Some General Points about Word Processors and Microsoft Word

  • Insertion Point - a flashing vertical bar which indicates where the next character you type will be placed.

  • Insertion Mode - most word processors allow you to switch back and forth between insertion mode and typeover mode. In insertion mode, when you hit a character, the text currently to the right of the insertion point moves to the right. In typeover mode, when you hit a character, the text currently to the right of the insertion point is overwritten.

  • Word Wrap - a feature of a word processor which forces text onto the next line of your document once you have typed beyond the limits of the current line. You do not hit the enter key at the end of the line. This is sometimes called a soft return. If you go to the next line by hitting the enter key, then it is called a hard return.

  • Toggle Switches - a toggle key is a key which switches between two states. For example, the CAPS LOCK key. If you hit the CAPS LOCK key once, then the green CAPS LOCK light comes on. If you hit the CAPS LOCK key again, then the green CAPS LOCK light goes off. An example of a key which is not a toggle key is the return key.

  • Default - a default is a choice made initially by the software. An example of a default is that when you open a new Microsoft Word document, you are in insertion mode.

  • Saving Documents - it is good practice to frequently save your documents. As stated before, applications software such as Microsoft Word store data in RAM. If there is a power blink, your document will be lost. For this reason it is a good idea to frequently save your document. There are two ways to save a document. One is a simple save. This will simply take the current contents of your document and overwrite whatever is in the document stored on the hard drive or floppy. The other is Save As. This allows you to give the document a name if you haven't already or you can choose a new name.

  • Open Documents - you may have more than one document open at a time. Only one will be displayed in the window. You may see a list of all currently open documents under Window.

  • Closing Documents - you may close a document by choosing Close under File.

    Parts of the Microsoft Word Window

  • The Document Window - The subwindow of the Microsoft Word Window in which the document appears. You may maximize or minimize the Document Window within the Microsoft Word window.
  • Title Bar - Contains the ID icon (W), the title, the minimize, maximize/restore, and close button.



  • Menu Bar - Contains menu choices.



  • Standard Toolbar - Icons for most frequently used operations/commands.



  • Formatting Toolbar - Formatting buttons.



  • Horizontal Ruler Bar - Shows spacing, tab indicators, and margins.



  • Vertical Ruler Bar - Shows vertical position of text and top or bottom margins



  • Status Bar - Shows insertion location and other helpful indicators.

    Saving and Opening Documents

    Recall that is a good practice to frequently save your work in case of a power blink. In order to save a document

  • Go to the File Menu in the Menu Bar

  • If the document has already been given a name, then go to Save and click once with the left mouse button.

  • If the document has not been given a name, then you can go to Save As... and click once to give the document a name. If you choose the Save option when the document hasn't been named, you will be taken to the Save As... automatically.

  • When a document is saved, it is saved by default in a folder of our choosing. To change where documents are saved got to Tools Options File Locations Documents .. Modify. Notice that Tools Options contains an ellipsis. Therefore, it brings up a dialog box. One of the tabs in the dialog box is File Locations.

    To open an existing document

  • Go to the File Menu in the Menu Bar

  • Go to the Open option and click once with the left mouse button. Notice that the files displayed by default are the files contained in the folder which you specified in Tools Options File Locations.

  • You may have more than one document open at a time, however only one can be displayed at a time. To switch back and forth between open documents go to the Window option and click once with the left mouse button on the open document you wish to display.

  • To close a document, select it from the Window option, then go to File and click once with the left button on Close. An alternative way to close a document is to click the close button in the Document Window.

    Inputting Text

  • Recall that the default mode is insert. To change this to typeover, there are three ways. To find out which mode you are in, look at the status bar. If the letters OVR are highlighted, then you are in typeover mode. Otherwise, you are in Insert mode.

  • There are several ways in which to delete text.
  • To get to the beginning of your document, hit CTRL-HOME.

  • To get to the end of your document, hit CTRL-END.

  • To get to the beginning of the current line, hit HOME.

  • You may have Microsoft Word check your spelling as you type. To select this option go to Tools Options Spelling & Grammar and check the option Check Spelling as you type. When you type a word that Microsoft Word thinks is misspelled, a wavy red line will appear under that word.

  • To change the font and font size, go to the Formatting Toolbar and click on the arrow to the right of Times New Roman. Times New Roman is the default font. You may click on the arrow to the right of the 10 to change the font size. 10 is the default font size. To make the change to a group of characters, first highlight that group.

  • Mistakes. In most Word Processing programs you are allowed to Undo the last action performed. In Microsoft Word you may Undo more than the last action. When you perform two actions such as deleting text you can Undo both of them. You can Undo the last action performed by itself or you can Undo both actions. If you Undo an action that is not the last action performed, then you must Undo all actions which were performed after it. To see a list of the actions which you may Undo, look in the toolbar at the following two icons.



    The curved arrow icon is a shortcut for Undo. To get a list of the actions you may Undo, click the down arrow icon. As you move down the list notice that all of the actions above the mouse pointer are highlighted.

  • Page Breaks. Sometimes it is convenient for you to be able to cause printing to begin on the next page. For instance, if you are printing a title page which is part of your document, then you would put a page break after the title page so that you text will begin on the next page. There are two kinds of page breaks.