INTRODUCTION TO MS WORD

 INTRODUCTION

These notes introduce one to the basics of word processing.  The approach is structured to focus on the end product be it a letter, memo, advertisement, project report or other documents.  Each new function introduced is explained as to how it is used.

Furthermore, these notes assume the user is reasonably familiar with Windows environment.  Basic operations like minimising and maximising windows, selecting options from menus and list boxes, clicking, double-clicking and dragging are assumed to be understood.

STARTING MICROSOFT WORD

Fig 1

THE WINWORD SCREEN

The WINWORD screen has been designed to give a maximum control over documents created.  It will be appropriate we spend some time studying the word screen.

Fig 2

One can set up the view of the MS-Word screen to show the Task Pane as shown in Fig. 1 or without the Task Pane.  If you want your screen to look like the one in Fig 2, click the View Menu, Toolbars and then click Task Pane. 

The word screen that you should now be viewing has the following components.

·         Title Bar                           This shows the name of the application and document. 

The document name will read (Document x) if you haven't saved the document with a unique name.

·         Word Control Menu       This is at the top left corner of the screen with the letter

“W” as its icon.  By clicking on the symbol, a menu with commands for moving, sizing, minimising, maximising and closing Word screen is displayed. 

·         Document Control Menu This contains the main pull-down menus,

File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window and Help.

·         Standard Toolbar           Contains icons (buttons) that serve as short cuts to the

most commonly used commands from the menu.  If you point to the button for a few seconds a small box appears showing its name, which gives an idea of its function.

·         Formatting Toolbar        Contains buttons that serve as short cuts to the most

commonly used formatting commands.  It also shows the character and paragraph formatting in force at the current position of the insertion point.  It displays the character formatting such as font, size and style.

·         Ruler                                This gives information about the indentation and stops

of the selected paragraph.  Indents appear as tiny triangles.

·         Text Region                     The white area between the Ruler and the Status bar is

the text region.  This is where one will type the document.

·         Status Bar                        At the bottom of the screen is the status bar.  This gives

information about the document such as page number, section number, total number of pages of the document and line number of the current location of the insertion point.

Note:   If your word screen does not show the Standard and Formatting Toolbars, click the View menu choose Toolbar and activate the toolbars one after the other.  Also from the View menu choose Ruler to get the Ruler to show on the screen. 

CREATING A DOCUMENT

To create a document you should enter MS-Word by clicking on the Start button, Programs, then Microsoft Word to open the application or click on the Shortcut icon on the desktop.  By default the application opens a blank new document. 

Note that the text can be entered via the keyboard.  The only difference between word processing and typewriter at this stage is that you should not press the Enter key at the end of a line.  Instead, if you continue typing, the text wraps automatically to the new line.  When you wish to begin a new paragraph, press the Enter key.

Now create a simple document as shown in Task 1 exactly as it is.

Task 1

WHY GO TO CHURCH

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he

wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the

life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my

time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:  "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are down to nothing.... God is up to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!

All right, now that you're done reading .send it on!!! I think everyone should

read this!! "When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say,” Jesus, could you

get that for me?!!"

MAKING RUNNING CORRECTIONS

Simple corrections of one or two characters or words can be made by placing the insertion point beside the character to be amended.  When working with word, it marks words that it cannot find in its dictionary with a wavy red underline.  Do not worry since the spelling facility will take care of it.

To delete a text, the insertion point can be positioned by

1.      Positioning the mouse pointer where you want the insertion point to be and click the left mouse button.

2.      Using the arrow keys to move the insertion point to the position where the amendment is to be made.

NOTE

·         When the insertion point is to the left of a text, use the delete key to delete text.

·         If the insertion point is to the right of a text, use the backspace key to delete the text.

SAVING A DOCUMENT

In Task1 you created a simple document.  It is always advisable to save a document you have created.  Remember to save a big document within short intervals of at least 5 minutes whilst creating the document to avoid loss of work should the machine accidentally go off. 

To save a document use the File-Save command or click on the Save button on the Standard Toolbar.  Since it is the first time you are saving the document, the Save-As dialog box will be opened as shown in Fig 3:

Fig 3

This dialog box contains the following boxes.

Save-in:    This section shows the name of the currently selected directory or drive.     The directory or drive displayed should be the one you want to save your file into.  The arrow allows you to display the directory structure above that of the currently displayed directory.  If you wish to save onto a diskette, you should have a diskette in the drive before selecting Floppy 3½.

File name: In this box, you are to type the name you wish to save your file with.

Word 2003 assumes a name for your document, which will be displayed in this box.  Delete the suggested name and type the new name you wish to save your file with.  Word 2003 allows you to use long descriptive filenames up 255 characters.

Save type: This shows the different types of file format that one may choose to save ones file.  The default, word document is usually acceptable.  If you wish to retrieve your document as a lower version of the one you are using, then you will have to choose the appropriate format type from the list that will be displayed.  

When all the options have been rightly selected, click on the Save button to save the

file.  Once you have saved the document, it might be saved on subsequent occasions

by using File-Save or clicking on the Save button on the Toolbar.

Task 2

Save the document with the name Task2.

CLOSING A DOCUMENT AND EXITING FROM WORD.

Once you have finished working with a document, you may now close it.  All documents must be closed before exiting word.  If you try exiting word with unsaved documents opened, word will prompt you if you wish to save them.  You can close a document by using the File-Close command or by clicking on the 'X' at the top right corner of the document window.  To exit Word, pull down the File menu and choose Exit or click on the 'X' at the top right corner of the Application window.

OPENING A DOCUMENT

Once a document has been saved, it can be opened at a later time.  To open a document, pull down the File menu and choose Open.  The Open dialog box is displayed on the screen.  It has a similar layout to that of the Save-As dialog box.  See Fig 4.

Fig 4

The Open box has the following boxes.

Look-in:          In this box the currently selected directory is displayed.  The arrow allows you to view the directory structure.  Select the directory that contains your file.  The contents of the selected directory are displayed. Select the appropriate filename and click on the Open button or double click on the filename.  This will open the selected file.  If there are more files than can be displayed in the box click on the appropriate arrow from the Scroll Bar that is available to view the other filenames.

File name:       the name of the file to be opened is displayed in the space by

physically typing it or choosing the file you wish to open.

Files of Type: by default All Files is displayed here but one can limit the search by

specifying the type of files to be listed.

EDITING A DOCUMENT

Open the document you saved as Task2 and add the following text to it.

"A computer can aid the user to retrieve information."

Let us save the document with a new filename.  This will give us another copy of the document.  To do this:

1.      Pull down the File menu and choose Save As.

2.      Save with the name Task3.

3.      Select Save to save your file with its new name.  You should now have two files called Task2 and Task3.  Two copies of a document can be saved with the same name but on different drives or in different directories.  If you wish to save the changes that have been made in the document as part of the old document, use File-Save from the menu or click on the Save button on the Standard Toolbar.

Undoing Mistakes

Anytime you mistakenly issue a command, delete or type a text, you can undo by using Edit-Undo command.  This is very useful for retrieving mistakes and moving back to its previous state.

There is also the Edit-Redo command, which can be used to reverse an undo.

Task 3:  Using Undo and Redo.

1.      Open the document Task2 and change “building” in the first paragraph to “hall”.

2.      Use Edit-Undo to reverse the change.

This task can also be achieved by clicking on the Undo button on the Standard Toolbar.  Next to it is the Redo button.  Try using both buttons.

Selecting Text

Before you can perform some tasks such as deleting, copying, formatting and other operations on a text, the text has to be selected i.e. highlighted.  Selecting a text can be done either by using the mouse or keyboard or a combination of the two.

Using The Mouse

To Select This                                                            What To Do

Word                                      Move the cursor to the word to be selected and double-

click on it.

Line                                        Move the mouse pointer to the left-hand edge of the

screen at the same level with the line and click the left mouse button.

Sentence                                 Hold down the Ctrl key and click any where in the

sentence.

Several Lines Of A Text       Move the mouse pointer into the left-hand edge of the

screen at the same level with the first line you wish to select.  Click the left mouse button and drag downwards until the last line is selected.

Paragraph                              Move the mouse pointer into the left-hand edge of the

screen at the same level with the paragraph you wish to select.  Double-click the left mouse button. 

You can also triple-click the left mouse button anywhere in the paragraph.

Undoing a Selection              Move the mouse pointer to anywhere in the document

and click the left mouse button.

Using the Keyboard

Move the insertion point to the place in your document where you want the selection to begin.  Hold down the Shift key and use the appropriate arrow key to move the insertion point to the end of the selection.

COPYING A TEXT

MS-Word uses Edit-Copy and Edit-Paste commands to make a duplicate of a text in your document.  To achieve this:

1.      Select the text to be copied.

2.      And pull down the Edit menu and choose Copy or click on the Copy button on the Standard Toolbar.

3.      Position the insertion point where you want the copy to appear.

4.      Use Edit-Paste command or click on the Paste button on the Standard Toolbar.

Note that the text that was selected remains at its original position but a duplicate copy is placed at the new position.

MOVING TEXT

By using the Edit-Cut and Edit-Paste commands, you can move a text in your document.

1.      Select the text to be moved.

2.      And pull down the Edit menu and choose Cut or click on the Cut button on the Standard Toolbar.  The text is removed from the document.

3.      Position the insertion point where you want the text to appear.

4.      Use Edit-Paste command or click on the Paste button on the Standard Toolbar.

SWITCHING BETWEEN DOCUMENTS

When one is working with MS-Word, it is possible to open more than one document at a time.  Whenever documents are opened, the names of the files are listed in the Window menu as well as on the Taskbar.  To switch from one document to the other, one can do one of the following:

1.      From the Window menu all opened files have their names listed with the active document having a tick by it.  Click on the name of the file you want to switch to from the list of filenames listed in the menu to make it the active document.

2.      From the Taskbar, click on the name of the window for the document you would want to switch to.  This will make the selected window the active document.

FINDING AND REPLACING TEXT.

The ability to search through a document and find a particular section of the text, or 'string', and if necessary replace it with another is an extremely useful feature.

Finding a replacing allows a particular string to be located and replaced by an alternative string.  By pulling down the Edit menu and choosing the Replace command opens the Find and Replace dialog box with the Replace tab selected.  See Fig.5 below.

Fig 5

·         In the Find What box, enter the text you wish to find.

·         In the Replace With box, type the replacement string.

The replacement string will replace the string that is found in the document.  Word will then prompt you specifying the number of replacements it has done in the document.  Click on OK to accept, and then close the dialog box.

ADDING AND REMOVING PAGE BREAKS.

As the document being created gets larger Word automatically inserts page breaks at the end of each page.  Automatic page breaks are called soft breaks and are shown I the Normal view as a dotted line.  To alter the way in which page breaks occur, then manual or hard breaks can be inserted.

To add a page break, first position the insertion point at the place where the page break is to occur and do the following:

·         Pull down the Insert menu and choose Break.  This will display the break dialog box.

Fig 6

·         Select Page break from the dialog box and click OK to accept.

A hard break can be selected in the same way as a line of a text can be selected, i.e. by positioning the mouse pointer in the left edge of the screen, level with the page break, and clicking.  Once selected the page break can be removed.

DOCUMENT FORMATTING

Page Formatting 

The most 'Global' level of formatting is the Page formatting accessed through File-Page Setup command.  The Page Setup dialog box is then opened.  See Fig 7

Fig 7

From this box you can set up a number of parameters, which specify how the document will be displayed on a page.

To set up the margins for your document, click the Margin button in the Page-Setup dialog box and enter the required settings.  Margins can also be adjusted by using the ruler.  The ruler is displayed below the toolbars.  On the ruler there are three triangular sliders indicating Left, Right and Indent margins.  To change the left, right or indent margin, drag the appropriate margin slider to the required position on the ruler.  The left and right margin sliders are on the bottom of the ruler and the indent margin slider is on the top of the ruler.

·         To set the Normal indent margin, drag the margin slider so that it is to the right of the left margin. 

·         To set a Hanging indent, drag the margin slider to the left of the left margin.  Hanging indents are commonly used where a list of points is being made and the first words of a paragraph need to stand out. 

Any adjustment made to the margin will affect the document at the current position of insertion point and any text keyed in thereafter.

Adjusting the margins using the Menu.

Margins can also be altered using the Format-Paragraph command.  Select the indent and spacing tab in the Paragraph dialog box and alter the values shown in the indentation section.

FORMATTING TEXT

This section focuses on text formatting.  MS-Word allow a variety of formatting to be applied to a text be it a single character or the entire document.  Note that a text must be selected before its format can change.

Using Type Fonts

In Word, a character may be made to appear in Bold, Italic or Underlined.  To achieve this, first select the text to be formatted.

Pull down the Format menu and choose Font.  This displays the Font dialog box

from which you can select the needed options.  See Fig 8.

Fig 8

·         You can select a new Font, Font style, Font size and an Underlining option, by moving to the appropriate box within the Font dialog box.

·         When all selections have been made, click Ok to accept the selections made.  This can also be achieved by clicking on the appropriate button for the format option on the Formatting Toolbar.

Note that the format options to affect a text can be activated before typing the text.  Remember to deactivate the format option selected when you finish typing the text it is to affect.  In either case, the final result is the same.

Word offers a number of additional formatting effects that can be applied through the Format-Font command.  Some of these are adding colour to your font and having your text as subscripts, superscripts etc.

ALIGNING TEXT

The way in which text appears between the left and right margins is referred to as Alignment.  We have four types of alignment formats in Word.  These are Left, Right, Centre and Full Justification.  Text alignment can be set by using the Format-Paragraph command or by activating the alignment format on the Formatting toolbar.  This means depressing the appropriate button on the Formatting toolbar.

Left Alignment

This causes the text to have a straight left margin and an uneven right margin.  The uneven right margin is caused because there is a standard space between each word and each character has a specified amount of space associated with it.  If a word does not fit at the end of the line then it is wrapped around unto the next line.

Right Alignment

With this type of alignment, the text has a straight right margin and an uneven left margin.  It is therefore the opposite of Left Alignment.

Centre Alignment

This causes each line of a paragraph to be positioned centrally between the left and right margins.  The insertion point is always seen starting a new line in the centre if this alignment type is made active.

Full Justification

With this type of alignment, both the left and right margins have straight edges.

Clicking on the appropriate button on the formatting toolbar can activate the alignment formats mentioned above.

Another way to align a text is by choosing Paragraph from Format menu.  From the Alignment box choose the appropriate alignment option and click OK to accept the choice.   

Task 4

Start a new document to create a Front cover of a write up.

Write up on research work on malaria in

West Africa

Case Study: Ghana

Written by: Emma Brew

Tutor: J.K Simson

Course: Medicine

Date: 2^nd February 1996

University of ALL

SMS Faculty

BULLETS AND NUMBERING

In creating a document there may be the need to distinguish a list of points from the rest of the text, it is usual to highlight them using Bullets or Numbered points.

Bullet Point

A bullet is a symbol at the start of each point as shown below.

LIST OF ITEMS TO BE PURCHASED

·         Peak Milk

·         Sugar

·         Biscuits

·         Toilet Soap

To be able to create the above example:

1.      Start a new document, key in the heading and enter to move to a new line.

2.      Click on the Bullet button on the Formatting toolbar.  A symbol appears and the insertion point is positioned on the left margin.  Key in the text for that point.

3.      Press the Enter key to move to the next line the bullet is automatically created for the next point. Repeat for each point till you enter the text for the last point.

4.      Press the Enter key after the last point to move to the next line.  The bullet is displayed in the document.  To take it off, click on the bullet button on the Formatting toolbar.  This deactivates the bullet option.  Save the document as Expense1.

Numbered Points

Let us create a document using numbering to distinguish a list of points as shown below.

LUNCH TIME MENU CHART FOR THE WEEK.

1.      Monday                 Fried Plantain and Beans

2.      Tuesday                 Fufu with Goat meat soup

3.      Wednesdays          Yam with Palaver Sauce

4.      Thursday               Kenkey, Hot pepper and Fish

5.      Friday                    Jollof Rice

To create the example given:

·         Start a new document and key in the heading.  Enter to create a new line.

·         From the Formatting Toolbar, activate the Numbering format by clicking on the Numbering button.  A number appears with the insertion point positioned on the left margin.

·         Type in the text for the first point.  Enter to create a new line.  The number is automatically increased to 2.  Repeat for all the points.

·         Press Enter when you finish with the list and click on the Numbering button to stop the automatic numbering.  Save the as Lunch.

Note that when you click on the Bullet or Numbering button, word will apply the default bulleting or numbering to your document.  If you wish to change the settings, use the Format-Bullet & Numbering command.  To do this:

1.      Pull down the Format menu and choose Bullets & Numbering.

2.      The Bullet & Numbering dialog box will be opened.  This offers a set of different styles of bullets under the bullet tab and different style of numbering under the numbering tab from which you can make a choice.

Fig 9

3.      If you wish to use a different symbol as your bullet point or you want to use a different format for the numbered points, apart from the ones displayed, click on the Bulleted button or numbered button respectively and select any of the bullet or number options displayed and click on the Customise button.  This will display the Customize Bulleted List dialog box for bulleted point and the Customised Numbered List for numbered points as shown in Figures 10 and 11 respectively.

Fig. 10

Fig 11

4.      Click on the Character button.  The symbol dialog box will be displayed.  You will have a lot of symbols to make a choice from.  Select the one you wish to work with and click OK twice to accept your choice.

Fig 12

USING OUTLINE NUMBERED POINTS

You can add a more complex hierarchical structure to any list or document by using outline numbered list from the Bullets and Numbered dialog box.  From the Bullets and Numbered window, click the Outline Numbered button.  This will display the dialog box showing in Fig 13.  From the dialog box select the type of format you would wish to use for the list you are creating and click on the OK button.  A number format will be inserted in your document.  To get the numbering for a sub-list use the tab key.

Fig. 13

LINE SPACING

Line spacing refers to the space between the bottom of one line and the bottom of the next line.  Normally text is typed in 'single spacing', i.e. line spacing is one.  Word automatically adjusts the line height to accommodate the size of the font you are using.  You can alter the line spacing in a document by using the Format-Paragraph command, which displays the Paragraph dialog box as shown below. 

Fig 14

The most commonly used line spacing formats are Single, 1.5 and Double line spacing.  To select a new line spacing format apart from the default single spacing:

1.      Pull down the Format menu

2.      Choose Paragraph

3.      From the Paragraph dialog box as shown above, click on the arrow next to the Line spacing box to display the different types of line spacing.  Choose the appropriate line spacing for your document.

4.      Click OK to accept your choice.

You can select the line spacing format before typing the text of after typing the text.  Remember to select the text before changing the line spacing format if the text has already been typed.

CHARACTER SPACING

There is another type of spacing known as Character Spacing.  This can be achieved by using the Format-Font command. This opens the Font dialog box from which you can click on the Character spacing tab.  The spacing list box may be opened to display the list of character spacing formats.

CHANGING CASE

The Format-Change case command allows you to change the case of selected text to Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case or tOGGLE cASE.

If you have typed a text, which is intended to be in lowercase characters in UPPERCASE, you don't have to delete the text and retype in the intended case format.

1.      First select the text and from the Format menu, choose Change Case.  Immediately, the Change Case dialog box is opened.

Fig 15

2.      From this dialog box, choose the new case format from the list displayed.

3.      Click OK to accept the choice.  The selected text in your document is changed to the new case format.

HEADER AND FOOTER

A Header is a text or graphic that appears in the top margin of every page of a document.  Footer appears in the bottom margin of the every page.  They are useful in long documents as they can be used to indicate for example the chapter or section title. 

To add a Header or Footer to your document:

·         Use View-Header & Footer command.  The document switches to a Page layout view with the text of each page shown in a grey colour with the Header and Footer Toolbar appearing.

Fig 16

·         In the text region for the Header, type in the text for the header.  You can format your text in the best way you can as done in the main document.

·         If you need to move into the footer, from the toolbar, click on the button for Switching between the Header and Footer.  You can then type the text for the footer.

Icons and Buttons in the Header and Footer Toolbar

The first button allows you to insert AutoText.  The next three buttons are:

·         Insert page numbering

·         Insert number of pages

·         Format page number.

The next two buttons are

·         Insert date

·         Insert time

To insert a date, time, page number or the number of pages to the header or footer, position the insertion point where you want the item to appear and then click on the appropriate icon.

·         Clicking on the Page Set-up button will display the Page Set-up dialog box.

·          

Fig 17

·         From this dialog box, you can click on the appropriate button listed at the top and select the options you want to affect the Header or Footer and click on OK to accept the choices.  One can set up the Header or Footer to display a different text on only the First page with the rest of the document having a different text or odd pages having a different text from the even pages.

·         Clicking on the on the Show / Hide Document Text, will toggle between showing and hiding the document text.

·         After setting up the header and footer, click on the Close button to return to the main document body.

Editing or Removing Existing Headers or Footers

To edit or remove an header or footer,

1.      Use View-Header & Footer command to get into the header or footer mode. 

2.      In the header or footer box edit the text.  If you wish to remove the text, just delete it.

3.      Click on the Close button.

Apart from inserting page numbers in the Header and Footer mode, it can be done by using Insert-Page Number command.  This will display the Page Numbering Dialog box as shown below.

Fig 18

From this box you can specify the position and alignment of the page number in the document.

APPLYING BORDERS AND SHADING TO A DOCUMENT.

Applying Borders

To apply a border to a document:

1.      Select the text or portion of the document to be affected by the borders

2.      From the Format menu choose Borders and Shading.  The Borders and Shading dialog box is then opened.

Fig 19

3.      The Borders and Shading dialog box has three buttons namely Borders, Page Borders and Shading.  Click on the Borders or Page Borders button to display the options for the borders.

4.      Depending on the border option chosen, you can select a line style from the Style box and a colour from the Color box for the border.  Select OK to accept the choices. 

Removing and Changing Borders

To Remove a Border:

·         First select the portion of the document that has the border

·         Pull down the Format menu and choose Borders and Shading

·         Click on None under Settings

·         Click on OK to accept the changes

To Change a Border:

·         Select the item with the border to be changed

·         From the Format menu choose Borders and Shading

·         From the Borders and Shading dialog box, choose the new border options.

·         Click on OK to accept the choice

Applying Shading

You can also apply shading to your document, but remember to select the text to be affected by the shading first.  Shading affects the legibility of the text.  The light shading of 20% or less is most effective.

From the Format menu, choose Borders and Shading.  This will open the Borders and Shading dialog box. From the dialog box, click on the Shading button to activate the shading options with the following options as explained below.

Fig 19

·         Fill :                       Click on one of these boxes to select a black and white shading

or a colour for the shading.

·         Pattern-Style:       Click on one of these options to choose the density or style of

shading.

·         Patterns-colours: click on one of these options to select a colour for t he pattern

in the shading.

WORKING WITH COLUMNS

Word allows one to create a document in columns in which the text flows from the bottom of one column to the top of the next, as in newspaper columns.  When using columns it is preferable to use Page Layout document view format, since it shows the columns side by side with items such as graphics in the correct location.

Creating a Multiple Column Layout

To create a multiple column layout do the following:

1.      Choose View-Page Layout

2.      Click in the section to be formatted in columns

3.      From the Format menu, Choose Columns.  This will open the Columns dialog box as shown below:

Fig 20

4.      Specify the number of columns, for example 2

5.      In the Apply To box, select the portion of the document that you want to format

6.      Choose OK.

The above task can also be achieved by:

1.      Choose the Page layout view format.

2.      Click in the section to be formatted

3.      Click on the Column button on the Standard Tool

4.      Drag to the right to select the number of columns that you want.  When you release the mouse button, Word formats the section that contains the insertion point.

CHECKING SPELLINGS AND GRAMMAR

As you type your text, you may make mistakes in spelling some of the words, don't worry Word can help you improve the text in the document.  Anytime a word is typed which is not known in the dictionary of the Word Application, it underlines it with a wavy red line.  Grammatical errors are underlined with a wavy green line.  Word has the Spelling and Grammar check that can be used to check a selection or a whole document.  If a selection is to be checked, select it first.  To check through a document for spellings:

·         Pull down the Tools Menu

·         Choose Spelling and Grammar.  This will open the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.  See Fig.21 below.

Fig 21

If you have not made a selection, Word will start the spelling and grammar check from the position of the insertion point. If you wish to check only the spelling, then deselect the grammar option by removing the tick from the grammar box. 

·         When the Spell checker comes across a word it does not recognise it shows it in the Not in Dictionary: box.  In the Suggestions: box the spell checker offers a correction, or a list of possible corrections.  Behind the spelling dialog box the document can be seen with the word in question highlighted.

There are a number of options available in the dialog box, shown by the buttons.

·         If the correct spelling is in the Suggestions box click to highlight it and click on the Change button.

·         If the mistake may be repeated throughout the document then use the Change All button instead.

·         If the word is correct but it is not in the spell checker's dictionary the choose Ignore or you may Add the word to the dictionary.  Use Ignore All to ignore all occurrences of the word throughout the document.

·         If you want Word to automatically correct the mistake if you make it again while typing then click the AutoCorrect button.

·         The spell checker will check the entire document or the selection till all corrections have been made.  Click on OK to accept confirmation.

·         If you wish to abort the spell check click the Cancel button.

USING THE THESAURUS

A Thesaurus finds synonyms and related words.  It is used for one word at a time.  Select the word and use Tool-Language-Thesaurus command.  The Thesaurus dialog

box appears.

Fig 22

The selected word appears in the Looked Up: box.  Underneath this box is the Meanings: box, which lists related words and indicates whether these words are nouns or verbs.  Next to the Looked Up box is the Replace With Synonym: box, which contains a list of synonyms for the selected word.  The selected word can then be replaced with any of words listed by clicking on the word.  The new word selected will then appear in the box at the top of the list.  Clicking on the Replace button on the Replace button will put the word into the document in place of the selected word in the document.

CREATING A TABLE

One of the very powerful features in Word is the table feature.  Table gives the user an easier way to arrange and adjust columns of text and numbers, and are much more flexible than tabs.  A table can be inserted at any point in your text.

Setting up Tables

To set up tables, position the insertion point where you want the table to be in the document.

1.      From the Table menu choose Insert Table.  This will open the Insert table dialog box as shown in Fig 23.

Fig 23

2.      In the dialog box, specify the number of columns and rows you wish to have in the table.

3.      Click OK immediately the table appears in the document.

You can also achieve the above by clicking on the Insert Table button on the standard toolbar.  Drag the mouse pointer to specify the number of rows and columns.  Release the mouse button to insert the table in your document.

Entering Text in a Table.

Once you have created a table, you should have an empty table, with the insertion point in the first cell so that you can start typing. Use the Tab key or arrow keys to move from one cell to another.  Text in a table can be selected and edited in the same way as in the rest of the document.  The column width of a table can be changed to suit your document.  To change the column width, drag the cell border of the column whose width you want to change.

Note: When you create a table, Word displays gridlines between cells.  These help you to see the cell you are working in.  When the table is printed the line will not be printed since they are imaginary.  To print your table together with the lines, the table should be given borders.  To add borders to your table first select the table and click the Border button from the formatting toolbar.  The various border options will be displayed.  Click on the border type you want to use for the table and clear the selection.

Adding Row and Columns to an existing Table

1.      If you wish to insert a new blank row or column in the existing table, position the insertion point in the row / column you wish the new one to appear on top or before respectively.

2.      Pull down the Table Menu and choose Insert Column to the left or Column to the right if it is a column or Insert Row above or Row below if it is a row.  Immediately a new column or row is added to the table.

3.      If you want to insert a new row at the bottom of the table or a new column as the last column, move the cell pointer the last cell in the table and repeat step 2.

Sorting a Table

To sort a table there should be data in the table.  The table should be sorted based on one of the fields in the header row if the list has a header row or by the contents of any of the columns within the table.  To sort a table, do the following:

1.      Select the column to be used for the sorting.

2.      Choose Sort from the Table menu.  The Sort dialog box will be opened.

Fig 24

3.      From the dialog box choose the appropriate options and click OK.  The table will be sorted according to the text or data in the selected column.

Calculating a Table

MS-Word allows one to work with a formula in a table.  To work with a formula in a table you should know the values you want to calculate.  Position the insertion point in the cell in the table where you want the result to appear.  From the Table menu choose Formula.  The formula dialog box will be opened.  See Fig 25.

Fig 25

In the dialog box, Word proposes a formula such as Sum(above) which means it will add the values in the column above the selected cell.  Select the function you wish to use for the formula from the paste function box the number format you wish to apply to the result and click OK to accept.    

EMAIL IN WORD

As a higher version of the Microsoft Word application, it has now become possible to use MS-Word to send a document as an email message or as an attachment.  To be able to achieve this, one should have an email system set up on a machine using MS Outlook or any email software. 

Sending a Word document as an email message.

1.    From the File menu, click on the Send To command and choose the Mail Recipient command.  This will open the composer window with the contents of the current document as the contents for the e-mail as shown in the dialog box in Fig 26.

Fig. 26

2.      Type in the email address of the recipient(s) in the To box e.g. ris_training@reissco.com.gh.  If you would want to send copies to other recipients, type in their addresses in the CC box.

3.      Automatically the filename of the current document is inserted as the subject of the mail to be sent.  This can be changed to give a suitable subject for the mail.

4.      Click on the Send a Copy button to send the mail to the intended recipient(s). This will take off the composer window and take you back to the current document.

Sending a word document as an attachment

1.      From the File menu, select the Send To command and choose the Mail Recipient (as attachment) command.

SETTING UP A DROP CAPITAL

When you are creating chapter titles or section headings in a book or brochure, you may want to create an initial capital letter that is larger than the remaining text in the title.  This is called Drop Capital Letter, because you can vary its alignment on the line.  To set up a Drop Capital:

1.      Change to Page Layout view

2.      Click the paragraph that you want to begin with an initial or dropped capital.  The paragraph must contain text.

3.      From the Format menu choose Drop Cap.  This will open the Drop Cap dialog box.

Fig. 27

4.      Click on the option Dropped or In Margin.  Use none to remove a dropped capital.

5.      Select any other option you want and click on OK.

WORD HELP

Word help option in the menu offers help about the application to the user anytime you are not sure of what you are doing.  To use Word Help, Pull down the Help menu.  This will display options in the menu.  Select Microsoft word Help to take you to the Office Assistant.  See below

Fig. 28

Select the topic you want help for or click on the Answer Wizard button and type your question in the What Would You Like To Do.    Click on the search button.  Follow the steps to achieve your aim. 

PRINTING A DOCUMENT

You will normally print a document when it is opened and being displayed on your screen.  Make sure or the page settings for the document are exactly the way you want before you print.  To set up your page, use File-Page Setup command.  Before a document is printed, it is always advisable to preview the document first.  To preview a document, use the File-Print Preview command.  The Print Preview dialog box will be activated.  What will show in the preview will be the right representation of the current document. 

Fig. 29

Print:                          Clicking this will print one copy of a document quickly using the current print settings.

Magnifier:                  Allows you to zoom in and zoom out.

One Page:                   Displays only one page of the document at a time.

Multiple Pages:          Allows you to switch between the display of two or more pages

on the screen.

Zoom:                         Controls how large or small a document appears on the screen. 

                                    You can enlarge the display to make it easier to read or reduce

the display to view an entire page.

Close Preview:           Closes the Print Preview screen and returns you to your

document.

Print Dialog Box

The print dialog box is displayed when the file File-Print command is used.  It allows a number of options to be set.

Fig 30

From the dialog box, you can specify what should be printed, be it the whole document, specific pages, or a selection.  The number of copies to be printed can also be specified.  Make sure the name of the printer connected to your computer is displayed in the Printer Name box.  Click on the OK button to start printing.