The “Word” program
Microsoft “Word” is primarily a word processing program, but we can do more, we can make letters, memos, faxes, envelopes, labels, and other types of “Documents”.
You also have complete control over the formatting of your “Documents”. You can change the size, style, font and color of your text. You can change the layout of the “Document” itself by keeping a check on the margins, tabs, and the grouping of the pages.
With “Word”, your only limit is your imagination.
In “Word”, we also have the ability to create “Charts, “Lists” and include “Pictures”.
For example, you can import “Excel” spreadsheet into your “Document”, and then create a report with a “Chart” to illustrate the data.
We can also use “Word” to create tables in which we store information or even calculations.
We open “Word” by double-clicking the “Word” icon on our desktop, or clicking the “Windows Start” button and selecting “All Programs” – “Microsoft Word”.
The “Word” window
The following figure shows the window as we see it, when we open the Windows 2003 and XP.
For Windows 2000 and ’97, excluding the Task Pane, everything else is just about the same.
The first thing you should notice is that the “Word Window” consists of two windows.
The first and on the outer one, is the window of the “Word” application.
The second window is the window on the inside, and that is the window of the “Document”.
I just try to keep these things apart to clarify what they are:
The “Application” window:
It consists of the “Title bar”, the “Menu bar”, “Standard toolbar”, “Formatting toolbar”, the “Task pane” and the “Status bar”.
The “Document” window:
The “Document” window is inside the “Application” window. It contains the following –“Scroll bars”, “Next”, “Browse”,”Previous”, the “View” buttons, and the rulers.
The “Title Bar”
It indicates the name of our document, plus the buttons:
| to minimize: |  |
| to maximize: |  |
| Restore: |  |
| Close application: |  |
If we click on the far left of the title bar on the “Word” icon, we open a dropdown menu that gives us the same choices as the buttons we find on the right side of the “Title bar”.
Next to the icon, we find the name of the application: “Microsoft Word”.
The name we have given to our “Document” can be found beside the application title.
The “Menu Bar”
(“File“) (“Edit“) (“Image“) (“Insert“) (“Format“) (“Tools“) (“Table“) (“Window“) (“Help“) (Type a question)
In the menu bar, we find many menu names, which we call commands.
Clicking on these commands, gives us a drop-down menu, from which we can choose from any function.
If you choose a command with an arrow next to it , there is a second dropdown menu. To exit a menu without choosing a command, click again on the menu name, or click anywhere outside the menu.
If a command is gray, it means that it is not available now. Eg: the command “Paste” (“Paste“), in the “Edit” menu (edit) appears gray if you do not first select the options “Copy” (“Copy“) or “Cut” (“Cut)”.
Is there a keyboard shortcut mentioned next to a command?
This means that you can use this combination to accelerate the command, without having to open the menu first.
The buttons minimize, close, etc. in the menu bar, refer to our document, not on the application.
Note that under each command one letter is underlined (eg F is underlined for the “File and” the E is underlined in the Edit).
Click now on the F on your keyboard while the Alt-key pressed, then this command will be executed.
This can be useful for people who like to work with keyboard shortcuts.
Clicking the X in the menu bar closes the “Document”, not the application.
The “Standard toolbar”
The “Standard toolbar” has the most standard commands that are used in “Word”.
Overview:
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New file |  |
Open file |
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Save file |  |
Email your file |
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Search |  |
Print file |
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Preview |  |
Spell Checker |
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Cut |  |
Copy |
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Paste |  |
Format painter |
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Undo button |  |
Redo button |
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Inserting Hyperlink |  |
Tables and Borders |
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Insert Table |  |
Insert Excel worksheet |
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Columns |  |
Sign |
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“Document” folder |  |
Show / Hide |
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Help |  |
Zoom in / out |
Some buttons have a black arrow next to them, clicking on this arrow brings up a submenu from which you can make your choice.
The “Formatting toolbar”
The “Formatting toolbar” gives us many opportunities to change the appearance of our “Document”.
It is important to create our “Document” in an easy and convenient way to read.
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type | ||
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Font size |  |
Bold |
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Italic |  |
Underline |
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Left align |  |
Center |
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Right align |  |
Justify |
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Spacing |  |
Numbering |
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Bullets |  |
Decrease indent |
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Increase indent |  |
Border formatting |
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Text background |  |
Text color |
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Toolbar options (Clicking on this arrow allows us to adapt our bar quickly and easily) |
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Tabs
The Tab buttons at the top left of the rulers, changes when we click on them.
We have 4 different tabs that we can choose from.
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Left tab |
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Center tab |
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Right tab |
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Decimal tab |
“Left tab” aligns the selected text to the left.
“Center tab” centers the selected text to the center
“Right tab” aligns the selected text to the right.
“Decimal tab” is used to align numbers.
In order to place tabs in our “Document”, we first select the tab that we want (you do this, by clicking the Tab button until you see the desired tab), then we drag it into the horizontal ruler at the desired position.
To remove tabs from our “Document”, we click the tab and drag it to the bottom of our “Document”.
“Rulers” (“Rulers”)
The rulers are visible both horizontally and vertically in “Print View”, but only the horizontal ruler is visible in “Normal View”.
The function of a ruler is to help you to keep tabs and position objects in your “Document”.
The horizontal ruler is the most important, we place the tabs for our “Document” here.
We can place tabs for the whole “Document”, or for every paragraph in the “Document”.
The gray area next to the rulers are the margins.
You can resize by clicking and dragging the point where the margin and ruler come together. Your mouse pointer will change into a double arrow.
Also note that on the left of our ruler we have a button, or actually three buttons, which look like hourglass.
We use it for the indentation of the text.
How we use it, will be seen in the next lesson.
“Scroll bars”
The “Scroll bars” can be found right below our “Document”.
We use these to scroll left or right, and top or bottom.
We can click the arrows, we can click in the gray areas, or we can click and drag to the beams.
The “View” buttons
The different view buttons are found to the left of the horizontal scroll bar.
We have four different options to display our “Document”:
- “Normal” (“Normal“)
- “Web Layout” (“Web Layout“)
- “Print Layout” (“Print Layout“)
- “Outline” (“Outline“)
Each offers a different way to display the “Document”, in order to achieve different tasks.
You would have to choose the display that best suits the task you want to perform.
For example, you would choose “Print layout” (“Print Layout“) to view the “Document” before you print it.
“Normal View”(“Normal View“) is used the most and is the default view in “Word”.
The disadvantage is that it slightly misrepresents when we print the “Document”.
“Web Layout” (“Web Layout“) is used when we want to make Web pages with “Word”.
I would advise you to create “Document”(s) with “Print layout” (“Print Layout“).
This view shows the “Document” as it would print.
The “Outline View”(“Outline“) simplifies the text formatting so that we can concentrate more on the structure of our “Document”.
The “Next”, “Browse Document” and “Previous” buttons
At the bottom of the vertical scroll bar, we find the “Next”, “Browse Document”, and “Previous” buttons.
The “Next” and “Previous” buttons help you move you up and down in your “Document”, this is the same if you use the “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys found on your keyboard.
The button between the two buttons, with the circle, is to decide on what type of object you want to browse in your “Document” (on page, on table, on comments, etc.).
You can scroll to the next and previous page, which is the default setting, but you can also scroll to the next and previous comment, or the next or previous image, or the previous or following table, etc.
First select the type, by clicking the “Browse Document” button, choose the type of object, and click the “Next” or “Previous” buttons.
If you have you scrolled with the “Document” “image” instance and now you want to scroll back through “page”, do not forget to adjust this back with the “Browse Document” button.
The “StatusBar”
The “Status Bar” can be easy and quick access to various functions:
When we click on the “Status bar” between “Page and Col” (“Page and Col“) “Find and Replace dialog box appears.
When we click REC (REC), the “Record Macro” dialog box appears.
When we click TRK (TRK), “Track Changes” function is activated.
Possibly, the associated reviewing toolbar also opens. Double-click again and the function is stopped. However, you must manually close the reviewing toolbar.
When we click EXT (EXT) the “Extend Selection” is enabled. To disable this feature, double-click here again.
When we click OVR (OVR) The “Overwrite mode” function activates. To disable this feature, double-click here again.
By right-clicking the icon with the booklet, a quick menu is displayed, where we have a choice to activate “Spell checker” or not. We open the “Options” dialog with “Spelling and grammar”tab.
The “Task pane” (2003 and XP) (“Task Pane”)
In Word 2003 and XP, we have the “Task pane”.
We use this to create new “Documents”, opening last created “Documents”, keep items that we have cut or copied to the clipboard and mail merges to create and add clip art.
The “Task pane” always changes, depending on the task we are performing.
If you do not want to see the “Task pane”, click the x in the upper right corner of the “Task Pane” window.
We can also choose which panel we want to see in the “Task pane” by clicking on the black arrow next to the pane title:
And click on your choice.
The “Task pane” does not always appear when you start “Word”, click on “Show at startup” at the bottom of the “Task pane”, and uncheck this box.
