Article 17:
Quick Word Tips
A lot of us learn how to use our computers in a haphazard way. That was certainly my experience. I knew how to type and applied what I knew of the typewriter to the computer. Little by little, I mastered word processing – but only those features of Microsoft Word that I needed for the job at hand. Sound familiar? Probably…
But MS Word is a treasure trove of powerful features that most users either don't know about or have no idea how to use. Let's look at a few of them.
Looking at the toolbars
When you open MS Word, at the top of your screen there is a Menu Bar. Immediately beneath it, you probably see one or two horizontal toolbars (called the Standard and Formatting toolbars) containing buttons that serve as shortcuts for common word processing tasks.
Need a hint? Try a tool tip
If you rest (not click!) your mouse over a toolbar buttons, a yellow tool tip appears identifying its task. On the Standard toolbar, for instance, the first three tool tips read “New blank document”, “Open”, and “Save”. Run your mouse over all the buttons on your toolbars to see what they are called.
Help –my toolbars have disappeared!!
All toolbars can be turned on or off as you need them. The interface of MS Word can be changed in many ways, and when you have a few people using your computer, you may suddenly find that the old comfortable look of your program has suddenly changed, because one of the other users turned on a new feature or closed down something you are used to seeing. So how can you bring back your toolbars if they disappear? Easy.
- Just RIGHT-CLICK the menu bar or any open toolbar.
- On the list that appears, click the name of the toolbar you want to display. The list closes and the toolbar appears.
Let's look at a few of the toolbar buttons.
Print preview (Standard toolbar) and Print View
Ever wonder what your document is going to look like when you print it? You have two tools to help you preview your printed document.
- First, open a document in Word.
In a lower left-hand corner of your screen there are several small icons, each accessing a different view of your document. Click them to see how the display changes. If you click the third icon from the left, the print view appears. 
Now, on the Standard toolbar, click the Print Preview button. It looks like a magnifying glass on top of a piece of paper. The document opens in a smaller view (as if looking at the document from further away) so you can see the layout more clearly, Use the buttons on the Print Preview toolbar to make adjustments before printing.
Columns (Standard toolbar)
Want your text to flow in columns, giving your document the look of a newsletter?
Click the Columns button (looks somewhat like a block of text divided into two columns). - Drag your mouse across to select the number of columns you want.
Note: If you only want part of the document in columns – select the text, and then click the Columns button.
Line spacing (Formatting toolbar)
The line spacing button (with up and down blue arrows next to a few horizontal black lines) makes it easy for you to change paragraph spacing -- switching from single to double spacing, for instance.
- Click the drop-down arrow to the right of this button to choose from a menu of line spacing choices.
Highlight (Formatting toolbar)
Word also has a built-in highlighter. At the right and of the formatting toolbar, there's a button showing a marker and letters highlighted in yellow. A horizontal line on the button shows the currently selected highlighting color.
Click the button to “load” the highlighter. (Click the button drop-down arrow if you wish to select another color.) - Click and drag your mouse over any text you wish to highlight. All done? Press the Escape key, or click the highlighting button the second time to return to normal.