The Logic Behind Word

This posting can also be entitled

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

For those who are wrestling with 2003's advanced features, don't be intimidated by the newer interface of later versions of Word.  Sure, the new look can be daunting.  But no matter what, the logic behind formatting a document using MS Word hasn't changed.

I can only imagine some of you are smiling and thinking to yourself, 'Logic? What logic? Microsoft has no logic'.  Ah, but it does.
Determined to keep my job as a legal secretary in a past life, I went on a quest. While it may not have been the same as searching for the meaning of life, I did find the reasoning behind Word's method of formatting documents.  I had to keep an open mind and not get intimidated by the then new buzz words like Styles and Templates.  Like a CSI hunting for answers I worked on one Word document over and over again. until I got the hang of it.  I took the Zen Approach and became 'one with the document'.  I know, I don't have a life.

What I came up with is this:
Think of your Word Document as a Floor Plan.

Each Floor Plan made of of one or more Rooms.
A Word Document is made up of one or more Sections.

Each Room has it's own Decor.
Each Section in a Word document has it's own Page Formatting

Each Room is surrounded by Walls.
Each Section in a Word document is surrounded by Section Breaks

Approaching a Word Document with this mindset saved me plenty of time while attorneys hovered over my shoulder.