As you are working with large or complex documents, it is often easy to lose your place and spend a lot of time trying to find information. Word includes a special viewing mode that can help you navigate through your document quickly and easily. This special viewing mode is called the Document Map (Word 2007) or Navigation Pane (later versions of Word).
Displaying the Navigation Pane or the Document Map is easy: Display the View tab of the ribbon. Then, in the Show group (Show/Hide group in Word 2007), make sure the Navigation Pane or Document Map check box is selected. You follow these same steps to turn the Navigation Pane or Document Map both on and off. You can also close the Navigation Pane by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the pane. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. The Navigation Pane.
You can tell when you are using either the Navigation Pane or the Document Map because an outline of your document appears at the left side of the screen, with the document text at the right.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6029) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365.
Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!
Need to grab a list of unique words appearing in a document? You can tap the power of VBA's Words collection to perform ...
Discover MoreCross-referencing has long been a capability in Word documents. You can easily add and remove cross-references but ...
Discover MoreIf you use a lot of acronyms in your documents, you may want a quick way to compile those acronyms and their definitions ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-03-08 11:06:37
Monty
Could you please put the Word version a tip relates to at the top of the tip rather than a tag line at the very end. I looked all over for Document map on Word whatever I have (2016, 365?) Maybe you could do a tip on determining what version one is using as my version no longer has "help, about".
Which brings up the point, why reissue a tip without actually updating it to include the subsequent versions.
Not sure when it changed but this function is now called the Navigation pane in my version of Word.
2013-06-10 09:07:56
philomena
Gosh..sorry. It was many years ago that I saw this warning on the MS Word forums. I am 90% sure it came from an MVP. Wish I could resurrect the post....
2013-06-09 03:39:49
Rohn
Philomena, I have been using the document map for more that 15 years. I have never heard that it contributes to document corruption.
Can you provide more information about what/where you heard about this.
2013-03-12 12:39:44
The phrase "document map" in my Word 2010 is called "Navigation Pane" *in View > Show) It's extremely useful, especially for a large document (mine is currently 1300 pages), and I've never had a problem with it. Everyone should get familiar with it.
2013-03-11 08:24:06
philomena
on the MS Word forum some time ago, an MVP warned that the document map had been respnsible for corrupting files. This was pre-2007 so perhpas this is no longer an issue. Do you know if this problme has been resolved?
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2020 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments