Microsoft Word

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Software on windows: Word  Word Perfect  PDF
Software on: linux  Mac OS  Palm OS

Microsoft Word is a word processing program that allows for the creation of
both simple and sophisticated documents. The program is equipped with templates
and wizards to help you create useful documents such as resumes, letters and
fax cover sheets. There are also features that allow you to add professional
looking graphics to your documents.

Below is an image of the Microsoft Word Interface. 

	Title Bar: This bar lists the name of the program and the title of the current document.
	Menu Bar: This bar displays the headings for each drop-down menu.   Commands are grouped under each of these menu headings according to function.
	Standard Toolbar: This toolbar contains short cuts to some of the most frequently used commands from the menu bar.
	Formatting Toolbar: This toolbar contains short cuts to some of the most frequently used commands found under the FORMAT menu item.
	Status Bar: This bar displays information about the active document.

 

Title Bar At the top of the Word interface is the title bar.   This bar is present on all Windows applications and acts as a reminder of the program that you are using, as well as the title of the document that you are editing.   In this particular example, the document has not been named so it has the default name of Document1. In the upper right hand corner of the interface you will notice a set of 3 buttons.  The button with the flat piece ( _ ) on it is the minimize button.  The button in the middle is the resize button and may have one square or two squares on it.  The last button has an X on it and is called the close button. In the image of the full screen shown at the top of this page you will notice that there are two sets of these buttons.  The top set of these is for the program, Microsoft Word.  The bottom set of these is for the document that you are currently viewing.  For the top set, minimize will drop the program MSWord from your view, but will not close the program.  Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and press the TAB key to bring MSWord back into your view. The resize button will either make the MSWord window large enough to fit the full monitor (the single square) or small enough to where you can see it and whatever is behind it (the two squares).  These work in a similar fashion for the document that you are working on.  The minimize button will drop your document to the bottom of the page, where it will only be represented by a small title bar.  The resize button will either make the document large enough to fit the full MSWord window (the single square) or small enough to where you can see it and other documents that you have opened  simultaneously (the two squares).  The close button will close the document, just as if you went to FILE | CLOSE on the menu or it will close the program, just as if you went to FILE | EXIT on the menu.

Menu Bar The menu bar is below the title bar.   There are nine menu options on the menu bar.  When you click on any of these options (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window or Help) a drop-down menu of commands will appear below it.

Standard and Formatting Toolbar Below the menu bar are the toolbars.   Toolbars consist of icons that act as short-cuts to the commands found under the menus.  The icons on the toolbars are organized according to function and according to the most commonly used commands in MSWord.  The toolbar that usually appears directly below the menu bar is called the Standard Toolbar.  The toolbar just below that is called the Formatting Toolbar.  These toolbars can be customized and moved around on the screen.   The option for displaying or hiding a toolbar is found under the menu item VIEW | TOOLBARS. The toolbar will be discussed in more detail in the next section of the MSWord tutorial.  A ToolTip (yellow tag) appears when you move the mouse over any of the icons on the toolbar.  The ToolTip explains what function that particular icon performs.

Status Bar At the bottom of the Word interface is the status bar.  This bar displays information about your document such as the page that is currently displayed on the screen (Page 1), the total number of pages in the document (1/1, i.e. 1 of 1) and the line in which the cursor is currently positioned (Ln 1).  The right side of the status bar shows whether keys such as OVERTYPE are active or unactive. All of these keys in this example are unactive.

Name	Function	Menu Location
New	Creates a new, blank document	FILE | NEW
Open	Displays the Open dialog box so that you can retrieve an existing document	FILE | OPEN
Save	Saves the active document to a specified location	FILE | SAVE
Print	Prints active document	FILE | PRINT
Print Preview	Displays what the document will look like when you print it	FILE | PRINT PREVIEW
Spell Checker	Checks active document for spelling and grammatical errors	TOOLS | SPELLING
Cut	Cuts the selected text and places it on the clipboard	EDIT | CUT
Copy	Copies the selected text and places it on the clipboard	EDIT | COPY
Paste	Pastes the contents of the clipboard to a new location	EDIT | PASTE
Format Painter	Copies the formatting of the selected text to a new text selection
Undo	Undoes the last document change	EDIT | UNDO
Redo	Redoes the last action that was undone	EDIT | REDO
Insert Hyperlink	Creates a hyperlink from the selected text	INSERT | HYPERLINK
Web Toolbar	Shows web toolbar	VIEW | TOOLBARS | WEB
Tables Toolbar	Shows tables toolbar	VIEW | TOOLBARS | TABLES
Insert Table	Inserts a table	TABLE | INSERT TABLE
Insert Excel Worksheet	Inserts an Excel Worksheet
Text Columns	Changes the number of text columns per page	FORMAT | COLUMNS
Drawing	Shows drawing toolbar	VIEW | TOOLBARS | DRAWING
Document Map	Changes the view of the document	VIEW | DOCUMENT MAP
Show/Hide Non-Print Characters	Shows and hides non-print characters (for example the symbol for new paragraph)
View	Magnifies or reduces the document contents by the specified zoom percentage	VIEW | ZOOM
Office Assistant	Help function	HELP

Name	Function	Menu Location
Style	Changes the style of the selected text	FORMAT | FONT
Font	Changes the font for the selected text	FORMAT | FONT
Font Size	Changes the point size of the selected text	FORMAT | FONT
Bold	Makes the selected text bold	FORMAT | FONT
Italic	Makes the selected text italic	FORMAT | FONT
Underline	Underlines the selected text	FORMAT | FONT
Align Left	Aligns the selected text/paragraph(s) left	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Center	Centers the selected text/paragraph(s)	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Align Right	Aligns the selected text/paragraph(s) right	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Justify	Justifies the selected text/paragraph(s)	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Numbers	Creates a numbered list or numbers the selected paragraph(s)	FORMAT | BULLETS AND NUMBERING
Bullets	Creates a bulleted list or adds bullets the selected paragraph(s)	FORMAT | BULLETS AND NUMBERING
Decrease Indent	Decreases the indentation of the selected paragraph(s)	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Increase Indent	Increases the indentation of the selected paragraph(s)	FORMAT | PARAGRAPH
Borders	Creates a border around the selected text/paragraph(s)	FORMAT | BORDERS AND SHADING
Highlight	Allows you to highlight specified text
Font Color	Allows you to change the color of the text	FORMAT | FONT

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Note: This page is modified from Microsoft Word - Introduction & Interface, by Tech. SOS.

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