It’s the word processing how-to you’ve all been waiting for!

Yeah, yeah. We know: Text docs aren’t exactly sexy. But once we show you what you can really do with Word, your opinion of Microsoft’s cubical-geek office app will change forever.

Let’s just be honest with ourselves for a moment: Despite all the amazing, visually rich projects our Macs can help us create, many of us use them primarily for word processing. Turn on, enjoy startup chime, launch Word. That’s the daily sequence we know and (sort of) love. And if we continue down this road of full disclosure, we’ll also admit that the way we use Word is a lot like the way most of us use our cars to get from point A to point B: steering wheel, gas, brake—we know the basics, but what about the seat-position memory feature available on a lot of late-model cars, where you just push a button and your seat automatically shifts into the right position? Never used it. And, what about programming your in-car GPS so it finds routes based on traffic patterns? Er, nope. Most of us tend to use productivity software like Word in the same way, sticking to what we know. That’s why we’re here, to share a tried-and-tested collection of can’t-process-words-without-them tips.

For starters, we want to radically alter your Word computing habits. Now, since Microsoft recently—finally!—released Word 2008 for Mac ($199.99, www.microsoft.com), we opted to focus on that version instead of Word 2004, which came out back when gas cost $2 a gallon. We also include tips for using alternative word processors like OpenOffice Write and WriteRoom, in case you want to try working Word-free. Of course, once you apply our tips for getting more out of Word—who knows? Maybe you’ll start changing your own oil, learn how to adjust the contrast setting on your HDTV, or fillet a walleye for dinner.

Microsoft pulled out all of the stops for Word 2008 for Mac—it is newly designed and favorably improved. (Meanwhile, Word 2007 for Windows also has a new design, but some Windows users have complained that it’s a step backward in terms of usability.) For those who want to go beyond typing black letters on a white sheet, there’s a wealth of new and underused features waiting to help you go all Wordtastic.

Secure Your Doc

You can secure a Word doc so only those who know the password can open or edit it.

There are many ways to protect a document in Word 2008—the most common method is to go to the Word menu, select Preferences, click Security, and type in a password for someone to use when opening or modifying the doc. You can also make the document secure by clicking the option to remove personal information, which strips your name and the other details you typed in when you installed Office 2008. Here’s another way to protect a document, borrowed from Office 2007 for Windows: You can insert a digital signature into your file, and then let the recipient know that if the signature is present, the document really belongs to you. Office 2007 automates this concept, but you can just sign your name on a blank sheet, scan it, save it as a picture file, and then insert that file into the document.

Make Paste More Special

When you select Paste Special under the Edit menu, whatever you have selected—a picture or formatted text—can be pasted using that formatting.

Did you know that copy-and-paste is the fourth most-used feature in Word? Yep—right behind saving, printing, and changing fonts. Pasting isn’t glamorous, but you can extend its power. When you copy, you can control how text is pasted into a document. Instead of pressing Command-V, go to the Edit menu and click Paste Special. You’ll see myriad ways to paste text: as a picture, as an inserted PDF file, raw text, or fully formatted. If you copy a website as a URL, you can use Paste Special to paste the text as a hypertext link that users can click on to visit the site. After copying text (Command-C or Edit > Copy), paste special by choosing Edit > Paste Special, then choose how you want it to be pasted.

Make Autocorrect Work Your Way

AutoCorrect is either a blessing or a curse. Fortunately, you can customize it (to, for example, fix commonly misspelled words but not add bullets automatically) or disable it entirely.

When Word waves its magic wand and tries to guess what you want its auto-correct feature to do, the results are usually positive. You’re cranking out a TPS report and then, wham, Word automatically adds a bullet where you don’t want one or auto-accents a word like protégé. Those are pretty easily fixed. But in some cases, this magical editing is more of a pain than a gain. You can disable auto-formatting with one click. Go to the Word menu and click Preferences. Click the AutoCorrect option, and notice the checkbox for automatically correcting all spelling and grammar errors. This is the all-purpose enable/disable option for all auto-correction—click it to disable.

You can also configure Word to automatically expand abbreviations. In the same Preferences window, click AutoCorrect. Type in any abbreviations you normally use, such as sig. (for signature) or add. (for address), in the Replace field. Then, type in the correct word in the With field. This replaces your abbreviations automatically with the spelled-out word.

Make Elements An Elemental Part of Your Workflow

The Elements toolbar in Word 2008 allows you to add fully formatted table of contents, bibliographies, charts, and cover pages.

Word 2008 added a nifty new feature called Elements, which is a toolbar with page- and document-formatting options. Microsoft sent the whole template gallery concept into deep space, so Elements is where you can adjust general page attributes in one fell swoop—adding things like cover pages, tables of contents, preformatted tables, charts, and graphics. It’s as if Microsoft took all the pieces of a template and put them into neat and tidy categories (aka, Elements). By default, Word 2008 hides the Elements toolbar, but you can make it available in every new doc. Just go to Word > Preferences, then click Gallery. Click on the option to “Open Elements Gallery when application opens,” and click OK. Now, Elements will always appear.

By the way, you might wonder why Microsoft ditched the template gallery. In its user testing, Microsoft noticed how most of us just cancel out of the old template gallery and start typing in Word, then format as we go. Apparently we are template averse—and, really, it’s better to build up than to tear down, right?

Keep Formating Intact When You Copy

Word 2008 allows you to keep the formatting of copied text and use it in another app, if you’re so inclined.

One major annoyance in Word is that, the minute you copy text to the clipboard, your formatting tends to flatline—no Baskerville Bold, no 65-point type, just raw text. That’s OK if you’re copying everything into an email or using the text in another app like Photoshop, but it’s not so cool if you’re trying to make a school brochure with multiple pages and lots of fancy fonts. This is a fixable problem. Go to Word > Preferences, click General, then check Include Formatted Text In Clipboard. Now, all of the formatting will travel with your copy-paste between docs and pages, even when you paste into other apps.