Microsoft Office Word 3003 can identify types of text (people, places, and dates) and apply a menu to it, so that you can perform actions with Word that you would normally perform with other applications. You can tell when Word has added a smart tag because it will have a purple dotted line under it. When you place your mouse over the smart tag, an “I” icon will appear.

You can then click on the symbol to see actions you can take for that item. Let’s look at some examples.

You can see what a date smart tag menu looks like below.

You can use this menu to show your Outlook calendar. You can also remove this smart tag, stop recognizing the date as a date or as a smart tag, or open smart tag options.

The options are different if you click on a place smart tag:

You can choose to add this place to your Outlook contacts, display a map, or display driving directions on the Internet. You also have the options to remove this smart tag, stop recognizing this text, or configure Smart Tag Options.

There are two types of person smart tags: one for people who you have recently sent mail to (via Outlook, Office’s e-mail program), and another for people whose names are recognized in the English language. Both contain similar options, as you can see below.

The smart tag menu on the left is for a basic Persons smart tag. It contains links to common Outlook actions (such as Send Mail, Schedule a Meeting, and contacts commands) as well as smart tag options. The smart tag menu on the right is for an Outlook recipient; you can see that it has some additional Outlook commands, such as Call.

Other types of SmartTags include financial symbols, stock tickers, times, and telephone numbers. You may also see customized Smart Tags as system administrators have that capability.

You can customize what items are recognized as Smart Tags either by clicking Smart Tag Options in a smart tag menu or clicking the Tools menu, clicking AutoCorrect Options, and then clicking the SmartTags tab. Here’s what the dialog looks like:

You can turn Smart Tags off by unchecking the first box, Label text with smart tags.

The list in the middle of the window allows you to control what items Word recognizes as Smart Tags. You can uncheck an item so it’s not recognized, or check it so it is recognized. For some items, you can click the Properties button on the right to view more details about that item.

The four buttons at the bottom of this list allow you to perform additional SmartTags tasks:

-          Recheck Document: Goes back through your document to pick up additional data to recognize. If you have checked or unchecked any smart tag items, it’s a good idea to click this button.

-          Remove Smart Tags: Removes all smart tags from your document.

-          More Smart Tags: Opens a Web site where you can download more smart tags.

-          Save Options: Opens the Save Options dialog box. (This will be covered in the Advanced Section.)

The last checkbox, Show Smart Tag Actions buttons, enables or disables the Smart Tags menu .

That’s all there is to using Smart Tags!