Saving and Printing
Most people may be familiar with how to save a document and how to access print settings. However, there may be some handy features that you are unaware of!
One thing that EVERYONE should know about is the autosave function. This is really helpful when working on larger projects, as any changes can be saved in real-time, avoiding the dreaded mistake of running out of battery and losing all your hard work. To do this, select the autosave button in the top-left corner.
You can also save your document in different formats. This can be handy for exporting it and sharing with others. Did you know, for example, that the formatting in a PDF document will remain consistent, no matter what device you open it with?
You can choose from a PDF, Text File, Web Page, or even save as a Word Template!
You can also choose to export all pages, or just the current page, and include extra document information.
To save as a PDF or Text file: Go to ‘File’ and select ‘Export’, then choose ‘Create PDF’:
To change the file type to a webpage, Word Template or text file:
- Go to ‘File’
- Select ‘Export’
- Choose ‘Change File Type’.
Do you ever get tired of changing the font and format of your document to match the requirements of your academic assignment? Templates allow you to save your document as a blueprint for future projects where you may want to use the same formatting, images and layout.
When printing your documents, you can highlight and print specific parts, or select pages to be printed using the ‘Custom Print’ option. If you only want to print the specific section you highlighted previously, this will appear in the greyed out print selection option.
You can also print document information. We previously discussed what some of these are in the ‘Built-in Property Modifiers’ section.
Sharing your Document
Before sharing a document, you may need to check that it meets certain requirements. If you are producing content for a wider audience, it will need to be checked for any personal information left in the document, any features that may present accessibility issues for those with impairments, or compatibility issues with other versions of Word software. To do this, you need to use the document inspection options.
Inspecting your Document
Some information is automatically assigned to your document, such as author name, who it was last modified by and the document title.
There can also be other pieces of information in the document, like comments, hidden text and watermarks.
To see what information is assigned to your document, open ‘File’, select ‘Info’ and then ‘Inspect document‘. This opens a drop down menu of options:
- Inspect the Document
- Accessibility
- Compatibility
Inspect the Document:
Choose what you want it to search for and select ‘Inspect’. Once checks are done, it provides a review where you can remove or resolve these issues.
Check for Accessibility:
This identifies aspects of the document that may render it inaccessible to those with visual impairments. It checks that images have alternative text, that cells in tables are formatted correctly, and that colour schemes are not contrasting so they can be read by a screen reader. It suggests resolutions to these when it finds them.
Check for Compatibility:
Not everyone has the latest version of Word installed. This feature makes sure that any document you are sharing is compatible with newer and older versions of Microsoft. You can choose which ones you want it to search for if you know who you are sending it to!
Collaborating on your Document
Once you have inspected the document you can then share it to others and collaborate. This section will be really useful during your time at university, particularly when it comes to obtaining feedback on your work from staff, or working with others on a group assignment.
To attach a document to an email: In the upper right corner of the screen, select ‘Share‘, and sign in to your email account, or attach without signing in. Then you should set up the email as you usually would, choosing recipient(s) and adding a subject.
To share the document without emailing as an attachment, you can also sign in and save to your OneDrive. This will allow others access and produces a link through which the document can be opened – instead of having multiple copies to keep track of.
You can set restrictions such as: ‘Only specific people can view’, ‘Anyone with the link can view’ or ‘Anyone within your business can view’ (for those with business email addresses) and you can also set editing permissions.
A final way to share a document is by simply copying the link and setting access permissions for this link. You can add an expiration date for access and also set a password.