Microsoft Word 2007 & 2010 Tips and Tricks : Christine Kent

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Did you know? Some handy Word 2007 tips

…you can download an add-in to convert to PDF from within Word?

Click 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF .

…you can do much more with Find and Replace than meets the eye?

Click Microsoft Word 2007 help for full instructions.

...you can search by code.

Click Use codes to find letters, formatting, fields, or special characters to see list of codes you can search on.

…you can browse by object such as graphics, tables etc?

Click the grey ball towards the bottom of the scroll bar.
Select one of the options.
Press Ctrl Page Down to find the next instance.

…you can suppress page number in TOC

Type \n 1-1 outside the inverted commas in your TOC code to suppress the page number for TOC 1 style.

Type \n 1-2 to suppress line numbers for the first two TOC levels etc.

…you can bold your Index page numbers without bolding the Index entry

Add \b to your index entry, for example, {XE"business overview" \b}.

You can tick the checkbox for each index entry you add through References, Mark Entry, Page number format, or you can edit all your field codes.

If your Index style is bold, /b will un-bold the page number.

…you can autogenerate text

On a new line in Word, type =rand() and press Enter.Word will insert several paragraphs of text taken from the HELP pages.

To control the amount of text displayed, type two numbers, separated by a comma inside the parentheses, the first figure for the number of paragraphs and the second for the number of sentences per paragraph. So, typing =rand(2,4) will generate two paragraphs with 4 sentences each.

Myths and fears, and the disappearance of the toolbars

Word 2003 users are resisting upgrading to 2007 because they fear loss of functionality and most importantly, loss of workplace efficiency. There is a pretty hefty body of misinformation and myth perpetuating and supporting these fears, but they are groundless with a single proviso.

If you upgrade and do not take the time to learn some functions and to customise your system, your productivity WILL DECLINE.
If you take that time out to set your system up properly, your level of productivity WILL INCREASE.

The really critical and perhaps major complaint of new users is the disappearance of the toolbars. This is the only potentially big issue as far as I can see for converting from 2003 to 2007. To someone who has not yet worked logically through 2007, that would seem like a terrible loss, but it is not as bad as it seems initially. It will consume some time, if you are a big toolbar user, to re-think your use of toolbars and to re-configure, but not as much as you think.

Where are my toolbars?

If you open your 2003 documents in 2007, your toolbars are still there but one layer deeper. If you have toolbars, you will see an Add-ins tab.

From the Ribbon, click the Add-ins tab. Your toolbars will be displayed.
Select the command you want from the toolbar.

The Quick Access Toolbar

The toolbars have been partially replaced by a single, mostly user-defined Quick Access Toolbar.

You can place any command and any macro on the QAT. I have 44 buttons on my QAT, and there is room for more. I do have a wide screen, so part 1 of your upgrade solution is:

Get a wide screen monitor if you do not already have one – there are two reasons you need a wide screen as you will see later.

Then you must:

Learn how to use your QAT and start setting it up to suit your personal needs. It is so easy to add and remove buttons that you do not need to get it right first time; you can let it evolve. You can also set up QAT components that are document, add-in or template specific. For instructions for how to set up your Quick Access Toolbar click here.

Styles

The one thing you cannot put on the QAT is styles - which is perhaps the most common thing we do put on toolbars. If you remove styles from all your toolbars, you will probably find you have more than enough space on the QAT for the rest. To get round the issue of no styles on the QAT I work with my Styles pane open, and I rank my styles so that the most commonly used 30 or so (defined by the height of my screen) are ranked number one and so always show. As these are template dependent, my ranking can change from template to template.

Learn how to use set up your Styles. For instructions for how to set up your Styles click here.

This is the second reason I like a wide screen. It makes it much easier to leave the Styles pane open.

This combination of QAT and the Styles pane has effectively replaced toolbars for me. Perhaps there are some users with such complex needs that they cannot be satisfied by 40+ commands on the QAT and 30+ styles, but for most of us, we have more than enough commands that are visible on the screen at all times and that can be accessed with one click.

But what about the keyboard shortcuts?

There is a vast amount of misinformation about keyboard shortcuts.

There are now TWO systems for keyboard entry, the 2003 system that uses the Ctrl key and a new one that is ribbon and command based and uses the Alt key. If you can't find a command in one system, you certainly will find it in the other. I am told that a very few of the old keyboard shortcuts have changed, however, you are still able to assign your own keyboard shortcuts, so if you are unhappy with the given shortcut you can change it.

If you are a shortcut user, check out both systems, and redefine any shortcuts you can't accommodate. For instructions for how to re-define shortcuts click here.

What's new in keyboard shortcuts?

There are now two types of shortcut in Word 2007:

Key Combination shortcuts
Access Keys

They define keyboard shortcuts for you, but if you do not like the key combinations you are given, you can:

Define or change a Key Combination Shortcut

Key Combination Shortcuts

Key Combination Shortcuts are mostly the same as those in Word 2003. They are a fast easy way to apply commands. If you have trouble remembering them you can set screen tips to display them when you run your cursor over a command. Most of these shortcuts use the CTRL key. You will find a full list of key combination shortcuts at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP101476261033.aspx.

Turn on screen tips

Click the Office button, Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box. Popular will be highlighted by default.
Click the More down arrow for the ScreenTip style field.
Select Show feature description in ScreenTips.
After you close and re-open Word, you will have detailed screen tips when you run your cursor over a command.

Set shortcuts to display in screen tips

Click the Office button, Word Options. The Word Options dialog box displays.
On the Word Options dialog box, click Advanced.
Scroll down to Display.
Make sure Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips is ticked.
Click OK to save changes. After you close and re-open Word, you will see both Screen Tips and Shortcut Keys when you run your cursor over a command.

Define or change a Key Combination Shortcut

If some of the pre-defined shortcuts do not suit you, you can redefine them.

Go to Office, Word Options, Customize.
Click Keyboard shortcuts: Customize.
From the Categories box, identify the Menu, Tab or other location for the command you want.
From the Commands box, find and click your command.
In the Press new shortcut key field, press the key combination you require.
Specify the template or document to which you want to save it.
Click Assign, Close.

Access Keys

You can also use the new range of Access Key keyboard shortcuts. These take you through the Ribbon, Tabs, and the Office button to find a command. They use the Alt key, which gets you out of text entry mode and into command mode.

They can be tricky to use until you get used to them, but you will find them very useful if you have an issue with using a mouse, and also with remembering the vast number of Key Combination Shortcuts.

They give you access to every single command on:

the Ribbon
the Microsoft Office Button menu, and
the Quick Access Toolbar

Explore Access Keys and the Ribbon

With your cursor anywhere in your document, press the ALT key to display letters and numbers called Key Tip Badges. For example there is an F over the Office Button and an H over the Home tab.
With the letters still visible:
1. press the F key on your keyboard to be taken to the Office menu where there are more Key Tip Badges available.
2. Press the O key. The New Document dialog box opens. To do this quickly you would press ALT+F+O.
3. To exit, press Cancel to close the dialog box.
Press ALT to see the badges for all the tabs.
Press ALT + the displayed badge for any tab to display the second level badges for that tab.
You can even display contextual tabs this way, for example, press ALT + F + W + V to display the Print Preview tab.

Clearly some of these combinations are not user friendly, so if you are a user who remembers shortcuts, you may want to customise your Key Combination Shortcuts to suit.

How to turn Keep Track of Formatting on and off

Keep track of formatting is tricky and is much more powerful in Word 2007 than in previous version. (For users of past versions, this relates to the old Char problem.)

It pays to pay attention to it. It is a critical setting almost hidden in the Options setting in the bottom right corner of the Styles Task Pane.

View the settings

Click Options from the Styles Task Pane.

The critical function on this page is the Select formatting to show as styles: setting. This works together with Keep track of formatting which you will find in Office, Options. They both have to be set to get the required outcomes.

Set Keep Track of Formatting to ON

Click the Office button, Word Options, Advanced.
Tick Keep track of formatting if you want Word 2007 to remember your manual formatting changes and store them as styles.

The safest option is to un-tick this, but if you leave it ticked, you can manage what shows in your style list in the Style Pane Options box.

Set Mark formatting inconsistencies to ON

Tick Mark formatting inconsistencies if you are disciplined with using styles and want Word 2007 to underline any manually formatted text.
Leave them both ticked for now and click OK.

Set Select formatting to show as styles

These options are disabled if the Mark formatting inconsistencies checkbox is un-ticked.

Back in your Styles Task Pane, click Options again.
With the Mark formatting inconsistencies checkbox ticked, the Select formatting to show as styles: options are enabled and control what you see in your Styles Task Pane.
Select which manual formatting you want Word 2007 to track (if any).

Set Keep Track of Formatting to OFF

If you decide you don't want Word to keep track of any formatting, click the Office button, Word Options, Advanced.
Untick Keep track of formatting.

Create a document with Normal template

What is Normal template?

The most commonly used template is called Normal. If you create a document in Word without selecting a template, Word will select and use Normal template on your behalf.

Normal defines document elements such as the size and layout of a page, headers and footers, margin settings and many other types of formatting applied to an entire document. Normal template also contains some Styles that help you format your text.

Create a document with Normal template

To look at Normal template, create a new file.

Open Word 2007.
Click the Office button in the top left hand corner.
Click New. The New Document dialog box below displays.

In the left hand panel, you will see a list of Templates. There are templates designed to help you do just about everything, but we will select Blank for now. When you select Blank you are selecting Normal template.

Click Blank and recent if it is not already highlighted.
Click Blank document in the centre panel.
Click Create. A new blank document displays on your screen.

About Styles

Templates contain many commands that define how your document will look. One of the components of this is Styles. A style is a set of formatting instructions that can be applied to a piece of text with a single action. The set is given a meaningful name so you can remember what it is. When you select some text and apply a style, that text is automatically formatted with ALL the attributes carried by the style. There are a number of advantages with using styles:

They speed up the formatting process.
They help you achieve consistency throughout your document.
They are used by advanced features in Word such as creating tables of content, and creating cross references.

Look at the Styles in Normal template

With the Home tab selected, look at the "ribbon" across the top of your screen. You will see a group labelled Styles, with a highlight around Normal. That is Normal style in Normal template.

Turn the Show all button on

Before you start, find the Show all button on your Home tab, Paragraph group.
Click so it is highlighted. From now on, work with this button highlighted at all times. With the Show All button selected, you will see a hard return symbol at the end of each paragraph (¶). These will not print.

Apply styles from the Styles Gallery

In your new document type your name. Your text has been automatically formatted with Normal style, but how do you know this and what does it mean?
You can find what style is applied to your text by looking at the Home tab, Styles group. The command box that says Normal has a yellow highlight around it. That tells you that you have formatted your name with Normal style.
You can also see what font is applied by looking at the Home tab, Font group. You will see the font name Calibri with an 11 next to it, which is the size.
With your cursor at the end of Your Name, press Enter. You are taken to a new line.
Type Heading 1.
Press Enter.
Place the cursor back anywhere in the word Heading.
From the Home tab, Styles group, click Heading 1. Your text will now have changed to font Cambria, size 14, blue and bolded, with quite a lot of space before it.
Look at the Home tab, Font group to see the font name Cambria with a 14 next to it, which is the size. You will also see the B for bold highlighted, which tells you the text is bolded so that it stands out more.
Now place your cursor under Heading 1, if it is not already there.
Type Heading 2.
Press Enter.
Place the cursor back anywhere in Heading 2.
From the Home tab, Styles group, click Heading 2. Your text will now have changed to be font Cambria, size 13, a paler blue and bolded, with a bit less space before it than Heading 1.
You can see this by looking at the Home tab, Font group. You will see the font name Cambria with a 13 next to it. You will also see the B highlighted, which tells you the text is bolded.

Quick Styles set

Look at the styles shown in the Styles group. These are called Quick Styles. They are the ones Microsoft thinks you are likely to use the most.

Back in your document, type some more text.
Apply another style from the Quick Styles gallery.
Press Enter to move to the next line.
Do this with each of the styles you find on the Quick Styles gallery. Make sure you have a line of text formatted with each style.

Look at styles in the Styles Task Pane

So far, you have typed some text, applied some different styles and seen what font and size is associated with those styles, but you will have seen that there are more differences between the styles than just font and size. There were different colours; black, dark blue and a lighter blue and also different spacings before and after the text. We will look at these next.

Styles can be displayed in the Styles Task Pane with or without their formatting. When you are first getting used to a template, you may want to see what the styles look like. Once you know your template, it is easier to view the list with the formatting turned off.

On your Home tab, Styles group, in the bottom right corner click the little arrow: the Styles.
The Styles Task Pane displays on the right of your screen. Unlike the Quick Styles set in the Home tab, Styles group, the Styles Task Pane displays all the styles available on your template. From now on, work with Styles Task Pane open.
Place your cursor somewhere in Your Name.
Scroll up and down the Styles Task Pane until you find Normal, which will have a blue outline around it.
Run your mouse over Normal in the Styles Task Pane. Leave your cursor there for a moment and an information box will display all the formatting for Normal. Every time you apply Normal to some text, you will get everything on that list.
Place your cursor in Heading 1 in your document.
Run your cursor over Heading 1 in the Styles Task
Pane. Leave your cursor there for a moment and an information box will display all the formatting for Heading 1. Every time you apply Heading 1 to some text, you will get everything on that list.
Now repeat this exercise with each other line of text that you have formatted with different styles.

Select "Show Preview" in the Styles Task Pane

In the Styles Task Pane tick the Show Preview checkbox. Tick and untick it to see what happens. Pick the view you prefer.
With the Show Preview check box ticked, you will have a list of styles in your Styles Task Pane (they display once you have applied all the styles to a piece of text). Note that styles apply to paragraphs. You end a paragraph when you press the Enter key. Word inserts a paragraph mark (¶) to show you that the paragraph is ended. When you start a new paragraph, you can apply a different style.
Experiment with applying styles to paragraphs of text until you are comfortable with the process and have a feel for what you are doing with them.

When you are finished, you can close this document without saving it by clicking the X in the top right corner of your screen.

How to create an auto-generated Table of Contents

You should never need to create a manual table of contents. Word can do this for you, but you must have used styles to format your text. If you do not already have one, create a document with a Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 style.

Insert Table of Contents

Place your cursor where you want your Table of Contents inserted.
Click References tab and find the Table of Contents group.
Click Table of Contents. A menu displays.
Click Automatic Table 1 or Automatic Table 2.

A table of contents is inserted at the location of your cursor showing each heading you formatted with a Heading1, Heading 2 or Heading 3 style.

View styles used in Table of Contents

From your Home tab, Styles group, in the bottom right corner, click the angled arrow (the Dialog Box Launcher) to open your Styles Task Pane so that you can see which styles are applied.
Still with your cursor in your TOC, click up and down each heading entry. You will see that each:

Heading 1 has the style TOC 1 applied.
Heading 2 has the style TOC 2 applied.
Heading 3 has the style TOC 3 applied.

Update TOC

When you change the headings in your document, these can be reflected through into your TOC automatically.

Place your cursor in your table of contents. It will highlight and you will see a Content Control at the top.
Click Update Table. The Update Table of Contents dialog displays.
Click to select Update page numbers only or Update entire table.
Click OK.

Modify TOC

Place your cursor in your table of contents.
Click References tab.
Click, Table of Contents, Insert Table of Contents. The Table of Contents dialog box displays. From this page you can modify the look of your TOC.

Show page numbers (defaults to ticked).
Right align page numbers (defaults to ticked).
Show number of heading levels (defaults to 3 but you can change to show more or less heading levels).

Change TOC Options

Click Options. The Table of Contents Options dialog box displays. You can see here the three heading levels that have been included by default. You can change this to any styles in your document.
Click Cancel to exit.

Modify TOC Styles

Click Modify. The Style dialog box displays. This is where you can change how each entry level in your TOC displays.
Click Cancel to exit.

What are Content Controls?

Content Controls are another new feature of Microsoft Word 2007. They partially replace form fields. You may want to create customised templates, such as corporate forms, or letter or fax templates, that use your own theme and that use Content Control fields. The best way to see what these are is to open one of the new boilerplate templates in Word 2007 and have a look.

Use Content Control fields

In Microsoft Word, click Office, New to display the New Document dialog box.
From the Templates frame click Installed Templates. These are the templates supplied by default with Microsoft Word 2007.
Find and click on Median Letter, then click Create.
Look at the instructions surrounded by square brackets – these are called Place Holders. When you click on one of these, a box displays around it. When you type your own text in the brackets, the Place Holder disappears and just your own text remains.

Remove Content Control

Right click on the Place Holder.
Click Remove Content Control. You are returned to the document and there is no longer a Place Holder. (Note that this option is only available if the template designer made it available.)

Create Content Control fields

If you are creating templates for others to use, you may want to create content control fields like these. For this you will need the Developer tab.

Click the Office button, Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box.
With Popular highlighted, tick Show Developer tab
in the Ribbon and click OK.
Back in your document, click on the Developer tab, and identify the Controls group.
Click Design Mode. This is a toggle.
Click the Aa button to insert a Rich Text content control.
Type any changes you want to make to the Place Holder text. You can type very detailed instructions here, formatted in any way you like. You can set an option that automatically removes all your content when the user starts typing in the control.
With your cursor in the field you have just created, click Properties, to display the Content Control Properties dialog box.
Complete the fields in the dialog box as required.
Click OK to save Properties.
Click Design Mode to toggle Design Mode off and see how the Content Control will display in a document.

For full instructions on working with each of the following Content Controls, use the on-line help system, run a search on "Content Controls" and select the help option: Word > Creating specific documents > Forms.

You can build forms using Content Controls. This is a significant new area that is well documented in the on-line help system. For full instructions on developing forms using Content Controls, run a search on "Create forms that users complete in Word 2007" and select the help option: Word > Creating specific documents > Forms.

For the developer perspective on Content Controls, you may want to check out this overview.

Go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264571.aspx

Setting Up Word Numbering and Multi-level Lists

Bullets and numbering pose a problem in Word. They are complicated. Word tries to be very helpful and predict what you want, with sometimes very peculiar consequences.
It is easy enough to insert bulleted lists or numbered lists, but it is not so easy to control exactly how they look and behave once you are working with larger or more complex documents.
If you don't use styles...
...then your best course of action is to do the Microsoft on-line training to learn exactly how Microsoft intends you to use them. There are good PowerPoint instructions, but you must be using Internet Explorer Browser to access them.

Click this link. Training presentation: Word 2007—Bullets, numbers, and lists
Click the Download button, save, and print if required.
Follow the instructions and good luck. If you are writing small documents and not sharing them with others, this system will probably work for you.

If you do use styles...
...there are two main tricks to getting this right:

If you are working in a document that has lots of complex lists, use the built-in Multilevel List styles and re-define them to suit.
Associate those styles with a single gallery box from the Numbering Library accessed through the Ribbon.

Display multi-level lists

Create a new document based on Normal template.
Click Home tab, Styles group, dialog box launcher, to display the Styles pane and see all the styles displayed.
Click Manage Styles to display the Manage Styles dialog box.
Click the Recommend tab.
Scroll down the list to near the bottom where you will find styles starting with the word List. They are likely to be greyed out and have the words (Hide Until Used) next to them.
Highlight all these items and click Show .
Click OK.

Re-define styles to suit
Work out what numbered lists you want and how deep you want them to go. For example, I often use a three level list for normal text, a three level list inside tables and a third three level list for special formatting, which makes 9 styles in all.

Apply the pre-defined list style to some text.
Re-format the text to look the way you want.
Locate the style in the Styles pane.
Right click and click Update *style name* to match selection. The style now possesses the formatting of your selected text which will be applied to all other text formatting with that style.

Do this for all the styles you want to create. To change style names:

Right click on style in Style pane.
Change the name.
Click OK.

Associate styles with numbers

Click Home tab, Paragraph group, Multi-level list button down arrow.
Identify and click a number format from the Numbering Library that is closest to the required numbering style.
If you exit the dialog box, click Home tab, Paragraph group, Multi-level list button down arrow again.
Ensuring your selected box is still highlighted, click Define New Multi-Level list. You will work in this dialog box to define how every numbered list you have will work.

Style 1

With level 1 selected, click the More button.
In the Link level to style box, select your first style in a sequence, for example "table list 1".
In the Enter formatting for number, enter the numbering type you want.
In the Start at field, enter the start number, usually 1
In the Aligned at field, enter the identical left margin defined in the style.
In the Text indent at field, enter the identical indent defined in the style.
In the Add tab stop field, enter the same indent tab defined in the style.

Style 2

Click level 2.
In the Link level to style box, select your second style in a sequence, for example "table list 2".
In the Enter formatting for number, enter the numbering type you want.
In the Start at field, enter the start number, usually 1
In the Aligned at field, enter the identical left margin defined in the style.
In the Text indent at field, enter the identical indent defined in the style.
In the Add tab stop field, enter the same indent tab defined in the style.

Repeat this process with all your remaining styles - try to get every list style you will use defined in this one gallery box. It doesn't matter that they are not the same list sequence, just link your styles and define your number format, number style, number alignment, indent and tabs.
Place re-start numbering button on Quick Access Toolbar

Right click in any blank area of the Ribbon.
Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
In the Choose Commands from field, click All Commands.
Scroll down to Restart numbering and highlight.
Click Add.
Click OK.

This should work reliably for all your styles providing they are all defined in the one Gallery box in the Numbering Library.

Where did autotext go?

Forget autotext and enter the brave new world of Building Blocks and Quick Parts, Galleries and Live Preview.

Building Blocks are pre-designed and pre-formatted text, images or other document parts that are displayed in Galleries of thumbnail images organised according to their function. You can add your own Building Blocks to these galleries. Quick Parts are simply Building Blocks you design for yourself that don't belong in any other Gallery. You can store any combination of text and images that you have created in a document as a Building Block.

The difference between autotext and Building Blocks is mostly visual. Galleries of thumbnails make it easy to select the entry you want and Live Preview allows you to hover your cursor over a Building Block in a Gallery to apply it to your document below, and see what it will actually look like.

It only takes one or two keystrokes to insert the Building Block into your document.

Building Blocks are stored in a separate template - Building Blocks.dotx - that is made available to all your documents. However, if you want the Building Blocks to be available for only a specific template, this is also possible.

Make sure Live Preview is turned on.

Click the Office button, Word Options.
In the Top options for working with Word area, tick Enable Live Preview.

Define a Quick Part

Highlight the text and/or graphics for which you want to create a Quick Part.
Press Alt F3, or select Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. The Create New Building Block dialog box displays with some fields completed.
Give your Quick Part a short and memorable name.
Choose the Gallery you want it displayed in.
Specify where you want it saved. Building Blocks.dotx is the default, but you can choose a template here.
Complete other fields as required.
Click OK.

View a new Quick Part

Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, and you will see that your entry has been placed in the drop down gallery, displayed graphically so it is easy to identify and insert.

Insert a Quick Part

Place your insertion point in the position you want your Quick Part entered in your document.
Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, and click on your new Quick Part. Your Quick Part is placed in your document.
Alternatively type the name of your Quick Part – this is why it needs to be short and memorable and press F3.

Manage Quick Parts and Building Blocks using the Building Blocks Organiser

Click Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts, Building Blocks Organiser to display the Building Blocks Organiser dialog box.
Click on any Building Block to see a preview in the right hand column.
You can edit, delete or insert a Building Block into a document from here.

Remove Quick Part from Gallery

Right click on your gallery item.

Click on Organise and Delete. The Building Blocks Organiser dialog box displays, with your entry highlighted.

Make sure the correct Building Block is highlighted and click Delete.

Save the Building Block template (building blocks.dotx)

Close Word 2007. A dialog box below displays, naming the template to which you elected to save your Building Block/s.
Click Yes to save your changes.

Tips

User defined Building Blocks normally appear at the bottom of a Gallery. To place a new Building Block at the top of the list, use a symbol or a blank space at the beginning. This will send it to the top of the list.
Quick Parts automatically appear at the top of the Quick Parts Gallery.

How to organise your styles

So you have upgraded to 2007 and want to know where to start.

Step 2 - organise your styles.

Templates contain many commands that define how your document will look. One of the components of this is "styles". A style is a set of formatting instructions that can be applied to a piece of text with a single action. The set is given a meaningful name so you can remember what it is. When you select some text and apply a style, that text is automatically formatted with ALL the attributes carried by the style.

In Microsoft Word 2007, styles have become more accessible through a Gallery on the Home tab, and a more sophisticated Styles Task Pane.

To organise your Styles Task Pane

On your Home tab, Styles group, click the Dialog Box Launcher in the bottom right corner. The Styles Task Pane displays on the right of your screen.
Tick and un-tick the Show Preview checkbox to view the name of your style, or the name as it appears formatted.
Click the Manage Styles button which you will find across the bottom of the Styles Task Pane.
Click the Recommend tab from which you can change the sequence of styles and whether or not they display on the Styles Task Pane.
Use Move Up, Move Down, Make Last and Assign Value to organise how your styles display. Those with a value of 1 will display at the top of the list.
Use the Show and Hide commands to control whether styles display at all, either in the current document or in all documents based on the template.

Assign all the styles you use most often with a value of 1 so they appear at the top of your Styles Task Pane. Assign lower values to other styles.

How to set up your Quick Access Toolbar

One of the first things you must do when you start using Word 2007, is to set up your Quick Access Toolbar.

Set up your Quick Access Toolbar.

The Quick Access Toolbar is a customizable toolbar onto which you can place the commands that you want to see all the time, no matter what tab is currently displayed.

When you first start up Word 2007, the Quick Access Toolbar is located in the upper-left corner next to the Microsoft Office Button, but you can move this below the ribbon if you prefer. You can also collect the commands you commonly use and place them on this toolbar. This will reduce the number of keystrokes it takes to perform the command.

To customize the Quick Access Toolbar

Click the Office button, Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box. OR
Click the More down arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and click More Commands. OR
Right click in any blank area of the Ribbon. Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

You are taken to the Word Options menu with the Customize button highlighted. From here you can add, remove and re-organise your Quick Access Toolbar icons.

Check through the options listed in the Choose commands from: drop down list.
Highlight a command you use frequently.
Click the Add button to display the command in the right side column.
Do this a few times to add some useful commands to the Quick Access Toolbar.
Organise the items in the list into the order you will want to see them on the toolbar, using the up and down
arrows.
Separate groups with a Separator which you will find at the top of each of the lists.
Tick the Show Quick Access Toolbar below the ribbon check box to move the toolbar to the location below the ribbon.
Click OK.

You are returned to your document, but now you will see a new bar underneath your ribbon with the commands you selected.

The Quick Way to insert a single command

Right click on any command on the Ribbon
Click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

The command will be placed at the right hand end of the Quick Access Toolbar.

Advanced QAT functions

Although the core QAT buttons always remain the same, and do not change from template to template, or document to document, it is possible to customise specific documents and templates with different QAT buttons. For more information on how to do this, go to my book, Enjoy Upgrading to Microsoft Word 2007.