Word - Starting Clean The best defense is a good offense. When it comes to Word documents, that means making a solid start, then sticking to a game plan. The solid start is to begin in Outline Mode. Here's a winning game plan to build a document in 15 minutes — Create a new document with menu: File > New, choose a template. Switch to Outline View. Turn on Format Markers (menu: Tools > Options > View> Format Markings > All). Add a left-side styles list if you don't have one (menu: Tools > Options > View > Outline and Normal Options > set 0.8 in Style Area Width). In the Outline Toolbar (bunch of arrows, row of numbers), click on "3" to show only 3 levels of headings, no text. Lay in the headings for your document. Do not manually number the headings — we'll do that with styles. Use the Outline Toolbar arrows to promote and demote headings for structuring your outline. When the outline is workable, click on the Outline Toolbar "All" at the end of the row of numbers. This shows all levels of headings, plus all non-heading paragraphs. Add a line of text after each heading —Click at end of line to place cursor. Press Enter. You get another line of the same heading level. Convert new line to text paragraph (Outline Toolbar, click on third arrow, the funny double-arrow with tooltip "Demote to text"). Type a short description of what will go into the document at this point — "Summarize section." "List main acquisition steps." "Describe product, show illustration of controls." Go to next heading and repeat the process. Save the document (menu: File > SaveAs....). So far, we're clean - no tabs, no font funnies, no margin or indent fiddling, no local bolds or italics. It may not be a really pretty document yet, but it's a healthy one. Next topic - The Title Page