How to Add ScreenTip to MS Word Document

When it comes to Word, not everything can be or need to be written in plain text. Writing everything down in long descriptive texts indeed makes Word documents boring and cluttered. Of course, the Comments feature is one option. But even adding comments makes your document look so clumsy and heavy. But how about you hover over your text that needs a short description and a small box appears over it, displaying the text that you want to be displayed? Well, this in one word can be called a ScreenTip.

Once you insert a ScreenTip to your document, whenever you want to view the descriptive text that you added, you just need to hover your mouse over the text or line where you inserted the ScreenTip at. In this article, we have listed 2 different methods with which you can achieve the same. Read on, to get to know all about this super cool how-to trick.

Method 1: By Inserting a Hyperlink

Step 1: Firstly, select the text to which you want to add the ScreenTip.

As next, click on the INSERT tab at the top panel and then click on the Hyperlink button as shown below.



 

1 Hyperlink Min

 

Step 2: Along with adding the ScreenTip, you also have the option to link the selected text to a web URL. This is optional though.

If you would like to link your selected text to a web URL, then in the Address textbox, type in or copy and paste the URL of the webpage that you want. If you do not have a web URL that you want to be linked to, or if you want just the ScreenTip and no hyperlinking, then you can enter some random text, say test or something, in the Address textbox. But entering something in the Address textbox is mandatory, even if the text you enter in the Address box doesn’t make any sense.



After filling the Address textbox, click on the button named ScreenTip.

 

2 Screentip Min

 

Step 3: Now, in the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip window, type in the text that you want to be displayed as your ScreenTip. Once done, hit the OK button.

 

3 Insert Screentip Min

 

Step 4: You will now be back at the Insert Hyperlink window. Click on the OK button to proceed.

 

4 Hit Ok Min

 

Step 5: That’s it. If you now hover over the text, you should be able to see the ScreenTip you added. Job well done!

Also, you can CTRL + Click on the text, to follow the hyperlink of the web resource.

 

5 Screentip Added Min

 

Step 6: Voila! CTRL + Click would land you right on the webpage you linked earlier.

 

6 Hyperlink Works Min

 

Step 7: If you look at your ScreenTip line though, you can see that an underline is added and also that it has changed its color.

To remove this formatting, select another line from the same document whose formatting you like and would like your ScreenTip line to take as a role model, click on the HOME tab at the top panel and click on the Format Painter button.

 

7 Format Painter Min

 

Step 8: Now simply select your ScreenTip applied line, to apply the same formatting.

 

8 Clear Formatting Min

 

Step 9: Though the formatting is gone, the ScreenTip and Hyperlinking definitely are not gone. You can still hover over the line to see your ScreenTip.

 

9 Screentip Still Present Min

 

Method 2: By Inserting an Endnote

This is another method using which you can successfully insert a ScreenTip to a text. This method is more neat considering the fact that it doesn’t force you to hyperlink your text.

Step 1: Simply click where you want the ScreenTip to be inserted.

Then click on the REFERENCES tab from the top panel and then click on the Insert Endnote button.

 

10 Insert Endnote Min

 

Step 2: Now you will see that a new section has formed at the end of the page. This is the Endnote section.

 

11 Endnote Section Min

 

Step 3: In the Endnote section, you can type in the ScreenTip text.

If you now hover over the numeral associated with the ScreenTip you created, your text will now appear.

 

12 Screentip Added Min

 

Step 4: Similarly, you can add as many ScreenTips as you want in the form of endnotes. Each endnote will have a Greek numeral associated with it.

 

13 Another Screentip Added Min

 

Step 5: If you would like to hide the Greek numeral associated with an endnote, simply select the numeral first. Then click on the HOME tab at the top panel and click on the Font color button. Choose the color white and your endnote will not be visible anymore.



 

14 Hide Numeral Min

 

Step 6: Even though the numeral is not visible, you can still hover it, to see your ScreenTip. Enjoy!

 

15 Screentip Visible Min

 

Step 7: Also, if you would like to move the EndNotes section to the next page so that you can print the current page without the Endnote section, you can so totally do that as well.

You just need to press the CTRL + ENTER keys to move the endnote section to the next page.

 

16 Move Endnote Min

 

Please note that for the Endnote method, ScreenTip shows only if you hover over the word that you linked it to. If you add the ScreenTip using this method, it will not show for the entire line. Whereas for the Hyperlink method, even though it requires a hyperlink as well, the ScreenTip can be applied to the entire line and it seems well organized. So definitely our favorite is the first method. Which one is yours?

Hope you found the article useful.