Navigation and outlining

In a long document, getting to the part you want to work on can be time-consuming. Fortunately Word offers features that make getting around in your document very convenient, provided you use the standard heading styles for your section headings.

Document Map

The Document Map is a bar that shows up on the right side of the edit window. It is a list of your sections, subsections etc.; you can get to any part of your document by clicking the corresponding line on the Document Map. The list can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the plusses and minuses. It is for navigation only: you can't rearrange or edit the Document Map.

To display the Document Map, choose View | Document Map.

Outline View

Like Document Map, Outline View shows the structure of your document and allows navigation. However, it is an editing mode; changes you make in Outline View are changes to the document.

You access Outline View with View | Outline, or by clicking the fourth of the tiny buttons to the left of the horizontal scrollbar (as shown at left). It shows your document with indentation reflecting heading depth. Dotted lines under headings indicate that there is additional material in that section.

When you enter outline view, a special toolbar appears with commands specific to this view:

• Left and right arrow buttons on the toolbar change heading level
• Up and down buttons move sections backwards and forwards in the document
• Plus and minus buttons expand and collapse sections
• Number buttons specify how many heading levels you want to display

You can also move, add, and edit text directly in this view. Outline View is thus very useful for examining and modifying the structure of a long document.

Browsing by object

A new feature in Word 2000 is “Browse Object”. At the bottom of the right-hand scrollbar there is a set of three tiny buttons. The middle one is a dot. Clicking that dot brings up a small window with twelve choices. These correspond to “Browse Objects”, as follows:

Once one of these has been chosen, the up and down buttons on either side of the dot will take you to the previous or next object of the chosen type. This way you can easily find all comments, check each of your tables, or find the last place you made changes.