Microsoft Word is a simple program that is used to create all kinds of documents. Whether you need a professional-looking document for work or just creating a school project, Microsoft Word is a perfect choice.

Although the majority of Microsoft Word tutorials and guides are geared towards productivity, not many of them cover the aspect of creative writing.

Microsoft Word is packed with a plethora of amazing features, and while most of those features make Word seem like the perfect program for business settings, it works equally great for creative writers.

1. Learn About Article Structure

If you do not know how to structure your article properly, everything will look like a mess. This can be a challenge for creative writers, especially with broad subjects.

However, there is a structure that you can easily follow. Always start with an announcement of the overall theme or topic.

Then proceed to the introduction of the topic, the presentation, and the conclusion. If you need help creating structured reports and documents in Word, you can check out this article.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts Are Useful

One of the first things you should learn is the keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word. You can improve your productivity a lot by using shortcuts, as this allows you to focus more on creative writing than formatting and other things.

Related: Microsoft Word Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows

3. Enhance Your Vocabulary

How often do you use Google to find synonyms of words that you want to use in your document? Well, did you know that Word has that feature already? All you have to do is select the word, right-click on it, and select Synonyms from the drop menu, as is shown below.

Synonym words in Word

In addition, you should also learn more about the Researcher toolset. Most of us like to use Google when writing an article, whether you are trying to gather some information or make your document seem richer.

With the Researcher toolset, you can easily search up all kinds of information, and use filters to find higher quality content.

Word Researcher Toolset

4. Text-to-Speech Is Quite Helpful

If you spent all day answering emails, creating presentations, and writing documents, you are probably tired. But if you aren't feeling like typing, and you need to make some documents, you should check out the Dictation feature in Word.

This feature works effortlessly; you can talk to your computer and type what you are saying. This is an Office add-in for not only Microsoft Word but also PowerPoint and Outlook. You can learn more about this tool on Microsoft’s official website.

Man On Laptop

One thing you should keep in mind is that if you are using Dictation to write your documents, it is always a good idea to check what you wrote before submitting the document.

Dictation does not always work, as some of us might hope, which can also depend on your microphone. Checking your document will ensure that you correct all the avoidable mistakes.

On top of being able to use Dictation, you have the ability to review your article with Read Aloud option.

It does not matter how many times we re-read our articles, it is common to overlook some basic mistakes. With the Read Aloud option, you can hear what you typed out loud, thus catch mistakes a lot easier.

5. Check Your Grammar

While we are on the topic of avoidable mistakes, Microsoft Word does a great job checking your grammar. It always has. But, with the newest updates, you have a lot more options to check out.

All you have to do is click on File>Options and select Proofreading. You can see the pictures below.

Word Proofreading Options

From this many, you can select whatever you want. You can choose to have your document corrected as you type, check your grammar and style, or hide your spelling errors in case you are not writing in English.

There are advanced options as well, where you can add your own dictionary, correct mistakes you often make, etc.

6. Pay Attention to Your Word Count

The length of an article should depend on what you are writing about and your target audience. So what is the ideal length of an article? The longer the content, the more shares it will get. Studies have shown that posts that are over 3000 words long do well.

However, when your topic is not broad enough to cover 3000 words, it's always better to write shorter, more direct articles instead. Luckily for you, Word will keep track of the number of words as you write them. You can also select a sentence/paragraph to see how many words it has.

Related: Simple Design Rules for Professional Microsoft Word Documents

Word counter in Microsoft Word

7. Autosave Your Work

As writers, we all want to make sure that we have backups for our backups. One of the worst things that can happen is to lose hours of work in just a second, which you can avoid.

Microsoft Word allows you to set up the AutoRecover option, which will also autosave your document. This means that if your document suddenly closes, Microsoft Word will recover your document for any number of reasons.

8. Create Notes for Yourself

It does not matter if you are working with an editor or you are editing the document by yourself, creating comments is a good way to keep yourself up-to-date. Sometimes, we just have too many things to deal with, and it is easy to forget important things.

Write Your Comment

For example, if you are unsure about something that you wrote and would like to get back to it a bit later, writing comments to that section of the document will help you remember later.

Creative Writing Is Simple if You Know What You Are Doing

There are many simple guidelines you can follow in order to make your creative writing assignments easier. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the topic or theme that you are covering.

With that said, things, such as the Dictation option where you can talk to your computer and have everything typed out automatically, can always come in handy!