Recently, a Sandpoint reader wrote and told me about a number of her pet peeves with Microsoft Word 2000. She’s a long-time Word Perfect user who only uses Word under duress. The reality of the word processing world is that for file compatibility, it helps to use the same word processor everyone else does. Sad but true.
My very own dirty little secret is that I used Word Perfect long before I used Word. Moving to Word was a horrible transition. Sure, I later won an award from Microsoft and wrote book chapters on Word, but that was because I had to spend endless time figuring out Word the hard way. I got good at it and then started sharing the information, so that others would not have to share my pain.
In any case, our long-suffering Sandpoint reader had a gripe that I’d never thought about before. Word Perfect shows you the entire pathname in the title bar of the window. Word only shows you the document name, not the full path. If you have the same file stored in multiple folders, you can’t tell them apart.
There are Word macros you can write or obtain that will put the full pathname in the title bar. However, here’s an easy workaround for the problem that doesn’t require a macro. The full pathname of your file appears if you display the Web toolbar by choosing View|Toolbars|Web. The toolbar has an Address button that looks much like the address bar in a Web browser. If you don’t want a whole bunch of toolbars cluttering your screen, you also can just add the Address button from the Web toolbar onto your Standard toolbar so it’s near the top. To add the button you can choose View|Toolbars|Customize and drag the button over. (I’ve written before about customizing your toolbars, so if you missed that column, check the archives at http://www.cc-tips.com.)