Applying and Modifying Formats
Word 2002 includes two nifty task panes that make it easier than ever to understand why and how formatting has appeared in your document, and to apply formatting quickly and reliably.
Revealing Formatting Within a Document
WordPerfect diehards won't be impressed, but Word 2002 includes a feature that's meant to mimic the "reveal codes" capability found in WordPerfect.
Bring up the task pane, and choose Reveal Formatting at the top. Word responds with a comprehensive list of all formatting applied to the current selection (see Figure 14.4).
Figure 14.4. Word can show you full formatting information for any part of a document.
If you check the Distinguish Style Source box at the bottom of the Reveal Formatting task pane, Word shows you precisely why specific formatting appears in the selection. For example, in Figure 14.4, you can see that the base font for the paragraph is 12 point, and bold formatting has been applied directly. This kind of detail can be useful if you're trying to sort through exactly why and how text appears in a particular format.
Copying Formats
There are three ways to copy specific formatting from one place in a document to another:
Set up a style to reflect the formatting, and apply the style (either character or paragraph) to the text you want to change. This is the most consistent and reliable approach, and it allows you to change formatting throughout a document by modifying the style.
Use the Format Painter icon on the Standard toolbar. In general, you select the text (or paragraph) that includes the text that's formatted to your liking, click the Format Painter icon, and then "paint" the formatting elsewhere in your document. The process is slow, cumbersome, and error-prone, especially if you accidentally select a paragraph mark prior to "painting." This method should only be used if you don't have enough room on your screen to use the task pane.
Use the Styles and Formatting task pane. If your document already contains the formatting you want, select the text you want to format, and then click the formatting in the Pick Formatting to Apply box on the task pane. Note that the Styles and Formatting task pane isn't limited to formally defined styles: it also includes entries for all the manually applied formatting that exists in your document.
The Styles and Formatting task pane also makes it easy to set up formal styles, then modify and apply them.
Removing Text Formatting
Novice users can make a thorough mess of a document by randomly applying direct formatting to characters and paragraphs. To remove all manually applied formatting from a selection so you can start fresh, bring up the Styles and Formatting task pane and choose Clear Formatting. Doing so removes all manually applied formatting, both at the character and the paragraph level.
Tip from 
Although the key combination is a bit arcane, you can also remove manually applied formatting by selecting the text, pressing Ctrl+Q to remove manually applied paragraph formatting, and then press Ctrl+spacebar to remove character formatting.
Page/Section Setup Options
Most simple Word documents contain just one section. Usually, you'll add sections to a document when you want to change the header or footer in the same document, or to alter the number of columns—perhaps to print a long list. You can also change sections to switch from one paper size or orientation to another—for example, to print a table in landscape orientation in the middle of a document.
Each section in a document has its own headers and footers, page size, margins, number of snaking newspaper-like columns, and paper source—a designated paper bin on your printer.
→ To properly format sections, see "Formatting Documents by Section".
Sections are separated by section break marks, which are visible only in Normal view (see Figure 14.5).
Figure 14.5. To see section breaks, switch to Normal view.
Section formatting is stored in the section break mark; the formatting for the final section in a document is in the document's final paragraph mark. When you select a section break mark and copy, move, or delete it, the section formatting stored in the mark goes with it.
The safest way to add a new section to a document is to insert a new section break manually—choose Insert, Break and choose from the list of available section break types:
Next Page starts the next section on a new page.
Continuous lets the new section follow the current one, without a page break.
Even Page forces the next section to start on an even-numbered page.
Odd Page forces the next section to start on an odd-numbered page.
Word automatically inserts section break marks in a document if you choose File, Page Setup, click the Layout tab, and choose This Point Forward (see Figure 14.6). Word adds the section break as a consequence of changing the layout. Similarly, if you choose Format, Columns and choose This Point Forward from the Apply To drop-down list, Word automatically inserts a section break to mark the point where the number of columns changes.
Figure 14.6. Choosing This Point Forward inserts a section break mark in the document, and then formats the newly created section.
Tip from 
Editing and formatting documents with multiple sections can be extremely confusing. If you inadvertently move or delete a section break mark, you can make a mess of the document's headers and footers, for example, and it's nearly impossible to recover except by starting over. When you work on documents with more than one section, it's strongly recommended that you work only in Normal view, and that you insert section break marks manually by choosing Insert, Break.
The most common reason for using multiple sections in a document is to alter headers and footers. Each section in a document has its own headers and footers, although you can specify that a section "link to" the preceding section, and carry forward the preceding section's headers and footers.
→ To customize headers and footers, see "Creating and Editing Headers and Footers".
Sections also allow you to organize snaking newspaper-like columns, whether they're for an entire document, or for a list of items you want to appear in the middle of a document.
→ If you need to change the number of columns, see "Formatting a Document with Columns".
Floating Versus Inline Objects
Like other Office applications, Word includes a drawing layer, which can contain pictures, text boxes, and other drawing objects. When you specify that text should wrap around a picture, for example, Word places the picture in the drawing layer.
→ To change text-wrapping options when you use floating objects in the drawing layer, see "Working with the Drawing Layer".
Note
When you place a picture inline in the document itself, Word treats it as though it were a single character. Thus, you can choose Format, Font and use the resulting dialog box to place an animated border—say, Marching Black Ants—around a picture.
Word also allows you to insert an object called a Drawing Canvas onto the drawing layer. The canvas constitutes a "sanctuary" for drawings: Everything you place on a canvas sticks together; objects on the canvas stay in the same relative location, and the canvas as a whole is not allowed to break across a page. To place a canvas on a page, choose Insert, Picture, New Drawing. A canvas also appears the first time you select an AutoShape on the Drawing toolbar. (To access this setting, choose Tools, Options to open the Options dialog box. Then select the Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes box on the General tab.)
Automatic Formatting
Unless you make a special effort to turn them off, Word applies automatic formatting in a wide variety of situations, sometimes for no apparent reason. The effect is guaranteed to annoy anyone except a Microsoft marketing manager, for whom these automatic changes are a trademarked feature called IntelliSenseä. The most obvious paragraph AutoFormatting options are listed in Table 14.2.
As soon as Word applies AutoFormatting, you're presented with a "lightning bolt" icon that gives you quick access to various options for undoing what Word hath wrought (see Figure 14.7).
Figure 14.7. Word gives you the tools to undo AutoFormatting as soon as an piece of text has been changed.
Tip from 
To undo automatic paragraph formatting quickly, press Backspace or Ctrl+Z immediately after Word applies the AutoFormatting.
In the case of AutoFormatted numbered or bulleted lists, if you press Enter twice, the bulleting/numbering is removed from empty paragraphs. To turn on bullet/numbering formatting again, either start the list numbers over, or go back to the end of the last bulleted or numbered paragraph where you left off, and press Enter. Auto bulleting and numbering can also be turned off by clicking on the appropriate icon on the Formatting toolbar.
The most obvious types of character AutoFormatting:
If you type an ordinal, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 30th, 175th, and so on, Word superscripts the characters: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 30th, 175th.
The specific fractions 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 are changed into 1/4, 1/2, and 1/4.
Internet addresses such as http://www.mcp.com and [email protected] are automatically converted into hyperlinks. The hyperlinks are "hot," so Ctrl+clicking a Web address brings up your Web browser and takes you to the site; Ctrl+clicking an e-mail address invokes your default e-mail program and sets up a message.
In all three of these cases, if you click the Undo button or press Ctrl+Z immediately after Word performs its AutoFormatting, the formatting returns to normal. In addition, automatically created hotlinks come with full drop-down instructions on various means of their removal.
To turn off this kind of character AutoFormatting, see "AutoFormat As You Type Options" later in this chapter.