Information Technology Word Processing

Word Processing is the preparation of documents such as letters, reports, memos, books, or any other type of correspondences. A word processor is an application software that allows you to create and edit these documents.

Examples of Word Processing  Microsoft Word  Lotus  Word Pro  Word Perfect

Starting Microsoft Word To start Microsoft Word using the start button on the task bar:  Click start  Select programs  From the program menu select Microsoft Office  Then select Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word Window

Title Bar The title bar is the first bar from the top of the screen. It displays the name and the type of document that is open. It also displays the control menu icon in the left hand corner and three buttons (minimize, maximize and close) in the right hand corner.

Title Bar Cont’d  The Minimize button, which reduces Word to an icon on the taskbar.  The Maximize button, which resizes Word so that it takes up the whole screen. When Word is maximized, the Restore button is displayed instead, which restores Word to its previous size.  The Close button, which closes Word.

Menu Bar This is where the pull-down menus that allow you to perform various tasks in Microsoft Word are displayed. The pull-down menus options shown are File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Tables, Window and Help. The pull-down menus contain additional options, that drop down from the menu bar when an option is selected.

Toolbars Toolbars provide easy access to the commands contained in the menus. Each toolbar option is shown by using an icon (a small picture) that represents the command. By default, Word displays two toolbars:  Standard Toolbar  Formatting Toolbar

Toolbar Cont’d Standard Toolbar: The standard toolbar has shortcuts to most frequently used instructions on the menu bar. For example, “open a file”, “print a document” and “save a file”, are represented as pictures called icons and are placed on this bar.

Toolbar Cont’d Formatting Toolbar: This toolbar contains icons that allow you to format and edit the appearance of the document, such as bold, underline and center text and change the size and colour of text, etc.

Toolbar Cont’d Other Toolbars: Microsoft Word provides several other toolbars to use for various task. However, to maximize screen space, very few of them are displayed at any given time.

Toolbar Cont’d You can hide or show a toolbar by:  Clicking View, then Toolbar  Click the menu item for the desired toolbar. If the toolbar was not currently being shown, it will now be displayed and a check mark will be placed beside its menu item. Otherwise it will now be hidden.

Ruler The ruler displays the measurements, indents, and tabs of your document. Hiding/Displaying the Ruler bar:  Select view from the menu bar  Click ruler

Scroll Bars The scroll bars are used to scroll the text on the screen. Two types of scroll bars are:  vertical scroll bar – that scrolls from top to button or button to top  horizontal scroll bar – that scroll from left to right or right to left.

Status Bar The status bar displays information about the document, such as the total number of pages the document has, the current page, the position of the cursor from the top of the page and the current line. Items on the status bar includes page, sec, 1/1, At, Ln, Col, REC, TRK, EXT and OVR

Hiding/Displaying the Scroll Bars and the Status Bar  Select tools from the menu bar  Click options  Select view  Under the show heading, click in the check box of the Horizontal Scroll Bar, Vertical Scroll Bar and/or Status Bar as required  Click ok

View Buttons These are icons that control the type of screen displayed. These buttons are located to the left of the horizontal scroll bar. They are: Normal view Normal view Web layout view Web layout view Print layout view Print layout view Outline view Outline view Reading layout Reading layout

Task Pane The task pane window appears to the right of the main word window. It provides guide lines in carrying out certain task. To show or hide the task pane:  Click view  Then select task pane To switch to the task pane of a different task:  Click the down arrow  Click the name of the desired task pane

Document Window The area for inserting text and pictures. It is also referred to as the work area or worksheet.

Cursor The cursor (insertion point) is a blinking rectangular bar that indicates where text will appear when you begin to type, or delete when you press the backspace or delete key on the keyboard.

Default Settings Microsoft Word has default settings such as the margin and font size, type, colour.

Word Wrap A word processing feature which automatically adjusts lines of text to fit within the page margins. When a line of text is typed that extends beyond the right margin, Microsoft word automatically continues to the next line.

Auto Complete A feature that suggests text automatically based on the first few characters that a user types. This feature in Word guesses names of calendar items, such as the days of the week and months, as you type them, and then suggests the complete word.

Saving a Document Saving a new document: Click File on the menu bar Click File on the menu bar Then click save or save as Then click save or save as From the save as window that pops up, select the storage location, type the file name From the save as window that pops up, select the storage location, type the file name Click ok Click ok

Save and Save as When saving a file for the first time the save as window will appear whether you select save or save as option. The difference comes about when you are resaving a file. In this case, the save option will save the file without prompting you to enter the storage location or file name, while the save as option will give you the opportunity to select a storage location and enter a new file name. The save as option in this case will allow you to have the file stored two or more times.

Exit Microsoft Word Click File on the menu bar Click File on the menu bar Then select exit Then select exitor Click the red X at the right hand corner Click the red X at the right hand corner