When you create the process flow chart, process map, business flow diagram, or data flow diagrams and UML activity diagrams, you often need to add some text or labels to the connectors. Unlike many other free and commercial diagram drawing packages, Microsoft Office shapes provide extremely rich text formatting features.

Most process flow diagrams and workflow charts use elbow connectors for connecting process stages and elements, but too many connecting lines of the same type give your chart a messy look. Fortunately, you can combine different connector types that represent semantically different transitions.

Business process charts like employee routines, document preparation, and approval, or online user navigation path on a website or a Web store are different from academic flows of algorithms. Usually, academic applications use a limited number of standard shape types, but in business, different shapes give a better look and simplify understanding. However, it is hard to decide which shape is appropriate for the specific block.

The Shape Format tab (the Drawing Tools toolbar in the previous version and Word 2016) provides plenty of options for customization of the shape outline, background and text settings. Also, here you can change spacing, and size for multiple shapes at once.

Word 365 has an option that allows to use Word document like a board to write some notes anywhere without positioning a cursor. This can help to easily format any kind of document on free style.

The simplest way to copy format from one character, word, paragraph, or other elements in Microsoft Word, is to use the Format Painter button (on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group). Still, with keyboard shortcuts, it is faster.

Word is heavily used by all Microsoft Office users and customization of menu, recent documents and start screen allow you to save a lot of time.

Microsoft Word continuously improves and polishes checks for grammar rules and orthography. There are many additional add-ons, utilities, and applications for checking style, spelling, etc., that can improve your writing, but Word itself provides enough hints for writing correct texts. However, for technical writers it becomes annoying at times. If you choose to use the grammar checker rather than turn it off completely, you can tell it which grammar items you want to check and which you don't.

Sometimes you need to see a word count statistics without obtaining readability information. For example, you have a limit on how many words a document can be for a particular assignment. Usually, journals, magazines, and newspapers restrict the size of the article.

When you first start most of the Microsoft 365 applications, you'll see a new feature called the Start screen.