Enjoy Your Weekend

I hope your week is going well and that you find the tips in this week's newsletter to be helpful.

—Allen

WordTips (ribbon) for 25 October 2025

Available Caret Codes

When doing an advanced search in Word, the program provides special codes you can use in your searching or replacing. This tip looks at all the codes that Word makes available.

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(Thanks to Patrick Sedgwick, Michael Avidan (MVP), Jean Allard, Fred van der Meulen, and Tony Dale for contributing to this tip.)

Changing the Default Document Format

f you don't want Word to store documents using its default document format, it is an easy task to specify a different format. Follow the steps in this tip, and you will be saving in different formats in no time.

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Find what You Need, then Replace It

Find and Replace is the most powerful tool in Word's editing arsenal. Discover how you can use this tool to zero in on just the portion of your document that you need. From simple searches to complex patterns, you can use and master Find and Replace.

Italic Typing Doesn't Stay Italic

If you turn explicit formatting on and off as you type, you may notice some quirky behavior in Word. This tip examines one such behavior and how you can correct it.

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(Thanks to Erik Eilertsen, Lew Kaye-Skinner, Aprile Morgan, David Cohen, Deborah Chapman, Steven Morgenstern, and Eric-Paul Jansen for contributing to this tip.)

Getting the Names of Defined Bookmarks

When creating a macro, you may need to determine the names of the bookmarks in the document. You can do this using the Bookmarks collection, as described in this tip.

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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: Exceptions to the Way Word Capitalizes Sentences
When automatically capitalizing the beginning of sentences, Word relies on how you historically have done your typing. This can cause some problems, as detailed in this tip.

New video: Editing Headers and Footers
Headers and footers are a nice final touch in a document. You can easily edit them by using the methods described 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.

Heading Continued on the Current Page

I create long documents with several levels of headings and want the running head to state what is being continued on each page. I've tried using the StyleRef field code to refer to Heading 2, but if the current page has a Heading 2 paragraph on it, the field code refers to that paragraph, not the Heading 2 paragraph that is being continued from the previous page to the current page. Is there a way to make the running head refer to whatever heading level is being continued on the current page? The only time it should refer to the heading level starting on the page is if the heading level starts at the top of the page, with nothing carried over from the previous page.
—William Franklin (provide an answer for this Help Wanted question)

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