Discussion on:

10 underused Office features

because code from prior versions of excel trying to determine whether an autofilter is enabled or not does not work. there are obviously 2 different filters used, one for tables and one for autofilters.

try this in the immediate window when a table is created
?worksheets("Sheet1").autofiltermode

it will return false

The 80/20 rule further illustrates why the more complicated Office has become, the fewer features get used. So many of the features involve such steep learning curves, that for the casual user, it is not worth using those features and just stick with basic operations--even if more keystrokes are required. MailMerge,Styles, and Tables are excellent examples of complexity and/or unintuitiveness.

I have to disagree on Tables having a steep learning curve, with the possible exception of the structured referencing functionality (which can be turned off) though to most even that is not difficult to understand. I believe it is not difficult to learn how to use tables Tables, and they are extremely effective in what they do. The drop-down sort and filter capability, and column headers that roll to the top as you scroll down a long table. How are they "unintuitive"?

that many people use Excel when what they really need is a table in Word

Excel Table objects are easy to implement and use, but they do have limitations and that probably causes many users to ignore them. If you can live with the limitations, it's a great data entry tool, if nothing else!

A nicely formatted email without attachments can be sent from Word.. But who knows ,now that the "send to mail" button has been hidden in the menu bars.
So even Microsoft knows some features are underused, and therefore further depreciated.

I thought the goal of 2003's 'Ribbon' menu format was to reveal those features that were seldom used in previous versions. Apparently it isn't working.

Since the introduction of categories in 2007 (as long as i am aware of) i stopped using folders. I use this for incoming and outgoing mails. one email can have multiple unlike folders. Love it

Ode to a Spell Checker

I have a spelling checker
I disk covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.
Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Caws Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

I challenge anyone to read this aloud, without rehearsing it!
Therefore, I NEVER use auto-correct! I just learn to spell, and also learn proper grammar.

nt

You're not implying that Auto correct caused all those errors are you?
It looks like you purposely used homonyms, knowing the results would be spelled correctly.

Autocorrect doesn't overcome ignorance. It catches many typing and spelling errors. It also allows the user to build some shortcuts to accelerate his work.

Just because features don't get used doesn't mean they shouldn't be. This points out a few items that should be spoon fed to employees in order to increase productivity. Thanks!

It's been around from the earliest Office editions, but its regularly ignored. But for those who have to develop and present formal papers, the Outline view in Word set you up with real writing power. Additionally, PowerPoint can read that outline into your presentation to jump start your effort there. In the last month, I introduced a graduate student who was looking for writing efficiency to complete their thesis.

Ms. Harkins - Love your columns and find really useful stuff - thanks. BUT for 12 years MS Word has been the worst piece of excrement application I've had to wrestle with. It is so badly done that it is beyond description.

I'm a hard-working commercial real estate lawyer, I'm on the computer all day long, with Word, and I'm better than most users. Styles are a disaster, section breaks are a disaster, underscoring in bold looks terrible, we need special extra programs to do Tables of Contents and Automatic Numbering and even then they break down, macros require a degree in engineering, and Not Even Title Case Is Right Because It Capitalizes A And The And And. WordPerfect in 1996 remains a better program than every version of Word I have ever seen.

Your loyal readers shouldn't tell me about using styles correctly because I do. The problem is that nobody else can figure them out. When our documents are emailed to the other parties on a deal and they insert language with their own set of styles (badly done) and contradictory manual formatting, the result is a technical disaster EVERY TIME IN EVERY DEAL IN EVERY DOCUMENT.

If you ever see a picture of Bill Gates with a black eye, you'll know I finally had a chance to thank him properly.

We had many users who used Wordperfect and once they saw Word they jumped to change, one reason above all - tables and how simple it was to use. Too many people spend their time in the past and are not willing to embrace the new and train to use the products properly. The problems you seem to have is not with Word but with your other parties, maybe you should have a word with them about them having some training. Autocorrect is never going to suit everybody and it can be tailored to most people's needs. If you don't like the program why not use something - probably because others do not live up to the job. Many other products would suit a lot of users but Word has many more features than other programs. When Word cam along it upped the game for word processors and many would not have changed had it not been for Word, and a few have fallen by the wayside. I am old enough to remember using programs where you had to input special characters at the start and end of special text (e..g bold) and the only way to check was when you printed things out. Even worse the word processors where to change font you changed the wheel on the printer (pre-laser printers). Microsoft set the standard and though not perfect, neither were the alternatives. For those who commented on the ribbo, no one likes change and I sometimes wonder why some options have moved to where they are now - but as most of our users seem to cope well with the changes it cannot be all that bad, we do have some low usage users who only use the basic functions as well as power users - those that would have been in the typing pools of days gone past - they had the same issues when documents were sent out to others for amendment, no one stuck to the standards they set - not an MS issue, a training issue. In case your wondering - I am not a Microsft employee, just someone who has to support it in my organisation. Definitely easier than pre Word - every department seem to have it's own favourite, then everyone moved to Word as it was better than everything else they used.

"Wordperfect - not the better product"

I agree with you about resistance to change, e.g. the ribbon, which a lot of people claim not to like, but I did as soon as I saw MS 2010 (having jumped from MS Office 2000.
The superiority of WP has nothing to do with Autocorrect. See the recent post by the lawyer.

Besides Reveal Codes, which Word does not have, the whole approach to formatting is different to Word, and there is not the nannying and 'dictatorial' approach of Word. However, WP has fallen by the wayside because of a mix of reasons including, apparently, a late release of Windows code to WP, giving MS a big advantage, plus some early issues in WP for Windows (though I don't know which).

The main positive thing I see in Word (clever MS marketing) is that it has become a de facto world standard, making it easy to exchange files with almost anybody in the world.

It appals me how many people don't know when to use "it's" or "its", "your" or "you're", "affect" or "effect" and many other pairs of similar words and abbreviations. IMHO, more people need a simple course in grammar and spelling than a course in using Word's features. Here's a quick grammar course in the above 3 examples:
"it's" is short for it is
"its" means belonging to it.
It's easy to remember which is which because my, your, his, her, our, their and its don't contain apostrophes (i.e. all the personal pronouns).
"you're" is short for you are
"your" means belonging to you
To check whether you're using the correct version of the above, simply replace the one you've chosen with its meaning. If the meaning doesn't fit, you're using the wrong one
"affect" is a verb meaning to change something (often slightly)
"effect" can be a verb or a noun.
To "effect" something is to cause something or bring it about
An "effect" is the result of doing something.
"Affect" and "effect" are best illustrated by examples:
The driver effected a right turn by rotating the steering wheel clockwise.
The height of mercury in a thermometer is affected by the temperature.
By painting the room yellow we got the effect we wanted.

All double quotes and most apostrophes were removed by the software that handles comments!!!!! I must apologize to aevans as some of his errors were probably due to the same formatting errors in the comment software!
Update - I typed the original comment in Word (yes - in Word!) and then cut and pasted it into the comment field. All the apostrophes and double quotes were removed because Word uses "smart" quotes and interprets an apostrophe as a single "smart" quote. The comment software obviously doesn't understand these characters and strips them out - so next time I'll use Notepad to write my comments!
I did successfully edit my first comment in situ once I'd figured out what must have happened.

I always stop and pause when I use affect and effect.
I worked with a professor who published a thesis with the word "effect" in the title. She said she keeps a sticky note on her wall to this day prompting which one to use in which circumstances.

All those high-order and complex characters either disappear or appear as garbage when cut and pasted elsewhere. Word is by far the worst for this.

I can't say whether WP would have the same problem, but I know you can reduce the issue in Word by turning off the autocorrect crap, especially smart quotes.

No Paragraphs, No Punctuation and it's impossible to read.

Sorry but you are WRONG We had many users who used Wordperfect and once they saw Word they jumped to change I at the time worked in Legal and Medical Offices and WP was the best Word Processor available. In contrast Word from Microsoft was utter garbage. When we moved to Word from Word Perfect there was not one Secretary or Word Perfect User who was happy with the change, they all complained about the Substandard product that they where told to use.

Even the first Windows version of Word Perfect was so much better than Microsoft Word that there was not one business on the face of the planet that used Word from Microsoft who needed to exchange Documents with others.

What made Microsoft Word the Default was not any improvement to Word it was the Introduction of Microsoft Office where you had all of the Production Software that a Business required in the One Package from the One Supplier and the Killer Thing about it was the Ability to move the Data between the different applications.

Prior to the introduction of Microsoft Office you had Word Perfect as a Word Processor, Lotus 123 as a Data Base and so on. In each and every occasion the Data used in Word Perfect Was Not transferable to Lotus 123 and so on. This made it necessary to have several teams of people as Data Entry Teams, one for each package and many mistakes where introduced between the different Data Sets used to do the same thing in different programs.

The Template over the Keyboard which so many complained about that made Word Perfect so different though word back then needed it's own Function Key Template was effectively done away with when Word Perfect for Windows was introduced. Sure it still came with the Function Key Template because the same Key Combinations where used as the DOS versions but in the Windows Program you have the option to use Menus instead of the Function Key Combinations of if you preferred you could use the Function Key Combinations. Many simply stopped using the Function Key Combinations and started using the Improved Menu system that was available.

Even today I was laughed by my staff when I started this business a while ago as I preferred Word Perfect over Word and what I did find interesting was that now every one of those Staff Members complain bitterly when they are forced to use Word at all for any reason. They all use Word Perfect whenever possible and detest Word which they where using when they first joined this business.

From what I could Comprehend from your Illegible post above you never really knew Word Perfect and really never understood how to make things happen in it. So I would surmise you where never trained to use Word Perfect through any of the Word Perfect Training Courses for Business that was available, let alone any of the Advanced Functions that where in Word Perfect. Microsoft Office never had a similar training course available, you where just expected to be able to use it out of the box. Granted there where many business offering Training for Office Users but at the time none where from Microsoft like was provided from the then Word Perfect Owner.

OH and By The Way, why today is a Mail Merge in Word considered as Advanced and not a standard requirement at the collages who teach Word and Microsoft Office to their Students and when Word Perfect was in use it was one of the Basic Functions who everyone who ever touched Word Perfect was expected to be able to perform?

Col

Sez the guy who can't figure out how capitalization works

Lotus 1-2-3 was a spreadsheet, not a database...

I'm getting old and forgetful.

About all I now remember of Lotus 123 is the Logo burnt into the Screens so badly that you could clearly see it when the monitor was turned off.

Col

I helped open a new unit on an existing base once, and the computer equipment we got to start with was all issued from existing stock. Every single stinking one of the monitors either had a spreadsheet grid or a logo (or both!) burned into the phosphors.

On could argue that Lotus 1-2-3 (any spreadsheet, in fact) is a flat-file, 2D database...

And one wouldn't be far wrong in doing so. In my experience, the primary difference between the DOS-based DBMSs (Condor, dBase II, Foxbase, etc.) and Lotus 1-2-3 was the flexibility of the DBMS report generators.

If you are unaware of the features listed, then you really should sign up for some remedial training. Most of these are features that have been in office for many versions now. Templates, Cutting & Pasting - really? If you are an Office user and are unaware or are not using these features - you really deserve a good whack!

Lets get started with the ribbon. With the ribbon convolution we have lost functionality and employee effeciency incredibly. Who can afford to retrain their employees. We are a small business and cannot afford any training of the like. Afte the ribbons came out we finally had to "share" documents with someone in the office who had discovered a "lost function" E.g. we lost the watermark for 6 months febore someone discovered it. We now send documents to them for watermarkinig. I admire you corporate types who can egotistically prognosticate what the small businesses should do to flush hard earned dollars down the drain. Ofice 2003 was easiest to use and easiest to train, and therefore most functional. The ribbons reduce Word to a basic typewriter for everyday business. Specialty work is restricted to fewer people who can create the forms, insert text, etc.

Generally speaking, these Office "features" are underused because they are either not worth using or a pain to use. For example, I see no reason to use "tables" in Excel.

Autocorrect is another "feature" that is the absolute bane of our office and so many others. Having to spend hours tweeking it so it doesn't replace the specialized spellings we use is a pain. In most cases, we simply disable it completely. We've taught our people the wonders of F7 (spell check) and careful proofreading.

MS just continues to add bloat to the programs while decreasing efficiency. And don't even get me started on "Ribbons".

The most interesting/underused feature of word.

I am a heavy user of Excel in Office 2003 with Microsoft integrated menus. I have Office 2007 and bought the third party menu program but it is not fully integrated and I have trouble finding old features I use in Office 2003.

It is likely I will switch from Microsoft Office to something else unless they "improve" the product to the Office 2003 standard.

To sperry532 - I jumped from Word 2000 to 2010, and I LIKE THE RIBBON. You can switch it off if you don't.

To glnz - I jumped from WordPerfect 2000 and Word 2000 to Word 2010. I absolutely agree that even old WP 2000 is noticeably superior to Word 2010. Just a shame it has been relegated to a bit player. The relatively high price of modern WP versions does not help (so I do not know how the current version looks or works, and I do not mean the cut-price Corel Office).

Once you know feature it can be tweaked to your advantage. There amny tounge twisting wordes or phrases that can be effectively simplified using Autocorrect. To give an example : Bhubaneswar is capital city of Orrisa State in India. With different languages and with many dialects it is spelled as Bhubaneshwar, Bhuvaneswar or Bhuvaneshwar depending on users dialect. Just using "Bhu" as a autocorrect options missplled corrections are automatically avoided.

Apart from being free OpenOffice is far more intuitive, flexible and in the long run more productive since using its features allows a less convoluted approach to mixing and matching features in any application. Moreover, any Microsoft product is readable in OpenOffice so although Microsoft is dominant in the enterprise document utilization is relatively seamless usin OpenOffice in place of Microsoft's products.

So many of the "features" in newer versions of office are no more than bloat. The fewfolks who want (for example) tables in excel or seven different ways to paste a bit of text seem to be the tail shaking the office dog. And ribbons - get real - just what is needed - a bunch of new, non intuitive, icons leading to little or never used tasks mixed with a bunch of new icons for daily use tasks. Thanks, MS, you set productivity back for my people while they try to figure out, and find, the icons they need.

Once upon a time styles were easy to set up in Word.
Once upon a time it was easy to modify a template for a letter so that it had every option for salutation and closing.
Once upon a time Excel macros were easy to write and edit.
Once upon a time it was relatively quick to modify a graph to have a professional hierarchy (for scientific writing) of symbols and lines (yellow lines on a graph? Get serious!)

And on and on but -

Once upon a time it was a pleasure to learn how to use a typewriter, then an IBM golfball, WordStar, 123, MS Word and so on. With each development I could do something more, better or faster. What annoys me so much is that now with every new version of Office I have to relearn how to do the same task. And that's not more, better and its a whole lot slower.

By the time you truly learn something it is obsolete.

Case in point: Office

More rah rah rah for software worth $50 not $300 let alone a $$$ sucking subscription.

I see so many users mutter not nice things about the Ribbon, yet very few bother to take 10 minutes per Office application to customize their Quick Access Toolbar. Put your most commonly used commands there. This alone will substantially boost productivity in every Office application.

And, since it looks like some folks are voting for their favorite word processor... My all time favorite was AmiPro - before IBM bought it and destroyed its intuitive interface and renamed it (Lotus) Word Pro.

Imagine if we could customise the keyboard to suit our own typing preferences. Perfect providing I only ever use my keyboard and no-one else ever does, but if I switch to a different PC or someone tries to use mine - oops! The same argument applies to customising Word. I like to stick to standards where possible and the Ribbon is a real mess of a standard.

Since Excel first came out, I've been using a certain feature because it speeds up searches which I constantly use in my Excel spreadsheets because of the type of data I enter in them. To access the feature, do the following in an open spreadsheet:

1) Press Shift-F5 to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
2) Type in part or all of the text you are searching for.
3) Click on the Options button.
4) Click on the down arrow in the Search box and select By Columns.
5) Click on the down arrow in the Look In box and select Values.

Unfortunetly, I have to do this EVERY TIME I open Excel because the developers have failed to allow the selections I make to become the default for this dialog box. I haven't tried the 2013 version yet but I bet it's still the same as version 1 of Excel ... no option to set your desired default.