Tyler Blogs

One of the most frustrating things for me is to be in a meeting or activity and be inundated with stuff I've already heard before. This is particularly true when it comes to computers, and on Sunday morning at church. Similarly, it is quite exciting when I do learn something in one of those scenarios.

In much of Office software, other than VBA, I've heard or read the same tips for years. Today, I got a new tip that I hadn't heard of before. I have thought before how neat it would be if you could do that.

What I'm talking about is spike. Spike is a separate method of cut/paste that you can do in Microsoft Word. Instead of cutting, though, you append that section to the spike buffer. Mark something, press Ctrl-F3, mark something else, press Ctrl-F3, switch to another document (or whatever), and press Ctrl-Shift-F3 and everything shows up in the order that you "spiked" it.

This is one of the neatest features about Word 2007. It is also demonstrative of how there is very often very little functional difference between versions. At each upgrade, you may add one or two features that you (or your staff) actual use; and there are many, many other features that you don't know about, don't use, or don't need. That is, of course, except for the ability to read the files in the new version's file format.

The spike feature mentioned here is also available in Word 2000. The tip comes from today's Office Watch newsletter, one worth subscribing to, even if you already know it all.