Effective Tips for Using Microsoft Word, How to Quickly and Easily Format Text

In our previous posts, we discussed Microsoft Office in detail and provided a comprehensive understanding of this software suite. If you missed that post, you can check it out here for basic information about Microsoft Office and its installation. Essentially, there is a completely free version of Microsoft Office available, but it's important to note that the free version has its limitations that can affect functionality and user experience. Due to these limitations, we usually do not recommend the free version for serious use. Next, we wrote a post about the most basic things; check it out here: how to create, open, save, and delete a document in Microsoft Word. We also typed some text without any formatting. To make everything even clearer in the previous post, check it out here; we dedicated a blog post to the keyboard and shortcuts most commonly used when working with Microsoft Word.

However, starting from this post, we will focus on professional use of Microsoft Word, but in a way that is as simple and efficient as possible. Even though text formatting requires constant learning, practice, and experience, the good news is that every item in Microsoft Word has its own ToolTip – a short description of the element, which you can see when you hover or pause the mouse over the element. This can remind you what that item is for. However, nothing can replace practice and using Microsoft Word as much as possible for your own purposes. Therefore, make an effort and pay attention to even the smallest details when learning and using this exceptional office word processing program.

Students learn Text Formatting in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word, one of the most popular word processing tools in the world, offers limitless possibilities for creating professional-looking documents. However, to fully utilize the potential of this program and achieve quick and easy text formatting, it is essential to know key techniques and tips. In this post, we will explore the simplest yet most effective methods for formatting text in Microsoft Word, which will help you enhance your productivity and create documents that make a strong impression. Formatting text in Microsoft Word involves using styles, quickly accessing commands and functions that modify fonts, paragraphs, lists, and more. Unlike individual text formatting, the process of formatting an entire document encompasses a broader range of tasks.

This includes properly formatting images and tables, importing different document parts created in other programs within the Microsoft Office ecosystem, as well as creating web pages and PDF documents, which we will discuss in more detail in upcoming posts in our Microsoft Word tutorial. For now, we will focus on text formatting, using the approach through the Home tab and Ribbon toolbar. These tools allow us to efficiently style and organize the content of our documents, laying the foundation for further understanding of advanced techniques and skills within Microsoft Word. 

Basic and Advanced Tips for Formatting Text in Microsoft Word

Start the Microsoft Word application on your computer, create a new blank document, name it 03. Text Formatting and save the document in the microsoft_word_tutorial folder. Look very carefully environment of Microsoft Word and in it the Home tab, with the toolbar.

Formatting text in Microsoft Word is easy thanks to the Ribbon with tools

Look at the panels on the taskbar, then type the following text into the document.

TEXT FORMATTING

 HOME PANEL

 -          Clipboard

-          Font

-          Paragraph

-          Styles

-          Editing

-          Collapse the Ribbon

Look at the panels located on the task bar. Select a title by holding down the right mouse button and moving over the title. And while the title is selected; you can see this by the fact that the selected text has a gray background color; click on button B. Your title will become bold.

TEXT FORMATTING

Do the same with the subtitle, but instead of the B button, press the I button. Your subtitle will be slightly skewed by the shade. This action is called italics in the IT dictionary.

HOME PANEL

As for the rest of the text, by using a dash - you automatically trigger your text to appear as a Bullets list. Below the list, write the subtitle of the subtitle; by typing it in capital letters.

TEXT FORMATTING

HOME PANEL

-          Clipboard

-          Font

-          Paragraph

-          Styles

-          Editing

-          Collapse the Ribbon

CLIPBOARD

If you look at the Clipboard panel on the task bar, there are functions and commands for cutting, copying and pasting the selected text. You can also see Format Painter. In any case, we use this functionality when we want to copy an already applied format and apply it to another word, sentence or paragraph. Type the following commands into the document and then apply them.

Copy text!

Paste text!

Cut text!

Use Format Painter!

 

Some text. – copy

Some text. – paste

Some text. – cut and paste

 

This is red text.

This is red text after using Format Painter.

If you click on the small arrow in the lower right corner of the Clipboard panel, a larger panel will open with the possibility to see what you have in the Clipboard. Add the following sentence to your document. 

TEXT FORMATTING

HOME PANEL

-          Clipboard

-          Font

-          Paragraph

-          Styles

-          Editing

-          Collapse the Ribbon

CLIPBOARD

Copy text!

Paste text!

Cut text!

Use Format Painter!

 

Some text. – copy

Some text. – paste

Some text. – cut and paste

 

This is red text.

This is red text after using Format Painter.

You can see all the items you’ve copied to the Clipboard. 

Now look at the second panel on the taskbar, which is dedicated to font formatting. Capitalize the title font and then format the following sentences by changing the font name.

FONT

This is Calibry font.

This is Arial font.

This is Times New Roman font.

If you were able to do this formatting, move on to the next task to change the font size.

This is 11 points sizes.

This is 18 points sizes.

This is 24 points sizes.

The size of the font is determined in special units of measurement, points. 1 point is the same as 1/72 inch or about 0.04 centimeters. Apply formatting now by using the Increase and Decrease font size commands. These commands only increase and decrease the font size by 1 point.

Some text. – increase

Some text. – decrease

Imagine you have a whole list of words but they are all capitalized. In that case, you will not correct each word by word, but simply select all the words you want to correct and perform formatting with the lowercase command, which is located on the Change Case drop-down button. See the following formatting.

Some text. – sentence case

some text. – lowercase

SOME TEXT. – uppercase

Some Text. – capitalize each word

sOME TEXT. – toggle case

 

Apply the following formatting.

 

Some text. – bold

Some text. – italic

Some text. – underline

 

Type the following two sentences and apply all three formats, bold, italic, and underline to them. Then select the second sentence and format it with a command that clears all formatting.

Some formatted text.  

Some formatted text - after Clear All Formatting. 

Do the following formatting; draw a line over the selected text, apply subscript and superscript formatting, use artistic effects, change the background and font color.

Some text. – strikethrough

Some _text. – subscript bellow

Some ^text. – subscript above

 

Some text. – text effects and typography

Some text. – text effects and typography

Some text. – text effects and typography

 

Some text. – text highlight color

Some text. – font color

 

If you click on the small arrow in the lower right corner of the Font panel, a form will open with the possibility to apply larger and deeper formatting. Add the following sentence.

You can add a variety of styles and colors to your text, as well as visual effects.

 

Now move to the third panel and write the title paragraph in capital letters.

PARAGRAPH

Lists are paragraphs that begin with a character that stands out at the left end of each item, formatted with a hanging indent. Thanks to the tools you see in the Paragraph panel, you can create lists from paragraphs, indent text, sort it and move it to the left, right, center or align it. Create a paragraph containing three sentences and then apply and test the formatting that can be done to the paragraphs.

PARAGRAPH

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Bullets list 

·         This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

·         This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

·         This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Numbering list

1.       This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

2.       This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

3.       This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Multilevel list

v  This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

Ø  This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

§  This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Decrease indent

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

  

Increase indent

 

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

Sort list

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

 

Show/Hide – Show paragraph marks and other hidden formatting symbols.

 

Align left

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Align Center

 

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Align right

 

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Justify

 

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Line and paragraph Spacing

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

 

Shading

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.                                                                                               

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.                                                                                                  

 

Borders

This is the first sentence in the paragraph.

This is the second sentence in the paragraph.

This is the third sentence in the paragraph.

In addition to being able to be creative in terms of formatting and editing the document you are working on, you can also use ready-made styles on your selected text. Take a look and apply some of the ready-made styles to your text yourself, thanks to the tools in the Styles panel. 

STYLES

This is some text. – Heading 2

This is some text. – Intense Quote

Styles give you document a consistent, polished look.

The tools in Editing  panel allow you to search the text in the document, to find and change some words or entire sentences in a paragraph. The Select drop-down button allows you to select, for example, all the text in your document or to select a specific object that you have imported into your document. Type the following text.

EDITING

Find – find text in the document

Replace – search and replace some text in the document

Select – text or objects in your document

At the end of this post, note how to hide or show the toolbar and how to share your document with other users by saving it to the cloud. Type the following text.

COLLAPSE THE RIBBON

You can collapse the ribbon so only the tab names show.

Share button is a shortcut to save the document to Cloud and then you can share it with others.

You can see what all this looks like in the following video:

Microsoft Word - 3. How to Format Text