Microsoft’s word processing tool is near ubiquitous – with everyone from the biggest businesses to youngsters doing their homework all using the application.
However, even though you may use it every day, there’s likely still some features of Word you may not know about. Microsoft is, after all, famed for packing its programs full of features and productivity-boosting elements.
So, here are five handy tips and features which may be new to you.
1. Templates
When designing something to be more than simple words on a page, let Microsoft handle the graphics, rather than taking time to align and shape everything yourself. Word has a whole suite of pre-formatted templates, so all you need to do is drop in the content.
Each of your projects should have a template that suits, with options for reports, invoices, newsletters and plenty more besides.
2. Use styles
The secret to professional looking formatting is consistency. Whatever stylistic choices you make, keeping them consistent is key to having a professional looking end product.
The styles in Word allow you to define how you want headings, paragraphs and other elements to look. With these defined (and modified from the off-the-peg offering if you so wish), you can ensure your document will be consistent throughout.
3. Customise the Quick Access Toolbar
If you’re not using the Quick Access Toolbar (the drop-down at the top of the window, between the document title and the ‘Redo’ button), you’re missing out. It gathers all your most used commands into one menu that’s quick and easy to access.
Going in and fully personalising brings all your essential commands immediately to hand.
4. Customise auto correct
You likely know already that auto correct can be overridden to not flag certain words or phrases (if your business uses terms or jargon not in the regular dictionary, for example). Did you know, however, that you can also set it to effectively auto complete when presented with certain commands?
Within the menu at File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options, you can set up specific phrases (‘kr’, say) to auto-correct to something else (in this case, ‘kind regards’). For anything you type regularly it could be a great deal of time saved for a tiny amount of up-front effort.
5. Use Quick Parts for formatting consistency
Found a format you like or works for a document? Save the elements as Quick Parts and you can easily re-use them again. To do this, simply highlight the specific content and then navigate to Insert > Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. You then simply name and categorise the part, then it’s ready to be re-deployed as needed in future.
