Microsoft Word Tips & Tricks

WindowsIf you have programs (e.g. Internet Explorer, Word, Excel) pinned to your TaskBar, hold the Windows Logo key and press 1 to start the first program, Windows Logo + 2 for the second and so on.ExcelStruggling to understand a complex formula? Select the cell containing the formula and click "Evaluate Formula" on the Formulas tab. This will show you the steps Excel follows to arrive at the final result.WordDo you need a non-numbered paragraph in the middle of a numbered list? Type the whole n....

If you ever wanted to print out an MS Word document on a coloured page, you would likely just type the document out on a plain white background and insert a coloured page in the printer when you print it. The same can’t be said if you want to add an image to the background of a page. There’s the watermark option to make do with but if you’re interested in adding a full page background image to a document and have it tile properly if needed, there’s a built-in feature to d....

The highlighter pen (normally yellow, next to Font Colour on the Home Tab) has a drop-down arrow to allow you to change the pen colour. You can also apply the chosen colour to selected text using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+H.

Need to see two programs side by side? Hold the Windows Logo key and press left arrow to move the active window to the left half of the screen. Select another window and use Windows Logo key + right arrow to move it to the right half (works in Windows 7 onwards). Windows 10 shows small images of other open windows when you position the first window; just click the one you want to position it at the other side. Windows 10 also uses Windows Logo + up arrow or Windows Logo + down arrow to arrange u....

Do you regularly dragyour mouse over text to select or highlight it ready for formatting or editing? If so, try these quick ways to select text - they will save you noend of frustration and be kinder to your wrist!Select one word Double click the word Select several words that are no adjacent to each other Hold the Ctrl key down and double click each word Select one line of text Move the mouse to the left margin, the pointer will change to an arrow, then single click Select one par....

Is Word “AutoCorrecting” toomany things? Don’t turn off the AutoCorrect feature (it is often useful) – justclick “Undo” when Word “corrects” something you don’t want it to. And rememberthe shortcut for Undo: CTRL+Z

Word To add a row in the middle of a Word Table, click just OUTSIDE the table to the RIGHT of the row after which you want to insert, and press ENTER. To delete a row, click just OUTSIDE the table to the LEFT of the row you want to delete in order to highlight the whole row and press BACKSPACE. To delete more than one row (or the whole table) highlight all required rows before pressing BACKSPACE. Pressing Delete clears the data out of the rows but leaves empty rows behind.

Pictures are normally inserted “In line with text” which can make them difficult to move around. Use the Text Wrapping menu on the Picture Tools Format Tab to change it to “Square”. Or make that the default for inserted pictures by changing the setting in the “Copy and Paste” section of the Advanced Options.

WordUse the shortcut key SHIFT+F3 to switch between lower case text, UPPER CASE TEXT or Capitalize Each Word – useful for formatting headings and sub-headings.If you would like to learn more on any Microsoft office program listed above why not take one of our one day courses?

Save time formatting your documents - use the Style Gallery to apply pre-set combinations of formatting. Don't like the way they look? Right click on the Style in the Gallery and choose Modify.Heading1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles are useful for navigating large documents (using Find in word 2010 or Document Map in earlier versions) and also make it very easy to create things like a table of contents. Shortcut keys for applying these Styles to your document are CTRL+ALT+1, CTRL+ALT+2, CTRL+AL....

To insert a row, click at the end of the row after which you want to insert, but OUTSIDE the table. Then just press Enter. To delete a row completely, select it (the best way is to click in the left margin) and then press the BACKSPACE key (if you press the Delete key you will get rid of the data but leave an empty row).

You probably know that you can insert today’s date in a Word document, using the Insert Menu (Word 2003) or the Insert Tab (Word 2007) followed by “Date and Time”. But this is not always the date you need when dealing with documents that are often updated. Try using the Insert Menu (Word 2003) followed by “Field…” or the Insert Tab (Word 2007) followed by “Quick Parts…”, then “Field…”. In the Field dialogue, choose the Da....