Word is an almost unfathomably deep program. Most people use it to type reports, write letters, take notes during class, and little else. That’s fine—Microsoft intended the program to be easy for even novices to use. But take a plunge beneath its placid surface and Word rewards you with footnotes and endnotes for the research-minded; autosummaries and data merges for the time-challenged; and captions, tables of contents, and indexes for those creating something meatier than a letter to the editor.

This chapter takes you deep into the dimly lit realm of Word’s power-user features, well beneath the easy-to-use surface used by millions of everyday, casual wordsmiths. The material you’ll find here is at your disposal when you need to write a dissertation, craft an annual report, draft a full-length book, or create any other complex, structured document.