An easier way to find Word 2010 commands – a free service from Office-Watch.com
We’ve become really frustrated with finding a feature in Word, especially in the command list. So we’ve done something about it with the new online Command Finder for Word 2010 and now Command Finder for Word 2007
Finding a Word command can be hard since the naming is inconsistent. Some commands are labeled with the noun or main subject first, others have the verb first. For example there’s ‘Character Border’ but other character related commands are lower down under ‘Combine Characters’ or ‘Enclose Characters’.
The Command Finder is a laboriously constructed list from the ‘All Commands’ dialog in Word 2010:
This is a list of all 1,752 commands and features in Word 2010. We’ve expanded that list and made it searchable and sortable.
Here’s the start of the Word 2010 Command Finder:
Type in a word, for example ‘mail’ and a few moments later you’ll see all the mail related commands:
Some features:
Search Just type a few letters and the list will be reduced to show matching commands. Try typing ‘font’ , ‘mail’ or ‘picture’ to try it out.
Location If the command is grouped on the ribbon then the location column will show where it should be. ‘Commands Not in the ribbon’ is self-explanatory.
VBA command equivalents. Where applicable we’ve included the VBA command name. This isn’t just useful for programmers. Many of the plain command names don’t make sense on their own (for example ‘ 3:5 ‘ or ‘Add’ ). The VBA name provides a longer name and context for searching and explanation ( “PictureCropAspectRatio3To5” and “DataFormAddRecord” respectively)
Order We’ve included a number order for the list, this gives you some idea of where a command is in the list. For example command 803 (Lock Document) is about half-way down.
Sorting Click on the table headings to sort the list, click twice to reverse the order. We’re not sure how useful this will be, but added it in anyway.
Start Again Click on the ‘Clear Search’ button to restore the full list and search again. Or just type new letters into the search box. Just type a few letters and the list will be reduced to show matching commands. Try typing ‘font’ , ‘mail’ or ‘picture’ to try it out.
The location and VBA information is in the Word 2010 dialog but somewhat hidden in the tooltips when you hover over each command. Our list makes all those details a lot easier to read.
Development Comments
This is a new feature for Office-Watch.com readers and we’d be interested to hear your thoughts on changes, improvements and (gasp) any problems.
Go to our Feedback page, select Article Feedback – Office Watch and let us know what you think. Please include details; remember, we can’t see what you’re seeing.
Your feedback and interest will help us develop improvements to the current system and decide on an expansion to other programs.
The search page runs ‘client side’ which means we load all the information and the search code into your browser at the start in order to optimize multiple searches. The search speed very much depends on your browser and computer – not our server. In our tests, IE and Chrome worked well while some Firefox installations had trouble. Please keep that in mind as well, as the large number of rows to be processed.
Where it’s due: All the coding magic is courtesy of programmer extraordinaire Claude Almer. Rajeshwari Rai had the unenviable task of typing up the command list including tooltips.
