An Introduction to Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word This program allows you to type letters, papers, and other documents. It is available through the Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Word is usually part of a Microsoft Office or Microsoft Suite. This program is used frequently by students of all ages.

How to Open Microsoft Word First you select “Start”. Then you select “Programs”. Next you select “Microsoft Word”. This will open the program.

A New Document When you open Microsoft Word, the screen will originally look like the picture below.

Menu Bar Menu Bar File Menu Across the top of the screen is the Menu Bar. Here is where you can find many of the features you will need. The first Menu option is File. There are many important functions in the File menu.

Tool Bar This is the area below the Menu Bar. This has a variety of icons (or small pictures). These icons do many of the same things that you can do from the Menu Bar. Tool Bar

New This menu choice allows you to open a new document. This document will be blank just like what appeared when you opened the program.

New, continued Another way to open a new document is to use the icon on the Tool Bar . The New icon looks like a blank piece of paper.

Open This menu choice allows you to open a document that has previously been saved on this computer. You can also use open to access a file saved on a disk or CD.

Open, continued When you choose to open a file, you will have to find where on the computer the file is stored. Typically the computer will look in “My Documents” first. Many people keep all of their documents in the “My Documents” file.

Open, continued If you want to access a file saved on a disk or CD, you need to use the drop down menu. Find “My Computer” then select the drive your disk or CD is in.

Open, continued To open an old document from the Tool Bar, click on the icon that looks like a file folder.

Save The next feature in the File Menu is save. This feature allows you to save your document. If it is the first time you are saving the document, you will have to give the document a name. If it is not the first time, then it will just save. A quick way of saving while typing is to press Ctrl and S at the same time.

Save, continued You can also save by selecting the correct icon from the Tool Bar. The Save icon looks like a floppy disk.

Save As This feature is slightly different than Save. This allows you to save a document under a new name. You would use this feature if you opened an old document, changed it, and wanted to save it but did not want to lose the original version of the document. You will have to give the new file a different name than the old file.

Print The next important menu choice in the File Menu is Print. This allows you to print the open document.

Print, continued You can also print by selecting the icon from the Tool Bar. The print icon looks like a printer.

Print Preview Print Preview allows you to see how the document will look on paper before you print. This is helpful when you have multiple page documents and you want to have the text evenly distributed between pages.

Print Preview, continued You can also chose print preview from the Tool Bar. The print preview icon looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass over it.

Page Setup The next important feature in the File Menu is Page Setup. This option allows you to change important aspects of the page.

Page Setup, continued This is the menu that will appear when you choose Page Setup. You can change the size of the margins (standard is 1” for all four sides). You can also change the orientation. Portrait is what people typically use. The longer side is up and down. Landscape is when the longer side is going left to right.

Edit Menu The next menu choice is the Edit Menu. The most important feature of the Edit Menu is Undo Typing. Choosing this option will undo whatever was done last. Another quick way to undo typing is to press Ctrl and Z at the same time.

View We are not going to discuss the menu option View. This function is not used as frequently as the other menu options.

Insert The next Menu option is Insert. From this option, you can insert a picture into your word document.

Insert Picture You can insert many different pictures. Once choice is to insert a picture from a file. An example of this is a picture saved on your computer from a digital camera. Another choice is to insert a picture from clip art. Clip art is a set of cartoon-like pictures that comes with the Microsoft Word Software. More clip art is available for purchase or online.

Format The next important Menu choice is Format. In the Format menu, you can change different features of the text. Select Font to make another menu appear.

Font From this menu, you can change many different characteristics of the text. You can change the: Font (how the letters look) Color Size Font Style (underline, bold, italics)

Font, continued Many of the options available in the Font menu are also available on the Tool Bar. You can change the Font, Size, and Color or Style of the text

Tools The next Menu option is Tools. In the Tool menu, the most commonly used feature is Spelling and Grammar. This feature will check your spelling and grammar.

Spelling Microsoft Word will automatically check your spelling. Incorrectly spelled words are underlined in RED. You can also ask the computer to spell-check by selecting the feature in the Tool Menu.

Spelling, continued You can see different options for the correctly spelled word by right clicking on the underlined word. Then choose the correct spelling from the options listed. If the word you want is not on the menu, try spelling the word in a different way. Even if it is still incorrectly spelled, the correct word may appear in the spelling choices.

Grammar Incorrect grammar is underlined in green. You can also right click on a phrase that is underlined in green to see suggestions for correcting the grammar. Microsoft Word is not perfect with it’s grammar. Do not always trust its suggestions. Always proofread documents for spelling and grammar. Microsoft Word is not perfect.

Table and Window Table and Window are the next two menu options. The functions in these menus are more advanced. You will not use these functions frequently, so we will not be talking about them.

Help The final menu option is the Help menu. This is a very important tool. This is where you can find out how to do something you do not know how to do in the program. Another way of accessing the help file is by pressing F1.

Help, continued The help menu comes in the form of an ‘office assistant’ (the paperclip). Type a question in the box and hit enter. Different topics will appear. Choose the topic you want help with and you will be given directions.

Help, continued Help also has a space on the Tool Bar. You can just type in the question and help topics will appear.

Any questions?