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Category Archives: Microsoft Word

Free articles about Microsoft Word

How To View Word and Character Counts in Word 365

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Word Count is set to display the word count in your documents, but it also keeps track of several other statistics.

It can help you to better understand things in your document like readability, when you know the word and character court and how much space you are using in your document. Did you know you could use your word length and count in a sentence to help determine readability?  Knowing these things are also very helpful when publishing and typesetting. And lucky for you, Word has a a most excellent word and character count tool to do just that!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. The Word Count tool is located in the lower left-hand side of your Status Bar. The Status bar is at the bottom of your document, just over Windows Start and and search box.
  2. Word is set to display your word count in your document by default, but it also will keep track of several other statistics.
  3. Click on the word count and the Word Count window will open.
  4. You can also find the Word Count window on the Review tab.
  5. Your Word Count window will display a list of the statistics below:

Pages: The number of pages in your document.

Words: Count of words in your document.

Characters: Characters in your document. This includes punctuation but not spaces.

Paragraphs: Count of paragraphs in your document.

Lines: Count of lines i n your document. This includes lines with no text.

  • At the bottom of your window is a check box that will include textboxes when checked, as well as footnotes and endnotes. This box is, by default, checked.  You can uncheck it if you do not wish these inclusions.
  • You can also display your Character Count with spaces option on your Status Bar. In order to do this, you will need to customize your Status Bar:
  • Hover your mouse over word count on your Status Bar and right-click. The Customize Status Bar menu will open.
  • There are many options in this menu but the ones you are looking for can be found in the second section from the top. You will see Word Count and Character Count with spaces. To the left you will see a small check mark. This indicates that Word Count will appear on your Status Bar. You can click in the space to the left of the Character Count with spaces option to add the check mark and display that option on your Status Bar.
  • Both options will now appear on your Status Bar.

That’s all it takes!

 

 

How To Convert Text To Table in Word

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Table tools can make lists far easier to customize and even reorganizing. Let’s say you would like to convert you contact list into a table.  Let’s also assume that your list contains  names—first, middle, and last. It also contains the city, state, region, and profession of each person.

Now people have, for ages,  used tabs to separate their fields, by adding a tab or two to make longer strings of data. But if you do this, once you convert your table to text, it misplaces all your data.

Using the Convert Text to Table feature, it allows you to  separate your fields (i.e., Name, City, State, etc.) with paragraphs, tabs, commas, or other separator character, but use only one separator between each field.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

You are provided three options to modify and/or decorate your tables:

  1. Use Table Tools | Design or Table Tools | Layout commands on your Ribbon.
  2. Right-click and use the Shortcut menus.
  3. Use the keyboard shortcuts, which become visible when you press the ALT key on your keyboard.

Easy peasy!

How To Use Quick Tables in Word

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There are many ways to create custom tables in Word but a lot of folks just want the quickest and easiest method  and thankfully we have that. It is called Quick Tables. And what is more, it really is quick and easy!  Quick Tables are table templates in Word. There is a bonus option too. In addition to the nine templates that Microsoft has provided, you can create your own designs and save them to the Quick Tables Gallery to use later.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

Click Insert | Tables | Quick Tables. Select a table template from the Quick Tables menu, then modify it to fit your project.

It really and truly is just that easy!

How to Edit a Template in Word

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To edit a file and make it our own, so that you can use it again later, you must first save it as a template.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Go to the File menu and select Save As.
  2. Give your template a name.
  3. From the type menu, select Word Template (*.dotx).
  4. Once you have selected Word Template (*.dotx) from the list of choices, Word will automatically change your save location to the Custom Office Templates folder or another default save location set in your Word options.
  5. If that is where you would like your template to appear in your personal templates area, keep this location.
  6. Click on Save to save the file as a template.
  7. Then, open that template.

If you look at the top title bar for that file, you should see the name of the template (instead of Document 1 .docx) and the file extension of .dotx at the end. If so, that means that you are now editing your template.

Now that your template has been opened, you can begin making changes to your template.

 

How to Insert Pictures into Word

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It is extremely easy to insert pictures into your Word documents. Below, you will see how to insert pictures and how different sorts of pictures can be added.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

On your Ribbon, click on the Insert tab and then go to the Illustrations section.

Click Pictures and a small menu will open where you will be presented with three different options.

Under this menu, you will see different options for where you would like to place a picture.

This Device will open File Explorer and will allow you to select any picture stored on your computer.

Stock Images will open a library of royalty-free images, icons, stickers, illustrations, and cutout people that you may select and use in your document. These are copyright free. NOTE – this option is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Online Pictures will open a selection of pictures from online sources that you may search through. Please note that pictures from some online sources may be subject to copyright restrictions.

Once you have selected the picture you would like, click Insert. You will find this in the lower right-hand corner .  This will be in the same place for all three options. The very next button in Illustrations is Shapes and they are very useful because they can be resized, colored and manipulated.

Follow the steps below to learn how to insert a shape:

  1. In the Illustration group click on Shapes to open a large panel of shapes.
  2. Once you have made your choice of shape, click it and the Shapes panel will disappear.
  3. You will see a large plus symbol ad you are able to move it where you would like using your mouse.
  4. Instead of clicking with the Plus sign, you can click and drag, making your shape larger or smaller. In some instances you can even alter the shape.

You will see that Word provides you with myriad shapes.

 

Quickly And Easily Delete All Tab Stops in A Document

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If you are looking for a quick way to delete all tab stops in your document, this post is for you.  It will save you lots of time and you all know I love that!

While there is no keyboard shortcut to remove tab stops — it is very easy to use the Tabs dialog box to resolve this issue. You can use your  keyboard to open the  Tabs dialog box and make selections within it, which  technically does not count as a keyboard shortcut.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

    1. Press Ctrl+A to select your entire current document.
    2. Display the Home tab of your Ribbon.
    3. At the bottom-right of the Paragraph group, click the small icon to display the dialog box.
    4. Click Tabs at the bottom-left of the dialog box to display the dialog box.
    5. Click Clear All.
    6. Click OK.

Saves you mucho time!

How To Put The Date In Your Header or Footer

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It is common practice to insert the date and/or time in your document’s header or footer. When you do this, the date is printed on every page of your document. To insert the date, you can follow these steps if you are using Word 2019 or Word in Office 365:

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click the Insert tab of your Ribbon.
  2. In the Header & Footer group, click either Header or Footer, depending on which one you would like to edit.
    A list of options will display that you can select from.
  3. Select either the Edit Header or Edit Footer option. Word will activate the header or footer area of your page, depending on your choice.
  4. Place your cursor within the header or footer at the place you would like the date to appear.
  5. Be certain the Header & Footer tab of your Ribbon is displayed.

darte-and-time

  1. Select a date format from those on the left-hand side of the dialog box. Word inserts today’s date.
  2. Click OK.
  3. At the right side of the Header & Footer tab, click Close Header and Footer.

 

How to Step Through Fields In Documents

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If you use fields in your documents, there might be times when you would like to select the fields quickly.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  • To step forward to the next field in your document, press F11.
  • To step backwards to the previous field in your document, press Shift+F11.

When you reach the last field in your document, pressing F11 again does not cycle around to the first field in the file. Similarly, if you are moving backward and reach the first field in the document, Shift+F11 won’t cycle to the end of the document.

How To Create One Off Labels in Word

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We all know Word is a versatile program. One great feature of  Word is creating mailing labels. lots of folks, myself included,  create mailing labels using the Mail Merge feature of Word, which pulls names and addresses from a data source and formats them for printing on labels.

But sometimes you just don’t need all that. Suppose you only need  a couple labels to go on a one time mailing? There is a very quick way to handle this instance in Word.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Display the Mailings tab of your Ribbon.
  2. Select Labels near the left side of your Ribbon, in the  Create group to display the Labels tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

mailing-labels

  1. If you need to change the type of labels on which you are printing, just click on Options and use the dialog box to select what you need.
  2. Make certain the Use Return Address check box is cleared.
  3. If there is anything in the Address box, delete it.
  4. Make sure Full Page of the Same Label is selected.
  5. Click on New Document. The dialog box will close and Word will create a new document consisting of blank labels.

Word formats labels using tables. Each cell of the table corresponds to a single label. To enter your label information, just position your cursor in the desired label (cell) and start keying in the information.

Once you are finished entering and formatting your label information, you can print your print your labels, save them if you like , or  delete the document.

How To Start Word In Safe Mode

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Even though it is highly unusual to encounter stability issues with Microsoft Word, it does happen on occasion. If Word is not starting properly, line Window, you can start it in Safe Mode to try and sort out what the problem may be.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click the Windows key+ R.
  2. Key in winword/safe.
  3. Tap your Enter key.

This will open word without loading any add-ons that could be preventing the application from working. You are now able to open and edit your documents.