1. Get comfortable with the Track Changes feature
Tools > Track Changes
Track Changes is fantastic if you commonly proofread documents for your co-works. It clearly marks where you have made any edits and changes, then the author can accept or reject the modifications you’ve made. You can also make comments about the reasons you made a certain change or ask a question in the margin.
WARNING: It is important to remember is that before handing off your document to the customer, make sure all the changes have been accepted or rejected. You don’t want anyone seeing all the mistakes that were made. They don’t have to know how the magic happens.
2. Use Find and Replace for efficient editing and formatting
Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace
If you are editing a document and you observe that every time the author wrote your they meant you’re. You can easily and quickly fix this utilizing the find and replace function. Another great trick using find and replace is, if your company has a unique font they use for all documents you can find all Times New Roman for instance and replace it with the font your organization uses for their marketing.
3. Customize your toolbars to suit your daily needs and routines
View > Toolbars > Customize Toolbars and Menus
If you spend any significant amount of time in Microsoft Word, you ought to create a workspace that echos the nature of your work. That could mean eliminating unneeded toolbar clutter. It could also mean adding or repositioning certain buttons and functions which you use routinely.
4. Eliminate formatting frustration: Add the “Show all nonprinting characters” button to your toolbar
This helpful button allows you to see all of the formatting elements at play in your document, many of which are otherwise undetectable. When Word begins to act unusual and you can’t understand why your text isn’t doing what you would like it to do, just click the “Show all nonprinting characters” button to find out what’s happening and how to fix it. Boom.
