Microsoft Word

Microsoft's Word is their premium word processing product and the most current version is Microsoft Word 2007.

Word 2010

Our Word 2010 Preview is here...read it now.

Tip of the Moment

Got some numbers in your Word document and you want to know what they total?  Use the Calculate feature!  I know what you're thinking...WHAT Calculate feature?  Well, it's awfully well hidden and most people don't know it exists.  But here's how you can use it...

First: We need to make it more accessible.  Right-click the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and choose "Customize Quick Access Toolbar".  Change the "Choose commands from" window from "Popular Commands" to "All Commands" and scroll down to find "Calculate."  Click the "Add" button to add it to your QAT.  That done, click OK.

O.K., now find some text with numbers; such as "Jones offers $221,000 and Smith offers $764,000."  Want to know how much they offer combined?  Highlight the sentence and click the Calculate button on your QAT...then look at the status bar on the bottom left.  Pretty cool, huh?

In sentences like that Calculate appears to only add.  But if you insert mathematical expressions like "8-3" or "52*171" and highlight those calculate WILL perform those calculations.  Note that you have to use the asterisk "*" for multiplication, not the "x".

It doesn't replace Excel but it's a nifty little feature that you can use when you don't want to have to find your calculator for simple things.

Word Tip of the Moment Archive

The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word 2007

Now available for pre-order - Ben M. Schorr's "The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word 2007" published by the American Bar Assocation.

News

• Word 2010 Beta is now publicly available.  The Release Candidate (RC) is probably not far behind.
• Caution - Be careful using Find/Replace to replace two things with one.  More details here...
• The Office 2007 Service Pack 2 has been released.   Among the improvements you can now open, edit and save documents in version 1.1 of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) which is most commonly used by OpenOffice.
• Word 2007 Viewer is released: An updated Word viewer capable of opening and viewing the Office 2007 files is now available for download from Microsoft.

Articles

• Microsoft Word Q&A - Popular questions and answers about Microsoft Word for attorneys.
• Converting documents to and from the Word format

Resources

Here are some useful resources for lawyers to use for more information on Microsoft Word

• Pleading Paper (and other forms) from Stanislaus County Superior Court
• How to set up a letter template - great article from Word MVP Suzanne Barnhill on creating and printing your own letterhead.
• Office 2007 Service Pack 2 - Click here to download it from Microsoft
• Word 2003 to 2007 Command Reference Guide Not sure where to find it in Word 2007?  Know EXACTLY where it was in 2003?  This free tool will help you figure out where that command went to in Word 2007 by showing you a Word 2003 interface, letting you click thru the menus or toolbars to activate the command, then showing you step-by-step where the same command is in Word 2007.  Entirely web-based and free.
• Lexis users can launch LexisNexis research directly from the Microsoft Word Research Task Pane.  Click here to find out how.
  • Search and Retrieve the latest case law for free
  • Shepardize a case.
• Chart of Metadata Ethics Opinions from around the U.S. - Handy chart from the ABA summarizing what various jurisdictions have to say about handling metadata in documents.
• Solving Crashing Problems When Starting Word - Great resource from the Word MVPs to help address what to do if Word crashes on startup.

Sites

• Shauna Kelly's Word Site: AWESOME site for information about Microsoft Word.  So good I'm going to list it first.
• Microsoft's Official Site for Word: The official Microsoft site for Microsoft Word.  Includes articles, tutorials, links to more resources.  A great place to start.
• Microsoft Word at Wikipedia:  Wikipedia's entry for Microsoft Word
• Metadata in Microsoft Word: Short article explaining the basics of Microsoft Word metadata.
• Understanding Styles - a VERY handy site with tutorials and a lot of links to other resources on styles in Word.
• Table Basics - A great article at MVPS.ORG explaining the basics of creating and working with Tables in Microsoft Word.

Forums

Microsoft offers a nice collection of free support forums for Microsoft Outlook.  You can post questions, read answers or even answer some questions yourself if you like.  They're free and easy and just a click away.

• Microsoft Word Forums - For all released versions of Word (i.e. everything but Word 2010)
• Word 2010 - For the Word 2010 Beta version

How to Ask a Question:  When posting a question to a newsgroup please be sure to indicate what software you're using, what version of the software you're using, what SPECIFICALLY you are trying to do and what happens when you try to do that (especially any error messages you may be receiving).  It is also helpful if you tell us what you have already tried in an effort to fix it so that we don't waste time telling you to try things you've already attempted.

Newsgroups

Microsoft has free support newsgroups available for nearly every product they make.  In these newsgroups you can read questions and answers that other people have posted for the product or you can post your own questions and get answers from the other posters. 

How to Ask a Question:  When posting a question to a newsgroup please be sure to indicate what software you're using, what version of the software you're using, what SPECIFICALLY you are trying to do and what happens when you try to do that (especially any error messages you may be receiving).  It is also helpful if you tell us what you have already tried in an effort to fix it so that we don't waste time telling you to try things you've already attempted.

Last Updated: 03/09/2010