Microsoft Word can be found on almost every computer in the known world, and not just PCs either. Macs run Word too. It’s probably because it’s so widely used that most people never get trained in how to use it and, as a consequence a lot of Word users make some pretty basic mistakes when creating their documents.

* When creating a document to be printed on a particular type of stationery, such as letter-headed paper, many Word users have the habit of using the Return key to create space at the start of the document. What they should be doing is changing the top margin. To change the margins in Word 2007, click on Margins then Custom Margins in the Page Layout tab on the ribbon. In previous versions of Word, choose Page Setup from the File menu.

* Leaving two spaces after the period which ends each sentence is another common error among users. In fact, one space is fine with modern typefaces since they are proportionally spaced (e.g., the letter “w” takes up more space than the letter “i”). The two space habit is a throwback to the days when people were using typewriters with monospace typefaces such as Elite and Courier.

* Do you habitually press the Return key two times to indicate the end of a paragraph? If so, you should consider pressing the Return key just once then using the paragraph spacing commands which can be found by clicking on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon in Word 2007 or by clicking on Format then Paragraph in Word 2003.

* People who have never had any formal Microsoft Word training can perhaps be forgiven for not fully understanding how tabs work. You will even see some users attempting to align elements by using the space bar and, of course, when they print the document, nothing is properly aligned. As experienced users will know, the Tab key should be used; not the space bar.

* Although you can get away with pressing the Tab key to create columns of text without actually setting any tabs, it’s not usually a good idea. This method uses Word’s default tabs and means that the user often inserts a varying number of tabs between columns. It’s much better to set up your own tabs by clicking on the Word ruler. That way, you will only ever need to press the Tab key once between columns.

* Another common mistake among Word users is to manually format text in long documents or perhaps to user the Format Painter. Manually formatting text is fine for single page or short documents but with long documents, it’s best to use Word’s style feature. That way, if you need to modify the appearance of the document, all you need to do is to modify the attributes of the styles.

* Word AutoCorrect and other text optimisation features can sometimes seem a bit too much to some users but many people do nothing to adjust the way these features work. In Word 2007, the AutoCorrect and other settings can be changed at any time by clicking on the Office Button and choosing Word Options. The equivalent in Word 2003 and earlier is Tools – Options.