Microsoft Word
Microsoft's Word is their premium word processing product and the most current version is Microsoft Word 2010.
Using Styles in Microsoft Word
A long overdue page of tips and resources for using styles in Microsoft Word. Read more...
How to Generate Random Text in Microsoft Word
Need a few random sentences to play with? Let Word's random text generator do the typing for you. Read more...
The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word 2010" is NOW available! 
Fresh from the printers - still has that new book smell....CLICK HERE
...and it's available for your iPad, iPhone or iBooks client as an eBook. Click here to get it from iTunes.
Microsoft Word 2010 Service Pack 1 Released
On June 28th Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) which includes a number of fixes and improvements for Word (54 updates in total). Read More...
Tip of the Moment
Want a floating Styles "Toolbar" in Word 2010? In Word, on the Home tab, click the dialog launcher for the Styles group (that's the little box-arrow icon at the bottom right corner of the group below the "Change Styles" button). When the Styles task pane appears at the right side of the screen point your mouse cursor at the top of it (where it says "Styles") press and hold your left mouse button and drag the task pane wherever you want it.
To quickly put it back just double-click the part of the task pane you dragged.
Word Tip of the Moment Archive
What's New in Word 2010?
Thinking about upgrading from a previous version of Word? Here's what's new and delightful for you in Microsoft Word 2010. Read more...
The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word 2007
Now available - Ben M. Schorr's "The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word 2007" published by the American Bar Assocation. Also available from Amazon.com.
News
- Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3 has been released. There are some fixes and new features for Word 2007 included. Read more...
- The Word 2010 Service Pack 1 has been released.
- 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
- Turn Off Grammar or Spell Checking as You Type in Microsoft Word (NEW)
- Mistakes Lawyers Make With Microsoft Word: Overwriting Old Documents
- Troubleshooting Microsoft Word
- Using Bookmarks in Word
- 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
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.
What's an MVP? An MVP or "Most Valuable Professional" is a volunteer who has been recognized by Microsoft as an expert on a particular technology. You'll commonly find them in the Microsoft Support Newsgroups, but they can sometimes be found in other forums or lists. They can be very helpful but keep in mind that they are only volunteers providing assistance in their spare time.
Last Updated: 01/12/2013