Microsoft Word has evolved over the years into a complex program that on the face of it is easy to use, but comprises a lot of features that can make life a lot easier for people if they only knew. Since starting work as a book editor, I have learnt (and am still learning) much about the many features, tips and tricks hidden in the program. I see people labouring with returns and tabs to format their text material, and discovering that all their work goes sideways when they want to add or change things to their documents. Formatting poetry is one case in point. I have seen tabs used to push the copy further towards the middle of the page, and an endless stream of returns made so they can place another poem onto the next page. Even high school students are pleasantly surprised when I point out how to use a global find and replace to repair consistent spelling errors and inconsistencies quickly.

I will cover some of the basics and point out a few tricks and shortcuts in this series.