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Here’s a quick list of my 3 favourite tips for speeding things up when you’re working with Office.

1. AutoCorrect

Do you have a long word or series of words that you frequently type? If you do then you can save time by setting up typing shortcuts using the AutoCorrect feature. For example instead of always typing ‘LANcom Technology’ I can create an AutoCorrect shortcut so that all I need to type is ‘LCT’ and Office will fill in the rest.

Here’s how set up an AutoCorrect shortcut in Word 2007

  1. Click on the Office button (top left) and select Word Options
  2. Select Proofing from the menu on the left, and click AutoCorrect Options…
  3. Make sure there is a tick in the Replace text as you type box. Then in the Replace box type your shortcut abbreviation, and in the With box type the full text you would like to appear when you use that abbreviation.
  4. Now Click Add and then OK.

The AutoCorrect feature is also available in older versions of Office, click here to find out how to do in Office 2003.

2. Changing your default working folder

You may have noticed that when you go to save an Office file for the first time, Office will automatically open the My Documents folder.  This is because My Documents is your default working folder, but if you often save your files in a different location you may want to change this setting to save yourself the time of finding this other location every time you save.

Here’s how you can do this do in Word 2007

  1. Click on the Office button (top left) and select Word Options
  2. Now choose Save from the menu on the left.
  3. Next to Default file location click the Browse button
  4. Go to the folder that you would like to be your default working folder and click OK

From now on when you go to save a document Word will open your selected folder as the default saving location.

Click here to find out how to change your default working folder in Office 2003.

3. Customising your Recent Documents list

Did you know you can customise the Recent Documents list that appears when you click on the Office button in Office 2007? The Recent Documents list gives you quick access to documents you have used recently, but you can make it even more convenient by changing the number of items it displays and pinning certain items to it.

To pin a document to the Recent Document list so that it will always appear in this list even if you do not open it for several weeks just click on the picture of a drawing pin next to that document in the list.

Here’s how to change the number of documents that appear in the Recent Documents list

  1. Click on the Office Button and then click on the options button, in Word this will be called Word Options, in Excel Excel Options, and so on.
  2. On the menu on the left select Advanced
  3. Under the Display section (you may need to scroll down to find this) you will find Show this number of Recent Documents. Now enter the number of documents you would like to appear in the list, in the box provided (max 50) and click OK.

To find out how to customise the recently used files list in Office 2003 click here.