Learning how to let Microsoft Word work for you more efficiently can lead to positive mental health – there’s no fun in spending as much time formatting a document as it did to research and write a paper.  With a few simple techniques, you can take the pain out of editing and updating memos and seminar papers in Microsoft Word.

The University of Richmond has partnered with Lynda.com, which is an online repository of training videos on virtually anything you need to know.  You can take courses in Microsoft Office,  learn how to edit videos, or become proficient in a programming language.  Simply log in with your NetID and password, and the learning world is at your fingertips!

This learning video teaches practical tips using Word using lesson plans, and you can click and jump around to the information you need:

  • Structuring your document  (~5 minutes)
  • Adding and using captions (~7 minutes)
  • Researching and creating citations (~8 minutes)
  • Creating a table of contents/authorities (~6 minutes)
  • Numbering chapters and sessions (~12 minutes)
  • Inserting headers, footers, and watermarks (~6 minutes)
  • Adding the finishing touches to a document (~8 minutes)

The beauty of using Styles rather than manual text formatting is being able to change the formatting throughout the document in a couple of steps. Otherwise, you may spend valuable time manually searching the document to make changes. An example:  if you decide to change your first-level heading font from Ariel to Times New Roman, you only need to modify the Style, and all the headings in your document will change automatically.  Indeed, when dealing with either your time or the time of a client, efficiently using tools can come in quite handy.  There’s good information here from Lawyerist.com with more handy tips.

Microsoft Word – Styles and Structures

Post navigation