word tips from eod

Word Tips

Reports Extravaganza

10 November 2021

Melanie Francis

Word Tips Reports Extravaganza 10 November 2021 of 19

Table of Contents

Styles ................................................................................................................................................ 3

Styles task pane ............................................................................................................................ 3

Modify styles .............................................................................................................................. 5 Add styles to the task pane ........................................................................................................ 5

Built-in styles ................................................................................................................................. 6

Paragraph spacing ............................................................................................................................ 7

Keep With Next ................................................................................................................................. 9

Navigation pane .............................................................................................................................. 10

Formatting marks ............................................................................................................................ 10

Use tables instead of tabs ............................................................................................................... 11

Remove table borders from single table ...................................................................................... 11

View gridlines .............................................................................................................................. 12

Save the ‘No table borders’ setting ............................................................................................. 13

Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) .......................................................................................................... 16

Word custom templates, custom ribbon and automated functions ................................................. 17

Word text library .............................................................................................................................. 19


Styles Styles are so important in Word. If you get used to using styles, you will find document formatting so much easier. You will get consistent formatting throughout all your documents. And it makes it so easy to change formatting.

Styles task pane 1 Click the Styles Task Pane launcher button, bottom right of the Styles gallery on the Home

tab of the ribbon.

2 If the Styles Task Pane is not docked, double-click the header bar of the Styles window to dock it.


3 Click in the Show Preview box to show the style preview.


Modify styles Right-click over the style name and select Modify.

Add styles to the task pane 1 Click the Manage Styles button at the bottom of the task pane.


2 Select the Recommend tab.

3 Select a style from the list.

3.1 Click Show.

3.2 Click Assign Value if you want to change the priority value. The priority value determines the order the style is displayed in the task pane.

Built-in styles Where possible use Word’s built-in styles as these will already have the correct properties you need for the style.

Use Body Text style for body text rather than Normal style. Normal style is the base style for all the other styles and it’s better to keep it as a base style. If you want to change the font for all the styles in the document, you only need to change the font in Normal style and all the other styles will be updated too.

Use Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc for heading styles. These styles have important properties already set like outline level, keep with next and keep lines together.


Paragraph spacing Use paragraph spacing rather than a double return. Double returns just add empty paragraphs to the document and prevent you using useful features like Keep With Next. You can set paragraph spacing in the style to ensure all your headings and paragraphs are consistently spaced.

Right mouse over the style in the styles task pane and click Modify.

Click The Format drop-down then click Paragraph.


Select the Indents and Spacing tab.

Adjust Spacing Before and After.


Keep With Next Sometimes better than a manual page break to keep paragraphs together on the same page.

1 Right mouse over the first paragraph and select Paragraph.

2 Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.

3 Tick Keep with next.

4 Click OK.


Navigation pane Click the View tab then click the Navigation Pane box to add a tick to it.

This will give you a list of all the headings in your document. You can click on a heading to jump to that part of the document.

Formatting marks Edit documents with formatting marks visible. You can always do a print preview to see what a document will look like when it is printed.

Click the pilcrow button (looks like a backwards P) on the Home tab of the ribbon.


Use tables instead of tabs Insert a table:-

1 Click the Insert tab

2 Click the Table drop-down

3 Select the number of columns and rows you want.

Remove table borders from single table 1 Ensure the cursor is in the table and click the Layout tab at the end of the ribbon (make sure

it is the Layout tab at the end of the ribbon, there is also a Layout tab at the beginning of the ribbon!).

2 Click the Properties button in the Table group.

3 Click Borders and Shading.


4 On the Borders tab, click None.

5 Click OK then OK again to close all the boxes down.

View gridlines If you can’t see the table gridlines, you can switch them on:-

1 Ensure the cursor is in the table and click the Layout tab at the end of the ribbon (make sure it is the Layout tab at the end of the ribbon, there is also a Layout tab at the beginning of the ribbon!).

2 Click View Gridlines.

It is important to remember that Gridlines differ from borders. Gridlines are what you see on the screen. They are not printed out. Borders are printed out.


Save the ‘No table borders’ setting 1 Click in the table and select the Table Design tab at the end of the ribbon. The default table

design should be highlighted in the Table Styles gallery.

2 Right-mouse over the table design and click Modify Table Style.


3 Click the Format drop-down and select Borders and Shading.


4 On the Borders tab, click None.

5 Click OK then OK again to close all the boxes down.


Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT to move it below or above the ribbon and to add more commands.

1 Click the Choose commands from drop-down to see more categories.

2 Select the command you want to add to your QAT. You can type the first letter of a command to jump to commands beginning with that letter.

3 Click the Add button to add the command to your QAT commands on the right-hand side.

4 When you have finished adding commands, click the OK button.


Word custom templates, custom ribbon and automated functions


We will be delighted to provide a quote for custom templates, custom ribbons and automated functions. Please contact:-

Melanie Francis Tel: 01303 862446 Email: [email protected] www.expertofficedocuments.co.uk


Word text library

Please see https://www.expertofficedocuments.co.uk/text-library for more information and to download a free trial.

We are pleased to offer a 35% discount on both Admin and Standard versions of the EOD Word Text Library with the discount code REPORTS EXTRAVAGANZA 2021.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information.

Many thanks,

word tips from eod

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