Word 2016

Adding a Data Chart or Graph to a Microsoft Word Document

There are many different kinds of data charts and graphs that you can choose to insert and edit within your document (e.g. column charts, line graphs, pie charts, bar charts, etc.).

1. Place your cursor where you want the chart to appear in your document.
2. On the Insert ribbon menu, in the Illustrations group select Chart.
3. In the Insert Chart window, select the type of chart that you want from the left-hand side, then a particular style for that type from among the choices above the example image. When you have decided which chart to use, select the OK button.
4. To see what can be added or changed to edit your selected chart's design, review options available in the Chart Tools - Design and Chart Tools - Layout ribbon menus. Explore the groups and options that are provided in each menu.
5. Your chart is accompanied by a small Microsoft Excel window, where you can enter the data to be used by your chart. When you are finished editing your data, select the X to close this Excel window.

Whenever you select your chart, you can use the four icons which appear along its right-hand edge to access Layout Options, add Chart Elements, choose one of the Chart Styles or add Chart Filters.

TIP: You can use this last option (Chart Filters) and choose Select Data … at the bottom if you need to edit the data you entered.

Word Document Fails to Open from a Hyperlink

This answer responds to a situation in which you have selected a hyperlink to open a Word document but nothing happens, or else the Windows status bar indicates that the file is downloading and concludes with the word "Done" but the file does not open. In either of these cases you should first try to save the file.

1. Right-click on the hyperlink to the file and select Save Target As.
2. Choose a location and name under which to save the file, and select OK to save it.
3. Navigate to the location where you saved the file and open it from there.

What to do if Word Stops Working or Doesn't Display Properly

Occasional instances of this problem can sometimes be solved by minimizing and then re-opening the Microsoft Word window. A more permanent solution may be found by reducing the effort it takes to display your document:

1. In Word, go to the File ribbon menu and select Options from the left-hand menu.
2. In the Word Options window, select Advanced from the left-hand menu.
3. Scroll down to the Display section.
4. Place a checkmark next to the Disable hardware graphics acceleration option.
5. Select the OK button to save this change.

Enable editing, saving or printing from Protected View

Protected View temporarily prevents you from editing, saving or printing a document. It imposes these limits to protect your computer from being interacted with by a potentially dangerous file, until you are certain you want to open that file for editing.

Protected View temporarily prevents you from editing, saving or printing a document. It imposes these limits to protect your computer from being interacted with by a potentially dangerous file, until you are certain you want to open that file for editing.

1. Review the previewed document, to confirm you trust its source and that this is the content you expected to see.
2. Select the View menu and choose Edit Document. The document now opens normally.

If Word seems to freeze for a while when you first open an English document, one possible cause is a French email address which the English spellchecker in Word is struggling to resolve.

If you have this problem and a French email address appears in the document you have just opened, you can add this address to the Word dictionary so that it will be ignored by the spellchecker in future:

1. Highlight the French email address in your document. You can confirm it is being recognized as a French address by observing the status message in the bottom right corner of the window to see if it indicates "French" (whereas the rest of your document is "English").
2. Right-click on the French address and select "Add to Dictionary".

After making this change, if you save and reopen your document you should find that this problem no longer occurs.

An alternative is to ensure the entire document is referencing the English dictionary. This is the normal default for all documents (i.e., to use one dictionary for all of its content), but exceptions can occur as a result of copy-paste actions.

Note: So far, there have been no observed instances of this freezing problem happening when the languages are reversed, but a similar correction may apply if it does occur.

Set the Proofing Language in Microsoft Word

The proofing language selection determines which dictionary and language your spelling and grammar are being checked against. To change the proofing language for your document:

1. On the Review ribbon menu, in the Language groups select Language
2. Choose Set Proofing Language
3. Select the proofing language that you want to apply.
4. Select the Set as Default button if you want this to be your usual choice in future.
5. Select the OK button to save your choice.

Microsoft Word Error Message When Opening a File

When opening a file, you may see an error message stating: "Word experienced an error trying to open the file." To fix this error:

1. Select the File ribbon menu and choose Open from the left-hand menu.
2. Choose Browse and navigate to where the file is located.
3. Select the file to highlight it. At the bottom right, select the down arrow on the Open button and choose Open and Repair.
4. The document should open, but will be missing its filename. Save this document using the same or a different name. It should no longer produce an error message the next time you open it.

The file should now open without any errors.

Changing the Line Spacing in a Word Document

There are multiple ways to change line spacing, depending on whether you want to change it for the entire document or only for one portion.

Change the line spacing for an entire document:

1. On the Design ribbon menu, in the Document Formatting group select Paragraph Spacing.
2. Select a built-in option from the drop-down menu, or select Custom Paragraph Spacing… to create your own setting.

Change the line spacing in one part of the document:

Select the paragraphs for which you want to change the line spacing.

1. Select (highlight) the paragraph(s) you want to change line spacing in.
2. On the Home ribbon menu, in the Paragraph group select the Line and Paragraph Spacing button (arrows pointing up and down, next to horizontal lines).
3. Choose one of the options provided, or select Line Spacing Options… to create your own.

Change line spacing between two paragraphs:

1. Right-click and select Paragraph.
2. In the Spacing section, you can adjust the amount of space before or after the current line.

Changing the Default Font or Line Spacing in Word

Changing the default means that every time you start a new document, that document will use these settings. Do not make these changes if you only want to change settings for the current document!

If you are changing your default font, note that some fonts (Calibri, Century, Antiqua…) have been known to cause printing issues. Arial and Times New Roman are known to be 100% reliable fonts for printing and are the most recommended.

1. On your keyboard, press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D
2. Select the options that you want to apply to the default font, such as font style and font size.
3. Select the Set as Default button.
4. In the window that appears, select All documents based on Normal.dotm template?, then select the OK button.

Change your language preference

The following instructions will also work in most other Office software:

1. On the File ribbon menu, select Optionsfrom the left-hand menu.
2. In the Word Options window, select Language from the left-hand menu.
3. In the section Choose Editing Languages, highlight your preferred dictionary and then select the Set as Default button.
4. Also, in the Choose Display and Help Languages section you can select a preferred default language for these as well.  Choose the Set as Default button for each of these where you choose to make a change.
5. Select OK to close this window. You will need to close Word and reopen it for your changes to take effect.

Protecting a Word Document by Using a Password

The following instructions will set a case-sensitive password that is required to open the Word document you attach it to. There is no way to recover a forgotten password, or to open a protected document you do not have the password for!

To password-protect a Word document:

1. With your Word document open, select the File ribbon menu. In the Info pane, select Protect Document and choose Encrypt with Password from the drop-down menu.
2. In the Encrypt Document window, enter your chosen password and select OK.
3. In the Confirm Password window, re-enter the same password and select OK. The file is now password-protected.  You can test this by closing and re-opening the file.

Remove or hide annotations

You can either accept or hide the comments or annotations under the Review tab in the Changes section:

If the document is Final, you can accept the changes to remove the markup:

1. Click the Accept dropdown arrow and select Accept and Move to Next or Accept All Changes in Document -OR-
2. Click the Reject dropdown arrow and select Reject and Move to Next or Reject All Changes in Document.
3. Go to each Comment separately, right-click and select Delete.

To hide changes:

1. (Review tab) Tracking > Show Markup 
2. Balloons > Check Show All Revisions Inline check box.
3. In the Tracking section, click the dropdown arrow to select Final.

Using the word or character count function

The Word Count dialog box displays the number of pages, paragraphs, and lines in your document, and also the number of characters, either including or excluding spaces.

• Review tab > Word Count

The Word Count is also available in Status Bar. Right-click on the Status Bar and ensure that the Word Count feature has a checkmark beside it.

To get the Word Count for a specific section of text, highlight the text and the Word Count in the Status Bar will show how many words you’ve highlighted out of the total word count.

Start a new organization chart

To start a new organization chart using the ESDC template:

1. From the File ribbon menu, select New from the left-hand menu.
2. Select the Corporate (E) folder, and then choose Org Chart.

Otherwise, you can use the following steps to create your own organization chart. In Microsoft Word:

1. Select the Insert tab.
2. In the Illustrations group select SmartArt.
3. From the list of SmartArt graphics, select Hierarchy and then select one of the organization chart layouts.
4. Select the OK button.

How to Edit an Organization Chart

There are two ways to enter or edit information in your organization chart:

• Select one of the boxes in the organization chart and begin typing; OR
• Select the arrow image at the left-edge of the organization chart's frame to open the Text pane. Here you can edit the chart in list format, to make corresponding changes appear in the organization chart.

How to add or delete boxes in your organization chart

To add new boxes to your organization chart:

1. Select an existing box next to where you would like a new one to appear.
2. Choose the Design ribbon menu. In the Create Graphic group, select the drop-down arrow on the Add Shape option; OR right-click with your mouse on a portion of the chart near where you want to add the shape.

• In either case:

• To insert a box at the same level, appearing after the one you've selected: choose Add Shape After
• To insert a box at the same level, appearing before the one you've selected: choose Add Shape Before
• To insert a new box one level above the one you've selected: choose Add Shape Above
• To insert a new box one level below the one you've selected: choose Add Shape Below
• You can also add a unique assistant's box by choosing Add Assistant.

• To delete a box from your chart:

• Select the box in the chart that you want to delete, then press the Delete key on your keyboard.