Recording a macro with Word’s macro editor is easy. First, click the Tools menu, choose Macro, and click Record New Macro. Once you do that, the dialog pictured to the right will open.

 

The first text box lets you name your macro. (This name cannot contain any spaces or special characters.)

 

The next box allows you to assign your macro to a set of toolbar or keyboard commands; we’re going to skip over those options for now.

 

The next menu lets you pick where you’re going to store your document: in normal.dot (the global template) or in this document only. The last text box lets you type a description for the macro.

 

Once you’ve entered all your information and clicked OK, you will have a new toolbar on the Word screen and your cursor will turn into a tape recorder:

 

 

Now, every action that you take is recorded as part of the macro. So, you can type a string of text, format text a certain way, or even create an entire document. All the steps will be stored in that macro so that when you run it, those steps are re-created with a single action.

 

You may find that some actions are limited; for example, you will have to select using the keyboard, not the mouse. This is so Word can track your actions and properly record the macro.

 

The macro toolbar that you will see (pictured on the right) contains only two buttons. The first stops recording the macro and the second pauses recording the macro. If you don’t want an action to be included in the macro, pause recording and then re-start it.

 

Once you’re done recording the macro, click the Stop button. The macro will now be stored in the location you chose.