Word Advanced Training Courses

Shape the Document

Sections

Break up a block of text on a page by utilising sections. Press the Pilcrow button (¶) to see non printing characters Go to ‘Layout – Breaks’ to see your section break options.

Use Continuous section breaks to create a section without moving anything on the page. This can allow you to use wide margins on the section to create an hourglass shape with your text.

Use a next page section break to push the next section onto a different page. Use this to ensure that a paragraph is not split over 2 pages.

Use Column breaks to ensure that your columns are split where you want them to be.

Styles

The Styles section of your home ribbon allows you to customize and apply font styles to your text easily and constantly.

Heading styles give you several benefits.

• You can collapse and expand the sections using the arrow.
• You can search for specific sections using the navigator (Ctrl + F)
• You can create a table of contents by going to ‘References – Table of contents’

You can modify a style by right clicking on it and selecting ‘Modify’. Or create your own by clicking ‘Create a Style’. Change the font settings as normal, and these will apply to every instance of that style. Select ‘New Documents Based on This Template’ if you want to be able to select this style in future documents.

Reusable Content Blocks

Quick Parts

If you find yourself entering the same things to your documents over and over, then you can save yourself considerable time and effort by utilising quick parts.

To add the quick parts, highlight your selection and then go to ‘Insert – Quick Parts – Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery’. You can save anything to a quick part. Text, Images, Word Art, or any combination of elements.

You can now select the quick part at any time by going to ‘Insert – Quick Parts’. This is saved to your Microsoft profile, so can be used on any document.

Quick Parts are also available in Outlook.

Smart Art

Smart Art allows you to easily create professional looking graphics for your data. Go to ‘Insert – Smart Art’.

Select the specific category and style that you want. Though you can change this later. Write a bullet pointed list and the smart art will automatically create itself. Indent your bullet points to create sections.

Depending on the style you chose, you can create dramatically different graphics.

Merge and Protect

Mail Merge

Mail Merge allows you to add fields from an Excel file into your document. Select ‘Use an Existing List’ and select the excel file that you want to use. The heading names from your excel file will become the ‘Insert Merge Field’ selections

Once you are happy with everything, click ‘Finish & Merge’. You can either print it directly, or create a fresh file from all the added records.

You can also choose from a selection of label sizes. Set up the first record with all the front and alignment options you want, then click update record to duplicate it to the rest.

If you have already written a letter, you can replace key parts of your letter with merge fields. You can always press preview results to switch between the merge fields and the actual text. Use the arrows to preview the different letters.

Password & Protections

Once you have finished creating your document, you may want to protect it from editing or from unauthorised people having access. This can all be found by going to ‘File – Info – Protect Document’.

To restrict how others may edit the document, click on ‘Restrict Editing’. Here, you will get an option to choose from restricting any editing, or partial edits like tracked changes.