Help for Your Version of Word

A variety of pearsby C.K. MacLeod

There are many versions of Microsoft Word in use. What’s tricky is that one version of Word can be different from another version of Word. That can be a problem when you’re looking for Word help.

On this blog, I write about Word 2010 because it’s the version of Word I use. It’s also currently the most common version of Word used by editors (this will change as 2013 makes inroads).

Below is a quick list of free resources to help you get to know your version of Word better. This list will also help you to “step sideways” while reading Word tutorials based on a version of Word that’s different from yours.

Word Help

Most of the following links are from gcflearnfree.org—a terrific resource for Word tutorials.

*These two versions of Word are now close, with some exceptions. If you don’t mind a fairly technical document, you can read about the differences here. The table containing keyboard shortcuts is particularly helpful.

Image by Forest Starr and Kim Starr

2 thoughts on “Help for Your Version of Word”

  1. Ah, Microsoft actually solved this problem for you a few years ago, that’s what DOCX is for (it’s designed to be able to fully replicate any previous binary version so even print would be identical and be open and malleable enough to meet future needs). The easiest solution is to convert everything to that.

    Even those of us using ODF or some other XML based solution (both of those in my case) recognise its value as, at the very least, a stepping stone between file formats when converting (for whatever reason). Plus there are a lot of things out there being adapted to deal with it. So just lose the binary versions, even Microsoft has stopped using them (and as an added bonus if the file becomes “corrupted” you can just unzip it and find all the content in document.xml).

    1. That’s a very good point, Ben. I wonder if the folks at Literature & Latte have plans to address this problem? They have a forum where users can post suggestions. I think they should hear yours. Thanks for taking the time to share it here.

      If it’s any consolation, aside from the one time I lost a project in Scrivener (I think it’s a newbie rite of passage), I’ve never had problems locating my Scrivener projects again. But I definitely understand how unbelievably frustrating this can be.

      I use both Scrivener and Word, but for entirely different purposes. Scrivener is positively brilliant for managing book-length projects (if you can locate them ahem). Word shines when it comes to editing. I don’t think I’d want to be without either of them.

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