Microsoft Office Tips & Tricks

Check here each month for tips and tricks to help make using Microsoft Office easier and faster.

Use Word without using your mouse

Want to keep your hands typing instead of always reaching for the mouse? While you are typing, try CTRL+B, CTRL+I or CTRL+U to Bold Italic or Underline or group of words. to turn them off, simply do another CTRL B I or U. It's as easy as that.

How about opening an existing document, try CTRL+O? Or maybe you are ready to print the current document; use CTRL+P.

To speed up changing a font style, click in the font box on the tool bar; then type the first letter of the new font. If there is more than one font beginning with the letter you typed, type the second letter of the desired font or click the drop-down arrow to open the list. The font you want will now be selected or close in the list without requiring a lot of scrolling.

How many times have you wished you could control where a page should break (end) instead of letting Word do it automatically? Simply position the insertion point (cursor) at the spot where you want the page to break and press CTRL+Enter. If it wasn't the correct location, click Undo and try again.

You can do a similar trick to control where a line ends, rather than let Word do a line wrap automatically. Again, simply use CHIFT+Enter. This ends the line without ending the paragragh, which can really be handy while formatting paragraghs, espcially numbered ones.

John Kahland
South Padre Office Center