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MSWord Options 1 – See hidden text

Options – See hidden text

To see section breaks, paragraph breaks, page breaks, tabs and spaces:

1. Click on the File tab.

2. Click on the Options option (at the bottom left).

3. In the left pane of the Word Options dialog box, select the Display option.

The Word Options dialog box > Display option
The Word Options dialog box > Display option

4. In the right pane, under the second heading, Always show these formatting marks on the screen, tick the box on the left of Show all formatting marks.

5. Do this whenever you are troubleshooting.

TIP  You can quickly toggle this option on or off by clicking the Show/Hide icon (which depicts a paragraph break symbol [called a pilcrow] – ¶) in the Paragraph group of the Home tab (or pressing the shortcut, Ctrl+shift+8).

Click here to download a PDF of this lesson.
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Learn Your Way Around a Document

Navigate Around a Word Document

Save a document

First download a document to move around in.

  1. Go to Documents and make a New Folder. Call it something like Training -Anne.
  2. Click on the link and download the Letter to format. See below what it looks like.
  3. Save the Letter to format in the new folder.
  4. In Word, open the Letter to format.  (Ctrl+o and Browse).
Letter to Format

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Rename a document

  1. Press F12 to Save As
  2. Rename the document to “Letter to format [Your Name]”.
  3. Delete the paragraph “Letter to format” at the top of the page.

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Navigation – Move around in your document

You can move with or without highlighting (ie, selecting) the text.

Use the Home and End keys

Keys - Insert Delete Home End Page-Up Page-Down
Different keyboards put the keys in different places – but they all have the Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page-Up and Page-Down keys illustrated above.
  1. To go to the right of the line – press the End key.
  2. To go to the left of the line – press the Home key.
  3. To go to the end of the document – press Ctrl+End, ie, hold down the Ctrl key with your left little finger and press the End key with your right hand – then let them both go.
  4. To go to the beginning of the document – press Ctrl+Home.
Tthe four arrow keys

Use the Arrow keys

  1. To go down a line – press the DownArrow key.
  2. To go up a line – press the UpArrow key

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Combine keys

The tab, caps and shift keys
The combination keys
  • A Ctrl key combination moves the cursor.
  • A Shift key combination selects the text.
  • A Ctrl+shift key combination does both – it moves the cursor and selects the text.

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Shift to select

Select a line

  1. Put your cursor at the beginning of the paragraph.
  2. Press Shift+DownArrow, ie, hold down the Shift key with your left hand and press the DownArrow key with your right hand to go down one line.  Keep holding the Shift key and press the DownArrow key again and again until you have selected the whole paragraph, then let go of both keys.  Your text is selected while your cursor moves.

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Select (highlight) a paragraph

Double-click in the margin to the left of the paragraph or triple-click in the middle of it.

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Select the rest of the document

Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys with one hand and press the End or Home key with your other hand. Press Shift+Ctrl+End to go down or press Shift+Ctrl+Home to go up.

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Go one word to the right

Hold down the Ctrl key and press the RightArrow key (Ctrl+RightArrow).

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Select one word to the right

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+RightArrow.  (Put your left little finger on the Ctrl key, your left ring finger on the Shift key, your left forefinger on the Alt key and press the RightArrow key with your right little finger.)
  2. To select several words, keep holding Shift+Ctrl and keep pressing and releasing the RightArrow key.

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Go one word to the left

  1. Press Ctrl+LeftArrow.
  2. To select several words to the left – press Ctrl+LeftArrow repeatedly. 

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Select one word to the left

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+LeftArrow.  (Put your left little finger on the Ctrl key, your left ring finger on the Shift key, your left forefinger on the Alt key and press the LeftArrow key with your right little finger.)
  2. To select several words, keep holding Shift+Ctrl and keep pressing and releasing the LeftArrow key.

Note the difference between Ctrl+End and Shift+Ctrl+End (and between Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+Shift+Home): Holding the Shift key highlights the text while the cursor moves past it.

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Select the whole document

Press Ctrl+a to select All.

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Show or hide the ribbon

Press Ctrl+F1.

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Go to the header

To activate the header so that you can edit it, double-click in the header area or press Alt+H.  Note that your cursor moves into the header, the body of the document goes dull, and the Header & Footer Tools: Design tab appears on the right of the Ribbon.

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To activate the footer so that you can edit it, go to the Navigation group in the middle of your Ribbon and select Go to Footer.

Go to Footer

Go back to the body of the document

Double-click in the body area or press Alt+h.

Click here to download a PDF of this lesson.
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Create your own Microsoft Word Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Key Assignments (Commands)

To speed up the repetitive task of formatting reports, create shortcuts on your computer in its Normal template:

  • Open MSWord.
  • At the top left of your screen, click on the File tab.
  • A menu appears with three panes.  On the left are the options, in the centre is Information About the document, and on the right are the document Properties. 
  • In the left-hand section, at the bottom, select the Options option. 
What you get when you select the File tab.
  • The Word Options dialog box pops up.  
  • In the left pane, select the Customize Ribbon option.
  • The right pane changes into two panes.  Below the right-hand one is a Keyboard Shortcuts label.  
  • Click on the Customize… button next to it.
  • The Customize Keyboard dialog box pops up.  
  • In the Categories list box on the left, drag the scrollbar all the way down so that you can select the All Commands option.
  • In the Commands list box on the right, scroll down to select the AutofitContent option, which makes a table fit to its contents, instead of being as wide as the page.
  • Place your cursor in the Press new shortcut key edit box and enter the shortcut – I suggest Alt+Shift+A for AutofitContent.
  • Click on the Assign button at bottom left.
  • Repeat for all the COMMANDS listed below.
    • COMMAND AutofitWindow
      Description Fit the table between the left and right margins
      Shortcut = Alt+Ctrl+Shift+A
    • COMMAND FormatParagraph
      Description Change the appearance of the selected paragraph/s
      Shortcut = Alt+P
    • COMMAND FormatStyle
      Description Apply, create or modify the style
      Shortcut = Alt+S
    • COMMAND InsertCrossReference
      Description Insert a cross-reference
      Shortcut = F2
    • COMMAND InsertField
      Description Insert a field
      Shortcut = Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F
    • COMMAND InsertNewComment
      Description Insert a comment
      Shortcut = Alt+Ctrl+M
    • COMMAND InsertSectionBreak
      Description Start a new section
      Shortcut = Alt+Return
    • COMMAND ParaKeepWithNext
      Description Keep a paragraph and the following paragraph on the same page
      Shortcut = Alt+K
    • COMMAND ParaPageBreakBefore
      Description Make the current paragraph start on a new page
      Shortcut = Alt+Ctrl+Shift+P
    • COMMAND TableDeleteColumn
      Description Delete a table column
      Shortcut = Alt+Shift+C
    • COMMAND TableDeleteRow
      Description Delete a table row
      Shortcut = Alt+Shift+R
    • COMMAND TableDeleteTable
      Description Delete a table
      Shortcut = Alt+Ctrl+Shift+D
    • COMMAND TableToOrFromText
      Description Convert a table to text or text to a table
      Shortcut = Alt+V
    • COMMAND ViewHeader
      Description Display the header in page layout view
      Shortcut = Alt+H

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Microsoft terminology

Microsoft terminology

Note: The terminology in Microsoft 2007 and 2010 has changed, eg, a “menu” is now called a “tab”.  See some of the new terms below.

  1.  Tabs are designed to be task-oriented.  See the Home tab below.
  2.  Groups within each tab break a task into subtasks.  See the Font group below.
  3.  Command buttons in each group carry out a command or display a menu of commands.  See the Bold command button below.

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MSWord – Remove colour from paragraphs

Remove unwanted shading from paragraphs

Sometimes a paragraph has white or coloured shading behind the text, even though, when you go to Borders and Shading > Shading > Fill, Word tells you there is “No color”.  It usually happens when text has been copied and pasted from the Internet.

Try the simplest solutions first.  Maybe you can simply restore the default font.

Restore default font

Select the paragraph (by triple-clicking in the margin beside it) and press Ctrl+spacebar. 

If that does not remove the coloured fill (shading), see if the colour is a highlight.

Remove highlighting

Select the paragraph (by triple-clicking in the margin beside it).  Go to the Home tab > Font group > Text Highlight Color dropdown arrowhead > No color.  (The Text Highlight Color icon has “ab” to the left of a highlighter pen over a bar the colour of the highlighting.)

If that does not remove the colour, you need to fix the shading.

If the shaded paragraphs are consecutive, select them all.

If you have many intermittent paragraphs with shading, make sure your Borders and Shading button is on the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) to save yourself extra mouse clicks.

Put Borders and Shading on the QAT

Go to the Insert tab (which used to be called a menu). Select the Table  down-arrowhead.  The Insert Table dropdown menu appears.  Select the top-left cell.  A one-cell table is inserted with your cursor in it and the Table Tools tab in your toolbar.  Go to the Design tab > Table Styles group > Borders down-arrowhead.  The Borders and Shading option is at the bottom of the dropdown menu. Right-click it to see a dropdown submenu with “Add to Quick Access Toolbar” as the first option.  Select it.  The Borders and Shading button is added to your QAT.

Remove Shading

Triple-click in the margin beside the paragraph with shading to select it.  Hold down the Shift key and press the Left Arrow key once so that only the text is selected.  Click on the Borders and Shading button in the QAT > Shading > Fill > No color.

Repeat as often as necessary, using the F4 key.

Use F4 to redo.

The F4 function key allows you, with one key press, to repeat the last action you did that was not a move or a selection, i.e., in this case, apply No color.

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Authors I Reread

Authors I Reread
Authors I Reread
Authors I Reread
Authors I Reread

These days, authors who write more than one book often write in more than one genre and I  do not always like everything they have written. But the ones I do like I re-read often.

Dick Francis

I love the integrity and resourcefulness of his characters – and the horses. He died in 2010 but his son, Felix, has taken over seamlessly. They research varied backgrounds and give interesting insights into the characters’ professions.

Karin Slaughter

I love the way Will Trent overcomes his severe dyslexia.

Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

She wrote the Spiral Path trilogy about Alli Sorensson.

Lee Child

He looks such a mild man – but he knows everything Jack Reacher does.

Nora Roberts

I reread her thick mysteries and the Bride Quartet. I love how she conveys the importance of family and friends. I also read the In Death series but she writes enough of those that I don’t need to reread them.

I find Judith McNaught and Susan Wiggs similar but I don’t reread them so often.

Robin McKinley

It was she who started me on fairy-tale retellings. Her imagination is amazing because each book is so different. The first book I read was The Blue Sword and I did not know it was fantasy when I bought it.

Sunshine’s stream of consciousness fascinates me – for the masterful punctuation as well as the endearing character it reveals.

Rosemary Kirstein

The Steerswoman series is a fascinating exploration of anthropology.

Tamora Pierce

She sets a very high standard for writers of fantasy for teenagers.

W.R. Gingell

How does she write such in-depth characterisation so quickly? She is a master of the art of suggestion, telling you just enough to keep you reading.

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Change Name and Colour in Track Changes

Track Changes with Different Colour and Different User Name

My colleague had to re-edit a document and asked if it was possible to have a different colour for the new tracked changes in the same draft by the same author.  I could not find a way to use the same user name with a different colours in Office 365.  All the marked changes I had made, new and old, just changed to that colour.  I did find that I could change the user name slightly so that Word allocated a new colour to that user, as shown in the screenprint below (click on the screenprint and drag the diagonal handle to enlarge it).

Change the user name

  1. Click on File > Options. The Word Options dialog box pops up.
  2. In the right-hand pane, under the second heading from the top, “Personalise your copy of Microsoft Office”, change your user name and initials (I just added a “2” to the end of mine).
  • Now Word thinks you are a new user and changes the colour it assigns to you, as you can see in the “Sly fox” text below.

Change the Track Changes colour

Go to the Review tab > Tracking group and click the dialog box launcher at the bottom right ().

The Track Changes Options dialog box pops up. Click the Advanced Options… button.

The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box pops up.

Click the dropdown for both Color buttons at the top right and choose a colour for Insertions and Deletions. All the marked changes you have made change to that colour.

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If you would like to find out about having a document edited, click here.
If you would like to find out about having a document formatted, click here.

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AutoText

Avoid retyping and reformatting

Work with AutoText to avoid retyping and formatting commonly used text – Alt+F3.

a.  Highlight the text you want to use, eg
Public Finance Management Act, Act No. 1 of 1999 as amended (PFMA)

b.  Press Alt+F3.

c.  Give your AutoText entry a short name, eg, pfma.

d.  When you want to use it, type the short name (separate from other text).

e.  Press F3.

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Reveal Formatting

A very useful feature in Word is the Reveal Formatting pane. The keyboard shortcut is Shift-F1. Click on different paragraphs to give try it out.

Thanks to Bruce Conradie for telling me about it. I love learning new things like this.

The Reveal Formatting pane is also mentioned in instructions about how to format a business letter. They are part of a manual about how to format a document manually in Word 2019. Go to the Manual contents

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