In this Tips and Tricks section, we will focus on the lesser-known (or lesser used and understood) functions of MSWord.  This section was built based on MS Office 97; however, many of the same functions will work in the same way on later releases of the Microsoft Office suite of programs.

You may be very familiar with some of these functions, and some may be brand new for you.   This section is designed to let you pick and choose which "tips" interest you. There is a table of contents (TOC) that allows you to "warp" right to a specific section.

Please contact me if you have any questions or if there is a function you would like me to explore in this section.

You may practice these "tricks" on any document you might have on your computer.  In order to work according to the following instructions with regard to AutoFormat, it must have short paragraph captions and must be completely UNformatted and all left justified. 

To access a "working document" (an article written by Don) to use as an exercise to try out these "tricks," simply click on this link:  working document. The Word document will open in your browser window and you will want to save it to your hard drive. Go to File-->Save As and a browse window will open. Find a folder to save to where you can find the file easily and save it. This document is saved in Word 6.0 for Windows so it is accessible to older versions of Word. If you are unable to open this document, click this link and you will be taken to a Web page version that you can copy. All you need to do is highlight the article, copy and paste it into an MSWord blank document.  You may also want to highlight, copy, paste and print the instructions so you don't have to stay online as you're working. 

Please call me if you have any difficulties.

Click on the hyperlinks below to go to a specific subject:

The working document was typed completely left-justified, with no additional spacing between paragraphs (when I converted this to place on the Web page, HTML codes automatically added spaces between the paragraphs). We are going to use the above functions to format this document.   Highlight all text on the working document and copy it (you may use "Ctrl-C" or go to the Edit menu and choose Copy—or you can click the right mouse button and select Copy).  Once you have copied it into Word, we can begin to format it. 

For those of you who are "newbies" and would like more detailed instruction on how to cut, copy and paste, click here:

The first thing we will need to do is to "fix" the extra breaks that were caused by pasting the document into Word.  We will want to turn on the Show Paragraphs function so we can see the characters that need to be deleted.   This is important because the Auto Format looks for and uses these characters and you could possibly miss deleting one if the tool is not active.  The icon is located on the standard toolbar and looks, coincidentally, like a large black paragraph symbol!  Once activated, your document will show all hard returns, tab characters, and small midline dots between words to indicate space characters (no, not Marvin the Martian!)

Highlight and delete each of the paragraph marks (except the very last one) within each paragraph.  Now your working document should look like any other Word document. Once you have accomplished this, you can deactivate the Show Paragraphs tool by clicking on the icon again.  This would be an excellent time to save your document in Word format, if you haven't done that already. Name it "test." 

IMPORTANT:   Before we begin working on formatting, use the Save As function to save the document again as "testauto."  This will ensure that we retain the original "test" document unchanged so we can go back and use it for other "lessons."  

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Place your cursor anywhere in the "testauto" document. Under the Format menu, select AutoFormat. A dialog box will appear, offering you some options. Choose Auto Format Now and make sure the selection in the drop-down box is General document. Click OK.

You will notice that AutoFormat has applied headings to some of the paragraphs (based on the shortness and punctuation of the text), provided spacing between paragraphs, and aligned the numbered list items in the last paragraph.

Wow!  Wasn't that easy????  How smart can a computer get??!!!

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Depending on your computer's settings, your "headings" may be too large. We will apply a new style to them to fix this. Place your cursor anywhere inside one of the headings. You will notice it shows Heading 1 (usual setting) in the style box (just to the left of the Font name box on the formatting toolbar). Under the Format menu, select Style. You will then see the Style dialog box. Note the paragraph labeled Description. It shows font, size, paragraph specifications, etc. The font should be set at Arial, 11 points, bold, "keep with next." No indents should be applied. If the font face and size are different from this, click on the button labeled Modify. The New Style dialog box will appear. Click on the Format button and select Font. In the Font dialog box, under Font, select Arial and under Size, select 11. Click OK, click OK again and then click Apply. All your paragraph headings will change to the modified format instantaneously, since the AutoFormat function applied the styles to them all.

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Before we delve more deeply into styles, I would like to digress for a moment to alert you to a problem area. When you open a Word document, it generally defaults to three "heading" styles: Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3. I find it generally useful to format these three heading styles with formats I use frequently. However, I use a more descriptive name for any additional styles I create, and for a very good reason. Whenever you add a "heading" style (by this I mean a style beginning with the word "heading," such as Heading 4), it becomes a permanent part of your file and, as far as my research reveals, cannot be deleted once it is set. I have worked on documents in which the writer added as many as 10 additional "heading" styles. Once I have added the styles I like to work with, this makes an extremely long list of styles in the drop-down style box and you have to scroll to find your styles.

I have tried to delete these extraneous "heading" styles, without success. You also cannot successfully change a "heading" style's name (unless you add to the existing name, such as: Heading 1, Title).

So when you create a style, use a descriptive name that will tell you what you use it for (resume text, paragraph title, chapter title, main title, etc.). Then, if you decide you no longer want to use those styles, they can be deleted later.

And now, moving right along . . .

To apply styles to your documents, you must first set up style sheets. MSWord comes with preformatted styles, but you may set up your styles to suit your preferences. MSWord documents are formatted with the Normal style as default. This will format your text with whatever font and size as the default you specified in your Format->Font menu.

If you click anywhere inside a paragraph (not one of the headings) on your "testauto" document and look at your style box after performing the AutoFormat, it will probably list Body Text as the style you are using now. Since styles are applied at the paragraph level, you may change the style by clicking anywhere in a paragraph. You do not have to "select" the entire paragraph with your mouse. Once your cursor is within a paragraph (or you may select an entire document by pressing Ctrl-A), you simply select the style you want from the drop-down style box.

Let's set up a new style based on a paragraph we will format.  Place your cursor anywhere in the first paragraph of the "testauto" document.  Now click the Increase Indent tool (icon pictured on the right) just once.

Next, drag your Right Margin marker on the ruler above your document window (you must be in Normal or Page Layout view and have your ruler turned on) to the left about 1/2 inch.  This will set the parameters for the new style.  

Under the Format menu, select Style. Click the New button in the Style dialog box.  Another dialog box will open with the Style Name highlighted and ready for you to name.  Let's call this style Block.  Now click OK, and then click Apply.  You now have a new style!

Click anywhere in the second paragraph and apply the Block style to it by selecting Block in the drop-down style menu.

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When you create a new style, it is only applied to the active document. What if you want to format a similar article with the styles you just created in your "testauto" document?  Open the "testauto" document.  While the "testauto" document is still open, you can open the original "test" document you saved for future practice sessions.  Use the Save As command to  save this document as "test2." 

Minimize the "test2" document, making "testauto" your active document. On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins. Click Organizer.   You will notice that the styles on the left side are the styles you set up for "testauto."  The right side should display the styles for the Normal.dot global template.  Directly underneath the drop-down box that is displaying the Normal.dot template, click on the button that reads Close File. The button will immediately change to Open File and the styles box will become blank.  Click on that same Open File button and your browse screen will open.  The first thing you will want to do is to use the drop-down box named Files of Type: (lower left corner of browse screen) to change from Document Templates (*.dot) to All Files (*.*).

Use the browse screen to access your "test2" document.  When you double-click on the "test2" document, its styles will appear on the right side of the screen.  Now you can click on the items you want to copy from the left side of the Organizer screen.  To select a several items, hold down the Control key as you click on each item.  We will want to copy Heading 1, Block and Doctitle. Now click Copy.  You will be asked if you want to overwrite the existing style Heading 1.  Click Yes, since we made modifications to this style when we created the "testauto" document.

Voila!  The styles you created in "testauto" are now available in "test2" and you can use them to format the document.  Please note that the Copy function in the Organizer works from both left to right and vice versa, in case you open your documents in reverse order.  To copy from right to left, simply click on the styles you wish to copy in the right side of the Organizer screen.  The Copy button will display arrows pointing to the left window, showing the "direction" of the copy. 

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Another cool tool that can be used with styles is the Document Map.  It allows you to view your document in a structural format that makes it much easier to navigate.  It makes it easier to find things in a very long document.  Let's take a look!

Open your "testauto" document.  Click on the Document Map icon (pictured on the right).   If the icon isn't displayed on your toolbar, you can access the Document Map in the View menu.

Your screen will be split into two halves.  Notice that your Heading 1 paragraphs are listed in order on the left side of the screen and the document is displayed on the right. And don't worry if you can't read the whole heading title, because if you move your mouse over a truncated title, Word will provide the entire title for you!  When you click your mouse on a heading title, the document map will take you immediately to that paragraph on the right side of the screen.  Sure beats having to scroll through the document looking for that elusive paragraph you wanted to change!  Imagine the work this would save if your document was 40 pages long!  To remove the Document Map view, simply click on the icon again to toggle it off.

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What if you have a long document with lots of headings, and you want to rearrange the layout without having to cut and paste all day?  The Outline view provides the perfect solution for you! 

While you are still in your "testauto" document, go to the View menu and select the Outline view.  Your document will appear with symbols to the left of each section; large "plus" or "minus" symbols for the headings and small square icons for the body text.  A new toolbar also appears just above the document, displaying arrows, symbols and numbers.  For now, we're only going to concentrate on using Outline view to rearrange our document.

Place your cursor anywhere in the document and press Ctrl-A to select the entire document (or you can go to the Edit menu and choose Select All).  Next, click on the "minus" symbol on the Outline toolbar to "collapse" the entire document.  This leaves only the headings and their accompanying symbols. 

Let's say we decide that the heading "Insufficient Training" should come after "Incompatible Pay Systems."   Place your cursor over the "plus" symbol to the left of "Insufficient Training" and notice that the cursor becomes a four-way arrow.   Click on the arrow and hold your left mouse button as you drag it and drop it below "Incompatible Pay Systems."  While you are dragging it, a horizontal line will appear to indicate where your paragraph will appear when you release the left mouse button. 

Great!  Now, what if you decide you need to "tweak" the text within just one paragraph?  Simply double-click the symbol to the left of that heading and your text will appear under that heading.  You can make any modifications to the text and "collapse" it again if you need to do more rearranging in the document. 

When you are finished rearranging you can return to Page Layout or Normal view (whichever you prefer) by selecting from the View menu (or you can use the tiny icons on the lower left of your document just above the status bar).

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The Format Painter is another great tool for applying exact formatting to all headings in your document. Open the original "test" document and Save As "testpaint."  We will want to format just one of the "headings" before we start.  Highlight the heading that begins, "What went wrong? . . . "  On your toolbar, select Arial in the font face drop-down box, select 11 in the font size drop-down box, and click the Bold icon on the toolbar.  Then go to the Format menu and select Paragraph.   Under the Indents and Spacing tab in the dialog box, use the arrow keys to set 12pt before and 6pt after.  Click OK.

At this point, your text should still be highlighted from applying the formatting. If it is not, simply place your cursor anywhere in the formatted heading. Double-click on the icon on your toolbar that looks like a paintbrush (pictured on the right).

Format Painter tool. If you are formatting only one word, simply single-click within that word while the Format Painter is enabled. Once the tool is enabled, highlight the remaining headings in your document. Then turn the Format Painter off.

The tool will not "turn off" until you single-click on the Format Painter icon again or press the Escape key. 

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Have you ever been typing merrily away at a document and looked up to find that the last two pages are mysteriously missing, or you have somehow messed up the formatting (computer gremlins, of course!)?   Then this FABULOUS function will be your best friend!  MSWord has 100 levels of Undo! 

You can use the Edit menu to invoke the Undo function a single time or, in case you want several actions undone at once, use the drop-down menu box to the right of the Undo icon on the toolbar.  The Undo icon is the curvy arrow pointing around to the left on your standard toolbar.  Redo is the arrow pointing around to the right (in case you take Undo too far and want to go back a step!).  Both functions have drop-down boxes to make multiple actions possible!

Another great safety measure to use if you plan to make major overhauls to a document is to use the Save As command to save a working copy of your document and retain the original, in case the computer gremlins have a particularly good day!  And remember to save "often and early." I try to make it a practice to save at least every half page. There's less to redo that way if there is a power failure or a computer "freeze." 

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How many of you never use your right mouse button, or couldn't imagine why someone would ever need to use it?  I was of the same mind myself for a long time.  But I have "come to see the light," and I can't imagine NOT using frequently!  It is a great tool! 

The right mouse button is very intuitive.   When you click it in different areas of your document, it makes available to you the shortcuts or functions that would be applicable in that particular situation.   For instance, if you click anywhere in a Word document, the Cut, Copy and Paste functions are available as well as the Format Font, Format Paragraph and Format Bullets and Numbering functions.  You can also insert a table using the right mouse button and, if you have the Dictionary installed, it will define a highlighted word.    If you are in Page Layout view (both top and left rulers are visible in this view—to access Page Layout view, select it from the View menu), a double right-click on the top ruler will bring up the Tabs dialog box and a double left-click will bring up the Page Setup dialog box.

The right mouse button has myriad other uses, as well.  Try using it in different programs and different features within a document (tables, etc.) and you may come to love it as much as I do!

One of the best functions of the right mouse button, I think, is the quick spell- or grammar-check.  I always keep my background spell- and grammar-check ON, so I don't miss any typos, etc. (see the Spelling and Grammar Checkers section below for more detail).  When Word prompts you to correct spelling by displaying the wavy red line under a word that is not recognized by the dictionary, the right mouse button gives you a quick way to correct a misspelling.  If you right-click on a word that is underlined with the wavy red line, a dialog box will appear with possible spellings (if available), along with several other options (Ignore All, Add, AutoCorrect and the ability to invoke a whole-document spell-check).  Simply clicking on the correct spelling in the dialog box will correct the word.  This is a great way to fix those random typos without running a spell-check on the entire document and without having to manually correct the word!  A right-click on a word or phrase underlined with the wavy green line (grammar checker) might offer suggestions for correcting the "grammar" of that particular word or phrase (I will discuss the pros and cons of the grammar checker in the Spelling and Grammar Checkers section below).

A word here about the Add option on the spell-check:  BE CAREFUL!  OK, that's two words, but please take heed!  Before you add a "common" word to the custom dictionary, be sure you really know the correct spelling!  I have worked on computers that did not catch misspellings because the user had "added" the misspelled word to the custom dictionary!  For example, one woman I knew thought how ridiculous it was that the standard dictionary did not recognize such a common word as "judgement," so she added it to her custom dictionary, not realizing that the correct spelling of the word is "judgment."  This is a very common spelling error, so who knows how many documents went out of that insurance claims litigation office (where judgment is a frequent term) with typos in them?  I happened to catch it in a read-proof of one of her documents, and was able to go into the custom dictionary and delete the incorrect spelling.  See the section on AutoCorrect for more ideas!

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Help is here for those pesky words that you just can't seem to type right!  It's not that you can't do it; the signals just get crossed between the brain and the fingers (computer gremlins again)!   For years, I thought I lived in the Sacrametno area (at least, that's how the word always came out when I typed it).  Thanks to AutoCorrect, I live in Sacramento now. 

MSWord has already started the basic table of common mistakes for you, and you may have noticed as you are typing that it will automatically change teh to the or adn to and as you type!  You may also have noticed it will automatically capitalize the first word of a line and will recognize that SAcramento should be Sacramento and change it for you automatically!  But you can also add your own specific corrections to the AutoCorrect table.   In the above example, the misspelled word "judgement" (in The Right Mouse Button Can be Your Friend section) could be placed into the AutoCorrect table so that it self-corrects whenever you type it!   Or you can create your own shorthand that will save you keystrokes!

You can access AutoCorrect from the Tools menu.  Take a few minutes to scroll down and look at the common typos Word has added for you.  And you thought you were just a great typist!   You may add your own corrections now, if you remember all the common errors you habitually make.  Or you may add these later, when doing a spell-check (use your right mouse button!). 

Here come those two words again:  BE CAREFUL!  Think carefully about how literal a computer can be.  It cannot interpret when to apply your AutoCorrect or when not to.  For instance, don't add to the AutoCorrect table if you are always typing tow instead of two.  AutoCorrect will always apply this correction, even if you are talking about pulling a car behind you.  And how embarrassing would it be to have your description of a child changed from "tow-headed" to "two-headed"!  Make sure this type of situation will not occur with any additions to your AutoCorrect table.

To use AutoCorrect to create your own shorthand, you can designate a certain string of characters to type out a company name.  Simply by typing tgasc, Word can convert it automatically to The Great American Shoestring Company.    Again, BE CAREFUL!  Don't specify US or us to be automatically converted to United States or U.S. or you will have big problems if you ever talk about "you and me" (in either lowercase or ALL CAPS), or we might even end up taking a ride on a Greyound bUnited States (or bU.S.)!  I think you get the picture! 

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We're stepping into controversial territory here! On the one hand, we have the spell- and grammar-check promoters and on the other hand, we have those who just absolutely HATE those pesky red and green wavy lines all over their documents!

The safer end of the spectrum is the spell-check. It is more universally accepted and used than the grammar-check. Those who don't like seeing the wavy red lines simply run a whole-document spell-check when they finish it. I personally don't trust myself to remember to run the spell-check after I type a document. I've forgotten too many times, so I am one of those people who LOVE those little red wavy lines!

The spell-check can perform a multitude of functions for you. It can inform you of repeated words or irregular capitalization as well as spelling errors. The sources for the spell-check are the built-in dictionary and the custom dictionary. The spell-check will, naturally, flag uncommon proper nouns (such as "Joelle"?). If your spell-check always hangs up on a proper name that you frequently use, simply add it to your custom dictionary and Word will not flag that name in the future.

To turn on (or off) the background spell-check, go to the Tools menu and select Options. Click on the Spelling & Grammar tab. You can enable or disable the spell-check and the grammar-check separately. To see the little wavy lines when you use Word, check the first box: ; Check spelling/grammar (as the case may be) as you type. I recommend NOT checking either of the following boxes: Hide spelling errors in this document (unless you are typing a technical table or document that would make you absolutely crazy with all the red lines) or Suggest from main dictionary only.

Another suggestion I would offer is that, regardless of the spell-check tool, be sure to read-proof your document well. The spell-check will not catch it when you type "your" instead of "you" and vice-versa (I do this all the time)! The little poem below illustrates the point well:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Another cool thing the spell-check can do is help you out with your crossword puzzles! If you type a word with wildcards, Word will suggest possible answers.  Open a Word document and type in your word, filling in the blanks with a question mark for each missing letter.  If you type in c??t?e and either right-click on the word once the red underline is in place or invoke the whole-document spell-check, Word will suggest cantle, castle, cattle, clothe and cootie.

The more controversial of the "checkers" is the grammar checker.  Many times, the "suggestions" given by the grammar checker do not apply.  English grammar is so tricky, your poor computer can't keep up and sometimes tells you things that don't make any sense!   This function should be taken with a grain of salt (or maybe even a whole salt lick in some cases).  It can serve some excellent uses, though.  The grammar checker will flag two words that have more than one space between them or a punctuation mark that is poorly placed.  It will also flag words that should be hyphenated (based on its predefined rules).  If you right-click on the words with the green underline, Word will let you correct this quickly.

Another useful way the grammar check can help is to flag hard returns in the middle of a sentence.  You may have noticed this when you copied the "working document" into Word from your browser.   Anywhere that a new paragraph mark was added in the middle of a sentence, the first word on the following line was marked, but not for the reason  you might think.   In this instance, if you right-clicked on the green line, it would have prompted you to capitalize the word rather than delete the paragraph mark.  If this occurs in any of your future documents, it could be a clue to you that there are extra paragraph marks that need to be deleted.  Check the grammar checker's suggestions to be sure there is not something else at work in that sentence, though.  If it turns out that there are extraneous paragraph marks, you can then turn on the Show Paragraphs and delete the inappropriate ones. 

I do recommend working with your grammar checker turned on and do right-click to have it explain the rule it is attempting to enforce.   It can be helpful with verb-subject agreement and other similar situations.   But don't trust it as the final word—it is often incorrect in its analysis of your words.  If you have a question, research the applicable rules of grammar, find a better way to express your idea that the grammar checker finds acceptable, or you may choose to ignore it on the basis of your own knowledge.

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Track Changes is very helpful when working with your coach on your credentials package. Once he/she sends you your documents to review, you can turn on the track changes function and the coach can immediately see the changes you have made.

Your document must already be open in Word.  To enable Track Changes, go to the Tools menu, select Track Changes and choose Highlight Changes from the submenu.  Under Options, select the following:

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To create an em dash in MSWord, simply type two hyphens, using no spaces between the words and the two hyphens, and Word will "autocorrect" into an em dash for you.  If your AutoCorrect is not set to do this, you can hold down the Control key, the Alt key and the "minus" symbol on your extended number keypad to create the character manually.   Please note that using the "hyphen" on your regular keyboard in conjunction with the Control and Alt keys will not accomplish this; your cursor will change modes if you do this.  

To view the grammar rules about dashes and em dashes, click here.

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As I mentioned above in the section about the spell-check, you can add names or industry-specific terms that are not in Word's standard dictionary to your custom dictionary and it will not flag that name in the future.  When you run a spell-check, or if you have your Check Spelling/Grammar as you type enabled and get a wavy red line under a word in your document, first thing you should do is right-click on it to see if the dictionary has any suggestions for correct spelling.  Sometimes there may be an extra letter in your word that is so small you don't catch it visually.  If there are no suggestions that match your word, your next step is to really look at it, to be sure it is spelled correctly before you click the Add option on your right-click menu.  

But what happens if you accidentally add an incorrectly spelled word to your custom dictionary?  How do you fix it?

Go to the Tools menu and select Options.  Click the Spelling and Grammar tab and select the Dictionaries button, located approximately in the middle of the dialog box to the right side.  This brings up another dialog box that shows your custom dictionary (named CUSTOM.DIC).  Click on the Edit button and you will be presented with a document that lists all the words that have been added to your custom dictionary.  It looks and acts like a Word document, so you can edit from that point.

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The thesaurus (kinda sounds like a prehistoric creature, huh?) is an important tool. It can help you avoid repetition and helps you to polish your writing. Here's an example: in describing your duties in a resume, you might use the word "leading" frequently, either to describe your position or relationship to others in a company, or your prominence in the field. But you don't want your credentials to use the word "leading" over and over again. As you review your writing, if you wish to change on of the occurrences of the word, simply place your cursor in the word and select Tools-->Language-->Thesaurus (or, if you are a keyboard shortcut kind of person, use Shift-->F7).

You get a dialog box that shows several meanings in the left column: first (adj.), famous (adj.), direction (noun), space (noun). Clicking on one of these words will bring up other choices in the right column. If you find a suitable replacement, you can simply click on it and click the Replace button at the bottom of the dialog box.

If you find a word that is close, but not quite what you want, click on it in the right column (for example, under the meaning first (adj.), if you click on the word principal in the right column and then click the Look up button, you have another whole list of choices). You will also notice that the word principal shows Antonyms at the bottom of the left column. If you click on this, the thesaurus will show you words that have the opposite meaning of principal.

Now you have some great options for varying your words and you didn't even have to reach over to the book case!

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I find the Search and Replace tool invaluable in making documents consistent.  For example, when proofreading credentials, I often find percent symbols within the body of a resume or other supporting documents.  According to the rules of grammar, percentages should be expressed in figures (cardinal numbers), and the word percent should be spelled out.  Go to Grammar page to view this rule.  So one of the first things I do when proofreading credentials is to invoke the Search and Replace to correct this.  As always, you want to try to think like the computer does, in a very literal sense.  In this instance, remember that the percent symbol is typed immediately after a number, with no space between.  So when you search and replace in this case, remember to put a space before the word "percent" in the replace box.  

Let's walk through this example. From anywhere in your document, select Edit-->Replace (or press Ctrl-->H).  You will get a dialog box that has two text boxes:  Find what and Replace with.  In the Find what box, type the percent symbol, without space before or after.  In the Replace with box, press the space bar once and then type the word percent.  Don't forget the space!   But if you add a space after the word percent, the computer will add an extra space wherever a replacement occurs, and this will mess up your spacing.  This is what I mean about the computer being very literal. Once you have done this, click the Replace all button.  Or, if you are nervous about letting the computer make these decisions for you, you can replace each occurrence manually by simply clicking Find next and clicking Replace in each instance.    

The Search and Replace function can also help in changing a word from one form to another.  For example, if you find you typed the abbreviation for California as Ca several times instead of CA, you can correct this.  There is an extra step in this case.  At the bottom right of the Replace dialog box is a button that reads More.  Clicking on this button will expand the dialog box with options available.  The first thing you want to do is click the Find whole words only check box.  This will prevent you from ending up with CAn, CAse, CApable, etc.  Next you will want to click the Match case check box. 

Another ability you have with Search and Replace is to change from one format to another. We highly recommend against using italics in your credentials documents. So what do you do if you have typed all your responsibilities paragraphs in italics? It would take a good chunk of time to select each paragraph and "un" italicize each one. You don't have to spend the time!  Let's walk through this: In the Replace dialog box, click to place your cursor in the Find what text box. Don't type any words; leave it blank. Now click on More (if the expanded dialog box is not open already). Click the Format button at the bottom of the dialog box and select Font. Under the Font tab, simply click on italic in the Font style box, and then click OK. Under the Find what text box, you will see Format: Italic. There should be no text in the text box itself.

Next, click in the Replace with text box, again leaving it blank. Click the Format button at the bottom of the dialog box and select Font. Under the Font tab, simply click on regular in the Font style box, and then click OK. Under the Replace with text box, you will see Format: Not Bold, Not Italic. Next click Replace all and, instantly, you will have no italics at all in your document!

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Have you ever been frustrated by getting your Word document just perfect, with all the page breaks in just the right place, and all the formatting just where it should be, but when you print it, things are not lined up like they should be? One feature that can save you headaches (not to mention ink!) is the Print Preview. To view your final results, select File-->Print Preview or click on the icon (shown at right) on the toolbar.

Once you are in Print Preview, you can view your document in full-page view (one page at a time) or multiple pages at once. ; This multiple page view can give you an excellent idea of the overall presentation of your documents. To toggle from one view to the other (full page or multiple page), use the icons on the Print Preview toolbar (pictured at right).

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Another tool I find very useful is the Change Case function.  Quite often in proofreading credentials, I find headings or titles in all caps (sometimes even whole pages!)  Or I might find a paragraph with functional titles capitalized throughout.  Click here to view the grammar rule about capitalization with titles.  

So, rather than go through and retype all the headings (or the document) in upper/lower case or change all the initial caps (first letter of each word) on the titles manually, I rely on my old friend Change Case.  

Highlight the text you want to change.  Select Format-->Change Case.  You are offered several options.  Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case or tOGGLE cASE.

Let's cover each option in turn.  You would choose Sentence case if you were converting a document from all caps to upper/lower case.  This puts an initial cap at the beginning of each sentence.  It will not, however, locate the word "I" and capitalize it for you.  Nor will it recognize and capitalize any proper nouns.  

If you are facing an entire paragraph with functional titles or job titles with initial caps, highlight the portion of the paragraph with all the titles listed.  Select lowercase, and the whole sentence is fixed!  Be careful about including more than one sentence, though.  The initial cap on the second or third sentence will also be changed to lowercase.  

UPPERCASE is pretty self-explanatory.  If you have a word you want to emphasize, simply highlight it and select UPPERCASE. 

Title Case will "fix" any inconsistencies in the titles of your documents (such as your project summaries).  Highlight the entire title and select Title Case from the Change Case dialog box.  Title Case will capitalize the first letter of each word indiscriminately.  You will have to go back and change the appropriate words (a, to, with, etc.) to lowercase manually.

It is my presumption that tOGGLE cASE is intended to correct any problems you might have by typing away merrily (with the caps lock on) and realizing an entire paragraph or page later that everything is backwards.  Capitals are lowercase and letters that should be lowercase are all caps.  When I attempted to test this in Word, I was foiled every time, since Word can intuitively correct this problem as you type and will even toggle off the caps lock as soon as it perceives that's what you are doing.  

If Word does not automatically correct this as you type, go to the Tools menu and select AutoCorrect.  On the AutoCorrect tab, check the box Correct accidental usage of cAPS lOCK key.  There are some other useful options there, too, so browse a little before you leave.

But it can come in handy if you receive a document from someone else like that, or have created such a document in another application.  In that case, import it to Word, fix it up and import it back.  

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