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Group and ungroup objects

If you work with several objects and have to move them or apply shared formatting to them, you must select these objects every time. Apply formal grouping, and you will be able to operate those objects quickly as a unit.

Snap an object to the Grid or to a Shape

By default, Word makes objects snap (jump) to an underlying grid laid across the document. If you drag an object, such as a shape, you'll notice that it moves in little jerks rather than smoothly. This is because of the grid - but because the grid is usually invisible, it's not obvious.

Use the Style Inspector

With all the different kinds of formatting that Word offers, you may sometimes find it hard to see exactly what formatting is applied to particular characters or a paragraph.
Word provides two tools to help you find out: the Style Inspector and the Reveal Formatting pane.

How to review Tracked Changes

When you've created a document and sent it out to your colleagues for editing, you'll probably need to review the tracked changes and decide which to keep and which to jettison.

Create lists with AutoFormat or turn it off

You can create standard numbered and bulleted lists by typing in a way that triggers the AutoFormat feature to apply list formatting.

Collapse the Ribbon to get more space on screen

When you need as much space as possible on screen to view a document, you can collapse (or minimize) the Ribbon and then restore it very simple.

Change the default font in documents

When you create a new blank document, any text you type appears in the default font, which is called Calibri, at a font size of 11 points, which is a standard size for text in everyday documents (such as letters or reports).

Change the number of the most recently used documents

Having your 25 most recently used documents on the File tab, in the Open menu, is handy, but you may find it's not enough. You can increase the number shown up to 50, and you can pin (fasten) particular documents to the menu so that they remain there even if you haven't used them recently.

Flow text from one text box to another

In some document layouts (e.g., magazines), you may need to run a series of text boxes that contain a sequence of text. Word lets you flow text from one text box to another: When the first text box is full, Word automatically moves to the next text box and fills it. If you add or delete text in a text box, Word adjusts the text in the subsequent text boxes accordingly.

Compress the pictures in a document

If you use large pictures in a document, its file size increases rapidly. You can reduce this problem by telling Word to compress the pictures.

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