Everybody knows Word 2007. It’s on almost every PC in the world and fair few Macs as well. However, a lot of users have picked up bad habits, things that detract from the usefulness of the document being created. This article looks at the most common basic errors among Microsoft users.

* When creating a document to be printed on a particular type of stationery, such as letter-headed paper, many Word users have the habit of using the Return key to create space at the start of the document. What they should be doing is changing the top margin. To change the margins in Word 2007, click on Margins then Custom Margins in the Page Layout tab on the ribbon. In previous versions of Word, choose Page Setup from the File menu.

* The habit of putting two spaces after a period goes back to the days of typewriters and monospace (fixed-width) typefaces like Courier where having two spaces after a period made the end of each sentence easier to detect when reading. Since modern computer-generated typefaces are proportionally spaced, the extra space is superfluous and should not be used.

* A lot of Word users also like to press the Return key twice after each paragraph. This tends to create too much space. It’s better to use just one Return then adjust the paragraph spacing by choosing Format – Paragraph (in Word 2003 and earlier) or clicking on the Page Layout tab (in Word 2007) and entering the desired amount in the box marked Spacing After.

* Casual users who have never attended any Microsoft Word training courses are often at a loss as to how tabs work. At worst, they use the space bar to attempt to align elements on the page. This never works and when the document is printed the columns do not align properly. The Tab key should be used instead of the space bar.

* Word, like most text handling software has default tab stops. So, a lot of users align their columns by pressing the tab key repeatedly if necessary to move to closest default tab. This leads to inconsistency in the number of tab characters between columns and should be avoided. It’s much better to click on the Word ruler to set up your own tabs just where you need them.

* Another common mistake among Word users is to manually format text in long documents or perhaps to user the Format Painter. Manually formatting text is fine for single page or short documents but with long documents, it’s best to use Word’s style feature. That way, if you need to modify the appearance of the document, all you need to do is to modify the attributes of the styles.

* Then there’s the question of who’s in charge: Word or the user. You will often hear users complain that Word has a mind of its own: “It tries to do everything for you”. Remember, almost any setting in Word that irritates you can be modified by going to Tools – Options in Word 2003 or earlier or choosing Word Options from the Office Button in Word 2007.

The author has been running Microsoft Word training for many years. He is a training consultant with Macresource Computer Solutions, an established, independent computer training company based in London.

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Ruby on rails is a framework for building web applications. It has two parts; the ruby language which is a modern object-oriented language, and then there is the rail which is a framework, which makes it much easier to build applications using ruby. In other words, this revolutionary framework for web development can make your web applications faster because it uses less code unlike other platforms such as PHP and Java.

The creation of this revolutionary framework for web development resulted in a strong demand for rail programmers in recent years. In 2006, there were about 164 Ruby on Rails developers in the United States, but this number has grown so fast over the last few years. In fact just about anyone can learn it through workshops, seminars, books and online tutorials.

Ruby is a programming language which plays a big part in the success of Ruby on Rails. For one thing, it has a simple and easy syntax. Programmers would surely love using it due to its simplicity. Have you tried writing programs in C++ or Java? Users would tell you that Ruby is much faster to use. You will be able to accomplish a lot in such a short time.
In order to create web applications, a developer would need API’s. Ruby on Rails already have API’s well integrated with one another. Not only that, but Ruby on Rails have numerous tools built around it. It is a well-designed web application framework and despite being quite new to the scene, many programmers are already rallying behind this remarkable framework.

A lot of web developers find it more practical to use Ruby on Rails than Java. However, don’t expect to see Java being completely replaced. Although Ruby on Rails had been the more popular web application in recent years, Java will not go anywhere. But in the end, a time will come when Java will have the same status such as COBOL and C++. As the number of web developers switching to Ruby on Rails is becoming bigger, this will certainly become a reality.

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