So, it got me thinking about the ways to skip the start screen and land directly on a blank document, thereby saving some precious time. And it seems it doesn’t need much work since Microsoft includes an option to get Word to open a blank document directly by skipping the start screen. Let’s see how to get this done. Psst … this post also contains plenty of cool Word tricks to improve your productivity. So read till the end.
Disable Start Screen in Word
Step 1: Launch Word and click on the Blank Document option (trust me, this is the last time you’ll be doing it). Now, click on File and select Options from the menu on the left side. Step 2: Under the General category, scroll down to reach the Start up options. Now, uncheck the first and third option as shown in the image below, and that’s it! From now on, whenever you launch Word, you will be greeted by a new blank document instantly instead of a start screen.
Disable Start Screen in Excel and PowerPoint
Thankfully, Microsoft has kept similar settings for Excel and PowerPoint as well. All you have to do is open a blank sheet (or slide), go to the Options and disable the Start up options.
Additional Word 2016 Tips & Tricks
1. Crop Images to a Specific Shape
Yep, you read that right. With Word 2016, cropping an image in Word isn’t limited to a square or a rectangular form, you can try out different shapes. This feature is most helpful when you want to reshape photos for a funky presentation. All you have to do is select the picture and click on Crop. Choose Aspect ratio as 1:1, though it’s not a mandatory step. Once done, select the Crop to shape option and pick a shape from the library. Drag the handle as your image demands and that’s about it.
2. Change Default Save Locations
Another cool trick is to change the default location to save the documents. As you may already know, files are saved in the My Documents folder of your PC by default. If you like to keep your documents organized, I’d recommend setting a custom folder’s path as the Save location. To change the default save location in Word, head over to Options and select the Save option. Enter the new path under ‘Default local file location’ and hit OK. Next time you save a file locally, click on the Browse icon and your selected location will show up instantly. Also, you can pin the location by clicking on the Pin location icon on the right pane.
3. Calculations in Word
Did you know that Word has a handy calculator feature which lets you calculate simple equations? However, this command is disabled by default and is placed deep inside the settings. Once enabled, all you have to do is select the equations and the results will be displayed on the status bar. To enable it, click on File >Options > Quick Access Toolbar and select All Commands from the drop-down list under Choose commands. From the list, select Calculate and click on Add. Hitting the OK button will add the Calculate command to the toolbar. To test it, just write a simple equation, select it (without selecting the = sign) and hit the Calculate icon near the Quick Access toolbar. The results will be displayed on the status bar. Nifty, right?
4. Change the Default Font
Don’t like the default font and its size in Word? You can change it. To make this adjustment, go to the Home tab and click on the Arrow icon at the bottom-right corner to expand the Font section. Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut. Select the new font and size from the Font window. Now, click on the Set as default button and select ‘All documents based on the Normal template’ option from the pop-up window. Once you do that, every document you open will have the new font.
Get The Most Out of Word
So this is how you can skip the default Start Screen of MS Word and head straight to a blank document. Also, with the font and size of your choice, all you need to do is launch Word to get started right away. No need to waste a couple of seconds over the start screen.
