Entering Text

• Click on the “New” button on the toolbar’ to open a new document in Word.

When two documents are open next to each other, click on the ‘Window’ menu and the filename with the checkmark beside it indicates the active document.
Before we begin typing the text we need to set the margins.

• click on “File” (file) option on the menu toolbar
• click on “Page Setup” (page setup)
• click on the “Paper” (paper) tab

Word will use the default paper size A4, and you can select a different format if you wish.
If you choose a different “Paper”, then Word will automatically adjust its width and height dimensions.

Click on the “Margins” tab to adjust the margins and choose the orientation to ‘Portrait’ or ‘Landscape’, Word gives you standard margins.
We can change these margins by entering another value in the edit box or by clicking on the arrows next to the box.
Word gives you a preview of the custom modifications.
If we want to put together the pages in a book form, we can set the “Gutter”, so that Word provides extra white-space for free binding.
If we want the pages for duplex printing, we need to check the “Mirror margins” check-box.

A comprehensive tutorial on Margins can be found in Lesson 10

Click OK in the “Page Setup” dialog box.
We can later change margins in our document if we wish to:

• Click on the “Open” button to open a document.
• Double – click on the file you want to open
• Activate the “Page View” by clicking on the button at the bottom left of the slider.
• In “Page View” you can see the top edge of your sheet of paper and the white area of the upper margins
• By sliding the slider, you can also use the left and right sides of your document .
• The Ruler indicates the width of the left margin of the document.
• Double click on the grey area of the ruler.

This is a second way to open the “Page Setup” menu.

• click OK to close the dialog box
• place the mouse pointer on the ruler between the two triangles, the mouse pointer becomes an arrow.
• click the left mouse button and drag to the right or left to change the width of the margin.
• In this way, you can adjust the width of the margins.
• To close the document click close box in the toolbar.
• Word will prompt you to save the document, and if you wish to save it, give it a name if it does not already have one.

You can also save documents by clicking on the Save button

If your document still has no name, the “Save As …” dialog box will appear.

Word allows you to save the document in the “My Documents” folder, however you can choose to save it in a folder other than the selected folder.

Word also accepts long file names.

Function Codes

A function code is a sign or symbol that Word puts in the text in a document to activate a particular function such as pressing the Enter key.
You can switch the function codes on or off in Word by clicking on the “Show / Hide” button in the Standard toolbar.
Function codes are not printed
The function code for a Space is a small tip
The function code for a Tab is an arrow.
Enter text, press the Tab key twice and enter more text
press the Enter key to start a new line,
press the Enter key to insert a blank row.

Word displays a default value of 1.25 cm. for a tab. We can obviously change these values. (More on this in Lesson 7)

If you want to start a new line, but not a new paragraph, press the Shift Enter key.
The function code for a line break is an angular arrow to the left.

When you have reached the end of the page, just type a horizontal dotted line, and Word will automatically continue the text on the next page.
This line is not printed.

 

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