Word Tip of the Week: Create a Custom Toolbar
If you’re like most of us, you tend to use the same Word features all the time. And those features might not just be in the Home tab. If you find yourself switching tabs over and over, save yourself some clicks – and time – by customizing the ribbon. To customize the ribbon in Word: 1. Right-click on any tab. A menu will appear. 2. Choose Customize the Ribbon�...
April 17, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Compare Documents to See Revisions
When several people are working on a document, it’s almost inevitable that someone will eventually forget to use Track Changes. Luckily, Word includes another way to see the revisions between two versions of a document. Don’t comb through a document looking for changes! Instead, use the Compare feature: 1. Make sure both versions of the document are open in Word. 2...
April 10, 2018 READ MORE
Rounding Up With The Writers For Hire
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at The Writers For Hire? The details of our weekly meetings are usually top secret, reserved only for those with the highest level of security clearance. Sometimes, though, things are just too good not to share. So, here it is… some of the amazingly interesting things that we have discussed (and learned from each other) durin...
April 10, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Using Tables to Insert Images
Have you ever tried inserting a bunch of images into a document by just clicking on Pictures in the Insert tab? If so, you might have spent the next 30 minutes trying to drag them into place, then another 30 trying to fix your text formatting. Once everything looked like it was wrangled into place, you added a little more text….and BAM! Word went wild yet again. Fixin...
April 2, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Removing Mysterious, Unwanted Formatting
Recently, we had a long document that had several dotted lines running across the page. We had no idea how they got there. Several writers tried to remove them, but it wasn’t until months later that one of them succeeded. It turns out that fixing this issue is pretty simple. Just follow these steps below: 1. Copy the area surrounding the line, inclu...
March 19, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Use ‘Read Aloud’ for Proofreading
If you’re an audio learner, you’ve probably wished that you could listen to a Word document instead of reading it. Good news: there’s a Word feature that allows you to do just that. Activating the Read Aloud feature is also a great proofreading tool to use after Spell Check. To activate Read Aloud: Select the text that you want Word to read. Go to Review ->...
March 12, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Using the Readability Feature
Writing something for the general public? Then you’ll want to aim for about a 5th grade reading level. If you’re writing for an academic journal, on the other hand, you’ll probably want to aim for college level. How do you know if you’re close? There’s a handy feature tucked inside Word that will let you know if you’re in the right ballpark for your audienc...
March 5, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Format Painter
If you’ve ever copied content from one document and pasted it into another, you’ve probably had to go back to fix the formatting so that it matches. There are a couple ways to get everything uniform, but none of them are as good as Format Painter. This single button makes tedious formatting a breeze. To use Format Painter: 1. Highlight some text containing the form...
February 27, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Use Your CTRL Button
This week’s tip isn’t specific to Microsoft Word – but it sure makes typing in Word a lot faster. Learning a few control button commands will keep your fingers on the keyboard instead of drifting over your computer’s touchpad. Here are a few of our most-used CTRL button functions: • CTRL A to highlight all • CTRL C to copy to the clipboard anything yo...
February 20, 2018 READ MORE
Word Tip of the Week: Add Another Language to Spell Check
Are you tired of Word giving you a long errors list because you use languages other than English in your writing? If you’re a science writer who uses a lot of Latin words, or anyone else who uses dual languages in your writing, then you can speed up the spell-checking process with the Languages feature. This feature allows you to add languages to your spell checker so ...
February 12, 2018 READ MORE
