Microsoft Word: Tips and Tricks

Make the pictures in your Word documents stand out by adding picture borders. To add a border, just follow these four simple steps.

It is important to always check your documents for spelling and grammar mistakes before distribution. Fortunately, Word makes it easy.

Mail Merge is most often used to print or email form letters to multiple recipients. Using Mail Merge, you can easily customize form letters for individual recipients. Mail merge is also used to create envelopes or labels in bulk.

When sharing Word documents, you may wish to remove document metadata, which is hidden or personal data. To remove document metadata follow these four steps.

It's easy to merge cells in the tables you add to Microsoft Word documents. This feature works the same in all modern versions of Microsoft Word.

You can split text into columns in Microsoft Word in just a few simple steps.

There are two commands you can use to wrap text around images in Microsoft Word. Use Wrap Text to choose the way in which text will wrap around the object. Use Position to choose the position of the object on the page, and the text will automatically wrap around the image.

You can insert built-in fields in Word as a way to add placeholders for information that may change. The following four steps walk you through the process.

It is sometimes beneficial to view two different parts of the same document or multiple documents at the same time. You can accomplish this by working with multiple windows. The following steps will show you how to split the window the document is in, add a new window and then arrange the windows such that you can view them side by side, and arrange windows to view multiple different documents simultaneously.

Learn the two most common ways to close a Microsoft Word document.

Change the look of the bullets in your Word document by following these four steps.

You can use cross-references to refer to figures in your documents, so that if the figure numbers change, this information will automatically update. To create a cross-reference in Microsoft Word, follow these four steps.

The paper size for Microsoft Word documents can be set for the whole document or for individual sections of documents. Follow the steps below to choose the desired paper size.

Assigning keyboard shortcuts to the styles you use most in Word can streamline the document creation process. Just follow these five steps to assign shortcuts.

You can delete a table of contents from a Microsoft Word document in two simple steps.

Create a new Word document in just a few simple steps.

Once you have created an outline in your Word document, you can work with it to create a master document and subdocuments.

Use Word's Go To feature to locate certain elements in your document.

Once you have created the macros you want in a Word document, you can easily copy them to another document using the following steps.

As you can convert text to tables, you can also convert tables to text in Microsoft Word. Just follow these four steps.

Ink Equations allows you to "write" equations on a tablet device using a stylus or your finger and then converts them to text. If you are not using a touchscreen device, you can do the same using a mouse. To employ Ink Equations just follow these few steps.

It's easy to import different file formats like .txt files and PDFs into Word.

Follow these three steps to create a character-specific style in Microsoft Word.

The following steps show how to create an outline in Microsoft Word.

If the paper size you need for printing is not the default of Letter, simply choose the desired paper size from the scaling option drop-down.

You can speed up the process of adding an index to a large document by creating a concordance file, which is a list of all terms you want to index, and then automating the process. To create a concordance file and use it to auto-mark items in Microsoft Word follow these six steps.

In Word 365, Excel 365, PowerPoint 365, and other Office 365 products (and earlier versions of Office too), you can customize the Ribbon to make it easier for you to find the commands that you use most frequently. For example, you might want to move commands that you use a lot to the Home tab. You can can also change the order in which tabs appear, and even add your own custom tabs. In this article, we will show you how using Word 365 as an example. The process is the same in the other Office products.

You can choose to keep the Quick Access Toolbar in the top-left corner of Microsoft Word or move it below the Ribbon. To move the Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon, follow these easy steps.

You can easily append text from a different file into a Word document. Just follow these five steps.

Learn the two ways to open a Microsoft Word document from the Backstage view.

Use the Ruler in Microsoft Word to see and control page margins, paragraph indents, and more.

You can quickly and easily add visual appeal to Word text using WordArt by following these three steps.

It is often helpful to compare one version of a document to another to see what has changed. To compare two documents in Word, follow these four steps.

It is often helpful to combine documents to view changes from multiple sources in one document. The following steps show how to combine two Word documents.

The Resume Reading feature in Microsoft Word allows you to pick up in a document where you left off. To use Resume Reading, you must be working with a document that is saved on the cloud. To use the feature, follow these simple steps.

Learn how to resolve style conflicts between documents in Microsoft Word.

You can find and replace more than text in Word. The following tips will help you quickly look for and replace formatting issues.

You can add your name and initials to Microsoft Word in a few simple steps. When you do, the information is used throughout the Microsoft Office products. Word uses this information for tracking changes and assigning comments and for prefilling data used by some of the built-in templates.

You can change the order of the Ribbon tabs in Microsoft Word to best suit your audience by following these three steps.

When creating a new Word document, you can choose between creating a blank document and creating a document from an existing template. A template is a predesigned Word document that you can change to suit your needs. Once you've downloaded a template, it is stored in the My Templates location on your computer.

When you have an image with text wrapping, you can use the Live Layout feature to see what its placement will look like before committing to the location.