Tell Word What To Do

Quite literally, this freeware utility, called Natural Word, lets you take command of Word with simple typed commands. For example, rather than hunt around the menus if you want to increase the size of a word or change the colour simply highlight the word or characters and type ‘make 12pt’, or ‘make blue’. There’s no need to memorize the commands, Natural Word will try to understand what you want. It works with any version of Word (from W2000 onwards), and once installed all you have to do is hit the Tilde key (‘~’) and a box asking what you want to do opens, or just type the command into a box that appears on the Toolbar. The program is still being beta tested, so expect a few gaps in its understanding and maybe the odd glitch (you need to change the tilde key assignment as it is set up for an American keyboard) but it’s being improved all of the time and if this taster is anything to go by, it will make Word a lot more friendly and easy to use, especially for newcomers daunted by the programs apparent complexity and awkward Help screens.