Have a look under the Tools, Options, View tab. You will see the option to turn field codes on.

Test the options out on a document that doesn't matter, so that you get used to what they do.

The other one to look at is Tools, Autocorrect. This is the area that creates most of the problems for users. This is where you will find all the options that make word do things you dont want to do. Take time to look and test out ideas from this area, especially the autoformat options.

hope this helps