How to Save Time Working with Microsoft Office Word 2007

Customizing Microsoft Office Word 2007 can save valuable time and make your word processing much easier. This article will offer you ten tips on how to tweak Microsoft Office Word 2007.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Change the Default File Format. You probably know that Word 2007 uses the new DOCX file format, which is not compatible with earlier versions of Microsoft Word. To save time, it is recommended that you change the default file format to DOC. To do this, click the Office button located at the top-left corner of the screen and select Word Options. Open the Save options and select Word 97-2003. Click OK to accept your changes.

2. Customize the Quick Access Toolbar. Microsoft Office Word 2007 introduced the new ribbon interface. The old, familiar toolbars have been replaced by a single toolbar that can switch between many different categories of options. After installing Word 2007, only three commands appear on the Quick Access toolbar. You can add more commands by clicking the arrow beside the toolbar and selecting any one of the commands. The command will now appear on the Quick Access toolbar

3. Disable the Mini Toolbar. Whenever you highlight text on Word 2007, the Mini Toolbar will appear. To disable the mini toolbar, click the Office button and click Word Options. Click Popular and deselect Show Mini Toolbar on selection.

4. Turn off Reading View for Reading Email Attachments. If you want to disable Reading View for email attachments, you can turn it off by clicking the Office button and selecting Word Options. Click Popular and deselect the option labeled Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading View.

5. Customize AutoCorrect. You can customize AutoCorrect by clicking the Office button and selecting Word Options. Click Proofing and select the AutoCorrect Options button. Click on the AutoCorrect tab. Go to the Replace box and type the abbreviation. After that, go to the “With” box and enter the full text. Click Add and then OK to finish.

6. Customize Shortcut keys. To customize shortcut keys, click the Office button and select Word Options. Click Customize. Click the Customize button located beside Keyboard shortcuts. Now that you’re in the Customize Keyboard box, you can see the current shortcut key for a specific command. Select the shortcut key you would like to use. You can use the Ctrl, Shift, or the Ctrl + Shift keys.

7. Change the Default Save Location. To change the default save location, click the Office button and select Advanced. Go to the General section and click File Locations. Select Documents located in the file types list. Click Modify and use the navigation buttons to select the new location for your saved files.

8. Toggle Formatting Marks. You can enable or disable formatting marks by clicking the Office button and clicking Display. After doing that, you can select the formatting marks you would like to display. Click OK to finish.

9. Use ScreenTips. You can toggle ScreenTips by clicking the Office button and selecting Word Options. Go to the Popular section and go to the dropdown box named ScreenTip style. You can disable ScreepTips by selecting Don’t show Screen Tips. You can disable descriptions by selecting Don’t show feature descriptions in Screentips.

10. Modify the Macro Security Level. You can change the Macro security level by clicking the Office button and selecting Word Options. After that, open the Trust Center. After that, all you have to do is select the macro security level you want.