MICROSOFT WORD
MICROSOFT WORD IS A WORD PROCESSING
P R O G R A M T H AT A L L O W S F O R T H E C R E AT I O N
OF BOTH SIMPLE AND COMPLEX DOCUMENTS.
MS WORD
GENERATION
Microsoft Word History
The first ever version of Microsoft Word - Word 1.0 - was
launched in October 1983 and developed by former Xerox
programmers, Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie. The two
were hired by Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, in
1981. At this time, Word was called Multi-Tool Word.
UNDERSTANDING PARAGRAPH FORMATTING
Paragraph formatting refers to formatting commands that affect
entire paragraphs – settings such as indenting, bullets, line
spacing and paragraph spacing. To understand
You can use the Paragraph group on the HOME tab for many of your
paragraph formatting requirements. To find out the purpose of a command in
the Paragraph, or any other group on the ribbon, simply point to the
command and a tooltip will appear, explaining the function of that command.
UNDERSTANDING TEXT ALIGNMENT
Paragraphs can be aligned in a myriad of ways on the page,
depending on the effect you are trying to achieve. Alignment is
controlled by the paragraph alignment settings and indent
markers.
Special formats such as bulleted, numbered and multilevel lists
all use these controls. Each paragraph can have its own
individual paragraph alignment and indent settings.
CHANGING TEXT ALIGNMENTS
Paragraphs of text can be aligned in four different ways on the page using
the paragraph alignment tools.
The alignment of the text depends on the location of the left and right
indent markers which are visible on the ruler.
They enable you to reposition text horizontally without having to change
margin settings. Each paragraph can have its own alignment.
CHANGING LINE SPACING
Line spacing controls the distance between each line of text in a
paragraph. Line spacing is important because it can greatly improve the
readability of text.
If lines of text are too close together the words are harder to recognise.
Line spacing is also used for documents such as essays and contracts
where room is required between the lines for written comments.
INDENTING PARAGRAPHS
Paragraphs can be indented in relation to the left and right margins.
Indented text is text that starts further in on the page than other text.
A simple left indent is often used as a way of showing that text is
subordinate to the headings or text around it. The Increase Indent tool
uses the default tab stops on the ruler to align text but you can specify
exact indent positions if you need to.
CHANGING PARAGRAPH SPACING
Paragraph spacing is the distance between paragraphs. Adequate
spacing between paragraphs makes them easier to identify and makes
finding specific information in a document much easier.
Paragraph spacing should be set using Spacing Before and Spacing After
rather than pressing to create gaps between paragraphs which can be a
bit sloppy.
OUTDENTING PARAGRAPHS
Outdenting a paragraph will decrease the left indent that has been
applied to a paragraph.
This means changing the left alignment point of the paragraph so the
entire paragraph aligns further to the left.
This is useful in situations where you are typing text and no longer want
the text indented, or where the indent that has been applied is too large.
What is Find and Replace?
Good question! Within Microsoft Word, Find and Replace is the tool that enables you to
locate specific things and replace them (if you choose to) with an alternative.
In its simplest form, this involves searching for a word and replacing each instance with
a different word. For example, to localise a document that you plan to send to the UK,
you might want to locate all instances of the word ‘dollars’ and replace them with
‘pounds’ (or euros).
There are two ways to conduct the replacement: automatically or manually. The quicker
alternative is to choose to replace all instances of the word automatically.
UNDERSTANDING FIND AND REPLACE OPERATIONS
Worksheets can become very complex rather quickly and it can then be
time consuming to locate specific information in the file.
This is where the Find operation is useful.
Find allows you to search for a range of elements so that you can check
details or make changes.
Replace is the natural progression from Find, allowing you to replace
what you’ve found with an alternative.
FINDING WORDS
You can perform an incremental search using the Navigation pane.
This means you don’t need to type the exact term you’re looking for – just
part of it. By default, Word ignores the case of the search text and
highlights each instance of matching text as it finds it.
You can also clarify or generalise the request by specifying additional
search options in the Find Options dialog box.
STARTING A BULLETED LIST
A bullet is simply a symbol or special character placed at the start of a
sentence or a line of text. The most basic bullet in Word is a filled-in circle
● but other symbols can be used.
Bulleted lists are used to make a list stand out from the rest of the text
and make each item in the list easier to identify and read.
Bulleted lists are used where the list of items has no particular order or
priority
ADDING BULLETS TO EXISTING PARAGRAPHS
In a bulleted list, each paragraph starts with a bullet.
When you apply bullets to existing text, a bullet is placed at the beginning
of each paragraph and the rest of the text is indented.
Bulleted lists, in their default format, have no spacing between the
paragraphs other than normal line spacing. When you add bullets to
paragraphs, the spacing between them may change.
REMOVING EXISTING BULLETS
If you apply bullets to your document but later decide they are not
required, you can easily remove them.
If you’ve recently applied bullets, you can remove them by clicking on
Undo.
Otherwise you can click on the Bullets tool again as Bullets is a toggle
button. Word will then remove the bullets, adjust the alignment of the text
and correct the spacing between the paragraphs.
STARTING A NUMBERED LIST
Numbered lists are used to make a list stand out from the rest of the text
and make each item in the list easier to identify and read.
Numbered lists are used where the items have a particular order or
priority.
The default numbering system is Arabic (1, 2, 3) but Word gives you the
option of using different numbering or listing systems such as Roman
numerals (i, ii, iii) and alphabetical (a, b, c).
CREATING A MULTILEVEL LIST
A multilevel list is a list where there are several levels of either numbered
or bulleted items. Levels are shown by their indentation.
For example, your document may need to have detailed paragraph
numbering so that each item can be identified uniquely.
Multilevel lists in Word can be created from scratch or a numbering
structure can be added to existing text.
