Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 25

Ten Ways to Solve Word Problems

Like any other computer programs, Word occasionally wanders into idyllic electronic pastures to pick digital daisies. Yes, it could be motivated to lose its mind because of something you did. More probable, however, is that Word locks up or crashes just like any software. The goal isn’t to fix the blame, but rather to fix the problem.

To assist you with worrisome Word woe, the program comes packed with many handy features. Use them to help recover Word’s sanity. If not that, then to recover what you can of your spoiled document. The goal is to get back to work typing out whatever useful thing you find necessary to write.

Your First Solution

The best weapon in your Word arsenal is the Undo command. Before you freak out, press Ctrl+Z to see whether you can bring back whatever you lost.

• Word’s Undo command remembers several layers of actions, so keep pressing Undo to reverse time and, hopefully, recover from the situation.

• Warnings appear when you use commands that cannot be undone, such as a search-and-replace operation in a long document. If you’re warned, Undo can’t fix the problem.
• If you undo too much, use the Redo command to re-create your steps. The Redo command is Ctrl+Y.

Lost Documents

The first place to look for the document is on the list of recently accessed files on the Open screen: Click the File tab and choose Open. ...