Microsoft Word essentials: 12 features that’ll make your work easier

Next to Windows, Word might just be Microsoft’s most iconic software throughout PC history. Who hasn’t used Word at least once in their life? And how many of us have to use it every week — maybe even every single day — as we stare at white pages and that blinking cursor?

You might think you’re proficient with Word. But there are so many small-yet-useful features that you might’ve glossed over, and those features can boost your productivity further if you let them.

From format painting to hands-free dictation to being able to combine and contrast different document versions, here are some of the most essential Microsoft Word features you need to know.

Related: Get Microsoft Office Home 2024 for $119 ($30 off) in PCWorld’s Software Store

Save time formatting with Format Painter




Jon Martindale / Foundry

It’s one thing to copy and paste text or images across your Word document. But what if you want to replicate the detailed formatting of one section of text and apply it to another piece of text?

Format Painter lets you copy and paste the style, not content, of what’s written. Simply select the text you want to copy from, then use the context menu to click the paintbrush icon. Then select the text you want to convert to that format and it’ll automatically apply it.

Jump around using Navigation Pane




Joel Lee / Foundry

If you don’t know, the Navigation Pane (which you can open and close using the Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut) is what you use when searching a document for certain words.

But when your document is properly formatted with headings, you can actually use the Navigation Pane to jump around between sections. When your document is massive (e.g., a massive report, a bloated reference manual, or a working novel), this is way more efficient than manually scrolling around to find the section you need.

Switch to Focus Mode to aid concentration




Joel Lee / Foundry

Focus Mode (sometimes also called distraction-free mode) is a useful feature in many applications, and Word is no exception.

To enable Focus Mode, select View > Focus in the ribbon menu. Doing so will hide all the interface elements you don’t need, as well as full-screening the app without the taskbar or other distractions. Now you can better concentrate on what you’re working on.

Use Dictation for hands-free writing




Joel Lee / Foundry

Dealing with repetitive stress injuries? Want to write in a stream-of-consciousness style without worrying about typing speed? Or maybe you want to lay down while staying productive? Dictation is your answer.

You can enable Dictation by navigating to Home > Dictate in the ribbon menu, then speak while Dictate is On. Word will transcribe everything you say into words in the document.

Alternatively, if you have a recorded audio file (e.g., lectures, interviews, or meetings), you can use Home > Dictate > Transcribe to convert it into text. However, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 subscription for this and you’ll get a maximum of 300 transcription upload minutes per month.

Have Word read your text back to you




Joel Lee / Foundry

Sometimes you just need to hear something out loud to know how well it reads (or doesn’t read). While you could read your work aloud yourself, it’s better if someone else reads it to you — because you might mentally overlook errors and mistakes since it’s your own writing.

Fortunately, Word can do it for you. Select the text you want read aloud, then select Review > Read Aloud in the ribbon menu. Word will read back what you’ve written. It’s a little robotic, but it does the trick.

Compare and combine documents




Joel Lee / Foundry

Been sent a document and you need to know what changes were made to it? Or maybe you need to merge that document with another one? That’s where Compare and Combine can be super useful.

To use these, either select Review > Compare or Review > Combine in the ribbon menu, then use the on-screen toolbar to select the files you want compared (side by side) or combined (into one document).

Use Editor to proofread your work




Jon Martindale / Foundry

While I might be able to send my work to an editor before it gets published, not everyone is so lucky. Fortunately, you can always use Word’s built-in AI editor to proofread your work.

To do so, select Home > Editor in the ribbon menu. This opens the Editor pane on the right side, which has notes on your spelling, grammar, and makes suggestions for refining your writing in a number of ways.

Insert an automatic table of contents




Joel Lee / Foundry

A table of contents makes any longer document much easier to navigate and makes your work look more professional. You don’t have to add it by hand, though. There’s an easy way to insert one instantly, as long as all your sections have proper headings and subheadings.

Place your text cursor where you want the table of contents to appear. Then navigate to References > Table of Contents in the ribbon menu. Click on the style you want and it’ll be automatically inserted into the document. You can make manual adjustments or refresh it automatically by selecting the table of contents and clicking Update Table.

Paste text with all the formatting excluded




Joel Lee / Foundry

I know you’ve done this before: you copy a paragraph from another document or a web page or an app, then paste it into Word… only for it to be wildly formatted, ruining the look and layout of your document. Now you have to manually fix all the formatting yourself.

Well, you can skip all of that hassle with a simple feature. Next time you paste text, right-click where you want it to go and click the Keep Text Only button (the clipboard with an “A” on it). Alternative, you can use the Ctrl + Shift + V keyboard shortcut. Either way, your copied text will get pasted with all the formatting stripped off.

Find synonyms with one click




Joel Lee / Foundry

As much as we all might consider ourselves to be veritable thesauruses of nomenclature in our relative professions, none of us knows every single variation on a given term or phrase. And when you find yourself repeating the same words in a document, it’s good to switch it up sometimes.

Word can help expand even your already-expansive knowledge base of words with synonym suggestions. Simply right-click on any word for which you need alternatives, then select Synonyms in the context menu to instantly get suggestions. (It works offline, by the way!)

Use Copilot for all kinds of AI help




Chris Hoffman / Foundry

As of January 2025, Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant is now included as part of Microsoft 365’s Personal and Family plans. (It isn’t available at all if you’re using the non-subscription Office 2024 suite.) To access Copilot, navigate to Home > Copilot in the ribbon menu.

With Copilot in Word, you can submit prompts to AI-generate text with or without formatting, and you can chat with Copilot to get summaries of your documents, ask questions for answers, and perform some actions. With Copilot Pro, you can do even more.

Create your own keyboard shortcuts




Jon Martindale / Foundry

Word is packed full of keyboard shortcuts to speed up your day-to-day usage, but maybe you have a hard time remembering them all. Or maybe there are actions without built-in keyboard shortcuts. Or maybe you want to reorganize your most-used keyboard shortcuts in a way that’s most intuitive to the way you personally use Word.

You can do that! Navigate to File > Options in the ribbon menu, then click Customize Ribbon. At the bottom of that window, you should see “Keyboard shortcuts.” Click Customize next to it. There you’ll be able to find the actions you want to customize and input your own custom keyboard shortcut combinations for them.

Further reading: Advanced Microsoft Word tricks worth knowing