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Three weeks ago in this spot I mentioned that my wife had undergone some outpatient surgery and that she was in the process of recuperating. I've had several folks who have written, asking how she is doing.

Just so everyone knows, Debbie is doing fine. The surgery (or, more accurately, the after-surgery care) kept her in discomfort for a bit over two weeks, but things are much better now. She is up and about and able to do everything she could before the surgery.

I appreciate all the care and concern that has been expressed by so many of you. Thank you for your kindness.

—Allen

WordTips (ribbon) for 12 July 2025

Automating a Two-Column Section

If you need to routinely apply two-column formatting in the middle of a document, you can automate the process by using a macro. This tip presents a sample macro you can use to accomplish the task.

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(Thanks to Michael Avidan (MVP) and Fred van der Meulen for contributing to this tip.)

Continuing Your Numbering

If you have a couple of numbered lists separated by regular text paragraphs, you might want the secondary lists to be continuations of the first one. Setting this up is rather easy.

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Fantastic Fields!

At last count Word provides 75 dynamic field codes you can use to add everything from page numbers to hyperlinks to your documents. Discover the ins and outs of the vast majority of Word's powerful field codes.

Finding Text at the End of a Table Cell

How do you use Find and Replace to locate information at the end of a table cell? Interestingly enough, there is no way to do this in Word. You can, however, utilize other Find and Replace capabilities for your own workaround.

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Finding Long Sentences

For certain types of writing, you may want to make sure that the sentences in your document do not exceed a certain limit. Word provides no tool to do this, but you can create your own tool for checking sentence length. This tip shows you how.

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WordTips YouTube Channel

Do you like to learn visually? Make sure you check out the WordTips YouTube channel. New videos are added weekly. (I typically try to add them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

New video: Jumping to a Relative Line Number
As you navigate through a document, you may have a need to move forward or backward a specific number of lines. This is easy to do using Word's Go To feature, as you discover in this Quick Tip. Every week I publish a free newsletter about how to use Word better. To "up your game," visit the WordTips website, here: https://wordribbon.tips.net You can subscribe to the newsletter by using the sign-up form at the right side of any page on the site.

New video: Changing the Number of Columns in the Middle of a Document
Need to have multiple columns in a page layout that normally consists of a single column? You can change the column layout by applying the techniques in this Quick Tip.

Help Wanted

This section is for those having problems making Word behave. If Word is giving you fits, feel free to submit your own Help Wanted question.

If you have a solution for the problems below, click the link after the problem to send us your answer. (All responses become the sole property of Sharon Parq Associates, Inc., and can be used in any way deemed appropriate.) If your response is used in a future issue, you will be credited for your contribution to the answer.

Generating a Shortcut Key List

Is there a way, via macro, to generate a list of all shortcut keys and what they do? It would be beneficial to also know if the shortcut is built-in or custom and whether a built-in shortcut key has been overridden by a custom.
—Barbie Davis (provide an answer for this Help Wanted question)

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