Clean Up Your Macro List

Whenever you use the macro recorder to record a macro, Word assigns it a name of MacroN, where N is the next available macro number. Thus, your first macro recorded would be Macro1, the second would be Macro2, and so on. (Although Word lets you pick a different name when you record the macro, it is my experience that most people do not take advantage of this for quick-and-dirty macros.)

Because of this naming practice, it is real easy to "muck up" your template with macros you no longer need. Heck, you probably can't even remember what they do! The solution to this situation is to periodically clean out your macro list. I make it a habit to always delete anything that is in this default naming sequence. Doing this periodically means that your files take less space and Word takes less time to load.

To clean out the macros list, just display the Macros dialog box (press Alt+F8 or choose Tools | Macro | Macros). Individually select each macro you want to delete, and then click the Delete button. When you are done, close the dialog box.