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Recording a “Macro” in Word

Do you sometimes repeat the same keystrokes over and over,
and wish you could automate the process ?
Would it be easier if Word could “remember” those keys,
and do it for you ?

Word (and other applications) can remember a series of keystrokes
so you don’t have to remember, and repeatedly, do them over and over each time !

Word can store all those keystrokes
so you can do them all in a single step !

It’s called a “macro”

Here’s how :

Since a “macro” is considered a development tool,
the “macro” command may (or may not) be on the “” tab on the Office 2007 “ribbon” :

Can’t find the “” tab on the ribbon ? Click here

The “macro” feature is also available by pressing the <Alt> and <F8> keys together.
Notes about “hot keys”

Then click on “” in the “Code” frame :

If a macro is currently being recorded, you may see this menu :

Here, we will make a macro to do a “Print Preview”

Yes, there used to be a button like this in previous versions,
but not any more.

“Print Preview” is a 4-step process in 2007 versions,
which we will make into a single step using a macro.

Windows assigns a default name of “Macro1”
which we will change to “PrintPreview”:

Allow all documents to use this macro,
by applying it to the “Normal.Dot” template
(that is used as a “startup” when Word is opened)

Now, click the icon to “nail” it to the “Quick Access Menu”

Add your new button for your macro to the “Quick Access Menu” :

The macro will move to the right side of this “drag and drop” dialog box :

It still has a funky name, so we’ll change that,
and assign an icon to it here :

Click “” to display the menu of buttons available:

Click on the one that looks like an eye
(since we want to “look at” the document before we print it).

Enter “Preview Document” the Display name to as shown above
(to replace “Normal.NewMaros.Macro2”).
This name will “pop up” when the mouse hovers over the icon
in the “Quick Access Menu”

Click "" and you are now in "Record" mode :

Here we will go through the keystrokes to open the document in “Print Preview”:

(These following steps are not parts of the “macro,” except as an example
of the steps needed to display a “Print Preview” that we are automating,
so that we can pres a single button to do in one step instead of four.)

PrintPreview Step 1 : Click on the “Office” button on the ribbon.

PrintPreview Step 2 : Hover the mouse over the “Print” button (but do NOT click on it.)
Step 3 : Click on the “PrintPreview” Selection.

PrintPreview Step 4 : Click on the “ClosePrintPreview” button on the ribbon.

These last 4 steps were just the steps needed to preview a document before printing it.

Word has now recorded those keystrokes into your macro,
and we need to stop recording keystrokes.

Very Important !

Stop Recording Your Macro
(or Word will record everything you type, and get caught in a loop !)

Now that the “preview” window is closed,
stop recording keystrokes into the macro
by clicking on :

NOTE: The frame may look like this instead :
(just without the wording)

The new icon will now appear in the “Quick Access Menu”

Now it is only necessary to click on the icon
in the “Quick Access Menu” to view your document,
in 1 step instead of 4 steps !

There can be more than one macro, and they can all be viewed on the “” tab :

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