What is Microsoft Word?
Starting Word
1. Click Start menu (located along the far left side of the task bar at the bottom of the Desktop)
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Microsoft Office
4. Click Microsoft Word
You should see a blank document ready to be worked on.
Saving a New Document
If for some reason the document is not blank, you will need to create a new one. To do this you click on the File
menu, and then select New.
Select
Blank Document
on the panel that
opens on the
right side of the
screen
IMPORTANT:
•
You always want to save your document and give it a name. The Save As activity should be done just
after you open a New document, to preserve your new document and to avoid the loss of data.
•
Frequent saving of the document will help prevent the loss of any data you have typed.
•
The Word application does have an AutoRecover feature that creates backups every ten minutes by
default. If you rely upon the AutoRecover feature and worked on something for less than ten minutes
you could lose data anyway. The computers in the CRC are set to erase hard drive data upon reboot,
so the AutoRecover feature will not work on these computers. Do not try to save any data to the hard
drive.
To give the file a name select
then select the
The Save As window will appear.
Select the drive to
which you want to
save document.
Give the document a
name before saving.
•
To prevent the loss of your document you should save it to an external storage device such as a 3½”
Floppy Disk, Zip Disk, or USB Drive.
•
After selecting the
type your document.
button your file will be saved under that name. Now you are ready to
Page Setup
Working with Page Setup allows you to set your margins, define your paper size, orientation (portrait or
landscape), paper source and layout of your document.
To use Page Setup… select
then select
The Page Setup dialog box appears.
Margins Tab
•
The Margins tab lets you define the
margins on the top, bottom, left and right:
sides of your document.
•
You can also define the amount of space
for the gutter and the gutter position (the
gutter is the blank space or inner margin
between two facing pages of a bound
document).
•
The orientation of the document can be
done by selecting the layout you desire,
either portrait or landscape.
•
You can do several things with the Multiple
pages: options by selecting the down
button next to the Normal option.
•
o
By selecting the Mirror margins
option, the margins on facing
pages mirror each other.
o
By selecting the 2 pages per sheet
check box you can print 2 pages on
1 sheet of paper.
The Apply to: drop down menu lets you
choose to apply changes to either the
Whole Document or from This Point
Forward.
Paper Tab
The Paper tab lets you define the Width and Height of
the paper you are printing on
It also allows you to determine the source of the paper
you are printing on, if you wish for the paper to come
from a specific tray of the printer.
Layout Tab
On the Layout tab you can set the option to have a
different first page header, a feature commonly needed
for MLA style essays. Simply add a checkmark in the box
next to Different first page.
You can also set the vertical alignment of the text on the
page should you desire to.
Font
To change the font you must first highlight the text that you wish to change. After highlighting the text, click on
the Format menu
The font dialog box lets you pick a font, determine character spacing, and use text effects if you wish.
Font Tab
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o
The Font tab has selections for changing:
o
Font
o
Font style
o
Size
o
Font color
o
Underline style
The Effects checkboxes provide you with
various effects you can give your text.
o Strikethrough text for emphasizing
changes
o Double strikethrough as an
alternative for emphasizing changes
o Superscript enables letters or
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
numbers to be typed toward the top
of another word like this: Misc An
example of Superscript
.
Subscript enables letters or numbers
to be typed toward the bottom of
another word like this: Misc An example of
Subscript. You can use Superscript in
referencing footnotes and exponents
like x2 . Subscript can be used for
identifiers such as x1, x2, x3
Shadow applies a shadow effect to your text.
applies an outline of the letters of your text.
E
E
m
Em
mbbbooossssss makes letters stands out on paper.
E
E
Ennngggrrraaavvveee makes letters appear to be chiseled into paper.
SMALLCAPS formats letters into small capital letters.
ALL CAPS formats all letters into capital letters.
Hidden hides your text and the letters can only be seen if the
.
button is depressed.
Note: You can always see a preview of your changes in the preview box before you apply them to your text.
Character Spacing Tab
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By selecting the
button to the right of the Scale: option
box you can change the scale of the letters. This is a
percentage % of the original scale.
To demonstrate the Scale option: Misc at 150%, Misc at
100%, and Misc at 50% scale:.
By selecting the
button to the right of the Spacing: box,
you can determine spacing of characters. The three choices
of spacing are: Normal, Expanded, or Condensed.
To demonstrate the Spacing option: Misc- Exp ande d , MiscCondensed, and Misc Normal.
To the right of the Position box you can select the
button
to choose Raised, Lowered or Normal for varying the position
of the characters. To demonstrate the Position option: MiscRaised,
Misc-Lowered, Misc-Normal.
Text Effects Tab
The Animations choices let you add animated text to your
document. This does not work on printed text.
Footnotes
If you are writing a paper and need to add
references to sources, you will need to insert
footnotes.
1. Move your cursor to where you want the
reference number to be, such as at the
end of a word or sentence.
2. Select Insert from the menu bar
3. Select Reference
4. Select Footnote
The Footnote and Endnote dialog box appears where you can modify your settings as desired.
Paragraph Format
Paragraph format is another essential
item.
1. Select the Format menu from the
menu bar
2. Select Paragraph
The Paragraph dialog box appears:
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The paragraph dialog box defines:
o Alignment
- select the
button to choose left,
centered, right or justified.
o Indentation
- click the up or down arrows, or type in a
decimal number to choose how many
inches of indentation you want for the
paragraphs.
o Spacing is for the spacing before and
after the specific paragraph you are on.
o Line spacing
- select the
button to choose
single-spaced, double-spaced or
whatever spacing you desire.
Reminder: You can always see a preview of your
changes in the preview box.
By selecting the Tabs button on the Paragraph dialog
box you can format the tab settings for the paragraph.
Once you have clicked on the Tabs button the Tabs
dialog box will appear.
Tabs
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To set a tab:
o Enter Tab Stop Position
o
o
Select Alignment
Select Leader
o
Click on the Set button once it becomes active
(available)
Click on the OK button
o
Spellchecker
Reminder: When your document is completed, run spell checker to make sure you don’t have any misspelled
words! Using the spell-checker is easy.
1. On the menu bar, select
, then select
2. The Spelling and Grammar dialog box appears:
3. The highlighted word was not in
dictionary. Several suggestions are
given on the spelling of this word.
4. To skip a word without changing it,
press the
button.
5. To skip all occurrences of a word
press the
button.
6. To change the word with the word
highlighted, select the
button.
7. If you are confident and want to
change all occurrences of a word the
select the
button.
8. Continue through the rest of the document making desired changes as they occur.
REMEMBER: Manually proofread your documents even after using spellchecker.
Page Numbering
To add Page Numbers, click Insert on the menu bar and then select Page Numbers.
The Page Numbers dialog box appears.
From here you can position numbers at the bottom
of page (Footer) or top of page (Header). This
dialog box also lets you select the alignment of the
numbers: in the Center, Left, Right, or alternating
on the Inside, or Outside (as if the pages were
bound like a book). By selecting the Format button
the Page Number Format dialog box appears.
The Page Number Format dialog box lets you select the number
format you desire as well as change page numbering options.
Bullets and Numbers
To add Bullets and Numbers to a portion of your document select the text that is to be affected and click on
either the Numbering button or the Bulleting button.
You may also format the style of your Numbers and Bullets by selecting Format on the menu bar and
selecting Bullets and Numbering.
The Bullets and Numbering dialog box will appear and you can format the style you wish to use by selecting
the appropriate tab.
Page Breaks
You may insert a “forced” page break. This will insert
a page break before the designated end of the page.
To do this, select Insert on the menu bar, and then
choose Break.
(This can be used to adjust how your documents
pages look when they are printed.)
The Break dialog box will appear.
Select the type of break needed (Generally, Page Break is what
you’ll use):
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Break types
o Page Break
o Column Break
o Text Wrapping Break
Section break types
o Next Page
o Continuous
o Even Page
o Odd Page
Previewing and Printing
After typing, spell checking, adjusting margins and adding page numbers to your document, you are ready to
do a print preview. To prevent wasting paper and to make sure your document looks like you want it to, do a
Print Preview. Remember to SAVE your document BEFORE you print (refer to the “save” section for how to
save a file.)
1. Select the
button
2. Select the menu option
3. Or select the
;
icon from the toolbar.
4. Check the appearance of your document carefully. After your preview looks satisfactory you are
ready to print your document.
5. Select
from the menu.
The Print dialog box appears:
The Print dialog box gives you a choice of the printer to send your print job to. Your Page range radio button
group lets you specify the pages you wish to print. If you wish to print the whole document then select All. If
you want to print just the page your cursor is on select Current page.
If you only want to print 1 page or a certain selection of pages select Pages and type in the page numbers or
ranges you wish to print. Copies lets you decide how many copies you wish to print. In the CRC please
remember to pint only one original copy.