5 tips for Word 2007 to maximize your performance

It’s been a while since Office 2007 was released. Although many people know how to use the ribbon and how to write a document with some tables and images, a lot of handy features are not used.
In this article, I’ll introduce 5 nice functionalities that save time and therefor increase your performance

1) Add frequently used command icons to your Quick Launch Toolbar
The Quick Launch Toolbar is located in the title bar, at the top of Word 2007.

 You can modify the Quick Access Toolbar by adding icons you use on regular basis. For example, it would be time saving to add the New Document icon. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click the pull-down menu at the right of the Quick Access Toolbar
2. Click “New” from the list of commands. The list of commands will immediately close and the icon is added.

As you see, it’s very easy to add the “New document” icon in your Quick Access Toolbar. To customize the Quick Access Toolbar even more, you can click the pull down menu and choose “More Commands”. In the new window you have the option to add more uncommon icons, as well as adjust the order of the icons.

2) Adjust the spacing after a line
By default, Word adds a 10pt spacing after each line you <enter>. To some of us, this may be the desired setting, but there may be times you do not want an extra line after a paragraph. In these situations, simply press SHIFT+ENTER. Word 2007 will adjust the line spacing to 0pt for this time only.

3) Customize the shortcut keys
In my opinion, shortcut keys are great. They save a lot of time and maybe some RSI on the long run 🙂 Nevertheless, some frequently used commands may do have a shortcut key. Or, you may wish to assign it a different shortcut key. Fortunately, Word 2007 offers us the option to customize. To create or edit a shortcut key, follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button on the left upper corner 
2. Select Word Options
3. Click Customize
4. On the bottom, click Customize again (on the right of Keyboard Shortcuts)
5. In Categories box, select the category for the command to which you would like to assign a new shortcut
6. Locate the command in the Commands box and select it
7. Click inside the box labeled Press new shortcut key
8. Press your shortcut key (for example CTRL-ALT+U). If the shortcut key is already assigned to a command, it will show the command to which it is assigned. You can overwrite it, or press Delete to undo the shortcut key
9. Click Assign

4) Increase AutoRecover interval
I always advise people to save a document on regular basis with the date or version in the file name. Like mydocument_20008sept21.docx or mydocument_v1.2.docx
But there’s always a chance to meet the big enemy named “crash”. If your Word 2007 closes unexpectedly, you lose many work in many cases. To avoid this problem, yo can set the AutoRecover interval to 1 minute. This means that every minute a backup version will be made of your document. To set this, do the following:

1. Click the Office button on the left upper corner 
2. Select Word Options
3. Click Save
4. Set Save AutoRecover information every x minutes to 1 minute.

5) Disable AutoCorrect options
Oh my, I hate some AutoCorrect options! For example, it always corrects words that I do not want to correct. Like starting sentences in a table with a capital (or not). Some AutoCorrect options are very handy, others are making me angry. View the options yourself and choose what options to enable. To edit AutoCorrect options, do the following:

1. Click the Office button on the left upper corner 
2. Select Word Options
3. Click Proofing
4. Click AutoCorrect options
5. (De-)Select options and click OK