Work with Greater Ease in Microsoft Word

How to Work with Long Documents in Microsoft Word

Here are several maneuvers that can help you juggle a lengthy Word document.

Your latest Microsoft Word document has ballooned to dozens or perhaps hundreds of pages. And working with such a lengthy document can be slow and awkward.

Thankfully, Word offers several options and features that can ease the pain of navigating, organizing, and viewing a long document:

• You can add page numbers to keep track of the pages.
• You can set up a Table of Contents to display different sections.
• You can zoom out to view multiple concurrent pages and turn on Split View to view different parts of the document at the same time.
• You can enable the Navigation Pane to more easily see and jump to a specific page.

As usual, I’m using Word 2016 via my Office 365 subscription. But all or most of the features I cover here should work the same in the past couple of versions of Word.

Open Word. Ideally, you’ll want to have a long document in front of you as I go through the different options. If not, just follow along.

On my end, I merged several documents into one to create a single document of more than 100 pages. I also applied heading styles to the title of each chapter, which helps immensely when creating a Table of Contents or displaying a Navigation Pane.

The first step is to set up page numbers for your document. Page numbers are helpful for a lengthy document since they offer one way for you to jump to a specific spot. Also, page numbers are also crucial if you plan to print your document since they can help organize your work if the pages are ever scattered.

Click on the Insert tab on the Home Ribbon.

At the Insert Ribbon, click on the Page Number icon and hover over the different options for choosing a location and format for your page numbers.

Click on your preferred option. Word creates a header or footer with the page number.

Scroll through the document to see the page numbers. If you want to create a more elaborate header or footer with the document name, date, or other items, click on the Header or Footer icon on the Ribbon and choose your favorite option.

To go to a specific page number, click on the down arrow next to the Find icon on the Home Ribbon. Click on Go to.

Make sure the Page option is active in the Go To section in the Find and Replace window.

Type the page number you want and then click on the Go To button to jump there. Close the Find and Replace window when done.

Next, you can see view all the chapters or other sections of your document through a Table of Contents.

Move to the top of the document. Click on the References tab.

Click on the Table of Contents icon and select the type of table you want to use.

If you already applied styles to the title of each chapter or other section, you can use one of the automatic tables. Otherwise, you’ll have to choose the manual option and build your table from scratch. Let’s choose one of the automatic tables.

Jump back to the top of the document and you should now see the full Table of Contents with the title and page number of each chapter or other section.

If you change the titles or otherwise modify the document, you should update the table. To do this, just click on the Update Table button at the top of the table, select the option to update page numbers only or the entire table, and then click OK.

Another trick for dealing with a long document is to view multiple pages in one shot.

Click on the View tab and then click on Multiple Pages to see two pages at a time. Click on the Zoom icon, click on Many Pages and then click OK.

Now, click on Multiple Pages again. Your document should display three pages at a time. You can now scroll up or down the document to see the previous pages or the next batch of pages.

You can also modify how many pages you see at one time. Click on the Zoom icon and click on the Many Pages button.

You can now change the display from anything to 1×1 page to 2×4 pages. Make your selection and click OK. Your document view takes on the layout you chose. Return to Page Width view when done.

Split View is a handy way to display different pages of the document together on the screen. Move to a spot on your document where you want to split it in half. For example, maybe you want to see page 10 and page 40 both at the same time to compare or copy and paste specific text.

On the View Ribbon, click on the Split icon. Your document splits in half. In the top half of your document, move to the first page you want to see. In the bottom half, move to the second page you want to see.

You can resize the two sections by holding down the horizonal line and moving it up or down. When done, double-click on the horizonal line to return to a single page view.

Finally, you can tap into the Navigation Pane to display each title or heading in your document, helping you jump to a specific spot.

On the View Ribbon, check the checkbox for Navigation Pane (or click on the Page Number display in the lower left of the Status Bar). The Navigation Pane appears.

If you applied styles to the headings in your document, each heading appears in the Navigation Pane. Click on a specific heading to jump to that spot.

If you didn’t apply heading styles (or even if you did), you can view your document by pages. Click on the entry for Pages. Then click on a specific page thumbnail to move to that page.

Use Themes to Enhance Your Microsoft Word Documents

You can format your documents in one shot using the right theme.

Do you often struggle to format your Word documents with the right look and layout? Rather than trying to build your document piece by piece and paragraph by paragraph, you can instead format it in one fell swoop by tapping into a theme.

A theme arranges text and other elements with a certain font, color, and other attributes. Themes can spruce up your documents by automatically applying a particular look and layout to your titles, subtitles, body text and more. You can use a theme on a plain document with no special formatting.

But to get the full benefit of themes, you’ll first want to touch up the key elements of your document with styles. From there, you can choose a specific theme to enhance your entire document. Word comes with several built-in themes, and you can create and save your own themes.

Let’s check out how to use themes in Word.

I’m using Word 2016, but themes work the same way in Word 2013, Word 2010, and Word 2007. Themes also are available in Excel and PowerPoint, but we’ll stick with Word for this go-round.

First, launch Word and open a plain text document with no styles or special formatting. Click on the Design menu to display the Design ribbon. The ribbon displays the Themes button as well as the current Themes gallery.

Hover your mouse over each button in the Themes gallery, and your document takes on a live preview to reflect the formatting in that theme. With your current document, you’ll see only minor changes in the layout. That’s because this document has no styles or special formatting.

Okay, let’s segue to the right type of document. You can either load a document that does incorporate styles or format your current document with styles.

For example, first apply the Normal style to your entire document. Then make sure your title has a title style, your subtitles have a subtitle style, and your headings have a heading style. You can apply styles by following the steps in my article “Save Time in Microsoft Word with Styles.”

Now, hover over each button in the Themes gallery and you should see more dramatic changes in the live preview of your document. To apply a theme to your document, just click on its button.

Does Word offer more themes beyond just the ones you see in the current Themes gallery? Oh, yes. And here’s how you can access them: Click on the Themes button at the far left of the Design ribbon. Hover over each of the theme sets displayed in the menu. The live preview of your document changes as you hover over each set.

Click on a particular theme set that interests you. The buttons in the Themes gallery change to display the themes available in the set you selected. You can hover over each button to see the formatting changes that theme would bring to your document. Click on the button for a theme you like.

You’ll find more options in the Colors and Fonts menus on the Design toolbar.

Click on the Colors menu and hover over the different color sets. Again, watch as the live preview of your document takes on each of the various colors palettes. To choose a particular palette, click on it. The colors change in your document. And you can now hover over each of the buttons in the Themes gallery to choose a specific theme based on that color set.

To try out different fonts, click on the Font menu. Hover over each of the fonts to see a live preview of your document with that font theme. Click on a font to display themes with that font in the Themes gallery. Hover over each button in the list and click on a theme that you want to apply.

Further, you can change the paragraph spacing for your entire document. You should have already formatted your document using the Normal style. Click on the Paragraph Spacing button and hover over each of the spacing choices to see how your document would look. Click on a paragraph style that you want to apply.

You can access more options for paragraph spacing. At the bottom of the menu, click on the command for Custom Paragraph Spacing. Here, you can choose a specific font, point size, position, alignment, paragraph spacing, and line spacing. Make your selections, click OK, and your document changes to take on the attributes you chose.

Next, you can change the look of any shapes or other objects in your document. Insert a shape in your document if you don’t already have one. (Click on the Insert menu, select a shape, and then draw it in your document.) Return to the Design ribbon. Click on the button for Effects. Hover over the different effects, and you’ll see some subtle changes to the look of the shape.

Happy with your document’s new theme and any changes you’ve made to it? You can set the current theme as the default for all new documents. To do this, click on the Set as Default button on the Design ribbon. Each blank document you create will now take on the attributes of your current theme.

Maybe you want to save your customized theme, not as the default but simply as a new theme. Click on the Theme button on the Design ribbon and select the command to Save Current Theme.

By default, your custom theme is saved in the Document Themes folder for Microsoft Office. That’s fine, but change the name of the theme to something more descriptive. Then click the Save button.

To access your custom theme for another document, click on the Themes button on the Design ribbon. The top of the menu will show entries for any custom themes you’ve created. Click on the theme you wish to apply.

You can browse to any saved themes. Again, click on the Themes button and click on the command to Browse for Themes. Drill down to the location in which your saved themes are stored.

You also can remove a custom theme. Click on the Themes button, right-click on the custom theme you wish to remove, and click on Delete from the menu.

And you can reset your document back to the default theme for your template. Click on the Themes button and click on Reset to Theme from Template. Your document reverts to the default Office theme.

Finally, you can share a custom theme with other people. Open File Explorer or Windows Explorer and browse to the location for your custom themes (typically C:Users[your username]AppDataRoamingMicrosoftTemplatesDocument Themes. Select the theme with the .thmx extension. You can now email that file to someone or upload it to OneDrive and share it with others.

Quick and Easy Ways to Customize Your Windows 10 Start Menu

One of the great things about Windows 10 is how it allows you to tweak the system so it best fits your usage habits.

One of the biggest areas of customization is the primary interface to the OS – the Start Menu. It’s come a long way since its debut in Windows, and even over the last two and a half years, it has continued to mature. The customizations are all up to you. Let’s go over the key options for making the Windows 10 Start Menu all yours.

Start Menu Settings

The options for configuring your Start Menu are located at Windows Settings > Personalization > Start.

From top to bottom here are what these toggle switches control:

Show more tiles on Start – This provides four tile wide sections instead of just three. This is handy for users on larger screens that can display more tiles across at one time.

Show app list in Start menu – This will toggle whether the app list (a Windows 7 style hierarchal menu that shows shortcuts for all the apps and programs installed on your system) will display the icons with the app/programs name or collapse the list down to the left side which can be expanded with a single click on the app list icon from the Start Menu.

Show recently added apps – This list appears at the top of the all app . It’s a chronologically ordered list of apps and programs you have installed on your system. This is quite handy if you like pinning a tile to the Start Menu or Taskbar once you’ve installed an app.

Show most used apps – As you use the apps and programs on your system, this list will dynamically update to make the most used items available for quick access. This group of icons are located second from the top if you are also displaying the recently added apps group.

Occasionally show suggestions in Start – This group of apps will be listed third from the top if you are displaying the recently added and most used apps on your app list. These will be app suggestions from Microsoft based on your system and other apps you use. Some label this as advertising, others see it as a discovery method to learn about new apps. If you prefer to not see any of them then toggle this switch off because it is turned on by default.

Use Start full screen – If you want to mimic your Windows 8.1 settings, you can have a full screen Start Menu if you want. This is toggled off by default but if you have a convertible or 2-in-1 device, you will get prompted about shifting to full screen with Start when you put the device into tablet mode. If you opt into that option then it will automatically switch between full and normal Start Menu as you use your device.

Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the Taskbar – For apps/programs that support them, Jump Lists are available when you right-click on a tile or icon to show you. This is very handy for quickly getting back to work you have previously started.

Choose what folders appear on Start – See the next image and explanation for how this link helps you customize Start.

Folders on Start Menu

You can also set it up so certain system folders appear on the lower left side of Start, where the Power button is. By default, that power icon and your user icon are the only icons that appear on this part of the Start menu.

If you toggle the switches in the above list, they will be added in order of their sequence above between the user and power icon. These shortcuts can be very handy for gaining quick access to folders you access on a regular basis.

Now let’s take a look at various Start menu layouts based on the settings we covered above.

Standard Start Menu Layout

Working the columns from left to right:

– The Start Sidebar with Expand App List button shows labels for all the icons in the sidebar.

– The App List –self-evidently named – is ordered in alpha-numeric order from top to bottom.

– The Tile Area can be customized through the right-click-accessible context menu. You can specify tiles 3 or 4 columns wide and in small, medium, wide or large sizes as long as the app developer supports all sizes otherwise you will see what sizes are supported through the context menu. Tiles can also be turned on as Live Tiles through that context menu to show information on the tile in near real time if the developer provided that support in their app. These tiles can be clicked on and dragged around the Start Menu tile area in groups, or any configuration you prefer. On larger monitors, you can continue to build groups of tiles up and across.

Start Menu Sidebar Expanded

Here is what the Start Menu looks like with the sidebar expanded. This is a temporary state; it will return to a collapsed sidebar when you close the Start Menu.

Start Menu Without App List

If you toggle off the app list for Start, it will appear as shown above and you will have two new icons below the Expand icon. The first one will just show the tiles area of Start (as seen in the image above), and the other one will show just the app list as shown below.

Start Menu App List Only

This is your app list-only toggle. It’s similar to the style of the Windows 7 Start Menu. This is a temporary display, and will return to the tile view with a collapsed app list when you close Start.

Tip: If you prefer to not have any tiles on the Start Menu just remove all of them through the right-click context menu and this is what your Start Menu will look like at all times.

App List Jump List Context Menu

When you right-click on an icon in the app list that supports Jump Lists you will see a robust menu of options to quickly access certain features of that app/program.

Start Menu Tile Jump List

This is what a Jump Lists looks like on a Start Menu tile.

Quick Access Option on App List

I have one last tip for you: When you are viewing the Start Menu App List, the numbers and letters in the listing for the apps/programs installed on your system are hot-linked.

Just click on any app list header letter and you will see the above grid of numbers, letters, or symbols appear. Selecting anyone of the other items in this grid will take you immediately to that part of the app list. This helps you avoid scrolling through long lists of apps/programs if you have a lot installed on your system.
Hopefully, this has provided you with some ideas for customizing your own Windows 10 Start Menu so that things are laid out for your ease of access and quick navigation. Enjoy your own customized version of Windows 10!

How to Remove the HomeGroup Icon from File Explorer in Windows 10

Microsoft originally introduced HomeGroup as part of Windows 7. It enhanced peer to peer sharing across home networks , making it easy to share files and printer access between devices and users.

Of course, this was before the days of OneDrive and its multi-device accessible cloud storage service, the introduction of network aware printers, and the integrated sharing functionality that is now a standard part of Windows 10.

This past December, when Microsoft released Windows 10 Redstone 4 Build 17063, they announced the upcoming retirement and removal of the HomeGroup service as part of Windows 10 Version 1803. Just as a reminder – Windows 10 Version 1803 is the fifth feature update for Windows 10 that is expected to be released in the March/April 2018 time frame.

If you are running Windows Insider builds including 17063 and beyond, then the HomeGroup Listener and Provider services have been removed from the OS, the HomeGroup icon no longer appears in File Explorer, and the Control Panel options for HomeGroup are also gone.

If you are not using HomeGroup on the current release version of Windows 10, then you likely still have the HomeGroup icon listed when you use File Explorer.

The HomeGroup icon usually sits at the bottom of the left-hand navigation pane in File Explorer. This would display shared folders, files, and printers if you were part of a HomeGroup.

Although it is not in the way for most file operations, it is possible to remove this icon and shut down the two associated HomeGroup services that run on your device even when you are not a member of a HomeGroup.

This process laid out below works not only Windows 10, but will also remove the HomeGroup icon and shut down the associated services on Window 7 and 8.1.

From the Start Menu, or Start Screen on Windows 8.1, search for “Administrative Tools” and select the indicated result.

In the list of Administrative Tools select Computer Management.

In the left-hand navigation pane find Services and Applications and click on the down arrow to open the sub-menu. Select Services to open the list of system services.

In the main column of services scroll down until you find the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider services.

The next step is done for each of these services to shut down HomeGroup on this device, but you must do HomeGroup Provider first and then HomeGroup Listener.

Bonus Shortcut Tip: There is always more than one way to access most settings on Windows and getting to system services is no exception. If you open the Start Menu as note above but instead of searching for “Administrative Tools” just search for “services.msc” and select that result. This will take you straight to the services listing in Computer Management and save a couple of steps.

Double click on the HomeGroup Provider entry to open its properties. In the drop down box under Startup type select Disabled and then click Apply. Now go under Service status and click on Stop to shutdown the service.

As noted above – repeat these same steps for HomeGroup Listener.

Now if you open File Explorer you will find the HomeGroup icon is now gone from the left-hand navigation pane.

When you upgrade to Windows 10 Version 1803, you will already be one step ahead with the removal and shutdown of the HomeGroup services on Windows 10.