Asking questions, getting help

Information at your fingertips

In Word, press F1. It's the Help Key. To get help, type in your question, or a couple of words that describes what kind of help you're looking for. For example, try "table of contents" or "insert picture" or "page numbers".

Information about Microsoft Word on the web

The best website about Word is the MS Word MVP FAQ site. It also has lots of links to other websites about Word created by Microsoft Word MVPs.

Ask questions about Microsoft Word – for free!

You can ask a question about Word at Microsoft's Answers site.

What happened to the Word newsgroups?

Once upon a time, Microsoft hosted hundreds of public newsgroups, including several devoted to Word. Questions were asked by everyone from raw beginners to professional users of Word. Questions were answered by lots of people. Some were MVPs, some were regular visitors, and some might only drop in once. Reading the newsgroups every day was how I really learned to use Word well.

In June 2010, Microsoft killed off the newsgroups.

Google keeps an archive of all questions and answers sent to Microsoft Word newsgroups. If you have a problem with Word, there's a good chance that someone else has had the same problem. You can type microsoft.public.word in the Search field or address field. The search results will include links to the different Word newsgroups. Click the group name that is most relevant and you have access to all questions and answers in that group.