Options
When you wanted to change something about Word 2003 or earlier, you had multiple places to look, including Tools 
Options, Tools 
Customize, Help 
About 
Disabled Items, Help 
Check for Updates, File 
Permission, Tools 
Protect, and Tools 
AutoCorrect Options, to name but a few. In Office 2007, “change central” is now located in one place: the application’s Options dialog box. To get there, choose Office Button 
Program Name Options to display a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 2-23. Click any information icon (the letter i in a circle) to get more help about an option.
Figure 2-23. The Options dialog box for any Office application features Information icons to clarify selected options.
Note
Figure 2-23 is a bit fraudulent, I have to admit. In order not to waste a lot of space, I’ve neatly resized the dialog box so it’s no longer larger than the state of Rhode Island. That you can resize it is the good news. The bad news is that Office refuses to remember that you resized it, and the next time you open it, it’s back just as big as ever. In fact, in some dual-monitor configurations, it’s possible that Options won’t obey Windows’ normal rules, and Options will span both monitors each and every time you open it.
Although all of an Office application’s options are now in one place, so to speak, that doesn’t necessarily make them any easier to find. Navigating the Options dialog box can be daunting.
Truth in advertising, or, what’s in a name?
Each application’s Options dialog box displays multiple sections, or tabs, on the left. Do not be fooled by the labels. Note that one of the choices is called Advanced. Microsoft’s idea of Advanced might not be the same as yours. What’s optional for someone else might be essential for you.
Microsoft’s logic is to try to put at the top of the list the controls and options they think you are most likely to want to change. The first set, Popular, is therefore the group they think will matter most to the typical user. If you’re reading the Office 2007 Bible, however, you might not be a typical user. Keep this in mind as you look at the category or section names.
Another “don’t be fooled by the labels” caveat is that the labels aren’t even objectively accurate. For example, there is a tab labeled Display. If you don’t find the display option you’re looking for there, don’t give up. Some “Display” options actually reside in Popular, such as Show Mini Toolbar on Selection, Enable Live Preview, Show Developer tab in the Ribbon, and Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading View. Oh, wait. That’s all of the top options!
A number of Word’s “display” options are also sheltered under the Advanced umbrella, including great favorites such as the Show Document Content options, the Display options (duh!), and Provide Feedback with Animation (under General). Still other display options are to be found hiding in various other dark corners and recesses. If you can’t find something you know must be there, check the index in this book.
Options are covered in more detail in Appendix A. I urge you to click each of the nine tabs to explore the different options that are available. Mostly, this is so you can learn the answer to “Where did they hide it?” Additionally, however, it will enable you to learn about new options that correspond to new features.
Advanced . . . versus not advanced?
If you’re at all like me, you might be wondering “How did Microsoft decide what’s advanced and what’s not advanced?” We’ll probably never know. More important than understanding the logic is simply becoming familiar with the lay of the land so you know where things are, rather than having to look all over the place each time you want to know how to change a setting.
For example, the Advanced tab in the Word Options dialog box, partially shown in Figure 2-24, has 10 major sections (depending on how you count them, of course). Also depending on how you count, Word Options’ Advanced tab offers more than 150 different settings, including the Layout Options.
Remember those nice information icons so prevalent in the Popular category? The Advanced category in Word has only four of them! Out of more than 150 different settings, there are information icons for only four!
If you scroll down a bit in the Advanced category of the Word Options dialog box, you can see both the Save and Preserve Fidelity sections at the same time. Is there any doubt in your mind what “Prompt before saving Normal template” means? Not in mine either.
Now look at “Embed linguistic data.” Do you really know exactly what that means? I didn’t (I looked it up, so I know now, but there’s no cute information button to tell you). Why, do you suppose, did Microsoft choose to provide cute little information buttons for the options whose meanings, for the most part, are already patently obvious? Clearly, they must not know what “Embed linguistic data” means either!
To find out what these advanced options are, simply select the option and press F1. Not much help, right? Okay, then, type “embed linguistic data” into the Search box (including the quotes) and click Search for the really helpful view shown in Figure 2-25.
Tip
In many instances, but not always, you can find Help on what you want by typing the exact feature name (e.g., “embed linguistic data”) into the Search box, pressing Enter (which usually returns “No results”), and then clicking the Support Knowledge Base link.
Clearly, Help needs Help. You will find useful help much more quickly by following the tip shown above, or simply by “Googling” the feature in question. Note that even when you can find Help in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, that help often is couched in Microsoftese, a clever circular kind of writing that repeatedly uses the mystery feature’s name in lieu of actually telling you what the feature does or means. Searching other sources online often nets you more useful information because the very existence of such sources likely is the result of someone’s frustration in trying to parse the “official” sources.