This guide is a tool for working with Microsoft Word 6.0 or newer. The focus of this introductory guide will include: features, utilizing the tool bar and also quick key movements. These tools will be helpful in your daily use of Microsoft Word.  All the features we will discuss are found in MS Word 6 through MS Word 2000.

The tool bars that you will learn to use are shown below:

To see the various functions of buttons on any bar, move the cursor across the bar. As you move the cursor across the toolbars, a brief description appears near the cursor, while a detailed description appears at the bottom of the screen. The button description will appear at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to move a tool bar, place your cursor on any bar that divides buttons, and click the left mouse button. The bar will no longer be separated by solid lines, it will be separated by dotted lines. You may now move the bar to the right of left of the screen or place it along the bottom. It is also possible to move any of the bars into the document area. Move the drawing toolbar located at the bottom of your screen, to a different position. Because we will not use this tool bar, we need to remove it from the screen. To do this, choose View, Toolbars... At the Toolbars pop-up window, click on the box in front of drawing. 

All Toolbar commands can be executed from the menu bar or by using short-cut keys. This document will discuss all three methods of using tools in Microsoft Word 7.0 as it applies 1) Using the toolbars, 2) using the menu bar, 3) using short-cut keys. 

  New: The new document button allows you to create a new document in a different window. You can do this by clicking on the button shown at the right, by pressing Ctrl N, or by choosing File, New. Directions: Create a new document using all three methods. Three or more documents are now open, each are numbered. To see which document you are using, look above the menu bar. To see all the documents you have open, choose Window from the menu bar. You can look at more than one document at a time by choosing Window, Arrange all. The screen will be split horizontally by the number of documents that are open. 

Directions: Look at the documents using this method. To close the documents that you do not want open choose File, Close. Directions: Close all but one document.

  Open: To retrieve a document from disk or from the network into a new window, choose this icon, or choose Open from the File menu, or press Ctrl+O. 

Directions: Using one of these methods look at documents that are stored on the C:\ drive. 

You can change the drive by clicking on the down arrow at the right of the Look in: box:

  The next button (folder with an up arrow) will take you up one sub-directory. The button with a star was created to link quickly to your favorite folders. The button next to it allows you to add things to the favorite folder. The next set of buttons, offer different display options. 

  This option lists directories (folders) and files as shown in the picture above. 

  This option gives more detail: Name, size, type, modified.

  If MS Word is setup properly, it will capture the following information every time a document is created:

  This feature is very useful, even though it takes more time. When this option is selected, you get a preview of the document in a window, the size of the windows at the right. 

 

Microsoft Word is set to look for MS Word files. In order to find other files you will need to click on the button to the right of the Files of type: box.

  Save: This icon is used to save the current document to the most recently saved file. If you are working from a disk, then this icon will save to the disk. This function can also be invoked by pressing Ctrl+S, or by choosing File, Save. Saving your document often is very important.

  Print: By clicking on this icon, your document will automatically be printed. To bring up the Print Window, choose File, Print, or press Ctrl+P. From this window, you can change the current printer, select the number of copies, or select specific pages for printing. Direction: Do NOT click on the print icon, during this session.

  Print Preview: This button will show you a full page layout of the active document. This feature can also be activated by choosing File, Print Preview.

  Spelling: Use this feature to spell check the current document. This feature can also be activated by choosing Tools, Spelling... 

Cut  Copy  Paste: These three icons are used to edit documents. The first button is used to cut selected text [Ctrl+X, or Edit, Cut]. The second button copies selected text [Ctrl+C, or Edit, Copy]. The third button pastes cut or copied text [Ctrl+V, or Edit, Paste]. Directions: Type your name at the top of the page, highlight the text by selecting it. To select text, you can use the mouse: Click, Drag, and Release, or press the Shift+Arrow key. Now, cut or copy your name and paste it at least five times. 

  Format Painter: This function allows you to copy the format from one section of text to another. Directions: Select the text you want to copy, then click on the paint brush. You will notice that a paint brush follows your cursor, now highlight the text you want to format.

We are now going to move down to the next tool bar to learn how to change the font and the font size.

  Font: To change the font, click on the arrow pointing down next to his box. This will bring up a list of fonts. In most cases, you will be able to use all the fonts that are shown. In some cases, due to print drivers, or a lack there of, you may not. There are two ways to change the font in your document: 1)Select the font you wish to use prior to typing, or 2)Select the block of text that you want to change the font. Directions change the font of three of the names that are on your screen.

  Font Size: To change the size of your font, click on the arrow pointing down next to this box. Note: some fonts have a limited number of sizes. Directions: Change the font size of two of your names.

To change the type and size of your font using the menu bar, choose Format, Font. The window allows you to change the font and font size. It also allows special features such as italic, bold, hidden small caps, all caps, subscript, superscript, strike through and underlining.

You can also use the keys on the toolbar to make text bold [Ctrl+B], italics [Ctrl+I], or underlined [Ctrl+U]. Directions: Make one name bold, anther italics and underline another name. 

Undo and Redo: These two buttons allow you to undo and redo previous functions. The arrow at the right of each of these buttons shows which commands can be undone and redone. If you have not undone anything you cannot redo anything. Directions: Undo three previous functions and then redo them.

Alignment: The next four buttons are used to align text. As you can see, this document is aligned to the left. The next button centers text. The third button aligns text to the right indent. The last button is used to align the text between both left and right indents.

   The next four buttons are used to insert numbered or plain  bullets, inserting indents or reducing indents. Bullets, either plain or numbered are used to create lists of items.  Indents are used to create or decrease paragraphs.

  Borders: This button allows you to add borders to your documents. When you click on this button a new bar appears just below the menu bar. It is shown below:

There are several ways to add borders, but you must always choose the line type, line location, and line color. After you have selected these, put your cursor where you would like the line to be located. Directions: Start a new page, and experiment with borders.

Tables, columns, drawing, and graphs 

To add a table to the document, click on the table button, or choose Insert Table from the Table menu. When you click on the table button a window will appear. With the left mouse button pressed, drag the cursor across the cells to choose the number of rows and columns. Directions: Create a table that has three rows and four columns. Insert the information shown below.

 

Hours Worked	Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Dave	7	4	6
Bill	8	8	10

To add lines to the table, highlight the table, click on the borders button, and choose the borders you want to add.

Graphs

Graphs can be inserted into MS Word Documents. To insert a graph, click on Insert, Object, choose Microsoft Graph 5.0, click OK. This process is time-consuming, if you will be using graphs a lot, consider adding the button to the toolbar. This procedure is explained at the end of this document. Graph the table you created by highlighting the table, selecting Insert, Object, MS Graph 5.0. Follow the Wizard all the way through.

Columns can be inserted into documents in two ways. Columns can be turned on at the beginning of a document, or by selecting text and choosing the column format you want. To select columns for part of the document, choose Columns from the Format menu. Choose the number of columns. In the Apply to field change to "This Point Forward." If you do not change this, everything you typed prior to the inserting columns will automatically be reformatted into columns. Directions: Insert Columns into the document, by choosing Columns from the Format menu and changing the Apply to field.

There are several other functions that you must know before inserting columns into a document. One you have started the columns, in order to get to the next column, you need to enter a column break or type to the end of the page. To insert a break, choose Break from the Insert menu, then choose column break. This will move your cursor to the next column. To stop columns, choose Columns from the Format menu, change Apply to: to "This point forward," then select one column. 

  Show/Hide: This button displays all "non-printing" characters. Directions: Click on this button. Notice that dots replace spaces and paragraph markers appear at the beginning and end of paragraphs. Tabs appear as arrows. This feature is useful if you are searching for extra spaces or hard returns in documents.

  Help: This feature allow you to drag the question mark to any part of the screen. Once there, click the left mouse button and the related help topic window appears. This bypasses choosing Search for help on...from the Help menu, which can be time consuming.

  Zoom: This feature allows you to look at your document at different magnifications. You can also view the Page Width, the Whole Page, or Two Pages at once. Directions: Try each of the magnifications listed.

As you may have noticed there are a few buttons which were not covered in the Introductory booklet. These items are listed below with brief explanations.

  Drawing: This button shows or hides the drawing toolbar.

  Insert Microsoft Excel Worksheet: This feature inserts a MS Excel spreadsheet into you document. The mini-spreadsheet can be used to total columns and rows. When you are finished with the spreadsheet, it appears in the document as a table.

  AutoFormat: The AutoFormat button applies a pre-selected format to you entire document. If you click on this button extra returns will be deleted, "(C)" will become "©," "(R)" will become "®," "(TM)" will become "™" and so on. It may also change the font. Use this feature with caution and remember that if you don't like the changes AutoFormat makes, you can always undo. Note: To change the things AutoFormat changes, choose Options from the Tools menu, then choose AutoFormat and make you selections.

This button shows and hides the tip of the day.

Final Thoughts:
This has been a basic guide to using MS Word and it is not intended as a complete course.  We have shown you all the basic components, how to use them and the features making MS Word an excellent word processor.

In the next guide in this series, we will investigate the more advanced features of MS Word and how to use them also.