The Office office suite has been with us for decades and, although it is by no means unknown to users, the truth is that there is always room to continue learning about it. Did you know that Word can do anything you ask of it?
Microsoft's document creation software has some features that can help us increase our productivity. Therefore, we are going to see some other tricks with which you will be able to take a leap in quality in the use you make of this program.
Tell Word what you want to do
The text editor has a functionality that It's not artificial intelligence but it looks similar. Has it ever happened to you that you don't remember well how to do a certain action such as adding bold or inserting a header? Well, the solution is as simple as asking this program questions, and it will provide you with the solutions you need, almost as if it were an AI.
The latest version of Word has a magnifying glass symbol next to the “Help” option. If you don't know how to do something, write it in this particular search engine and the program will tell you how to carry out the function you want to perform.
Try this, in your text editor write a couple of lines and select the text, then access the search box that we have indicated and type “bold” or “italics”, and You will immediately find the tool you need to make the change.
Protect your document with a password
Word can do everything you ask of it, including giving special protection to those documents that you must keep private.
If you don't want anyone to have access to your text files, give them extra protection.
Do this:
- Click on "File".
- Go to “Protect document”.
- In the dropdown that appears, select “Encrypt with password”.
- Choose a strong password that you can remember.
- press "To accept".
Now, every time you need to open this document, you will have to enter the password you created. You won't be able to recover it, so make sure you remember it correctly or you won't be able to access the file.
Customize Word autocorrect
Autocorrect has saved us all from submitting a document with spelling errors. Because, no matter how careful you are, some always slip through.
Spelling mistakes and typos are the order of the day when we work quickly with the keyboard, and the autocorrect is there to solve them. If you want it to be even more effective, you can customize it.
Have you realized that you commit a mistake on a recurring basis? If so, set your autocorrect to correct it immediately when it detects it.
This is very simple, you just have to follow this route:
- Archive.
- Options.
- Review.
- Autocorrect options.
A window will open in which you can add different terms and words. Defines the incorrect term or expression on the left hand side, and on the right the text with which you want it to be automatically replaced.
Hide all grammatical errors, because Word can do anything you want
Taking care of grammar is something we should all do. But if this discipline is not your thing, your texts may end up full of red underlines that tell you that there is something you should correct.
Our recommendation is that you pay attention to the Word grammar checker. However, there are times when this will not be necessary. For example, if you simply you are drafting or taking notes, and at that point neither grammar nor spelling are important.
You can prevent the program from highlighting your grammatical errors in red if you follow the route:
- Archive.
- Options.
- Review.
- Hide spelling errors in this document only.
- Hide grammar errors in this document only.
Convert text to a table
There are several ways to create a table in Word, but some of them are complex. Luckily, there is also a very simple way to convert a text into a table, The thing is that not everyone knows her.
If it is a text that has some coherence and can be separated, This trick works very well. Start by selecting the text and then follow the path:
- Insert.
- Table.
- Convert text to table.
The program will automatically create a table, with the number of rows, columns and separators that it considers appropriate based on the text you have provided.
Add links quickly
Word has many features, but not all of them are equally well developed. Under normal conditions, creating a link in our text to a web page can be somewhat tedious, because we have to take several steps and use both the keyboard and the mouse.
However, there is a very handy keyboard shortcut. Point to the text that you are going to use as an anchor and press Control + Alt + K and the box to create hyperlinks will automatically open.
Paste plain text
Cutting and pasting text is one of the most used options in Word, but This functionality is no longer practical when we have to face the format change problem. Luckily, with a little trick, we can paste plain text.
Make sure you have the desired text on your clipboard. Then follow the route:
- Tab "Start".
- Click on the down arrow below the option "Paste".
- Keep text only.
The text will appear exactly where you want it, but it will not retain its original formatting. This will prevent you from having to make changes.
Remove all formatting from a document
If what you want is to leave text completely unformatted to eliminate the mixing of formats that can sometimes occur, press the Control + Space sequence. The bold and the different types of fonts that were in your document will disappear. Now if you want, you can give it a uniform format from scratch.
Delete text with keyboard shortcut
To delete a good amount of text, we usually select it with the mouse and then press the delete key, but we can also do it through mouse shortcuts.
By pressing Control + delete we delete entire words. If you have changed your mind, Press Alt + delete and you will reverse the action taken.
You've seen it, Word can do anything you ask of it. The key is knowing the best tricks to get the most out of it.