Microsoft Word Blog

Sometimes, when you are using MS Word, you are writing more than a page or two. For example, you could be writing an essay, paper, article or even a book. However, with multiple pages come a few problems that MS Word’s default setting does not accommodate. For example, if your paper has different sections, MS…

Sometimes, you may be writing a Word document that you need to present to your colleagues. Instead of rewriting the same content in PowerPoint, you can convert the document into PowerPoint to avoid double work. There are a few ways to do this, as we will see below. Method 1 Make changes to the format…

If you have text in a Word document that you need to duplicate on an Excel sheet, you do not have to copy it and then paste it until you have completed the entire document. MS Word has a feature that allows you to convert a full Word document into Excel. In a few simple…

Method 1: Paste Special Open Microsoft Excel. Select the cells that contain the information you want to add to your Word document. Use the keyboard shortcut ‘CTRL + C’ to copy the data in the cells to your keyboard. Open Microsoft Word. Under the ‘Clipboard’ section on your ‘Home’ tab, select the drop-down arrow below…

When adding pictures in MS Word, you cannot merge them automatically. Word forces images to have space between them to give them more order and alignment. However, there is a way you can merge multiple images in Word to make them look like one image or collage. Open Microsoft Word. On the ribbon, click ‘Insert.’…

In MS Word, there is a direct way to insert a line under a word or a sentence. However, there is no direct way to insert a line over text or a word. There are three simple ways you can manipulate Word and insert a line over text. Let us look at them below. Using…

Sometimes, it is more convenient to send a Word document as an image to easily access and open it on any device. However, it’s not just a one click trick. It is a process. There are different methods you can use to change Word documents into images as you will see below. Method 1: Using…

At times, you may want to show that multiple lines of text belong under a specific group without using a subheading. This can be achieved by using a right or left bracket that embraces all the lines. This article will show you how to achieve this. Open the Word document where you want to insert…

Hyperlinks are links in documents or text that you can click if you want to be taken directly to a webpage containing additional information. Hyperlinks enable you to summarise the content and add references if a reader wants to do additional reading. Hyperlinks are easy to identify in a document. Usually, they are underlined and…

While editing your Word document, you may realize that a specific portion of the text will make more sense in a different part of the document. Although you cannot drag and drop slides as quickly as you would in a PowerPoint presentation, there are still some hacks that can help you re-organize the pages in…

At times, you may want to display certain text opposite each other, in different sections. The best way to do this is by using tables. If you do not want to use tables, MS Word has a quick trick that will split the page into four parts without borders. Below is a step-by-step tutorial on…

In MS Word, there are only two ways to box your content: textboxes and frames. You might not have ever heard of frames. This is because they preceded textboxes.  Newer versions of Word now use text boxes. Although, one can activate and use frames. Both frames and text boxes have their attributes. However, the capabilities…

When working on the first draft of a document, you tend to type all your thoughts and ideas. However, as you edit this document, you might want to trim it to fit a word count or remove unnecessary content. You can delete content by selecting it and cutting it out or deleting it. However, if…

A document may contain multiple tables with similar content, but the tables are scattered all over the document. Perhaps this was the first draft, and now you find it more suitable to merge the tables. MS Word has a few hacks and methods that allow you to quickly combine these tables for a more organized…

MS Word lets you combine multiple documents to create a single file. This comes in handy if you are collaborating on an article or paper with colleagues. Open a blank document in MS Word. You can do this by selecting ‘File’ on the ribbon. Select ‘New’ on the backstage view or ‘Blank Document.’ Click ‘Insert’…

Page orientation in Word refers to the specification for displaying or printing the document. It indicates the layout of the pages in a document.  Ordinarily, the entire article or paper is published in Portrait format, although it would be best to use the Landscape format on a page with a sizable table or graph. For…

There are times when you want to align text both to the left and right of your document. Usually, to do this, you might have to use tables for this kind of alignment to look neat. However, there is a simple way to do this without going through the trouble of adding and then removing…

MS Word has a feature that lets you add a background to a whole document simultaneously. You can do this by going to the ‘Design’ tab on the ribbon, choosing ‘Page Color’ under the ‘Page Background’ section and choosing a color. However, you might want to add a background to only one page. This article…

If you are collaborating on a document and want it in a specific style or format, Word has a feature that lets you set your format and restrict changes in case it is going to be viewed and edited by another user. Select ‘Review’ on the Ribbon. In the upper-right corner, select ‘Restrict Editing’ in…

When it comes to MS Word, to know where changes have been made in a document, you have to turn on ‘Track Changes.’ However, there are other ways to highlight changes in case you forgot to turn on this feature. Method 1: Use a free comparison tool (Draftable) Draftable is a free online comparison tool…

In MS Word, most people manage version control by clicking ‘File’ then ‘Save As’ to save a new version manually. When applying this method, using a structured naming convention will be critical, such as your file name, the version number, and the changes made. However, things quickly get confusing, and you may end up forgetting…

Users can choose to make their documents ‘Read Only’ or ‘Read and Write’ in Microsoft Word. The term ‘Read Only’ refers to the fact that you can only read the document and not make any modifications. Even if editing is turned on, you may limit editing permissions to specific areas of your documents, such as…

Method 1: Using a Version Control System The Suggesting Mode is a Google Docs version of Track changes: a feature that you would find in MS Word. To use it, follow these simple steps. Open a document in Google Docs. In the top right corner is a button marked ‘Editing’ with a pencil next to…

Let us say, for some reason, you have accidentally saved over a Word document, and you want to recover this version of a document. There are different ways to revert to this older version. Method 1: Windows Version History Go to the folder where your document is saved. When you find the document, right-click it….

Microsoft Word gives users the option of making their documents ‘Read Only’ or ‘Read and Write.’ ‘Read Only’ means you can only read the document without the option of adding changes. However, even with the editing enabled, you can restrict edits to only certain sections of your documents, such as filling in forms, adding comments….

Word allows you to personalize a fillable form using the ‘Developer’ feature. This allows you to have drop-down menus, check boxes and even date pickers. This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a fillable form. Go to the ‘File’ tab on the Ribbon. On it, select ‘Options.’ A Word Options dialog box will…

Sometimes when you are filling forms online or doing quizzes and polls, you will be required to select your choice from a drop-down menu. Microsoft Word has tools that will help you to make your own poll, or form using drop-down menus. Below is a step-by-step process of how you can achieve this. Go to…

I’m sure you have been asked to fill an online form, and you have to enter your birth details or details on your bank card and passport (when it expires). You can do this in Microsoft Word using the following easy steps. Go to the ‘File’ tab on the Ribbon. On it, select ‘Options’ at…

A Table of Authorities is a section of a legal brief that includes an index of cases, statutes, and secondary sources cited. It is typically required for lawsuit briefs. Below is a simple step-by-step process of creating this table in Word. 1.    Click on references at the top of your screen.  Here, click on mark…

Word has an assortment of fonts available to make your documents unique and appealing. However, you might have a font in mind that is not available in the predefined fonts. Fortunately, many different sites have or sell or give away the fonts for use not available in Word. This is a step-by-step guide on downloading…

This is a quick method for recording a macro to assign to a keyboard shortcut that will allow you to do a double indented paragraph. You probably already know that getting to the double indent setting for paragraph setting is a little bit more difficult for Word than in WordPerfect, so that is why we…

We have all had the frustrating experience where the text breaks at the end of a line on a page, making it confusing or aesthetically unpleasant. In most cases, you will add or remove extra words or a word so that the sentence flows. However, will you do this for every single sentence that breaks?…

Did you know that you can use customizations that you make in one document as the basis for future documents by saving the file as a template? This works well in the instance that you created customized styles or have many texts that you send to many people repeatedly with just a few variations and…

Word count refers to the total number of words in a document. Counting your words might seem very obvious because as you type, you can see your count increase with each character on the status bar. However, sometimes your word count might come with specific details, such as ‘Endnotes and footnotes are not included in…

Tabs are a text-alignment function in paragraph formatting. Tabs produce equally spaced text in your document. They also guarantee that your content is correctly aligned, versus if you just typed a couple of spaces to split it. Below is a step-by-step guide to set tabs in Microsoft Word. Make sure your ruler is shown on…

Are you writing an important formal document such as a proposal, press release and cannot afford to make any spelling errors because you will come off unprofessional? The spell check feature in Microsoft Word can help you perfect your document. In Microsoft Word, a spelling error is highlighted by a wavy red line right under…

When you are typing text in Word, you want to be very organised and uniform, especially when it comes to the way you present figures. This is much harder to do with decimal points, even when you are using a table with rows and columns. This is where decimal tabs come in. Setting a decimal…

Sometimes, when you have finished editing a document, you want to compare the final copy to the original or rough draft. You may do this to see how significant the changes are and where exactly you have made changes. This is especially common in the legal profession with what is referred to as a legal…

When you and a colleague collaborate on a document or a superior has to review a document before it can be confirmed as a final copy, you might need to make a few modifications to the draft. Word lets you merge two copies of the same document into a third copy that contains all the…

In Word, text is automatically left aligned. However, you can set your document to align text to the right using tabs. Below is a step-by-step guide to set right tabs in Microsoft Word. Make sure your ruler is shown on your screen. If you do not see your ruler going across the top of your…

Strikethrough is a feature in Word that is used to show that text has been deleted. It is a single horizontal line drawn across a sentence or word. Strikethrough can be used when editing work as a team to show that a particular section should be edited out from the text. The standard way to…

The anchor is a symbol that sometimes appears when you insert an image, or a SmartArt, or a drawing into a Word document. By default, the anchor will only appear when you insert a picture, clipart, or SmartArt and then ‘Wrap text.’ In Word say 2013, you have the option of wrapping text in a…

Track changes are a built-in feature that allow you to see changes that were made by another person who opened the document. When you are collaborating on a word document, you have the option to suggest changes that your colleagues can review and then choose to reject or accept. When are track changes useful When…

When we want to list items or points in a text, we use bullets. Bullet points allow us to summarise ideas and facts into short, neatly arranged sentences. The usual way to add bullet points is to highlight the paragraph in which we want to add bullet points and then choose our preferred style of…

Do you want to AutoSave your files, so you do not lose them if anything happened as you were typing? For example, your laptop could crash because it is on its last leg, too many tabs running or open on your computer, or you forgot to put it on charge. You can do this in…

There are several ways of opening Word documents without having them installed on your device. We are going to look at a few. 1.    Word Mobile You can install Word Mobile from the store on Windows 10. However, you can only view but not edit the Word documents that you open here. 2.    OneDrive OneDrive…

In some cases, you might want to type words or sentences on an image. However, you cannot do this without first inserting a text box. The text box can end up ruining the aesthetic of the picture. It is best to blur out the outline of the box. This can be done quickly in Microsoft…

Font kerning is the process of modifying the spacing between individual characters. Font kerning is usually done to achieve an aesthetically pleasing look to the text.  Kerning is also necessary because sometimes letters take up varying amounts of space, and the letter shape can clash with the ones on either side. The shape of a…

You can align text in Microsoft Word either to the left, right, or center. If you want to have a neatly organized table, it is advisable to pay attention to the alignment of the text that you type into the cells. There are several ways to center the text in the rows and columns, as…

By default, Word automatically left justifies words and tables. However, you might want to change this layout out of preference, or it was dictated for an assignment. You can right align it or even center align it. You can quickly change this, as you will see below. Insert the table To do this, go to…