After studying this article, the you should be able to:

•    Understand the need for Electronic Word processing
•    Use Microsoft Word to create and manipulate documents
•    Work with Word Document

• The main difference between the manual and electronic methods are:

The Word Processor is Application Software for Word Processing.

Features of Word Processors

•    Efficient mode of Text editing
•    Facility of Cut, Copy, Paste
•    Search and Replace Text 
•    Justification, Indentation etc.
•    Pagination
•    Spell Checking
•    Importing/Exporting Text
•    Mail Merging
•    Examples: MS-Word, WordStar, Word Perfect
•    In Word 2000 the features are very rarely used are installed only when they are used for the first time. This enables Word to conserve memory by not doing those features that are very rarely used by the user.
•    Just follow these steps to start MS-Word:
•    Click on the Start button on the Taskbar.
•    Move to the Programs item in the Start menu. A submenu will open.
•    Move to the Microsoft Word item in the Submenu and click.

Sample Programs Menu to start Microsoft Word

•    The Word window opens up with a new, untitled Word document as shown in figure.

MS-Word’s Opening Screen

Contents of the Word Window

•    Title bar
•    Menu bar
•    Toolbar
•    Ruler
•    Document window
•    Scroll bar
•    Status Bar
•    Office Assistant
•    Document Navigator
•    View Buttons
•    Drawing Toolbar

Adaptive Menus

•  The adaptive menus of Office 2000 initially display the most-frequent used commands only. The entire menu can be displayed by clicking on the double arrow at the bottom of the menu as shown in the figure below.

Adaptive menus

Statistics about insertion Point

Creating a Document

Procedure:

•    When you first start Word, a new blank document called “Document1” is displayed.
•    Start typing the text.
•    When the text reaches the right margin, Word automatically “wraps” the following text to the next line.
•    Make sure you do not press Enter at the end of a line.
•    Press Enter only when you want to start a new paragraph.

Part of the MS-Word window showing the Word Wrapping feature

To create a new document, when MS-Word is already running:

Click the New icon on the standard toolbar.
Or
Select New from the File menu. The New dialog box appears as shown in figure.

New dialog box

Select Blank Document under the General tab in the New dialog box, (if not already selected) and then click OK.

Moving around the Document

To move the cursor using the keyboard:

To move the cursor using the mouse:

•    Scroll to the desired location

•    Then, Click at the desired location.

Saving a Document

•    Select Save from the File menu.
or
•    Press Ctrl+S
or
•    Click on the Save button on the Toolbar 

The Save As dialog box appears as shown in figure.


•    Enter the name of the file in the File Name text box and change the locations of the file, if required. Click the Save command button.

Closing a Document

To close a document

•    Select Close from the File menu.
•    If the file is not saved before the close operation, Word displays a dialog box confirming the saving of file.

Opening an existing Document

To open an existing document perform any one of the following actions

•    Select Open from the File menu.
or
•    Press CTRL + O
or

Click on the Open button on the standard Toolbar.

The Open dialog box is displayed as shown in figure:

Open dialog box

Use either of the methods given below to select and open the     required file from the Open dialog box.

Method 1

•    Enter the name of the document file to be opened in the File Name text box after selecting the correct drive and sub-directory and click the Open push button.

Method 2

•    Click on the file name from the File Name list box and click the Open push button or double click on the file name.
•    The Document Navigator and the Document Map the features of MS-Word 2000 provide the efficient ways to move around in a document.
•    The Document Navigator gets activated by clicking the tiny 3-D ball on the vertical scroll bar.

Document Navigator

The browse methods on the Document Navigator include:

•    Go To method
•    Find and Replace method

To use this navigation tool:

•    Open a document that has heading styles.
•    Click the Document Map icon  on the Standard Toolbar or select Document Map from the View menu.
•    The screen splits to display the headings on the left and the document text on the right.
•    Click on any heading on the left and the cursor will be moved to the corresponding text in the right side of the window.

To return to the previous view:

•    Double-click the vertical line separating the left side from the right side to remove the spilt.

Normal View

To select Normal view:

Click the first view button on the horizontal scroll bar.
Or
•    Select Normal from the View menu.

Print Layout View

To change to the Print Layout view:

Click the third view button on the horizontal scroll bar.
or
•    Select Print Layout from the View menu.

Web Layout View

To change to the Outline view:

Click the last view button on the horizontal scroll bar.
or
•    Select Outline from the View menu.

Splitting Screen

To split the screen:

•    Select Split from the Window menu.
•    The mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow pointing up and down and dragging a thick gray line as shown in figure.

•    Click on the % of zooming you want and click on OK.

To zoom the view using the Zoom box on the Standard toolbar:

•    Display the Standard toolbar if it isn’t visible, using the Toolbars option from the View menu.
•    Click the drop-down control of the Zoom box to display a list of zoom percentages.

Zoom box with the drop-down list

•    Select a percentage from the list or type in a different percentage in the Zoom box.

Quitting Word

•    Select Exit from the File menu bar.
•    Before exiting, Word closes all open files. If any file has not been saved, the Office Assistant confirms from the user whether the file is to be saved or not.

Save Changes Confirmation dialog box

Shortcut Keys

Formatting documents

Selecting Text

•    Select the word differentiates in the second paragraph.
•    Select the complete first line of the document.
•    Select the complete first paragraph.
•    Select the entire document.
•    To select one word:

Method 1

•    Place the I-beam mouse pointer on the word differentiates
•    Double click to select the word and the white space character that follows it

Method 2

•    Place the I-beam mouse pointer before the word.
•    Press the left button of mouse and drag it till the end of the word

•    To select the first line of a document:
•    Move the mouse pointer to the selection bar (An invisible area at the left edge of a document window is used to select text with a mouse). The mouse pointer will change from an I-beam to an Arrow.
•    Click the left mouse button only once. The entire first line will be selected.

•    To select a paragraph:
•    Move the mouse pointer to the selection bar and double click. The entire paragraph will be selected.

•    Selecting the whole Document

Method 1

•    Move the mouse pointer to the selection bar at the left edge of the document.
•    Hold down the Ctrl key and press the left mouse button. The entire document will be selected.

Method 2

•    Move the mouse pointer to the selection bar at the left edge of the document.
•    Triple click the left mouse button to select the entire document.

Method 3

•    Use Ctrl + A keys together to select the entire document.


Redo command

•    If an action or actions is reversed by mistake, you can redo it by clicking the Redo button on the standard toolbar or by pressing Ctrl + Y keys.
•    To redo multiple actions, click the drop down arrow next to the redo button and drag to select the actions you want to redo.

•    Moving and Copying Text
•    Select the last paragraph.

•   To move the selected paragraph to the new location, click Cut from the Edit menu
or
To copy the selected paragraph at the new location, click Copy from the Edit menu.
•    Position the insertion point at the new location.
•    Select Paste from the Edit menu

Drag and Drop Feature

•    Moving text using Drag and Drop
•    Select the text to be moved.
•    Position the mouse pointer on the selected text or graphic, and then hold down the mouse button. When the drag and drop pointer appears, drag the dotted insertion point to the new location and release the mouse button.
•    Copying text using Drag and Drop
•    Select the text to be copied.
•    Hold down the Ctrl key, point to the selected text or graphic, and then hold down the mouse button while dragging the dotted insertion point to a new location.
•    Collect and Paste
•    To use this feature, select Toolbar option from the View menu and check the Clipboard option as shown in the figure given below.

Once you check the Clipboard option in the Toolbars menu, the Clipboard menu is displayed . To save any item on the clipboard, select the item, which can be a word, a line or a picture. Once any item is selected, notice that the Copy icon on the Clipboard menu gets highlighted. Click on Copy icon of the Clipboard menu to save the selected item on the Clipboard. Once you save any item on the Clipboard, the other options on the Clipboard menu get highlighted too.

The Clipboard allows you to save up to 12 items and you can paste any item once you have selected it. The Clipboard menu allows you to paste all items by using the Paste All option from the Clipboard menu. To copy any one item on the clipboard, place the cursor at the insertion point and click on the item you want to copy from the Clipboard menu item list. You can clear the clipboard by selecting the Clear Clipboard option from the Clipboard menu.

Formatting buttons on the Formatting toolbar

To apply or remove character formats:

•    Select the text to be changed or position the insertion point from where the text is to be typed or to change the format of a single word, click the word.
•    On the Formatting toolbar.
•    To change the font or font size, select a font name or font size in the Font box or the Font Size box and then press Enter.
•    To add or remove bold, italic, underline effects, click the Bold, Italic or Underline buttons.
•    To make the selected text stand out from the rest of the document, click the drop-down arrow next to the Highlight button and select the color.

Paragraph Formatting

•    Alignment
•    Left Alignment
•    Right Alignment
•    Center Alignment
•    Justified Alignment
•    Spacing
•    Line Spacing
•    Paragraph Spacing

The different alignment buttons provided are:

Align Left

•    MS-Word automatically aligns paragraphs with the left indent on pressing the Align Left button.
•    By default, left indent is same as the left margin. If a paragraph is not left aligned, you can click the Align Left button on the Formatting tool bar, or you can press Ctrl+L keys.

Align Right

•    To align the selected paragraph with the right indent, click the Right Align button on the formatting toolbar or press Ctrl+R keys.
Center Aligned      
•    To center the selected paragraph, click the center button on the toolbar or press Ctrl+E keys.
•    Select the title.

Click on the Center button

Justified

•    It aligns the paragraphs with both the left and right margins. To justify selected paragraphs, click the justify button on the toolbar or you can also press Ctrl+J.
•    Select the first paragraph.
•    Click the Justify button on the Formatting toolbar.
•    Paragraph Spacing

To adjust paragraph spacing

•    Select the paragraph(s) whose spacing is to be changed.
•    From the Format menu, choose Paragraph.
•    Select the Indents and Spacing tab.
•    In the Before and After boxes under Spacing, type or select the required measurements in points and then click the OK button.

Indents

•    Left Indent
•    Right Indent
•    First Line Indent
•    Hanging Indent

Types of Indents

The three types of indents are:

•    First Line Indent
•    Hanging Indent and
•    Left and Right Indent

Using Format Painter

To copy a format:

•    Select the characters or paragraph from where the format is to be copied.
•    Click (for a one-time copy) or double-click (for multiple copies) the Format Painter button on the Standard toolbar.
•    Drag the mouse over the characters, lines or paragraphs on which the format is to be copied.
•    If the Format Painter is turned on for multiple copies, it can be turned off by clicking it again or by pressing the Esc key.

Page Formatting

•    Changing Document Margins
You can change the margin(s) for a selected section or for the entire document.

To set margin(s):

•    Select the text, the margin(s) of which is to be changed.
•    From the File menu, choose Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog box appears.