Word tips and tricks nobody tells you about
Hidden features and shortcuts for Microsoft Word — small, specific, and easy to use today.
Word tips
Type a table into existence with three keystrokes
Type a row of pluses and hyphens and hit Enter — Word quietly turns it into a real table.
WWordThe Format Painter shortcut almost nobody touches
Ctrl+Shift+C copies formatting, Ctrl+Shift+V pastes it — no clicking the little paintbrush at all.
WWordGet back a document you closed without saving
The AutoRecover pane holds unsaved drafts far longer than you'd expect — if you know where to look.
WWordReorder your whole document by dragging a heading
Open the Navigation Pane and drag any heading up or down — every paragraph under it moves with it.
WWordSelect and format text in several places at once
Hold Ctrl while you select separate blocks of text, then apply bold, color or a style to all of them in one go.
WWordRestyle the entire document with one click
The Design tab's style sets change every heading, color and spacing choice at once — no manual reformatting.
Turn a plain bulleted list into a diagram
Select any list and choose Convert to SmartArt — Word builds a designed diagram from the same text.
WWordMake your formatting the default for every new document
Set a font or style and click Set as Default — every document you create from now on starts with it already applied.
WWordA table of contents that updates itself as you write
Insert one from the References tab, and it rewrites itself every time your headings or page numbers change.
WWordSee every difference between two versions of a document
Review > Compare lines up both files and highlights exactly what changed, word for word.