As you might know, Microsoft Word is a word processing program developed by Microsoft and commonly used for creating documents including resumes, letters, flyers, brochures, and more. It comes in the Microsoft Office suite along with other applications like PowerPoint, Excel, and so on. Like the previous versions of Word, Microsoft Word 2016 has similar features. Word 2016 and its associate Office programs have been retooled and updated to help you get things done easier and faster. Underneath its sleeker new look, Word integrates smoothly with the new features built into the Windows 8 operating system and Windows 8 devices, though you can use Word on a Windows 7 system, too.
What does it look like?
While redesigning Windows 8, Microsoft added a streamlined look that would be at home on tablets/PCs, greater amalgamation with cloud-based features such as OneDrive, and more social media functions. You don’t need to waste much time working in the new Word to realize that it follows the lead of Windows 8:
- Sleeker look: The title bar has no 3-D looking tabs anymore. It has flat tabs and a customizable Office Background graphic. Similarly, the status bar is also in 2-D and easy-to-read look.
- Cloud integration: Word uses a Microsoft account for you to sign in, along with any picture assigned to the account. This means that you can save and open documents directly to and from the account’s OneDrive.
- Social media functions: The feature to insert an online picture also provides you the ability to insert pictures from a Flickr account associated with your Microsoft account. You just need to make the connection when prompted and pictures you’ve shared to Flickr will be available for use in Word documents.
How to get hands-on the Word application?
To get comfortable and have hands-on experience with Word 2016, you need to know some of the tricks and tips. There are few shortcuts and techniques that will surely lead you one step closure in getting to know the application. Here are a few of them:
- Tell me: On the ribbon, you’ll find a “Tell me what you want to do” option, which will help you to get the required command.
- Insert a link: To insert any link in your document just click Ctrl+K. It’s a quick and easy way to add web links and comes very handy.
- Smart Lookup: To quickly search any relevant information on the web, select the word/phrase, right-click, and click Smart Lookup. It will automatically open a pane that will show you the web search results without spending your time to open a browser window.
- Clear formatting: To remove the unwanted formatting on any word/phrase, select the required content, and press Ctrl+Space or click the Clear All Formatting button.
- Find and replace: The most effective way to find or search for any word in a document is Ctrl+F. You can also replace a particular word/phrase using the Ctrl+H shortcut. No matter how long your document is or how many pages you have, it’s the most efficient and quickest method.
- Cut, copy, and paste: These are the top-most features that are known to everyone working on a Word document. Even though the Word application has options for these on the ribbon, you can still use Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V as an alternative to cut, copy and paste.
- Remove an entire word at once: To delete an entire word, instead of using just the Backspace key, use Ctrl+Backspace. This keyboard shortcut will delete any word at a time instead of removing it letter by letter.
- Select without dragging the mouse: To select a word, double-click and to highlight an entire sentence or section triple-click using the mouse. This reduces the efforts to drag the mouse pointer over an entire word/section for selecting it.
Why use Word 2016?
Word 2016 is the world’s most popular word-processing software and there are several reasons to justify its use. Not because it’s easy to use but the ample amount of features provided in Word, are the main reasons. Here are some of the reasons because of which one should definitely use it:
- Convert your document into a webpage
- Zoom in or out according to the requirement
- Get help within the application whenever stuck
- Protect your confidential documents using a password
- Insert 3D models in your document and make it more effective
- Translate a document into your native language for collaboration
- Add header and footer to add a professional look to your document
- Check spelling and grammar in your document to avoid syntax errors
- While creating a document, take the help of the task pane for reading relevant articles
What’s new?
In today’s scenario, Microsoft Word has become a standard for all word processing programs and the reason is the features and tools it offers. Word 2016 has many new features, some of them include:
- New Save As options
- Some new types of charts
- Ability to work on the files in the cloud
- View the previous versions of a document
- A new searching tool on the ribbon, “Tell me”
- Ability to co-author the document with users connected to Office Online
- A Bing features tool, Insight, to get the contextual information from the web
- Using a touchscreen tool, write any mathematical equation by hand and Word will convert it to text
The Microsoft Word 2016 application is getting popular day-by-day. It’s one of the most widely used word processing programs. To know more about Word 2016 and become its specialist, you can refer to a uCertify course, Microsoft Office Word 2016 Expert (77-725 & 77-726). If you are planning to get certification on the Word 2016 application, this course is for you only. It will provide you the expertise on the platform with the help of simulators that have the same look and feel as that of the real-world application. The course will not only help you to get familiar with the application but will also cover Word 2016 exam topics like designing the Word environment, working with graphic objects, collaborating on documents, adding document references and links, and so on. Do refer to our Microsoft Word course to get along with the Word 2016 application.