Word Processing First Steps

Loading Word Double click the Word icon on the desktop OR Click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Word 2003

The Opening Screen Main Window Title bar Main menu bar Formatting toolbar Standard toolbar Task Pane Ruler Status Bar Main Window

What All The Different Parts Mean Title Bar Shows the name of your document, followed by Microsoft Word. If you have not given it a name, Document1 will appear as the document name Main menu bar This has options for you to choose from. Click on File and the file menu will drop down Standard toolbar Has a number of icons which can be clicked to give access to frequently used commands Formatting toolbar Has icons which let you change the way text looks, for example bold, centre, underline etc Main window Is the area of the screen in which you type Status bar Shows what page you are on and how many pages are in the document Task Pane This opens and closes depending on what you are doing. Click on the close icon (X) in top right hand corner to close the Task Pane

Creating A New Document When you start Word, a blank document automatically appears on screen You can start typing straight away! Handy hint: if you’ve just saved and closed a document, click on the Blank document icon to start a new one!

Saving Your Work If you have created a new document, click on File, Save – the Save As window appears Click inside the File name box and type in a suitable file name To save to a folder inside My Documents, double-click on the folder Click on the Save button

Saving As A Different File Type Click inside the Save As Type box if you want to save a Word document as a different file type Web Page – saves in a format suitable for web pages Rich Text Format files can be opened in other word processors Plain text files can be read in another type of package Templates can be used time and time again You can save as a previous version of Word – scroll down for more options

Opening An Existing Document Click on File – you will see the names of the last 4 files opened To see more Files, click Open The Open window appears Word will normally show the last location you saved a file to To open a file, double-click on the file name

Inserting A Paragraph Move the cursor to the required position Press the Enter key twice Move the cursor back up 2 lines Type in a new paragraph Existing text will move down to make room! Before After

Previewing And Printing Check your work on-screen before you print out – you may spot something that needs changing! Click the Print Preview icon A miniature of your document will appear on-screen – click anywhere in the document to make it bigger Click on the Close button to exit the preview window

Printing A Document Click on the print icon – a copy of your document will be sent to the default printer Click on File, Print The Print window will appear You can choose which printer to use You can choose which pages to print You can choose how many copies you want Make your selections then click OK

Closing Word To close a document, click File, Close To exit Word, click File, Exit OR Click on the red close icon in the top right-hand corner Click on the Word icon in the top left-hand corner and select Close

Word Processing Formatting

Font Sizes This is Times New Roman size 24 Font sizes are measured in points 6 point is the smallest you can read without a magnifying glass 12 point is the size normally used by Word when you create a new document The bigger the number, the bigger the text! This is Times New Roman size 6 point This is Times New Roman size 12 This is Times New Roman size 24

Using Styles If you look at the formatting bar, you will see the current style, font and size Click on the down arrows in each of the boxes and select your choice To change the style, click in the Style box and select the style required To change the font, click in the Font name box To change the size, click in the Font size box Style box Font name Font size

Text Alignment And Emphasis You can centre and make headings bold by selecting text and clicking on the icons Notice how when an icon is selected it looks pressed in – in Word 2003 the background changes to orange Bold Underline Centre Justify Italic Align left Align right

Undo and Redo Click the Undo icon to undo the last action Click the arrow next to the Undo icon to see which items can be “undone” If you change your mind about undoing something, click on the Redo icon Use the Redo icon to repeat an action These commands can also be accessed from the Edit menu Undo Redo

Setting Text Colours To change the colour of text, select the text then click the down arrow next to the colour icon If you don’t see the colour you want, click on More Colours Click on the colour you require then click on OK

Copying A Format Use Format Painter to copy text formats Select the text which contains the formatting Click on the Format Painter icon once the mouse pointer will change Select the text you want to copy formatting to As soon as you release the mouse button the text will change! To copy text formats to more than one piece of text Highlight the text Double-click on the Format Painter icon Select each piece of text When you’ve finished, click on Format Painter to turn it off

Word Processing Basic Operations

Copying Text Select the text you want to copy Click the copy icon once Move the insertion point to where you want the copy of the text to appear Click the paste icon

Cutting And Pasting Text Select the text that you want to move Click the Cut icon once Move the insertion point to where you want the text to be moved to Click the Paste icon Handy Hint: if moving a block of text, check to make sure the spacing between paragraphs is consistent!

Word Processing Borders and Lists

Adding Borders Select the text you want to add a border to Open the Format menu and select Borders and Shading To apply a box make sure Box is selected To apply a top or bottom order, select None to get rid of the box then click on the borders required You can also choose a different colour or thickness from here Click on OK Top border Bottom border

Modifying Page Size And Orientation To change the page size open the File menu and select Page Setup Click on the Paper tab Select the paper size required To change to landscape, click on the Margins tab and select Landscape

Creating Bullets Method 1 Method 2 Click on the Bullet icon Type in your text Every time you press Enter a new bullet will appear Press Enter after the last bulleted item and click the Bullet icon again to switch it off Method 2 Type in your list Highlight the list Click the Bullet icon once Bullets will appear at the beginning of each highlighted line!

Numbered Lists Instead of bullets, you might want to number your steps Click the Numbering icon on the Formatting toolbar You can change the number format by opening the Format menu, select Bullets and Numbering Select the style required and click OK

Word Processing Tables

Inserting A Table Open the Table menu, select Insert, Table The Insert table dialogue box appears Key in the number of columns and rows required Click OK An empty table will appear on screen

Typing Text Into A Table Click in the first cell, type in text required To move to the next cell on the right, click in it (or press the right arrow key once) You can also use the Tab key to move from one cell to the next Don’t worry if text goes onto more than one line – that will be sorted later!

Merging Table Cells Select the cells to be merged From the Table menu select Merge Cells Click the Centre align icon The text will centre itself within the selected cells

Formatting Text In Cells Select the cell(s) you want to format Click on the Bold, Italics, centre or other options of your choice To shade cells, select the required cells From the Format menu select Borders and Shading Click the Shading tab and click the colour required Click OK

Inserting & Deleting Rows & Columns To insert a row, click inside the row above where you want the row to appear Open the Table menu, select Row then Rows Below To delete a row, click inside the row to be deleted Open the Table menu, select Delete then Row Note you can insert or delete a column by selecting column instead of row!

Word Processing Headers, Footers & Graphics

Inserting A Header Or Footer Open the View menu and select Header and Footer The Header and Footer toolbar appears: The cursor will be positioned in the header area To move to the Footer area, click on the Switch between Header and Footer button You can type in text You can insert fields Click on Insert Autotext to see some of the options To insert a page number click on the page number icon You can line up text using the default tabs or set your own Click on Close to go back to your document Insert file location etc Insert page number Insert Date Switch between Header and Footer

Importing Graphics Move the insertion point to where you want the picture to appear From the Insert menu, select Picture then From file My Pictures folder will appear Click the picture you require Click Insert button

Resizing An Image Click the picture to select it – a black border with black square handles will appear Move the mouse pointer to the bottom right handle Click and drag towards the top left As soon as you release the mouse button, the picture will change size! Always resize from the corners to avoid distorting the picture!

Inserting and manipulating ClipArt From the Insert menu, select Picture then ClipArt A ClipArt pane appears Type in a keyword then click Go Thumbnails of pictures will appear Click on one you like – it will be inserted into your document You can manipulate clipart the same way as pictures