Microsoft Word remains one of the most popular tools for writing all kinds of documents. Whether it's a letter, a report, or a book, you can use Word pretty much anything, and its robust set of tools allows you to do all kinds of things. It's one of the most well-known tools in Microsoft Office, and for good reason.

However, creating perfect documents that serve your specific needs can sometimes be tedious work, and finding what works best for you is time-consuming. Thankfully, you can speed things up quite a bit with a few simple tricks to get your documents looking just right without the hassle.

5 Use mailing lists

Write letters faster

One of the many useful features in Microsoft Word is the ability to create recipient lists which can include customers, for example. If you often have to send similar kinds of mail to your clients, using recipient lists can make things much faster. You can have a letter template ready with fields such as the first and last name, address, and whatever else you need, and simply fill it in automatically with data from your recipient lists.

You can easily create multiple letters for different people with the exact same format, which is ideal for formal communications, especially if you're running a business. You can even use the Mailings tab in Word to help print out envelopes or add labels to your letters. Recipient lists make things way easier and will save you a lot of time in the long run.

4 Learn the keyboard shortcuts

Speed up actions with the keyboard

Any power user will tell you how much faster they get things done with the keyboard, whether you like it or not. If someone ever tells you they prefer using the command line to the usual UI, you should probably run, but they do have a point.

Keyboard shortcuts can do all kinds of things you might be used to doing with a mouse, and while the mouse is more intuitive, learning keyboard shortcuts can really speed up your workflow. I've grown accustommed to doing certain things with the keyboard, and it's definitely helped me be more nimble, so you should invest some time in learning how to use them yourself.

Thankfully, we already have a list of over 100 keyboard shortcuts that can help you in Microsoft Office, so be sure to check it out.

3 Use the templates library

Get started more easily

Creating a new kind of document you haven't done before can be very stressful, especially when you don't even know where to begin. How are you supposed to make a calendar in Microsoft Word anyway? Well, Microsoft has you covered with a huge library of templates that help you get started if you just don't know what you should do.

Microsoft Word comes with dozens upon dozens of templates for things like resumes, cover letters, restaurant menus, calendars, school papers, and much more. Whatever you need to create in word, there'sprobably a template for you, and you're free to tweak it and make changes to make it that much better for your specific needs.

2 Make your own templates

For when the defaults aren't enough

So you've scoured the template gallery and couldn't find the perfect one, or you just want to make that template even more useful. You don't want to waste hours of your time crafting the perfect design for your documents only to have to do it again later when you need to make a similar kind of document.

The good news is you can save any of your documents as a template, making it so you can always load it up and edit at your will with no impact to that original document. You can reuse the same general alyout and fill in the data you need whenever you need a newer version, saving you that much more time.

1 Automate processes with macros

Save yourself time and stress

The last thing you can do to speed up your editing process is create macros that automate tedious and repetitive tasks. Macros can record any number of actions within Word and run them all sequentially with a single click, so you can apply specific formatting to selected text, and you can even make it so that the macro automatically selects a block of text, too.

There isn't much of a limit to what actions can be recorded within a macro, so if there are a lot of formatting tweaks you need to apply to a piece of text, try recording a macro, and you might just end up saving a lot of time. You can find macros in the View tab in Word, and from there, you can either record a macro or even create one from scratch using Visual Basic, if you're feeling particularly brave.

A quick tip, though — if you want text selection to be included in a macro, you need to use the keyboard to select text, since Word won't track your text selections with the mouse while recording. Hold the Shift key and use the arrow keys to select one character or line at a time. You can also hold Ctrl (or Option on Mac) to select text one word or paragraph at a time.

You can speed up your workflow in Word

With these tips, you can apply specific formatting to your Word documents much more easily, saving you a ton of time and effort. None of these options is particularly hidden, but you might not have taken the time to learn them, and we're here to tell you it's a good idea to do so. It will pay off in the long term.