Topics in MS Word for Windows

Micosoft Word Application and Document Windows

The Standard toolbar provides access to file management and editing commands in addition to special features like Insert Hyperlink, Insert Table, and columns:

01. New	02. Open	03. Save
04. Print	05. Print Preview	06. Spelling and Grammar
07. Cut	08. Copy	09. Paste
10. Format Painter	11. Undo	12. Redo
13. Insert Hyperlink	14. Web Toolbar	15. Tables and Borders
16. Insert Tables	17. Insert MS Excel Worksheet	18. Columns
19. Drawing Toolbar	20. Document Map	21. Show/Hide Nonprintable Characters
22. Zoom	23. Office Assistant

 

 

Microsoft Word Formatting Toolbar

The Formatting toolbar lets you access character and paragraph formatting commands:

Style	02. Font	03. Font Size
04. Bold	05. Italic	06. Underline
07. Align Left	08. Align Center	09. Align Right
10. Justify (Align)	11. Numbering	12. Bullets
13. Decrease Indent	14. Increase Indent	15. Outside Border
16. Highlight	17. Font Color

Selecting Text

To select text (you will be within the text area and your mouse pointer will appear as an I-beam:)

• Point to one end of the text to be selected.
• Press and hold the left mouse button.
• Drag across the text.
• Release the mouse button.

When you are using Word for Windows, the following are some shortcuts for selecting text with the mouse:

• Click the I-Beam at the beginning of the text to be selected. Move the I-Beam to the end of the text, hold down the [Shift] key and click.
• To select a word, double-click on the word.
• To select a sentence, hold down the [Ctrl] key and Click on the sentence.
• To select a paragraph, move the mouse pointer outside the text area (the mouse pointer will be an arrow pointing to the right) and double-click.
• To select multiple paragraphs, move the mouse pointer outside the text area (the mouse pointer will be an arrow pointing to the right), hold down the left mouse button and drag up or down.
• To select a line, move the mouse pointer to the left of the line (the mouse pointer will be an arrow pointing to the right) and click once.
• To select the whole document, move the mouse pointer to the left of the text area anywhere in the document (the mouse pointer will be an arrow pointing to the right and triple click.

To delete text:

• To delete the character (or blank space) to the right of the insertion point, press the delete key once.
• To delete the character (or blank space) to the left of the insertion point, press the backspace key once.
• To delete larger portions of text, select the text (or blank spaces or lines) and press the delete key once.
• Delete non-printable characters (paragraph, tab, and space marks) in the same way.

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting

Using the Clipboard, you can move or copy text to other parts of a document.

The Clipboard is a temporary storage area to use when performing cut/copy and past.

The CUT and PASTE procedure allows you to move a block of text, a paragraph, a sentence, a page, or a column to another location in the same document or to another document completely.

The CUT and PASTE buttons - the little scissors (cut) and the little clipboard (paste) are located in the standard toolbar.

1. Highlight the text to be moved
2. Click on the CUT icon
3. Place insertion point where the text will be inserted
4. Click on the PASTE icon.

To move text from one document to another, you must have both documents open or on the screen. That is you must "tile" the documents.

1. Click File and Open.
2. Select the 1st document and Click OK.
3. Click File and Open.
4. Select the 2nd document and Click OK again.
5. Click on Window.
6. Select Arrange All.

Now you're ready to move the text

1. Select (highlight) the text to be moved.
2. Click on the Cut icon.
3. Place the insertion point in the document and the line where you want to insert the text.
4. Click on Paste.
5. Close the window you're not using, and maximize the window that you're working in.

COPY and PASTE are basically the same steps. The only difference is that the original text will remain in its original spot as well as copied elsewhere while CUT and PASTE removes the text from its original place and cuts it somewhere else.

Other Ways to "Cut & Paste"

The "drag and drop" procedure:

1. Select (highlight) the text to be moved.
2. Point to selected text.
3. Hold down the mouse button and drag the text to the new location
4. Release the mouse button

Using Edit in the Menu Bar

1. Select Highlight text to move
2. Click on Edit and choose Cut.
3. Place insertion point where text will be inserted.
4. Click on Edit and choose Paste.

Undo/Redo Command

You can use the Undo button on the Standard toolbar to reverse changes that you make in your document. For example, if you accidentally delete text, you can restore the text by using the Undo command. Clicking on the Undo button restores the last action. To Undo multiple actions, select them from the Undo drop-down list box (multiple actions are undone in the sequence in which they were performed). While most actions can be undone, there are certain actions that cannot, such as saving or printing a document.

You can also redo an action that was undone by using the Redo command The Redo and Undo commands work similarly.

Formatting Characters

To apply Bold:

• Select the text and click on the Bold (B) button on formatting toolbar.

To apply Italic:

• Select the text and click on the Italic (I) button on formatting toolbar.

To apply Underline

• Select the text and click on the Underline (U) button on formatting toolbar.

To remove bold, italic, or underline from any text:

• Select the text and click on the BOLD, ITALIC, or UNDERLINE button again.

Fonts and Font Sizes

• From the Font drop-down list box, select the new font.

• From the Font Size drop-down list box, select a new size.

Text Aligning

• Click the Left Align button on the formatting toolbar (text along the right side appears rugged).

• Click the Center Align button on the formatting toolbar (text is aligned between margins).

• Click the Right Align button on the formatting toolbar (text along the left appears rugged).

Line Spacing

• Select the text, paragraph or paragraphs for which you want to change the line spacing.

• Choose Format on the menu bar and choose Paragraph.

• Verify that the Indents and Spacing tab is selected.

• From the Line Spacing drop-down list box, select the desired line spacing.

• Click on OK.

Setting Margins

By default, top and bottom margins are set at 1" while left and right margins are set (usually) at 1.25". To change margins:

• Choose File from the menu bar and choose Page Setup.

• Enter the margin settings desired.

• Click OK.

Page Breaks

To separate the document text into pages manually (forced page break):

• Choose Insert from the menu bar and choose Break, Page break, OK.

To delete the manual page break:

• Select the Page break and press [Delete] key.

Spelling and Grammar Check

To spell check a selection:

• Select the word or phrase to check.

• Click on the Spelling (ABC) button on the Standard toolbar or choose Tools on the menu bar and choose Spelling.

To spell check an entire document:

• Place the insertion point at the top of the document.

• Click on the Spelling button or choose Tools on the menu bar and choose Spelling.

To check spelling and grammar automatically as you type:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
2. Select the Check spelling as you type and Check grammar as you type check boxes.

If the option you want appears dimmed, it is unavailable, and you need to install the appropriate spelling or grammar checker.

3. Clear the Hide spelling errors in this document and Hide grammatical errors in this document check boxes.
4. Click OK.

As you type the document, Word uses wavy red underlines to indicate possible spelling errors and wavy green underlines to indicate possible grammatical errors.

5. To correct an error, right-click a word with a wavy underline, and then click the correction you want on the shortcut menu.

To use additional spelling and grammar options, click Spelling or Grammar on the shortcut menu. You can also edit the error directly in the document.

• To quickly move to the next spelling or grammatical error, double-click the Spelling and Grammar Status icon (open book with a red X) on the status bar (.

• If the wavy underlines clutter your document, you can temporarily hide them until you're ready to correct the errors. On the Spelling & Grammar tab, select the Hide spelling errors in this document and Hide grammatical errors in this document check boxes.

Setting MLA Format

When you first load Word or click the New button on the standard tool bar, a new document appears based on Words Normal template. This template provides a set of basic formatting assumptions about your new document, including paper size, margins widths, and default font. The default settings for a new document based on a Normal template are as follows:

For MLA format you have to modify a few these settings. It is easier, faster and safer to modify the required settings before starting to type your document. Following are the settings that you have to verify their correctness or modify their values.

Make sure the " Style" drop-down list box shows: "Normal". For anything else, open the "Style" drop-down list box and select "Normal".

A typeface is a style of print. A font is defined as all the symbols and characters of a particular typeface for a given point size. Most of new word processor software programs provide easy access to several popular typefaces. For MLA format you have to use a standard serif typeface such as "Times New Roman" with 11- or 12-point size.

• To select a typeface, click the "Font" drop down list box in the Formatting tool bar and then click on the desired font
• To change the font size, click the "Font Size" drop-down list box in the Formatting tool bar and then click on the desired font point size.

1. Click on "Format Menu" on the Menu bar and select "Paragraph"
2. In the "paragraph" dialog box click on "Line Spacing:" drop-down list box to open it and select "double"
3. Click OK.

1. Click on File menu and select "Page Setup".
2. In "Page Setup" dialog box click on "Margin" tab.
3. Set the "Top:", "Bottom:", "Left:", and "Right:", margins to 1 (1 inch.) by clicking the appropriate up and down triangular-shaped increment buttons, positioned to the right of each text box.
4. The "Gutter" is normally set to 0 inch and should not be changed.
5. The "Header" and "Footer" are normally set to 0.5 inches from top and bottom edges. If necessary change them to read the correct values.
6. Click OK.

For MLA format you have to enter your "last name" and "page number" in the upper right corner of every page. Since this has to be done automatically, it is done in the Header.

1. While you are on top the page, on the View menu, click Header and Footer.
2. In the Header dialog box, type your last name, press the space bar once, click on Insert Page Number symbol (#).
3. While the Header dialog box is open, click on the Align Right icon on the Formatting toolbar.
4. Click "Close" on Header and Footer toolbar.

If no Header is required for your title page:

1. Click Insert menu, Click page Numbers.
2. In the Page Numbers dialog box, uncheck the check box on the left of "Show number on first page".
3. Click OK.

Show/Hide Nonprinting Characters

While you view or edit a document on the screen, you can display characters such as tab characters, spaces, and carriage returns that don't appear on the printed page. (For example, Word uses arrows to represent tab characters and dots (·) to represent spaces and ¶ to represent a carriage return (i.e. pressing the return key at end of a paragraph.)) That way, you can easily see if you added an extra space between words, typed spaces instead of a tab character, and so on.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.
2. Under Nonprinting characters, select the check boxes of the characters you want to display.

To display all nonprinting characters, select the All check box instead of selecting each individual check box. You can also turn the All option on or off by clicking Show/Hide (¶) icon on the Standard toolbar.

Word Count

To get a statistics of your document i.e. number of pages, words, letters, etc.

• Choose Tools, Word Count.

Selecting A View

You select a view for your document using the View command on the Menu bar or by clicking the desired View button on the horizontal scroll bar. On the pull-down menu, a bullet appears next to the active or currently selected view. Microsoft Word provides different view options for different purposes.

Your selection of a view depends upon the type of work that you are performing, as described in the following guidelines:

• Perform most of your work using the Normal view

• Read a document on the computer screen in Online Layout view

• Edit the final document before printing in the Page Layout view

• Organize and plan your document using the Outline view

• Enter large amounts of text quickly using the Draft Font

• Work with the largest text area possible using Full Screen mode

Getting Help

Microsoft Office provides a special Help tool called the Office Assistant. The Office Assistant watches your keystrokes as you work and offers suggestions and shortcuts. The Office Assistant may appear as a paperclip (by default) or as another character. To display the Office Assistant and getting help:

• Click Office Assistant button (the first button from right on the Standard toolbar.) The Office Assistant and its associated tip window appear.
• Type your question in the text area and then click Search button in the tip window.

• Click Close icon in the Office Assistant dialog box.

• A description of a dialog box item

• A description of a menu command

• A description of a toolbar button

The primary way that you access Microsoft Office Help system is as follows:

• Click the Help menu (located on the Menu bar),
• Select Contents and Index command from the Help menu.

This command displays the Help Topics window.

The Help Topics window provides three different tools, each on its own tab, to help you find the information you need quickly and easily. You point to and click a tab using the mouse to make the tab active in the window. Refer to the following tab descriptions to determine which tool you should use when requiring assistance:

• Contents tab

• Closed book icon represents a help category; double-click a book icon to view the books and topics it contains

• Open book icon represents an open category that is currently displaying its contents; double-click an open book icon to close (or collapse) the book

• Question mark icon represents a help topic; double-click a topic icon to display a help window

• Index tab

• Find tab

When you double-click a help topic, it is displayed in a secondary window. You may find that secondary windows include some unfamiliar buttons, embedded in the help text. The double arrow symbol represents a "See Also" link that you can click to move to a related help topic. The round arrow button, called the Show Me button, initiates the command you're interested in. You may also notice that some words or phrases in the help window have a dotted underline. If you click such a word or phrase, a definition pop-up window appears.

Previewing and Printing a Document

Just before you print, it's a good idea to preview your document. This will catch mistakes and save on unnecessary printing. To preview your document, click on the Preview button on the Standard Toolbar. If you have more than a single page document, just click on the page you want to preview and the type becomes larger. To return to the original preview view, click on the page again. When the preview is complete, click Close on the Print Preview toolbar.

To print your document, click on File on the menu bar, then click on "Print." The Print dialogue box appears. By default, the "Number of copies:" text box is highlighted and set at "1." If you want more than one copy, just enter the number of copies you want to print and click OK or press the Enter key.

If all you wish to print is just one copy of your work, then just click on the Print button on the Standard toolbar.