Here are more tips and tricks to help you boost your Word productivity:
Be Selective with How You Select
You already know that double-clicking selects a single word, and you probably figured out that triple-clicking selects an entire paragraph. But if you just want to select a single sentence, hold down Ctrl and click on any word. To select an entire table, hold down Alt and double-click.
Add a Comment Box
When a friend or family member sends you a document to proofread, don’t waste your time writing a lengthy email detailing all the horrendous mistakes you found; mark up their Word file instead. Highlight a portion of text, click the Review tab in the Ribbon bar, and select New Comment.
Insert Bullets and Number Lists Using Your Keyboard
When inspiration hits, lifting your fingers off the keyboard to use your mouse can mess up your mojo, but what do you do if you need to insert a bullet or numbered list? It’s simple: type an asterisk and hit the spacebar to auto-create a bullet list. You can do the same with numbers and dashes.
Use the Built-In Thesaurus
You don’t need to hop online to use a thesaurus, the folks in Redmond had the good sense to bundle one in Word. To use it, highlight an entry and press Shift+F7. Pretty simple, right? Or maybe we should say it’s trouble-free, straightforward, effortless, uncomplicated, or painless.
Backup/Transfer Your Settings
Nearly every customization you make to Word gets saved in the Normal.dot template, a hidden file that you should keep backed up. You’ll find it by navigating to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. Be sure to enable viewing of hidden files, folders, and drives.
Insert Screenshots into Word
One of our favorite new features in Word 2010 is the ability to glue screen grabs right into the document we’re working on. Just use the Print Screen key as normal to grab an image, and then go to Insert > Illustrations > Screenshot.
Hop Back and Forth with Bookmarks
To add a bookmark in Word, position your cursor and go to Insert > Links > Bookmark. Give your bookmark a name and click Add. To jump back to that point, just go back to the Bookmark menu, highlight your entry, and click Go To.
Select Text Vertically
Did you mess up your numbered list? Maybe some funky symbols got placed at the beginning of each sentence when you copied over an email. Whatever your reason for wanting to select text vertically, you can do so by holding down the Alt key and using your mouse cursor.
Password Protect Work Documents
One of these days, you’re going to get upset with someone digging around your personal documents. Or better yet, just lock your docs. To password protect a Word document, click on File > Info > Protect Document > Encrypt with Password.