Word 2007 Resources

Word 2007 Books

A list of books that will help you get up to speed with Microsoft Word 2007.

Word 2007 Videos

A comprehensive suite of free video tutorials created by Microsoft.

Using Macros In Word 2007 Saves You Time

Macros can be used to automate repetitive tasks to save you time and effort. For example, you may have jumped to the bottom of a document and inserted a picture of your cat before saving the document. If you find that you have several more documents that you want to apply this change to, you may find it a great time saver to create a macro to perform these actions automatically.

Creating a macro involves recording your keystrokes so that they can be played over later again and again. When you're at the point where you can begin recording your actions, go to the View Tab > Macros > Record Macro. You should give the macro a meaningful name so that you can easily identify it later. The two buttons you see in the Record Macro window (see Figure 1) allow you to assign the macro to a button on the Quick Access Toolbar or a keyboard shortcut. Clicking the button will take you to the Customise category of Word Options (see Figure 2). Here, you can add the new macro to the Quick Access Toolbar, see which commands are already there, and also change the order in which they appear.

Recod Macros Window

Figure 1

To add the macro, select it in the box on the left and click Add. Don't worry if you didn't select an informative name earlier; you can change that now by making sure it's selected and then clicking Modify. Go on, click Modify.

Recod Macros Window - Word Options, Click to expand

Figure 2

At the bottom of the Modify Button window, give the macro a more meaningful display name. You can also choose an icon to represent the macro, and this icon will appear in the Quick Access Toolbar.

Recod Macros - Modify Button window

Figure 3

When you click OK, you can see the new addition in the Quick Access Toolbar, but the macro doesn't yet exist. Notice that the cursor has changed to a cassette tape, indicating that recording has started. You can now perform the actions you want to record. Once you've completed all the steps you want included in the macro, stop recording by clicking the View Tab > Macros > Stop Recording.

That's the macro created. To run it, come up to the Quick Access Toolbar and click the icon you chose to represent it.