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Word 2013 for Law Firms

Luminis Books

GETTING AROUND WORD

Welcome to Word 2013!

Microsoft Word is one of the most invaluable tools in the legal environment, providing the means for successful creation of the legal world's most basic building block — the legal document. A solid understanding of Word basics is paramount. In this first chapter, we begin by taking a tour of the user interface and various screen components and features of the workplace in Word 2013.

WORD START SCREEN

When you first open Word, you are met with the Start screen (see Figure 1.1). In earlier versions of Word you started off with a blank document. Now you are given the option to either create a blank document, select from basic templates provided by Microsoft, search online for more Microsoft-provided templates, select from your own templates, or select from a list of recently used documents.

On the left side of the screen is a list of recently opened documents. The recent document list not only provides the filename, but the file location as well. The number of recent documents listed depends on your screen resolution. In a 1920x1200 screen resolution, 19 documents will display, whereas with a 1280x800 screen resolution, only 11 documents will display.

SIGNING INTO YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT

When you open an Office 2013 application for the first time, whether it's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or any of the other Office applications, you are prompted to sign into your Microsoft account (previously known as Windows Live ID). Many features in Office 2013 were designed to work with an online connection. In Word, not only are you able to save, open, and share files online, but you also have the ability to access services such as online dictionaries (e.g., Merriam-Webster Dictionary) or online pictures (e.g., Office.com Clip Art).

Any configuration changes you make to your computer, such as a desktop theme, list of recently accessed documents, pinned templates, or custom dictionaries, can all travel with you from computer to computer when you are signed into your Microsoft account.

If you opt to not sign in when prompted, you can always sign in at a later time. To sign in, simply click on Sign In in the upper-right corner of the screen or select File, Account, Sign In, as shown in Figure 1.3. After you have signed in, your account name will appear in the upper-right corner of the window.

When signing into Office 365, the first screen you will see is the Recent Documents of any files you have saved to your cloud drive. By clicking the 'See more documents in SkyDrive link', a second window will appear with the ability to Create or Upload more files. Your firm may have a custom environment that does not match this description.

OFFICE BACKGROUND AND OFFICE THEMES

In Office 2013, you can add a bit of personality to all of your Office applications with custom backgrounds and themes. Background and Themes allow you to customize the look and feel of Word with the design and background color of your choice.

To change the background color and/or theme, click on the File tab and select Account. Under User Information, click the drop-down arrow for Office Background. As you hover your mouse pointer over the selections, notice in the upper-right corner of the window how the title bar is changing. Once you find the one you like, click to select it. To change the background color, three different themes are available — White (default), Light Gray, and Dark Gray. Click the drop-down arrow for Office Theme and select from the available themes. Figure 1.4 shows how you can personalize your Office background and themes.

EXPERT TIP

Many find the default White theme to be hard on the eyes. If you are responsible for creating an image for your organization, or just want to customize the look for yourself, try Light Gray or Dark Gray.

TOURING THE WORKPLACE IN WORD

In Word 2013, the workplace has once again gone through a "look and feel" over-haul. You still see the ribbon environment with various tabs to access all of the tremendous functionality of Word; however, the workplace is much cleaner and gives more focus to what we're actually here for: the document.

Menus have been completely removed in Word 2013. The multiple menus and toolbars found in earlier versions of Word have all been replaced with ribbon tabs, commands, and two toolbars — the Quick Access Toolbar and the Mini toolbar. The following new and improved features in Word 2013 will be covered in this chapter.

• Quick Access Toolbar. This toolbar appears in the upper-left corner of the Word window and gets you started with three commands. You can easily customize this toolbar to add your favorite commands.

• Tabs. Just below the Quick Access Toolbar are nine default tabs: File, Home, Insert, Design, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View.

• File tab and Backstage view. The File tab essentially replaces the File menu found in earlier versions of Word. On the File tab are familiar commands such as New, Open, Save, Print, and Close. When you click the File tab, it displays what's called the Backstage view.

• Ribbon. The ribbon is a graphical element in the Word window that replaces menus and toolbars. The ribbon consists of organized groups of commands.

• Contextual tabs. Unlike the nine default tabs, contextual tabs do not show all of the time and only appear in context to what feature you are working with in Word. For example, when you access the header or footer, the Header & Footer Tools Design tab displays with options specifically for the header or footer, such as page numbering and inserting date formats — you can even set header and footer margins. When you close the header and footer, the contextual tab automatically disappears as the focus shifts away from that element.

• Task panes. Task panes were designed to help you work more efficiently with a number of Word's main features. Task panes are still alive and well in Word 2013 and have been added to many features that previously required a dialog box.

Word Screen Components

Everything in the Word workplace provides you with the tools needed to create and edit documents. See Table 1.1. Figure 1.5 shows the main components of the Word 2013 window.

Quick Access Toolbar

In earlier versions of Word, commands were found on toolbars and menus. In Word 2013, commands are found on the ribbon, the Quick Access Toolbar, the Shortcut menu, and the Mini toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar (also known as the QAT) is customizable, allowing you to place the commands you use most often within easy reach (see Figure 1.6).

Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

By default, the Quick Access Toolbar has only three commands — Save, Undo, and Repeat/Redo — and is located in the upper-left corner of the window. It can, however, be repositioned to appear just below the ribbon. To reposition the Quick Access Toolbar, click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select Show Below the Ribbon. Figure 1.7 shows the Quick Access Toolbar positioned below the ribbon.

Add Commands from the Ribbon

Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar can be accomplished in a couple of ways. The easiest way, by far, is to locate the command you want on the ribbon, right-click on the command, and then select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

Add Commands from Customize Quick Access Toolbar

To select from a list of commonly used commands (e.g., New, Open, Save, E-mail, Quick Print, and more), click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar — also known as the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button — and select from the list. Each command that is on the Quick Access Toolbar will have a check mark beside it.

To select a command from the list of more than 1,700 commands available in Word, click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands. In the Choose Command From box, select All Commands, as shown in Figure 1.9. This list of commands can be filtered by the following categories: Popular Commands, Commands Not in the Ribbon, All Commands, Macros, or the ribbon tab on which the command is located.

Add a Command to the Quick Access Toolbar

1. Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar (down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar) and select More Commands.

2. Under Choose Commands From, click the drop-down list to view all of the categories. The default is Popular Commands.

3. From the Popular Commands list, select Add a Table and click Add.

4. From the Popular Commands list, select Print Preview and Print and click Add.

5. To view all of the commands available, from the Choose Commands From list, select All Commands.

6. Click on any of the commands in the list and press C to navigate to the commands beginning with the letter C.

7. Scroll down and select Close and then click Add.

8. To move the Close command to another position on the toolbar, with the Close button selected, click either the Move Up or Move Down button.

9. To remove a command, select it and click Remove.

10. Click OK to close the dialog box.

EXPERT TIP

All modifications to the Quick Access Toolbar are saved to the Word.officeUI file located by default in the following folder: C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\ Local\Microsoft\Office.

Add a Separator

To group the commands on the Quick Access Toolbar, a vertical line known as a separator can be placed between commands. You'll find the separator at the top of the list in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar dialog box. To insert the separator, select the command you want to add a separator line after, select , and then click Add. Adding a separator is shown in Figure 1.10.

Remove a Command

To remove a command from the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click on the command and select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

Reset the Quick Access Toolbar

To reset the Quick Access Toolbar to its default settings, click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button at the right end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands. Click the Reset button and select Reset Only Quick Access Toolbar. Click Yes to confirm. Click OK to exit the Word Options dialog box and save your changes.

Touch/Mouse Mode

If you are working with a touch-screen device, enabling Touch Mode expands the size of the command on the ribbon, making it easier to select commands when tapping your screen.

To enable Touch Mode, you first need to add the command to your Quick Access Toolbar. Click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select Touch/Mouse Mode. This adds the Touch/Mouse Mode command to your Quick Access Toolbar. Click on the Touch/Mouse Mode command and select Touch. Notice how the commands on the ribbon are larger, making it easier to tap them with your finger. To return to Mouse Mode, click (or tap) the Touch/Mouse Mode command again and this time select Mouse. The Touch/Mouse Mode command functions as a toggle and is shown in Figure 1.11.

EXPERT TIP

Copying all of the customizations you have made to your Quick Access Toolbar from one computer to another is fairly easy. There are actually two ways this can be accomplished:

• One method is to copy the file that holds the customizations from one computer to the other. By default the file is located in C:\Users\[username]\ AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office and is called Word.officeUI. By default, the AppData folder is hidden. Be sure you have opted to display hidden files, folders, and drives in order to access the AppData folder.

• Another option is to export all customizations on the computer, including the Quick Access Toolbar, and then import them to another computer. Click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands. From the Customize Quick Access Toolbar tab, click the Import/Export button. Select the option to Export All Customizations and save the Word Customizations file. From the second computer, click the down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar, select More Commands, click the Import/Export button, and then select Import Customization File. Navigate to the location where you saved the Word Customizations file from the first computer, click Open, and confirm that you want to replace all existing ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar customizations.

Title Bar

At the top of the application window is the Title bar containing the icon for the application, the title of the document, and the name of the application (in this case — Word). On the far right of the Title bar are the three buttons used to minimize, restore/maximize, and close the entire Word window. New to Word 2013's Title bar are the Microsoft Word Help button and the Ribbon Display Options button. Also, just below these buttons is your Microsoft Account sign-in information.

The Ribbon

The ribbon is the mainstay of all of the Office programs. Not only will you see the ribbon interface in Word, but you will also see it in Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, InfoPath, Publisher, and OneNote. In a nutshell, the ribbon is a dynamic area devoted to commands. These commands are organized into tabs named for their functionality, and on each tab, the ribbon displays groups of task-related commands designed to give you quick and easy access to features precisely when you need them. Figure 1.12 shows the Word 2013 ribbon.

Collapse the Ribbon

By default, the tabs and ribbon always display. However, if you prefer to have more window "real estate" so you can display more of your document, you can collapse the ribbon so that only the tabs show. To collapse the ribbon, click the Collapse the Ribbon button — it's the small caret symbol in the lower-right corner of the ribbon shown in Figure 1.13. To access any of the ribbon commands with the ribbon collapsed and only the tabs displayed, click on a tab. The ribbon will display, and you can make your selection. When finished, the ribbon goes back into hiding.

TIP

Another way to collapse the ribbon is to double-click on any of the tabs, except the File tab. Double-click again on any of the tabs to expand the ribbon. You can also press Ctrl+F1 to toggle the ribbon on and off.

Ribbon Display Options

When the ribbon is collapsed, it will only display when a tab is selected. Perhaps you would like to completely hide the tabs as well as the Status bar, or show the tabs and commands again. In the upper-right corner of the Word window, click Ribbon Display Options. There are three options available: Auto-Hide Ribbon, Show Tabs, and Show Tabs and Commands. These options are shown in Figure 1.14.

Auto-Hide Ribbon hides the ribbon, tabs, and Status bar, leaving you with only your document displaying. To access the ribbon, hover at the top of the window, and a blue band will appear. Click on the blue band, and the ribbon appears. Click away from the ribbon, and the ribbon and tabs are once again hidden.

Select Show Tabs to display just the ribbon tabs. To restore the ribbon and the tabs, select Show Tabs and Commands.

Groups

Commands on the ribbon are grouped together based on their functionality. Centered at the bottom of each group, you will find the name of that group, as shown in Figure 1.15. For example, on the Home tab, you will find the following groups: Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, and Editing.

Dialog Box Launcher

You'll notice a small arrow button in the lower-right corner of some of the groups. This button is called the Dialog Box Launcher and gives you access to the dialog box or task pane related to the group. The dialog boxes associated with the Dialog Box Launcher are very similar to the dialog boxes used in earlier versions of Word, and when making the transition from menus and toolbars to ribbons, can be very welcome. Figures 1.16 and 1.17 show the Dialog Box Launcher and resulting dialog box once it is clicked.

Tabs

When you first open Word 2013, eight default tabs are across the top of the window. Each of these tabs displays a ribbon with commands relating to the subject of the tab. The tab that is selected initially is the Home tab, which contains the most basic font and paragraph formatting commands, clipboard commands, editing commands, as well as the Quick Style Gallery. The eight default tabs are Home, Insert, Design, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View.

EXPERT TIP

In Office 2013, tab titles display in all caps. At first glance, it appears that this cannot be changed. When you attempt to rename the default tabs, they revert to all caps. However, if you rename the tab and include a space before the name (i.e., replace Home with {space}Home), the name will display in initial caps.

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Excerpted from Word 2013 for Law Firms by Luminis Books. Copyright © 2014 PayneGroup, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Luminis Books.
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