Tips for Using

MS WORD 2007 & 2010

with Windows XP, VISTA or 7

M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP

Professor of Computer Information Systems
School of Business & Management
Norwich University

Version 9
April 2013

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Dedication ............................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Showing your Text in Larger or Smaller Views ............................................................................................................. 4
Full Screen Reading ............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Office Button....................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Word Options...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Displaying Text Wrapped at the Window Edge Instead of at the Margins ............................................................ 10
Hiding the Ribbon (Menu Bar)....................................................................................................................................... 12
AutoRecover ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Document Format ............................................................................................................................................................ 14
Spell Checker ..................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Grammar Checker ............................................................................................................................................................ 16
Paragraph Formatting ...................................................................................................................................................... 21
Paragraph Spacing............................................................................................................................................................. 22
Setting Default Paragraph Characteristics..................................................................................................................... 23
Controlling How Text Responds to Page Breaks ........................................................................................................ 24
Autotext .............................................................................................................................................................................. 25
Autocorrect ........................................................................................................................................................................ 26
Using Macros when Editing ............................................................................................................................................ 27
Bookmarks ......................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Special Characters ............................................................................................................................................................. 29
Defeat Automatic Formatting......................................................................................................................................... 31
Automatic Bullets and Numbers .................................................................................................................................... 32
Columns ............................................................................................................................................................................. 33
Bibliographic Entries ........................................................................................................................................................ 35
Creating a Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................... 39
Footnotes or Endnotes .................................................................................................................................................... 41
Cross-referencing footnotes or endnotes ..................................................................................................................... 42
Styles ................................................................................................................................................................................... 43
Headings ............................................................................................................................................................................. 44
Document Map ................................................................................................................................................................. 46
Outline View ...................................................................................................................................................................... 47
Outlining Tools ................................................................................................................................................................. 48
Creating Tables from Text .............................................................................................................................................. 50
Selecting and Managing Tables ....................................................................................................................................... 51
Autoformat Tables............................................................................................................................................................ 52
Placing Tables on the Page .............................................................................................................................................. 53
Formatting Your Tables Manually ................................................................................................................................. 55
Track Changes ................................................................................................................................................................... 57
Pictures ............................................................................................................................................................................... 58
Adding and Updating a Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... 59
Building Blocks and Quick Parts .................................................................................................................................... 60
Suggestions and Corrections ........................................................................................................................................... 62
Index ................................................................................................................................................................................... 63

Click on the topic to jump directly to that page.

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Dedication
As always, I dedicate this work to my beloved wife, Deborah Black, light of my life.

Foreword
Learning to use one’s tools effectively is a always a worthwhile exercise – and the more we use
our tools, the better it is for us to master them.

Some users of MS-Word go for years without learning time-saving tips which are already fully
documented features of this software. I hope that this guide will help many people save time,
eliminate common time-wasters and reduce frustration.

The topics are not arranged alphabetically. They are arranged in rough order of utility – at least,
from my perspective. I am sure that others might want to rearrange the document to meet their
needs. However, the Table of Contents and the Index should help anyone locate what they’re
looking for.

Please send me your suggestions for additions and corrections. Use <
mailto:[email protected] > and let me know if I may thank you in the next editions.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the readers and colleagues who have contributed suggestions for improvement to
this guide. Specific contributions are acknowledged in footnotes.

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Introduction
Many features of MS-WORD are useful as long as you know they’re enabled; however, if you
don’t know what’s happening, they can be extremely frustrating. Here are some suggestions that
I have frequently made to students writing essays or colleagues writing papers. Similar functions
are generally available with MS-WORD under the Macintosh operating systems, but the menus
and screen shots would look different.

Showing your Text in Larger or Smaller Views

We’ve noticed beginners squinting at their screen trying to read tiny print in the Word window.
Although this function is related to Windows, it’s worth reminding users that you have complete
control over how big you make the text look on your screen – and this has nothing to do with
changing the point size of the text in your document ! (Some beginners have actually changed
the size of their text and been irritated when their printouts come out with a dozen words in 48-pt
print per page.)

First of all, you can use the View | Zoom function to make your page fit your preference.

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Clicking on the Zoom button (see green arrow above) brings up a menu with plenmty of useful
options.

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In addition, the View menu offers a variety of formats in which to view one’s text. The most
useful are Print Layout, which shows what the document will look like when it is printed in final
version, and Draft, which allows one to cram as much text as possible into the screen. Here are
two versions of this page using those options.

Notice that the draft view omits headers and footers (also images) and that it can use the entire
screen to display text instead of wrapping at the margins. To do the latter (show text all over the
window), one must set an option in the Office Button | Word Options | Advanced | Show text
wrapped within the document window. This option will be explained below.

Finally, if you have a roller on your mouse or trackball, holding down the  key and rolling the
roller makes your text appear larger or smaller. Be careful to roll slowly or your text will quickly
become illegible.

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Full Screen Reading

A useful format for reading (but not changing) text is the Full Screen Reading button available on
the View menu:

The screen shot above illustrates this view on a portrait-oriented screen. To move to the next or
previous pages, click on the arrows at the bottom of the screen or use your cursor at the right or
left edge of the page. To exit from full screen mode, click the x Close button on the upper right
hand corner.

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Office Button
The Office Button is in the upper left corner of your Word 2007 screen. This button is a key for
setting up Word to run the way you want it to.

The next section discusses the options that appear when you click the Office Button.

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Word Options
The list on the right panel in the image below shows the most recently used files. You can
determine how many files will be visible using the options discussed below. The push-pin (“Pin
this Document to the Recent Documents list“) on the right hand side allows you to keep a specific
document on the list instead of dropping off as other, later, documents move onto the top of the
list. Thus you can create your own “frequently used documents“ list.

The Word Options button is at the lower right of the Office Button menu screen.

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Displaying Text Wrapped at the Window Edge Instead of at

the Margins
As mentioned above, making the best use of the screen involves showing all the text in the
available space regardless of margins. The sequence is shown in the following screen shot.
The desired option is the second from the top and is checked. The next page shows the contrast
between having the option in effect (checked) or not (unchecked).

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UNCHECKED:

CHECKED:

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Hiding the Ribbon (Menu Bar)

You can also make more room on a small screen if you wish by making the Ribbon roll up
invisibly; you make it reappear temporarily when you need it by putting your cursor up to the top
of the screen. Here’s a screenshot of the top of the screen with the Ribbon hidden:

You control whether the ribbon hides by using the pop-up menu that appears when you click the
down-arrow on the far right of the customizable ribbon shown; in the figure above, it is marked
with a red arrow. The figure below shows it in an expanded view.

(continued on next page)

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In addition, one of the options in the pull-down menu that appears when you click on that symbol
is the toggle Minimize the Ribbon. It has a check mark when the Ribbon is minimized and you can
click on the command (or on the check mark itself) to return to normal at any time.

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AutoRecover
You should have WORD make a spare copy of your work every minute or so in case the
program or the computer crashes before you save. When you re-enter WORD, your automatic
backup will appear, preventing loss of your changes. In the menu sequence Office Button | Word
Options | Save, set the “Save AutoRecover information every xx minutes” feature to enable
automatic backup files, and set the frequency at 1 per minute. You can reduce the frequency if
your document size grows to such a point that the automatic backup interferes with your work.

Document Format
Word 2007 automatically saves in its default .docx format. If you are working with colleagues
who still have Office 2003, they will not be able to read the .docx file unless they have loaded
an add-in. To change the default document format, change the “Save files in this format:” option
to “Word 97-2003 document (*.doc)” on the above screen. Click OK to save your preferences.

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Spell Checker
Other features are little-known or little-used. For example, most people know about the spell-
checker, which puts wavy underlines when you misspell words or use some that the dictionary
doesn’t include; for example, “gzornoplatz” is clearly not in the dictionary, although you may
add it if you use it often. To force the Spell Checker to operate, you can press
F7 (function key 7).
To change spell check options, click Office Button | Word Options | Proofing and change the
settings to your liking. When finished, click the OK button.

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Grammar Checker
However, beginners often ignore the grammar checker, even though it can help identify errors. If
the grammar checker is turned on, you will notice the green wavy lines under the clause below;
in this case, there is an error, so the grammar checker raises an issue that is worth considering (a
colloquialism). See the snapshot below. In Word, you can right-click on the highlighted text for
suggestions.

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The next screenshot shows the options you can select in the proofing menu:

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Next we see the Settings menu next to the “Writing Style“ combo-box above:

(Continued on next page – the menu spans several of these little windows)

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(This one is actually a fake: MK glued the last two lines of the list into one window to avoid
having to use two screen shots with repeated entries.)

You should adjust the specific aspects of the style to suit yourself or the requirements of your
assignment or publisher.

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The following example shows the kind of correction screen you might see when using the
grammar and style checker:

This tool can help you catch errors but it is not a magic wand that turns wretched writing into
Pulitzer Prize material. It is not necessarily going to understand exactly what you mean, and it
can thus flag perfectly good writing as a mistake. You can’t just automatically accept everything
it suggests; however, you should think about what it identifies and then make your own decision
based on your own best judgement.

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Paragraph Formatting
Notice also that we do not have to bother to put a separate ENTER character (called a “hard
carriage return“ by some aged folk who remember typewriters)(a “carriage” was a cylinder on a
“typewriter” that carried the paper left and right in front of the fixed position where individual
letters smacked up against a cloth or plastic ribbon carrying ink to print letters on paper)(paper
was compressed fibers in flat sheets … oh, never mind) between paragraphs. It is much better to
use the automatic paragraph-formatting features to control the appearance of paragraphs than to
use manual intervention for such features (it’s easy to make mistakes using manual processes).
So just use the HOME tab | Paragraph … options (ignore the purple circle for the moment):

As you can see, you can format your selected text in a variety of bullets, numbered formats,
outline formats; you can adjust left, centered, right or (yechh) fully justified. You can color the
background behind your text (the paint bucket icon) and you can surround your text with a
variety of borders. You can also sort text (the AZ-arrow symbol) and you can make normally-
invisible formatting characters visible (e.g., blanks, page breaks, tabs and so on) as shown in this
screen shot:

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Paragraph Spacing
The paragraph spacing options have been moved in Office 2007. All options for paragraph
spacing can be found on the HOME ribbon in the Paragraph section (the section to the right of
FONT). Clicking the small arrow at the lower right-hand corner of the paragraph section (circled
in purple in the screenshot above) will open the Paragraph dialog box below. At this point, you
can change settings accordingly and click OK when you are finished.

You may choose to change the line spacing to “Single” and the spacing “Before” and “After” to 6
pt or any other choice you wish.

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Setting Default Paragraph Characteristics

You can also force your options to be the default by clicking the Default… button at the bottom
of the dialog box shown above (marked by the red arrow). You will see the following popup:

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Controlling How Text Responds to Page Breaks

The other tab you may have noticed in the screenshot showing the paragraph formatting options
is the Line and Page Breaks.

 Widow/Orphan control is almost always enabled; it prevents a single line of a paragraph

from being left at the bottom of a page (a widow) or at the top of the next page (an
orphan).
 Keep with next forces all the selected text to be treated as if it were a single paragraph; it
will move to the next page if necessary even if there is a blank line in the selection.
 Keep lines together is used for text in a block that should all appear on one page if
possible.
 Page break before automatically puts the text at the top of a new page.

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Autotext
Pay attention to the autotext feature and the autocorrect functions. Both can produce odd results
if you’re not expecting them to be enabled, but both can save you a lot of time by allowing you
to configure your own keyboard shortcuts (“macros“) to let you type abbreviations for common
words, correct common misspellings that you may make, and to expand abbreviations into longer
text. The autocorrect options in Office 2007 are located under Office Button | Word Options |
Proofing.

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Autocorrect
The autocorrect feature will change text automatically from one form into another. The feature is
mostly used to correct spelling mistakes; e.g., typing thier produces their instead instantly. If
that’s not what you meant, pressing CTRL-Z will reverse the correction and leave what you typed.

However, one can also use the feature to define abbreviations that get expanded instantly. For
example, one can define =nsa= to be changed automatically into “National Security Agency” to
save time in typing yet still allow the use of the real abbreviation “NSA” when one wants it.
Notice also the array of checkboxes for various forms of autocorrection. Most are self-
explanatory. “Correct TWo INitial CApitals“ means that typing what you see in the previous
quotation would actually come out as “Correct Two Initial Capitals.” Similarly, “Correct accidental
usage of cAPS LOCK key“ means that if you accidentally hit the CAPS LOCK in the middle of a
sentence, Word would turn it off. Thus typing “writING SOMETHING LIKE THIS” would
instantly be switched to “writing something like this.”

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Using Macros when Editing

The MSIA’s Professor John Mason, CISA, CISM, CFE, CFSSP, CBA, CFSA offers the
following suggestions on autocorrect as a form of keyboard macros using the autocorrect feature
for speedier editing:
When editing, I typically use the comment feature frequently. To make it easier on myself when
typing, following are a number of the autocorrect items that I use to automatically insert the
desired comments; this usually saves me at least an hour or two when editing and provides for
more consistency. Oddly enough, I’ve used these enough that I often think of the acronym, not
the meaning when editing. Once you get the hang of most of them, you may find that you think of
the error as the acronym, not the meaning. In any event, these have been quite helpful.
agaf As for grammar and formatting, be nltt numbers less than 10 s/b spelled out
careful of: np needs a period
b&p book and periodical name s/b nsff nonstandard footnote/citation format
underlined or in italics
nspp no second person pronouns
cp caps
ntaa numbers 10 & above s/b numerals
da define acronym (except at the beginning of a sentence)
dqq Double quotes/quotation marks s/b owo one word
used
qotl Quotes of three lines or more s/b a
fcn footnote/citation needed separate paragraph & indented
fotp what is the focus of the paper? ros run-on sentence
g&f As to the grammar and formatting, the saa same as above
comments are self-explanatory. (this is used on
the essay exams) sosp subject-object singular-plural
inconsistency
ic intro clause (needs a comma)
sotm series of three or more (needs a
idap identifier/appositive comma)
indc independent clause (needs a comma) spi singular-plural inconsistency
iua inconsistent use of acronym sv subject-verb inconsistency
ncp no caps vas vague & subjective; quantify
nct no contractions vts verb tense shift
nfpp no first person pronouns
nindc not an independent clause (no comma)

All users can define autocorrect macros to suit themselves. MK uses a delimiter to make sure
that there are no accidental hits from a particular sequence that might occur in a normal word; for
example, in editing a particular text, he defined these macros:
= cjw= Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons.
=csh5= Computer Security Handbook, 5th Edition
=h= in this Handbook

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Bookmarks
Another useful feature that few users know about is bookmarks; these let you move to specific
parts of the document at will – very helpful when you are trying to check on something earlier in
your document and then return to a particular location to continue writing. You can set a
bookmark at will (Insert | Bookmark… ) anywhere in the text so that you can mark where you are
currently working and go off to inspect some other part of the text. When you want to return to
your working spot, you can go to your bookmark. We have buttons we have added to the Quick
Access Toolbar to allow us to set a bookmark called “Current” (or whatever you would like to
call it) and then to return to that specific bookmark with a click of the mouse – very convenient.

You can have lots of uniquely named bookmarks if you need them.

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Special Characters
Yet another feature that beginners don’t know is that special functions such as the ENTER key or
the TAB key actually characters that can be manipulated using the edit functions. For example,
TAB is represented as ^t and ENTER is ^p in a Find/Replace dialog box.
Click the HOME | Replace or more simply, press the CTRL-H keys together. You will need to click
More>> to view the full search options shown below. Click << Less to collapse the additional
options.

The instruction shown above removes all manual paragraph spacing (^p^p) in a document,
leaving a single ^p after every paragraph; editors often have to do this to be able to control the
format of the entire document using paragraph formatting instead of manually worrying about
how many lines there are between paragraphs. One problem with manual spacing is that writers
sometimes become inconsistent; another is that there are few options available to control the
actual spacing between paragraphs with the manual method.

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Clicking on the Special tab at the bottom of the Find and Replace menu provides an easy list of
special characters to use in the Find and Replace fields.

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Defeat Automatic Formatting

Another useful feature is the ability to defeat automatic paragraph formatting by holding down
the SHIFT key when pressing ENTER; this combination allows separate lines to follow each other
without a paragraph space, as shown in the last two lines of the signature block below:

Best wishes Held down SHIFT

while pressing ENTER
at this point.
M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP
Program Director, MSIA

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Automatic Bullets and Numbers

Automatic bullets are useful, as are automatic numbers. One can control the appearance of both
and also the starting points of the number sequences.
Automatic numbering is useful and you can decide whether to reset the numbering to 1 at each
new list or to continue with the existing list; e.g., 1, 2, 3…. 1, 2, 3 vs 1, 2, 3…. 4, 5, 6…

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Columns
Columns are helpful and can be controlled easily from the Table Tools / Design or Layout menu.
In Office 2007, Microsoft has instituted context tabs, which appear only when certain items are
selected. For example, when I select a table, the “Table Tools” context tabs appear.

You can resize the width of each column; decide how big a blank space to put between them; and
decide whether to include a vertical line between them. You can also force text into the next
column any time you need to.

For columns that aren’t tables, use the Page Layout | Columns functions. The default options
shown below work fine; for more control, click on the More Columns… choice.

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The menu that appears (shown below) provides complete control over your columns. You can
choose equal or unequal spacing and choose to include a vertical line between the columns as
you see fit.

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Bibliographic Entries
Use the automatic bibliographic functions of Word 2007 to manage the references you
accumulate as you do your research. Start by selecting the References tab:

Select Manage Sources to access your collection of sources:

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To use an existing reference from your collection in your current document, highlight it by
clicking on it and then click the Copy-> button:

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To add a reference, click on New…. to get the add menu:

Select the type of document from the drop-down menu at the top of the box and then fill in the
fields appropriately. You may use the Edit pop-up box for Author to ensure that you enter one or
more authors correctly:

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To use a reference, be sure you have chosen the correct reference Style (e.g., APA in the
example below)…

… and then use Insert Citation to put the reference into your text or into a footnote or endnote
(see below).

The citation style changes automatically throughout the entire document whenever you select a
different style from the menu.

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Creating a Bibliography
When you have finished your writing, you can automatically generate (and update) a list of
works cited.

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Clicking on the appropriate style (“Bibliography“ or “Works Cited“) inserts a table that can be
updated at any time:

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Footnotes or Endnotes
Never try to insert numbers manually to refer to footnotes or endnotes. If you move text or
insert a new reference, all the numbers from that point on will be wrong. Use the automated
functions of Reference tab | Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote and then choose your preferences.
To get this dialog box, click the small arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the Footnotes
section of the Reference tab (shown circled in blue below).

You can easily choose among Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, and even symbols. You can
also convert a set of footnotes into endnotes or a set of endnotes into footnotes using the Convert
option button shown below.

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Cross-referencing footnotes or endnotes

When you need to refer to the same document as you have referenced in a previous footnote or
endnote, you should not repeat the same text over and over or use the abbreviations Ibid. or Op.
cit. Those expressions depend on the exact sequence of the footnotes; move text around or insert
or delete a footnote and your references may be wrong.
Instead, use the automatic cross-referencing available in WORD 2007 so that all numbers
naturally change automatically if you move text or change references.

Activate the References tab, and then click Insert Cross-reference. (See red arrow below.)
Now if you alter the note sequence, all numbers will automatically be corrected without further
manual intervention. Exactly the same procedures are available for tables, figures, and headings
by choosing the appropriate Reference type. You can also choose whether to use the original
formatting or not and whether to include just the numbered-text identifiers or more of the
captions by choosing the right options in the Insert reference to menu.

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Styles
Styles are perhaps the most problematic aspect of WORD. Styles can ensure that your documents
have a consistent appearance, with every heading of a particular level showing the same
appearance. People get into problems when they accidentally create variations of the original
styles and fail to realize that they can select all occurrences of oddball styles to convert them
back to standard formats one style at a time. Use the menu sequence Home | Styles to modify
styles. Notice you can also click the small arrow to get access to the full list of styles.

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Headings
Use section headings to guide the reader; use your word processor’s headings styles, not manual
formatting, to distinguish the headings from the surrounding text. The automatic styles can be
modified at will and applied instantly to all the headings of any given level without having to
find each one and change it by hand. In addition, it’s easy to shift a level of a heading (e.g., from
Heading 1 to Heading 2) using a keystroke or a button on a toolbar.
To apply a style, be sure you have selected the HOME tab, and then select a heading or style from
the Styles panel. You can also click the small arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the Styles
panel to get a longer list of available styles. You can also edit these styles to your liking.

Using section headings is also useful because it lets you use the Layout and Outline displays –
and those let you collapse and expand the parts of the document that you want to work on instead
of having to scroll through huge portions of text all the time. The layout and outline options are
available from the VIEW tab.
Page headings are easy to manage once you understand the basic concepts – headers, footers,
whether to make the first page different, and the various kinds of BREAKS that are available.

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If you don’t like a particular style of heading and change it, you can change it and then fix the
style (that is, redefine it) by right-clicking on the heading label and using the pop-up option
Update Heading x to Match Selection as shown in the screen shot below.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Document Map
Click the VIEW | Document Map, available in the Show/Hide panel. This brings up a panel on the
left of the screen showing all the headings in your document. Here, for example, is a screen shot
of a simple document with two levels of headings showing the document map:

Not only can one switch immediately to the location of any heading in the document by clicking
on it in the Document Map: one can also simplify the map by clicking on any level to collapse (-)
or expand (+) it.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Outline View
Another useful tool is the Outline View, accessible using the menu sequence View tab | Outline. Be

aware that outline view does not show all of your text; paragraphs are truncated on the right and
only the first line is shown. However, the function of the outline view is to help you see the big
picture and also to move blocks of text around in your document and to change the heading
levels of entire blocks. See the following section, “Outline Tools” for details.
The gray circle with the white + sign next to a heading is a toggle that controls whether you see
the details below that level or not. For example, here is the appearance of a collapsed section:

Clicking on the + sign turns expands it to the following:

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Outlining Tools
Outlining tools are available by clicking View | Outline, available under the Document Views
panel.
The headings are highest at level 1. The Document Map is optional and can be turned on or off
independently. One can expand or compress sections; i.e., one can suppress visibility of all the
text levels below a given value or make it visible. Double-clicking on the  sign next to any
compressed section expands the section to show the next level down; that level may an outline
level or it can be body text. Double-clicking on the  sign next to any expanded section
compresses the section to show only the heading.

Notice the Outlining tab has appeared and several outlining options appear, such as increase and
decrease indent level (represented by the green left and right arrows respectively). The double-
left arrow means “Promote to Heading 1“ and the double-right arrow means “Demote to Body
Text.”
The blue arrows allow you to move selected paragraphs or entire blocks of selected text up and
down in your document.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

The Show Level function lets you force all of the text to show down to a specific level and no
lower.

The blue + sign expands a specific collapsed section of the outline just like the  sign in the gray
circle next to each paragraph so you can see more details.

When finished using Outline view, click Close Outline View to return to your normal document
view.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Creating Tables from Text

Another helpful feature is tables, which can be quite
complex. One can start tables from scratch or one
can format blocks of text as tables; in the latter case,
every TAB character will force an entry into another
cell. Observe the following:
This is row one, column 1TAB and this is r1c2TAB
TAB but this is r1c4
R2c1TAB r2c2TAB r2c3TAB r2c4
TAB R3c2TAB r3c4

Then use Insert | Table | Convert Text to table:

The instructions above produce the following table,
which we have adjusted to fit into this space:

This is row one, and this is r1c2 but this is r1c4

column 1

R2c1 r2c2 r2c3 r2c4

R3c2 r3c4

Incidentally, the TAB character can be visualized using either the keystrokes CTRL-SHIFT-* or
using the ¶ option in the Home menu:

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Selecting and Managing Tables

Remember to select the table first, When you hover the mouse cursor over a table, a small + sign
appears over the upper left corner:

Then you can use a variety of table commands such as the LAYOUT tab under the Table Tools
context tabs. There are many options available to you to help you manage your tables within
Word 2007.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Autoformat Tables
Once you have a table, you can automatically format it in various decorative ways. First, select
the table. The Table Tools context tabs appear. Click the Design context tab. Then select one of
the table styles by clicking on your selection. Notice that Word will automatically show a
preview of what it will look like before you click the Style option.

In particular, the central area has a large menu of options (click on the down-arrow symbol
marked with a red arrow) that appears when you need it – and options such as Shading and
Borders that you can play with to suit yourself:

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Placing Tables on the Page

Right-click on the plus sign for a table to bring up a menu of options, as shown below:

(continued on next page)

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Click on Table Properties (the bottom option in the menu shown above) to bring up a menu that
provides options on placement of the table on your page:

The diagrams are self-explanatory (I hope).

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Formatting Your Tables Manually

The menu shown on the preceding page has an option called Borders and Shading… which
allows you to apply manual formatting to your tables. These functions have three tabs: Borders,
Page Border and Shading.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Track Changes
Track Changes functions are helpful when you are working in a team or with an editor. You can
see exactly who made which changes to a text and then you can integrate changes from several
people into a single master document. After that, you can cycle through every change and decide
whether to accept or to reject it for your next version. You can also accept or reject entire sets of
changes if you prefer.

Using the REVIEW tab sequence, you can show a convenient set of options that allow quick
access to different ways of seeing your text and the changes (e.g., final text showing changes vs
final text with no audit trail visible).

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Pictures
You can paste pictures into your text; the most common problem is that beginners don’t realize
that there are options for how the picture relates to the underlying text.
First of all, a good way of inserting an image is using the Insert | Picture function. If you have
captured a screen image of the window on which you have focused (that is, it’s the window you
are working in) using the ALT-PRTSCN combination then you can use CTRL-V to paste (or right-
click in Word and then select Paste from the pop-up). This will insert the captured image into the
Word document at the location where you clicked Paste.
You can crop (i.e., trim off the edges) a picture you’ve pasted by using the tools available on the
Picture Tools | FORMAT context tab. When you click on a picture in Word 2007, the FORMAT
context tab appears.
The most important aspect of the choices you have is the Layout. If you choose “In line with text“
then the picture will be inserted into the text, will move with it, and will allow a line of text to
begin next to the bottom if there is room.
Square and Tight do what the images show on the menu. Tight also provides user control over
how the text wraps around the edges of the image.
The image to the right is formatted as Square text
flow.
Behind text is used if you intend to have text
overlaying your picture (e.g., if you are inserting a
picture of a signature and want to let text appear on top
of , say, the tail of a g or a y). In front of text is hard to
work with because it can cover your text without
forcing it around the picture area. The left image
below is behind and the right image is in front of text.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Other options are available on the More Layout Options dialog box, by clicking that option from
the menu as seen above. Through is similar to Tight but allows text to appear inside the image in
blank parts; like Tight, it provides sizing handles to allow user control over exactly where the text
can appear.
Top and bottom is similar to In line with text but allows no overlap at all to the left or right of the
image.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Adding and Updating a Table of Contents

When you use proper headings, you can easily add a Table of Contents (TOC) by using the menu
sequence Reference | Table of Contents… which is the

To update your TOC automatically, you can right-click anywhere in the TOC and choose Update
Field to bring up a small menu. Unless you are absolutely sure that you have not modified any
headings, you should always use Update entire table. You may have to reapply your own
formatting to the table after updating it. If you use Update page numbers only, you won’t have
any reformatting to do.

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Building Blocks and Quick Parts

To use Building Blocks, use the Insert menu; you’ll see the icon for Quick Parts in the 6th panel
from the left on the Insert toolbar. Left-click the icon for the Quick Parts drop-down menu; at the
bottom of the list, there’s an icon for Building Blocks Organizer and another one for Save
Selection to Quick Part Gallery.

The HELP () function in Word has an excellent tutorial on building blocks available when you
type “building blocks” into the search function and click on “Create and use document building
blocks in Word 2007.”

You will find that the first time that you open the Building Blocks Organizer in a Word 2007
session, it will take a while (a minute) to initialize; however, after that first use in a session, it
opens quickly the next time you need it. Click on the Name label to sort the Quick Parts
alphabetically. In my Building Blocks.dotx file, all the labels have a blank at the start to
force them to alphabetize at the top of the column. Because of the number of macros (Quick
Parts) I have defined, I find it easier to use the Blocks Organizer than to use the Quick Parts drop-
down menu to locate the Quick Part I need.

If you do have personal building blocks of your own already, you can add selected writing-
suggestions text to your own collection from the Frequently Corrected Errors at

http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/fce.htm

To add a new Quick Part, highlight the text you want to save (i.e., to convert to a Quick Part) and
click on the Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery in the drop-down menu. You can give your new
Quick Part a recognizable short name (remember to include a leading blank if you like my idea

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

for easy access in alphabetical listings). You can also add descriptive notes in the Description
field. You can also define your own categories of building blocks if you wish.

(See the screenshots below)

If you have no personally-added building blocks of your own, you can install someone else’s
collection on a Windows machine by copying their Building Blocks.dotx file into the
appropriate directory on your disk (assuming that C: is your operating-system disk):

C:\Documents and Settings\<your login account>\Application

Data\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks\1033\

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Suggestions and Corrections

Please see in addition the article “On Writing“ available from MK’s Web site at
http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/writing.pdf

Readers may also find the document “Frequently Corrected Errors” helpful:
http://www.mekabay.com/methodology/fce.pdf

I would greatly appreciate receiving additional suggestions to add to this document as well as
corrections. Please send your suggestions and corrections to me at
< mailto:[email protected] >.

If someone would like to create a version of this document suitable for Macintosh users, please
contact me and I’ll send you the file for conversion and add you to the author list. However, you
will be pressured to keep your Mac version in synch with the Windows version! Beware!

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Index
abbreviations ............................................. 26 Correct accidental usage of cAPS LOCK key
accept or reject changes ............................ 57 ............................................................... 26
accidentally create variations .................... 43 correct spelling mistakes ........................... 26
add a new Quick Part ................................. 60 Correct TWo INitial CApitals ....................... 26
add a reference .......................................... 37 Create and use document building blocks 60
allows separate lines to follow each other Creating a Bibliography ............................ 39
without a paragraph space ..................... 31 Creating Tables from Text ........................ 50
alter the note sequence .............................. 42 crop ........................................................... 58
apply a style .............................................. 44 Cross-referencing footnotes or endnotes .. 42
Arabic numerals ........................................ 41 decrease indent level ................................. 48
autocorrect .................................... 25, 26, 27 Default Paragraph Characteristics............. 23
Autocorrect ............................................... 26 Defeat Automatic Formatting ................... 31
Autoformat Tables .................................... 52 delimiter .................................................... 27
automatic backup ...................................... 14 Demote to Body Text ................................ 48
Automatic Bullets and Numbers ............... 32 Design........................................................ 52
automatic numbers .................................... 32 Displaying Text Wrapped at the Window
automatic styles ......................................... 44 Edge Instead of at the Margins ............. 10
AutoRecover ............................................. 14 doc ............................................................. 14
Autotext..................................................... 25 Document Format ..................................... 14
background ................................................ 21 Document Map.................................... 46, 48
Behind text................................................. 58 docx ......................................................... 14
Bibliographic Entries ................................ 35 double-left arrow ....................................... 48
Bibliography ....................................... 39, 40 double-right arrow .................................... 48
blank space between columns ................... 33 Draft ............................................................. 6
Bookmarks ................................................ 28 Edit pop-up box for Author ....................... 37
borders....................................................... 21 edit styles .................................................. 44
Borders ...................................................... 55 editor ......................................................... 57
Borders and Shading… .............................. 55 ENTER character ...................................... 21
Borders in tables ........................................ 52 exact sequence of the footnotes ................ 42
BREAKS ................................................... 44 expand ....................................................... 46
Building Blocks Organizer ....................... 60 expanded section ....................................... 48
Building Blocks.dotx............. 60, 61 first page different ..................................... 44
button ........................................................ 44 footers ....................................................... 44
captured a screen image ............................ 58 Footnotes or Endnotes............................... 41
centered ..................................................... 21 force text into the next column ................. 33
change text automatically ......................... 26 Formatting Your Tables Manually............ 55
collapse ..................................................... 46 Frequently Corrected Errors .................... 60
collapse and expand .................................. 44 frequently used documents ......................... 9
Columns .................................................... 33 go to your bookmark ................................. 28
compressed section ................................... 48 Grammar Checker ..................................... 16
consistent appearance................................ 43 green wavy lines ....................................... 16
Controlling How Text Responds to Page hard carriage return ................................... 21
Breaks ................................................... 24 headers ...................................................... 44
convert endnotes to footnotes or reverse .. 41 headers and footers ..................................... 6
convert to a Quick Part .............................. 60 Headings ................................................... 44
Copy-> ....................................................... 36 Hiding the Menu Bar ................................ 12

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

Hiding the Ribbon ..................................... 12 Paragraph Formatting................................ 21

holding down the key when pressing  31 Paragraph section ...................................... 22
Home | Styles ............................................. 43 Paragraph Spacing .................................... 22
HOME ribbon ........................................... 22 Paste .......................................................... 58
Ibid ............................................................ 42 Pictures ...................................................... 58
In front of text ............................................ 58 Pin this Document ........................................ 9
In line with text ........................................... 58 Print Layout ................................................. 6
increase indent level .................................. 48 Promote to Heading 1 ............................... 48
Insert | Table | Convert Text to table ........... 50 Proofing..................................................... 15
Insert Citation ............................................ 38 push-pin....................................................... 9
Insert Cross-reference................................ 42 Quick Part Gallery ...................................... 60
insert numbers manually ......................... 41 Quick Parts ................................................ 60
Insert tab…Picture ..................................... 58 Recent Documents list ................................. 9
insert the captured image .......................... 58 redefine style ............................................. 45
integrate changes from several people ...... 57 Reference | Table of Contents .................... 59
invisible formatting characters .................. 21 reference Style .......................................... 38
justified ..................................................... 21 Reference tab | Insert Footnote or Insert
Keep lines together .................................... 24 Endnote ................................................. 41
Keep with next ........................................... 24 references .................................................. 35
keyboard macros ....................................... 27 references may be wrong .......................... 42
keyboard shortcuts .................................... 25 References tab ..................................... 35, 42
keystroke ................................................... 44 removes all manual paragraph spacing ..... 29
Layout .................................................. 44, 58 repeat the same text ................................... 42
LAYOUT ..................................................... 51 reset the numbering to 1 ............................ 32
left ............................................................. 21 resize the width of each column................ 33
left arrow increases indent level ............... 48 reverse the correction ................................ 26
line spacing ............................................... 22 REVIEW...................................................... 57
macros ................................................. 25, 27 Ribbon ....................................................... 12
Manage Sources ........................................ 35 right ........................................................... 21
manual formatting ..................................... 44 right arrow decreases indent level............. 48
Mason, Prof John ...................................... 27 roller ............................................................ 6
Minimize the Ribbon................................... 13 rolling the roller .......................................... 6
More Layout Options .................................. 58 Roman numerals ....................................... 41
most recently used files ............................... 9 Save files in this format ............................ 14
mouse .......................................................... 6 Save Selection ........................................... 60
move to specific parts ............................... 28 screen image of a window......................... 58
numbers will automatically be corrected .. 42 section headings ........................................ 44
oddball styles ............................................ 43 select a heading or style ............................ 44
Office 2003 ............................................... 14 select a table .............................................. 51
On Writing ................................................ 62 Selecting and Managing Tables ................ 51
Op. cit ........................................................ 42 Shading...................................................... 55
Outline ....................................................... 44 Shading table elements .............................. 52
Outline View ............................................. 47 Show/Hide .................................................. 46
Page Border ............................................... 55 Showing your Text in Larger or Smaller
Page break before ...................................... 24 Views ...................................................... 4
Page headings............................................ 44 sizing handles ............................................ 58
Paragraph dialog box ................................ 22 sort............................................................. 21

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 Tips for using MS-WORD Effectively

sources....................................................... 35 trackball....................................................... 6
spacing ...................................................... 22 trim off the edges ...................................... 58
spare copy of your work ........................... 14 tutorial on building blocks ........................ 60
Special Characters ..................................... 29 type of document....................................... 37
Spell Checker ............................................ 15 typewriters................................................. 21
Square ....................................................... 58 Update entire table ..................................... 59
starting points of the number sequences ... 32 Update Field ............................................... 59
Styles ................................................... 43, 44 Update Heading x to Match Selection ......... 45
Suggestions and Corrections ..................... 62 Update page numbers only ........................ 59
symbols ..................................................... 41 update TOC automatically ........................ 59
Table of Contents ...................................... 59 Using Macros when Editing...................... 27
Table Properties ......................................... 54 variations of the original styles ................. 43
table styles ................................................. 52 vertical line between columns ................... 33
Table Tools ................................................ 52 VIEW .......................................................... 44
tables ......................................................... 50 View | Zoom ................................................. 4
team ........................................................... 57 View tab | Outline ....................................... 48
text appear on top ...................................... 58 wavy underlines ........................................ 15
text overlaying your picture ...................... 58 who made which changes ......................... 57
text wraps around edges ............................ 58 Widow/Orphan ........................................... 24
Through ..................................................... 58 Word Options .............................................. 9
Tight........................................................... 58 works cited ................................................ 39
toolbar ....................................................... 44 Works Cited .............................................. 40
Top and bottom .......................................... 58 Writing Style ............................................. 18
Track Changes .......................................... 57



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