MS Word Tips & Tricks

If your table happens to overlap more than one page and you want to have a Table Header on each of those subsequent pages then:

• select the rows at the top of the table which you would like to repeat on the subsequent pages
• select Table from the menu
• then select Heading Rows Repeat

Note: this won’t work if you insert a hard page break - CTRL + Enter

When you open a blank document in word do you always have to change the default font to the one you always use?

There is no need to do this as you can easily change the default font to the font you want!

The default settings for all new documents created in Word are stored in the Normal template, Normal.dot.

• to change the font for the Normal template, start a new document then go to Format —> Font
• change the font face and size to reflect the settings you would like to use for future documents
• click the Default button in the bottom left-hand corner of the Font Dialogue Box
• click Yes when the message associated with the font change appears on your screen

You have now changed the default font for all new documents created from this point forward.

Whilst you are browsing the web sometimes you want to copy an entire page and paste it into a Word document.

However frequently when text is imported into a Word document using a standard copy and paste, all the formatting form the Web page is brought over into the Word document too. This can look very strange and lead to time consuming reformatting of the text

• instead of using a standard Paste, trying copying the Web page text; then go to Edit —> Paste Special
• Whilst on Paste Special select the Unformatted text option and click OK to bring over just the text from the Web page without all the formatting

In Word you shouldn't repeatedly press the "Enter" key to force text onto the next page. Instead Word has a tool which will place your text on the next page for you: a Page Break.

• to insert a Page Break press Ctrl+Enter or select Insert —> Page Break from the menu

When working with two or more documents you may find that you are constantly switching between the two.

Some people will use Alt + Tab to switch between all of the windows, which they have on their desktop.

However if it is just the two Word documents that you are mostly using then there is a way to compare each document side by side.

To do this you need to open the two documents that you want to use

• select Window —> Compare Side By Side from the menu

This will then allow you to see both documents on your screen and scroll both simultaneously.

• Save the current document: Ctrl+S
• Print the current document: Ctrl+P
• Copy the currently selected text: Ctrl+C
• Cut the currently selected text: Ctrl+X
• Paste the previously cut/copied text: Ctrl+V
• Change Case of the selected text: Shift+F3
• Insert Page Break: Ctrl+Enter
• Left Align the current text: Ctrl+L
• Right Align the current text: Ctrl+R
• Centre Align the current text: Ctrl+E
• Insert Today's Date: Alt+Shift+D
• Single Line Space the current text: Ctrl+1
• Double Line Space the current text: Ctrl+2
• 1.5 Line Space the current text: Ctrl+5
• Increase Font Size of the currently selected text by 1pt: Ctrl+]
• Decrease Font Size of the currently selected text by 1pt: Ctrl+[

We also have a short guide to other, more generalised, keyboard shortcuts which can be used be many Windows based application

In both Word and Excel you can move your toolbar buttons to a different position, or even delete them from the toolbar by:

• press and hold Alt on the keyboard while drag-and-droping the button to a new position using the mouse.

Note: drag-and-droping them off the toolbar will delete them.

To replace/repair them:

• select View —> Toolbars —> Customise, select the Toolbars tab
• select the Toolbar to repair and click the Reset button followed by OK