Microsoft Word 2013 Basics: Tips & Tricks

Document Inspector-When the File tab is clicked there is a command called Info and one of the options that can be selected is called Inspect Document. This feature will check through your entire document to search for hidden text, metadata, personal information, watermarks, and much more, which will allow you to modify the document before sharing it with others.

Bookmarks-When working on a long document and if you know that you will need to re-edit certain sections, you can mark these places with a Bookmark from the Insert Ribbon.  Bookmarks will assign a name to certain points in the document so that you can quickly return to edit if necessary.

Quick Access Toolbar-This feature can save a lot of time looking through the various Ribbons for commands and options.  You can add your favorite or most used commands to this toolbar by selecting the available options or by using the More Commands feature and selecting from the options in that dialog box.

Shortcuts with the ALT key-If you press the ALT key the shortcuts for Word will appear with the letter key that is used to activate them.  In the image above if you press ALT while using the Insert Ribbon, then hitting the N key will activate the dialog box for inserting tables.  Shortcuts are an easy and quick way to move around Word.

Improving Borders-In Word 2013 there is a new feature called Border Painter that becomes available whenever a table is selected in Word.  Use this feature to add color and depth to the tables in your document.

Text Wrapping-Whenever an image is clicked on the Picture Tools Ribbon will open up, then select the Format Ribbon.  Under the Arrange tab is a great feature called Wrap Text and when clicked a dialog box will show multiple options for how the image will be positioned within your text in the document.  

Quick Parts-One of the new features that enables users to place information that is commonly used such as company name, phone numbers, etc., is by using Quick Parts from the Insert Ribbon. You can create new fields, insert properties, and select items from the Building Blocks Organizer which contains numerous pre-designed items.

Cover Pages-Word 2013 comes with a selection of cover pages that can be used for documents.  Cover Page is available on the Pages tab in the Insert Ribbon and once it is selected the cover page will appear as the first page in the document.  The cover can be modified or changed by using the regular Word features.