10 Simple Microsoft Word Tools For Basic Users Wanting to Learn More

Whenever I was asked if I was proficient in Microsoft Word, I would always answer with a confident “yes” because I knew how to change fonts, create tables, and utilize keyboard shortcuts. But when I began working at my current job, I realized that I didn’t know even half of the features that are available in Office. Now, with a little work training, I now feel more confident in saying I’m proficient in Word. So, below I’m sharing 10 simple Microsoft Word tools for basic users who want to learn more.

Note: These screen shots are taken from Microsoft Word 2007. You may find that your features look a little different or are in a different location.

Format painter

The format painter has become my new favorite tool in every Microsoft Office program. When you’re working with different fonts, sizes, and styles, this feature is a quick shortcut to help you keep your fonts uniform throughout.

Say you have paragraphs separated by headings and those headings are in bold with a larger font. Rather than highlighting each heading and trying to figure out how to get it to match the others, you instead highlight a previously formatted heading, click on the “format painter button,” then highlight the text that you want to match the previous heading. The format painter will copy the font, size, and color to match the original selection.

This is especially helpful for longer documents that require multiple font changes. Format painter will also tab over lines to match your selection and help to keep formatted lines straight.

Styles

Speaking of styles, the style section on the Home tab is always staring you in the face, but do you know what it’s for? Styles are helpful for when you have multiple types of headings or bullet points that require a lot of formatting.

Each style box comes with a preset format, but you can alter it to your own color scheme, preferred font, or employer’s requirements. You can preset your style by right clicking on a style, such as Heading 1, and selecting Modify. Then, every time you highlight text and click on the style box, the font will be altered to match the preset style.

You can also set up the text in your document the way you want it. Then, click “Update (style name) to match selection.” Now, every time you select that style, it will match the font that you preset in your document. This tool has proven to be valuable when developing manuals other long documents with multiple styles.

Legacy forms

Word comes with many tabs, but there are some hidden ones that you may not know about. One crucial one for building forms is the Developer tab, but you have to add the tab to your screen. It’s not automatically there.

To add it, go to “File.” Find the “customize” ribbon for your main tabs. Find the “Developer” tab. Then, add it to your screen. It should show up as the last tab at the top of your Word document.

Once in there, you’ll find a little folder icon with a dropdown button. In this dropdown are further icons where you can add fillable checkboxes, lines, radio buttons, and more. If you’re a blogger who wants to create fillable worksheets as giveaways, this may be a great resource for you.

Restrict editing

If you’re going to share forms, charts, or any Word documents that you create, you may have a situation where you don’t want anyone to edit the document, particularly wording on legal form or other document. Word has a feature that will keep others from altering your document.

In the Developer Tab, there’s an icon that looks like a piece of paper with a lock on it. In my version of Word, it’s called Protect Document. Newer versions of Word call it Restrict Editing. Here, you can decide who can alter which parts of the document, if at all. This can be as simple as locking it so that can easily be unlocked with one click to password protecting it so that only those with the password can unlock to edit the document.

This feature will come in handy if you do any type of legal work or have had trouble with people altering shared documents without consultation or permission.

Find/replace tool

When I’m writing a novel, I tend to make a lot of name changes at all points in the story. Eyeballing the text to find every instance where I used a word or name can get tedious and cause a lot of oversight. So, I use the Find and Replace buttons on the Home tab to help me find every place in the document where that word was used. Then, I can command Word to replace that name with the new name I have chosen.

You don’t have to replace a word whenever you find a word. Using the Find tool alone is helpful when I want to find a specific moment in the story to edit or double check for continuity in the spelling of a character’s name. It gets you where you want to be faster than scrolling through a long document.

Page breaks

Documents littered with charts and tables often need to be formatted so that these features don’t run off the page. That’s where page breaks come in. Page breaks are a way to move text to another page without using the space or tab keys that can mess up your formatting.

You can find page breaks in the Page Layout tab under the Page Setup section. Breaks are also helpful when you’re working with columns that try to break up your text. It’s strictly a cosmetic tool, but it’s one that can make your work look more professional.

The show/hide tool

Does Word ever seem to have a mind of its own?  Does it feel like something invisible is in the way of doing what you want it to do? The Show/Hide tool will show you all invisible paragraph marks and other symbols that will show you what’s going on between the lines.

These symbols will show you every space, tab, and page break that’s present in your document. It’s where you can find all of those pesky, invisible markers that throw off your lines and spaces. Just click on the button under the Paragraph section of the Home tab once to make the symbols appear, and click again to make them disappear.

The split view tool

When you’re looking off of two separate Word documents, the flip flopping back and forth can be dizzying. Word’s split screen tool will pull up two documents on one screen so that you can see both at the same time. This feature can be found on the Window section of the View tab.

Open both documents in Word. Then, click on the icon labeled Split. This will bring up the both documents one on top of another. Click on the View Side by Side icon to make it easier to read the two. Word automatically sets to Synchronous Scrolling. This is helpful if the documents are two versions of the same document. But if you don’t want the two documents to scroll together, click on the Synchronous Scrolling icon so that this feature is grayed out. Then, you’ll be able to scroll through each document individually.

Adding watermarks

This is a simple and easy to find tool that will come in handy whenever you want to protect a document. Under Page Layout, you’ll find the Watermark icon. This will put the wording of your choice in a shadowed text across each page of your document.

This is great for when you want to show people a sample of your work or a chart that you made without the risk of having it copied or stolen. Watermarks have come up at work throughout the years, and it’s good to know where it is when the occasion arises.

Table of contents

A table of contents is easy to create in its simplest form. But there’s a lot more to it that you should play around with so that you know the ropes if you never need to create one in a professional setting. Table of contents can be formatted to only display certain headings or styles. It can include or omit page numbers. But best of all, they provide a short cut to take you right to a section or chapter in a longer work.

Demonstrating the ins and outs of the TOC feature could be its own post. Play around with the different options. Learn the intricacies of this feature so that you can create an intricate and well-organized table of contents. And don’t forget to click on the Update Table icon whenever you make a change to your document so that the table stays accurate.

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