Preferences never show themselves more strongly than in the matter of how I want Word to greet me when I call it up. Of course, Microsoft always changes the way things are, presenting me with the problem of getting them back to the way they were!
In particular, the default page. It used to be that when I opened Word or Excel, I was rewarded with a blank page or spreadsheet ready for use. In Office 2013, I am confronted with a dynamic Start page with many exciting choices. Which of the many wonderful optional templates offered would I like to start with? None of them. I just want a blank page so I can get on with the project at hand.
Admittedly, if those lovely templates were never seen, they wouldn’t receive deserved attention. Maybe there’s one that would increase productivity on my project. Still, I’d rather not face the template temptation just yet. Let me just get started! Then I’ll look over the choices. Maybe. Here are the steps to get Office back to the way we were.
When launched, the Office 2013 shows the dynamic Start screen by default. Which is pretty cool. Many intriguing options to distract me from getting the job done. To see a blank new document instead, initially choose the blank document option, select File and Options, then uncheck the Start screen option on the General tab. It’s down at the bottom, of course. And that’s it. Pretty simple.
With the start-up back to normal, here are four other interesting tips you may find helpful.
- Office joins the app revolution in its 2013 version. Apps available at the Office website will run on top of Word, Excel and Outlook.
- One handy change to Office 2013 is the ability to pin your most-used documents or folders to the Open screen in any application. Use the pin icon to the right of a recently opened document or folder. Click on the grayed pin to pin the document or folder in place and keep it at the top.
- If you’re privileged to have an Office 365 subscription-based Office account, you may not know that you get 60 minutes of Skype credit free each month.
- You also may not know (or remember) that you can save your Office documents as PDF documents. However, the new tool is that with Word 2013, PDF editing is available as well. When you Browse to Open, you are no longer limited to just DOC types. You will also see PDF types. You’ll get a warning about the amount of time conversion may take and the loss of extensive graphic formatting. It is assumed that your goal is to edit the text only.