formatting

When you press the Tab key while working in Microsoft Word, your cursor moves to a specific location called a tab stop. Tabs can be used to indent paragraphs, but they can also be used for other purposes including creating single- and multi-column lists. This tutorial shows (1) how to change Word’s default tab and (2) how to create, change, and delete tabs in Word on the … [Read more...] about How to Create, Change, and Delete Tabs in Microsoft Word

This tutorial shows you how to create a nonbreaking dash in Microsoft Word. A nonbreaking dash will stop words or numbers connected by an en dash or em dash from separating at the end of a line. These steps can also be used for hyphens. However, Word provides a built-in nonbreaking hyphen that is simpler to use than the process for dashes. See the bonus section at the end of … [Read more...] about How to Create a Nonbreaking Dash in Microsoft Word

This tutorial shows how to insert figure captions and table titles in Microsoft Word. The benefit of using Word’s caption tool, as opposed to just typing captions and titles manually, is that the caption and title numbers will automatically update as you add figures or tables. The following steps also explain how to change the label and numbering for new captions and … [Read more...] about How to Insert Figure Captions and Table Titles in Microsoft Word

Superscripts are numbers, letters, or symbols that appear slightly above the surrounding text. Subscripts are letters, numbers, words, or phrases that appear slightly below the surrounding text. This tutorial shows how to insert superscripts and subscripts in Microsoft Word using three different tools: 1. The Superscript and Subscript Buttons 2. The Symbol Dialog Box 3. … [Read more...] about Three Ways to Insert Superscripts and Subscripts in Microsoft Word

This tutorial shows how to use tags in Microsoft Word. Specifically, we’ll look at three ways to add tags to Word documents: 1. Add Tags through the Backstage View 2. Add Tags through Advanced Properties 3. Add Tags through Save As Then, we’ll look at how to delete tags in Word documents. The final section shows how to search for known and unknown tags through the File … [Read more...] about How to Use Tags in Microsoft Word

You can use Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace tool to delete extra spaces all at once. Or, you can find extra spaces in Word by customizing your proofing options and then deleting them individually as you type or during a Spelling & Grammar check. These three tasks are explained in this tutorial: Customize Word’s Proofing Options to Find Extra Spaces Delete Extra Spaces … [Read more...] about How to Find Extra Spaces in Word

Here’s the scenario: You’ve just completed a twenty-page report with seventy-five footnotes when you realize that several of those footnotes should be endnotes. Rather than deleting those footnotes and manually creating new endnotes, follow the steps below to convert individual footnotes to endnotes in Microsoft Word. These steps can also be used to convert individual endnotes … [Read more...] about How to Convert Individual Footnotes to Endnotes in Microsoft Word (and Individual Endnotes to Footnotes)

My last software tutorial explained how to restrict Track Changes and comments in Microsoft Word. Similarly, today’s tutorial shows how to restrict style changes in Microsoft Word. We’ll walk through the steps for restricting specific changes and all changes. In Word, styles include (but are not limited to) fonts, font sizes and colors, italics, bold font, underlining, line … [Read more...] about How to Restrict Style Changes in Microsoft Word

Block paragraphs are the default in Microsoft Word. Block paragraphs are aligned with the left margin with no indentation and are visually separated by line spaces. Although block paragraphs are popular online, traditionally indented paragraphs are more common in print publishing, business writing, and academic research. Today’s tutorial shows three ways to indent paragraphs in … [Read more...] about Three Ways to Indent Paragraphs in Microsoft Word

This tutorial shows how to insert nonbreaking spaces in Microsoft Word using the Symbol dialog box method and the keyboard shortcut method. Before we start the tutorial, we’ll briefly define nonbreaking spaces and see what they look like compared to regular spaces. This tutorial is also available as a video, which you can watch on my YouTube channel or in the embedded video … [Read more...] about How to Insert Nonbreaking Spaces in Microsoft Word

Last week’s post covered basic guidelines for formatting money in general writing. This week, we’ll look at three ways to insert currency symbols in Word: The Symbol Dialog Box Alt Codes Shortcut Codes For simplicity, we’ll concentrate on the euro, pound, and cent signs in these examples. However, these steps can be modified for all currency symbols available through the … [Read more...] about Three Ways to Insert Currency Symbols in Word

Many of us over a certain age endured a high school typing class on a (gasp!) real typewriter. Between nerve-wracking speed tests and paper jams, we were taught to put two spaces after periods in order to make individual sentences easier to identify. Today, the extra space is frowned upon, but those of us who survived an entire semester with one of those metal monsters may find … [Read more...] about How to Delete Extra Spaces in Word