WORD:  BASIC FORMATTING

 

Font:  design of type or typeface

 

Most common fonts: 

  1. Times New Roman - serif font (serif fonts have “tails”J)

Used for the body of a document.

  1. Arial – sans serif font (no tails)

Usually used for titles, headings, and page numbers.

 

To change the font:

  1. Use the font box on the formatting toolbar.
  2. Click on Format on the standard toolbar, click Font, select font desired in the font dialog box.  Use the preview box to view what fonts look like before selecting.

 

To change the font style (appearance of the font such as bold, italic, and underline),

use the:

  1. Toolbar button or
  2. Font dialog box or
  3. Shortcut keys (Bold Ctrl + B; Italic Ctrl + I, Underline (Ctrl + U)

 

Font size is measured in points.  There are 72 points in an inch.  Standard font size is 12 point.  The higher the font point size, the larger the characters.

 

To change the font size, use the

  1. Toolbar button or
  2. Font dialog box or
  3. Shortcut keys

a.       To increase font size one point at a time, hold down Ctrl + ]

b.      To decrease font size one point at a time, hold down  Ctrl + [

 

To change the color of text, underline style and color and font effects such as strikethrough, emboss, use the font dialog box from the Format menu.

 

Highlighting – Words or sections of your document can be highlighted in color by

  1. Selecting the item and then
  2. Clicking the down arrow next to the Highlight button on the toolbar and
  3. Selecting the color of highlighting desired from the palette.

 

Changing Case

Lowercase – not capitalized

UPPERCASE – capitalized

 

To convert the case of text, select the text and choose Change Case from the Format menu or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 (3-way toggle).

 

Aligning Text

 

Alignment refers to how text is positioned between the margins:

  1. Left (the default setting)
  2. Center
  3. Right
  4. Justified (text is aligned at both the left and right margins)

 

To align text, click in the paragraph you want to align, or select it.  Choose paragraph from the Format menu.  In the paragraph dialog box, choose alignment from the drop-down list in the Alignment box.

 

To change the vertical alignment (up and down) of text in a document:

  1. Click on the File menu on the menu bar.
  2. Choose page Setup to display the Page Setup dialog box.
  3. Choose the layout tab.
  4. In the vertical alignment box, click the down arrow and choose the desired alignment:  Top, Center, Justified (distributes text equally between top and bottom margins), or Bottom

 

Copying Format and Style

 

Use the Format Painter button  (paintbrush icon ) to copy the format and style of selected text.  Click on text that has the desired formats, click the Format Painter button, select the text you want to format.  The text changes to the copied format.  (If you double click the Format Painter button, the paintbrush icon will stay loaded until you return it to the toolbar, thus enabling you to do format changes in multiple sections.)

 

 

WORD:  CONTROLLING TEXT

 

Changing Indents

 

The fastest way to indent text is to use the indent markers on the ruler

  1. First-line indent – upper triangle at the left edge of the ruler.
  1. Hanging indent – lower triangle at the left edge of the ruler.
  2. Right indent – lower triangle at the right edge of the rule.

 

To indent text: 

  1. Select the text you want to indent or position the insertion point in the text you want to indent, and
  2. Drag one of these markers to the desired point on the ruler.

 

Note that the first-line indent and the left indent are close together.  To move the hanging indent without moving the first-line indent marker, click in the point of the marker and drag.  To move them at the same time, click the left-indent marker, then drag.

 

Changing Spacing

  1. Line spacing

a)      Fastest method:  Ctrl + 2 (double spacing), Ctrl + 1 (single spacing),
Ctrl + 5 (1.5 lines)

b)      Format menu, Paragraph, select the desired spacing from the Line spacing box.

  1. To add extra space before or after a paragraph, click on the Format menu, paragraph, change the values in the Before or After box of the Spacing area.
    (Note the spacing before Numbers 1 and 2 above:  ½ line (6 points) was used instead of a full line.)

 

Setting Margins

The default or standard margins in Word are 1.25” left and right and 1” top and bottom.

Margins can be reset by clicking on the

  1. File Menu
  2. Page Set up
  3. Select the margins tab.
  4. Key in desired margins (Note:  It is not necessary to put in the ” for inches.)
  5. OK

 

Setting Tabs

Tabs mark the place where the insertion point will stop when you press the Tab key.

Text can be aligned with decimal, left, right, or center tabs.

By default, left-aligned tabs are set in Word every half inch (0.5”). 

 

There are two ways to set tabs:

  1. Set on Ruler line.  In the tab box to the left of the ruler line, be sure the desired tab you want shows [click to change] ( = left;  = right;  = center; 
     = decimal).  Click on the ruler line at the place where you want the tab. 
    To remove a tab, drag it off the ruler.

  2. Use the Tab dialog box in the Format menu (See Figure 4-11, p. 52).  In the tab box, key the tab stop position.  Choose a kind of tab alignment and then choose what kind of leader (solid, dotted, or dashed lines which fill the blank space before the tab setting) you want, if any.  Click Set to set the tab.  After setting the tabs you want, click OK.

 

Sorting Text

To sort text, choose Sort from the Table menu.

  1. Ascending:  a to z or 1-10.
  2. Descending:  z to a or 10-1.

 

Bullets and Numbering

 

Click the Bullets or Numbering button on the toolbar.  Each time you press Enter, a new bullet or number automatically appears.  To turn off bullets or numbering, either press Enter twice or click again on the Bullets or Numbering button. 

 

To convert existing text into a bulleted or numbered list, select the text and click the Bullets or Numbering button on the toolbar.

 

To change the appearance of bullets and numbering, choose Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu.  Choose the bullet style you want in the Bulleted tab

To customize a bulleted list, click the Customize button.  You can change the bullet character, bullet position, or text position in the Customize Bulleted List dialog box.  The Preview box shows how the list will look.

 

To change the appearance of a numbered list, choose the Numbered tab.  Click the numbered style you want and choose whether you want to restart the numbering or continue the previous list.

 

To customize a numbered list, click the Customize button.  You can change the number format, number style, number position, and text positioning the Customize Numbered List dialog box.  The Preview box shows how the list will look.

 

To continue a previously numbered list or start the list with a number other than 1.,  click the Customize button and select the Continue previous list option.

 

 

WORD:  HELPFUL WORD FEATURES

 

  1. AutoCorrect (Tools menu) – automatically corrects errors in common capitalization, typing, spelling, and grammatical errors.  It can also be used for inserting text.  To customize AutoCorrect, remove or add checkmarks in the AutoCorrect dialog box.

  2. AutoFormat As You Type (2nd Tab in AutoCorrect dialog box) – applies built in formats to text as you type; example, ordinal at the beginning of this sentence (2nd).

  3. AutoText (3rd Tab in AutoCorrect dialog box) – used to insert frequently used text. 

    To create your own entry, type the text you wish to enter, highlight it, and then name it by choosing AutoText from the Insert menu, then New and in the name box, type a name (usually 2-4 letters).  To use, type the AutoText entry name where you want the text to appear, and either press F3 if the entry is less than 4 letters or if the entry is 4 letters or longer, either press F3 or press Enter and the AutoText will be inserted.  Example:  instead of typing Los Angeles Mission College, do an AutoText and name it lamc.  Every time you type lamc, an pop-up box will appear with the full name of the college; If you want the full name, simply press F3 or Enter and Los Angeles Mission College will appear. J  {By the way, did you know you can add a happy face by typing a colon [:] and a right parenthesis [)]?}

  4. AutoComplete – guesses certain words you are keying from the first few letters and then suggests the entire word.  To accept the suggested word, press Enter.

  5. Automatic Spell Checking (Tools menu, Options)– identifies misspellings and words that are not in Word’s dictionary by underlining them with a wavy red line immediately after you key them.  To correct a word, position the pointer on the words and click with the right mouse button.  Click with the left mouse button on the suggestion that you want, and it replaces the misspelled word.  Note:  The automatic spell checker sometimes identifies words as misspelled that aren’t, example, proper names.

  6. Automatic Grammar Checking (Tools menu, Options ) – checks document for grammar errors such as capitalization errors, commonly confused words, misused words, passive sentences, punctuation problems, etc.  Underlines words with a wavy green line.

 

Inserting the Date and Time Automatically – (Insert menu, Date and Time command, select format desired) - This feature is especially useful if you wish to have the date automatically updated each time you open a file. 

 

Inserting Hyphens (Tools menu, Language command, Hyphenation) – avoid if  possible.

 

Thesaurus (Shift F7 or Tools menu, Language, Thesaurus) – useful for finding synonyms (words that mean the same thing) and antonyms (words that mean the opposite).

 

Find and Replace

  1. Find – searches a document for every occurrence of a specific word or phrase you key in the Find what box.  Find can locate whole or partial words.

  2. Replace – allows you to replace a word or phrase in the Find what box with another word or phrase you key in the Replace with box.  The replacements can be made individually or all at once.  Select the More button  for additional options such as match case or find whole words only.

 

 

 

 

WORD:  WORKING WITH DOCUMENTS

 

Switching Between Documents:

To switch between open documents (you can have numerous documents open at the same time), either click a document’s icon on the task bar at the bottom of the screen, or choose the document from the Window menu on the toolbar.

 

Copying and Pasting Text Between Documents: 

To copy or move data from one document to another, use the same method as you would within a document:  Select text, click on the cut or copy icon  on the toolbar, position the cursor where you want the new text, and click on the clipboard icon  (paste) on the toolbar.

 

Inserting Page Breaks:

Page break: A page break is the place where one page ends and other begins.  Word automatically inserts page breaks.  In Normal view, a page break is indicated by a dotted line across the page.

 

Page breaks can also be inserted manually. 

1.      From the Insert menu, choose Break. 

2.      Choose Page break in the Break dialog box.

3.      A manual page break is also shown by a dotted line across the page with the words Page Break in the middle.

 

 

MULTIPLE PAGE DOCUMENTS

 

Splitting Windows (Window menu, split) 

Enables you to view two parts of a window at the same time.

  1. Each area of the document is called a pane and has separate scroll bars.
  2. Choose split from the Window menu and position the horizontal bar with the mouse pointer where you want the split.
  3. To remove the split, choose Remove Split from the Window menu.

 

How to Quickly Move through a Multi-Page Document:

  1. Drag the vertical scroll box (fastest method usually).  As you drag the box, a ScreenTip pops up showing you the page number.
  2. Use the Go To Command (Edit menu, Go To command), key in the page number, and click Go To and Word will move the insertion point to the beginning of the page you specified.

 

Viewing Hidden Characters:

Click on the Show/Hide button  on the toolbar to view formatting characters such as paragraph returns (Enters), tabs, and spacing.

 

Using the Word Count Command (Tools menu, Word Count)

To count the number of words in a document or in a paragraph or any selected amount of text, use Word Count from the Tools menu.

Headers and Footers (View menu, Header and Footer command)

  1. Header – text that is printed at the top (head) of each page.
  2. Footer – text that is printed at the bottom (foot) of each page.
  3. Headers and Footers have their own toolbar, which can be moved around by dragging the title bar.
  4. The Header and Footer toolbar has formatting buttons to insert the date, time, and page numbers, access the Page Setup dialog box, and switch between the header and footer.
  5. If you do not want a header or footer to appear on a page such as the first page of a document, with the Header and Footer toolbar open, click Page Setup, choose Layout tab, and then choose different first page, then Ok.
  6. To insert page numbers into a header or footer, from the Header and Footer toolbar, choose the # sign (selecting this symbol inserts the appropriate page number for each page).  Changes to the format of page numbers can be made by using the Page Number dialog box (Insert menu, Page Numbers command).  Choose the page number position desired, alignment (upper right corner is the usual placement [top of page (header), alignment:  right]).  Click on the format button if you wish to change the appearance of the page number; for ex., Roman numerals i, ii, iii, iv [This format is used for prefatory numbers in a report].
  7. To quickly access a previously created header or footer:  from Page Layout View, double click on any part of the contents of the header or footer.

 

Creating Footnotes and Endnotes:  (Insert menu, Footnote command)

  1. A footnote is used to reference quotations, figures, or to further explain text.  Footnotes are placed at the bottom of each page.
  2. An endnote serves the same function as a footnote, but is placed at the end of the document.

 

To insert a footnote or endnote:

  1. Position the insertion point at the place in the document where you want a reference and choose Footnote from the Insert menu.
  2. To view footnotes you’ve created, choose Footnotes from the View menu or double click on the footnote number in the text.

 

Creating Sections with Different Formatting:  (Insert menu, Break command).

A document can be divided into sections to create different layouts within one document; example, columns, different headers, footers, margins, print orientation, etc.

 

  1. To start the new section on the same page, choose Continuous.
  2. To start the new section on the next page, choose Next page.
  3. In Normal view, a section break is shown by a double dotted line across the page with the words Section Break in the middle. 
  4. To delete section breaks, place the insertion point on the section break line and press Delete.