TIP OF THE WEEK:

If you are working in Microsoft Word and find yourself using the same nouns and verbs over and over, the program's built-in thesaurus can make your writing less repetitious. The thesaurus is available from the Tools menu, but there is an even quicker way to summon this handy reference tool.

In most versions of Word for Windows, highlight the word you want to change and press the Shift + F7 keys to quickly open the Reference Tools box. On most Mac versions of the program, highlight the word and press the Shift + Option + Command + R keys all at once to see a list of alternatives.

On both systems, you can also right-click (or control-click) in a selected word and choose Synonyms from the menu to see your options.

By: J. D. BIERSDORFER