Page Contents |
Opening a Document - continued from Page 3 |
Saving Your Documents |
File Names |
Word Basics, Page 3 | MS Office Contents | Home |
Changing Directories in the Open Dialog BoxUse the buttons at the top of the Open dialog box to change the display:
Closing a DocumentSelect Close from the File menu to close the active document. If you have not saved recent changes, you'll be prompted to do so. If you have not yet saved the document at all, the Save As... dialog box will open so that you can name the document and specify where you would like to save it (see Save As... below regarding file names). You can also close a document by clicking on the Close button on the tool bar.
Saving a DocumentSelect Save from the File menu to save the active document immediately. If you have not already named and saved the document, you will be prompted to do so. Or use the Save button on the toolbar - the one with the floppy disk on it - to save changes to a document you've already named. Save As...Use the Save As... command to name your document and save it the first time. It is highly recommended that you do this shortly after creating a new document. No matter how little you've done in a new document, you don't want to have to do it all over again if the power goes out or your PC crashes! Once you've done the basic setup for a new document (running a Wizard or manually setting up a layout), save it. After you've named and saved it the first time, use the Save command in the File menu, the Save button on the toolbar, or [Ctrl + S] to do a 'quick save' every 10 or 15 minutes, or each time you complete a section of the document.
File NamesLong File NamesFile names (including the pathname) can be up to 255 characters, including spaces and as many periods as you'd like (and as many characters after the final period as you'd like). Continue to use .doc, .xls, etc. so that Windows will know which program to associate the file with. You don't need to change the 3-letter file name extension! The file extensions may not be visible to you, but the appropriate extension will be added to the filename you enter, even though you may not see it. To display filename extensions:
It is important that your Word document name includes the .doc filename extension. When you want to open a Word document, Word looks in the specified directories for documents it recognizes as its own - those with the .doc extension. It won't list documents with any other extension unless you change Files of Type: to *.*. If you've organized your files neatly and have set up subdirectories for documents created in different programs, you might only be able to see Word documents with the *.* file type displayed. If you've thrown all of your documents into a single directory, you may have a list of several hundred documents of all types. If a document isn't identified as a Word file, the word icon won't appear next to it, and it won't be listed as a Microsoft Word Document in the Type column in Explorer, My Computer, or in the Open or Close dialog boxes. It's much easier to use the correct extension. You can use Properties to enter additional information about the file - a lot more information than you can get in a 3-letter extension! If you want to preview your documents (see Open above), you may not be able to do so if Word doesn't recognize the file extension. Word will preview Excel files, etc. but won't recognize .mem or .ltr. In addition, Windows associates file extensions with programs; if you double click on a document in My Computer or Windows Explorer, Windows will try to open the program that is associated with the file extension and display the file. If it doesn't recognize the extension, Windows won't be able to run the program and open your file. You'll still be able to use the file, but you'll have to run the program first, then locate the file and open it.
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