How do I electronically circle a word in a document?

You can use a shape. For shapes to show, you need to work in print layout mode.

• Select View > Page Layout (or click on the 4th icon at the bottom edge of your document)
• In the Ribbon, click on the first tab (Home)
• All the way to the right, click on the icon with a blue circle/triangle/square. It's a dropdown menu.
• Select the circle/oval under Basic Shapes
• Click and drag to draw a circle (holding Shift) or an oval (don't hold Shift)

The default setting is a light-blue filled circle that will repel the text (it won't let it overlap). Let's correct that:

• Right click on the new shape (or Control click)
• Select Format shape, then Fill and chose No fill (or choose a color and increase the transparency).
• Under Line, you can change the line type, color and thickness.
• Now click on Layout and select In front of text. This will stop the repelling of text. You can also send it behind.
• Click OK

If you need those often, it would be convenient to set their parameters as default:

• Click on a model shape (your modified circle, in this case)
• Select Set as default shape

For best results, click on the paragraph where the word is before creating the shape. This will make the shape attach to that paragraph. You can use the Zoom control as well.

To create a quick duplicate, Option-Drag a shape or Copy and Paste it somewhere else.

There is no such feature in Word... Not being judgmental, but this isn't something that Word is designed to do.

The only way I know of would be to use the one of the Shape Tools to create a circle. The shape could be formatted using No Fill as well as whatever Line Color & other attributes you need. A completed shape could be added to the Scrapbook so you'd just have to drag one from there as needed, then scale each one as required. The problem is that the circles would have to be positioned as floating objects, so keeping them where you want them could become a challenge, especially if the document has to be displayed on a different computer.

If it would suffice to have the word boxed rather than circled, a better approach might be to select the word then use Format> Borders & Shading. Select Box from the presets & confirm that the Apply to: choice is set to Text.

Regards,

Bob J.