You can use Word to crop a picture without affecting the original picture file. To do so, click on the picture to select it and then click the Crop button on the Picture toolbar. When the pointer changes to the cropping symbol, drag the picture's cropping handles to trim off any excess. To crop opposite sides of the picture at the same time, hold down the [Ctrl] key and drag the centre-cropping handle on any side of your picture.

A power outage or system crash can quickly hash up your hard work. If you have enabled the AutoRecover feature, there is a chance that Word can recover most of the work you did not have a chance to save. If you open your document only to find that it has become corrupted and Word cannot read it, you can try to recover its text by choosing Recover Text From Any File from the Files Of Type dropdown list in the Open dialog box. However, this recovery approach provides no guarantee. A better solution is to save a backup copy of your document on a regular basis.

You can configure Word to save automatically a backup copy of your document each time you save changes to the original. To do so, choose Tools | Options from the menu bar (Edit | Preferences in Word 2001), and then click on the Save tab. In the Save Options area, select the Always Create Backup Copy check box, and then click OK. From now on, each time you save the changes you have made to a document, Word takes the last copy you saved and converts it to a backup file.

After one person has finished revising someone else’s copy, you may want to compare them you can review and accept/reject the changes that each of you has made. To do so, open the original document, and then choose Tools | Track Changes | Compare Documents from the menu bar. In the resulting dialog box, locate and select the copy you would like to compare the original with, and then click Open. Word compares the copy to the original, and indicates any discrepancies in the copy by adding tracked changes to the original document. Next, to preserve backup copies of the original file and the copy, choose File | Save As from the menu bar and save the comparison document under a new filename. To review and accept/reject the changes, use the buttons on the reviewing toolbar, which you can display by choosing View | Toolbars | Reviewing from the menu bar.

Storing files in a network folder makes documents accessible to everyone in your office. However, Word limits accessibility to one person at a time per document on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you attempt to open a document that is currently being accessed by another user, Word informs you that it is "locked for editing" by that user. Either you can click Read-Only to view the original document without making changes to it, or you can click Notify to open the document in read-only mode and wait for notification that the other user has closed it - at which point you will be able to click Read-Write and open the original copy for editing.

If you want to view a document without preventing other people from editing it, or if two people need to revise a document at the same time, you simply open a copy of the original document. Choose File, Open from the menu bar, or click the Open button on the Standard toolbar. In the Open dialog box, locate and select the document you would like to access, click the dropdown arrow next to the Open button, then choose Open As Copy from the resulting submenu. In Word 2001, choose Copy from the Open dropdown list, and then click Open.

Deleting a table using the mouse and menu bar is a straightforward task using the menu bar - place the insertion point in any cell and then choose Table | Delete | Table from the menu bar.

However, deleting a table with the keyboard is less intuitive. If You select the table and then pressing the [Delete] key, you only delete the table's contents without deleting the table itself.

To create an electronic form, first create a new, blank template or document. Frequently used forms are best saved as templates in a network folder or in the user templates folder on your hard drive. Single-use forms or forms that will be distributed via email are best saved as documents. Next, choose View | Toolbars | Forms from the menu bar to display the Forms toolbar.

Design your electronic form just as you would a printed form. However, instead of using tabbed underlines or similar for textual form blanks, try clicking on the Text Form Field button on the Forms toolbar to insert a text form field. Similarly, instead of using bullets or symbols to simulate check boxes, click the Check Box Form Field button on the Forms toolbar.

You can add a dropdown list that contains answers to multiple-choice style questions by clicking the Drop-Down Form Field button, and then clicking the Form Field Options button. In the Drop-Down Form Field Options dialog box, type one of the choices you wish to appear in the dropdown list in the Drop-Down Item text box, then click Add. Repeat this process for each item in your list. Use the Move buttons to reorganise the list order if necessary, and then click OK when you are finished.

Once your form is completed, you must protect it so that other users can fill it in by clicking the Protect Form button on the Forms toolbar. This protects your form elements so that users can add or modify the contents of the form's form fields but they cannot modify any of the form's other information.

When creating a form, you may want information entered in a particular form field also to appear in the form's header or footer. You can do this by using a Ref field. First, choose View | Toolbars | Forms to display the Forms toolbar, and then toggle the Protect Form button to unprotect the form. Next, select the form field whose contents should appear in the header, and then click the Form Field Options button on the Forms toolbar. In the resulting dialog box, take note of the form field's bookmark name, which appears in the Bookmark text box, and then click Cancel. Now, choose View | Header And Footer from the menu bar, then position the insertion point where you want the form field data to appear. Press [Ctrl][F9] to insert a pair of field braces, then type "Ref BookmarkName" between them - without quotes - where BookmarkName is the value you took note of earlier. For example, if the form field's Bookmark value was MyText, your Ref field might look like this:

{ Ref MyText }

You can attach an envelope to a letter or other document by choosing Tools | Envelopes And Labels from the menu bar and clicking on the Envelopes tab. You set up the envelope size as desired and then click Add To Document to attach it to the beginning of the current document.

Word adds the envelope to the beginning of the document, so it would seem logical that you could print just the envelope by choosing File | Print from the menu bar, selecting the Pages option button, and entering 1 in the corresponding text box. However, when you click OK, Word prints the first page of your letter or document, not the envelope.

When you need to insert an outline numbered list in your document, you can easily apply any of Word's built-in outline numbered styles by choosing Format | Bullets And Numbering from the menu bar, clicking on the Outline Numbered tab, choosing the style you wish to use and then clicking OK.

When Word does not offer the exact outline numbering style you are looking for, you can modify easily any of Word's built-in outline numbered lists. Choose Format | Bullets And Numbering from the menu bar, and then click on the Outline Numbered tab. Select the numbering style you wish to modify, and click Customise. In the Customise Outline Numbered List dialog box, choose the outline level you wish to modify from the Level list box. Then customise the selected outline level using the dialog box's remaining options.

Field codes make it easy to update document information that is subject to change. For instance, if you insert a Date field in your document, the field results display the current date each time you update the field. Sometimes, however, you may want to prevent a field's results from being updated. For example, you may reach a point where you no longer want the date displayed by your Date field to change. One way to do so is to lock the field by selecting it and pressing [Ctrl][F11]. Locking a field preserves the field code but prevents the field results from being updated. You can then unlock the field by selecting it and pressing [Ctrl][Shift][F11].

When you create a table in Word, the [Tab] key takes on some special functions. First, pressing [Tab] when the insertion point is in the last table cell creates a new row. In addition, pressing [Tab] in any other cell moves the insertion point into the next cell. You press [Shift][Tab] to reverse direction.

You can apply superscript and subscript formatting to your document using the Font dialog box. Select the text you want to format, then choose Format | Font from the menu bar. Select the Superscript or Subscript check box from the Font sheet, as appropriate, and then click OK.

There is a quicker technique you can use to apply superscript and subscript formatting on the fly. To apply superscript formatting, select the text you want to format and then press [Ctrl][Shift][=]. To apply subscript formatting, press [Ctrl][=].

If you need to use a special document template for a one-time collaboration project, you do not need to install it in Word's template directory in order to use it. Instead, store the template on the Desktop (or in an easy-access folder) while you are using it.

To create a new document based on the template, simply double-click on it. When you have finished your project and no longer need to work with documents based on the special template, you can easily delete the template from your system without needing to find Word's elusive template directory. When you delete the template from your system, the documents you created with it will be unaffected.

Sometimes an email message becomes virtually illegible by the addition of angle brackets (>), line breaks and extra spaces. Certain email programs apply these items to the contents of forwarded messages to indicate where line breaks appeared in the original.

You can keep track of the revisions that you and others make to a document by enabling the Track Changes feature. The traditional method is to choose Tools | Track Changes | Highlight Changes from the menu bar, and then to select the Track Changes While Editing check box in the Highlight Changes dialog box. (If you are using Word 2002, just choose Tools | Track Changes.)

However, you can also activate and deactivate the Track Changes feature much more efficiently by pressing the [Ctrl][Shift]E keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, you can also toggle the Track Changes feature by double-clicking on the TRK icon in Word's status bar, located at the bottom of the application window.

If you want to number your document by paragraph, use the Bullets And Numbering feature. To number your document's paragraphs, select the portion of text you would like to number, and then choose Format | Bullets And Numbering from the menu bar. Click on the Numbered tab in the Bullets And Numbering dialog box, choose the numbering style you would like to use, and then click the Customise button.

If you work with lengthy contracts or manuscripts, you may have to refer your colleagues or clients verbally to a specific passage as you review the piece together. Chapters, page numbers, section titles and descriptive headings are useful during a sit-down review. However, Word offers another reference tool called line numbers. To add line numbers to your documents:

The AutoCorrect feature is designed to help automatically correct common spelling errors and capitalization typos. However, you may find that there are certain words, acronyms, or abbreviations that you do not want AutoCorrect not change at all. For example, many Web sites use combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters that the AutoCorrect feature sees as mistakes. Rather than disabling the AutoCorrect feature or using the Undo feature, you can avoid unwanted corrections by creating exceptions.

You can add a word to AutoCorrect's exceptions list by choosing Tools | AutoCorrect from the menu bar, and then clicking on the AutoCorrect tab (if it is not already active). Click the Exceptions button. In the AutoCorrect Exceptions dialog box, choose the tab that corresponds to the type of correction you would like to prevent. In the Don't Correct text box, enter the text that you want to prevent AutoCorrect from changing, and then click Add. Next, click OK to close the AutoCorrect Exceptions and AutoCorrect dialog boxes. AutoCorrect no longer changes the word you added when you type it in a document.

When you add footnotes to your documents, Word includes a default two-inch separator line between the document text and the footnotes for each page. You can easily remove or change Word's default separator.

Many of us create numerical reports using Excel worksheets but often the numbers do not always speak for themselves. To make complex numerical data easier to understand, you may present your workbook's key figures along with descriptive information and analyses in a written report, saved as a Word document. You can print your Excel data and your Word report separately and collate them later or you can copy key portions of your Excel workbook and paste them directly into the Word report. However, if the data in the workbook changes the data you pasted in your Word report will remain the same. Instead, you can use the Paste Link feature to paste Excel data as an active link. That way, when the data in the Excel workbook is updated, the data in your Word report will update accordingly.

To use the Paste Link feature, open your Excel workbook and select the cell(s) you would like to copy. Choose Edit | Copy from the menu bar, and then switch to your Word document. Place the insertion point where you would like the Excel data to appear, and then choose Edit | Paste Special from the menu bar. Select the Paste Link option button, choose Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object from the As list box, and then click OK. Word inserts an embedded, dynamically linked replica of the Excel data you copied.

When creating a template, you might want the header and footer on the document's first page to be different from the header and footer used on subsequent pages. A good example might be when creating a letterhead template, the first page of the letter should include your company letterhead, whereas subsequent pages should not.

However, not all of your letters will be two or more pages in length. The trick is to create a "ghost" page in your template, apply the desired header and footer to the "ghost" page and then remove the "ghost" page before you save the template.

Create a new template, choose File | Page Setup from the menu bar and then click on the Layout tab. Select the Different First Page check box, then click OK to return to your template. Next, add the ghost page by pressing [Ctrl][Enter] to insert a manual page break. Press [Ctrl][Home] to return to the top of the template and then choose View | Header And Footer from the menu bar.

When you use the tools on the Drawing toolbar to draw linear objects like lines, arrows and connectors, you can use the Line Style, Line Color, Dash Style and Arrow Style formatting tools to customise each linear object's appearance.

However, these formatting tools are not just for linear drawing objects; you can also use them to apply custom borders to AutoShape objects, text boxes and even some types of WordArt objects. Select the drawing object you want to customise, click on the appropriate tool and choose the desired formatting from the resulting pop-up menu. For example, you can apply an artistic border to a text box, apply a dashed or dotted border to an AutoShape object or quickly colour the outline of a WordArt object. Remember that you can combine multiple formatting elements for unique looking objects.

The next time you want to customise a drawing object's formatting try using the tools sitting on the Drawing toolbar. Make the most of the other formatting tools on the Drawing toolbar especially the Fill Color, Font Color, Shadow Style, and 3-D Style tools.

Sometimes you sit down a computer only to discover the apparent absence of some feature or element in your Word program. For example, you might have heard a colleague describe wizards you do not seem to have, or maybe you cannot access Visual Basic Help. If this is the case, it is most likely that you have a Typical installation of Word on your machine. Word Setup's Typical option does not install certain Word components that are considered less critical for normal Word use, such as some extra wizards, Visual Basic Help and various file converters. However, you can always rerun Setup and add any missing features you need later on.

You can use shortcut keys to deactivate (i.e. "unlink," your documents) hyperlinks.

Word lets you customise the way you view your documents with its collection of views and its adjustable Zoom setting. Each time you save a document, Word saves the document's current view and Zoom setting along with it. If you are the only person who works with the document, this is quite convenient. However, if you share the document with other users, any changes they make to the document's view and Zoom setting are saved with the document. As a result, when you open the document, you will need to readjust the view and Zoom setting if they do not match your personal preferences. Fortunately, you can work around this hassle by recording a macro that automatically applies your favourite view and Zoom setting to the active document.

First, choose Tools | Macro | Record New Macro from the menu bar. Type MyView in the Macro Name text box, choose All Documents (Normal.dot) from the Store Macro In dropdown list, and then click the Toolbars button to display the Customise dialog box. Drag the Normal.NewMacros.MyView item from the Commands list box and drop it in a suitable location on the Standard toolbar. Click the Modify Selection button in the Customise dialog box, and then choose Default Style from the resulting pop-up menu. Next, click the Modify Selection button again, and this time choose Change Button Image. Click on a suitable button image, and then click Close to dismiss the Customise dialog box.

The Stop Recording toolbar is still active, indicating that the macro recorder is active. To make the macro perform, first, open the View menu, and then choose your preferred view, such as Normal view or Print Layout view. Next, choose your preferred Zoom setting from the Zoom dropdown list on the Standard toolbar. Alternatively, click inside the Zoom text box, type your preferred Zoom setting and then press [Enter]. When you have finished, click the Stop Recording button on the Stop Recording toolbar to stop the macro recorder. If prompted by Word to save changes to the Normal.dot template the next time you close Word, click Yes. Now you can automatically apply your preferred view and Zoom setting at any time by clicking on the macro button you added to the Standard toolbar.