#27188
Some of the Most Useful Word Shortcuts
This list doesn't attempt to be comprehensive, but is a list of the shortcuts which save me the most time.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#24179
Speaking in Tongues: Dealing with Word's Dictionaries 
Word has powerful language tools, but if you don't understand how they work, even a simple spellcheck can pose problems. In this article, I'll discuss how to take full advantage of Word's language settings.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#15198
Provides a few suggestions about how writers and editors can use spelling and grammar checkers more effectively.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Articles>Word Processing>Software
#26118
This section shows you how to use Word’s spelling, grammar, and research tools. You also learn how to hyphenate documents, print envelopes and labels, and work with XML.
Glenn, Walter. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26749
Stop Graphics from Increasing the Size of Your Word Documents
When you insert a graphic into your Word document, it increases the file size automatically as Word has to ‘store’ (i.e. duplicate) a rendering of the graphic in the document. To avoid this happening, you can reduce the file size by storing only the links to the graphics and not the actual graphic itself.
Klariti (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word
#27192
Strait and Narrow: Using Columns
When you open a new blank document in Word, you begin typing at the left side of the screen/page and continue typing to the right margin, where Word wraps your text back to the left so you can start again. All your lines of text are full width. But sometimes you need to divide your text into two or more columns.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#24203
Taking Advantage of "Automatic Text" Features
I recently began looking for a way to eliminate the need to manually perform small repetitive tasks. In Microsoft Word, that way is through the software’s 'automatic text' features: Autoformat, Autocorrect, and Autotext. In this article, I’ll focus on these features in Word, but will also discuss how to lighten the work load in other software.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#21723
Taming OpenOffice.org Writer 1.1: Tips and Tricks for Academic, Technical, and Business Writers 
This book is for intermediate and advanced users of OpenOffice.org Writer. You may not have used this program before, but you have used another word processor (such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect) and you are familiar with the basics of word processing. Typical users include academic writers, technical writers, and other business and professional writers—anyone who produces books, research papers, proposals, or other documents requiring the use of more than the basic features. For example, you need to use styles instead of direct formatting of headings and other paragraphs, and you need to include chapter information in the footers of pages, or you want to use master documents to control a book containing many chapters, perhaps written by different people.
Weber, Jean Hollis. Technical Editors Eyrie (2003). Books>Writing>Word Processing>OpenOffice
#25697
Technical Writing Using OpenOffice.org Writer
If you're in the business of writing technical documents and you've been using Word in particular, you could benefit by switching to OpenOffice.org Writer. OpenOffice.org Writer is a strong competitor to Word for both drafts and final layout (desktop publishing) of many technical documents because it combines some of the best features of Word and FrameMaker. Indeed, Writer does several things better or easier than each of them.
Weber, Jean Hollis. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#29383
Ten Obscure Word Tricks to Expedite Common Chores 
Buried within Word are lots of cool tricks that not too many people have discovered. These are small things--shortcuts that, in some cases, may not look much more efficient than pulling down a menu and heading for the dialog box you need. But if you perform a certain task a thousand times a week, being able to bypass some steps or automatically slap a change into a document without having to stop and think about it can be a welcome convenience. The techniques included here include things like making vertical text selections, creating a shortcut to launch Word using a specified template, placing the Calculate command on a toolbar for quickly adding numbers, and duplicating text and objects with the mouse.
Gilbert, Jody. TechRepublic (2006). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#23462
For long Word documents, I never use the main/sub document feature. It's unreliable. Instead I link the graphics without saving in the document. When the document is completed I change it to relative path (using a Find & Replace procedure) for reliable file transfer.
Ring, Peter. TC-FORUM (1997). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22607
Tools of the Technical Writing Trade
In technical writing, the most important tool of the trade is of course your brain. Next come your communication skills and those are followed by language skills. Finally, you will use these tools to create and shape your writing. A word processor is the most important tool of them all.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Word Processing
#27184
Troubleshooting Word 2004 for Macintosh
If you have no clue what is causing your problem with Word, work through The Basics and all the General Troubleshooting topics. Beyond the basics, probably 70% of the problems in Word are caused by a corrupt Normal template or corrupt Preferences.
Word MVP Site, The (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27197
Turning Word into a Pseudo-Database by Using Mail Merge Query Options
Purists might argue that the power it gives ordinary users isn't necessary because they should use Access queries for this sort of thing and link the merge to the query. But in my experience, many people who are very comfortable working with Word and Excel find Access (or any full-fledged database application) very difficult to work with, and can get the job done far more quickly and easily using a combination of Word and Excel. At the end of the day, getting the job done is what matters. The vast majority of the world's databases (in terms of number of databases, rather than in terms of amount of data) are stored in Excel spreadsheets.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Databases>Microsoft Word
#27199
Typographical Tips from Microsoft Publisher
In one form or another, Word is ubiquitous. If you buy a new computer, chances are good that it will come with some version of Office or Works Suite (which includes Word) installed. Word is a powerful word processing program that incorporates many of the features of a page layout application, but there are times when a page layout or desktop publishing application is what is needed. If you are using the Small Business Edition of Office 97 or Office 2000 SBE, Professional, or Premium, you have such a program: Microsoft Publisher.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Typography>Microsoft Publisher
#29343
Use Handwriting Recognition to Sign Letters in Word
Microsoft Word 2002's Handwriting Recognition feature allows you to use a pen and electronic tablet or a mouse to add a signature to your documents. Find out how you can start adding this feature to all your letters.
Richardson, Mary Ann. TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#27224
Useful WordBasic Commands That Have no VBA Equivalent
When Microsoft released Word 97, a new programming language VBA replaced the WordBasic language that had been available in earlier versions of Word. For most things, VBA is a much more powerful and flexible programming language than WordBasic, but there are a few very useful WordBasic commands which have no direct equivalents in VBA. Fortunately, VBA includes the WordBasic object, which gives access to most of the old WordBasic commands.
West, Jonathan. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word
#31819
Using Computers to Improve Your Writing
One complaint I often here when teaching my courses is that I use computers too much. "What do computers have to do with writing?" students ask. "All I need is a pencil and some paper!" Well, that may have been the case a few decades ago, but now writers are expected to type their documents using a professional word processing program (Microsoft's Word, Corel's Word Perfect, Sun's Open Office Writer, or perhaps Abiword.) Though these programs each have their differences, they perform the same tasks.
Barton, Matt. MattBarton.net (2008). Articles>Writing>Word Processing
#27198
The macrobutton field can be used as a text marker within a template, or, as the name implies, it can be used to run a macro.
Mayor, Graham, Jonathan West and Hak-lok Ng. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#21683
Using Watermarks to Personalize Your Documents
Have you ever wanted the word 'DRAFT' to appear as a light background on the pages of your printed documents? Microsoft refers to this use of words and images as 'watermarks.'
#24273
Using Word Macros as a Single Source Solution
This paper, and my presentation, focus on the how I developed the idea of using Microsoft Word macros as a single source solution. They also discuss the benefits of these macros and their effectiveness.
McHugh, Brian C. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Word Processing>Single Sourcing>Microsoft Word
#19384
Mohr explains how to create User Forms--macro-controlled user interfaces that employ standard graphical user interface components--for collecting information from users that can be saved as character-delimited text files and fed into a database.
Mohr, Robert P. Intercom (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Forms
#28849
David McNamee presented on Vista and Office 2007 to the Suncoast chapter in May 2007. This is a recording of his presentation. He talks about how the purpose of Vista and Office is to help you create, find, and share information more efficiently.
McNamee, David. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Presentations>Software>Word Processing>Podcasts
#27187
Occasionally a new user of Word is alarmed to discover that his previously pristine document is full of strange symbols – dots, arrows, paragraphs marks, and the like. For experienced users, the usual reaction of such a user seems almost comical because experienced users know how invaluable the display of nonprinting characters can be both in formatting and in troubleshooting documents.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26123
Word performs many behind-the-scenes actions that some people hate and some people love. You already learned about AutoRecover, which saves files in the background every few minutes. Word offers three other big automated features: AutoCorrect, Smart Cut and Paste, and background spelling and grammar check.
Glenn, Walter. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
