You can easily change the paper size, page orientation (portrait or landscape) and other settings at any time, but the easiest is to set it before you begin a document. It’s also possible to use the same options throughout the whole document, but you can also divide a document into sections and choose different options for each section.

If you want to change the paper orientation, click the File menu and select Page Setup; you will see that the default tab is the Margins tab. Here you can select either portrait or landscape under the orientation section.

Margins determine the distance between the text and the edge of the paper. Type or select desired margin measurements and specify the part of the document the settings will apply to. If you plan to print on both sides of the page and the margins will be different on the left and right, select the Mirror margins under the multiple pages field option so that the margins on facing pages mirror each other. When all settings are chosen, click OK.

You can divide a document into any number of sections and format each section the way you want. To create a new section, click the Insert menu and select Break. The Break dialog box appears allowing you to specify the type and section of break. In normal view, Word displays a double dotted line to indicate a section break. The line is nonprintable.

All section formatting, such as page orientation and the margins, is stored in the section break. When you delete a section break, you delete the section formatting for the section that precedes the section break. The text becomes part of the section that follows, taking on the formatting of that section

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While I was surfing the net today I stumbled upon this youtube-video. It explains some tips and tricks for Microsoft Word. Because I think these tips are very useful when you’re learning to work with Microsoft Word, I decided to put the video tutorial on my blog. If you have any comments, please let me know.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Word tips and tricks, Microsoft Word Tutorial, Microsoft word video tutorial

by: Chris Le Roy

One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment when starting out; Overtime, if your systems are built correctly they will in fact save you very large sums of money, in particular in the area of staff wages.

When I first started my business, One-on-One Personal Computer Training, I started out with a $3,000 Credit Card, which when you talk to any business adviser or business-coach is absolutely the worst thing you could do. One of the issues I have been most conscious of is the cost of having a large number of staff. The way I achieved a high level of efficiency in such a competitive market was to automate as many of the day-to-day tasks as I could. The best tasks for business automation are those that are repetitive.

As soon as I mention the word Business Automation, most technophobes will put up a barrier and go into a minor or major fit. Business automation can be as simple as creating just a few Microsoft Word templates. Business automation doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a huge plethora of software developers and toiling day and night to build some monsterous and complex system. It can and should be simple so that you as a business owner can in fact do it yourself. Let me explain!

Microsoft for all its good and bad issues, has provided business one of the most awesome tools - Microsoft Word allows you to build templates that you can reuse as many times as you wish.

What Is A Microsoft Word Template?

Essentially, a Microsoft Word Template is like any traditional word document, the difference is that it is designed to be reused as many times as you require. Why not create a normal word document then. Well, the difference is that when you use a Microsoft Word Template, you can store the template under the New dialogue box, so that each time you want to use the document you go to that one point and it will be available.

Did you know that you can even create your own folders in the New dialog box? If you didn’t know this, all you have to do is to simply create a new folder where all your templates are stored. On each of our company’s computers we have a special folder called one-on-one where we store each of our templates for use by our staff

What Sort Of Templates Might You Need?

This is one of the key questions I get asked the most. The most common templates I see small businesses require are items like Sick Leave Forms, Leave Applications, Order Forms, Sales Letters, Purchase Order Forms and so forth.

One of the reasons why I chose to build Microsoft Word Templates in my business was to ensure a level of continuity of contact with our customers. By building a series of Templates such as:

- A Company Letter Head
- A Company Fax Sheet
- A Company Leave Application
- A Company Thank You Letter
- A Company Weekly Timesheet
- A Company Sales Letter
- A Company Visitor Sign-in Sheet
- A Company Purchase Order Form
- A Company Order Form

By having these forms in a central place I have ensured that my staff don’t need to be recreating these styles of documents each time they have to send a letter or fax. Further to this, I know that certain sales letters used by my staff will achieve the sales outcomes that I am looking for. By using a Microsoft Word Template, they know that when they get and enquiry that they can simply fill-in the customer details and the letter is done.

In our sales letter templates we use Microsoft Word’s Fill-in field to prompt our staff for key information like the Customers Name, Address and Company Name ensuring that the information does get put into the letter. Once they have completed that they simply press the Print button and its ready to go to the customer. As a business owner, knowing that that’s all my staff have to do to achieve the sales makes me feel far more comfortable than them having to write their own customised letters each time a customer enquires about our training.

Microsoft Word templates are an incredibly useful tool in automating common documents that your staff maybe creating and I believe that this is the first process that all business owners should be using in automating their business.

Technorati Tags: Business, Microsoft Word Templates, Microsoft Word Tutorial

How do I stop Word from helping me type?

Word checks spelling and grammar as you type. When these features are on, spelling and grammar that Word does not recognize are underlined with wavy red and green lines.

To turn off Word’s automatic checking features:

1. In Tools menu, choose ‘AutoCorrect’ (or AutoCorrect Options). Then click on the ‘AutoCorrect’ tab.
2. Uncheck the boxes for the AutoCorrect items that you want to disable.
3. Do the same on the ‘AutoFormat As You Type’ tab.
4. On the ‘AutoText’ tab, uncheck the ‘Show AutoComplete tip’ box.
5. From the Tools menu, pick ‘Options’ then click on the tabs and uncheck any boxes for features that you want to disable.

How do I turn off the Office Assistant?

1. Click on the Office Assistant, then click on ‘Options’.
2. Uncheck the ‘Use Office Assistant’ box.

You can also customize the behavior of the Office Assistant by checking or clearing the checkboxes on the ‘Options’ tab.

If you later decide that you rather miss the lovable Assistant, you can easily bring him back by choosing ‘Show the Office Assistant’ from the Help menu.

How do I turn off the automatic URLs?

Word likes to convert all URLs and email addresses in your document into active hyperlinks. If you’d rather not, then here’s how to turn off that feature:

1. From the Tools menu, Choose ‘AutoCorrect’ (or AutoCorrect Options)
2. Click on ‘AutoFormat As You Type’ tab.µ
3. Under ‘Replace As You Type’, uncheck the ‘Internet and network paths with hyperlink’ box.

Note that this setting only applies to what you subsequently type. If you forgot to turn off AutoCorrect before you started and you end up with a document full of hyperlinks that you don’t want, you can disable them, either one at a time, or all at once. To turn a link off, right-click on the link, select ‘Hyperlink’ from the pop-up menu, and then select ‘Remove Hyperlink’. To remove all links from the document, choose Select All from the Edit menu or press [Ctrl]+[A], and then press [Ctrl]+[6] to remove all hyperlinks.

Technorati Tags: Automatic features, Microsoft Word Tutorial

Rulers

The horizontal ruler is used to set tab stops and indents for selected paragraphs. If the ruler is hidden, click the View menu and select Ruler (if it’s displayed and you want to hide it: same routine). You can always find the horizontal ruler at the top of the document window. The vertical ruler is only displayed in two views: page layout view or print preview. The indent markers and tab stops on the horizontal ruler reflect the settings for the paragraph that contains the insertion point.

The Status Bar

The status bar at the bottom of the Word window provides information about the active document or the task you are working on. It is displayed by default. The task you are performing determines what information appears in the status bar. The status bar displays a brief description of the currently selected command or toolbar button. The status bar also displays information about the text visible on the screen and whether certain working modes (e.g. overtype) are active.

The status bar also provides shortcuts to a number of useful features.
• To open the Find and Replace dialog box, double-click any location indicator on the status bar, such as the page number or section number.
• To turn the macro recorder on or off, double-click REC.
• To turn the Track Changes feature on or off, double-click TRK.
• To turn extend selection mode on or off, double-click EXT.
• To turn overtype mode on or off, double-click OVR.
• To change the language format of selected text, double-click Language.
• To resolve errors in grammar or spelling, double-click the Spelling and Grammar Status icon.

Task Pane

The task pane is an alternative to the dialog boxes. You can dock the pane on the right or left hand side of the window or float it on the screen. It displays commands and controls for choosing options. The blue text is a link that is a command. To turn the task pane on/off, click the View menu and select Task Pane. The task pane has different panes. You can switch to another pane by clicking the black arrow in the upper right hand corner of the pane and then choosing another pane. The back and forward arrows can be used to move between panes you have recently displayed.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Word Tutorial, Rulers, Status Bar, Task Pane, Word window

Allmost all the basic items can be found on the Microsoft Word toolbars. These toolbars can be used to set your font styles and sizes, to start a new document, to print, cut, copy, paste, and many other things.

The toolbars can be displayed or hidden as you work. For example, you can hide the Formatting toolbar until you are ready to format text. If at least one toolbar is visible, you can use a shortcut menu to display or hide built-in toolbars. To do this, click the toolbar by using the right mouse button (Windows). If no toolbars are displayed, click the View menu, choose Toolbars and then select the desired toolbar from the list. By selecting Customize… at the bottom of the list, you can choose to enlarge the toolbar buttons, add color to some of the buttons, and hide ToolTips. If you use large toolbar buttons, you may need to resize the toolbars to see all of the buttons.

Moving and resizing the toolbars

Normally, you find the most common toolbars (Standard and Formatting) just below the menu bar.  If you want to display other toolbars, you have two possibilities of appearance: one - they are “stacked” in the order you displayed them, or two - they are “floating” on the screen like small windows.  If you want to rearrange the stacked toolbars you just click on the toolbar (NOT on a button) and drag it to a new location.

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Everytime you start Microsoft Word, a new document will appear on the screen and just below the menu bar the Standard and Formatting toolbars are displayed. Initially, these toolbars are set to default settings.

In general, when you change the format in a Word document (the font, or spacing, or marging), it’ll only change for that document. When you create a new document or close and reopen Microsoft Word, everything will return to the default settings. Some of these default setting, you’ll find yourself changing periodically such as font styles and sizes, margins, etc.

The first thing you see when you open word is a blank page. This page is entitled: ‘Document1′. Without more preparation, you can start typing immediately. Your text will appear with all the default settings. These settings can easily be changed as you’d like. To create a new document at any time, you just click the New button on the Standard Toolbar.

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Just as we were getting comfortable with our version of MS Word, along comes a new version. This blog explains the basics of Word and new features and how to make the most of them. Time to get your sneakers on and let’s get off to a running start with Word.

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