Boldface type identifies the names of icons, agendas, URLs and application commands.

Sans serif type indicates instructions and commands that users should type and file names.

—The editors

But it gave me the option to try to open it with a variety of applications by clicking on Select the program from a list, and I clicked on OK. I selected the application I thought was best—in this case Notepad—and here’s where I made my big mistake: Without thinking I also checked the box at the bottom of the screen that says Always use the selected program to open this kind of file. By doing that I seem committed to a kind of purgatory—forever forced to use Notepad to open that file. I didn’t realize the extent of my error until I later discovered there was a better way to open the file, but because I had checked that darn box, I couldn’t go back to change my selection. Is there a way to appeal my sentence so I can open the file with Word, say?

The Bookmark icon is in the toolbar under Insert. If it’s not there, go to Tools, Customize and under the Commands tab, find Bookmark in the Insert category and drag it up to your toolbar.

Now if you want to bookmark a place in a document, engage it and enter a code. To demonstrate for the screenshot at left, I typed in my initials—sz. Then click on Add.

You can add many bookmarks, and as you see in the screen, Word will sort them by location or by alpha name. If you do not put a check next to Hidden bookmarks, Word will place a large gray “I” at the bookmarked location, like this one below.

The location marker will not print. To get rid of a bookmark, just click on Bookmark and then on Delete.

So, as you can see, it does take a few steps. But if all you want to do is bookmark two or three places, consider either of these methods:

Press Shift+F5 and Word will take you back to the last three places you’ve been.

Place your cursor on a scroll bar and then press the space bar. That will take you back to the last location you edited.

OUTLOOK
Q. I’m getting loads of e-mails that require only boilerplate responses. I know I can set up AutoText in Word, but how can I do it in Outlook?

A. It’s essentially the same procedure, but the trick is that first you have to set your Outlook Mail Format to default to Word, which, of course, makes your e-mail preparation much more convenient.

Here are the steps to follow: Go to Tools, Options, Mail Format and then place a check in the box Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages.

Type or copy the boilerplate text into a message and highlight it. Go to Insert, AutoText, New and enter an abbreviation for the text and click on OK.

Now when you want to evoke the boilerplate in an e-mail Reply, go to Insert, AutoText and click on the abbreviation. Shortcut: Type the abbreviation and press F3.

When you’re about to make a call, go into Outlook’s Contacts for the phone number. Double-click on the contact, which will evoke this screen:

Now go up to the toolbar and click on Actions and then on New Journal Entry for Contact. That will bring up this screen:

Notice that the top of the screen contains a stopwatch and start and pause buttons. When you begin the call, click on the Start Timer button and on the Pause Timer button when you’re finished with the conversation. Notice, too, that you have room to take notes about the conversation. When you’re done, click on Save and Close.

Now when you want to check back to see your notes and how long the phone call took, go to your Journal folder and click on View, Current View and then on Phone Calls. You’ll get a screen that shows not only when you made the call, but also the length of the call and any notes you made.

Notice your choices: You can either describe what you’re looking for under Search for a function or you can click on the general category under Or select a category and you’ll get every applicable formula.

But if you just need to do a quick, fundamental analysis on a range of cells, like a count or a sum or an average, there is an even faster way—a one-click operation with Excel’s nifty statistics tray.

Here’s how: Select a range of cells and right-click anywhere on Excel’s status bar—that’s the horizontal bar at the bottom of the window that displays the word Ready at its left edge. That will evoke a function menu which includes the following statistical calculations: Average, Count, Count Nums, Max, Min, Sum. Select any of the functions and Excel will display the answer dynamically right on the horizontal bar. It’s that easy.

If, for example, all you want Excel to highlight is text, select the Constants radio button and of the four square boxes (Numbers, Text, Logicals, Errors), choose only Text. Then when you click on OK, Excel will highlight only the text entries and the spreadsheet will look like the screen at left.

While you’re at the Go To Special screen, you may want to try some of the other selections.

To do that, go to Start and then click on Control Panel and the modem icon.

Now click on the Properties button and the Modem tab, which evokes the screen at right.

To lower the modem speaker’s volume, just slide the Off-On button to the left. Although you can turn off the sound entirely, I’d suggest you leave it just so it’s audible; that way you’ll know the modem is working.

Excel: To move quickly to the next sheet in a workbook, press Ctrl+Page Down, and to move to a previous worksheet, press Ctrl+Page Up.

Word: A fast way to display the Tabs dialog box is to double-click on the very lower edge of Ruler. If you double-click at the top, the Page Setup dialog box appears. Applies to Word 95, 97, 2000 and 2002.

Excel: To edit a hyperlink, press F2.

All applications: A quick way to toggle Print Preview is to press Alt+Ctrl+I. Press it again and it disappears. If all you want to do is print, press Ctrl+P.

—The editors