Office 2013 For Dummies

Chapter 19

Ten Tips for Using Office 2013

Microsoft Office is famous for burying tons of useful features that most people never know about, so this chapter is about exposing some of Office 2013’s features so you can take advantage of them and make Office 2013 more convenient (and safer) for you to use.

Saving Office 2013 Files

Most people dump their documents inside a folder in the Documents folder. Store too many documents in this folder, however, and you’ll find it’s nearly impossible to find anything. To make retrieving files easier, it’s a good idea to store different data in its own folders, such as storing tax-related information in a special Tax Returns folder or invoices in a special 2014 Invoices folder.

Left to its own devices, of course, Office 2013 will cheerfully save all your files in the Documents folder, so you’ll need to tell Office 2013 where you want it to save files.

In addition to defining a default folder to store files, you can also define a default file format for your Office 2013 programs. This can be especially useful if you need to share files with others, such as people still stuck using an older version of Microsoft Office (97/2000/XP/2003).

Finally, to protect your data (as much as possible) from inevitable computer crashes and hard drive failures, Office 2013 programs include a special AutoRecover feature, which saves a temporary copy of your file at fixed intervals, such as every ten minutes. That way, if the power goes out, you lose only those ...