yrs. to numerals.

This method has a major advantage: Since the cell information still is a numeral, it can be both sorted and included in a formula. Now that’s an elegant solution.

Stanley Zarowin, a former JofA senior editor, is now a contributing editor. His e-mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com .