Tip of the Week: 5 Ways to Make Using Word Better

One of the most well-known suits of software, Microsoft Office, leads the business industry, especially with its very popular Microsoft Word. While we all know what Word is and how to use it, do we really know all of its capabilities? Today, we’re going to take a look at some Microsoft Word tips and tricks, especially the ones that are relatively unknown.

Sick of the ‘click-click-click-click-click’ of Backspacing?

If you are prone to typos, like we all are, it can be really repetitive and annoying to click backspace over and over just to get rid of one work. This is also very true if you find it hard to find the right words and are often rewriting your thoughts over and over again.

To combat this frustrating issue, Microsoft has provided a new keyboard shortcut to make backspacing easier than it was before. Instead of click backspace for each and every character, this new shortcut (Ctrl + Backspace) will delete an entire word. So, if you have typed out a big word, say 15 letters, you can now delete the entire thing instead of clicking the backspace button that many times. While this may not seem like a huge deal, it can add up and save you a ton of time. 

A Built-In Ideo Locator

If you are making edits in the middle of a long document, and then you close it, it can take a while to figure out where exactly you were editing. Microsoft Word now has a handy shortcut to bring your cursor back to where it was on the last save point. This is done by pressing Shift + F5 and will bring your cursor to where it was before. This can save so much time so you’re not searching for where you left off. 

Simplified Hyperlinking

Hyperlinks are extremely useful, especially in business applications, which makes it so handy that Microsoft has included hyperlinking into its shortcuts. Instead of going into the Insert tab, you can simply press Ctrl + K, which will pull up a pop up window in which you can insert the URL you would like to link to. This can also be used to link within your document, like if you’re calling back to a previous point, to link to text in other documents or to even start an email command by clicking on the highlighted text.

Viewing Documents Side by Side, Synched Up

Sometimes it is nice to have two documents side by side, especially if you are referencing one in the other. Microsoft has made it a lot more simple to gaze at two side by side. To do this, open both documents and click the View Side by Side button in the View tab. This will fit the documents side by side so they can be viewed at the same time. You can also activate synchronous scrolling so the documents can scroll down at the same time.

Spike Text

We all know how to use cut and paste, which is one of the most helpful tools offered by computers. But, it is limited since you can only copy one segment at a time, and if you copy something else, it will override the last. Word has an answer to this, calling Spike, which makes it easier to cut and paste text while consolidating it.

Instead of using Cut, Spike doesn’t overwrite what was copied onto its clipboard beforehand. By using Spike, you can move and add more than one segment at a time. To use Spike, copy text by highlighting it and pressing Ctrl + F3. To empty the Spike clipboard, you can click Ctrl + Shift + F3.

Now that you know a few Microsoft Word tips and tricks, you can save plenty of time. MyTek comes out with new blog posts every week so you can learn new tips and tricks about your favorite computing tools.