Progent's Application Experts Team

Microsoft Office Word was one of the original commercial word processors for desktop computers and after more than 30 years of evolution has developed unto the standard platform for creating and sharing business documents and for performing basic desktop publishing. Word supports the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language for simplifying complex procedures. VBA can retrieve data from external sources and lets you add controls to make Word documents interactive. New versions of Word steadily add to the immense feature set for document formatting, and the most recent releases have significantly improved the platform's support for collaboration, web-based access to files, document exchange, file recovery, and security.

Progent can provide a broad range of affordable online consulting and troubleshooting services to help you maintain your current Word environment or help you assess the business benefits of migrating to a newer version of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft 365 Word (previously called Office 365 Word), or Word for Mac. Services offered by Progent include VBA programming, identifying and resolving compatibility issues between different versions of Word and between various versions of Word and Windows, integrating Word with other Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and Outlook and Access or with third-party data sources and plug-ins, setting up collaboration solutions with SharePoint, troubleshooting problems with styles and formatting and forms, integration with smart phones and tablets, fixing problems with passwords and permissions, and online training customized for individuals or groups.

Microsoft Office Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Microsoft 365 Word
Microsoft 365 Word and Office Word 2016 and later, like Office Excel 2016 and later, include new chart types plus the new Tell Me and Smart Lookup features. The new chart types are Treemap, Waterfall, Pareto, Histogram, Box and Whisker, and Sunburst. The Tell Me function allows you to type a word or phrase describing the type of action you are trying to perform and provides you with the appropriate button or menu in Word to launch the desired function with a single click. Smart Lookup uses the Bing search engine to locate contextual information on the web without requiring you to leave your document and switch to your browser. Features introduced with Word 2016 associated with Windows 10, Office SharePoint, and OneDrive cloud storage address a range of areas including collaboration, touch and pen-based annotations and drawing, and document version history/recovery. (For a description of the new features of Office Excel 2016 and to find out how Progent can help you with Office Excel, refer to Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft 365 Excel consulting services.)

Microsoft Office Word 2013
Microsoft Office Word 2013 brings a more modern look to Word's user interface and includes improvements in a variety of areas including readability, document review, PDF integration, multimedia support, and layout controls. Key enhancements include:

• New Read Mode
  Office Word 2013 includes a new Read Mode that optimizes the reading experience by replacing extraneous editing tools with content while keeping relevant tools such as Define, Translate, and Search on Web. In addition to making better use of available screen space, Reading Mode includes useful features such as touch or mouse-activated Object Zoom for tables, charts and images/; Resume Reading to continue from where you stopped reading during the previous session; Online Video for watching inserted videos without leaving the document; and Expand/Collapse for giving uses the option to display or hide heading summaries with a touch or click.
• Markup Improvements
  Simple Markup is a new revision view that presents a cleaner display of your document while still indicating where changes have occurred. Word 2013 includes a Reply button that lets you track threads next to the associated content. Threads can also be designated as finished while still allowing them to be viewed. Office Word 2013 also allows you to password protect the command to stop tracking changes.
• Open and edit PDFs
  Office Word 2013 allows you to open a simple PDF file within Word, edit PDF paragraphs, lists, and tables as a Word document, then save the results back as a PDF file.
• Insert Online images and Video
  Office Word 2013 allows you to insert online videos such as YouTube videos into Word documents so they can be viewed without leaving Word. In addition, you can insert online images without first saving them, and you can also insert screen shots from apps running on your computer. Word automatically reflows text around these images and allows you to crop them.
• Alignment Guides
  New alignment guides in Office Word 2013 allow you to align objects such as charts, images and diagrams with your text, providing some of the control expected from desktop publishing platforms.

• More Formatting Features
  – Supports text formatting effects including gradient fills, shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection
  – SmartArt Graphics has been expanded and lets you build diagrams the same way you create bulleted lists
  – Photo-editing tools for correction, color, and cropping eliminate the need for external image editors
  – From Word you can take screen shots from any open window and imbed them directly into a document
  
• Improved Management, Usability, and Security
  – Backstage View allows version recovery and simplifies sharing, printing, and publishing
  – AutoRecover can now recover versions of files that were inadvertently closed without saving
  – Improved Navigation Pane and Find tools simplify browsing, searching, and organizing content
  – New Ribbon saves time by letting you create custom tabs or customize built-in tabs
  – Protected View helps lets you open unknown files with exposing your computer to risks
  – With Trusted Documents, one confirmation works for all instances of a document active content
  
• Better Collaboration
  – New support for co-authoring lets you edit documents simultaneously with others
  – You can view co-authors, check their availability, and communicate with them from within Word
  – Corporate users can utilize SharePoint Foundation 2010 for co-authoring
  – Partners and consultants can use Windows Live ID for simultaneous authoring
  
• Enhanced Support for Remote and Mobile Users
  – Microsoft Word Mobile allows viewing and lightweight editing from a Windows smart phone
  – Microsoft Word Web App (now called Word Online) lets you read and edit documents from any full-featured web browser
  

Microsoft Word 2007 includes important improvements over Word 2003 covering document editing and reviewing tools, collaboration and document sharing, and program recovery. Some of the highlights of Word 2007 are:

• Editing and Reviewing Tools
  The Fluent user interface presents tools to you in a clear and organized fashion. You can select from galleries of predefined styles, table formats, list formats, and graphical effects. The galleries of formatting choices give you a live visual preview of the formatting in your document before you commit to making a change.
• Spelling Checker is More Consistent Across All 2007 Microsoft Office Programs
  In addition to sharing the same custom dictionaries, all programs can manage them by using the same dialog box. Several spelling checker options have become global. If you change one of these options in one Office program, that option is also changed for all the other Office programs.
• More Efficient Document Sharing
  When you compare and combine documents, you can see both versions of the document' ' with the deleted, inserted, and moved text clearly marked in a third version of the document. Before you share your document with other people, you can use the Document Inspector to check the document for hidden metadata, personal information, or content that may be stored in the document. The Document Inspector can find and remove information such as comments, versions, tracked changes, ink annotations, document properties, document management server information, hidden text, custom XML data, and information in headers and footers. Additionally, your organization can customize the Document Inspector to add checks for additional types of hidden content.
• More File Formats for Exporting Documents
  Office Word 2007 supports exporting your file to Portable Document Format (PDF) and XML Paper Specification (XPS) format.
• Better XML Support
  You can create dynamic smart documents that update themselves by using document controls and data binding to connect to your back-end systems. You can use the Document Information Panel to view and edit both standard Microsoft Office document properties and properties for files that are saved to a document management server. If you use the Document Information Panel to edit the document properties for a server document, the updated properties will be saved directly to the server.
• Office Diagnostics
  Microsoft Office Diagnostics is a series of diagnostic tests that can help you find out why your software is crashing. The diagnostic tests can solve some problems directly and may identify ways that you can solve other problems. Microsoft Office Diagnostics replaces the Microsoft Office 2003 features Detect and Repair, and Microsoft Office Application Recovery.
• Enhanced Program Recovery
  Office Word 2007 has improved capabilities to help avoid losing work when the program closes abnormally. Whenever possible, Word tries to recover some aspects of the state of the program after Word restarts.

To help you integrate smartphones and tablets with Word to create a cohesive BYOD environment, Progent's wireless mobility consultants offer services that include iPhone and iPad integration, Android phone and tablet consulting, and RIM BlackBerry expertise. Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified network experts can assist you to configure a secure and manageable infrastructure that accommodates local and remote users and supports an on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid datacenter. Progent's Windows Hyper-V consultants and VMware vSphere experts can help you consolidate equipment, simplify administration, enhance availability, accelerate recovery by implementing virtual servers and clustering. Progent's security experts can help you assess and improve the security and compliance of your Word solution, define and enforce appropriate security policies, and develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan to protect your Word documents.

Contact Progent for Microsoft Office Word Consulting
If you are looking for a Microsoft Office Word consulting specialist, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

Attention IT Specialists
If you are a skilled specialist with demonstrated expertise in any of the applications serviced by the Experts Group, ask about how to collaborate with Progent by visiting Progent's Experts Group.