Powerful and Strange Word Tips

General Word

Get to know Word’s Hotspots

Double-click on the following….

Ø Status bar (Goto dialog)

Ø Ruler   (Page setup dialog)

Ø Indent tabs on toolbar (Paragraph dialog)

Ø Book in status bar (grammer check)

Save / Close all documents at once

Ø Hold [SHIFT] key while clicking on the File menu option - notice the new menu options available

The Incredible Vertical Selection option

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Have you ever run into a situation where the beginning of each line started with extra spaces (pasting from web pages), or unwanted tab spaces.

Ø Hold the [Alt] key down while clicking and dragging down and to the right.

How to make URLS (and delimiters such as \, /, : and @) Wordwrap

Have you ever typed a long url or other group of text that would not word wrap? There is a clever workaround that uses the concept of a zero-width space.

Ø Open up a dialog (say GoTo) and type ALT+8203 in one of the fields

Ø Copy the box [Ctrl]+C, select the point at which you wish to wordwrap and paste [Ctrl] + V

Move Images Exactly Where You Want Them

Ø When you position an image in a Word document, it automatically aligns (or snaps) to an invisible grid, which helps keep everything lined up. If you ever need exact control over the placement of your Image, you can temporarily override the grid by pressing the ALT key as you drag the object into place. You'll notice that the image. This tip works as long as the image is not set to be in line with the text.

Edit Directly in Print Preview

Ø Click Print Preview on the File menu.

Ø Click the text in the area you want to edit. Word zooms in on the area.

Ø Click Magnifier on the Print Preview toolbar. When the pointer changes from a magnifying glass to an I-beam, you can begin making your changes to the document.

To exit Print Preview and return to the previous view of the document, click Close.

To force a document to fit on to one page

Ø Click on the Print Preview icon.

Ø Click on the Shrink to fit icon on the Print Preview toolbar.

To insert spaces into a numbered list

Ø When you have a numbered list, each time you press the [Enter] key, and new line number is generated. If you wish to insert a line that is not numbered, press [Shift]+ [Enter], rather than [Enter].

Toolbars and Menus

To use the format painter more than once at a time

Ø Instead of single clicking on the Format Pointer icon, double click on the icon. The Format Painter icon will then remain active until you re-click on the Format Painter icon or press the Esc key.

Adding Custom Toolbar buttons

Ø Right click on any toolbar and select Customize

Ø Select the Commands tab.

Ø Select the required category of command, such as File, Edit etc.

Ø In the command section of the dialog box, select the required icon.

Ø Drag and drop the icon to a toolbar.

Have Word Suggest a Synonym

Find that word you're looking for fast. You can find a common synonym for a word without using the Thesaurus command.

Ø Right-click the word and point to Synonyms on the shortcut menu. Then, click the synonym you want, and it automatically appears in place of your original word.

 

Add the Work menu to the main menu for easy access to files

The Work menu provides easy access to oft-used files. Simply add files to the list.

Ø Right-click on any toolbar to produce the Customize dialog and select the Commands tab.

Ø Scroll down the Categories list and select Built-in menus.

Click and drag the Work menu to the main menu from the Commands list and close the dialog.

Using the Ruler to Manage Indents Visually

Ø Select the paragraph(s) you wish to modify

Ø Use the three elements of the toolbar to adjust the following settings

o  Top Arrow= First-Line Indent

o  Bottom Arrow = Hanging Indent

o  Square Block = Left Indent

Formats

What type of formats are applied to my text?

Ø Select Help | What’s This from the main menu

Ø When the pointer becomes a question mark, click the text you want to check. Then a message will appear describing the formatting in that section.

Ø When you have finished checking your text, press ESC.

Quickly Increase / Decrease Font Size

Ø Select the text to changes and press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + < or >

Quickly Adjust Line Spacing

Ø Select the text you want to change.

Ø Do one of the following:

o  To set line spacing to single-space lines, press [CTRL+1].

o  To set line spacing to double-space lines, press [CTRL+2].

o  To set line spacing to 1.5-line spacing, press [CTRL+5].

Quickly Remove Formats

Ø To remove paragraph formats, select the text and press [Ctrl] + Q

Ø To remove paragraph formats, select the text and press [Ctrl] + Spacebar

Ø To remove paragraph formats, select the text and press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + N

Quickly Transfer Formats

Ø Keyboard users can press [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + C to copy formats and [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + V to paste formats. Your mouse pointer won't change, but the formats can still be copied and pasted.

Generate Foreign Characters

Ø To type a character with an acute accent, press Ctrl + ' followed by the character.

Ø To type a character with a grave accent, press Ctrl + ` (the apostrophe under the tilde) followed by the character.

Ø To type a character with a tilde, press Ctrl + Shift + ~ followed by the character.

Ø To type a character with a circumflex, press Ctrl + Shift + ^ followed by the character.

Ø To type a character with a diaeresis, press Ctrl + Shift + : followed by the character.

Use Find and Replace to visit each instance of a style (or formats)

Have you ever used a particular style (or group of direct formats) and wanted to go to each occurrence found in the document. Use Find and Replace to accomplish this task.

Ø Select Edit | Go To from the main menu and click on the Find tab

Ø Click the More button on the Find tab

Ø Click the Format button and click Style è choose the style

Ø Click Find Next to navigate to each instance of the style

Using Wildcards to Find and Replace Text

Most find-and-replace operations are fairly straightforward. However, you may at some point find yourself faced with the seemingly complex task of searching for variable text strings. For instance, you might want to find all words that begin with "corp" but end with anything. You can easily perform complex variable string searches and replacements like this using wildcards.

Ø To do so, choose Edit | Find or Edit | Replace from the main menu.

Ø In the Find And Replace dialog box, click More, and then select the Use Wildcards check box.

Ø In the Find What and Replace With text boxes, construct your search using any of Word's wildcards.

To find	Use this wildcard	Examples
Any single character	?	s?t finds "sat" and "set".
Any string of characters	*	s*d finds "sad" and "started".
One of the specified characters	[ ]	w[io]n finds "win" and "won".
Any single character in this range	[-]	[r-t]ight finds "right" and "sight". Ranges must be in ascending order.
Any single character except the characters inside the brackets	[!]	m[!a]st finds "mist" and "most", but not "mast".
Any single character except characters in the range inside the brackets	[!x-z]	t[!a-m]ck finds "tock" and "tuck", but not "tack" or "tick".

 

How to Insert a Page Break before each Heading 1 paragraph

Change the Heading 1 style so that it includes the “Page Break Before” attribute. This will force each new Heading 1 paragraph to start on a new page.

Ø Select Format | Style from the main menu

Ø Select Heading 1 and click Modify è Select Paragraph

Ø Select the Indents and Spacing tab and set Spacing Before to 0

Ø Select the Line & Page Breaks tab and check Page Break Before

Navigating Word

Quickly Navigate through all open Word documents

Ø Hold the [Ctrl] and push F6 to view the next document (add the [Shift] key to move to a previous document).

Use the Document Map to Quickly Navigate Around Long Documents

Ø This seldom advertised feature is much handier than using a Table of Contents to navigate a document. Select View | Document Map to view this pane. This feature is associated with built-in heading styles so if you don’t use styles, this is a good reason to start.

A Fast Way to Pick Up Where You Left Off

Ø When you reopen the document, press [Shift][F5] before you do anything else. The shortcut executes Word's Go Back command, which moves the insertion point marker to your most recent editing location.

Browse by type using the Browse buttons

Ø Click the Select Browse Object button directly below the vertical scrollbar (looks like a round glass bead) and choose the type of object to browse by (page, table, section etc). A very handy way to navigate through similar objects.

When you reopen the document, press [Shift][F5] before you do anything else. The shortcut executes Word's Go Back command, which moves the insertion point marker to your most recent editing location.

Moving, Selecting, and Deleting with the Keyboard

Ø  Select one word at a time - Place your cursor and press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Right / Left Arrow keys

Ø  Delete one word at a time – Place your cursor, hold the [Ctrl] key and press Delete

Ø  Select one line at a time - Place your cursor and press [Shift] + Down / Up Arrows

Ø  Move from one paragraph to the next - Place your cursor and press [Ctrl] + Up / Down Arrows

Tables

Type out your Table using the Keyboard

Sometimes I like to visualize the exact table and column width(s) as I create a table. This method allows you to fine tune a table before you create it.

Ø Start the row with a PLUS SIGN (+) and then type MINUS SIGN (-) until you have the column width you want. To add a new column type PLUS SIGN (+) again. When you're done type a final PLUS SIGN (+) and press ENTER. Word turns your text into a table. To add more rows to your table, move to the last cell in the table and press TAB.

Display table headings at the top of every page 

When you create a lengthy table that spills over onto the next page, Word doesn't display the table's headings (i.e., the table's first row) at the top of each page that contains a portion of the table. This behavior can make multi-page tables difficult to read. However, you can easily configure Word to repeat a table's heading row wherever the table breaks across pages.

Ø Place the insertion point anywhere within the table's first row, and then choose Table | Heading Rows Repeat from the menu bar. Word automatically repeats the row contents wherever the table breaks across pages.

In addition, Word automatically adjusts the placement of repeated heading rows so that when you add or remove rows from the body of the table, the repeated heading rows always appear at the top of the page. And keep in mind that Word doesn't display repeated row headings onscreen when Normal, Outline or Web Layout view is active. This behavior is by design; even though repeated row headings aren't displayed in these views, they'll still be applied when you print your document.

Add numbering to your table

Ø To add numbering within your table's leftmost column, select it (or select only those cells that you'd like to number) and then click the Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar.

Entering tab characters in a Word table

When you create a table in Word, the [Tab] key takes on some special functions. First, pressing [Tab] when the insertion point is in the last table cell creates a new row. In addition, pressing [Tab] in any other cell moves the insertion point into the next cell. (You can press [Shift][Tab] to reverse direction.) But what if you want to insert a tab mark within a table?

Ø The trick is to hold down the [Ctrl] key as you press [Tab]. Word then enters a tab mark just as if you'd pressed [Tab] outside the table.

Using the keyboard to move Word table rows

When you create a table in Word, you may find that after you've finished, you'd like to rearrange the order of the table rows. 

Ø Select the rows you'd like to move. (If you want to move only one row, simply click in it; there's no need to select the entire row.) Then, press [Alt]+[Shift] and use the up and down arrow keys to move the row(s) to the desired position.

Eliminate all Printing Borders in a Table

Ø Place your cursor in the table and then press [ALT]+[CTRL]+U.