Hi guys,
Haven’t been around for a while - am planning my class reunion for later this month (actually have been working on it for a little under a year) and it has had me completely tied up.
Anyway, my classmates requested a full directory this year instead of just the name, address, possible email we handed out at the last one. I sent out a questionnaire with about 20 questions on it (figuring even if someone couldn’t answer all 20, there would be something they’d relate to) and had them send it back.
I’m going to do the directory myself, as printing costs are simply too high, and the gal that used to have it done for us resigned after the last reunion (too many people nitpicking at her for 6 reunions…she’d been on the committee for every single one).
My question is how to do this in Microsoft Word. I can get the basics, but is there a way to make sure that someone’s information doesn’t “break” on one page and continue on another? Also, I don’t think I’m going to get any late responses - the cutoff date was yesterday - but in case I do, is there a way to insert information so it doesn’t throw everything all out of whack?
Computers are great, but this is one case where the good old typewriter made things a lot easier - you could see the page breaks whereas sometimes computer programs don’t show the breaks until you’ve got a ton of stuff done.
Thanks for any advice you can give me!!!
Are you planning on having each person’s info on one page? That would probably be the simplest way to do it.
You can insert page breaks on your own. I’m not sure if you have the new version of Word or not. Basically, just go up to Insert, Break, and then Page Break.
By inserting page breaks, you can go back and add info without it affecting the other pages (unless that page gets too long).
Also if you go to view and select print layout, it will appear as pages, easy to tell when you’re near the bottom of one and starting a new page.
Well, the page for each person would be great if I didn’t have so many classmates who didn’t even bother to respond:hair: I could waste an awful lot of paper using a page for each person that I just have a name and address for (if they didn’t respond, as long as I can find their name and mailing address through either a regular phone book search or on the 'net, I’m putting them in the directory…the only ones left out are ones who requested to be deleted).
Thanks for the heads up on the break/page break thing. I’m using 2003, and haven’t had a lot of experience with it…and this is a bigger project than I had anticipated (and probably not the best to learn on.):shrug:
So the beauty of the computer vs the typewriter is that you can cut and paste things in Word. Get everything typed in in whatever order you want - regardless of page breaks - and then got to Print Preview and see how it looks. Then if you need to move page breaks or adjust margins (I do this all the time) you can do whatever you need to get the layout to look the way you want.
If it’s going to be like a list, maybe alphabetized, I would use Excel instead of Word if you have it. You can have a column for each field, sort by last name (or any other field), insert people easily, and it can still be formatted to look pretty. You can set the page breaks where you want them, have the cells wrap instead of running over into the next cell, etc. If I’m understanding what you want, that seems like it’d be the easiest program. If you don’t have it, you can do tables in Word too, they just aren’t quite as functional IMO.
If you do go with Excel and do the table thing, you can also set the column headers to repeat on each page. I can’t recall off the top of my head how to, but it’s really easy and makes it much easier to read!
Kelly
This is the way that I would go. Excel makes it easy to navigate also.
You can do this by going into File, Page Setup, and then click on the page tab. From there, you can specify rows and/or columns to repeat. I use this at work a lot.
I have Excel, and have been using it as a list for payments made, etc.
But, I know you have column A,B,C,D,E,F, etc…but they go across the page. I could use one column for the name, one for the address, one for the email…but here’s where I don’t get using Excel. Say I’ve used columns A,B, and C. D is directly in line with them, not below, so I don’t see how I can do the “memories” section and stay on an 8 1/2 x 11 page. (For example, on my payments register, there is one column that shows up on the screen, but when I print it out, it comes out on a second sheet of paper not remotely “tied” to the person it pertains to)
This is why I need help - I’m not totally computer illiterate, but am pretty darn close!!! My computer didn’t come with Microsoft Works, so I always did everything in WordPad. But since I invested in Works, I darn well want to learn to use it! Their tutorials aren’t that great, I’ve found out, though…
You could do landscape instead of portrait maybe. And in page set up you can reduce the margins and tell it to print it just one page wide, though you’ll have to see what that does to font sizes. I always do one page wide by 999 pages long, so it doesn’t break the rows up, but can run onto multiple pages.
If you repeat the name column (say it’s your first column), then the name will get carried over to the next page beside the next column. So, you’ll have John Smith beside “Payment Received” on the next page. I use this feature because I have a really long spreadsheet at work and need to know who’s computer information I’m looking at on page 3. The only column I have set to repeat is the name column.
I agree that making it landscape will give you more width to work with.
You can also enter all of that in the address book in Outlook and print it out.
I’d like the layout to look something like this:
Name
Address
email (if they want it shared)
Answers to questions
Favorite teacher_____________________________
Least favorite teacher___________________________
Funniest memory_________________________________-
Music that reminds me of high school__________________
etc, etc, etc.
Some people didn’t respond, so there will only be name and address (if they are able to be found in a phone book or on an internet search, I’m including it as it’s obviously out there for anyone to find), and some answered a few questions, some answered all. This is where I’m wondering about page breaks, etc. - the amount of information from each person is going to be in varying amounts.
I’d rather it be in the “block” format rather than the spreadsheet type format in Excel, and this is giving me fits.
You can do a “keep with next” if the sections aren’t too long, and that forces lines to stay together (moving an entire block to the next page if necessary.) I like this feature for section headings so that they don’t get left behind on the previous page.
Format -> Paragraph -> Line and Page Breaks (tab) -> Keep with next (checkbox)
Have you thought about using a database instead of a word processor or spreadsheet? Microsoft Works has one. Just a thought.