Basic Microsoft Word 2007

MICROSOFT WORD 2007

1) File names: The .doc extension tells you at a glance that the file is a Microsoft Word document:

xxxxxxxx.doc = Word document (for example, Letter to the Editor.doc)

Caution: Microsoft has changed the file format for Word documents. The new extension is .docx. If you need to send a Word 2007 document to someone who doesn’t have the latest version of Word, use this procedure to make your documents compatible with older versions of Word:

1) Click on the Office button at the upper left-hand corner of the Word 2007 window. (The Office button is the round button with the red, yellow, green and blue Microsoft Office logo on it.)

2) Click on Save As.

3) Click on the Down Arrow next to whatever is in the Save as type: box, then click on Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

4) Type a file name, such as Letter to the Editor.doc, in the File name: box.

5) Click on the Save button.

Tip: Microsoft has released a converter to allow older versions of Word, such as Microsoft Word 2000 or 2003, to open the new .docx-format files. To get the converter, click here, then click on "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats." (Be sure to tell all your friends, family members and business associates about this important tip!)

2) Help Menu: When in doubt, pull up the Help menu. Click on the tiny blue ? button in the upper right-hand corner of the window. Type the topic you need help on in the Search box (for example, margins), then press the Enter key on the keyboard. Click on any blue text that appears with the answer that best meets your needs.

Tip: To print the results, click on the tiny Printer icon button at the top of the Word Help window.

3) New Blank Document: 1) Click on the Office button, then click on New to create a new document, letter, fax cover sheet, etc. 2) Click on Blank Document, then on the Create button in the lower right-hand corner (or click on one of the template categories in the column on the left, such as Brochures, Business Cards, Calendars, Faxes, etc., then click on the pre-formatted template you want in the center window. Click on the Download button to download the pre-formatted template into your Word program. (These pre-formatted templates are from Microsoft Office Online.)

4) Open an Existing Document: 1) Click on the Office button, then click on Open. You should then see the files in the Documents folder, which is where Microsoft Word automatically saves your Word documents. 2) Scroll down or sideways to see all of the documents. 3) Click once on the document you want to open, such as Letter to Grandson.doc, then click on the Open button.

Tip: Notice how the last ten documents you’ve worked on appear at the right of the Office button menu under Recent Documents. Click on the document you want to open. (This is a faster way to open those documents.)

5) Save As: 1) Click on the Office button. 2) Click on Save As. 3) Click on the Down Arrow next to whatever is in the Save as type: box, then click on Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) if you are sending this document to someone who has an older version of Word, or leave it set to Word Document (*.docx) if you don’t care about making the document backwards-compatible. 4) Type in a file name, such as Letter to Grandson.doc in the File name: box. 5) Click on the Save button.

6) Save: 1) Click on the Office button. 2) Click on Save. (You don’t need to click on Save As if your document already has a file name.)

Tip: Or you can click on the tiny Floppy Disk icon at the upper left-hand corner to save your document instead.

Tip 2: It’s a good idea to periodically save your document (say, every 15 minutes). This way you won’t lose all the work you’ve done if the power to the computer is accidentally cut off or something else goes awry.

7) Close: 1) Click on the Office button. 2) Click on Close when you have completed your letter, document, etc. If your document has not yet been saved, the computer will ask you if you want to save it. Click on No if you don’t, Yes if you do, and then type in a file name for the document.

8) Esc(ape) key: Whenever you want to cancel or back out of a menu or dialogue box, press Esc. The Esc key is found in the upper left-hand corner of the keyboard.

9) Tab key: The Tab key moves the blinking cursor to the right one tab stop. (The blinking cursor indicates where you can type in text.) A tab stop is usually ½ inch, unless you change this.

10) Word wrap/Enter: The computer automatically “word wraps” your typing when it gets to the end of the line (i.e., the right margin). Press the Enter key only when you want to start a new paragraph.

To see where you’ve typed the Enters, click on the Home tab at the top of the window, then click on the ¶ button at the top center of the window. (The ¶ symbol is called the “Paragraph symbol.”) Each Enter you’ve typed is represented by a ¶ in the body of your text.

Click on the Paragraph symbol button again to hide the Enters, Tabs (which are represented by right arrows →) and Spaces (which are represented by dots …….), in the body of the text.

11) Selecting text: Click once where you want to begin the highlighting, then hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the right and/or down to highlight the selected text in a blue-gray color. Release the mouse button when you have selected only the text you want to highlight.

Tip: If you make a mistake, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and type a Z. (This is the universal Undo command.)

12) Scrolling: Click on the tiny Up or Down Arrow buttons 5 6 on the right side of the screen to scroll the text area up or down, respectively. Or click and drag the long sliding button which moves between the two (upper and lower) buttons.

Likewise, you can scroll the page horizontally using the Left and Right Arrow buttons 34 and the sliding button at the bottom of the screen, if the page is too wide to fit in the window.

13) Changing fonts: Drag over the text you want to change to highlight it. Click on the Down Arrow button next to the Font Name (for example, “Calibri”) at the top of the screen. Scroll down the list of Font Names and click on the one you want (for example, Times New Roman). Do the same for the Font Size, which is right next to the Font Name. (The Font Size is usually set to 11 or 12 points for most documents.)

14) Bold, Italics, Underline, etc.: Select the text as in Step # 11 above, and click on one or more of the following buttons at the top of the window.

B = Bold, I = Italics, U = Underline

Note: If you don’t see these buttons, click on the Home tab at the top.

15) Justification: Look to the right of the Bold, Italic and Underline buttons for the Left, Center, Right, and Full Justification buttons. (Look closely on the face of the button to determine which button it is. All of these buttons have six tiny horizontal lines on them to represent lines of text ; look at the lines and how they align to the margins to find the correct button.)

Note: If you don’t see the Justification buttons, click on the Home tab at the top.

Note 2: Full Justification means the computer automatically adds spaces between the words in each line to produce a clean, straight edge on both the left and right margins.

16) Moving text: Select the text you want to move and then click on the tiny Scissors icon button at the upper left-hand corner of the window. Move the flashing cursor to the place where you want to move the text to by clicking there with the “I-beam” cursor (so called because it looks like an I-beam). Then click on Edit and then on Paste.

I-Beam Cursor: I

Alternatively, select the text and use Ctrl-X (for "Cut"), which deletes the original text from the document after transferring it to the “Clipboard”, or Ctrl-C (for "Copy"), which leaves a copy of the highlighted text in its original place after transferring it to the Clipboard. Click to move the blinking cursor where you want to paste the text, and then use Ctrl-V (for "Paste"). (The Ctrl keys are at the lower left-hand and lower right-hand corners of the keyboard. You can use either Ctrl key.)

Note: The Clipboard is a temporary holding place in the computer’s memory for text and graphics.

17) Indentation, Tabs:

1) TABS – 1) Click multiple times on the small button with a squarish “L”   on it. (This button is located to the far left of the Ruler at the top of the screen.) As you click, you will notice that the button changes first to a Center Tab button, then a Right Tab button, a Decimal Tab button, and then back to a Left Tab button. 2) Click on the lower part of the Ruler Bar (with the mouse pointer) with the Tab button set to the type of Tab that you want (Left, Center, Right, or Decimal) to put a corresponding Tab stop on the Ruler Bar at that location. 3) To move the Tab stop, click on the Tab marker and drag it to another spot on the Ruler.) 4) You can delete any Tab markers (∟ )by clicking and dragging them off of the Ruler Bar. (Notice that all of the Preset Tab markers at 0.5” intervals, which are represented by tiny vertical marks on the lower part of the Ruler, before the first Custom Tab stop disappear, as soon as you place the first Custom Tab stop on the Ruler Bar. To restore the Default Tab stops, just click and drag the Custom Tab markers off of the Ruler Bar.)

Note: If you don’t see a Ruler, click on the tiny button just above the Upper Scroll Button (the tiny Up Arrow button) at the far right. This is the View Ruler button, which has a picture of the Indentation Markers (see below) on it.

Note 2: A Decimal Tab will line up a column of numbers so that the decimal points in the numbers all line up under where you put the Decimal Tab on the Ruler.

Note 3: You must press the Tab key to move the blinking cursor to the Left, Center, Right, or Decimal Tab stop. (Experiment with these different types of Tabs first on a blank document to see how they work.)

2) INDENTATION – To change the indentation of your paragraphs, click and drag the small gray triangles on the left and right edges of the Ruler Bar. The upper small half-triangle on the left margin moves only the first line of the new paragraph. The lower small half-triangle on the left margin moves the rest of the paragraph.

Caution: Be sure you highlight the entire paragraph, column, page, or document before you move the Indentation Markers!

The Left Margin:                                                       The Right Margin:

18) Header, Footer, Page # : 1) Click on the Insert tab at the top of the screen. 2) Click on Header or Footer at the top center of the window. 3) Click on Blank, Blank (Three Columns), or whichever type of Header or Footer you want. 4) Type the text that you want in the Header or Footer. You can format the text by highlighting it, then returning to the Home tab, then selecting the formatting you want. 5) Insert page numbers by clicking on the Page Number button, then click on Top of Page, Bottom of Page, Page Margins, etc., then on Plain Number 1, Plain Number 2 or whatever style you want.

Tip: You can have a different Header and/or Footer for just the first page of your document by clicking on üDifferent first page to have a header or footer for the first page that is different from the header or footer on the other pages in your document.

Tip 2: To return the blinking cursor to the main text area in order to type more text, just double-click in the main text area. To return to the Header or Footer area, just double-click in the Header or Footer area of the page. (Notice how the text turns a lighter gray color when you are no longer in that area.)

19) Print Preview: To see your document on the screen before you print it out on the printer, click on the Office button, and then move the mouse pointer onto Print, then click on Print Preview.

20) Print: To print the document on your printer, click on Print or Quick Print. (Quick Print sends the document to your default printer immediately if you don’t need to select which page(s) to print or any other options.) If you select Print, specify the number of copies you want and/or select the pages you want to print out by clicking in the Pages: box, then typing the page number(s) you want to print out.

For example, to print just page 1, type 1. For multiple pages, type, for example, 1, 3, which will print out pages 1 and 3, or 1-3 to print out pages 1 through 3 (including page 2).

21) Portrait or Landscape: “Landscape” means the page will be printed turned on its side, so that it is wider than it is high (i.e., 11” wide by 8½” high for Letter-size paper). “Portrait” means 8½” wide by 11” high. The default setting is Portrait.

To select Landscape, click on the Page Layout tab at the top of the window, then click on the Orientation button, then on Landscape.

22) Number of columns: Click on the Page Layout tab at the top of the screen, then click on Columns. Click on the number of columns you want on the page, such as Two, Three, or More Columns…. Notice how the text will type down the first column, then appear at the top of the second column and so on.

23) Envelopes/mailing labels:

For envelopes: 1) Click on the Mailings tab at the top of the Word window, then click on Envelopes. 2) Type the recipient’s address in the Delivery address: box and your return address, if needed, in the Return address: box. 3) Click on Print.

For labels: 1) Click on the Mailings tab at the top of the window, then click on Labels.2) Type in the recipient’s address, or click to put a check mark in the Use return address box if these are return address labels. 3) Click on the Options button and select the type of labels you are using, such as Avery US Letter, then the Avery #, such as 8660, which are regular Address labels. 4) Click on OK. 5) Click on ¤ Full page of the same label or ¤ Single label, then select the Row and Column where the single blank label can be found on the sheet of labels. 6) Click on Print.

24) Spell Check: 1) Click on the Review tab at the top of the window. 2) Click on the Spelling & Grammar button at the far left (it has “A B C” above a ü [a check mark]). Select Ignore Once or Ignore All (for every occurrence of the error) if the computer asks you if an unusual word or name that is not found in its dictionary is misspelled. 3) Click on Change or Change All (for every occurrence of the error) if you would like to change the spelling to one of the words in the Suggestions: box below. 4) Click on the Add to Dictionary button if the word is not misspelled and you want to add that word to the computer’s spelling dictionary so that it will not stop on that word again in the future. Use the Add to Dictionary button for medical terms or other special words that are not in the computer’s dictionary.

25) Zoom: Click & drag the slider in the lower right-hand corner of the Word window to the left to make the page appear smaller on the screen, or to the right to make the page appear larger.

26) Print Layout View, Full Screen Reading View, Web Layout View, Outline View, Draft View: These buttons are in the lower right-hand corner of the window and show you different views of the page. The best view to use is probably the Print Layout View, because it will show you the page as it will look when it is printed out. The Print Layout View, for example, shows the top and bottom edges of the piece of paper.