Writing a Word document, but unhappy because you can't think of exactly the right word to use?
Good news — in Microsoft Office you always have Word's Thesaurus tool to find exactly the right / correct / accurate / exact / precise synonym to make your writing sparkle.
Watch this one-minute video to see how easy it is to do in Word 2007 and Word 2010:
Positioning text in Word using spaces or tabs can be tricky to get words and figures to line up the way you want, and presenting data in paragraphs can make it hard to read.
Good news: it's easy to convert your text into a table to make it more readable, and arrange it in rows & columns instead of paragraphs.
It's easy to get lost in spreadsheets — if data fills lots of rows or columns, when you scroll down or across you lose sight of column or row headers, and then information loses its meaning.
Freeze Panes can help by letting you view column and row headings continuously, while you scroll your document. It lets you keep a row or column still, while the rest of the cells around it can scroll freely.
Computer crash? Power went out during a storm? And you were in the middle of editing a budget spreadsheet and didn't get a chance to save your work? Ugh.
Microsoft Office programs (which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint) are by default set to automatically save an open file every 10 minutes. So when you re-open the program, your file should still have all the changes you have made — except for the last 10 minutes of work. (Your file may retain more recent changes if you manually saved it yourself by pressing Control+S on the keyboard.)
10 minutes between autosaves not good enough for you? Me neither. Here's how to better protect your hard work:
Need to create mailing labels from an Excel spreadsheet or your Outlook Contacts? Go from raw data to a sheet of Avery labels that are ready to affix to your mailing:
If you've ever struggled to get Microsoft Word to position important text exactly where you want it, try creating a Text Box.
A text box is a special type of shape designed to place text in your Word 2007 document without regard to the normal page margins. A text box gives you the flexibility to add text wherever you want it.
Add a text box...
To position and align text exactly where you want it to be
In margins to highlight key points
Above or below images to create a caption
To create a "pull quote" (a floating text box that highlights a quote from the document) or a sidebar (a block of supplementary material)
A text box is easy to insert, and with Microsoft Word's built-in text box styles and templates they're a breeze to create & customize. Or if you want more control, you can creating your own text box from scratch.
To learn how to insert a text box and how to format it in various ways — including resizing & moving it, and changing the text box shape, color, and outline — use these instructions:
Any time you add an image — a photo, clip art, diagram, or chart — to a Word document, it can be a hassle getting it to stay where you want it, align correctly, or flow around the text.
When you're preparing a document to be printed but find that just a few lines spill over onto the last page, you can save paper by optimizing your document to fit on the fewest pages possible.
One way to do this is to reduce the font size of the text, but print that's too small can be too hard to read.
Instead, try adjusting the margins (either left & right or top & bottom) to reduce the white space surrounding the text.
Watch one of these short demos to see how easy it is to be thrifty:
It's easy to get lost in spreadsheets — if data fills lots of rows or columns, when you scroll down or across you lose sight of column or row headers, and then information loses its meaning.
Computer crash? Power went out during a storm? And you were in the middle of editing a budget spreadsheet and didn't get a chance to save your work? Ugh.
If you've ever struggled to get Microsoft Word to position important text exactly where you want it, try creating a Text Box.
Watch this short video tutorial to see how you can save time by letting Excel ...
Any time you add an image — a photo, clip art, diagram, or chart — to a Word document, it can be a hassle getting it to stay where you want it, align correctly, or flow around the text.
When you're preparing a document to be printed but find that just a few lines spill over onto the last page, you can save paper by optimizing your document to fit on the fewest pages possible. 