Millions of people worldwide use Microsoft Word, primarily to create and edit documents. There are other cloud-based and open-source word-processing programs, but Word continues to hold its place as the most popular program, enjoying a 74% market share.
The software package for Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint Presentation, OneNote Notepad, Publisher, Access, Skype, Calendar, and other programs can be purchased online, computer stores, or in tech departments of significant retailers using credit or debit cards or bitcoin cyber currency.
Even though most people use Word productivity software, most users don’t know about some of the advanced features that Word offers to make their lives easier and speed up their work efforts.
Some of Word’s best-advanced features include:
Outline View
Any writers course will tell you that you need to create an outline of your main ideas before you start the actual process of writing to get your first draft completed quickly. The Outline View feature helps you create a comprehensive outline which is especially useful for large documents. Using Outline View, you can reorder text blocks, create headings, promote or demote selected text, and display or hide selected text.
To enable the Outline View:
- Go to the View tab on the ribbon and click “outline.”
- Choose the type of action that you want to do – options include jumping to a specific heading level, planning out the main sections and then switching to other layouts to write the body of the document, reorganizing the document by moving large blocks of text, and formatting headings with first, second and third levels of headings.
Translating Documents
Microsoft translation supports over 100 languages, so you can easily translate your document into almost any language. To use the Translate tool, your device must be connected to the Internet.
Click on the Review tab and then choose the language into which you want to translate your document. Highlight the text you want to translate or click on “translate document” to translate the entire document.
Under “from” and “to,” enter the language from which you are translating and to which you want to translate and then click “OK.” The document will then be sent to Microsoft Translator through the Internet to complete the translation.
Auto Format
Using the AutoFormat function, Microsoft Word allows users to format their documents as they are typing automatically. The auto-formatting function automatically applies associated styles to your text.
You can always add formatting styles to your text while you’re typing but if you want to save time and eliminate the distraction of reformatting while you’re typing, go to File, then “Proofing,” and select the formatting options according to your preference.
Compare Documents
Most Microsoft Word users know about the track change features under the Review tab that allows you to see the document’s changes throughout its creation. There’s also a feature that enables you to compare between different documents so that you can compare different document versions and then, if you want, combine all the revisions from the other versions.
This feature is especially useful if you have a document reviewed and edited by multiple collaborators. Once you’ve decided which revisions should be included in the final draft, click on the Review tab and choose “compare.”
You’ll be asked to either “Compare” or “Combine.” Choose “Compare;” select the document versions you want to compare and then click “OK” to display all the changes. When you are satisfied that you’ve saved the changes you wish, click “Combine” to combine the various variations.
Brainstorming
Word offers a mind-mapping tool that allows you to insert text and graphics to illustrate free-form brainstorming sessions. A brainstorming map enables you to visualize associations between ideas, words, concepts, and images, generate ideas, classify ideas, organize information, find associations, visualize the structure, and aid study.
There are two main types of brainstorming maps, bubble maps and concept maps. You can build events maps and story maps within these main mind mapping categories.
To make a mindmap in word, open your document, go to the Insert tab, and click on “SmartArt.” In the dropdown menu under “Hierarchy,” choose “Horizontal multi-level hierarchy” or, in “Relationship,” another suitable graphic. Open the “Text” pane by clicking on the arrow icon or double click on “Text” in the graphic to add your information to the text boxes.
Convert Tables to Graphs
Word users may find themselves working on their data in tabular form and then realizing that the information could be better presented as a chart. If there’s no overwhelming amount of data, you can convert tabular data into a chart using Word by clicking on the Insert tab and then on “Text” and then “Object.” Choose “Microsoft Graph Cart” and click “OK.”
There’s a further option that allows you to format the graph with a different chart type by double-clicking on the chart, right-click inside the white space that’s inside the graphic’s bounding box and then clicking on “chart type” to pick a different type of chart to display your information.
Table of Contents
If your document is long and you want to provide your readers with some organization to help them move through the document easily, use Word’s Table of Contents tool. This visual guide directs links to different headings, directions to associated page numbers, and more.
To make it easy to create a Table of Contents, click on the References tab on the top ribbon and then “Table of Contents.” Choose the style that you want. Select the heading text for each heading that you want in your table of contents.
To update the Table of Contents, which you might need to do if you make changes to your document, right-click on the Table of Contents and then “Update Field.” Headings must be formatted as headings to don’t miss any of the entries.
