“styling with Microsoft Word XP”

by

Cynthia Randall

1234 Your Street

City, State ZIP Code

Telephone Number

FAde In:

in a pickle is cathy

Cathy is sitting at her computer. She is frustrated and mumbling to herself.

John

How’s it going, Cath? You don’t sound so good.

Cathy

No, I’m not. I’ve been messing with styles and formatting in Word, and I can’t figure out how to show just the ones I want.

John

Yeah, they changed the styles and formatting feature in XP - you are using Word XP, right?

cathy

Yes.

John

It’s a bit weird at first but is an improvement over the last version. Here, let me show you.

John takes hold of the mouse and pokes around in Word for a few minutes to see what styles Cathy has been working with.

John

So you’re building a screenwriting template, eh?

cathy

Trying to.

john

It’s these 11 styles you want, right? – character, dialog,

Cathy, interjecting, points to each style in the task pane…

Cathy

Scene heading, the end, title, trans in, trans out, your address, your name, and action.

John

A girl who can finish my sentences - powerful stuff, Cath. And speaking of action: You’ve been a bit low on the gas lately, if you know what I mean…

(John has been trying to date Cathy since the second grade; they’re now in first year university and Cathy still has no interest.)

Cathy

John, stop it! I need to get this done!

john

Okay, okay, now where was I? So when you’ve got all the styles you want, the way to show just them and not all the others - which, by the way, belong to Normal.dot - is to first enter each style in the document, and then here at the bottom of the task pane in the Show box, choose Formatting in use. See, now when you go to choose a style from the Formatting toolbar or from the task pane, just your 11 styles appear.

cathy

And these styles will always be here? I mean, when I close the template and open it again, everything will be the same?

john

Word saves the last state you were working in – this is called “sticky”. Just your 11 styles will be in the styles list on the Formatting toolbar and shown in the task pane. But when you reopen Word, the task pane won’t be open. You’ll need to click the Formatting and styles button on the Formatting toolbar to open it back up again.

cathy

Okay. And it looks like I can still add, modify, and delete styles in Formatting in use view, yes?

John

Yep.

cathy

Thanks, John! You’ve been a big help.

john

Yeah, you probably owe me one come to think of it.

cathy

Owe you one! Owe you one what?

john

Relax Cathy. I’ve had enough action for one day. See you in Biology.

Smiling, John closes the door behind him.

FAde Out:

The End

4

2001-04-26

Microsoft Corporation