This keyboard shortcut has saved me lots of time when working with long documents and large spreadsheets:
Instead of scrolling down to hunt for the end of the text or the last spreadsheet cell, just press the Ctrl and End keys to quickly get to the bottom of the document.
Don't have the luxury of having someone proofread what you write? Try Hemingway, a free tool that helps clarify your writing by analyzing the text for the number of ...
sentences that are hard to read
sentences that are very hard to read
adverbs (aim for 2 or fewer)
words or phrases than can be simpler
uses of passive voice (aim for 2 or fewer)
... and totals these up to assign a grade level and overall readability score.
If you want to add emphasis to an image in a Word document, you don't need a special piece of software or app to edit it — you can use a tool that's built right into Word.
Here's a Word document "sampler" showing different ways I modified one image to create different effects:
Watch this 30-second video to see how you can do it too:
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.
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:
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:
This keyboard shortcut has saved me lots of time when working with long documents and large spreadsheets:
You can create a dividing line across a page of your Word document with just a few keystrokes:
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.
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. 