Want to find out the key changes in Word 2010? This article brings you details of the top ten changes to help you to get to grips with what's new in Word 2010.


Change one: The Customisable Ribbon

The biggest change to Word 2010 is that the Ribbon navigator, introduced with Word 2007, is now fully customisable, so you can add or remove any command to or from any Ribbon Tab. You can also create your own tabs with any commands, so the entire Ribbon can be customised.


Change Two: The Backstage View

The new Backstage View, accessed by the new File Tab, replaces the Office Button in Word 2007. The Backstage View contains all the Word file management, Word options, Help and security features.


Change Three: Recover unsaved files

Word 2010 users can recover the most recently used files even if not saved. To set this, choose the File Tab, then Options, then Save. Under the "Save Autorecover..." box you'll see a new checkbox "keep the last autosaved version if I close without saving". Tick the box to enable the feature. This allows all recent autosaved files to be recovered.


Change Four: New Document Navigation pane

Word 2010 has a new document Navigation Pane with drag and drop features. To show this view, select the View tab and click on the Navigation pane button. The Navigation Pane has three tabs for headings, pages and searches, and you can drag and drop elements such as sections or pages to change the document order.


Change Five: Images and Graphics

Image and picture editing has been improved in Word 2010 giving you features previously only found in image editing software. For example you can add artistic effects to an image. To do this, first select a picture in Word. Then in the Format Tab click on the Artistic effects button to preview effects such as line drawing, water colour sponge and textured.

You can now remove backgrounds of images in Word. With an image selected click on Remove Background button. A drawing rectangle appears on the image, which you can move or resize to select which part of the picture you want to keep.

You can also apply new image editing features. With the picture selected, you can choose correction to alter sharpness and softness, and brightness and contrast. You can also change colour saturation, colour temperature and add colour tints, and compress images to suit print, screen or email.

Graphics enhancements include new SmartArt graphics which can contain images, and you can convert images to SmartArt graphics.


Change Six: The One Click Screen Capture

There's a new one click screen capture feature you can use right from within Word. You can select the whole or part of any screen from any Window, and the results are pasted straight into Word 2010. To use this, on the Insert Tab click the Screenshot button.


Change Seven: Fonts and text formatting

Fonts in Word now have a new ligature feature such that, if two successive characters have a common component, for example a horizontal line on the letters "f", the lines are visually joined to give a more pleasing appearance. This ligature feature can be applied by configuring font properties.

Word now includes a new fixed digit numbering format, so you can now add data such as 001, 002 and 003 to a table and retain the leading zeros.

You can alt (alternative) text to a table in Word 2010, as well as to a SmartArt graphic or image. These will display if the page is saved to an HTML format and viewed in a browser.

And finally, there are new WordArt visual effects you can apply to text, such as shadow, border and reflection.


Change Eight: Improved Collaboration

Individuals or small business users can collaborate on Word files stored on the web by using the new Word web app. Users need a free Windows Live ID which allows them to save to up to 25G on the SkyDrive. Saved files can be marked for sharing as appropriate, allowing multi users editing at the same time.

For users in larger organisations using SharePoint, Word 2010 files can be saved to the SharePoint 2010 server which allows multi user editing through appropriate permissions.


Change Nine: New Security Features

Word 2010 has a new Protected View which is used if you open a file in from a questionable source such as the internet or from an email attachment. You can set Word2010 to open files from trusted sources on your computer or a network share, or you can choose to open a protected view file.


Change Ten: Mini Translator

Word 2010 has a Mini Translator in addition to the existing translate features. To use this highlight a word or words, then in the Review Tab click on the down arrow of the Translate button and select Mini Translator. You do not need to have installed additional language packs as the translation is done over the internet. Then hover your mouse in the text to show the translated text in a live preview display. You can easily configure the mini translator for different languages.

To gain further familiarity with Word 2010 consider attending one of the many training courses available to really boost your skills.