8 Microsoft Word hacks to speed up your workflow

Microsoft Word has been around for 30 years now. Being used by over a billion people, it is one of the world's most used applications. This doesn't stop people still wondering what certain keys mean. There are short-cuts nobody even knew about. Continue reading this article to find out. Here are 8 amazing hacks for Microsoft Word which DCP Web Designers use daily!

Selecting everything with one simple key

Have you ever had a load of text that you wish you could simply select all? I mean it would save you some time right? Luckily for you, there is a way to do just this. Just simply click the CTRL+A keys and you can select all the text in your document. On most keyboards, these keys are located on the left-hand side.

Wrapping text around an image

Wouldn't it be nice if your text warped around images correctly to make your documents look professional? Well, not to worry no short cuts here, but we have created a tutorial to help you!

Keeping your documents pinned in one place

It can become a real nightmare having to constantly search for those documents you use the most. How would you feel if you were told how to avoid doing that? Well, the good news is, you can and here's how by pinning your documents to the recent list’. First, you highlight the file, secondly, you open the file and finally select the ‘pin icon’ at the side of the document you wish to have easier access to.

Breaking your documents into sections

People find it hard to break their documents into sections when using Microsoft Word, this is because Word does not see page entities. To do this you simply head over to the page layout where you will find the breaks menu. Now you can edit each section individually giving each one there own formatting.

Converting pasted text

When copying text from internet websites it often messes with your formatting when pasting it onto your work. It can become a nightmare and time-consuming. A simple trick will help with this matter. Simply select the text you want and CTRL+ Spacebar, this will strip the text back to plain text style.

Portrait and Landscape On the same document

A lot of people never knew this but, you can use both portrait and landscape in the same document. To do this you simply locate the page setup, in the page layout section, once there click the portrait or landscape option under the orientation. Finally, select the applicable box on the selected text.

Setting your shortcut icons

You can set your shortcuts by clicking on the ribbon toolbar. Click customise the ribbon then simply click customise. There you have your very own shortcuts.

Straight lined text

You want all your text lines to be equal but don't know how? Just find the paragraph alignment setting (near your text style) and click on the four equally lined boxes.

Setting styles quickly

Setting a quick style saves you time trying to find a style before writing a new document. You can do this by right-clicking your preferred style in the drop-down menu of styles. Highlight ‘Modify’ then make the changes in the modify style box, finally, click add to the style gallery.

Want a beginners tutorial?

So learning Microsoft Word is not the easiest tool to master. There are a lot of options to understand but once you go the basic under your belt, you will be able to create documents for fun. To give you a helping hand why not view our free Microsoft Word 2020 Beginners Tutorial.

Take a look at the infographic below created by SilverDoor for some more useful Microsoft Word hacks!

(Click to enlarge infographic)

Article created by: DCP Web Designers London