The best tips to become proficient in Microsoft Word

 

The best tips to become proficient in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a well-known software in the world of word processing. It seems very simple to use but when you work with it deeply you will know about its scope. It is a productivity software that almost all of us use for creating assignments at school or work, writing essays, creating business reports, writing research projects, creating CVs and more.

Microsoft Word is not only used for writing. It can also be used very well in basic graphics design. You can use Word to create cover pages, business cards and even an entire magazine and e-book for digital publishing. Also, its ease of use makes it a very important piece of software for everyday tasks. 

Learning Microsoft Word well will increase your productivity at work. In our today's article we will discuss some tips and tricks about Microsoft Word. The features discussed in the post were taken using a PC with Microsoft Word 2021 and Windows 10. But don't worry if you are using MS Office or Word 2013 or later version then almost all the tips will be applicable for you. 

Using Microsoft Word's built-in clipboard history tool

Working with documents involves a lot of copy and paste actions. Microsoft Word supports Ctrl + X / Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V shortcuts. But Office Clip Board allows you to collect up to 24 items (text and images) at once. If you use this feature properly, you won't have to go back and forth between different programs and copy. Besides, by using the Office Clipboard, you can easily move and manage items between any MS Office application such as Excel, Power Point or Outlook.

To access the Office Clipboard panel, click the small arrow next to the Clipboard label under the Home tab. You can also quickly access it by pressing Ctrl + C twice on the keyboard. To enable this shortcut, you can adjust the settings from the Options button at the bottom left of the Clipboard panel. In this clipboard panel, your past 24 texts or images such as any browser links, email text, data from worksheets or presentation images will be recorded serially. 

If you want, you can double click an item from here or click the Paste All button to take all of them together in the document. When you're done with your project, you can delete everything by clicking the “Clear All” button. This will protect your privacy and give you a fresh start for the next assignment.

Create Word file and export to PDF

Importing or exporting MS Word files to PDF is one of the most important features of Microsoft Word. Converting PDF files and Word files to each other is very difficult and has many limitations, especially if there is a lot of formatting involved. Exporting your Word files to PDF format reduces the risk of file changes. Moreover, password protection is possible by doing this. Go to File Options and click on “Create PDF” button from Export section to export Word file to PDF. Even if you go the "save as" route, you'll have the option to save files in many different formats. 

When converting to PDF you will get different options to maintain the quality of your image. Selecting this option will keep the quality of all images in your file as it was. This is usually very useful for printing files. However, for digital printing on a larger scale, software such as MS Publisher, Affinity Publisher or Adobe InDesign should be used. 

In terms of Word file password protection, MS Word provides an option to save passwords in PDF files. If you select this option and save to PDF, your PDF file will require a password to open or make any changes later. 

Using outline view to identify large documents

When working with large documents, you can use outline view to list all content in bullet form. By using outline view you can view all the heading levels and sub text of your document in sequence, giving you a better idea of ​​the document. Outline view will also help you with quick navigation. To go to the outline view, press Outline from the View tab option on the ribbon or toolbar of the Word document. 

Taking the readability score

There are some additional things that can be done to increase the readability of your document. You can further improve your document with a readability score through its built-in proofing capabilities. For this first go to the file and select the proofing in the settings option. 

Now check the last two options of “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word”. You can also quickly get readability statistics of your document from the spell check option via the F7 shortcut key. Enabling this feature will first spell and grammar check your document. It will then be checked with a reading level test and given a readability score.

 

Microsoft considers 60 to 70K as standard on the Flex Reading Ease Test and 7.0 to 8.0K on the grade level test. But don't despair if you can't score this even after revising multiple times. Because your main goal is to make your document clean and simple.

File recovery

A sudden shutdown of the computer, a power outage or a wrong click can easily ruin hours of work in an instant. That's why Word is built with autosave options and document recovery features. The document recovery option leaves a temporary copy of your most recently unsaved document. 

To view these files, go to the Info section of the file and select Manage Documents. From there select “Recover Unsaved Documents” to get your required document. Sometimes you may not get the latest version, or if Word is corrupted, some things may need to be fixed. But a partially recovered file is better than starting from scratch. 

Reducing the file size of Word documents

Usually a word document of a few pages is not very large in size. But if there are additional images or other customizations in the Word document then the size of the document can become very large. As a result, it becomes difficult to share the document or open it online and even send it as an email attachment. 

There are many ways to reduce the size of your Word document. First you need to save the word file in .docs format. If you want, you can compress the image or fix the resolution of the image as much as you need. You can also avoid using embedded fonts. Apart from these, you can also reduce the size of the document by stopping to track the changes in your document

Make the document read-only with password protection turned on

If ever working with a personal or sensitive document, it must be password protected. Microsoft Word lets you easily password protect a document. You can also put a document in read-only mode to prevent it from being edited again.

To set password first go to file option and enter info section. Click on “Protect Document” there and a pop up message will appear. Select “Protect with Password” option from that pop up message and follow the next instructions. Once this is done, Word will encrypt the file and require a password when opening the document later. You can also turn off editing permissions to protect your document from corruption.

Adding or removing watermarks

Another way to protect your document is with a watermark. By using it, you take ownership of the document in your name. You can use any image or logo as watermark on your document. To do this click on Design Lab and select Watermark. You can select any text or image as watermark available here. Or you can use your own text or image based watermark by clicking Custom Watermark. 

Regardless of what you're using the watermark for, make sure you're using the wash out effect for image-based watermarks. Besides, in the case of text-based watermarks, semi-transparency should be maintained so that the main content of the document can be seen well. To remove a watermark, go to the Design tab on the ribbon and select Remove Watermark from the Watermark sub-menu.

Toolbar and Dark Mode

MS Word provides various features in the background along with various tools in the foreground to keep the user productive. The Quick Access toolbar contains the Save icon, Undo, and Redo buttons. Newer versions of Word have added an autosave toggle to continuously save documents to the cloud. The ribbon is basically a series of tabs. This includes ideas about various tools for editing and formatting. 

There is currently no service that does not have dark mode. Although Word A List is a new addition, users can now easily work at night using Word's dark mode. To set dark mode in Word, the office theme must first be set to black. For this you have to select the black theme from all the available themes in the account section in the file option. As a result, everything in MS Word, including the canvas, will run in dark mode.

Microsoft Word is a suitable software for common people to use. People of any profession can master it very easily. You can tell us how you like this article about Microsoft Word by commenting. Keep an eye on our website to get all kinds of new information and tips based on technology.