Microsoft Word is a widely used word processing program. It comes installed on most Windows-based PCs, and it is an easy way to compose text-based documents. Follow these basic steps and you should have no problem using Word in your daily life.
Double click on the clock display in your screen’s lower right corner. A window will pop up and display 3 tabs. The first is “Internet Time,” which gives you the option to automatically synchronize your computer with the Internet timeserver. The next tab is “Time Zone,” which is important for ensuring your computer automatically updates for daylight savings time. The final, “Date & Time,” allows you to do exactly what its name suggests: Change your computer’s date and time.
Open Word and close the document pane (which sometimes appears on the right side of the screen). You will be presented with a blank document. You can change the view of the window by clicking “Options” in the “View” menu. Find the layout that works best for your needs. The program will still work the same no matter what you choose. The document will simply be displayed differently as you type it.
The tool bar at the top of the screen has a zoom feature. You can leave it at the default, 100% view, or zoom in or out to suit your eyesight.
Type a sentence in your document. The tool bar displays the font you are using and its size. You can change these setting by highlighting any amount of text you wish to alter and then using the dropdown menus to change the size and font.
If you’re looking to put a word in bold text, highlight it and press “control” and the “b” key at the same time. Repeat this step to return the text to its normal look. You can also make text bold by highlighting it and clicking the dark, black “B” button in the tool bar. The same steps apply for italicizing text, but you will need to press control and the “i” key or the “I” button located in the top tool bar.
If you need to duplicate any amount of text, you can easily do so with the copy & paste functions. To do this, highlight the desired text and use one of the following methods:
1. Right click on the highlighted text and click “Copy.” You can also move the text by selecting “Cut.” Place the text by right clicking where you want it to be located and clicking “Paste.” You can also:
2. Press control and “c” to copy text, control and “x” to cut it, and control and “v” to paste it. Keep in mind, after you have cut or copied text, you can paste it as many times as you would like as long as you do not copy another selection of text.
If you are looking for text you previously entered in the document, click “Edit” and the select “Find.” Enter the text you are looking for and click the “Find Next” button. The first instance of the text will be highlighted in the Word document. Keep clicking “Find Next” until you locate the word or phrase you are looking for.
If you want to correct a mistake that occurs several times throughout the document, open the “Find” window again and go to the “Replace’ tab. Enter the text you want to correct in the top box and the correction in the bottom one. Click “Replace” to fix one instance or “Replace All” to fix the problem every time it occurs.
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