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20 Unique Features of Microsoft Word

IntroductionMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems.

Computer software used to create and print text documents such as college papers; part of the Microsoft Office suite which includes Excel and PowerPoint.

It is a word processing program that you can use to create, edit, format, and save documents.

Different Version of Microsoft Office Word

Word 1981 To 1989 Word 1990 To 1995 Word 1997 Word 1998 Word 2000 Word 2001/ Word X Word 2002/ XP Word 2003 Word 2004 Word 2007 Word 2008 Word 2010

Unique Features of Microsoft Word

1. Integration of Screenshot feature in Word.

Enough use of the snipping tool or print screen buttons! Now you can take screenshots directly from the Word document you are working on.

The option of screenshot is in the ribbon at the top of your document. When you click screenshot you automatically get few screenshot samples from the background (that is at the back of the word document). You can either select from the available screenshots or click on “Screen clipping” to take the screenshot yourself.

If you select “Screen clipping”, your word document will get minimized and a resizable window will appear over your background.

2.  Remove background of Images.

It’s a Photoshop like feature-not as effective though-yet it’s a great help. With it you can directly remove the background of any picture. It is really good for simple backgrounds while a little untidy and time consuming for the complex ones.

Select the picture then click on “Format”:

Click on “Background Removal”:

The area with purple color as highlighted below will be erased and the one with the original color will stay:

Simply drag the area you want:

Background removed!!

3. New Art Effects in WordArt.

WordArt has been updated with new colorful art effects. Select the text, click “Word Art “and a list of options will appear. You can see how your text will appear when you hover the mouse over the option-which is the best part:

4. Artistic Effects.

Fantastic new artistic effects have been added in Word. Select the image and click on “Artistic Effects” from the ribbon. You get a bunch of options like Pencil Sketch, Chalk Sketch, Glowy Edges, and Photocopy etc.

Some of these effects are shown below: Show Edges, Paint Strokes, Blur:

5. Ligatures.

Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components. However, the application and the system still recognize the characters in its individual components thus enabling spell checkers and search facilities. Remember that ligatures can be supported only if they are present in the font. In Word, Open Type ligatures aren’t enabled by default. Follow the steps below to enable it by using the famous example of ffi ligature.

Type in f f i:

Right click on the word document and click on “Font”:

Select the Advanced tab and select “Standard only” in the Ligatures combo box:

The result is:

6. Windows Live.

If you’re in a small company or use Word for your home or school work, you can take advantage of co-authoring features though Windows Live.

All you need is a free Windows Live ID to simultaneously edit documents with others. An instant messenger account (such as the free Windows Live Messenger) is required to view presence of authors and start an instant messaging conversation.

Your ideas, deadlines, projects, and work emergencies don’t always occur conveniently when you are at your desk. Fortunately, you now have the power to get things done when and where you need to, from the Web or even from your Smartphone.

7. Web App.

Microsoft Word “Web App” is an online companion to Microsoft Word that enables you to extend your Word experience to the browser.

View a high fidelity version of your documents and make light edits as well.

Access some of the same formatting and editing tools that are in Word, and work in a familiar editing environment, from almost any computer with a Web browser.

8. Protected Mode.

Protected Mode is one of the enhanced security features which protect the computer from viruses. By default it opens the documents which are downloaded from the internet in such a way that editing is disabled, you will need to manually enable editing.

This allows users to see the preview of the document, if they find it legit and from trusted source then they can enable editing, otherwise delete it.

9. Paste Preview.

It happens with most users that after copying and pasting something into their document, they need to undo the some changes. Microsoft Word has made it easy for users, now you may

eliminate this unnecessary step by using the “Paste Preview” option.

It allows users to have a dynamic preview of the paste in terms of keeping source formatting or merge the formatting of the source to that being observed on the target location or paste just the text.

10. Bookmark.

You can create a book to assign a name to a specific point in a document. You can use this feature which is in Insert tab, present in Main View of Word.

The user can make hyperlinks that jump directly to a bookmarked location. The name of the “bookmark” has to be mentioned, which can be used for the hyperlinks later when required.

11. Program Recovery.

The version “recovery” feature is just one of many new features available from the new Microsoft Office Backstage™ view. Backstage view replaces the traditional File menu in all Office 2010 applications to provide a centralized, organized space for all document management tasks.

Recovery of Unsafe Versions of your Document.

12. Photo/video/graphics in Word and PowerPoint.

The photo-editing tools have gotten more sophisticated in Office. Now you can apply artistic effects, similar to those available in third-party photo editing programs, such as Photoshop, from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You even get a thumbnail preview of what the effect will look like when applied to your picture.In PowerPoint, you can apply artistic effects, reflections, shadows, etc., to both photos and videos, as shown in figure below.

13. Auto Summarize.

AutoSummarize highlights passages or phrases that it considers valuable. The amount of text to be retained can be specified by the user as a percentage of the current amount of text. “AutoSummarize” identifies the most common words in the document (barring "a" and

"the" and the like) and assigns a "score" to each word—the more frequently a word is used, the higher the score. Then, it "averages" each sentence by adding the scores of its words and dividing the sum by the number of words in the sentence—the higher the average, the higher the rank of the sentence.

14. Word Count.

Another feature that has been moved is “Word Count”. This tool gives you a rundown on the

amount of characters, words, and other elements in the highlighted selection and the entire document. From previous editions of Word, accessing this tool was a two-click process: Tools > Word Count. However, Microsoft moved the tool for the better. The status bar on the bottom of Word 2007 always shows the document word count. Plus, when you have text highlighted it shows the count on the selection in addition to the entire document. If you want further info, you can click the status area to bring up the dialog box.

15. Compatibility Mode.

In Microsoft Word, you can open your old files which were saved in any of the old version of Word, but file will open in “compatibility mode”. But you can saved or convert in Microsoft

Word easily.

16.  Microsoft word as a blogging tool.

 Microsoft already has a powerful “blogging tool” – Windows Live Writer, and all they did

was pulled all the features from there and integrated it with Microsoft Word 2007. So if you are unable to install Windows Live Writer or do not want to install it on your system, but still want a powerful tool, upgrade to the latest version of Word and you are all set with a simple yet powerful blogging tool on your system. Even before you start using Word 2007 as a blogging tool, you’ll have to set up Word Press to accept posts using the XML-RPC technology, which is the technology that supports ‘Remote Publishing’ in Word Press.

17. Drag-and-drop navigation panel.

One of my favorite features in Word is the new drag-and-drop navigation pane. It’s a little like the Word document map on steroids. Whereas the document map only gives you a view of your headers and document sections, graphics, etc., the navigation pane lets you rearrange your document easily by dragging and dropping within the pane. To turn on this feature, click the View tab on the Ribbon and in the Show section, check the box labeled “Navigation Pane”, as shown in figure below.

18. Macro and Developer Tools.

Are you looking for the “macro tools”, form controls, XML tools, or template settings? They weren’t so hard to find in previous versions of Word; however, in Word 2007 there’re on the

Developer tab of the new Ribbon, which isn’t shown by default. To enable the “Developer tab”, click the Office Button, click the Word Options button, and select the Show the Developer tab option. Now shortcuts for these tools and settings are right on the Ribbon.

19. Work on your Document from Everywhere.

You can work anywhere on your documents by using Word Web. You have to login into your Windows Live account then open your folder of “Sky Drive” and now you can open your documents which you have saved to Sky Drive.

20. Compare two Versions of a Document.

You can compare two versions of documents in Word. You can use this feature which is in Review tab, present in Main View of Word.