Text-to-Speech and Other KWord Tips

Don't Get Lost In Long Documents

Last week we learned how to create text frames, and how to control text flow across multiple frames. Today we're going to learn some great shortcut for navigating long documents, some simple tricks for managing photo printing, and how to turn on KWord's text-to-speech engine and make it read to you.

Views are great time-savers when you're writing or editing a long document. Open a multi-page document and click View--New View. This opens a second view of your document in a separate window. What I like to do is set both windows at Fit to Width, and then arrange them side-by-side. Then I can easily copy and paste between the two windows. A neat trick is keeping the first window open where I'm working, so I don't lose my place, and do searches in the second window. The second View is not a copy of your document, but your actual document, so any changes you make in either window will appear in both. You can open as many Views as you want.

A variation on Views is View--Split View. Instead of opening a separate window, it divides your active window into two panes that share the same menus and toolbars. View--Splitter Orientation lets you choose a horizontal or vertical split.

One more useful pathfinding utility is Bookmarks. Use these to mark any location in your text with Insert--Bookmark. Give your bookmark a name, then find it again with Tools--Select Bookmark.