MVP Web sites

The MVP Web site par excellence for information about Microsoft Word is the Word MVP Site, which is a collaboration of all the Word MVPs (and some others).

Former Word MVP Margaret Aldis has written a number of articles on "Word workarounds" for the journal Communicator. These are available in PDF format at her Web site.

Word MVP Bill Coan offers a few FAQ articles on Word in general and on macros specifically. Bill’s DataPrompter add-in allows you to create custom UserForms effortlessly.

Word MVP Dian Chapman offers a wide variety of Word tips and tutorials (many of them written by other MVPs) in her TechTrax ezine (not recently updated).

Word MVP Lene Fredborg offers several helpful tools at her DocTools site.

Word MVP Jay Freedman's Macro Zone offers a number of nifty utilities for specific purposes.

Word MVP Shauna Kelly’s Word tutorial site, Making the Most of Word in Your Business, includes a step-by-step introduction to Word, plus easy-to-understand explanations of some of Word’s most puzzling features.

Word MVP Tony Jollans has some articles at his Word Articles site.

Word MVP Graham Mayor offers eclectic tips at his Microsoft Word Tips site.

VSTO MVP Cindy Meister specializes in mail merge issues in the articles at her Web site.

Former Mac/Word MVP Daiya Mitchell's site on Using MS Word has a number of Mac-specific articles, plus helpful information on writing a book with Word.

Word MVP Herb Tyson's Word Bible Blog has tips from his Word 2007 Bible and Word 2010 Bible.

Microsoft Office/Word support sites

Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft Office Downloads

Microsoft Office Template Gallery

Word 2002 Solution Center

Word 2003 Solution Center

Support for Microsoft Word 2010 and 2007 technical problems

Making sense of Word 2007/2010

If you have recently upgraded from a previous version to Word 2007 or 2010 and are baffled by the Ribbon, here are some resources that can help:

• If you are just getting started with Word 2007, you can download a "cheat sheet" with the five most important things you need to know.

• You can also download a "Get Started" add-in that adds a tab to the Ribbon to help you use Word 2007.

• If you want to keep a previous version (temporarily) and run it side-by-side with Word 2007, Word MVP Graham Mayor explains how to make to versions coexist peacefully in the "Hacking the Registry" section of his article at here.

• If you want to simulate the menus and toolbars in Word 2003 (not recommended), there are (at least) two options:

  • Patrick Schmid's Ribbon Customizer add-in: Although the Professional version costs $29.99, there is a free Starter Edition. Although one of the features of this product is the ability to simulate the "classic UI," its primary purpose is to help you customize the Ribbon itself.

  • ToolbarToggle: This add-in more straightforwardly restores the classic UI; it has no other purpose. There is a charge for this product, but a free trial is offered.

  These two products are described and reviewed by Word MVP Bill Coan at the Word MVPs' Web site.

• There are several versions of a command reference that allows you to look up a Word 2003 (or earlier) command and get the equivalent in Word 2007:

  • Downloadable Excel workbook: This has a separate sheet for each top-level menu (File, Edit, View, etc.), plus one for each toolbar; each command is listed separately with its Word 2007 equivalent

  • Interactive reference: Select a command in the Word 2003 UI, and the guide  then points you to the corresponding command in Word 2007. This is available in two versions, an online one that you can use anytime you are connected to the Internet and a downloadable add-in.

  • Downloadable add-in: According to the Web site, this Search Commands add-in (currently in beta release) "helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks."

If you are interested in understanding why the UI (user interface) was changed, read developer Jensen Harris's  series of articles entitled "The Why of the New UI." Especially interesting is Part 2, "Ye Olde Museum of Office Past." There is also a media presentation on "The Story of the Ribbon," but it is a very large (146 MB) download.

Getting help from other users

If you are experienced in using Usenet newsgroups, you can still find newsgroups from the microsoft.public.word hierarchy on some news servers; traffic is light, but Word MVPs and others are still answering the questions that are posted. These newsgroups used to be hosted by Microsoft on its msnews server. Later the newsgroups were mirrored in the Microsoft Communities, which provided Web access.

Beginning in early 2010, Microsoft shut down the news server and Communities and moved its peer support to its forums. Support for Word is provided primarily through the Answers forums, with support for Office developers through its MSDN forums. The following sites are of interest to Word users.

Home page for Office forums

Home page for Word forums

Word for Developers

Tips on Using Forums (FAQ)

Other support

MathType Equation Editor tips (requests but does not require sign-in)