Still Using Word Like a Typewriter?

Old habits die hard, and for many people one of those habits is to use Word like an expensive typewriter.  This is not efficient for many reasons, but especially when you are just coming up with your rough draft.  While Word was never designed to be as flexible as laying out index cards with all of your important ideas and then sorting them to create the structure of your paper - there are some things you can do as you work with a document that you may not have thought of.  

1. Use the hidden text feature.  When you are editing a document and you have that paragraph that you might use, but you are not sure about, or even just a sentence that is useful but needs rework - don't delete it.  And don't do the other thing you always do - cutting and pasting it at the end of the document in the clutter area. Instead leave it in place, but hide it.  This is not a commonly used feature, but it is easy to use and a great way to toggle decisions when writing or editing.  
2. •  Select the text you want to hide 
     
     • Use the shortcut  CRTL+SHIFT+h to hide selected text
     • Alternatively use CRTL+D or Format > Font to bring up the font formatting dialog box and check 'hidden.' 

 

Once you have hidden the text, you can toggle between visible and hidden by using the Show / Hide Formatting button.  

When you show the formatting, hidden text appears as this:

 

2.  Try using the outlining capabilities.  Some get frustrated when using Word because the automatic formatting is not what they want.  Word will guess what you are trying to do and do it for you.  If the software recognizes that you are trying to make an outline, it will change your text into a default format outline. 

Learn to control the formatting of the outline and you'll be much happier.  Access the Styles and Formatting task pane through Format > Styles and Formatting.  The default is to only show the formatting used in the document.  At the bottom of the task pane in the Show dropdown, select 'all styles.'

Now at the top of the list in the task pane will be two basic outline formats.  Select the one which is closest to what you want, and modify until you have what you want.  

3.  Use a different program.  I know, this seems like cheating, but there are two ways of creating documents that you should be aware of.  First, try Powerpoint.  While most people are familiar with the common view of slides, not everyone realizes that PowerPoint is building an outline that contains all of the slide titles and text.  It is easy to reorder your information by dragging and dropping your slides in the slide sorter.  Get it the way you want and then save it as a Word document by selecting File > Send To > Microsoft Office Word.