Are you are one of millions of people who use Office 2010 every day, but you’ve never been bothered to fiddle around with the software’s fancier features?
If this is you, it can be a bit of an eye opener to see how much better the documents you make could look with a few extra clicks. There are sneaky tricks for things you probably do hundreds of times a month – like creating bullet lists, to do lists and tables.
Microsoft has posted quite a large list of free how-to videos – there’s even a link for downloading a stack of these you can watch in Powerpoint when you’re offline.
Here’s just 5 tips for Word 2010 from the Microsoft site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/word-2010-tips-and-tricks-RZ102673170.aspx
Convert list into a table
This is an easy one, but if you find yourself often putting lists into documents, this tip can make the end result look a lot more professional. If you’ve never bothered clicking the “Design” tab before, the video shows in a nutshell what it’s used for.
Convert a list into a graphic
This is something you might use if you’re preparing a report for someone important enough that a plain text document just won’t do.
Hide the ribbon
Not everyone likes having the chunky “Ribbon” menu sitting up there taking up space above your documents. It’s actually easy to toggle the Ribbon on and off - there’s a keyboard shortcut or you can just double click a tab.
Make a to-do list with checkboxes
Here’s a useful one. This video shows you how to create a to-do list with checkboxes you can actually click with your mouse to “check”.
Get Word to create a table of contents
Another basic technique that will add a dash of class to your documents.
Microsoft has also a quick reference card for some of these tips that you can print.
