Word Overview

Word is an application used commonly in Epitec. This is an overview on how to properly use/format data with word and troubleshoot various issues.

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This is the basics to creating and formatting documents

When you first open word you’ll be presented many templates. You can search for different templates such as resumes, calendars and newsletters
Word offers many different ways to format and modify documents. The top ribbon contains the majority of the tools you’ll ever need. Lets begin with the ‘Home’ tab
From the home ribbon you can change your font and text size. You can underline, bold, highlight and create super/subscript text.
You can easily copy and paste data/text/images. If you like how a different document is formatted you can copy it’s format and paint it onto the document you’re currently working on! This can save a ton of time formatting if you have example documents to copy from
The final section of the home tab allows you to find/replace text or data within a document. It also allows the use of voice to write directly to the document

This is the basics of the ‘Insert’ tab

The second tab is the insert tab. This tab is used to insert data, images, tables and objects into your word file.
Starting from left to right, if you need to insert a cover page, a blank page or create a page break you can simply do that by selecting the option you require.
You can insert tables/charts, images and 3D models. Depending on the type of document you wish to create this can be extremely valuable
The next few tabs allow you to insert online videos, link articles or documents and make comments on your document
You can also add a header or footer to your document,
The final section allows you to insert word art, dates, equations and symbols

The review tab is good for looking over your document prior to completion.

Before finishing a document, it’s always good to visit the review tab.
You can proof your paper by checking with a thesaurus, check on the word count and have your paper read aloud to confirm everything sounds good. You can also translate the page if needed.
You can also compare two versions of the same document. This will point out all the differences within the documents
The resume assistant uses LinkedIn data to help you perfect your resume.

From the file section you can save your document as different file types, and print documents.

Using ‘Save as’ you can select a location on your computer and select what type of file you would like created
Using the print option allows you to print the document

Sometimes word will fail to start or have various issues. Here are some troubleshooting steps that can be taken to resolve this

Attempt starting word with the ‘/a’ switch. 'Type winword /a' into your search bar
This will start word in ‘administrative’ mode. The /a switch prevents add-ins and global templates from being loaded automatically. The /a switch also locks the settings files to prevent it from being read or modified. If word doesn’t have issues using this mode it’s an issue with add-ins, templates or settings.

Word documents can occasionally become corrupted. If you’re having an issue with one specific document try opening other documents to see if the issue persists. If the issue only happens with one document, the document most likely became corrupted.
If the file became corrupted there’s several ways to attempt to resolve this issue. There’s a way to ‘Recover text from any file’ that wont save any of the formatting. You can also attempt to open the file in ‘Draft’ mode then copy and paste the data to an uncorrupted file.
If you determine the file is corrupted do further research and decide what the best solution may be case by case.

Uninstall and re-install word

If there is a very strange error and you have no idea how to resolve it sometimes starting from scratch is the best approach. Attempt to uninstall and re-install the software. This can fix strange and one-off errors