Here are some of my office program (office suite) and other office productivity program settings including tips. See also: Office Applications How Tos, Programs, Software.
Disable the Acrobat NPAPI (Adobe Acrobat Reader) plug-in in all browsers after installing Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Disable the SharePoint (Microsoft Office) plug-in in all browsers after installing Microsoft Office.
You can enable these plugins later if you need them.
If you start Adobe Reader, and Google Chrome is already active, Adobe Reader slows the whole computer down, not just Google Chrome, so keep Google Chrome closed, when launching Adobe Reader (February 2022).
Save a snapshot of image in a document
Edit, Take a Snapshot
Edit, Select All
Right-click image, "Copy Selected Graphic"
Paste image to Preview (OS X) or some other application
Make markings on a document
View, Tools, More Tools, Open: select the Comments button
now you can see the "Add text comment", "Add text box", "Draw free form" and other buttons
Draw lines on a document
View, Tools, More Tools, Open: select the Comments button
on the Comments/Markings toolbar select the "Expand Drawing Tools" button (circle, triangle and square on top of each other, looks like a mess)
Customize Comment toolbar
Right-click Comment toolbar, select "Customize Comment tools",
Tools: Sticky Notes, Highlight, Text, Text Properties, Text Box, Line, Rectangle, Color Picker, Line Thickness
Cannot make highlights / create comments
When you open a document you may see text on blue background: "This file claims compliance with the PDF/A standard and has been opened read-only to prevent modification"
Press the "Enable Editing" button
Make markings on a document (not in Read Mode, not in Full Screen Mode)
right corner: Comment, Highlight text
Install Font Packs especially if you can't see all the characters you need to
Asian and Extended Language Pack (Adobe Reader 11, OS X)
Chinese Traditional (Adobe Reader 10, OS X)
View documents a bit like in a slideshow but with menus (scrolling or one page at a time)
1) Edit, Preferences, Full Screen, [ ] Fill screen with one page at a time
2) View, Read Mode (Ctrl+H)
3) View, Page Display, Enable Scrolling (enable or disable depending on situation)
View documents very much like in a slideshow (without menus), but you can only advance one page at a time (no scrolling)
Comment: this reminds me of slideshow in PowerPoint or LibreOffice Impress.
View, Full Screen Mode (Ctrl+L)
Rotate the document if it contains horizontally scanned pages
right-click: Rotate Clockwise
View: Rotate View: Clockwise
Colors for Highlighted Text (RGB) (#Hex)
The idea is to be able to see the original text on the PDF file after highlighting it.
Blue: "Sky" (102, 204, 255) (#66CCFF)
Green: "Lime" (128, 255, 0) (#80FF00)
Pink: 250, 113, 187 (#FA71BB)
Pink: doesn't work: 252, 192, 255 (#FCC0FF) (this is too light on MacBook Pro's screen)
Pink: doesn't work: 246, 111, 193 (#F66FC1) (quite good, but "250, 113, 187" is better)
Pink: doesn't work: 255, 182, 218 (#FFB6DA) (too light, difficult to see it is pink)
Pink: doesn't work: 255, 105, 255 (#FF69FF) (too violet)
Pink: doesn't work: 255, 131, 193 (#FF83C1) (too red)
Red: 255, 50, 50 (#FF3232)
Red: doesn't work: 255, 51, 51 (#FF3333) (not bad, but "255, 50, 50" is better)
Red: doesn't work: 255, 26, 26 (#FF1A1A) (a bit too dark)
Red: doesn't work: 253, 20, 20 (#FD1414) (too dark)
Red: doesn't work: 204, 0, 0 (#CC0000) (way too dark)
Yellow: "Lemon" (255, 255, 0) (#FFFF00)
Problems
When I get to page 26 (of 68 pages) Adobe Reader is using about 1.3 GB of virtual memory when viewing Ajasto kalenterikuvasto 2014, and then Adobe Reader becomes unresponsive and I can't keep on reading the document. Note: works better in Safari, which uses the Adobe Reader plug-in (11/2013).
Toolbar
Zoom factor
170 % is usually fine with academic publications (ACM)
View
Show/Hide
Toolbar Items
Rotate View
[ ] Clockwise (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
Page Navigation
[x] Previous Page
[x] Next Page
Page Display
[ ] Fit to Width Scrolling (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Fit One Full Page (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
Select & Zoom
[x] Select Tool (with this I can resize "text boxes" I have created with Add Text tool, copy contact info, etc.)
[x] Hand Tool (with this I can toggle off Add Text tool if I happen to use it)
File
[ ] Convert PDF to Word or Excel Online (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Create PDF (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Add Text or Signature (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Save (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Print (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
[ ] Send File (takes too much space when window is narrowed to see other documents/applications)
Preferences
Commenting
[x] Print notes and pop-ups (I like to see my own notes when printed)
Documents
[ ] Allow documents to hide the menu bar, toolbars, and window controls
Full Screen
[ ] Current document only
General
[x] Create links from URLs
[x] Make Hand tool select text & images
[x] Make Hand tool read articles
[ ] Make Hand tool use mouse-wheel zooming
[x] Show me messages when I launch Reader
[ ] Show welcome screen
Page Display
Default Layout and Zoom
Page Layout: [Single Page]
Zoom: Fit Page (I usually scroll pages with the mouse scroll wheel first to find the information I'm looking for)
Rendering
Smooth text: [For Laptop/LCD screens]
3D & Multimedia
Preferred Renderer: Software (Mac Pro not supported (ATI Radeon HD 4870, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120), adobe.com)
[ ] Enable hardware rendering for legacy video cards (Mac Pro not supported)
Adobe Online Services
Email Address (Adobe ID): [my email address]
Forms
[x] Show border hover color for fields
Internet
Web Browser Options
[x] Allow fast web view (you don't need to download the whole document before reading it)
[x] Allow speculative downloading in the background (continue downloading from the Web, even after the first requested page displays)
Connection speed: [LAN] (matching the setting more closely to your connection speed shouldn't hurt)
JavaScript
[ ] Enable Acrobat JavaScript (maybe not needed)
Measuring (2D) (I don't know if this matters)
[ ] Use Scale and Units from Document (when present)
[ ] Enable Measurement Markup
[ ] Snap to 2D Content
Measuring (3D) (seems to supported by Reader for CAD drawings: info)
[ ] Use Scale and Units from Model (when present)
Measuring (Geo)
[x] Use default distance unit: [Kilometers]
[x] Use default area unit: [Square Kilometers]
Multimedia Trust (legacy)
[ ] Allow multimedia operations (I don't usually need to see multimedia on PDF files, info)
Reading
Page vs Document: [For large documents, only read the currently visible pages] (Adobe Reader is surprisingly slow on a Mac computer, so try changing this setting with large documents)
Minimum number of pages in a large document: [50] (large documents should be measured in megabytes)
[ ] Confirm before tagging documents
Reviewing (I don't use sharing documents feature with Adobe Reader)
[ ] Show Welcome dialog when opening file
[ ] Show server connection warning dialog when opening file
Search
[ ] Ignore Diacritics and Accents (I like to be exact what I search for)
[x] Always show more options in advanced search
[ ] Enable fast find (might slow down Adobe Reader)
[Purge Cache Contents] (try this if having problems with searches, because cache might get corrupted, info)
Security (Enhanced)
[ ] Enable Enhanced Security (this might be causing problems, because of sandboxing, info)
Spelling
[ ] Check spelling while typing (I don't use Reader to write documents)
Tracker (I don't use Acrobat products to track changes in documents/comments)
Automatically Check for New Comments and Form Data: Never
Suspend the Check for New Comments and Form Data: After 30 days of inactivity
[ ] Show notification inside Adobe Reader
[ ] Enable RSS feeds in Tracker
Units
Page Units: [Centimeters]
Disable autoinput / autocomplete
Tools, [ ] AutoInput.
LibreOffice
Advanced
[Open Expert Configuration]
Search for tip. Look for main category "org.openoffice.Office.Common": "Help": "Tip".
LibreOffice
User Data
First/last name/Initials: [--] [--] [--]
Country/Region: [Finland]
Fax/E-mail: [--] [tomi.hasa@gmail.com]
General
[ ] Extended tips
Memory
(see other section on this page for graphics heavy documents)
View
Icon size and style: [Small] [Galaxy]
[x] Show preview of fonts
Printer Warnings
[x] Paper size
[x] Paper orientation
[x] Transparency
Appearance
Text Document
[ ] Field shadings (annoying)
Accessibility
[x] Allow animated graphics
[x] Allow animated text
[x] Use system colors for page previews
Online Update
[x] Check for updates automatically
(*) Every month
Load/Save
General
Default File Format and ODF Settings
ODF format version: [1.2 Extended (recommended)]
[x] Warn when not saving in ODF or default format
Language Settings
Languages
User interface: [English (USA)]
Locale setting: [Finnish]
Decimal separator key: [x] Same as locale setting ( , )
Default currency: EUR € Finnish
Default Languages for Documents
Western: [Finnish]
Writing Aids
Available language modules
[ ] Hunspell SpellChecker
[ ] Mac OS X Spell Checker
[ ] Lightproof grammar checker (English)
[ ] Libhyphen Hyphenator
[ ] OpenOffice.org New Thesaurus
User-defined dictionaries
[ ] en-GB [English (UK)]
[ ] en-US [English (USA)]
[ ] technical [All]
[x] IgnoreAllList [All] (can not be disabled)
Options
[ ] Check spelling as you type
[ ] Check grammar as you type
[ ] Check uppercase words
[ ] Check words with numbers
[ ] Check special regions
[ ] Hyphenate without inquiry
[ ] Hyphenate special regions
English sentence checking
(none)
Find
[x] Close Find Bar
[x] Find Text (text box)
[x] Find Previous
[x] Find Next
[ ] Find All
[ ] Match Case (if I need more options I select Finf from the menu)
[ ] Find & Replace (I never use this, I use this from the menu)
[ ] Navigate by
[ ] Previous Element
[ ] Next Element
[x] placeholder for message
Formatting
[ ] Styles and Formatting (unnecessary button for Styles)
[x] Apply Paragraph Style
[x] Font Name
[x] Font Size
[x] Bold
[x] Italic
[x] Underline
[ ] Align Left (used rarely, see Format, Paragraph, Alignment)
[ ] Center Horizontally (used rarely, see Format, Paragraph, Alignment)
[ ] Align Right (used rarely, see Format, Paragraph, Alignment)
[ ] Justified (used rarely, see Format, Paragraph, Alignment)
[ ] Left-To-Right
[ ] Right-To-Left
[x] Increase Indent (you can move this button "up" above "Decrease Indent" as you more probably indent than unindent)
[x] Decrease Indent
[ ] Font Color
[x] Highlight Color
[ ] Background Color (never used, I sometimes accidentally press this one)
Navigation
[ ] Back
[ ] Forward
Standard
[ ] Spelling and Grammar
[ ] Automatic Spell Checking
[ ] Undo (I never use this, I use Cmd+Z or the menu for undo)
[ ] Redo
View
Toolbars
[ ] Find (this will appear when needed)
[ ] Navigation
[x] Formatting
[ ] Standard (nothing useful here)
LibreOffice
User Data
First/last name/Initials: [--] [--] [--]
Country/Region: [Finland]
Fax/E-mail: [--] [tomi.hasa@gmail.com]
General
[x] Tips
Memory
(see other section on this page for graphics heavy documents)
View
Icon size and style: [Small] [Galaxy]
[x] Show preview of fonts
[x] Show font history
[x] PDF as Standard Print Job Format
Printer warnings
[x] Paper size
[x] Paper orientation
[x] Transparency
Appearance
Text Document
[ ] Field shadings (annoying)
Accessibility
[x] Allow animated graphics
[x] Allow animated text
[x] Help tips disappear after [4] seconds
[x] Use system colors for page previews
Online Update
[x] Check for updates automatically
(*) Every Week
Load/Save
General
Default file format and ODF settings
ODF format version: [1.2 Extended (recommended)]
[x] Warn when not saving in ODF or default format
Language Settings
Languages
User interface: [English (USA)]
Locale setting: [Finnish]
Decimal separator key: [x] Same as locale setting ( , )
Default currency: EUR € Finnish
Default languages for documents
Western: [Finnish]
Writing aids
Available language modules
[ ] Hunspell SpellChecker
[ ] Mac OS X Spell Checker
[ ] Lightproof grammar checker (English)
[ ] Libhyphen Hyphenator
[ ] OpenOffice.org New Thesaurus
User-defined dictionaries
[ ] en-GB [English (UK)]
[ ] en-US [English (USA)]
[ ] technical [All]
[x] IgnoreAllList [All] (can not be disabled)
Options
[ ] Check spelling as you type
[ ] Check grammar as you type
[ ] Check uppercase words
[ ] Check words with numbers
[ ] Check special regions
[ ] Hyphenate without inquiry
[ ] Hyphenate special regions
LibreOffice Writer
General
Measurement unit: [Millimeter]
Status Bar (bottom toolbar)
Press the single page icon.
Instructions
View: Toolbars: [x] Find.
Standard Toolbar: keep/add the Find & Replace button.
Instructions
Standard Toolbar: keep/add the Clone Formatting button.
LibreOffice 4
Press Shift while using your mouse to change the size of a copy-pasted image to keep the original ratio.
LibreOffice 5
Select the image by clicking it and then drag one of the handles.
LibreOffice (general settings)
General
Help
[ ] Tips
[ ] Extended tips
Memory
Undo
Number of steps: [30]
Graphics cache
Use for LibreOffice: [20] MB
Memory per object: [1,0] MB
Remove from memory after: [00:08] hh:mm
Cache for inserted objects
Number of objects: 10
View
User Interface
Icon size and style: [Small] [Tango]
Graphics output
[ ] Use Anti-Aliasing
Accessibility
Miscellaneous options
[ ] Allow animated graphics
[ ] Allow animated text
Advanced
Java options
[ ] Use a Java runtime environment
LibreOffice Draw
Grid
Grid
[x] Snap to grid
[x] Visible grid
Resolution
Horizontal: [1,00] cm (depends)
Vertical: [1,00] cm (depends)
Subdivision
Horizontal: [10] spaces (depends)
Vertical: [10] spaces (depends)
Snap
[x] To snap lines
[x] To the page margins
[x] To object frame
[x] To object points
Snap range: [5] pixels
Snap position
[x] When creating or moving objects
[x] Extend edges
[ ] When rotating [15] degrees
Point reduction: [15] degrees
Instructions
Edit, Paste Special, GDI metafile.
Right-click, Picture menu option, Type tab
Size
[x] Keep ratio
Position
Horizontal: to [Paragraph area]
Vertical: to [Paragraph text area]
Anchor
(*) As character
SVG files
You need Microsoft Office 2016
If you don't have Office 2016, use WMF instead
You can make a WMF file for example with LibreOffice Draw
WMF files
Create WMF file with LibreOffice Draw by using export
In PowerPoint, select the Home tab
Select the Picture button, "Picture from File"
Options
User Data
Name, Country, E-mail
General
[ ] Tips
[ ] Help Agent
Printer warnings: [x] Paper size
Languages
Locale setting: Finnish
Writing Aids
Options: Don't check anything
OpenOffice.org Writer
View
Horizontal ruler: Centimeter
Vertical ruler: Centimeter
Search
Search in: Google
Tools
AutoCorrect Options
Exceptions
[ ] AutoInclude
Options
(don't check anything)
Localized Options
(don't check anything)
[ ] Replace
Word Completion
[ ] Enable word completion
[ ] Collect words
Last modified: February 4th, 2022
Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/office-application-settings