Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
It may seem this way, and sometimes I also wonder. But mostly, I find Word is invaluable in a business setting. You just need to know how best to use it.
To shift your mindset, be sure to read Word makes me want to pull my hair out … (if you haven’t already). That’s the first article in this three-part series. The second article (Why don’t you go format yourself …) will help you reassess how you’re currently formatting your Word documents.
For now, let’s get back to how smart Word is.
Like many, I’m sure you spend a large part of your day writing business letters, proposals, etc. So it makes sense to streamline your document creation and formatting processes.
This will help you reduce the time you spend creating and formatting documents. And it’ll also speed up document editing. Plus, you’ll create documents you’re proud of … minus the stress and frustration.
Don’t believe this is possible with Word? Read on to discover five ways that’ll make this a reality for you (and restore your faith in Word).
1. Set styles that align with your business brand
Looking professional and standing out from the crowd shouldn’t be for the top end of town only. And it doesn’t need to be.
Now, it’s likely you already have a logo, letterhead and the like for your business. And perhaps you’ve added your logo here and there to your Word documents. But the likelihood is, this is as far as you got. You haven’t yet incorporated your brand in your business documents.
However, it’s very easy to format your Word documents to reinforce your brand. Here I’m talking about formatting styles (especially heading styles) in line with your business colours and fonts.
When you then use templates that incorporate styles, you can be certain you’ll always create documents that have a consistent design and feel. You simply set your business brand once, and let Word do the work for you! This takes the guesswork (and time) out of formatting documents.
2. Build documents quickly
Word has quite a few nifty, sometimes hidden, features which enable you to build documents quickly. Building blocks are one such feature.
A building block is a ‘quick part’ of reusable or standard content.
There are huge time saving benefits to using building blocks. That’s because you only need to format the content of a building block once. You can then insert the content into any document with the click of a button. And the best part is, there’s no extra formatting required.
On a practical level, building blocks can contain content such as tables, lists, pre-formatted footers, and so on.
To work out the type of building blocks that’d be useful for you, consider the content you regularly use across different documents. Likewise, any content you often copy and paste from one document to another. This is the kind of content you should add to your building block gallery.
3. Use automation to save time
In Word, automation streamlines the entry of repeated information in a document. This is a great way to reduce the amount of time you spend creating documents. And is especially useful for documents you produce on a regular basis.
For example, say you’re putting together a report. And you want the client name to appear in the footer (as well as other places) in your document. Yes, you can manually type this information wherever required.
But there is an easier and quicker way. And that is to insert a link to the first instance of the client name wherever you want it repeated. You’ll then only need to type the client name once, and Word will replicate this text where you’ve inserted links to it.
Another major bonus: you reduce input errors! Unless of course you enter the wrong information in the first place – then it’s replicated. But on the plus side, at least you’ll be consistent!!
4. Use AutoCorrect to streamline typing and editing documents
AutoCorrect is the shorthand of the digital world. But it’s rarely used in this productive way.
Now you’ll have come across Word’s AutoCorrect feature many times in the past. It’s the Word feature that corrects misspelt words it recognises from its database of commonly misspelt words.
So for example, if you type ‘cna’, Word will change this to ‘can’.
But you can also customise AutoCorrect to insert words, phrases or sentences you often use. You do this by programming AutoCorrect with a ‘shorthand’ cue for the text.
So instead of typing ‘business’, you program AutoCorrect to recognise the two letters ‘bs’ as a cue to insert ‘business’. Or, instead of typing ‘thank you for’, you’d type the shorthand ‘tyf’.
5. Reduce the time you spend navigating documents
I mentioned how effective styles are in incorporating your brand in Word documents.
But another key advantage of using text styles in particular is that they enable you to insert an automatic table of contents. Likewise, your formatted headings also appear in Word’s Navigation pane.
This means you (and others) can quickly and easily navigate to a specific point in your document.
So, you no longer need to scroll through 50 pages to find the particular section you want to work on. Instead you click a hyperlinked heading (either in the table of contents, or Word’s Navigation pane). And Word takes you directly there.
In conclusion
I’m sure you’re going to find the above features helpful when creating, editing and formatting your Word documents. Especially when working with long documents.
Alongside these features, though, it’s also time to start thinking about using Word templates in your business. Because when you use the above features alongside Word templates, you’ll save even more time.
So, you see, Word really isn’t as stupid as it may seem. Especially when you know how to harness its capabilities!
