TECH TALK
Hidden Gems of Microsoft Word ® and Outlook ®
Steven J. Best
Affinity Consulting Group
[email protected]
Overall, it is estimated that more
than 1.2 billion people use Mi-
crosoft Office products (which
includes Word and Outlook) in
140 countries and 107 languages
around the world 1 .
In survey after survey, lawyers
have identified Microsoft Outlook
and Microsoft Word as the two
programs with which they inter-
act daily. In this article, we will
look at both programs’ somewhat
unknown secrets or hidden gems.
The purpose of this article will be
to help you use Word and Outlook
more efficiently than, perhaps,
you’re already using it. Keep in
mind that the suggestions below
are just that, suggestions. Some
may work for you, others may not.
Microsoft Word
Based on the above, I would rea-
sonably guess that most law firms
and legal departments rely upon
Microsoft Office in their daily pro-
tocols of practice. Not only do we,
as lawyers harness its power as a
part of our daily business, but our
staff uses it as well. However, most
users, even those that consider
themselves power-users do not
utilize the full power of Word’s
features. Often users find them-
selves fighting with some of the
standardized settings in Word
which leads to frustration. The tips
below are geared towards Word
2013/2016. Some may work in
older versions, others may not.
Word Tip#1
Disabling Protected View
Most users of Word probably no-
tice that whenever you open a file
from an internet location (such as
an attachment to an email), Word
opens the file in protected view
which prevents editing and osten-
sibly protects you against potential
viruses or other malware which
may be contained in the file.
If you have an antivirus program
which is kept up to date (and I sure
hope you do), then protected view
can be an annoying and unneces-
sary prophylactic measure. If you
want to disable the feature, click
the file > options > trust center
(left side) > trust center settings >
protected view (left side) > clear
all three of the boxes. Note that
this tip does disable a built-in pro-
tection so do so at your own risk.
However, I have had it disabled
for the last 2 years without inci-
dent. You may want to discuss this
recommendation with your IT
department before proceeding.
Word Tip #2
Improve Your Copy & Paste
Technique
Note that the Paste button in Word
2010 has a top and bottom half
(see visual):
To do a straight paste, click the
top half of the paste button. If
you want options regarding how
the pasted text comes in, click the
bottom half of the paste button.
You'll not only get a paste preview
so you can see what it will look like
before you paste it in, but you have
buttons that allow you to paste the
26
March 2018