From the Word 2003 help topic on automatically summarizing a document:
"AutoSummarize identifies the key points in a document. AutoSummarize works
best on well-structured documents, such as reports, articles, and scientific
papers.
"How AutoSummarize works
"AutoSummarize determines key points by analyzing the document and assigning
a score to each sentence. Sentences that contain words used frequently in the
document are given a higher score. You then choose a percentage of the
highest-scoring sentences to display in the summary.
"You can select whether to highlight key points in a document, insert an
executive summary or abstract at the top of a document, create a new document
and put the summary there, or hide everything but the summary.
"If you choose to highlight key points or hide everything but the summary,
you can switch between displaying only the key points in a document (the rest
of the document is hidden) and highlighting them in the document. As you
read, you can also change the level of detail at any time."
For a practical example of what all that means I recommend you give it a try
and see what happens. If you are worried that you won't be able to undo the
results then I suggest saving a backup copy of your document first.
Note that the Word help topics can be a valuable source of information and
provide a much more immediate response than posting to a newsgroup. In
addition, there is no real substitute for "experiential learning" - a concept
that could be very valuable to you as you progress through your education.
Word is generally very forgiving, and it is rare that it will let you do
something that you cannot undo. And if you follow good practices for
protecting your work by making frequent backups you should never need to
worry.
--
Cheers!
Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP
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