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5 Indispensable Tips for Microsoft Word

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All of us know some tricks and shortcuts with Microsoft Word, but here are some of the ones that most people find helpful when working in a document.

1. Learn to use Undo – Make a mistake? Press [Ctrl]Z or choose Undo from the Edit menu right away. Keep pressing [Ctrl]Z to backtrack through and undo the most recent editing changes you've made.

2. Quickly move around in a document – To move to the top of a document, press [Ctrl][Home]. To move to the bottom of a document, press [Ctrl][End]. To go to the top of the next page, press [Ctrl][Page Down]. For the top of the preceding page, press [Ctrl][Page Up].

3. Expand your vocabulary – Word has a built-in thesaurus. Press [Shift][F7] or open the Tools menu, select Language, and then choose Thesaurus. Word will display a list of synonyms for the word you've selected or the word closest to the insertion point marker.

4. Paste plain text – When you copy and paste text from a Web page or another document, the text brings its formatting into your document. To get around that behavior, copy the text and place the insertion point marker where you want to insert the copy. Then, open the Edit menu, choose Paste Special, and select the Unformatted Text option.

5. Print multiple pages of a Word document on one sheet (Word 2000/2002/2003) – If you regularly print large documents or send printed copies of them through the mail, you can save on both paper and postage by using Microsoft Word's Zoom feature. With Zoom, you can print as many as 16 pages on a single sheet of paper. For example to print four pages onto one sheet of paper you would:

• Go to File then Print
• In the Zoom section, select 4 Pages from the Pages Per Sheet drop-down list
• Make any other print selections, and click OK

Zoom automatically reduces the scale to fit four pages on each sheet therefore reducing the number of pages it takes to print the document.

Next time you are working in Word try any of the tips above and see how much easier they make your life.

What are the Biggest Business Challenges in 2008?

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Seven years into the 21st century the world of business and management is certainly going through, if not a revolution, at least evolution on a speedy scale.

Traditional business models are getting turned on their heads (Anyone seen Google’s share price lately?), resources and markets are available on a global scale (Medical tourism), and technology continues to be both the manager’s best friend (CRM) and worst enemy (Blackberry = 24×7 availability).

"What do you think will be the big challenges for your business in 2008?" asks Harvard Business, which is building a crystal ball around responses from readers. Some early comments:

• The Network as Platform. “The most important trend in networking in 2008, indeed in all of IT, will be the emergence of the “network as the platform” for productivity, profitable growth, resource management and innovation. This trend will play a key role in helping determine success in business as well as in other areas of society (healthcare and education).”
• Eco Business Opportunities. “As private and public entities respond to the extension of social responsibility, many new service provider opportunities will explode in the finance, e-waste, recycling, remanufacturing, supply chain industry, and service entities.”
• New Geopolitics. “Politically, between US election, China’s coming out party (summer Olympics), and Russia’s new (old) president, 2008 will be an interesting year. Economically, the battle for supremacy between central banks, sovereign funds, and the “real” economy could be on the headline in various disguises.
• Volatile Markets. “The biggest challenges for the managers in the short term is to counter the impact of weakening dollar, rising crude, declining productivity in US and Europe, and outsourcing as competitive strategy.”
• Dollar Decline. “For European businesses the continued decline of the US dollar against the Euro will remain one of the toughest challenges. It will be the catalyst for many changes related to repositioning within market segments, relocation of manufacturing to no-Euro zones and acceleration of innovation drive.”
• Social Networking. “Companies must learn to effectively utilize social networking tools both inside and outside the companies to keep up with what the younger workers grew up with — fast and furious communication tools like texting, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. that spread the word now. Not in the next quarter, next month, next week or even next day, but NOW.”
• Soft Skills. “The development and implementation of ‘soft skills’ will be one of the greatest management challenges in the future. With changing attitudes and values it will become increasingly necessary for organisations to undergo cultural change in order to attract and retain high quality young staff and to appeal to the changing values of society in general. The establishment of a culture of community which values all stakeholders, gives a strong sense of belonging and offers flexibility within a secure and diverse environment will be important.”