Welcome to Software Tips

Bring up the Cell Height and Width dialog box in MS Word

Repeatedly selecting Cell Height and Width from the Table menu in MS Word can waste time, particularly when first creating the structure of your table.

To bring the dialog box up instantly, double click on the Column Marker (the grey square with white dots on it on the ruler) and the box will appear.

Navigating using a table of contents in MS Word

If you use Word´s Table of Contents feature, then try clicking on the page numbers in the TOC. You will automatically be taken to the page that you clicked on.

Apply a style to selected text in MS Word

To apply a style to your selected text in MS Word, select the text, bring up the style list (by clicking the drop down arrow by the side of the Style Box) and select the required style. If you wish to apply all of the paragraph formatting within the style, you must ensure that the entire paragraph (including the paragraph marker) is selected.

Sort outside of tables in MS Word

Most people are aware that you can sort information in a Word table (if you weren´t, then I guess you are now), but you can also sort any other text within your document.

Select the text that you´d like to sort (either paragraphs, lists or bulleted/numbered lists) and select Sort from the Table menu. Select Paragraphs from the Sort By menu and then choose either Text, Number or Date from the Type menu. Select either ascending or descending and press OK.

3. Selection is the key in MS Word

Once you´ve entered some text in MS Word, everything you need to do with that text requires that you select it.

While anyone can select text by clicking and dragging, there are far better ways of selecting different amounts of text.

The section of this site which deals with selecting text can be found here.

Modify a style in MS Word

To modify a style in MS Word, follow these steps:

1) Select a paragraph which has been formatted with the style you wish to modify
2) Make the required formatting changes to the paragraph using any method you choose
3) With the paragraph still selected, reselect the style from the Style List. A dialog box will appear which will give you two options - either reapply the original style, or Update the style to reflect the changes you have made.
4) Select Update the style to reflect recent changes and click OK.

The style will now be updated to include your changes and anywhere within your document where the style has been used will now reflect those changes.

Pick up where you left off in MS Word

Each time you open a Word document, by default the cursor will appear at the start of the document. If you´re working on a large document, this can be time consuming as well as inconvenient.

Word provides a Go Back To command which will automatically take you back to the last place in a document where you made a modification.

To activate this, hold down the Shift key and press F5.

Select a word with the keyboard in MS Word

To select a word with the keyboard in MS Word, place the cursor at the start of the word, hold down Ctrl and Shift and press the Right arrow.

Increase font sizes with the keyboard in MS Word

How do you increase the size of your text with the keyboard in MS Word?

Select the text, hold down the control key and press the [ key (square brackets, next to the P). Each press increases the font size by one point. The ] key decreases by one point.

Select all text in a document in MS Word

To instantly select all the text in a Word document, hold down the control key and press A.

This can also be achieved by selecting Select All from the Edit menu.

Restore the normal template in MS Word

If you´ve modified the normal template in MS Word and would like to revert to the original template, then just delete or rename the current normal.dot and restart Word.

When Word doesn´t find the normal template in your templates folder, it will create a new one itself which contains the default settings.

AutoFormat works in MS Word

Word has an AutoFormat tool which is generally overlooked, yet it is surprisingly useful.

The tool is found under the Format, AutoFormat and allows you to either review each change as Word makes it or to let it make all the changes in one go.

Give it a go - you may be surprised how effective it is. Even if you need to make a few modifications yourself, it should save you some time.

Insert a page break quickly in MS Word

To insert a page break while you type in MS Word, hold down the control key and press enter.

What does Word´s AutoCorrect feature do?

Word´s AutoCorrect function corrects common spelling and grammatical errors in the background while you type. Its extremely effective and you may not even be aware that you´re using it (but in most cases you will be by default). Select AutoCorrect from the Tools menu to see the default options.

Improve the clarity of your text in MS Word

Some of the automatic formatting tools within Word can actually make your documents harder to read, but there´s generally a way around it. If you have a date or a name near the end of a line, for example Mr M Gurner or 15th July 1968 then your document will read better if Word keeps it all together on the same line.

This can be achieved using a Non-Breaking Space and these can be entered by holding down Ctrl and Shift when you press the spacebar.

Activate the Go To menu in MS Word

There are a number of different ways to activate the Go To dialog box in Word. Try any of these:

1) Select Go To from the Edit menu
2) Press the F5 key
3) Hold down the Ctrl key and press G

Add AutoCorrect entries via the spellchecker in MS Word

If you find yourself always using the spell checker to correct the same words, then Word can probably help you speed things up a bit.

One of the options in the spellchecker is AutoCorrect. Click this and then choose the correct spelling - Word automatically includes this in it´s AutoCorrect list and will correct this mistake itself the next time you make it.

Move to the beginning of your Word document

To move to the beginning of your document, hold down the Ctrl key and press the Home key.