Top tips for Microsoft Word 2003

Formatting paragraphs, capital letters, plus a pile of shortcuts

Change your capitalisation on the fly

Have you ever typed a piece of text and then wanted to change its case?

This is great if you’ve been typing with Caps Lock on.

Undo and redo changes to your text and graphics

In Word you can undo errors and redo changes in one of three ways:

Capture your paragraph formatting

Have you ever had the perfect paragraph in a document – spot on line spacing, bullet format, indentation - and wished that you could apply the same formatting to your other paragraphs? It’s easy. The formatting is stored in a backwards P (a Pilcrow) at the end of each paragraph.

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Use curly quotation marks

Do you want to use book like quotation marks? Here’s how:

Use the hidden Work menu to navigate through your files

If you want quick access to your regularly used files include the Work menu on your menu bar. This let’s you get to your work quickly:

Now when you're working on a file you regularly use click on your new Work menu and choose Add to Work Menu.

Change your default character formatting

Do you prefer a different font to the default style you start out with when you open a new document? Here’s how to change it:

Now when you're working on a file you regularly use click on your new Work menu and choose Add to Work Menu.

Replace the Print button

Some users can be frustrated by the Print button that appears on the standard toolbar as this doesn't bring up the same dialogue as File | Print. Instead it prints entire document.

If this bugs you, it makes sense to replace the print-now command with one that does bring up the Print dialogue. Right-click the toolbar, select Customize (at the foot of the drop-down list), and drag the existing Print icon off the toolbar. Now click the Commands tab, select File, find the icon for Print followed by three dots (the Print icon without the dots is the one you've just removed), and drag that on to the toolbar.

Increase your line spacing when you use automatic numbering

Automatic Numbering is useful but if you want a blank line in between your numbered points Word won't let you press Enter twice without removing the numbering.

If you want a blank line between your numbers on a list, press Control 0 instead. This will be remembered for the rest of your list too.

How to Find and Replace special characters and annotations

Find and Replace is a handy tool, but have you ever tried to copy a special character into the Find field? Here's how to make it work:

Use shortcut keys to apply formatting

Knowing the shortcut keys for common Word tasks can save you a lot of time. Here are the most common:

Shortcut keys that apply a format can also remove that format.

Start your page numbers on the second page

When you have a document that has a title page, it can be a pain if the page that you consider to be first is numbered 2. Here's how to get around it:

What next?