Microsoft Word — Core Features Guide for Microsoft 365 Users

Microsoft Word — Core Features Guide for Microsoft 365 Users

This guide covers the essential features of Microsoft Word in Microsoft 365 — from creating and formatting documents to collaborating with colleagues, using templates, running mail merges, and saving work to OneDrive. Whether you are creating a business letter, a report, or a branded proposal, this guide covers the tools you need.

Creating a Document

Start a new document

1. Open Word. Click New → Blank document to start from scratch.
2. Or choose a template from the gallery (letters, CVs, reports, invoices) — click More templates to browse the full library.
3. Start typing. Word saves your document to your default location — typically OneDrive.

Open an existing document

• Click File → Open to browse your device, OneDrive, or SharePoint.
• Recent files appear on the Word start screen for quick access.

Formatting Text

Basic formatting

Paragraph alignment and spacing

• Align text left, centre, right, or justified: Home → Paragraph or use Ctrl + L / E / R / J.
• Change line spacing: Home → Line and Paragraph Spacing icon, or right-click → Paragraph → Line spacing.
• Add space before or after paragraphs: Layout → Spacing (Before / After).

Using Styles for consistent formatting

Styles apply a consistent look to headings, body text, and captions — and automatically build the document's navigation structure.

1. Select the text you want to style.
2. In the Home tab, click a style in the Styles gallery (e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2, Normal).
3. To modify a style: right-click it in the gallery → Modify → change font, size, colour, and spacing → click OK.
4. All text using that style updates automatically.

Page Layout

Margins, orientation and paper size

• Layout → Margins — choose a preset or set custom margins.
• Layout → Orientation — Portrait or Landscape.
• Layout → Size — choose A4, Letter, or a custom size.

Headers and footers

1. Go to Insert → Header (or Footer) and choose a style.
2. Click in the header/footer area to edit it. Add page numbers, the date, or your company name.
3. Tick Different First Page in the Header & Footer tab if the first page (e.g. a cover sheet) should not show the header.
4. Double-click the main document body to exit header/footer editing mode.

Page numbers

1. Go to Insert → Page Number.
2. Choose the position (top, bottom, page margins) and style.
3. To start numbering from a specific page: Insert → Page Number → Format Page Numbers → Start at.

Tables

1. Click where you want the table → Insert → Table → drag to select the number of rows and columns.
2. Click inside a cell to type. Use Tab to move to the next cell (pressing Tab in the last cell adds a new row).
3. Select the table to see the Table Design and Layout tabs — use these to apply styles, merge cells, adjust column widths, and add/remove rows or columns.

Images and Objects

• Insert → Pictures — insert from your device, OneDrive, or stock images.
• Click an image to select it and use the handles to resize. Drag to move it.
• Right-click the image → Wrap Text to control how text flows around it (In Line, Square, Tight, Behind Text, etc.).
• Insert → Shapes / SmartArt / Chart — add diagrams and charts directly into the document.

Track Changes & Collaboration

Enable Track Changes

1. Go to Review → Track Changes → Track Changes (or press Ctrl + Shift + E).
2. While enabled, all edits are marked — insertions are underlined, deletions appear as strikethrough.
3. Each editor's changes appear in a different colour.

Accept or reject changes

1. Go to Review → Changes.
2. Click Next to move through each tracked change.
3. Click Accept to keep the change, or Reject to discard it.
4. Click Accept All or Reject All to process all changes in one step.

Adding comments

1. Select the text you want to comment on.
2. Go to Review → New Comment (or right-click → New Comment).
3. Type your comment in the margin panel.
4. Tag a colleague: type @ followed by their name — they receive an email notification.

Real-time co-authoring

When a document is saved to OneDrive or SharePoint, multiple people can edit it simultaneously.

1. Save the document to OneDrive or SharePoint (File → Save As → OneDrive).
2. Click Share (top-right) and invite collaborators.
3. Each person opens the shared link. Their cursors appear in real time — shown in different colours with their name label.

Mail Merge

Mail merge creates personalised letters, labels, or emails from a template and a data source (Excel spreadsheet, Outlook contacts, or CSV).

1. Open or create the letter template in Word.
2. Go to Mailings → Start Mail Merge → choose Letters (or Emails, Labels, etc.).
3. Click Select Recipients → Use an Existing List and choose your Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.
4. Place your cursor where a personalised field should go (e.g. salutation), then click Insert Merge Field and select the column (e.g. First Name).
5. Click Preview Results to see how the merged document looks with real data.
6. Click Finish & Merge → Edit Individual Documents to produce a merged document, or Send Email Messages to send directly via Outlook.

Saving, Exporting and Printing

• Save to OneDrive: Ctrl + S (auto-saves to the current location if it is OneDrive).
• Save As PDF: File → Save As → choose PDF from the format dropdown.
• Export to PDF: File → Export → Create PDF/XPS.
• Print: Ctrl + P — choose your printer, page range, and number of copies.

Troubleshooting

Word is not saving to OneDrive automatically

• Check that AutoSave is toggled On in the top-left of the title bar (it appears when the document is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint).
• If the document was opened from a local drive, use File → Save As → OneDrive to move it to the cloud and enable AutoSave.

Track Changes cannot be disabled

• The document may be protected. Go to Review → Restrict Editing and check if editing restrictions are applied. You will need the document password to remove them.

Formatting looks different when printed

• Go to File → Options → Advanced → Print and ensure Print background colors and images is ticked if needed.
• Check that the document margins match the paper size selected in your printer settings.

Word keeps crashing or freezing

• Disable add-ins: File → Options → Add-ins → Go → untick all COM add-ins and restart Word.
• Repair the Office installation: Control Panel → Programs → Microsoft 365 → Change → Quick Repair.

Related Guides

• Getting Started with Microsoft 365
• Managing Users in Microsoft 365
• Shared Mailboxes & Mailbox Permissions in Microsoft 365

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