Discover Hidden Formatting
You're typing along, and upon moving your cursor to another spot, your text starts showing up in another font. Has this ever happened to you? This is why I always encourage users to apply formatting to a document AFTER all the data has been entered. You may choose to format on-the-fly, but do you know what codes are still lingering?

Word Perfect has it all over Microsoft Word when it comes to revealing hidden codes. However, there's another way to view "hidden" formatting. From Word's menu, select 'Help' and 'What's This?' -- then left-click on any data in your document. You'll see a "cartoon balloon" pop up, showing the details for that particular object (or character.) NOTE: this may not work in all versions of Microsoft Word.

Mail-merge the Word and Outlook way
So you have a form letter that you want to send to selected contacts? Luckily, Word 97 and Outlook are natural partners in mail-merging:

1. In Outlook, create a new Contacts folder: click the Contacts icon in the Outlook bar, select File/New/Folder from the menu bar, name the folder, and click OK.
   
   
2. Select View/Folder List from the menu bar.
   
   
3. In the main Contacts window, hold down the Ctrl button, select the contacts to whom you want to send the mail merge, and drag the names to the folder you just created in the Folder List.
   
   
4. Switch to Word, open the document you want to mail-merge, and select Tools/Mail Merge from the menu bar.
   
   
5. In the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click the Create button, then select a type of document (Form Letters, Mailing Labels, Envelopes, or Catalog.) Click the Active Window button.
   
   
6. Click the Get Data button, then select Use Address Book/Outlook Address Book, and click OK. In the "Mail merge from contacts folder" dialog box, select the folder you created in steps 1 through 3, and click OK.
   
   
7. If you haven't yet inserted merge fields into your document, Word will display a message to that effect. Click the Edit Main Document button. In the main document, place the cursor where you want to insert a name, address, or any other information that changes for each contact. In the Mail Merge toolbar (which appears automatically when you activate the Mail Merge Helper), click Insert Merge Field, and select from the options there to insert fields for first names, last names, addresses, and more.
   
   
8. When you're done, select Tools/Mail Merge/Merge from the menu bar, choose from the sending options in the Merge dialog box, and click the Merge button to activate the merge.

Mail in a Batch
Don't futz around in Outlook or some other email package trying to figure out how to personalize batch email. Use Word's Mail Merge feature to automate the process. Select Tools/Mail Merge from the menu bar, and follow the three-step process (Create, Get Data, and Merge.) When you reach the third step, don't select the usual mail-merge option ("Merge to a new document.") Instead, select "Merge to electronic mail."

Save as HTML
Want to convert a Word document to HTML? No problem. Select File/Save As HTML from the Word menu bar.

Prepare Web pages
Creating a Web page? Try the Web Page Wizard. From either File/New or Start/New Office Document, click the Web Pages tab. Select Web Page Wizard, and then you can create all manner of Web pages, including registration and survey forms, as well as plain old home pages.

Save file space
Word 97 has a new file format that lets it store additional information, such as hyperlinks. But these capabilities come at a price: Word 97 files are twice the size of identical Word 6.0 or Word 95 files. If you don't need links in your documents, select File/Save As from the menu bar and choose Word 6.0/95 or the even more compact Rich Text Format (RTF.) To save in this format every time, select File/Save As from the menu bar, click the Options button, and specify your choice under "Save Word files as."

Travel fast around documents
Instead of scrolling down every page and scanning each paragraph to move around in your Word documents, travel fast using the Select Browse Object button. When you click this button (located in the bottom right corner of your screen between the two sets of double arrows), you get a pop-up button menu with the following options: Go To, Find, Browse By Edits, Browse By Heading, Browse By Graphics, Browse By Table, Browse By Field, Browse By Endnote, Browse By Footnote, Browse By Comment, Browse By Section, or Browse By Page. Select one of the buttons to change the function of the double arrow buttons on either side of the Select Browse Object button. For example, if you click the Browse By Table option, you can then go to the previous table in your document by clicking the double up-arrow button. Similarly, clicking the double down-arrow button will take you to the next table.