Want to work smarter, not harder with Word?

Want your dates auto aligned on the right? Want to format your headers, sections, and bullet points quickly and consistently?

Here are some Word formatting tips and tricks that can make it easier to format your resume, CV, or any other projects (you can even use them to customize our resume template & guide!)

 

Change All Similar Text at Once

Screenshot of the "Home" ribbon - in the "Editing" section the "Select" button is highlighted.Use this trick to make uniform change to all text that has been formatted the same – bullet points, bolded text, headers, etc.

Click “Select” (under “Editing” on the “Home” ribbon) and choose “Select All Text With Similar Formatting (No Data)” to highlight all text with the same formatting.

Pay attention though – if not all of your headers or bullet points select, it means there are some minor formatting inconsistencies.

 

Format Painter

Screenshot of the "Home" ribbon - in the "Clipboard" section the "Format Painter" button is highlighted.Want to quickly apply the same format to other text on the page?

Click on the “Format Painter” button (on the “Home” ribbon under “Clipboard”) and any text you highlight will now be formatted identically to the text format where your cursor was placed.

 

Headers – All Caps

Screenshot of the "Home" ribbon - in the "Font" section the "Change Case" button is highlighted.

If you want to have your section headers (or any other text) in all caps, select all your headers – try the “select all with similar formatting” trick.

Select the “Change Case” button (“Home” ribbon under “Font”) – there are options for Sentence case, UPPERCASE, lowercase, and Capitalize Each Word.

 

Headers – Borders & Underline

Screenshot of the "Home" ribbon - in the "Paragraph" section the "Borders" button is highlighted.You could make your text underlined, however if you want that line to automatically span the width of the page you may want to use a border.

On the “Home” ribbon, go to the “Paragraph” section, and select the “Borders” button. If you want to customize your border further, select the last item on the dropdown list: “Borders and Shading”.

 

Dates – Auto Align to the Right

You can use space & tab to get your dates aligned on the right side of the page, but this trick makes it so when you hit tab your text automatically aligns to the right.

 

Step 1: Select the page(s) you want to be able to use this trick on

Note: This trick will only work on the parts of the document you select. If you want to apply it to the whole page, select the whole page.

Step 2: Right click and select “Paragraph”

Screenshot of right-click menu, with

Step 3: Select “Tabs…” at the bottom of the “Paragraph” window

Screenshot of the

Step 4: Change the “Tab stop position:” – the stop position depends on your left/right margin size!

  • 1-inch margins = 6.5
  • .75-inch margins = 7
  • .5-inch margins = 7.5

Change the “Alignment” to “Right”

Click “Set”

 

Changing Your Spacing

White space helps break up the page. You could use a blank space (changing the font size to 8pt, 6pt, or smaller), or you could change the format of any line(s) to automatically include spacing before/after the text.

Screenshot of right-click menu, with

 

Step 1: Right click and select “Paragraph”

Step 2: In the “Spacing” section, adjust the spacing before and/or after – you can type in a number (4pt, 6pt, 8pt, etc.) or use the arrows

Screenshot of the "Paragraph" window, with "Spacing" section’s "Before" and "After" options (middle left) highlighted.

 

Happy editing!

By Emily Barrale
Emily Barrale Associate Director for Data Visualization, Analysis & Reporting