Desktop application consultants rarely come across a question that hasn't been asked before. Experience and stats prove that most users have problems with the same general areas of an application. And although modifying font and line spacing in a document isn't excessively time-consuming, when you add up the minutes it takes to make those type of changes to every document created, and scale that across a company with 3,500 PC users, the productivity loss becomes a lot more substantial.

Everyone wants to be more productive, especially in a time when some workers are being asked to "do more with less," and to itemize or quantify what they've accomplished in a day.

Help your employees out by sharing this list of nine things to know about Microsoft Word. By doing so, you may help enhance your help desk's image. You could even improve employee performance and ultimately the company's bottom line.

1. STYLES: With styles, you can create better-looking documents in less time. While the 2003 version enabled you to save a smidge of time with styles, 2007 includes a full gallery predefined styles, table formats, list formats, graphical effects, and more.

2. TEMPLATES (namely, Normal.dot and, in Word 2007, Normal.dotx): A common complaint about Word 2007 is its maddening default line spacing and Calibri font. Save time and grief by changing the defaults in your normal template (normal.dot in 2003; normal.dotx in 2007).

3. AUTOTEXT/QUICKPARTS: Also known as QuickParts in Word 2007, this feature is so undervalued, so underused. If you find yourself typing and re-typing the same text over and over again, in every document you create (your title, for example, or a company disclaimer, etc.),you'd be wise to learn how to use Autotext/QuickParts. It enables you to type entire words or phrases with one or two keystrokes and saves you time and unnecessary typing. Very handy.

4. ADDING A SPACE BEFORE & AFTER PARAGRAPHS: Everyone does it - adds the additional hard returns before and after a paragraph so the text doesn't meld together into one block of gray on the page. Stop, already. It's monotonous and it invites trouble into your document layout. Instead, use Format | Paragraph | Space Before/After (in 2007, go to Page Layout Tab | Paragraph Section | Spacing) for foolproof page design.

5. USE HARD SPACES TO KEEP NAMES TOGETHER ON A LINE: The more formal the document, the more important it is that names not break across lines. Checking for this can be tedious. You'd be better off using hard spaces from the get-go. Just hold down control + shift + spacebar. You can also add hard spaces to autotext/QuickParts.

6. IMPROVED COMPARISON FEATURE: If you rely on the Compare and Merge feature in Word 2003 when you forget to track changes, you'll be delighted when you get a look at the 2007 version. Instead of just showing you the changes in one document, Word 2007 shows you the deleted, inserted, and moved text clearly marked in a third version of the document.

7. CUSTOMIZABLE STATUS BAR: If you are working in a document with multiple sections and pages, like a contract or lengthy agreement, a customized status bar will do you good. Right-click on the gray bar and take a look at what you can show or hide. The status bar can also help you troubleshoot problems like misbehaving headers and footers. In previous versions, this feature was not customizable; it was either enabled or disabled.

8. MINI TOOLBAR: One of Word 2007's standout additions, in my opinion. It's a context menu that automatically appears when text is selected. It's meant to provide easy access to commonly

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