Macatawa Technologies Logo

Tip of the Week: Handy Productivity Features in Microsoft Word

Image of tools for productivity

Many businesses rely to some degree on Microsoft Word as their word processor of choice. Considering this, it seemed fitting to go over some of the productivity-supporting features that Word has to offer.


Focus Mode

Let’s not mince words here: while Microsoft Word’s massive number of utility-based tools and features add a lot of capability, it can also be overwhelming and distracting when you’re just trying to get work done. Fortunately, Word has an additional feature called Focus Mode that can help immensely.

Activating Focus Mode basically trims down the user interface, hiding the feature menus at the top of the screen and only presenting the document that you’re trying to work on.

Turning this mode on is simple: access the View tab of your menu bar, navigating to the Immersive section, and clicking Focus. Your interface will disappear, and your background can be changed to a different color.

Exiting Focus Mode is just as simple—all you must do is hover your cursor at the top of the screen until the interface appears again. Deselecting Focus will return it to normal.

Immersive Reader

Appearing right next to the Focus button, Immersive Reader can make a document far simpler to read, based on the user’s needs. Activating Immersive Reader will adjust how the text appears in size and formatting to customize the reading experience.

Adding to its utility, Immersive Reader also provides a Read Aloud function that can also be customized. With it, different voices can read back a document’s text at different speeds.

Inserting Online Video Content

Finally, Microsoft Word files are compatible with multimedia sourced from YouTube and Vimeo, providing a simple interface to embed a video directly into your document. Under Insert, you’ll be able to find the Online Video option. Selecting this enables you to paste the link to the video clip into your document. This clip can then be moved around the page, resized as needed, with native playback from within the document.

Contact Us

Word offers dozens of other useful features… which ones are your favorites? Join us on Youtube to learn more tips and make sure you stop back to our knowledge center for more great technology tips, tricks, and best practices.

Don't forget to share this post!

Topics

Recent Articles

Introducing AI Into Your Business The Right Way

For small businesses, introducing AI into your business doesn't mean hiring a data science team or overhauling your entire tech stack. It means finding the right tools, starting small, and building from there, strategically. The numbers tell a clear story: according...

AI Risks Every Business Owner Needs to Know

Artificial intelligence tools have become a standard part of everyday business life. From drafting emails to summarizing reports to answering customer questions, AI is showing up in nearly every workflow. And for small and mid-sized businesses, the appeal is clear:...

The 5 Biggest IT Risks When Your Team Is Out This Summer

Summer in West Michigan is something special. The beaches fill up, the patios open, and your team - rightfully so - starts taking time off. But while your business shifts into a slower gear, one thing doesn't slow down at all: the people and systems looking for ways...

You may also like…

Skip to content