There are many MS Word Features and some are more commonly used than others. In this article, we take a look at some that are not so common that can save you valuable time.
Selecting Non-Adjacent Text
There are times when you want to select several sections of text in a document to make bulk changes and doing each section separately can be very time consuming. Did you know you can select several sections and change them all at once? Simply highlight the first section, then hold down the Ctrl key and highlight the rest of the text that requires changing using your mouse. When you have done this, release the Ctrl key and make the necessary changes and this will update all of the highlighted text.
Quickly Insert A Hyperlink
When you want to set up a link to a section of text in your document, copy the URL where the link is to go to, then highlight the relevant text in your document. Select link from the pop-up box and paste your URL in the address bar at the bottom.
Set Your Own AutoCorrect Rules
Do you find yourself make the same spelling mistakes regularly like hitting the ‘V’ instead of ‘C’ on many words? This doesn’t have to be an issue any more.
You can set your own autocorrect rules and add the words you commonly type wrong. To do this, click on File’ from the top menu, then Options on the left. A box will appear and select the Proofing tab on the left. Then click on the Autocorrect Options. Then simply add the word you often misspell and what it should say (as shown below), then click Add. Do this with all your common spelling mistakes to save valuable editing time later.
Change The Background Colour While Reading
When reading long documents, its easy to get eye strain and find yourself reading the same paragraph over and over again. One simple way to overcome this is to change the background colour of the document to Sepia. This reduces the eye strain and helps you to digest the information, so you don’t have to repeatedly read the same section.
To do this, switch the document to Read Mode by selecting View at the top of the page and then select Read Mode. Once in Read Mode, select View > Page Colour > Sepia.
Delete/Move An Entire Sentence At Once
If you need to delete an entire sentence, you don’t need to hold the left button on your mouse and drag over the whole text. You can simply hold Ctrl key and click on one word within the sentence and it will highlight it all. Then release the Ctrl key and click on the Backspace as normal to delete it all at once. The same applies if you want to move the sentence to another part of the document. Again, hold the Ctrl key, click on one word, the whole sentence will be highlighted. Release the Ctrl key and right click on the mouse and select Cut. Move the cursor to where you want to place the sentence, right click on the mouse and select Paste.
Create A Table Of Contents
If you require your document to list a table of contents you can let word do the hard work for you. This requires a bit of work but will make your document look more professional and avoid human error in formatting and numbering.
Ensure that all section headlines are set up with the Headline Styles that appear at the top of the document (see example below). Headline 1 will be used for the main section listing and Headline 2 should be used for any subsections within that section.
This will then create a Table of Contents on the blank page with the correct formatting and page numbers.
If there is any additional text that you do not wish to display, simply delete them in the usual way.
Your Table of Contents will look something like this:-
If you make any amendments to your document, be sure to click on the table of contents and select Update Table and you will be given the option of updating the page numbers only or the whole document, depending on whether you have changed any of the section headings.
So there you have 6 useful tips that can save you valuable time when creating a document within MS Word. Have you used any of these before? We would love to know in the comments below.
Do you need to create documents for your business, but just don’t have the time? Then we are here to help. Call Lyn on 01329 481202 or click on the Request Call Back button below and we would be happy to chat about how we can relieve the burden of your business admin.
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