Following is a brief introduction to some basic formatting commands available in MS WORD .
MS WORD is a word processor with many available features. It is an excellent resource for writing papers, reports, cover letters, and the like. Many of the features can be found on the Toolbar buttons, located at the top of the window. Documents can be formatted with various column and table styles. In this brief tutorial, we walk you through some basic WORD commands that may become useful for many of your applications in the future.
- If you already feel comfortable with basic WORD commands, you can skip the introduction and go directly to Exercise 1 .
All you need to do to start a WORD session is to move the mouse pointer over to the MS WORD icon in the Application Manager Window and double-click on it. WORD will put you into a new document window, with a Toolbar and Ruler displayed beneath all the menus.You can display the Toolbar buttons by pulling down the View menu with the mouse, and then choosing Toolbars or Ruler.
To get help on any kind of question you may have, you can ask WORD for help by clicking on the Help menu or the Help button, which is the rightmost button on the Toolbar. The F1 key also does this for you.
To create a new document, click on the File menu with the mouse and choose New . You may also click the leftmost button (the White Page button) on the Toolbar.
- Open a document by clicking on the File menu and choosing Open .
- Click on the 'Look In' box and select the drive that the file is located within.
- If your file is not in the list shown, go to list Files of Type . Click on the white area to display the possible file types. Choose All Files to show all files in the directory that you selected.
- Instead, you may also click on the Open button.
- Save a document by clicking on the File menu and choosing Save . You may also use [Ctrl+S] .
- Select the drive and directory you want to save your file in.
- To save your document under a different name and directory, click on the File menu and choose Save As...
If you want to close a document without saving it, click on the File menu and choose Close . WORD will then ask you to save your file with "Yes, No, or Cancel". Click on No .
To copy or move some text:
- Use the mouse to highlight the text you want to copy by holding down the mouse button and dragging the pointer over the words.
- Click on the Edit menu and choose Cut if you want to remove the highlighted text and (possibly) move it elsewhere.
- Click on the Edit menu and choose Copy if you want to copy the highlighted text. This can also be done using the Toolbar buttons:
Cut [Crl+X] ![]()
Copy [Ctrl+C] ![]()
- Move the cursor over to the location where you want the selected text and choose Paste from the Edit menu. You can use the Toolbar buttons to do this also:
Paste [Ctrl+V] ![]()
- To Undo a command, click on the Edit menu and choose Undo... The word undo will be followed by the last command that you completed. Again, you can use the Toolbar button:
Undo [Ctrl+Z] ![]()
To format some text, highlight it by holding down the mouse button over the desired words.To Bold, Underline, Italicize, and change Font and Size :
- Use the mouse to click on the Format menu and choose the Font option. Look for the words in boldface at the top of the window. From these, mark the desired options from Font, Font Style, and Size and click OK . The Toolbar buttons for this (located at the center) are as follows:
(Bold, Italicize, Underline) ![]()
(Font Type, Font Size) ![]()
To insert symbols and special characters, do the following:
- Move the cursor to the position where you want the symbol to be.
- Click on the Insert menu and select Symbol...
- Click the desired symbol and then hit Insert . The symbol should then appear in the document. Close the window by clicking the Close button.
To insert a page break, column break, or section break in a document:
- Move the mouse cursor to where you want the break.
- Click on the Insert menu and select Break...
- Select the type of break you want: page, column, or section.
- Hit OK. The break should then be in the document.
- Easy text alignment can by done by using the Ruler buttons, located underneath the Toolbar buttons:
![]()
- These buttons allow you to align text with left, right, and full justification, respectively.
- If you have already typed in your text, it must be highlighted; clicking the appropriate Ruler button will then align it.
To insert (create) a table into a document:
To insert or delete a row:
- Click on the Table menu and choose Insert Table.
- Choose the appropriate number of rows and columns and click OK.
- The Toolbar icon below will also work:
![]()
- Highlight the desired row. When you insert a new row, it will be created below the row which was highlighted.
- Click on the Table menu and select either Insert Rows or Delete Rows. The F4 key will repeat this process.
To insert or delete a column:
- Highlight the desired column. When you insert a new column, it will be created to the right of the column you highlighted.
- Click on the Table menu and select either Insert Columns or Delete Columns . F4 repeats this process.
You can also change the width of the columns:
- Move the cursor on the side of a column until the cursor changes into two arrows facing away from each other.
- Slide the cursor left or right to adjust the column width accordingly.
You may put your document in a multi-column format (similar to a newspaper or newletter format) by doing the following:
- With the mouse, highlight the desired area of the document to be column formatted.
- Click on the Format menu and choose Columns...
- Type in the number of columns you want and click OK.
To check the spelling in a document, do the following:
- Click on the Tools menu and select Spelling. (You may also press F7 or click the "ABC" button under View :
![]()
- Click OK when asked to check from the beginning.
- If the word the spell check highlighted is acceptable to you (and you don't wish to add it to the dictionary), click on Ignore .
- Click Change if you want to replace the word with your own correction. Suggestions provides available dictionary suggestions.
- If the word is correctly spelled, click Add to add it to the dictionary.
- When you are done with Spell Check, click on Close .
- To print out a document, click on the File menu and choose the Print option. The printing menu will then be displayed.
- To print out only certain pages, click on
O Pagesthen type in the page numbers that you want printed. Then click on OK .
Note: If you didn't save all your files before quitting, WORD will ask you if you want to save them before closing the session.
- Pull down the File menu with the mouse.
- Move the cursor down to the Exit command.
You have now completed the WORD intro!