#139 Customizing Word #2

Here are some other tips on making Word do what you want:

On the Tools menu click on Customize. The Toolbar tab lets you select what toolbars are displayed when Word Opens. The Standard, Formatting and Menu bar are default. If you use another tool bar frequently (like the Drawing tool bar) you can check it in this list and it be displayed when you open Word.

The Options tab should have both the following items checked: Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows and Always show full menus. I have never understood why Word does not have these checked as default If you don't have the first checked then all your menus are crammed together and unless you have a wide screen you can't see them all. The minimized menus are confusing (where did all the commands go). Head scratcher by Microsoft on this one. The remaining OTHER items are up to you to customize.

On the Tools menu click on Options and you have lots of tabs to play with. Other then changing the Default File location in the File Location tab we don't change much here. You can change how Word looks with the View Tab. The General Tab lets you change miscellaneous items like changing the background or measurement. The Save Tab allows you to create a backup document every time you save a file. It also sets the time for automatically saving your file. The User Information Tab lets you change your address and user info. The Spelling & Grammar Tab lets you control Spell check and Grammar check functions. We generally don't visit any of the other tabs, but explore at your own risk!

Did you know Word has a Thesaurus built in? Click on Tools then Language and point to Thesaurus (Wow is that complicated). You can also press the Shift and F7 keys. Now type in the word you want choices for and Viola Thesaurus at work.

Word 2003 and above also has speech recognition built in (it really isn't very good). Make sure you have a microphone plugged in then click on Tools and then Speech. Follow the wizard to set it up.

Enjoy your new Word!