Word

Part 1

• Show toolbar buttons on 1 row vs. 2 rows - click the toolbar options button (gray with arrow) - this also displays the buttons you don't see if there isn't enough room with the row specification you have made)
• The Word Window
• Insertion Point
• Menu - the most recently used options appear first - if you wait a moment or click the arrow at the bottom, a full menu appears; alternatively, double clicking the name of the menu right away makes the entire menu appear
• Entering text - font size in points (1/72 of an inch) - default font is Times Roman 12point
• As you type, if you see red lines, that indicates Word thinks you have made a spelling mistake, if you right click, it will suggest possible alternatives in bold. A green line indicates a possible grammatical mistake
• Word wrap (soft return) vs. hitting enter (hard return) to force to a new line
• Displaying formatting - using the Show/Hide toggle button - backwards Paragraph symbol - useful for determining how many spaces are between words and where there are hard returns you don't want
• Zoom - doesn't affect how the document is printed, only the magnification level on the screen
• Backspace (deletes to the left of the insertion point) vs. delete key (deletes to the right of the insertion point)
• Deleting text by selecting it, hitting backspace or just starting to type
• Checking Spelling & Grammar as You Type - Tools>Options>Spelling and Grammar - you can check or uncheck boxes to control how this works
• Saving a document - application window vs. document window, use meaningful names, can use spaces, you don't need to specify the extension (.doc). In this dialog box, there is an icon to create a new folder
• Formatting text - select the text and then apply formatting - alignment, font and font size, bold, italics, underline
• Edit>Undo (Ctrl Z) and Edit>Redo (Ctrl X) commands
• Selecting a line - click to the left of a line; selecting word by word - Ctrl+Shift and then use right arrows to add, left arrows to subtract words from the selection
• Inserting Clip Art - Insert>Picture>Clip Art and then enter keywords for search. Double click on one of the alternatives or click the arrow next to the alternative and select Insert.
• Resizing a graphic - Click anywhere on the graphic to select it -- you will see sizing handles appear on the sides and corners of the document if it is selected. You can then resize by dragging these handles or by selecting Format>Picture>Size where you can enter precise measurements. Uncheck the aspect ratio box if you want to change the aspect ratio (relationship of width to height) in the picture.
• Saving a document - File Save or File Save As. If the document hasn't been saved before, File Save functions the same as File Save As and allows one to specify a location and filename for the document. If the file has been saved before, then File>Save will overwrite what was there previously (will not keep the former version). If you want to keep the former versoin, save the new version with a different filename or put it in a different location.
• Printing a document - File>Print gives you some options whereas clicking the print icon on the toolbar prints the whole document immediately. To cancel a print job, double click the print icon on the taskbar that will only show up while the document is printing. This is a much faster way to cancel than selecting Start>Control Panel>Printers and Faxes>Select the printer>Highlight the document in the list and then choose Document>Cancel.
• File>Print>Options and File>Print>Properties - what you see in each will depend on your printer but these allow options just as printing only in black and while and in draft mode, to save both time and expense.
• Insert vs. overtype mode - The default mode is insert mode where typing text does not delete existing text; to switch to overtype mode where typing text deletes existing text, doubleclick the OVR in the middle of the status line at the bottom.
• Bullets and Lists
• Changing Margins - File, Page Setup>Margins (top, left, right, and left)

Part 2:

• Line spacing - Line Spacing Icon or Format>Paragraph>Indents and Spacing
• Using a Header to Number Pages, # of Pages, etc. - View, Header and Footer - a header will appear 1/2" from the top of the page, whereas a footer will appear 1/2 from the bottom of the page; a header or footer appears in every page of the document and is very similar from page to page, with minor variations such as the page number
• Normal and Print Layout View - Headers/footers don't display in normal view but do display in Print Layout View
• Indenting paragraphs - Format>Paragraph>Indents and Spacing>Special>First Line and then specify amount of indentation. One can also bring up this menu by right-clicking in a paragraph and selecting Paragraph. Alternatively, one can drag top triangle in ruler. To indent every line in a paragraph, in the Indents and Spacing tab, specify the left indentation or drag the small square in the rule. Subsequent paragraphs you type pick up formatting of previous paragraph
• Word autocorrect feature - if you type teh, Word will change this to the and also capitalize it. If you put your cursor over a word it has changed like this, you will see a small blue box below the text and if you click the down arrow, you can undo these changes or stop doing them in the future. The substitutions Word makes are shown if one selects Tools>AutoCorrect Options. One can add changes to this list, e.g. using your initials to spell out your name. The exceptions are the exceptions to the general rules -- e.g. abbreviations are shown because otherwise the first word after an abbreviation would be capitalized because Word would interpret the period in the abbreviation as the end of a sentence. To turn off corrections as you type, select Tools>AutoCorrect Options>Auto Correct>and uncheck the box for "replace text as you type".
• Applying changes to entire document - Edit, Select All, and then specify formatting
• Insert footnote - Insert>Reference>Footnote. Notice you can convert footnotes to endnotes and vice versa. To see the footnote in normal view, chohose View>Footnotes, doubleclick note number, or put your cursor over the note number. To change the style of footnotes, you can right click on the note text and choose Style and then modify the appropriate style. To delete a footnote, delete the note number. To move a footnote, move the note number.
• Word Count - Tools>Word Count and you have an option whether or not to include the words in footnotes and endnotes. File>Properties>Statistics also present word count information, but doesn't include an option to count those in footnotes and endnotes. You should remember the existence of File>Properties when you transmit a Word document electronically to someone else because there may be information in there that you don't realize you are disclosing.
• Automatic Page Breaks vs. Hard Page Breaks (Insert>Break>Pagebreak or Ctrl Enter)
• Hanging indent - paragraph formatting - all lines of a paragraph are indented except the first (Format>Paragraph>Indents and Spacing>Special>Hanging. In Word, subsequent paragraphs you type pick up formatting of previous paragraph
• Hyperlinks - If you type a URL (e.g. www.nvcc.edu), Word automatically turns it into a hyperlink. If the user cursors over the URL, a tooltip appears that indicates that a Ctrl click will launch the browser with that URL
• Shortcuts to select text- triple click for a paragraph, double click for a word
• Edit>Copy (Ctrl C) and Edit>Paste (Ctrl V). The Ctrl V is useful to remember because it will work some places where there is no menu available to choose Edit>Paste.
• Paste Options Button - When you copy text, a paste options button may appear and if you click on it, it gives you the option of having the pasted material match the formatting of where you are pasting it.
• Search and Replace - Edit>Find and Edit>Replace. The searching goes forward from the insertion point. One can undo replaces.
• Synonyms - Right click on a word and choose Synonyms. If you select word, and then choose Tools>Language>Thesaurus, it will give various meanings for the word and then synonyms for each meaning, so this cam be much more useful than selecting synonyms right off.
• If you hold down the alt key and click on a word, the definition will appear in the research pane at the right.
• Insert>Symbol>Special Characters - can be used for foreign language characters; there are other alternatives if one is making extensive use of foreign characters

Part 3:

• Resume wizard - File, New, Other Documents, Resume Wizard
• Setting tab stops - Format>Tabs -- then enter the position of the tab and the type of tab, and then click set. Another way to set tabs is to click the tab selector at the left end of the ruler to cycle through the various tab choices to select the type of tab and then click in the ruler to position the tab. By default, tabs are placed every 0.5" If you set a tab, it eliminates the default tabs to the left of it. Tthe tab stop only affects the portion of the document below where the tab stop is entered. We set left-aligned, right-aligned, center, and decimal tabs.
• Clipboard - If you do Edit>Copy twice, the Office Clipboard will appear on the right with the two items you have placed on the clipboard. You can then select which items you want to paste. The Office Clipboard can hold 24 items whereas te Windows clipboard only holds one, so doing edit>copy twice only retains the last one. .
• Tables - Table>Insert Table and select number of rows and columns, or Table>Draw Table and then draw rectangle from upper left to lower right and then draw in rows and columns. To delete the table, Table>Delete>Table. Table Move handle -- position the cursor anywhere in the table and the move handle will appear just outside the upper left hand corner of the table. If you don't want the table borders and rows and columns to print, then you can select Table>Table Properties>Table>Borders and Shading>none.
• Tools>Letters and Mailings>Envelopes and Labels>Envelopes
• Adding a border to a paragraph -- make sure that you have an extra paragraph mark below the paragraph you want to border, so that the border is not carried forth to subsequent paragraphs - Format, Borders and Shading
• Nonbreaking space - Ctrl Shift spacebar -- prevents two words from splitting at the end of a line if separated only by nonbreaking space
• Nonbreaking hyphen - Ctrl Shift hyphen - prevents words from breaking at the end of a line if separated by a dash
• Columns - Type text, select it, and then select Format, Columns
• Widow and orphans prevented in default setting - widow is last line of paragraph displays by itself at top of page; orphan is first line of paragraph displays by itself at bottom of page
• Keeping paragraph with next - With cursor in first paragraph, choose "keep with next" in Paragraph Formatting; e.g. to keep a heading with the subsequent paragraph, particularly if the "heading" is followed by a paragraph marker
• File>Save as Web Page - will create an htm or html file and often a folder and you will need to have both on the website for your page to appear

Comments to William Pegram, bill@billpegram.com