The document provides an introduction and overview of the basic functions and features of Microsoft Word, including how to start Word, open and save files, select and edit text, check spelling and grammar, format text and paragraphs, preview and print documents, and get help. It also lists topics to be covered in an intermediate Word class, and encourages additional practice of the basic skills.

1. Microsoft Word ® Basics Williamson County Public Library 1314 Columbia Ave Franklin, TN 37064 615-595-1243

2. Introduction Programs that allow users to create and modify documents are called “word processing” programs. Microsoft Word ® is a word processing program that allows the user to create a document such as a letter, a resume or an essay quickly and easily.

3. Starting Microsoft Word ® Double Click on the blue W on the desktop. The icon should look like this:

4. Word ® Program Window Once you open Word ® , you will see what looks like a blank screen. This is your blank sheet of paper, similar to what you start with in a typewriter. The blinking vertical line is called an “insertion point”. Everything that you type will begin at this point.

5. Close Maximize Minimize Title Bar Menu Bar Taskbar Start button Open Program Current Document Ruler Status Bar Task Pane Scroll Bar Toolbar Clock Help

6. Typing Text in Word ® Practice typing a few sentences into Word ® to see how the insertion point moves and how your words appear on the screen. Sample sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

7. Menus and Toolbars The menus and toolbars allow access to the various features of Word ® . The menus and toolbars in Word ® allow the user to change the way the document looks. The menus and toolbars also allow the user to save his/her work.

8. Menus There are nine menus in Word ® . They are File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window, and Help. The most often used menus are File, Edit, View, Format and Help.

9. Keyboard Shortcut Expand menu options Choices for menu item

10. Microsoft Word ® Tool Bar New Open Save Print Print Preview Spell Check Copy Paste Undo Zoom Font Name Font Size Bold Italic Underline Center Align Left Right Align Bullets Numbered List More tools

11. Opening files Files can be opened from two locations: the hard drive of the computer or an external disk or drive including a CD or flash drive. When using the library’s computers, you should be opening a file from a CD or flash drive.

12. Opening from a disk Click on the File menu at the top of the screen Choose Open A dialog box will come up on the screen

13. Opening from a disk Click on the menu box to locate your drive (C, D, or E).

14. Opening from a disk Click on the file name that you want to open and then click the Open button. The file will appear on the screen.

15. Working with text The first step in working with a document that has already been typed is knowing how to highlight the section you want to change. You can highlight a single word, an entire line or paragraph, or even the whole document.

16. Highlighting In order to highlight a single word, you can simply double click that word. To highlight an entire paragraph, click three times on a word in the paragraph.

17. Highlighting To highlight larger blocks of text, click where you want the highlighting to begin and drag the mouse over the text to where you want it to end. To highlight the entire document quickly, go to the Edit menu and choose Select All; or press the CTRL key and the letter A at the same time on the keyboard.

18. Cut, copy and paste Once you have highlighted text, you can move it around in your document. This can be useful if you decide to change the order of your paragraphs or even just a sentence or two.

19. Cut, copy and paste To Cut text from one place, highlight the text and click on the scissors on the toolbar. To Copy text, click on the double pages. To Paste text, click on the clipboard. Copy Cut Paste Redo Undo

20. Spell Check Microsoft Word ® will check the spelling of words as you type. When a red squiggly line appears under a word, that means that Word ® thinks you have misspelled it. Word ® is not always correct in its spelling. It does not like proper names and can miss things that are actual words but still wrong.

21. Grammar Check Microsoft Word ® will also check your grammar as you type. If a green squiggly line appears, Word ® thinks that you have done something wrong grammatically. It is not always correct, and sometimes you want or need to be grammatically incorrect on purpose.

22. Spelling and Grammar In your practice document, look for the red and green squiggly lines. Those are words that the program has a problem with. To check the spelling and grammar, go to the Tools menu and click on Spelling and Grammar…

23. Formatting In Microsoft Word ® , you can change the way things look on the page by using the format font and format paragraph options. Bold , italic , underline , font size , and font name are all options for formatting your font. Double space, indent, and alignment on the page are all options for formatting paragraphs.

24. Format Font and Paragraph The most commonly used font formatting options are available on the toolbar. More options are available under the Format menu.

25. Print Preview Print Preview is used to see exactly how your document will be laid out when it is printed.

26. Save and Save As When using the library’s computers, you should always save to a CD or Flash Drive. The Save and Save As dialog boxes look almost exactly like the Open dialog box. The Save feature saves your document with the same name to the same location that you have saved it previously. Save As allows you to rename your document, change its location, or both.

27. Save As Don’t forget to save your document when using the library computers. You must also name your document in the File Name section.

28. Printing You can print from Word ® two different ways. The recommended way is by using Print Preview. If you click the printer icon on the toolbar, it will not give you any options. It simply prints the entire document as is.

29. Printing When printing, you can choose a specific number of pages or a number of copies.

30. Help If you get stuck and can’t remember how to do something, you can try typing in search terms in the Help box. The Help function is a good way to get unstuck when using Word. It is also a good way to learn something new.

31. Intermediate Word Class Next week’s topics: Create bulleted and numbered lists Create outline Type in tables and columns Find and insert clip art into a document Insert a page break, a hyperlink, auto text, and date and time Format and edit a written paragraph

32. Practice If you feel that you need more practice, there is a guided practice included in the packet you received at the beginning of the class. Please fill out the evaluation form and return it to the instructor before leaving. Thank you for attending Microsoft Word Basics!