9 tips to help you work faster in Word

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Even if you have been working in MS Word for a long time and consider yourself an expert, you can always become even more productive.

You may already be familiar with some of the techniques. But it often turns out that even true professionals go a long way and do not know many useful tricks.

1. Autotext

You can use this feature to quickly enter frequently used words and phrases, saving you a lot of time. You can share this advice with colleagues and make life easier for them too.

You just need to write the text (or make graphics) that you often use in documents, and format it if required. Then select the text and press Alt + F3. Give a short name (for example, an abbreviation) and save. In the future, instead of the whole phrase, type the name that you have chosen and press F3. The saved text or image will automatically appear in the document.

2. AutoCorrect

Autotext will reduce the time spent writing repetitive text, but will not solve the problem of typos and errors. AutoCorrect fixes some common bugs. Word does this by itself as you type. And even better, if you yourself add those words in which there are often typos.

For example, you know that you are always missing the "t" in the word "agency". Open preferences (File → Options → Spelling → AutoCorrect Options in versions 2010, 2013, 2016) and fill in what you want to replace. The next time you write "agency" without "t" Word will correct the error itself. In the same place, you can add or remove the replacement of quotation marks-feet with quotation marks-Christmas trees, a hyphen with an em dash, and so on.

3. Paste options

When pasting text from the Internet or other files, you have to format it to match the style of your document. Of course, you can choose the "text only" option every time, but you will probably forget about this often. In such a case, you can make unformatted pasting the default option.

Go to "File" → "Options" → "Advanced" → "Copy, cut and paste" and select the option "Save text only" in the item "Paste from other programs". Now, in any documents you work on, copying content from files or web pages will format it to match your text.

4. Deleting a style

Another way to remove text formatting is with style management. Select the content you want and press Ctrl + Space, or choose Normal on the Home tab in the Styles group.

5. Collaboration in real time

Office Online was introduced in Office 365 2013. The 2016 version offers even more features such as real-time collaboration. Probably most users are familiar with this principle from Google Docs.

Save the document to OneDrive or SharePoint Online. Click Share and choose who you want to work with on this file. Send an invitation to co-author so the selected people can join you. Everyone who has access to the document will see who is making what changes. So work on projects will be much more efficient: no one will have to wait for replies with edits and new information by mail.

6. Templates

You can find and download a huge number of templates on the web. You can get started with them and edit as needed - much faster than rebuilding the project.

7. Appendix

In the mobile application for Android and iOS, you can create and edit documents from your smartphone or tablet and view files from the cloud storage. It is better to use the Word application than other mobile editors: this way you can be sure of the same formatting and always have access to the latest version of the document - in a desktop program, in the browser version of Word, on a smartphone or tablet.

To work, you must log in to your account. If you or your organization has an Office 365 subscription, you don't have to pay anything in the app.

8. Custom table format

If you often format tables to your liking, you can reduce the amount of work. Create a style and add it to the Table Styles group. Then, in this group, right-click on the desired style and make it the default format.

9. Print anywhere

This may seem strange to some, but most Word users use the arrows on the keyboard when they need to move the cursor and start writing in a new place in the document. But this can be done much faster - with a double click. Open a blank sheet and double-click anywhere to start typing there.

You are now ready to be as productive as possible in Word!