The Clock is Ticking

Ten days ago, I announced the release of the WordTips Videos 2025 Collection. It contains every WordTips video I published during 2025, all remastered and cleanly organized. The transcripts for all 105 videos are also included.

Right now you can get your own copy of the WordTips Videos 2025 Collection shipped to you for free on a USB 3.2 drive. The best part? You can get the collection for a 30% discount through March 18.

Time is running out, so make sure you check out the collection today:

https://UsingOffice.com/videos/

Don't let the discount pass you by.

—Allen

WordTips (ribbon) for 14 March 2026

Applying a Paragraph Style to Multiple Paragraphs Non-Destructively

Apply a style to a paragraph, and you may wipe out the explicit character formatting used in the paragraph. This tip explains why that happens and provides two ways you can avoid the issue.

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(Thanks to Michael Avidan (MVP) and Dick Margulis for contributing to this tip.)

Replacing the Last Comma

When you need to perform certain editing tasks over and over again, you start to look for ways to make your work faster and more automatic. This tip presents a macro you can use to automatically perform one of those repetitive tasks--replacing the last comma in a sentence.

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Use Tables Effectively

Microsoft Word is wonderful at presenting data clearly and easily. Creating a table is one of the ways you can present your data. Creating tables is easy, but using them effectively can be tricky. WordTips: Terrific Tables allows you to get the most from your tables.

Turning Off Smart Quotes for Specific Styles

Smart quotes can be helpful in making a great-looking document, but at times, they can be a real pain. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could control smart quotes based on the style of the paragraph you are creating? Unfortunately, this isn’t currently possible in Word.

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Determining the Current Directory

When creating macros, it is often necessary to know which directory is the default. Here's how you can find out by using the CurDir command.

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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: Deleting a Large Number of Styles
Styles are a fantastic tool for formatting documents. As you work with documents created by others, you may want to get rid of a bunch of styles all at once. Here's how you can make short work of eliminating those unwanted styles.

New video: Removing Line Numbering
If you've added line numbers to your document, at some point you may want them turned off. Here's how to disable line numbering.

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.

Converting Explicit Character Formatting to Styled Formatting

I have a document where someone has gone through and explicitly formatted different words and phrases as bold red text. What is the easiest way to convert all these words and phrases to use a character style (BoldRed) instead of the explicit formatting?
—Pauline Wilson (provide an answer for this Help Wanted question)

WordTips is a free service of Sharon Parq Associates. You can find thousands of tips at our website and a whole lot more. WordTips is part of the Tips.Net network.

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