10 Microsoft Word Tricks Every Teacher Should Know

We all know that Word does a whole heap for the business world, but there are some features that work great for educators.  Whether you are creating a test or worksheet, or helping your students format a formal paper, these tricks should make things easier.  Plus, I just love easy, don't you? 

Yes, there are more tricks up my nerdy little sleeve, but today I'm going to start with my top ten.  Master this list and your nerd points will increase enough to handle my future posts.  Good luck everyone.

 

 

 

Alphabetizing a List – When you create a bulleted or numbered list, Word can alphabetize them quickly. 
2003 and earlier click Table – Sort – ascending
2007 click Home Tab –  icon(Paragraph Dialogue Box) – ascending

Basic Shortcuts – Cut (Ctrl+X ) Copy (Ctrl+C) Paste (Ctrl-V) Undo (Ctrl+Z)

Create a customized bulleted list with happy faces or check marks as the bullet.  You will need to create a list first then do the following:
2003 Users click Format – Bullets and Numbering – Customize – A new window will pop up – Choose Character – Choose Wingdings or Symbols – Select a Character – OK - OK
2007 Users click Home Tab – Drop drown next to the bullet icon – Define new bullet –Symbol – Selected a Character – Ok – Ok.

Creating a Hyperlink – As an alternative to pasting an entire website address (URL) do the following.  Type the title of the website – highlight the title – Click Ctrl-K.

Determining Word Count – Microsoft Word will do a word count quickly for you and your students.
2003 Users - select the text you want to count - Tools – Word Count
2008 Users – select the text you want to count – look at the bottom right of your screen – word count is automatically calculated.

Dictionary/Thesaurus Shortcut – Hold the Alt key down and click on any word, the Reference Toolbar opens and gives the definition of the word as well as synonyms.

Double and Single Spacing Shortcuts – CTRL+2 turns on double spacing for the document where CTRL+1 reverts to single spacing

Hanging Paragraphs – A paper can be set up to automatically indent the first line of any paragraph. 
2003 and earlier click Format – Paragraph – Special – Hanging. 
2007 click Page Layout tab - Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher– Special – Hanging.

Highlighting the Easy Way – Double click on any word and it will highlight. Triple click will highlight an entire paragraph.  CTRL+A will highlight the entire paper.

Insert special characters such as the copyright symbol ©or the degrees ° symbol.  .
2003 click Insert – Symbol – a new window will pop up and double click any symbol.
2007 click Insert Tab – Symbol – select one of the suggested symbols or choose More Symbols.  Double click on any symbol.

Instant Auto Correct – If you find a word that is underlined in red, it’s misspelled.  Simply right click on the word and Microsoft Word will provide suggested spellings.

Tables are your friend.  No more will teachers create worksheets where they have to use the tab key multiple times.  Using tables will eliminate a lot of formatting hassles later on.  Table borders can be turned off so your worksheet looks balanced without seeing tables on the screen.  This is a great tutorial from Office 2003, but the basic concept is the same for 2007.  Watch the video below first, and then for 2007 users check out this link.