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20 Unique Features of Microsoft Word

Introduction
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released
in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems.

Computer software used to create and print text documents such as college
papers; part of the Microsoft Office suite which includes Excel and PowerPoint.

It is a word processing program that you can use to create, edit, format, and
save documents.

Different Version of Microsoft Office Word

 Word 1981 To 1989
 Word 1990 To 1995
 Word 1997
 Word 1998
 Word 2000
 Word 2001/ Word X
 Word 2002/ XP
 Word 2003
 Word 2004
 Word 2007
 Word 2008
 Word 2010
 Unique Features of Microsoft Word
1. Integration of Screenshot feature in Word.

Enough use of the snipping tool or print screen buttons! Now you can take screenshots directly
from the Word document you are working on.

The option of screenshot is in the ribbon at the top of your document. When you click
screenshot you automatically get few screenshot samples from the background (that is at the
back of the word document). You can either select from the available screenshots or click
on “Screen clipping” to take the screenshot yourself.

If you select “Screen clipping”, your word document will get minimized and a resizable
window will appear over your background.
2.  Remove background of Images.

It’s a Photoshop like feature-not as effective though-yet it’s a great help. With it you can
directly remove the background of any picture. It is really good for simple backgrounds while a
little untidy and time consuming for the complex ones.

Select the picture then click on “Format”:

Click on “Background Removal”:

The area with purple color as highlighted below will be erased and the one with the original
color will stay:

Simply drag the area you want:

Background removed!!
3.  New Art Effects in WordArt.

WordArt has been updated with new colorful art effects. Select the text, click “ Word Art “and
a list of options will appear. You can see how your text will appear when you hover the mouse
over the option-which is the best part:
4. Artistic Effects.

Fantastic new artistic effects have been added in Word. Select the image and click on “Artistic
Effects” from the ribbon. You get a bunch of options like Pencil Sketch, Chalk Sketch, Glowy
Edges, and Photocopy etc.

Some of these effects are shown below: Show Edges, Paint Strokes, Blur:
5. Ligatures.

Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components. However, the

application and the system still recognize the characters in its individual components thus
enabling spell checkers and search facilities. Remember that ligatures can be supported only if
they are present in the font. In Word, Open Type ligatures aren’t enabled by default. Follow the
steps below to enable it by using the famous example of ffi ligature.

Type in f f i:

Right click on the word document and click on “Font”:

Select the Advanced tab and select “Standard only” in the Ligatures combo box:

The result is:

6. Windows Live.

If you’re in a small company or use Word for your home or school work, you can take
advantage of co-authoring features though Windows Live.

All you need is a free Windows Live ID to simultaneously edit documents with others. An instant
messenger account (such as the free Windows Live Messenger) is required to view presence of
authors and start an instant messaging conversation.

Your ideas, deadlines, projects, and work emergencies don’t always occur conveniently when
you are at your desk. Fortunately, you now have the power to get things done when and where
you need to, from the Web or even from your Smartphone.

7. Web App.

Microsoft Word “Web App” is an online companion to Microsoft Word that enables you to
extend your Word experience to the browser.

View a high fidelity version of your documents and make light edits as well.

Access some of the same formatting and editing tools that are in Word, and work in a familiar
editing environment, from almost any computer with a Web browser.
8. Protected Mode.

Protected Mode is one of the enhanced security features which protect the computer from
viruses. By default it opens the documents which are downloaded from the internet in such a
way that editing is disabled, you will need to manually enable editing.

This allows users to see the preview of the document, if they find it legit and from trusted
source then they can enable editing, otherwise delete it.
9. Paste Preview.
It happens with most users that after copying and pasting something into their document, they
need to undo the some changes. Microsoft Word has made it easy for users, now you may
eliminate this unnecessary step by using the “Paste Preview” option.

It allows users to have a dynamic preview of the paste in terms of keeping source formatting or
merge the formatting of the source to that being observed on the target location or paste just
the text.
10. Bookmark.

You can create a book to assign a name to a specific point in a document. You can use this
feature which is in Insert tab, present in Main View of Word.

The user can make hyperlinks that jump directly to a bookmarked location. The name of the
“bookmark” has to be mentioned, which can be used for the hyperlinks later when required.
11. Program Recovery.

The version “recovery” feature is just one of many new features available from the new
Microsoft Office Backstage™ view. Backstage view replaces the traditional File menu in all Office
2010 applications to provide a centralized, organized space for all document management
tasks.
Recovery of Unsafe Versions of your Document.
12. Photo/video/graphics in Word and PowerPoint.
The photo-editing tools have gotten more sophisticated in Office. Now you can apply artistic
effects, similar to those available in third-party photo editing programs, such as Photoshop,
from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You even get a thumbnail preview of what the effect
will look like when applied to your picture.
In PowerPoint, you can apply artistic effects, reflections, shadows, etc., to both photos and
videos, as shown in figure below.
13. Auto Summarize.

AutoSummarize highlights passages or phrases that it considers valuable. The amount of text to
be retained can be specified by the user as a percentage of the current amount of text.
“AutoSummarize” identifies the most common words in the document (barring "a" and
"the" and the like) and assigns a "score" to each word—the more frequently a word is used, the
higher the score. Then, it "averages" each sentence by adding the scores of its words and
dividing the sum by the number of words in the sentence—the higher the average, the higher
the rank of the sentence.

14. Word Count.

Another feature that has been moved is “Word Count”. This tool gives you a rundown on the
amount of characters, words, and other elements in the highlighted selection and the entire
document. From previous editions of Word, accessing this tool was a two-click process: Tools >
Word Count. However, Microsoft moved the tool for the better. The status bar on the bottom
of Word 2007 always shows the document word count. Plus, when you have text highlighted it
shows the count on the selection in addition to the entire document. If you want further info,
you can click the status area to bring up the dialog box.

15. Compatibility Mode.

In Microsoft Word, you can open your old files which were saved in any of the old version of
Word, but file will open in “compatibility mode”. But you can saved or convert in Microsoft
Word easily.
16.  Microsoft word as a blogging tool.

 Microsoft already has a powerful “blogging tool” – Windows Live Writer, and all they did
was pulled all the features from there and integrated it with Microsoft Word 2007. So if you are
unable to install Windows Live Writer or do not want to install it on your system, but still want a
powerful tool, upgrade to the latest version of Word and you are all set with a simple yet
powerful blogging tool on your system. Even before you start using Word 2007 as a blogging
tool, you’ll have to set up Word Press to accept posts using the XML-RPC technology, which is
the technology that supports ‘Remote Publishing’ in Word Press.
17. Drag-and-drop navigation panel.

One of my favorite features in Word is the new drag-and-drop navigation pane. It’s a little like
the Word document map on steroids. Whereas the document map only gives you a view of
your headers and document sections, graphics, etc., the navigation pane lets you rearrange
your document easily by dragging and dropping within the pane. To turn on this feature, click
the View tab on the Ribbon and in the Show section, check the box labeled “Navigation
Pane”, as shown in figure below.
18. Macro and Developer Tools.

Are you looking for the “macro tools”, form controls, XML tools, or template settings? They
weren’t so hard to find in previous versions of Word; however, in Word 2007 there’re on the
Developer tab of the new Ribbon, which isn’t shown by default. To enable the “Developer
tab”, click the Office Button, click the Word Options button, and select the Show the Developer
tab option. Now shortcuts for these tools and settings are right on the Ribbon.
19. Work on your Document from Everywhere.

You can work anywhere on your documents by using Word Web. You have to login into your
Windows Live account then open your folder of “Sky Drive” and now you can open your
documents which you have saved to Sky Drive.
20. Compare two Versions of a Document.

You can compare two versions of documents in Word. You can use this feature which is in
Review tab, present in Main View of Word.