Of all the word-processing programs ever invented, the fanciest and most popular is Microsoft Word.

 

Microsoft Word runs in all three popular environments (DOS, Windows, and Mac) and uses similar commands in each of those environments.

Windows versions

Microsoft Word for Windows is nicknamed Winword. It’s gone through several versions:

Versions 7, 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003 of Winword are modern. This chapter explains how to use them.

Versions 1, 1.1, 2, and 6 are primitive. If you’re using them, you should switch to a modern version instead. If you can’t afford to switch, phone me at 603-666-6644 to get this book’s 19^th edition (which included an intro to version 2) or 28^th edition (which included version 6).

Non-Windows versions

If you’re using a DOS version of Microsoft Word, it’s primitive! Switch to a modern Windows version.

The Mac versions of Microsoft Word resemble the Windows versions. Here’s the main difference: instead of pressing an IBM Ctrl key, press the Mac’s COMMAND key (on which you’ll see a squiggly cloverleaf — and also see an apple if your keyboard is modern).

 

Before reading this chapter, prepare yourself:

When you buy Microsoft Word, it comes on one or more disks, which you must copy to your computer’s hard disk. Here’s how.…

Version 2003 If you got Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition, here’s how to copy Microsoft Word to your hard disk:

Microsoft Office includes an e-mail client called Outlook, but I recommend making your main (default) e-mail client be Outlook Express instead (which is part of Internet Explorer) by doing this:

Version 2002 If your computer came with a pair of CD-ROM disks called Microsoft Office XP Small Business (which includes Microsoft Word 2002), here’s how to copy Microsoft Word to your hard disk:

Version 2000 If you bought Microsoft Works Suite 2001 (which includes Microsoft Word 2000), here’s how to copy Microsoft Word to your hard disk:

If you bought Microsoft Works Suite 2000 (which includes Microsoft Word 2000), here’s how to copy Microsoft Word to your hard disk:

If you bought Microsoft Office 2000 Premium (which includes Microsoft Word 2000), here’s how to copy Microsoft Word to your hard disk:

Versions 7&97 Such versions of Microsoft Word come on a CD-ROM disk, which must be copied to your hard disk. I assume you’ve done the copying already.

 

 

 

 

Here’s how to start using Microsoft Word.

Version 2003 Click “start”.

If you see “Microsoft Office Word 2003”, click it. (Otherwise, click “All Programs” then “Microsoft Office” then “Microsoft Office Word 2003”.)

If the computer says “Activation Wizard” and you’re using an ordinary modem (instead of DSL or a cable modem), do this:

Version 2002 Click “Start” then “Programs” then “Microsoft Word”. If the computer says “Office XP End User License Agreement”, do this:

Version 2000 Click “Start” then “Programs” then “Microsoft Word”.

Version 97 Click “Start” then “Programs” then “Microsoft Word”. (If the computer shows a button labeled “Start using Microsoft Word”, click that button. If the computer says “User name”, press ENTER.)

Version 7 Click “Start” then “Programs” then “Microsoft Word”. (If the computer shows a window saying “What’s New in Microsoft Word 95”, click that window’s X button.)

See the Microsoft Word screen

The screen’s top says “Microsoft Word — Document1”. You also see this menu bar:

Unmask

Versions 2000&2002&2003 have a feature called masked menus & buttons. That feature is supposed to make the menus and buttons easier to find but actually makes them harder to find. Turn off that terrible feature. Do this turn-off procedure:

Do that turn-off procedure now. The rest of this chapter assumes you’ve done it. (After you’ve finished this chapter, if you wish, you can turn the masked menus & buttons feature back on by removing the check marks.)

See the rulers

About 1½ inches down from the top of the screen, you should see a horizontal ruler, which goes across the screen and is numbered 1", 2", 3", 4", 5", etc.

At the screen’s left edge, you should see a vertical ruler, which goes up & down the screen and is numbered 1", 2", etc.

Now you see two rulers — a horizontal ruler, plus a vertical ruler — so you can use the full power of Microsoft Word!

Type your document

Start typing your document.

Microsoft Word typically uses the mouse and fundamental keys the same way as WordPad. For details, read these sections on pages 88-89:

For “Movement keys”, versions 97&2000&2002&2003 differ from WordPad in this way:

Ctrl symbols On your keyboard, below the two SHIFT keys, are two CONTROL keys, which say “Ctrl” on them. You can use them to type special symbols:

AutoCorrect While you type, the computer will automatically make little corrections to your typing. For example:

Some of those corrections happen immediately; others are delayed until you finish typing a word (and press the SPACE bar or a period).

The computer’s ability to make those corrections is called AutoCorrect.

If you dislike a correction that the computer made to your typing, here’s how to undo the correction:

Those methods work just if done immediately, before you do any other typing or editing.

Red squiggles While you type, versions the computer automatically puts a red squiggle under any word that looks strange. The computer considers a word to look “strange” if the word’s not in the computer’s dictionary or if the word’s the same as the word before. For example, if you type “For a sentury, I love you you”, the computer will put a red squiggle under “sentury” and under the second “you”.

If you see a red squiggle, you misspelled the word or accidentally repeated the word or forgot to put a space between words or your vocabulary is more advanced than the computer understands. So if you see a red squiggle, look carefully at the squiggled word to make sure it’s really what you want.

If a word has a red squiggle under it, try right-clicking that word (by using the mouse’s right-hand button). Then the computer will make suggestions about what the squiggled word ought to be.

For example, if you typed “sentury” and the computer put a red squiggle under it, right-clicking the “sentury” will make the computer display two suggestions (“sentry” and “century”) and two other popular choices, so you see this list:

Choose what you want:

Green squiggles When you finish typing a sentence and start typing a new one, the computer automatically check the grammar of the sentence you just typed and puts a dark green squiggle under any obvious grammar error (except in version 7). For example, if you type “We is” instead of “We are”, the computer will draw a green squiggle under the “is”. (The computer will draw the squiggle when you finish typing that sentence and start typing the next one.) If you accidentally press the SPACE bar twice instead of once, so you type “They  kiss” instead of “They kiss”, the computer will put a green squiggle under “They  kiss” (when you finish typing that sentence and start typing the next one).

If a word has a green squiggle under it, try right-clicking that word (by using the mouse’s right-hand button). Then the computer will make a suggestion about what the squiggled word ought to be.

Page arrows Near the screen’s bottom right corner, you see this symbol:

5

5

If your document contains several pages, clicking that symbol makes the computer go back up and show you the previous page. For example, while you’re looking at page 4, clicking that symbol makes the computer show you page 3.

Under that symbol, you see this symbol:

6

6

Clicking it makes the computer show you the next page. For example, while you’re looking at page 3, clicking that symbol makes the computer show you page 4.

All delete

Here’s how to delete the entire document, so you can start over:

Page break

After you’ve finished typing a paragraph (and pressed ENTER), try this experiment: while holding down the Ctrl key, press ENTER again. That creates a page break: it makes the next paragraph be at the top of the next page.

If you change your mind, here’s how to remove the page break: click at the beginning of the paragraph you’ve put at the top of a page; then press the BACKSPACE key.

Near the screen’s top, you see the formatting toolbar. It looks like this in version 2003:

 

 

 

(In versions 7&97&2000, it’s slightly shorter. In versions 7&97, it says “10” instead of “12”.)

Each symbol on the toolbar is called a tool. Here’s the name of each tool:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you forget a tool’s name, try this trick: point at the tool (by using the mouse, but without clicking), then wait a second. Underneath the tool, you’ll see the tool’s name; and at the screen’s bottom left corner, you’ll see a one-sentence explanation of what the tool does.

The toolbar’s right half consists of 15 tools saying “B”, “I”, “U”, etc. Those 15 tools are called buttons. A 16^th button, called “Styles and Formatting”, is at the toolbar’s left edge.

Those buttons are in versions 2002&2003. Here’s how other versions differ:

To use a button, activate it by clicking it with the mouse. Here are the details.…

Underline

Here’s how to underline a phrase (like this).

Activate the Underline button (which says U on it) by clicking it. Activating the button changes the button’s appearance:

Then type the phrase you want underlined. Then deactivate the Underline button (by clicking it again).

Go ahead: try it now! Practice using the underline button before you progress to more advanced buttons!

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Underline button, you can press Ctrl with U.

Bold

Here’s how to make a phrase be bold (like this). Activate the Bold button (which says B on it) by clicking it. Then type the phrase you want emboldened. Then deactivate the Bold button (by clicking it again).

Here’s how to make a phrase be bold and underlined (like this). Activate the Bold and Underline buttons (by clicking them both). Then type the phrase. Then deactivate those buttons (by clicking them again).

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Bold button, you can press Ctrl with B.

Italic

Here’s how to italicize a phrase (like this). Activate the Italic button (which says I on it) by clicking it. Then type the phrase you want italicized. Then deactivate the Italic button (by clicking it again).

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Italic button, you can press Ctrl with I.

Alignment buttons

While typing a line, you can click one of these alignment buttons:

Align Left       Center      Align Right          Justify

──────    ──────    ──────    ──────

────       ────       ────    ──────

──────    ──────    ──────    ──────

────       ────       ────    ──────

──────    ──────    ──────    ──────

────       ────       ────    ──────

Clicking the Center button makes the line be centered,

Clicking the Align Right button makes the line be at the right margin,

Clicking the Align Left button makes the line be at the left margin,

Clicking one of those buttons affects not just the line you’re typing but also all other lines in the same paragraph.

Clicking the Justify button makes the paragraph be justified, so the paragraph’s bottom line is at the left margin, and each of the paragraph’s other lines is at both margins (by inserting extra space between the words),

When you click one of those alignment buttons, you’re activating it. That button deactivates when you click a different alignment button instead.

When you start typing a new document, the computer assumes you want the document to be aligned left, so the computer activates the Align Left button. If you want a different alignment, click a different alignment button instead.

Examples:

Clicking one of those alignment buttons affects the entire paragraph you’re typing, but the paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected, unless you do this:

When you start typing a new paragraph, the computer gives that paragraph the same alignment as the paragraph above, unless you say differently (by clicking one of the alignment buttons).

Centered title Here’s how to type a centered title, using the techniques you’ve learned so far.…

Press the ENTER key twice (to leave a big blank space above the title).

Next, click the Center button (so the title will be centered) and the Bold button (so the title will be bold). Type the words you want to be in the title, and press the ENTER key afterwards.

Congratulations! You’ve created a centered title!

Next, make the paragraph underneath the title be normal: make that paragraph be uncentered (click the Align Left button or Justify button) and make it be unbolded (deactivate the Bold button, by clicking it).

Shortcuts Here are shortcuts:

Font Size

Look at the Font Size box. Versions 2000&2002&2003 makes that box normally contain the number 12, so you’re typing characters that are 12 points high. (Versions 7&97 make that box normally contains the number 10 instead, so you’re typing characters that are 10 points high.)

Here’s how to type characters that are bigger or smaller.…

Any new characters you type afterwards will be the size you chose. (Characters typed earlier don’t change size.)

The popular sizes look like this:

When you finish typing the enlarged or reduced characters, here’s how to return to typing characters that are normal size: click the down-arrow that’s to the right of the Font Size box, then click the 12 or 10 (whichever size you prefer).

Font

When you type, you’re normally using a font called “Times New Roman”. If you wish, you can switch to a different font instead.

The most popular Windows fonts are “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, and “Courier New”. Here’s how they look:

 

 

In the Font box, you see the name of a font, which is usually “Times New Roman”. Click the down-arrow that’s to the right of that font’s name. You start seeing a list of fonts, including “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, “Courier New”, and several other fonts. (It appears in a window that’s too small to show the entire list; to see the rest of the list, click the window’s scroll arrows.) The list of font is called the Font menu.

The best fonts have “TT” written in front of them. The “TT” means the font is a TrueType font (created by a system that lets you make the characters as big or as small as you wish and accurately reproduces those characters onto your screen and paper). For example, “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, and “Courier New” are TrueType fonts and have “TT” written in front of them.

Click the font you want.

Afterwards, whatever characters you type will be in the font you chose. (The characters you typed earlier remain unaffected.)

When you finish typing in that font, here’s how to return to typing characters that are normal (Times New Roman): click the down-arrow that’s to the right of the Font box, then click Times New Roman.

Style

When you type, you typically use a style called “Normal”, which is 12-point Times New Roman aligned left (10-point in version 7&97).

If you wish, you can switch to a different style instead. For example, you can switch to a style called “Heading 1”, which is an Arial bold that’s big (16-point in version 2000&2002&2003, 14-point in versions 7&97) with extra blank space between paragraphs. Here’s how.

In the Style box, you see the name of a style, which is typically “Normal”. Click the down-arrow next to that style name. You see a list of styles, including “Normal”, “Heading 1”, and several other styles. The list of styles is called the Style menu.

Click the style you want.

That affects the paragraph you’re typing now. (The paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected.)

When you finish typing a paragraph in that style (and pressed the ENTER key at the end of that paragraph), here’s how to make the next paragraph be Normal: if the Style box doesn’t say “Normal” already, click the down-arrow next to the Style box then click Normal.

Centered title Here’s the sophisticated way to type a centered title.

Press the ENTER key. Choose “Heading 1” from the Style menu. Click the Centered button. Type the title, and press the ENTER key afterwards.

The computer will automatically make the next paragraph be Normal and aligned left; you don’t have to say so.

Indentation buttons

Before typing a paragraph, you can press the TAB key. That makes the computer indent the paragraph’s first line.

If you want to indent all lines in the paragraph, do this instead of pressing the TAB key: while typing the paragraph, click the Increase Indent button. That makes the computer indent all lines in the paragraph. (The paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected.)

When you start typing a new paragraph, the computer indents that paragraph if the paragraph above it was indented.

If you indented a paragraph by clicking the Increase Indent button but then change your mind, here’s how to unindent the paragraph: click in the paragraph, then click the Decrease Indent button.

Example Suppose you start typing a new document. Here’s how to make just paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 be indented.

Type paragraphs 1 and 2 normally (without pressing the Increase Indent button).

When you start typing paragraph 3, press the Increase Indent button. That makes the computer start indenting, so paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 will be automatically indented.

When you start typing paragraph 6, here’s how to prevent the computer from indenting it: click the Decrease Indent button at the beginning of paragraph 6.

Changing your mind To indent a paragraph you typed earlier, click in the middle of that paragraph and then click the Increase Indent button. To unindent a paragraph you typed earlier, click in its middle and then click the Decrease Indent button.

Extra indentation If you click the Increase Indent button twice instead of just once, the computer will indent the paragraph farther. After typing that doubly indented paragraph, if you want the paragraph below to be unindented you must click the Decrease Indent button twice.

Each time you click the Increase Indent button, the computer indents the paragraph a half inch farther. Each time you click the Decrease Indent button, the computer indents the paragraph a half inch less.

Bullets Here’s a different way to indent an entire paragraph: while typing the paragraph, activate the Bullets button (by clicking it). That makes the computer indent the paragraph and also put a bullet (the symbol ·) to the left of the paragraph’s first line. That’s called a bulleted paragraph.

After you’ve typed a bulleted paragraph, any new paragraphs you type underneath will be bulleted also — until you request an unbulleted paragraph (by deactivating the Bullets button).

Numbering Here’s another way to indent an entire paragraph: while typing the paragraph, activate the Numbering button (by clicking it). That makes the computer indent the paragraph and put “1.” to the left of the paragraph’s first line. That’s called a numbered paragraph.

When you type a new paragraph underneath, that paragraph will be numbered “2.”, the next paragraph will be numbered “3.”, etc. Any new paragraphs you type underneath will be numbered also — until you request an unnumbered paragraph (by deactivating the Numbering button).

Color buttons

Normally, you type black characters on a white background. Here’s how to change those colors.

Highlight Normally, you type on a white background. Here’s how to change the background to a different color, such as yellow, as if you were using a yellow Magic Marker highlighter.…

First, type the phrase you want to highlight.

Then look at the Highlight button. It’s the button that shows a Magic Marker highlighter pen and a colored sample. (In version 7, the colored sample is a square. In versions 97&2000&2002&2003, the colored sample is a fat line.) Notice the sample’s color.

Put the mouse at the beginning of the phrase you want to highlight (so the vertical bar is at the left edge of the phrase’s first letter). Drag across the phrase (while holding down the mouse’s left button.). The phrase’s background will change to the color you desired. If you wish, drag across other phrases also.

When you finish coloring, deactivate the Highlight button (by clicking it or by pressing the Esc key).

Font Color Normally, the characters you type are black. Here’s how to make them a different color, such as red.

For versions 97&2000&2002&2003, do this:

If you’re using version 7, you don’t have a Font Color button, so do this instead:

Line Spacing

You can make the computer double-space a paragraph, so the computer puts a blank line under each line you type. Those blank lines please your boss (or teacher or editor), who can scribble there nasty comments about your writing!

For versions 2002&2003, double-space by doing this:

Versions 7&97&2000 lack the Line Spacing button and require you to do this instead:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s how to dramatically change a phrase you typed.

Point at the phrase’s beginning, then drag to the phrase’s end (while holding down the mouse’s left button). The whole phrase turns black. Turning the phrase black is called selecting the phrase.

Then say what to do to the phrase. For example, choose one of these activities:

Go ahead! Try it now! It’s fun!

Other ways to select

The usual way to select a phrase is to point at the phrase’s beginning, then drag to the phrase’s end. But sometimes other methods are faster!

To select a phrase, choose one of these methods.…

Versions 2002&2003 lets you select several phrases at once, by doing this procedure:

Drag a phrase

To move a phrase to a new location, just “select the phrase, and then drag from the phrase’s middle to the new location.” Here are the details.…

First, select the phrase you want to move, so the phrase turns black.

Then take your finger off the mouse’s button. Move the mouse’s pointer to the phrase’s middle (so you see an arrow).

Finally, hold down the mouse’s button (which makes a vertical dotted line appear at the arrow); and while you keep holding down the mouse’s button, drag that line to wherever you want the phrase to move. (Drag the line anywhere you wish in the document, or drag to the document’s end. The computer won’t let you drag past the document’s end.)

When you finish dragging, lift your finger from the mouse’s button. Presto, the phrase moves where you wished!

Near the screen’s top, above the formatting toolbar, you see the standard toolbar, which in version 2003 looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s how earlier versions differ:

In version 7, you face these additional differences:

Here’s how to use the most popular of those tools.…

Save

To save the document (copy it onto the disk), click the Save button (or press Ctrl with S).

If you haven’t saved the document before, the computer will say “File name”. Invent a name for your document. Type the name and press ENTER.

That makes the computer copy the document onto the hard disk. For example, if you named the document “mary”, the computer puts a document called mary.doc into the My Documents folder.

Afterwards, if you change your mind and want to do more editing, go ahead! When you finish that extra editing, save it by clicking the Save button again.

Save often If you’re typing a long document, click the Save button about every 10 minutes. Click it whenever you get to a good stopping place and think, “What I’ve typed so far looks good!”

Then if an accident happens, you’ll lose at most 10 minutes of work, and you can return to the last version you felt good about.

Print

Here’s how to print the document onto paper. Make sure you’ve bought a printer, attached it to the computer, turned the printer’s power on, and put paper into the printer. Then click the Print button. The printer will print your document onto paper.

How to finish

When you finish working on a document, choose Exit or Close from the File menu.

If you choose Exit, the computer will stop using Microsoft Word.

If you choose Close instead of Exit, the computer will let you work on another document, and your next step is to click the New Blank Document button or the Open button.

Didn’t save? If you didn’t save your document before doing those procedures, the computer asks, “Do you want to save?” If you click “Yes”, the computer copies your document’s most recent version to the hard disk; if you click “No” instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.

Congratulations! You’ve learned all the fundamental commands of Microsoft Word!

Undo

If you make a mistake (such as accidentally deleting some text, or accidentally giving the text an ugly font), click the Undo button (which shows an arrow turning back). That makes the computer undo your last activity, so your text returns to the way it looked before you made your boo-boo. (To undo your last two activities, click the Undo button twice.)

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Undo button, you can press Ctrl with Z (which stands for “Zap”).

Redo

If you click the Undo button, the computer might undo a different activity than you expected. If clicking the Undo button accidentally makes the text look even worse instead of better, and you wish you hadn’t clicked the Undo button, you can “undo the undo” by clicking the Redo button (which shows an arrow bending forward).

Show/Hide ¶

The symbol for “Paragraph” is ¶, which looks like a backwards P.

One of the buttons has a ¶ on it. Microsoft calls it the Show/Hide ¶ button, but most folks call it just the ¶ button.

If you activate that button (by clicking it), the screen will show a ¶ symbol at the end of each paragraph, so you can easily tell where each paragraph ends. The screen will also show a dot (·) wherever you pressed the SPACE bar and show a right-arrow (’) wherever you pressed the TAB key, so you easily tell how many times you pressed those keys.

For example, if you typed “I love you” correctly, the screen will show “I·love·you”. If you see “I·love···you” instead, you know you accidentally pressed the SPACE bar three times after “love” instead of just once, so you should delete the two extra spaces (by moving there and then pressing the DELETE key twice).

When you finish examining the ¶ symbols and dots and right-arrows, and you’re sure you’ve put just one space between each pair of words, here’s how to make those special symbols vanish: deactivate the ¶ button (by clicking it again).

The f problem When you’re using Windows, the computer’s screen has difficulty showing you the letter “f” correctly. When you type an “f” by using the normal font (Times New Roman), the screen shows too little space after the “f”.

For example, if you try typing “fM”, the screen shows “fM”. If you try typing
“f” then a space then “M”,  the screen shows “f M”, which looks as if you might have forgotten to put a space after the “f”. If you try typing “of Mary”, the screen shows “of Mary”, which looks as if you might have forgotten to put a space after the “of”.

Although the screen looks misleading, what you see on paper might look better (depending on which printer you’re using).

To discover how many times you actually pressed the SPACE bar, press in the ¶ button, and notice how many dots appear. Make sure just one dot appears after each word.

Some conservative Americans have trouble handling dirty words that begin with “f”. Notice that Windows has the opposite problem: it has trouble showing words that end in “f”.

I hope somebody at Microsoft reads this book and fixes the f problem soon!

Cut and Paste

Here’s another way to move a phrase to a new location.

Select the phrase (by dragging across it with the mouse, so the phrase turns black). Click the Cut button (which looks like a pair of scissors). The phrase will vanish from its original location.

Then click the new location where you want the phrase to reappear, and click the Paste button (which looks like a clipboard). The phrase will appear there.

Ctrl key Here are shortcuts:

Copy

Here’s another way to copy a phrase, so the phrase appears in your document twice.

Select the phrase (by dragging across it with the mouse, so the phrase turns black). Click the Copy button. Then click where you want the copy of the phrase to appear, and click the Paste button. The copy will appear there, so the phrase will be in your document twice.

If you want the phrase to appear in your document a third time, click where you want that additional copy to appear, then click the Paste button again. If you want the phrase to appear in your document a fourth time, click where you want that additional copy, then click the Paste button again.

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Copy button, you can press Ctrl with C.

Format Painter

Suppose one part of your document looks pretty, and one part looks ugly. Here’s how to make the ugly part look as pretty as the pretty part:

If one part of your document looks pretty, here’s how to make several other parts look as pretty:

Print Preview

If you’re wondering what a page will look like but don’t want to waste a sheet of paper to find out, click the Print Preview button. The computer will show you a mock-up of what the entire page will look like: you’ll see the entire page, shrunk to fit on the screen.

Since the entire page is shrunk to fit on the screen, the page and its characters look too tiny for you to read the words easily, but you’ll be able to see the page’s overall appearance: how much of the page is filled up, which parts of the page are blank, and whether the info on the page is centered.

Wouldn’t you like to ride in an airplane, fly high above your house, and see an aerial view of your house and neighborhood, so all the people look like tiny specs, and you see — in one amazing view — the overall layout of your house and yard and neighborhood and city? Wouldn’t you be thrilled? Clicking the Print Preview button gives you that same thrill: you see an aerial view of the page you were typing, as if you were flying over it in an airplane: you see the layout of your entire page in one amazing view, and the characters on it look like tiny specs.

While you’re admiring the view, the word “Close” appears at the screen’s top center. When you finish admiring the view, click the word “Close”.

Zoom

Look at the Zoom box. (Version 7 calls it the Zoom Control box.) In that box, you normally see the number 100%. That means the computer’s screen is showing you the actual size of what will appear on paper.

To the right of the Zoom box, you see a down-arrow. Click it. Versions 2000&2002&2003 shows you this Zoom menu:

(Versions 7&97 omit “Text Width”. Version 7 omits “500%”.)

For example, if you click 200%, the computer makes the screen’s characters be twice as high and twice as wide as normal, so you can read them even if you’re sitting far away from the screen or you have poor vision. It’s like looking at the document through a magnifying glass: the document looks enlarged, so you can see the details of each word and character more clearly; but not as many words and characters fit on the screen. Use the arrow keys to see different parts of the page.

Clicking 200% enlarges just what you see on the screen: it does not enlarge what appears on paper.

Try it! Try clicking 200%!

When you finish admiring that view, make the screen return to normal, by choosing 100% from the Zoom menu.

If you click Whole Page instead of 200%, the computer does just the opposite: the computer makes the screen’s characters be very tiny, so the whole page fits on the screen — as if you were doing a print preview.

A nice choice is Page Width. It makes the screen’s characters be as big as possible, but still small enough so that you can see the left and right edges of the paper.

My favorite choice is Text Width (available just in versions 2000&2002&2003). It makes the screen’s characters be as big as possible (even bigger than Page Width), but still small enough so that you can see the first and last word of each line.

E-mail

To e-mail a copy of your document, the most accurate method is to write an e-mail letter having your document as an attachment. I explained “attachments” in my e-mail chapter on page 177.

Here’s a different way to e-mail a copy of your document:

That method is good because it avoids dealing with “attachments”, which can be hard to get working properly. But unfortunately, that method won’t preserve your advanced formatting.

Versions 2000&2002&2003 offer you a third way to e-mail a copy of your document. This third way is a pleasant compromise between the other two ways: it avoids “attachments” and preserves most of your advanced formatting. Here are the details.…

For version 2003, you must activate Outlook Express first, by doing this:

For versions 2000&2002&2003, proceed as follows.…

Click the E-mail button (which looks like sheets of paper in front of a stamped envelope).

To whom do you want to e-mail the document? Type that person’s e-mail address. For example, if you want to send the document to me, type my e-mail address, which is “russ@secretfun.com”. Or for a fun experiment, just send the document to yourself by typing your own e-mail address.

Click in the “Subject” box. Type a subject for your e-mail (such as “here’s a story I wrote” or “let’s lunch” or “I’m testing”).

Click “Send a Copy”.

If the computer asks for your password, type the password your Internet Service Provider assigned you and press ENTER.

Your computer will send the e-mail. (Your document will be the e-mail’s body.) Afterwards, if the computer asks “Do you want to close the connection?” press ENTER.

Spelling and Grammar

If you click in the middle of the document’s first word and then click the Spelling and Grammar button (which version 7 calls the “Spelling” button), the computer will scan through your document for misspelled words and accidentally repeatedly words. (Versions 97&2000&2002&2003 will also find words that are grammatically incorrect.)

In version 7, the computer will stop at the first word having a red squiggle underneath. In versions 97&2000&2002&2003, the computer will stop at the first word having a red or green squiggle underneath. (I explained squiggles on page 184.)

When the computer stops at a strange word that seems wrong, the computer shows a list of suggestions. If you like one of the suggestions, double-click it. If you don’t like any of the computer’s suggestions, you have these choices:

When the computer finishes checking the entire document, here’s what happens:

Columns

In a newspaper, text is printed in many narrow columns. In a business letter, text is printed in a single wide column.

The computer assumes you want a single wide column. Here’s how to tell the computer you want many narrow columns.…

Click the Columns button. You’ll see a tiny picture of a newspaper page that has several columns. Point at that picture’s leftmost column, and drag to the right, until the number of columns you want turns blue.

For example, if you want 3 columns, drag to the right until 3 columns turn blue. If you want 6 columns, hold down the mouse’s left button and drag to the right until 4 columns, then 5 columns, then finally 6 columns turn blue.

When you take your finger off the mouse’s button, your entire document changes, so it has as many columns as you requested. The gap between each pair of columns is a half-inch.

Column break After you’ve finished typing a paragraph (and pressed ENTER), try this experiment: while holding down the Ctrl and SHIFT keys, press ENTER again. That creates a column break: it makes the next paragraph be at the top of the next column.

If you change your mind, here’s how to remove the column break: click at the beginning of the paragraph you’ve put at the top of a column; then press the BACKSPACE key.

Return to 1 column If you change your mind and want just 1 column, click the Columns button again, so you see the tiny picture of a newspaper page again. Click that picture’s left column.

Table buttons

In the middle of your document, here’s how to type a table of numbers.

Click where you want the table to appear.

Click the Insert Table button. You see a tiny picture of a table that has 4 rows and 5 columns. Altogether, it contains 20 cells (since 4 times 5 is 20).

Point at that table’s top left cell, and drag down and to the right, until the number of rows and columns you want turns blue.

For example, if you want just 3 rows and 4 columns, drag down and to the right until 3 rows and 4 columns turn blue, so you see 12 blue cells altogether.

When you take your finger off the mouse’s button, you’ll see the table you requested.

Then just fill in the cells, with whatever numbers and words you wish. To move from cell to cell, click with the mouse, or press the TAB key (which moves right to the next cell), or press SHIFT with TAB (which moves left to the previous cell), or press the arrow keys repeatedly.

In a cell, you can type a number, word, sentence, or even an entire paragraph! If you start typing a paragraph in a cell, the computer will automatically make the cell and its row taller, so the entire paragraph will fit in the cell. You can even type several paragraphs in a single cell: just press the ENTER key at the end of each paragraph. If you want to indent the first line of one of those paragraphs, press the SPACE bar several times or press Ctrl with TAB.

Gridlines On the screen, each cell is a rectangle made of 4 lines. Those lines are called the gridlines.

Extra rows Here’s how to create an extra row at the bottom of the table: click in the table’s bottom right cell, then press the TAB key.

To insert an extra row into the middle of the table, click in the row that’s underneath where you want the extra row to appear, then do this:

Column widths The computer assumes you want the table’s columns to all be the same width. But you can change that assumption!

For example, here’s how to adjust the width of the table’s left column (column 1). Move the mouse until its pointer is on the vertical gridline that separates column 1 from column 2, and the pointer’s shape turns into this symbol: ß║à. Then drag the vertical gridline to the right (to make the column wider) or left (to make the column narrower).

If you make a column wider, the computer makes room for it by shrinking the next column. (Version 7 shrinks the next column and all later columns also.)

If you make a column narrower, the computer compensates by expanding the next column. (Version 7 expands the next column and all later columns also.)

If you want to fine-tune the widths of all columns, work from left to right: adjust the width of column 1 (by dragging the gridline that separates it from column 2), then adjust the width of column 2 (by dragging the gridline that separates it from column 3), then adjust the width of column 3 (by dragging the gridline that separates it from column 4), etc.

Numbers If a column contains mostly numbers, make that column look prettier, so the numbers are aligned properly. Here’s how.…

Move the mouse until its pointer is at the very top of the column and is centered on the gridline above the column, so the pointer’s shape turns into this symbol: È. Then click. The entire column turns black.

Push in the Align Right button (on the formatting toolbar). That makes all cells in that column be aligned right, so the numbers are aligned properly.

Table AutoFit When you’ve finished typing numbers and words into all the cells, click in the middle of the table, then click the word “Table”, then try this trick:

That makes the computer analyze all your columns and improve their widths. The computer will make each column become just wide enough to hold the data in it. (In versions &&97&2000, the computer will also underline the headings atop the columns.)

If you like what the computer did to your table, great! Go ahead and edit the table further!

If you don’t like what the computer did, click the Undo button, which makes the table return to its previous appearance.

Below the table When you’ve finished editing the table, here’s how to put paragraphs below it.

Click below the table by using the mouse, or go below the table by pressing the down-arrow key several times. Then type the paragraphs you want below the table.

Delete To delete a row, column, or the entire table, click in the middle of what you want to delete then do this.…

Customized tables The Tables and Borders button lets you create tables that have customized shapes (except in version 7). Here’s how.…

To create a customized table, click the Tables and Borders button (instead of the Insert Table button). You’ll see a Tables and Borders window.

Where do you want the table to be in your document? Put the mouse pointer where you want the table’s top left corner to be, and drag to where you want the table’s opposite corner. (While dragging, hold down the mouse’s left button.) You’ll see a rectangle, which is your table.

Inside the rectangle, make a grid of rows and columns by drawing horizontal and vertical gridlines. To draw a gridline, put the mouse pointer where you want the line to begin, and drag to where you want the line to end.

If you make a mistake, click the Eraser button (which is the second button in the Tables and Borders window), then do this:

When you’ve erased a line, the line disappears from the screen (or turns a gray that does not print on paper). When you finish using the Eraser button, click the Draw Table button (which is the first button in the Tables and Borders window).

When you finish using the Tables and Borders window, close it (by clicking its X button).

Microsoft Office Word Help

If you have a popular question about using Microsoft Word, you can make the computer answer it.

For version 2003, do this:

For versions 97&2000&2002, do this:

If you’re using version 7, the Microsoft Word Help button is missing, so do this instead:

 

 

Near the screen’s top, you see this menu bar:

Here’s how to use it.

File menu

If you click the word File, you see the File menu, whose main choices are:

Open Choosing Open has the same effect as clicking the Open button, which I explained on page 190.

Close When you finish working on a document and want to work on a different document instead, choose Close, which I explained on page 190.

Save Choosing Save has the same effect as clicking the Save button, which I explained on page 190.

Save As Suppose you’ve already saved a document then edited it some more, but you’re not sure you like the new editing. Try this experiment:

Page Setup Normally, the computer makes every page’s top and bottom margins each be 1 inch tall, and makes every page’s left and right margins each be 1¼ inches wide. To change those margin, choose Page Setup, then do this:

Print Preview Choosing Print Preview has the same effect as clicking the Print Preview button, which I explained on page 192.

Print If you choose Print from the File menu (or press Ctrl with P), the computer will ask how you’d like to print onto paper.

Then press ENTER. The printer will print what you desired!

Properties If you choose Properties and then click Statistics, the computer will tell you how long the document is: how many pages, paragraphs, lines, words, and characters it contains.

The computer will also reveal.…

The computer will also reveal the total number of minutes and hours you’ve spent fiddling with this document (so your boss can complain about how much time you’ve wasted on it).

When you finish reading those statistics, press ENTER. (For version 6, then press ENTER a second time.)

Exit When you finish using Microsoft Word, choose Exit, which I explained on page 190.

Edit menu

If you click the word Edit, you see the Edit menu, whose main choices are:

Of those choices, the first four imitate buttons:

The next two imitate your keyboard:

Find Here’s how to make the computer search through your document to find whether you’ve used the word “love”:

Suppose you’ve written a history of America and want to find the part where you started talking about Lincoln. If you forget what page that was, no problem! Just put the cursor at the beginning of the document, choose Find from the Edit menu, type “Lincoln”, and press ENTER.

Replace You can search for a word and replace it with a different word. For example, here’s how to change each “love” in your document to “idolize”:

The computer preserves capitalization. For example, if the document said —

the computer changes it to:

Notice that when told to change “love” to “idolize”, the computer unfortunately also changes “glove” to “gidolize”.

The Replace command helps you zip through many chores:

Go To When you’ve typed a document that’s several pages long, here’s the traditional way to move to page 2:

Here’s a faster way to move to page 2:

View menu

If you click the word View, you see the View menu, whose main choices are:

(Versions 7&97 say “Page Layout” instead of “Print Layout”.)

Normal versus Print Layout The View menu’s most popular choices are Normal and Print Layout (which versions 7&97 call “Page Layout”). You should use Print Layout most of the time, because it shows you accurately what will appear on paper. If you choose Normal instead, here’s what happens:

Toolbars If you choose Toolbars, version 2003 shows you this list of toolbars:

(In versions 7&97&2000&2002, the list is shorter.)

In the list, “Standard” and “Formatting” should have check marks in front of them. Those check marks make the standard toolbar and formatting toolbar appear on your screen. If those check marks are missing, those toolbars disappear.

To make a check mark disappear, click it. To make a check mark appear, click where you want it to appear. (In version 7, press ENTER afterwards.)

Ruler In the View menu, the Ruler choice should have a check mark in front of it. That makes a horizontal ruler appear across the screen. The ruler is numbered 1", 2", 3", 4", etc. If you’re in Print Layout view, it also makes a vertical ruler appear up and down the screen’s left edge. If the Ruler choice does not have a check mark, the rulers disappear. To make the check mark appear or disappear, choose Ruler from the View menu.

Header and Footer Normally, the top inch of each page is blank, to form the top margin. Anything you scribble in that margin is called a header.

For example, suppose you’re writing a top-secret memo and want to scribble this note in the top margin of every page:

Here’s how to do it.…

Choose Header and Footer. Type your header:

Then click the word “Close”. The computer will put your header at the top of each page of your document.

If you want to edit the header, choose “Header and Footer” again from the View menu, then edit the header however you wish, then click the word “Close” again.

Instead of writing a header about being “TOP SECRET”, here are four other headers you might enjoy using:

Here’s a way to make the computer print the page number at the top of each page:

Let’s get fancier! Let’s make the computer print this at the top of page 1 —

and print this at the top of page 2 —

and print this at the top of page 3 —

etc. Here’s how:

Here’s how to print in the bottom margin (instead of the top margin):

Full Screen Usually, just part of the screen shows your document; the rest of the screen shows the toolbars, rulers, menus, Start button, clock, and other doodads.

If you choose Full Screen, the computer devotes the entire screen to displaying your document, by making the doodads disappear. Yes, the toolbars, rulers, menus, Start button, clock, and all other doodads disappear. Instead of seeing doodads, you see more of your document.

When you finish admiring the full-screen view, press the ESCAPE key (which says “Esc” on it). Then all the doodads reappear, including the toolbars, rulers, menus, Start button, clock, etc.

Insert menu

If you click the word Insert, you see the Insert menu, whose main choices are:

(Versions 2002&2003 say “Reference” instead of “Footnote”. Version 7 lacks “Bookmark” and says “Frame” instead of “Text Box”.)

Page Numbers To print page numbers on all the pages easily, choose Page Numbers, then press ENTER. That makes the computer put the page number on each page’s bottom right corner, in the bottom margin, in the part of the page called the footer. (Versions 97&2000&2002&2003 will automatically switch you to Print Layout view.)

Date and Time To type the date or time, choose Date and Time. The computer will show a list of formats, like this:

(Versions 2000&2002&2003 show you that full list. Version 7 shows a shorter list and say “December, 03” instead of “December 03”. Version 97 shows you that full list but says “December, 03” instead of “December 03” and requires you to click the down-arrow repeatedly to see the list’s end.)

Click the format you want. Press ENTER. The computer will type the date or time in the format you requested.

In that procedure, just before you press ENTER, you might wish to put a check mark in the Update Automatically box. Here’s how that box works:

Symbol To type a special symbol, choose Symbol. You’ll see the Symbol window. In that window, you can click either the Symbols tab or the Special Characters tab.

If you click the Special Characters tab, the computer will show you this list of special characters:

(Versions 7&97 lack “¼ Em Space”, “No-Width Optional Break”, and “No-Width Non-Break”. Version 7 also lacks “Section” and “Paragraph”. Versions 7&97&2000 show just part of the list, until you click the list’s down-arrow or up-arrow repeatedly to see the rest.)

If you click the Symbols tab instead, and then click the Font box’s down-arrow, the computer will show you this list of fonts:

(If your computer is fancy, it might show you extra fonts also.)

Click one of those fonts.

For example, if you click “(normal text)” while you’ve been using Times New Roman, you’ll see these Times New Roman characters:

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(You’ll see more characters also. Scroll up and down to see them all. Versions 7&97 arrange the characters differently.)

If you click “Marlett” instead, you’ll see these modern Windows characters:

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If you click “Symbol” instead, you’ll see these math & Greek characters:

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If you click “Wingdings” instead, you’ll see these pictorial characters:

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Whenever you see a character you like, double-click it. That makes the computer put the character into your document. Then double-click any other characters you like.

When you finish using the Symbol window, make it disappear by clicking the button that says “Close” on it.

Footnote Suppose you’re writing a religious pamphlet in which you want to say “Read it in the Bible tonight!” Suppose you want to add a footnote saying “written by God”, so the main text looks like this —

and the page’s bottom contains this footnote:

Here’s how to do it all.…

Type “Read it in the Bible”.

In versions 7&97&2000, choose Footnote. In versions 2002&2003, choose Reference then click Footnote.

Make sure the Footnote button has a dot in it (by clicking it). Press ENTER.

Type the footnote (“Written by God.”).

Go back to the main text, where you left off, by using one of these methods:

The computer will automatically number the footnote: it will automatically type ¹ after “Bible” and type ¹ before “Written by God.” If your document contains more footnotes, the computer will automatically number them ², ³, ⁴, etc. (Those numbers are easy to read on paper. On the screen, the numbers are easier to read while the ¶ button is deactivated.)

The computer will put the footnotes at the bottom of the page. If the page is divided into newspaper columns, the computer will put each footnote at the bottom of the column it refers to.

The computer will put a 2-inch horizontal line above the footnotes to separate them from the main text.

Your printer will print the footnotes accurately onto paper. You’ll see the footnotes on your screen accurately while you’re doing a print preview, or while you’re using Print Layout view. (To see the footnotes on your screen while using Normal view, choose Footnotes from the View menu.)

If you insert extra footnotes, the computer will automatically renumber the other footnotes, so the first footnote appearing in your document will be numbered ¹, the second footnote will be numbered ², etc.

Here’s the easiest way to delete a footnote:

Text Box You can draw a box wherever you wish, anywhere on the page (even in the margins) and put words into it, to create a text box. Here’s how:

Here’s how to move the box to a different place on the page:

Here’s how to adjust the box’s size:

If you move the box to a part of the page that already contains words, what happens to those words? Version 7 makes those words move out of the box’s way. To make versions 2000&2002&2003 move words out of the box’s way, do this:

To make version 97 move words out of the box’s way, do this:

Here’s how to delete the box:

File In the middle of your document, you can insert a secondary document that you saved previously, so you’ll produce a combo document including all paragraphs from both documents. Here’s how:

The document on the screen will become longer. If you don’t like the result, click the Undo button; if you do like the result, click the Save button.

Bookmark While you’re in the middle of editing a document, suppose you get a sudden urge to switch to a different activity (such as peek at a different part of the document, or play a game, or go to bed, or have sex). Before you switch to that other activity, you can put a bookmark in your document, where you were editing. Later, when you want to resume working on the document, you can return to that bookmark and continue editing where you left off.

Here’s how to create a bookmark:

After you’ve created a bookmark, be safe: click the Save button and save the document. Then do whatever else you wish: peek at a different part of the document, or play a game, or shut down the computer and go to bed. When you want to return to the bookmarked part of your document, do this:

If you wish, make the screen show you where the bookmarks are. Here’s how:

That makes the screen put the symbol I at each bookmark. That symbol appears just on the screen, not on paper.

Here’s how to delete a bookmark:

Format menu

If you click the word Format, you see the Format menu, whose main choices are:

 (Versions 7&97&2000 say “Style” instead of “Styles and Formatting”.)

Font Here’s how to improve the appearance of a phrase on your screen.

Which phrase do you want to improve? Select it (by dragging across it). Then choose Font from the Format menu. You see the Font window, which has three tabs, called Font, Character Spacing, and Text Effects. (“Text Effects” is missing from version 7. In version 97, it’s called “Animation”.)

Click the Font tab. You see these boxes:

(In versions 7&97, the Size box’s normal content is 10 instead of 12. In versions 2000&2002&2003, the “Color” box is split into two boxes, called “Font Color” and “Underline Color”.)

For the Underline box or Color box, you must click the box’s down-arrow once or twice, to see all choices. For the Font box or Size box, you must click the box’s up-arrow and down-arrow repeatedly, to see all popular choices. For each box, click whatever choice you want.

In the Underline box, if you choose “Words only”, the computer will underline the words but not the spaces between them.

(In version 7, the Underline box lacks “Thick” and “Dash”, and the colors are named differently: “Bright Green” is called just “Green”, “Turquoise” is called “Cyan”, and “Pink” is called “Magenta”.)

Below all those boxes, you see a list of these special Effects you can choose:

Click each effect you want, so a check mark appears in the effect’s box. Double Strikethrough is missing from version 7. The weird effects (Shadow, Outline, Engrave, and Emboss) are missing from version 7 and work best when the Font Size is big (such as 48 or 72 points).

When you’ve finished using the Font window, press ENTER.

Congratulations! You’ve learned how to use fonts!

Here’s an advanced secret that most computer “experts” don’t know:

Paragraph To change the way a paragraph is spaced, click in the paragraph then choose one of these methods:

Then you’ll see a box called Line spacing. Normally, that box says “Single”. If you want to double-space instead (so the computer puts a blank line under each line you type), click that box’s down-arrow, then choose “Double”.

You’ll see a box called Before. Normally, that box says “0 pt”. If you want the computer to leave a blank space above the paragraph, put a number bigger than 0 into that box.

You’ll see a box called Special. Normally, that box says “(none)”. If you want special indentation, click that box’s down-arrow, then choose “First line” (which indents just the paragraph’s first line) or choose “Hanging” (which indents every line of the paragraph except the first line). If you choose “First line” or “Hanging”, the computer will make the indentation be ½-inch (which is 0.5"), unless you put a different decimal in the Special By box.

If you want every line of the paragraph to be indented ½ inch, put “(none)” in the Special box but put 0.5" (or simply .5) in the Left box.

When you finish making the boxes contain the instructions you want, press ENTER.

Bullets and Numbering Page 188 said that if you click in the middle of a paragraph and then push in the Bullets button, the computer normally puts a simple bullet (the symbol ·) at the beginning of the paragraph (and indents the paragraph).

If you don’t like the symbol ·, pick a different symbol instead. Here’s how.…

Choose Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu. Then click Bulleted.

You see these seven bullet symbols:

(Versions 2002&2003 show colored rectangles instead of q. Version 97 shows “¨” instead of “o”. Version 7 shows six different symbols instead.)

Double-click whichever symbol you want. The computer puts your chosen symbol at the beginning of the paragraph. It also makes the Bullets button henceforth produce that symbol — in this document and all other documents — until you switch to a different symbol instead (or exit from versions 2002&2003).

Page 188 said that if you click in the middle of a paragraph and then push in the Numbering button, the computer normally puts “1.” at the beginning of the paragraph (and indents the paragraph), puts “2.” at the beginning of the next paragraph, etc. If you don’t like that numbering scheme, pick a different scheme instead. Here’s how.…

Choose Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu. Then click Numbered.

Versions 2000&2002&2003 shows you these seven schemes:

Version 97 shows “(a) (b) (c)” instead of “a. b. c.” Version 7 omits “i. ii. iii.” and shows “A) B) C)” instead of “a. b. c.”

Double-click whichever scheme you want.

Borders and Shading Here’s how to draw a box around your writing.

First, tell the computer which part of your writing to put in the box.

Next, choose Borders and Shading from the Format menu. Here’s what happens afterwards.…

Click Borders. Click either the Box button (to create a simple box) or the Shadow button (to create a more advanced box whose right and bottom edges have a shadow from sunlight).

In the middle of the box, if you want your writing to have a colored or gray background instead of a white background, click Shading then do this:

Press ENTER. The computer will draw the box, but you might have trouble seeing it clearly. Press the right-arrow key (to move the cursor out of the way, so you can see your box clearly).

Columns Page 193 explained that you can create newspaper columns by clicking the Columns button. To create columns that are customized, do this instead:

Tabs While you’re typing your document, pressing the TAB key resembles pressing the SPACE bar but makes the computer move much farther to the right, to the next tab stop.

Normally, the tab stops are spaced ½-inch apart. For finer control over your document, make the tab stops be ¹/₁₀-inch apart instead. Here’s how: choose Tabs from the Format menu, then type 0.1" (or just .1) in the Default Tab Stops box and press ENTER. That procedure changes the tab stops for the entire document.

After doing that procedure, here’s how to easily create a fine-looking table (without using the Insert Table button): just press the TAB key repeatedly, to move to the next column. (Pressing the TAB key is more accurate than pressing the SPACE bar.)

Drop Cap After you’ve typed a paragraph, here’s how to make that paragraph begin with a capital letter that’s huge: click anywhere in that paragraph, choose Drop Cap from the Format menu, click Dropped, then press ENTER.

If you change your mind, here’s how to delete the huge capital letter: triple-click in the middle of the letter, then press the DELETE key.

Change Case After typing a phrase, if you change your mind and wish you’d capitalized it, do this:

AutoFormat After you’ve typed your document, try telling the computer to make the document look prettier. Here’s how.…

First, click in the middle of the document.

In version 7, click the AutoFormat button (which is on the standard toolbar). In versions 97&2000&2002&2003, do this instead:

The computer will try to make the document look prettier. For example, if your document contains what seems to be a heading, the computer will make it Arial and big (14-point bold in versions 7&97, 16-point bold in versions 2000&2002&2003). If you’re writing a letter that ends with —

and a few other lines underneath it, the computer will indent the word “Sincerely” and the lines underneath, so they all begin at the center of the paper instead of at the left margin. The computer makes many other improvements also! But here’s an exception: if you already tried to fiddle with the appearance of a line, the computer leaves that line alone.

If you like what the computer did to your document, great! Go ahead and edit the document further!

If you don’t like what the computer did, click the Undo button, which makes the document return to its previous appearance.

Styles and Formatting While you’re typing your document, the formatting toolbar’s Style box shows what style you’re using. That box usually says Normal, but you can switch to a different style instead, such as “Heading 1”. (I explained that box on page 187.)

Styles such as “Normal” and “Heading 1” were invented by Microsoft.

Here’s how to invent your own paragraph style:

The style you invented (“Wow”) will appear in the formatting toolbar’s Style box.

While you’re typing the document, the style you invented (“Wow”) is part of the computer’s repertoire. For example, while you’re typing another paragraph, you can make that paragraph’s style be “Normal” or “Heading 1” or “Wow”: just click the Style box’s down-arrow then click the style you want.

The style you invented (“Wow”) is part of the computer’s repertoire just while you’re using that document, not while you’re using other documents.

Later, if you change your mind, you can improve that style by using these methods:

Tools menu

If you click the word Tools, you see the Tools menu, whose main choices are:

(Version 7 say “Spelling” instead of “Spelling and Grammar”).

Spelling and Grammar Look at the Tools menu’s top choice. Versions 97&2000&2002&2003 call it “Spelling and Grammar”; version 7 calls it “Spelling”. It does the same thing as the similarly named button (explained on page 193).

Language Suppose you’re writing a story containing the word “girl”. Can you think of a different word instead, that means roughly the same thing as “girl” but is better?

If you can’t, the computer can! Just ask the computer to use its thesaurus to find synonyms for “girl”.

Here’s how. In your document, type the word “girl”.

For versions 2000&2002&2003, do this:

For versions 7&97, do the following instead.…

Click in the middle of that word. In versions 7, choose Thesaurus from the Tools menu; in versions 97, choose Language from the Tools menu, then click Thesaurus.

The computer will show you that the word “girl” has two meanings: a “girl” can mean either a female child or a sweetheart. The computer will say.…

If you click “female child”, the computer will show this list of words that mean “female child”:

(In version 7, you must click the down-arrow key to see “filly”.) If you click “sweetheart” instead, the computer will show this list of words that mean “sweetheart”:

Here’s what to do next:

Word Count If you choose Word Count, the computer will tell you how long the document is: how many pages, paragraphs, lines, words, and characters it contains. This procedure resembles choosing Properties from the File menu but is faster and generates a report that’s briefer. When you finish reading the report, press ENTER.

Table menu

If you click the word Table, you see the Table menu, which I explained on pages 193-194.

Window menu

If you click the word Window, you see the Window menu, whose main choices are:

Arrange All Here’s how to see two documents on the screen at once!

Each window is small, showing just a tiny part of the document. A window might seem blank if it’s so small that it shows just the document’s top margin.

Each window has its own scroll arrows. Use them to scroll through the documents and see the parts of the documents that are not blank.

By using those two windows, you can easily compare two documents and copy from one to the other (by using the Copy and Paste buttons).

When you stop wanting one of the windows, here’s how to make it disappear:

Split To see two parts of your document at the same time, choose Split. A fat gray line appears across the middle of your screen and split your screen’s window into two parts, a top windowpane and a bottom windowpane.

Move the mouse slightly (which moves the fat gray line slightly up or down), until you’re happy about the line’s position. Then click the mouse’s left button.

Now you can see two parts of your document at the same time!

Each windowpane has its own scroll arrows. You can click those scroll arrows to change what’s you see in that windowpane, without changing what’s in the other windowpane.

You can also click in one windowpane’s text and then use the keyboard’s movement keys (up-arrow, down-arrow, left-arrow, right-arrow, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME, and END) to change what’s in that windowpane, without changing what you see in the other windowpane.

Both windowpanes show parts of the same document. If you change a word in one windowpane (by deleting or inserting or revising that word), while the other windowpane happens to show the same part of the document, you see that word automatically change in the other windowpane also, immediately!

By using those two windowpanes, you can easily compare two parts of your document and copy from one part to the other (by using the Copy and Paste buttons).

When you stop wanting two windowpanes, here’s how to return to a single pane….

Help menu

If you click the word Help, you see the Help menu, whose main choices are:

(Instead of “About Microsoft Word”, version 2003 says “About Microsoft Office Word”. Instead of “Microsoft Word Help”, version 2003 says “Microsoft Office Word Help”; version 7 says “Microsoft Word Help Topics”. Versions 7&97&2003 lack “Hide the Office Assistant”. Versions 7&2003 lack “What’s This?” Versions 2000&2002&2003 lack “Contents and Index”.)

Microsoft Word Help (not in version 7) Choosing Microsoft Word Help (or Microsoft Office Word Help) has the same effect as clicking the Microsoft Office Word Help button, which I explained on page 194.

Hide the Office Assistant (versions 2000&2002) Choosing Hide the Office Assistant makes the animated paper clip (Clippit) disappear. To make Clippit reappear, choose Show the Office Assistant from the Help menu.

What’s This? (not in version 2003) Try this experiment:

Then if you click any object (button or menu item) anywhere on the screen, the computer will tell you what that object means. When you finish reading the computer’s explanation, press the ESCAPE key (which says “Esc” on it).

Contents and Index (versions 7&97) To see an alphabetical list of help topics, do this.…

You see just the beginning of the list. To see the rest of the list, you could click the down-arrow repeatedly, but that would take a long time, since the list contains many hundreds of topics. To hop down immediately to the topic that interests you, type the topic’s name. When you finally see that topic in the list, double-click it. If you then see a list of subtopics, double-click the subtopic that interests you.

Finally, the computer will show you a window full of helpful info about that topic.

When you finish reading that info, close the window by clicking its X button.

About Microsoft Word If you choose About Microsoft Word (or About Microsoft Office Word), the computer will display a version message saying which version of Microsoft Word you’re using.

(If you then click the System Info button, you’ll see, after a short delay, a window saying what kind of computer you bought and what state it’s in. When you finish looking at that window, close it by clicking its X button.)

When you finish using About Microsoft Word, make its window disappear by clicking its OK button (if the window hasn’t disappeared already).