MS Word — Top Ten tips

Useful tips and tricks that will make working with Word documents quicker and easier. Here are the main features of Word that can be used to save time:

1 Inserting the file path name in the footer: go to View/Headers and Footers/Insert AutoText menu, clicking on the down arrow of that box.
2 Use AutoText to enter a frequently used phrase or insert an object, eg, a logo: Insert/AutoText, highlight the text/object, then select AutoText. Type the keyword that you will use for this to appear, and select the “Add”’ button (or type Alt+F3). To insert, go to Insert/AutoText and pick the word from the dropdown list, or choose AutoText and pick from the whole list.
3 Formula — to add to columns in a table. With the cursor in the bottom cell of the columns (or row), click on Table/Formula.


4 AutoFormat to spruce up a table: highlight the table and click on Table/Table AutoFormat.
5 To compare two documents side by side: open both documents, then click on Window/Compare.
6 Making sure that unusual words are spelt correctly: when you spellcheck, either click on Add to Dictionary or highlight the word and press F7.
7 To scroll through a document by a specific aspect (eg, comments, tables, etc): use the Browse Object button at the bottom of the right-hand vertical scroll bar. To cancel your selection and revert to next/ previous page, click on the button and select Browse by Page.
8 To indicate where changes/edits have been made: highlight the text, and from the toolbar click on the Highlight icon (this can often be easier than using Track changes).
9 For a quick view of the document’s structure and layout, use Thumbnails: click on View/Thumbnails.
10 Shortcut keys to save time: to open a file, Ctrl+O; to close a file, Ctrl+W; to do a word count, Ctrl+Shift+G; to insert a new page, Ctrl+Ent; to undo the last action, Ctrl+Z; to indent a paragraph, Ctrl+M.