Troubleshoot automatically summarizing a document

• The summary may need to be fine-tuned. Depending on the text you summarize, the automatic summary may include everything you need, or it may just serve as a starting point or rough draft that you need to improve. In general, AutoSummarize works best on documents that have a clear, well-defined structure.

• Every line of text you summarize may end with a paragraph return. If you try to summarize a list or documents made up of one-line paragraphs, such as e-mail messages, the summary may not include all the relevant points in the document, or it may contain sentences that combine keywords in ways that don't make sense.

  If the document contains extra paragraph marks, you may be able to improve the summary by removing them. You can use options in the AutoFormat dialog box (Format menu) or options in the Find and Replace dialog box (Edit menu, Replace command) to remove unwanted paragraph marks.

• The first letter in the document may be formatted as a drop cap (a large dropped initial capital letter). Remove the drop cap formatting and recreate the automatic summary.

• Text may be in a text box, frame, or table. AutoSummarize can't summarize text in a text box, frame, or table.

• Text language may not match your version of Microsoft Office. You can summarize documents written in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, or Swedish. If the language of text you want to summarize is different from the language used by your version of Office, you may need to purchase and install separate language files. For example, you may need separate language files to summarize Portuguese text in a Spanish version of Office. To obtain language files, contact your local Microsoft subsidiary and ask for proofing tools in the language you need.

• Text may be marked with the wrong language or No Proofing format. If you used the Language dialog box (point to Language on the Tools menu, and then click Set Language) to mark the language of text in a document, make sure the text is marked accurately. For example, AutoSummarize can't summarize French text that is marked as German text. Also, AutoSummarize can't summarize text that's marked with the No Proofing format.

  You can quickly locate and change the language format throughout a document. On the Edit menu, click Replace, delete any text in the Find what box, and then click More. Click Format, click Language, click the appropriate language format in the Language box, and then click OK. In the Replace with box, repeat the same procedure— and click one of the other language formats. Click Find Next, and then click Replace.

In AutoSummarize view, you probably hid all the nonsummary text. (You can do this by selecting the Hide everything but the summary without leaving the original document option in the AutoSummarize dialog box, or by clicking Highlight/Show Only Summary on the AutoSummarize toolbar.) In this case, Microsoft Word marks the nonsummary text with the hidden text format. When you type within a paragraph that contains hidden text, you may find it difficult to determine where the new text will appear when you display the hidden text again. For example, the text may appear before or after the hidden text, depending on where you positioned the insertion point.

If you want to type text in AutoSummarize view, click Highlight/Show Only Summary on the AutoSummarize toolbar. This highlights the summary text while displaying the nonsummary text, so you can easily see where the new text will appear.

When you select Highlight key points in the AutoSummarize dialog box (Tools menu), Microsoft Word highlights the summary text in yellow. If you highlight other text in your document in yellow, that additional text may appear to be part of the summary. You can't change the color used to highlight summary text, but you can remove, hide, or change the color of the additional highlighting. To remove highlighting or change color, select the highlighted text, and then click the arrow next to Highlight . Click None to remove highlighting, or click a color other than yellow. To hide highlighting, on the Tools menu, click Options, click the View tab, and then clear the Highlight check box.

• You may have chosen to show only the summary in your document. If you selected Hide everything but the summary without leaving the original document in the AutoSummarize dialog box (Tools menu), and the document is still open, click Highlight/Show Only Summary on the AutoSummarize toolbar to display your text.

• You may have chosen to create the summary in a different document. If you selected Create a new document and put the summary there in the AutoSummarize dialog box (Tools menu), you can switch back to the document you summarized to see your text. Click the document's button on the taskbar, or open the document if you closed it.