Making Text Bold

You probably already know that there are a number of ways you can make text bold in Word. One common way is to press Ctrl+B when you want to "turn on" the bold character attribute, type your word (or words), and then press Ctrl+B to turn it off.

Word provides another quick way to make text bold--using asterisks. This may sound strange, but is actually quite common in the on-line world. In plain text e-mail messages, people often use asterisks to *emphasize* words. If you type asterisks in this manner (directly next to a word or group of words, with no intervening spaces) in Word, the asterisks are automatically removed and the word(s) are shown in bold type.

You can try this yourself by typing *this is bold* (exactly as shown here, including spacing) within Word. When you type the second asterisk, both asterisks should disappear and the words "this is bold" are shown in bold type.

If this formatting shortcut doesn't work for you, it is because of a setting in Word's AutoFormat feature. Follow these steps:

1. Choose AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
2. Make sure the AutoFormat As You Type tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the *Bold* and _Italic_ with Real Formatting check box is selected.
4. Click OK.

The shortcut should now work just fine.