MICROSOFT WORD, AN AMAZING SOFTWARE FOR WRITING SKILLS FOR COMMUNICATION

There is no denying the fact that Microsoft Word, an amazing Software for writing skills for communication; when writing, we would usually put our feelings down on paper, in the form of sentences composed of words, as they occur. our subsequent efforts may involve a lot of rewriting and rearrangement of the written material to enhance relevance, clarity and the appeal. Doing this in the traditional way with pen and paper can be a painstaking and time consuming process.  Computers allow us to do the above with great ease offering much flexibility for fast editing and enhancing visual appearance. When computers are used to do the above it is called word processing.

Computers however, do require certain programs or software called application software to enable you to do the work. The particular application software or program that you would use in this case is known as a word processor.

MS Word

Microsoft Word is a full-featured word processor, which you can use to create and design documents such as letters and memos. You can edit documents, as well as enhance their appearance and print them in a variety of formats.

With Word, you can also create documents such as newsletters, sales reports and brochures, price lists and add graphics and tables to them to enhance their presentation. The documents you create are limited solely by your imagination.

Starting Word

You can start Word using the Start menu. Once the program has been started, a brief copyright screen appears and then the application window opens.

Procedures

Click the Start button on the taskbar. Point to Programs. Select Microsoft Word.

Notes:

Word provides a Spelling and Grammar feature that you can use to ensure that your document is free of spelling and grammatical errors.

You can get Help on a Word task or feature in many ways.

Word provides the Office Assistant Help facility. The Office Assistant is context-sensitive, which means that help for the current task is only a mouse click away. The Assistant may also appear on your screen if Word detects that you need help completing the current task.

You can also search detailed Help indexes by category or keyword.

The first time you open Word after installation, the Office Assistant appears, welcoming you to the program. In this instance, select Start using Microsoft Word to start Word and close the Assistant. If the User Setup dialog box opens, enter your name and initials as necessary and then select OK.

The Word SCREEN INTRODUCED

When Word starts what you see on the screen is a rectangular box or window with different parts to it.  This is the MS Word window and is the interface or environment. Where we do our word processing. It is made up of, 

            the application window

The application window contains the menu bar, toolbars, status bar, and document window. The bars allow you to navigate your way within Word to perform various tasks connected to your word processing.

 the document window

The document window opens within the application window when you start Word, open an existing file, or create a new document. It is where you type whatever you want to when preparing any document.

Notes:

• The menu bar allows you to access various commands, which are grouped according to function.
• The toolbar buttons provide shortcuts to many menu commands.
• The status bar provides information such as the current insertion point location and the number of pages in a document.
• The document window contains scroll bars, the Select Browse Object button, the Previous and Next buttons, the View buttons, which allow you to move quickly through a document, and the Document Work Area where you enter the text, tables, and graphics you want to appear in your document.
• Several document windows may be open at the same time.
• The Office Assistant, a context-sensitive help feature, may appear within its own window in either the application or document window. The Office Assistant may appear when you open Word. You can adjust the capabilities of the Office Assistant, as well as choose not to have the Assistant appear, if desired.

the mouse pointer

The Mouse Pointer usually appearing on the screen as an arrowhead is the mouse device used to select commands or actions to be executed. It changes shape within the document area appearing as a capitalized roman i

The following are the basic four functions of the Mouse Pointer:

• Pointing : It means aiming
• Clicking : It means Pressing left button for one time
• Double Clicking : It means Pressing left button for twice speedily
• Dragging. It means Holding and pressing Left button for selection purpose.

the cursor

The Cursor or the insertion point is the blinking vertical line that appears at the upper left corner of the document work area. Any text you type appears on the screen to the right of the cursor. You can change the location of the cursor with the keyboard or the mouse. You do this when you wish to edit your document at different points.

Exiting Word

When you have finished using Word, you should exit the application properly, since Word performs necessary housekeeping before it closes.

Procedures

1. Point to and click on the File menu.
2. Select and click on the Exit command.

Notes:

If the current document has been modified but not saved, Word prompts you to save the changes before exiting.

Navigating Word

How To

            Discussion Notes

With all the various elements of the screen or word window it would be natural to ask what is this….. And/or how do I……?

The bars within the Word screen/window provide you with tools to access the various aspects of Word to execute specific actions. Navigating within Word via these bars is a simple task and you can do it easily using the mouse.

title bar

The title bar appears at the top of the application window and contains the name MS Word and the name of the document you’re working on.

menu bar

Right below the title bar is the menu bar. The menu bar provides access to all the features of Word. Each menu contains commands grouped by function.

When you select an item on the menu bar, the corresponding menu appears from which you can select the desired command.

Procedures

1. Point to and click an item on the menu bar.
2. Click on a command to execute it.

Notes:

Some menu commands are grayed or dimmed, which indicates that the command is not available for the current task.

When a menu command is followed by an ellipsis (…), selecting it opens a dialog box in which additional information is entered.

In addition to the standard menus on the menu bar, Word contains shortcut menus that may be accessed by clicking the right mouse button.

Shortcut menus contain commonly used commands and are context-sensitive. Therefore, the options available on the shortcut menu vary, depending on the area of the window or the object selected.

toolbars

Next are the Toolbars which contain shortcuts to the commands. These are displayed as buttons with icons or pictures of the action or item of choice. Each button executes a specific menu command. There are many toolbars providing a grouping of related commands and word gives you the option of choosing which you want displayed.

You can choose to display one, several, or all the toolbars at any given time, or you can hide all the toolbars. You use the Toolbar submenu on the View menu to display and hide toolbars.

Procedures

1. Point to and click on the View command on the menu bar
2. Select and click on the Toolbars command
3. Select a toolbar to display by checking the box to the left of its name.

Notes:

When Word starts, the Standard and Formatting toolbars appear by default.

The Standard toolbar contains buttons used for many general Word functions, whereas the Formatting toolbar contains buttons and pull-down lists used to enhance the appearance of text and paragraphs.

Many of the toolbars display as floating palettes that can be moved to any location on the screen.

You can also change the size and shape of the palettes. These options provide flexibility when you need to display several toolbars at once.

When you point to a button on a toolbar, the name for its function appears. This description is referred to as a toolbar ScreenTip.

Procedures

1. Point to a button on the toolbar and note the screen tip
2. Click on a button to execute the associated toolbar command.

Status Bar

At the bottom of the word window you will find the status bar which gives you information about where you are in the document. It shows the location of the cursor, the page number, number of pages etc. in the current document.

Scroll Bars

There are two scroll bars – the vertical scroll bar at the right and the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the document window. These allow you allow you to quickly move around in a window. They allow you to move up and down and right and left in the document continuously or scroll through the document.

The Select Browse Object button is located in the bottom right corner of the document vertical scroll bar between the Previous and Next buttons. This button allows you to navigate through large documents by going to specific objects such as a page, section, or heading.

Rulers

There are two rulers which allow you to see the position of the text in the document in inches, one at the top and one at the left.

WORKING WITH DOCUMENTS I – Essential Skills

Letters, memos, reports, or other work we do in Word are documents. When working with documents we can start with a new one or work on an existing one. In either case we must first have a document open on the screen.

Creating a new Document

When you want to start a new word processing job you must create a new document by opening a new document window.

• You can easily create a new document by clicking on the New button in the Standard Toolbar

Procedures

• Click the New button.

• You can also create a new document by using the New command on the File menu.

Procedures

1. Select File
2. Select New
3. Select blank document in the New dialog box window
4. Click on OK

Entering/Typing Text

When a new document window opens, a blinking vertical line appears in the upper left corner of the document window. This is the cursor or insertion point and it indicates the position where text can be entered or typed.

Word Wrap

When typed text fills a line, Word automatically moves to the beginning of the next line. This feature is called word wrap.

Paragraphs

You press the [Enter] key to move the insertion point to the beginning of a new paragraph, to insert a blank line between paragraphs, or to end a line of text.

Procedures

Type any text and keep typing till it wraps to the next line. Press [Enter] as necessary to start a new paragraph Type additional text as necessary.

Saving a Newly Created Document

After creating a new document, you can save it to disk so that you can retrieve it at another time.

• You can save a newly created document by clicking on the Save button on the Standard toolbar
• You can also select the Save command from the File menu to save a document.

Procedures

Click the Save button. Type the desired file name. Select the Save in list. Select the drive in which you want to save the document. Select the folder in which you want to save the document. Select Save.

Notes:

When you save a document for the first time, Word opens the Save As dialog box in which you enter the desired file name and location.

Subsequent saves do not display the Save As dialog box. Instead, any changes are saved to the same file name and location.

A file name can consist of up to 255 characters.

You can use the Create New Folder button in the Save As dialog box to create a new folder without leaving Word.

The following characters cannot be used in filenames: (/), (\), (>), (<), (*), (“ ”), ( | ), (:), or (;).

Opening an existing document

To work on an existing document you must open it from disk.

• You can open an existing document by clicking on the Open button on the Standard toolbar
• You can also open the Open dialog box by selecting the Open command from the File menu or by pressing [Ctrl+O].

You can have more than one document open at a time.

Procedures

1. Click the Open button.
2. Select the Look in list in the Open dialog box.
3. Select the drive where the document you want to open is located
4. Select the folder where the document you want to open is located
5. Select the name of the document you want to open
6. Select Open.

Notes :

The Open dialog box displays a list of folders and files in the current drive and folder. You can select the desired file from the list, or you can type the name of the file you want to open.

If the file resides in a different drive or folder, you can use the Look in list to select the correct location. The folders and files residing in the selected location appear below the Look in box.

The names of the 4 most recently opened documents appear in a list at the bottom of the File menu. You can click a file name in the list,  to open the document.

Moving within the document

using the mouse

You can view areas of the document that are not visible on the screen, and move through the text in a document by using the mouse and the scroll bars.

Scrolling through a document does not move the insertion point. When using the mouse, you must click the mouse in the document to move the insertion point.

Procedures

Click the down scroll arrow to scroll down through the document text. Click the up scroll arrow to scroll up through the document text. Click below the vertical scroll box to scroll the document up one screen. Click above the vertical scroll box to scroll the document down one screen. Drag the vertical scroll box to the desired location in the document.

When navigating in a multiple page document, you can use the Go to command on the Edit menu to move to a specific page.

WORKING WITH DOCUMENTS – Editing Text

Deleting Text

Often you may find it necessary to delete single characters which were wrongly typed (typos). Word provides two ways to do this.

• You can use the [Backspace] key to remove the character to the left of the insertion point and the [Delete] key to remove the character to the right of the insertion point

Procedures

Position the insertion point to the right of the character you want to remove. Press [Backspace]. Position the insertion point to the left of the character you want to remove. Press [Delete].

Selecting Text

Many times you may want to perform a function (such as deleting or spell checking) on a word, sentence, paragraph, or particular area of text. To do so, you must first select the text.

Selecting text expands the insertion point to highlight a block of text.

• Text can be selected using the mouse or key combinations.

Procedures

To select a word, double-click it. To select a sentence, hold [Ctrl], click anywhere in the sentence, and release [Ctrl]. To select a paragraph, triple-click anywhere in the paragraph. Click anywhere in the document to deselect selected text. To select a text block using the mouse, drag across the text from the first character you want to select to the right of the last character you want to select. To select an area of text using the mouse and the keyboard, position the insertion point to the left of the first character you want to select. Press [Shift], position the insertion point to the right of the last character you want to select, and release [Shift]. To select a line of text using the mouse and the keyboard, position the insertion point to the left of the first character you want to select. Press [Shift+End] to go to the end of the text line. To select the entire document, press [Ctrl+A].

            Notes :

Selecting a new text block or repositioning the insertion point deselects the original selection.

Moving within the document

using the mouse

You can view areas of the document that are not visible on the screen, and move through the text in a document by using the mouse and the scroll bars.

Scrolling through a document does not move the insertion point. When using the mouse, you must click the mouse in the document to move the insertion point.

Procedures

Click the down scroll arrow to scroll down through the document text. Click the up scroll arrow to scroll up through the document text. Click below the vertical scroll box to scroll the document up one screen. Click above the vertical scroll box to scroll the document down one screen. Drag the vertical scroll box to the desired location in the document.

When navigating in a multiple page document, you can use the Go Tocommand on the Edit menu to move to a specific page.

Deleting and Replacing Selected Text

Selected text can be deleted with a single keystroke.

You can replace selected text simply by typing new text. No need to first delete the text.

Procedures

Select the text you want to delete. Press [Delete].

Procedures

Select the text you want to replace. Type the replacement text.

Notes :

You can also delete selected text by selecting the Clear command from the Edit menu.

The default option, Typing replaces selection, can be disabled on theEdit page of the Options dialog box.

Moving Text

To move text when editing a document you use the Cut and Pastefeatures of Word.

• You can use the Cut and Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar to move selected text, from its original location and place it into a new location.

• You can also move selected text using the Cut and Pastecommands on the Edit menu.

Procedures

Select the text you want to move. Click the Cut button . Position the insertion point in the location where you want to paste the text. Click the Paste button .

Notes :

When deleting or moving text using the Cut and Paste features, Word automatically adds or removes spaces as needed, provided that the Use smart cut and paste option has been enabled on theEdit page of the Options dialog box.

Cut text is placed on the Windows Clipboard. The Clipboard holds only one item at a time.

The Paste feature does not remove the text from the Clipboard; you can continue to paste the same item until another item is placed on the Clipboard.

Copying Text

To duplicate text, you can use the Copy and Paste features.

• You can use the Copy and Paste buttons to copy selected text from one location to another.
• You can also copy selected text using the Copy and Pastecommands on the Edit menu.

Procedures

Select the text you want to copy. Click the Copy button . Position the insertion point in the location where you want to paste the text. Click the Paste button .

Notes :

The copied text is placed on the Clipboard.

When copying selected text remains in the original location and a copy is placed in the new location.

Reversing/Redoing Commands

The Undo and Redo features allow you to reverse or redo the last command executed. When text has been accidentally deleted, this feature is invaluable. You can use the Redo feature to reverse theUndo feature.

Procedures

To undo the last command, click the Undo button. To redo the last command, click the Redo button.

Notes :

When you point to the Undo or Redo buttons, the type of task to be undone or redone appears as part of the ScreenTip.

A feature related to Redo is the Repeat command, which is accessible from the Edit menu. Both commands are context-sensitive.

You can use Repeat to duplicate the previous command. Similar to the Undo or Redo button, the type of task to be duplicated becomes part of the command.

You can also activate the Undo feature by selecting the Undocommand from the Edit menu.

Moving and Copying Text with the Mouse

Drag-and-drop editing allows you to move or copy text quickly using the mouse. This feature is most useful when the text you want to move or copy and the new location are both visible in the document window.

Procedures

Select the text you want to move. Drag the selected text to the location where you want to insert it. Release the mouse button.

Procedures

Select the text you want to copy. Hold [Ctrl] and drag the selected text to the location where you want to insert it. Release the mouse button and release [Ctrl].

Notes:

When using drag-and-drop editing, the text is not placed on theClipboard.

By default, the Drag-and-drop text editing option is enabled on theEdit page of the Options dialog box. You can change this option, if desired.