Microsoft Word

Coming to Word 365 for Windows are more Ink Editor gestures plus a pop-out pane to explain the gestures available. Ink Editor is on the Draw menu. It’s a way to use a digital pen to edit existing text. For example, draw a squiggly line through some words to delete them. It’s a nifty idea […]

A New York Times article about parents writing their kids college entrance essay reminded us of a forgotten feature in Microsoft Word. A feature of modern ‘helicopter parenting‘ is helping, if not entirely writing, essays for their children. The article How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay by JM Farkas, a college essay […]

What causes blank spaces in the Word navigation pane and how to fix them. The Navigation Pane in Word shows the Headings in a document but sometimes has the unexpected. Blank lines or text not in a heading. But sometimes blank spaces appear, like between London and Paris above.  Why is that happening? The Navigation […]

Here’s how to save a Word document with the private and hidden details automatically removed. Normally, you’re expected to manually go to File | Info | Inspect document to check/remove things like comments, hidden text, header, footers or watermarks. What if you want it to happen automatically, whenever you save a file or just make […]

Each Word document has various hidden data fields and some are called mapped content controls.  They let you set some text or date in a document which is automatically repeated any other place in the document that has the same control. Mapped Content Controls are an alternative to other ‘repeating text’ options like Bookmarks.  The […]

Aside from inserting the current date or time, Microsoft Word has some other useful choices for inserting dates automatically. The date/time the document was created, last saved or last printed. Header / Footer In a Word document header or footer, the same Insert Date options and shortcuts apply as in the main document. There’s an […]

Here’s all the different ways you can quickly insert the current date or time into a Microsoft Word document. There’s the ‘official’ shortcut and the ‘secret’ shortcut with better options than the usual tip. As usual with Word and Office, there’s the simple but incomplete answer that’s commonly given but more useful info when Office-Watch.com […]

Word isn’t limited to horizontal text, with a little digging on the ribbon you can put text vertically, at an angle, on a curve or even around a shape or picture. In this article we’ll show how to make: Vertical Text Vertical Text reversed Text at any angle Text along a curve And in Put text […]

Continuing from our look at putting Word text vertically, at an angle or curved here’s how to put text around an object; image, chart, shape or other Word object.. Text around a Box Putting text around a box requires four separate text boxes, positioned and grouped around the object. Here’s a chart with four text […]

You can quickly apply some Word styles from the Quick Access Toolbar we’ll show how to add the classic Style menu, buttons for Headings and Normal style.  And we’ll explain a better alternative. The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) can have a more useful Style menu than the one Microsoft puts on the ribbon.  It’s the […]

Here’s how to add a  keyboard shortcut for any Microsoft Word style including Headings and Normal style. A shortcut is faster than clicking on the ribbon anytime you want to apply a style. For commonly used styles it’s easier and faster to use a keyboard shortcut.  Microsoft even supplies a few with Word, but not […]

There are better ways to move about a document than scrolling up and down. Word has some nifty navigation tricks that’ll have you moving around a document like a city bicycle courier! We’ll skip the more obvious ones that are covered in most texts and explain the navigation tips less traveled. Go Back Go To […]