Mediaboss Marketing

January 24, 2013, 10:07 AM PST

Takeaway: Searching for ways to increase your Word productivity may get in the way of your productivity. So here are a few tricks you dont need to go looking for.

This post was originally published in the Five Apps Blog on June 2011.

Most of us dont have time to discover all the ins and outs of the software we use on a daily basis. We learn on the fly, we occasionally pick up a tip or shortcut, and we grudgingly plow through the Help system when we absolutely have to.

But sometimes, just a few little tricks can make a big difference. Turning off an annoying feature, learning a keyboard trick that bypasses three dialog boxes, or taking advantage of an obscure option can save you a few headaches and a lot of time. Will they really change your life? Well that might be a stretch. But they could. Try these tips on for size and let me know.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

Usually, we select text horizontally a word, a series of words, a paragraph from left to right or vice versa. But sometimes the selection has to be vertical. For instance, suppose you wanted to delete the leading characters in Figure A.

To make a vertical selection, hold down [Alt] as you drag down through the text you want to highlight. Figure B shows the column of unwanted characters selected using this technique. Hit [Delete] and bam, theyre gone.

Read the original here:
Five tips that will increase your Word productivity