Q157478: WD97: What’s New in Word 97

Article: Q157478
Product(s): Word 97 for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:97
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbfaq
Last Modified: 04-APR-2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Word 97 for Windows 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY
=======

The following information was taken from Word 97 online Help.

MORE INFORMATION
================

For your convenience, we've assembled this list of key features in Word
97, along with ideas about how you might apply them to your work. (Most of
the features listed are new in Word 97, but a few were introduced in Word
95.)

What's new with automating your tasks and getting assistance?
=============================================================

Word 97 provides an extensive set of automatic features that make everyday
tasks easier.

AutoCorrect
-----------

Word can correct the following errors automatically while you type:

- Accidental usage of the CAPS LOCK key; new in Word 95. For example, Word
  replaces tHESE with These at the beginning of a sentence and then turns
  off CAPS LOCK.

- Plural and possessive forms of a word; new in Word 95. For example, if
  you have an AutoCorrect entry that inserts Sweet Lil whenever you type
  SL, Word also automatically changes SL's to Sweet Lil's.

- Common multiple word spelling errors. For example, Word replaces "int
  he" with "in the".

- Common word pairs that are spelled correctly but are grammatically
  incorrect when used together. For example, Word replaces "your a" with
  "you're a".

AutoFormat As You Type
----------------------

Word can format text automatically as you type:

- Word creates numbered and bulleted lists when you start a list with a
  number or an asterisk; new in Word 95.

- Word creates a single or double border for you when you type three or
  more consecutive hyphens (-) or equal signs (=) in a row and then press
  ENTER; new in Word 95.

- Word applies built-in heading styles to text, such as Heading 1, when
  you type a line of text with no ending punctuation and then press ENTER
  twice; new in Word 95.

- Word formats ordinal numbers and fractions, such as changing 1st to 1st
  with the "st" superscripted or 1/4 to 1/4 ; new in Word 95.

- Word formats network and Internet paths--such as \\Reports\May\Week1.doc
  and http://www.microsoft.com/ - as hyperlinks. When you click an
  Internet hyperlink, Word starts your Web browser and takes you to the
  specified Web page. When you click a network hyperlink, Word starts the
  program necessary to open the destination and opens the file specified.

- Word automates the lead-in emphasis; that is, detects the formatting
  applied in the first list item and applies it to the next item. For
  example:

  1. Word 97 is smart! It does the work for you.
  2. Word 97 is cool! It makes your document look amazing.

- When you type +----+----+, Word creates a table with a column for each
  pair of + signs.

- Word detects leading spaces that correspond to the left margin of the
  bulleted or numbered paragraph above and changes your left indentation
  for you.

- Word formats your text as bold if you enclose the text with an asterisk
  (for example, *test* will bold the word test). Word will format your
  text with italics if you enclose the text with an underscore (for
  example, _test_ will italizice the word test).

AutoComplete
------------

Word can automatically offer suggestions for the rest of the word or phrase
you are typing. To accept the suggestion, you press ENTER and Word
automatically replaces your partially typed word with the completed word.
Word 97 will automatically complete:

- The current date
- A day of the week
- A month other than the current one
- Your name and company name
- AutoText entries

AutoSummarize
-------------

You can use the Word AutoSummarize feature to automatically summarize the
key points in a document. Word analyzes your document statistically and
linguistically to determine the most important sentences and gives you a
custom summary based on this analysis. With AutoSummarize, you can
highlight the key points in an online document and view it at different
levels of detail. Or you can automatically create a separate summary or
abstract. You have total control of the length of the summary.

It's important that you comply with all applicable copyright laws when
using this feature. You should review the accuracy of any summary because
it is, by its nature, not the entirety of the work

Automatic style creation and style preview
------------------------------------------

Words 97 includes the following style improvements:

- It automatically creates a style for you when you apply new formatting
  to your text.

- It can automatically redefine styles to reflect your recently applied
  changes.

- It gives you an instant preview of each style from the Style list on the
  Formatting toolbar.

Letter Wizard
-------------

The Letter Wizard in Word 97 can help you write a new letter quickly and
easily, or it can help you change and add to elements in your existing
letter. It includes:

- Letter Wizard dialog box. Accessible from the Tools menu, this dialog
  box provides letter element choices you can make to easily build your
  letter. If you've already started a letter, this dialog box displays the
  appropriate information from your letter, so you can get an instant
  snapshot of what you have and what you need. In addition, Word remembers
  whom you've sent letters to and stores all related information, such as
  contact names, addresses, and titles, in a list. When you send a letter
  to a previous recipient, all you have to do is select that person's name
  from a list, and Word automatically fills in the rest of the information
  for you.

- Step-by-step help through the Office Assistant. When you type in a
  common letter opening, such as "Dear Joe," Word recognizes it as a
  letter opening and immediately offers to step you through the letter
  creation process using the Office Assistant. The Office Assistant is
  fully integrated with the Letter Wizard dialog box and provides hints
  and details on all the letter elements.

- Easy text reuse. Once you use the Letter Wizard, Word automatically adds
  structure and styles to your letter by converting letter elements into
  AutoText List fields. For example, the closing text "Sincerely" is
  converted to a Closing field. When you right-click the word "Sincerely,"
  a menu appears that offers alternative closings, such as "Best regards"
  and "Cordially." You can easily replace "Sincerely" with any of these
  closings just by clicking it.

Office Assistant
----------------

The Office Assistant, which replaces the Word 95 Answer Wizard, uses
IntelliSense natural-language technology. The Assistant anticipates the
kind of help you need and suggests Help topics based on the work you're
doing. You can also type a Help request in your own words and get the
answer you need. You can have the Assistant offer to start a wizard when
you begin certain tasks, such as creating a letter. The new Office
Assistant character in Word 97 is a central place for you to get tips on
how to use Word features more efficiently and find visual examples and
step-by-step instructions for specific tasks.

What's new with editing and proofing tools?
===========================================

Word 97 provides the following key features that make it faster and easier
to proofread and edit documents.

Check spelling as you type

  Checks for spelling errors as you type, and marks possible errors
  directly in your document; new in Word 95.

Check grammar as you type

  Checks for grammar errors as you type, and marks possible errors
  directly in your document. Like the automatic spelling checker, the
  automatic grammar checker offers suggestions for corrections in-place
  when you right-click the marked text.

Smart spelling

   - Recognizes your name, your organization's name, personal names of
     varying ethnicity, commonly used company names from the Fortune 1000
     list, all country names, names of U.S. cities with a population of
     30,000 or more, and current terminology.

   - Recognizes your typing patterns and does not mark certain patterns as
     errors in your document; for example, words in uppercase letters and
     words containing numbers are no longer marked as misspellings.

   - Ignores Internet and file addresses.

Natural-language grammar checker

  Flags mistakes accurately, gives you in-place, effective suggestions,
  and reduces your proofing time. It offers improved syntactic analysis,
  better rewrite suggestions, and more user friendly grammar styles.

Spelling/grammar checking combination

  Eliminates separate dialog boxes and provides an interface that lets you
  proofread online exactly as you do on paper. You can now check your
  spelling and grammar mistakes in one pass, in one place.

Find (and replace) all word forms

  Finds and replaces all grammatically inflected forms of a word; new in
  Word 95. For example, if you want to replace the word "saw" with the
  word "hammer" throughout a document, Word intelligently changes not only
  "saw" to "hammer," but also "sawing" to "hammering" and "sawed" to
  "hammered.". Word can also intelligently replace the right word forms;
  in this example, Word would not replace the verb "seen" with "hammer"
  although it is a word form of "saw" because "seen" is unrelated to
  "hammer." In addition, Word 97 provides alternative word forms, giving
  you choices for possible replacements in case the default choice is not
  ideal. You can select the replacement from a list rather than having to
  type it.

What's new with tables, borders, and shading tools?
===================================================

Word 97 provides the following new features to make it faster and easier to
work with tables, borders, and shading.

Table tools
-----------

     Draw Table tool

           Lets you create and customize tables. You use this intuitive
           drawing tool much the same way you use a pen to draw a table;
           just click and drag to draw the table boundaries and cell
           partitions. You can now make individual cells any height and
           width you want.

      Eraser tool

        Lets you easily remove any cell, row, or column partition to
        achieve the same effect as merging two cells. In earlier versions
        of Word, you could only merge cells if they were in the same row.
        In Word 97, you can merge any adjacent cells; vertically or
        horizontally.

     Vertical alignment

        Lets you align cell contents at the top, center, or bottom of the
        cell, using the convenient alignment toolbar buttons. If your text
        is oriented vertically, the buttons automatically adjust to give
        you left, center, and right alignment. Vertical text direction

         Makes your text flow vertically (rotated 90 degrees) in table
         cells, text boxes, and frames. This is a useful feature for
         creating labels and also for publishing oriented documents where
         credits or copyrights are printed sideways.

     In-table row resizer

         Lets you adjust any row's height directly in your table by
         dragging the row border up or down, just as you adjust column
         widths. If you hold down ALT while you drag, the new vertical
         ruler shows you the exact row height.

Border and shading tools
------------------------

     New border styles

           Gives you more than 150 border styles to customize the look of
           your documents. This includes 3-D styles and several publishing
           oriented styles that allow multiple line borders, which are
           especially popular in professional documents.

     Page borders

           Lets you put a border around each page. In addition to the 150
           new border line styles, Word provides Publisher's fun Border
           Art for page borders, which includes more than 160 art styles.
           Page borders are also highly customizable. For example, you can
           have:

            - Unique border style for each page edge.

            - Headers and footers in the border area.

            - A different first page.

     Text borders

        Lets you apply borders to words or characters within a paragraph.
        You can literally "block out" pieces of text by applying any of
        the available border styles. Text borders also make it easier to
        put borders around headings.

     Text shading

        Lets you call out parts of your document for other users. Just as
        you apply shading to paragraphs, now you can apply it to selected
        words or characters within a paragraph. Choose any shading color
        or gradation.

What's New with Drawing Tools?
==============================

Word 97 provides a new set of drawing and graphics capabilities that you
can use to easily embellish your text and graphics with 3-D effects, shadow
effects, textured and transparent fills, and AutoShapes.

Office Art

  Gives you many new drawing tools and capabilities that can be easily
  accessed through the new Drawing toolbar. You can easily embellish your
  text and graphics using the 100 adjustable AutoShapes, 4 types of fill
  effects (multicolored gradient, textured, transparent, and picture),
  right-shadow effects, and 3-D effects. Office Art is a rich and
  sophisticated drawing layer that replaces the Word drawing layer and is
  shared by all Microsoft Office applications.

Office Art picture objects

  Gives you all the flexibility required for picture manipulation. For
  example:

   - You can easily place pictures anywhere in your document, including
     inline with text, simply by dragging them.

   - You can modify the Z order and use Send Behind Text to create a
     background graphic or watermark effect.

Text boxes

  Replaces frames and offers the full set of Office Art capabilities, such
  as 3-D effects, fills, backgrounds, rotation, sizing, and cropping.

Linked text boxes

  Gives you the ability to link text boxes for desktop publishing use; for
  example, you can flow an article from page 1 to page 4 in a newsletter.
  Once two text boxes are linked, text that overflows from the first text
  box appears at the top of the second one. Any number of text boxes can
  be linked in any direction.

Wrapping around irregular objects

  Lets you wrap text around objects of any shape and size. You can wrap
  text straight to the edge of an irregular object.

What's new with Web tools?
==========================

Word 97 provides an extensive set of features that you can use to take
advantage of the World Wide Web and the Internet.

Active Web
----------

You can use the Active Web, which is shared by all Microsoft Office
programs, to author and browse through rich webs of documents on an
intranet or on the Web.

     Hyperlinks

        Link to any Microsoft Office, HTML, or other file on any internal
        or external Web site or any file server. To jump to the new
        destinations, you simply click the hyperlinks. Word can
        automatically recognize and format e-mail addresses, URLs, and UNC
        path names as hyperlinks.

     The Web toolbar

        Quickly open, search, and browse through any document, including
        Web documents or pages. You can jump from one document or site to
        another, jump forward or backward among the documents you've
        opened, and add interesting documents you find on the Web to the
        Favorites folder to quickly return to them later.

     Compressed graphics

         Compress pictures or graphics inserted in documents
         automatically. Word natively stores JPEG images and converts all
         raster formats to PNG, a new compressed format.

Web page authoring
------------------

     Web Page Wizard

        Start creating a Web page for you. The wizard provides customized
        Web templates that you can easily modify to meet your needs. You
        can choose from a variety of content templates that address the
        common types of Web pages, such as a sample personal home page.
        You can also choose predefined visual themes for these pages; each
        theme contains fitting background colors, bullets, horizontal
        lines, and other elements.

     Sound

        Incorporate background sound seamlessly on Web pages if your Web
        browser supports it. You can specify the location of the sound
        file to be played and the number of times to play it.

     Video

        Choose a video clip to play, specify playback options (such as "on
        open" or "on mouse-over" or both) and, as in the case of sound,
        specify how often to play the clip. You can specify alternative
        images and text for browsers that don't support video.

     Picture

        Add a picture to a Web page, just as you do with a Word document.

  Scrolling text

        Add scrolling text to your Web pages. Type in the text you want in
        this style, and you have full control over the animation type,
        direction, speed, background color, and size.

     Bullets

         Make your online Web pages graphically rich. Word provides a
         collection of colorful, graphical images that can be used as
         bullets on your Web pages.

     Horizontal lines

         Add HTML-specific horizontal lines that can be colorful and
         graphical additions to your Web pages. These lines are an
         extension of the built in borders and shading functionality in
         Word.

     HTML forms

        Produce consistent results with both HTML and non-HTML forms. All
        interface elements are similar, except where they are extended for
        HTML-tag-specific controls.

     HTML tags

         Simplify authoring your Web pages. Word provides WYSIWYG ("what
         you see is what you get") support for authoring Web pages with
         commonly used tags, such as tables, fonts, and background sound.
         There are more than 80 HTML tags supported in Word.

Online contents
---------------

Word 97 provides a large collection of Web authoring items on the Word Web
site, which will be updated regularly to reflect the latest technology and
stylistic trends.

  ClipArt Collection Online

        Obtain the latest, coolest graphical elements for your Web pages.
        Design Gallery Live, the online clip art collection in Word, will
        include a sampling of the following page elements that can be
        easily downloaded: backgrounds, bullets, buttons, icons,
        horizontal lines, video files, and sounds.

     Templates Online

        Obtain new templates for creating Web pages with common Web page
        themes.

     AutoUpdate Web Tools

        Manually or automatically update your system to include the latest
        Word Web authoring tools from the Word Web site.

What's new with reading online documents?
=========================================

Word 97 provides a rich set of new tools to enhance the way you read and
move through online documents.

     Online layout view

        Achieve the best screen appearance for your online documents. Text
        appears larger and wraps to fit the window.

     Document Map

        Gain instant access to any part of your document. Word splits the
        window into two panes (a Document Map in the left pane and the
        document content in the right pane). The heading-based outline of
        the document in the Document Map lets you quickly scan the
        document structure, gives you one click access to the point of
        interest, and serves as a "You are here" road map by highlighting
        your current location in the document.

     Hyperlinks

        Link to any Microsoft Office, HTML, or other file on any internal
        or external Web site or any file server. To jump to the new
        destinations, you simply click the hyperlinks. Word can
        automatically recognize and format e-mail addresses, URLs, and UNC
        path names as hyperlinks.

     Hyperlinked cross-references

        Create "live" cross-references in documents that others will read
        online by inserting the cross-references as hyperlinks. Instead of
        scrolling through the document to find the referenced text, now
        you can just click the cross-reference and use the Web
        navigational toolbar to jump back and forth between related
        paragraphs.

     Document background

        Make your document more visually appealing to read online by
        adding background colors and textures. You can see these
        backgrounds only in online layout view, and you can't print them.

     Animated text

        Add animated effects that make the text appear to move or flash.

     Navigation tools

        Browse through a document directly from the scroll bar. The
        browser lets you choose an element to browse by; for example, to
        review all the tables or pictures in a document, you click Browse
        by Table in the browser. You can use the browser to browse through
        a document by page, section, comment, footnote, endnote, field,
        table, graphic, heading, or editing change.

     Microsoft IntelliMouse pointing device

        Directly control scrolling, panning, and zooming. You can also use
        this mouse to control the amount of detail displayed on your
        screen in outline or AutoSummarize view.

What's new with WordMail?
=========================

Word97 integrates seamlessly with Exchange and Outlook to become your
standard e-mail editor.

  Automatic creation of hyperlinks

        Format network addresses, e-mail addresses, and Internet
        addresses; for example, http://www.microsoft.com/ automatically as
        hyperlinks as you type them. By clicking a hyperlink, you jump to
        that location; in this example, to the Microsoft home page on the
        World Wide Web.

  Message Authors in Document Map

        Detect automatically whether an incoming message contains a long
        conversation and list the author of each part of the conversation
        in the Document Map. By clicking an author's name, you can
        instantly jump to that part of the message.

  Address book information access for names in messages

     Find address book information on any sender or recipient while you
     read or write a message. Just right-click the name, and then click
     Who Is on the shortcut menu.

  Automatic formatting of plain text WordMail messages

     Format your incoming plain text e-mail messages automatically the
     first time you open them. It makes following message conversations
     easier by stylizing headers, indenting conversations, and adding
     colors so you can differentiate message flow easily.

  WordMail templates

     Compose e-mail quickly. Use any of the ten e-mail templates that
     represent various themes. For example, you can use the urgent-theme
     template to compose an urgent e-mail message.

What's new with collaboration with others?
------------------------------------------

Word 97 offers new features that reflect the work style of teams and gives
you tools that increase efficiency and productivity.

  Versioning

     Maintain a working history of a document. With this feature you can
     see exactly who did what on a document and when. You can also enter
     descriptive text about the changes made in each version. All the
     versioning information is stored within the document, so you don't
     need to maintain and track multiple copies of the document. In
     addition, you can have Word automatically save a version at the end
     of every session, so you can see who changed what in each version.

  Merging documents

     Consolidate all changes and comments from different reviewers in one
     easy step. Multiple reviewers can modify separate copies of the same
     document, and then you can merge all their changes into the original.
     Or, for example, you can take a document away overnight and
     automatically merge your changes back into the original document when
     you return.

  Comments and ScreenTips

     Easily review someone else's comments online without opening a
     separate pane. You can see at a glance where comments were inserted;
     the affected text appears to be shaded with light yellow. When you
     rest the pointer over this text, a ScreenTip that includes the
     comment and the name of the reviewer appears above the text. You can
     now read each comment in context.

  Reviewing toolbar

     Quickly gain access to all the common reviewing tools you need on one
     toolbar; track and review changes, insert and review comments,
     highlight text, save versions, and send the document in an e-mail
     message.

What's new with multilingual support?
=====================================

Word 95 introduced a feature that implemented automatic font and language
switching when the keyboard changed, allowing multilingual text in your
document and in several dialog boxes. Word 97 makes it even easier to
create and display documents that contain text in a variety of Pan European
languages. You can also view documents in U.S. Word that were created in
Far Eastern versions of Word.

  Keyboard switching

     Automatically switch the fonts in your document to appropriate fonts
     based on the language you are using when you switch your keyboard.
     Keyboard switching also triggers language property switching in Word
     and, therefore, ensures that a certain language text, such as Greek,
     is proofed by the proofing tools of that language only.

  Multilingual text support in dialog boxes

     Enable Word to edit and display multilingual text across localized
     versions of Word. For example, you can search by a Greek author's
     name in the Find File dialog box in Word.

  Open multilingual documents in localized Word

     Correctly display text created in localized versions of Word if you
     have the appropriate fonts on your system. For example, you can open
     and view a Japanese Word document in U.S. Word. Note that this
     applies to all localized versions except bi- directional versions,
     such as Hebrew and Arabic.

  Copying and pasting Unicode text

     Copy Greek, Cyrillic, or any Pan European text from U.S. Word and
     paste it onto a Microsoft Excel worksheet. Also, you can use the
     feature to copy and paste Unicode text into edit controls in dialog
     boxes such as Find and Replace.

  Sorting

     Specify a language on which to base the sorting order of text in your
     document. For example, a Hungarian double letter such as "cz" sorts
     correctly in U.S. Word when you set the sorting language to
     Hungarian.

  Insert symbols

     Gain access to language-specific symbols and letters easily by
     changing the font subset in the Symbol dialog box (Insert menu). For
     example, switching the subset to Cyrillic gives you all the Russian
     characters available.

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          :  kbfaq
Technology        : kbWordSearch kbWord97 kbWord97Search kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : WINDOWS:97

=============================================================================