MO-110 common mistakes
MO-110 · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Opens Review > Compare and lets the dialog pre-fill both Original and Revised with the same file, or runs Compare when the task actually needs two reviewers' tracked changes merged into one document.
The Compare dialog auto-fills whichever document is open in both boxes, so candidates assume the tool has already worked out which file is the base; the Compare/Combine distinction is rarely practised, and Combine is forgotten.
What to do instead
Note which file is the untouched base before opening the dialog: Original = base file, Revised = edited file. Use Combine, not Compare, when both copies carry tracked changes from different authors. Confirm the result pane shows a non-zero revision count before saving.
Sets 'Allow only this type of editing' to 'No changes (Read only)' and clicks OK, then reports the document is still fully editable - or locks the entire file when only one section should be protected.
OK only records the setting; enforcement happens through a separate button and password, and section-scoped protection requires exceptions to be selected first, which is easy to skip.
What to do instead
Select the users (or the section) in the Exceptions list, click 'Yes, Start Enforcing Protection', set a password, then verify by using 'Find Next Region I Can Edit'. Use 'Stop Protection' to change the setting later.
Selects a heading, bolds and resizes it from the Home tab, then rebuilds the table of contents and finds the entries are wrong or missing; repeats the manual formatting on each heading in turn.
Direct formatting sits on top of the style and never reaches the style definition, while navigation, outline levels, TOC and cross-references all read style properties rather than appearance.
What to do instead
Right-click the style in the Styles pane and use Modify to change the definition (or deliberately use 'Update
Types \d{2,4} or .* into Find and Replace, toggles 'Use wildcards' on and off at random, and concludes the feature is broken when the search returns nothing or matches the whole document.
Word wildcards are not regular expressions: there is no \d, + or {n,} in that form, parentheses are grouping characters, and ^p/^t change meaning when wildcards is enabled.
What to do instead
With 'Use wildcards' ticked, use Word syntax such as [0-9]{2,4}, escape literal parentheses as ( and use \1 for backreferences; run Find Next on a known match before Replace All. Use ^p and ^t only with wildcards turned off.
Puts a page break before and after a page that must be landscape, two-column, or have a different header, and the layout change bleeds onto every following page.
Page breaks carry no page setup; only section breaks store columns, orientation, margins and header/footer linking, and candidates treat the two break types as interchangeable.
What to do instead
Insert Layout > Breaks > Next Page (or Continuous) section breaks around the affected range, then apply the columns/orientation/header to that section only, and clear 'Link to Previous' in the Header & Footer tools before editing the header.
Saves a selection as a Quick Part, then cannot find it when building a document from the team's template on another machine or in a new file.
The 'Save in' dropdown defaults to Building Blocks.dotx or Normal.dotm, which live in the user profile and never travel with the custom template the candidate is supposed to be extending.
What to do instead
Set 'Save in' to the custom .dotx template, pick the correct Gallery and Category, and name it. Confirm it appears under Insert > Quick Parts > Building Blocks Organizer with the right template in the 'Save in' column, and place the template in the Workgroup or User Templates folder for sharing.
Generates a table of contents for a document whose headings were made with direct formatting or a custom style, and accepts the empty or partial result, or types the TOC entries by hand.
A TOC collects outline levels and built-in heading styles; a custom style with no outline level attached gives the field nothing to collect, and the candidate does not know the field can be pointed at other styles.
What to do instead
Set an outline level on the custom style (Modify style > Format > Paragraph > Outline level), then References > Table of Contents > Custom Table of Contents > Options and assign the custom style to TOC level 1 or 2. Update with F9 and choose 'Update entire table' after any edit.
Switches Track Changes off partway through a review to 'tidy things up', then returns the file expecting those edits to appear as revisions; or leaves Show Markup filtered to a subset of reviewers and reports that comments are missing.
With tracking off, edits are silent and the reviewer has no record of them, and the display filters hide markup without removing it, so absence of markup is misread as absence of changes.
What to do instead
Keep Track Changes on for the whole edit. Before returning the file, set Display for Review to 'All Markup' and Show Markup to all reviewers and all markup types. If edits were made untracked, run Review > Compare against the original so the reviewer can see them.
Corrects names and addresses directly in the merged output, or reconnects a different data source late in the process and then finds the merge fields no longer populate or the filter is gone.
The main document holds only field placeholders; the actual values live in the data source, and recipient filters/sort order belong to the main document's merge setup, so swapping sources or editing output breaks the link between the two.
What to do instead
Use Edit Recipient List for filtering and sorting and Edit Data Source for corrections. After changing the source, use Match Fields to reconcile field names, re-apply filters, and preview a few records before choosing Finish & Merge > Edit Individual Documents.
Records a macro leaving 'Store macro in' at All Documents (Normal.dotm) while building a solution for a template, or records the macro and then cannot run it because the file was saved as .docx or macro security blocks it.
Normal.dotm is the personal store and does not travel with the deliverable, .docx cannot contain VBA, and macros in untrusted locations are disabled by default.
What to do instead
Choose the specific document or template in 'Store macro in' before recording, save the container as .docm or .dotm, keep the file in a Trusted Location, and confirm the macro runs with the Developer tab visible before submitting.