Microsoft Word

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Microsoft Word is a word processor: it allows you to write and edit documents, and also to print them.

• Useful keystrokes for Microsoft Word

Contents 1 Saving and opening documents 1.1 Saving a document 1.2 Opening a document 2 Printing documents 3 Formatting text 3.1 Change the font 3.2 Change the size of the writing 3.3 Modify your text 3.4 Change the colour 4 Using the spellchecker 4.1 Correcting a word that has been spelled incorrectly 4.2 Adding a word (for example, a place name) to the list of words Word knows about 4.2.1 Writing a letter in Word 5 Performing a mail merge

Saving and opening documents

When you are writing a document you will usually want to save a copy of the document to your computer's hard disk, so that you can open it again at a later date.

Saving a document

When you want to save your document:

1. Click on the "File" menu towards the top-left corner of the screen.
2. Select "Save" under the file menu.
3. Enter a name for your document - it is usually best to make this name something which clearly describes what your document is about, such as "Letter to Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2007", so that you can find your document easily in the future.
4. Press enter on the keyboard - your document will now save.

Opening a document

When you want to open a document you have written and saved:

1. Click on the "File" menu towards the top-left of the screen.
2. Select "Open" under the file menu.
3. Click on the document you want to open (if it was not saved in the default documents folder, you will need to go to the folder it was saved in first).
4. Click "Open" - your document should now open.

Printing documents

Printing a document in Word is easy. First of all, make sure your printer is turned on and has paper loaded. Then open the document, as per the instructions above. When the document is open, click on the "File" menu towards the top-left of the screen, and then select "Print"; in the new window that opens, click the "OK" button - your document should now print!

Formatting text

Sometimes you will want to change the appearance of text: for example, the colour, size, or font. All of these things can be changed using the Formatting Toolbar, which appears at the top of the Word window. It looks like this:

You can use the different controls in the toolbar to change different features of your text. You will need to highlight the text you want to change first, and then do one of the following:

Change the font

With the text highlighted, click on the blue arrow to the right of the "font" box, then pick the font you want to use.

Change the size of the writing

With the text highlighted, click on the blue arrow to the right of the "size box", then pick the size you want to use.

Modify your text

You can make your text bold, italic or underlined, or any combination of these three. To do this, click the Bold, Italic, or Underline buttons.

Change the colour

With the text highlighted click on the arrow to the right of the colour change box, and then pick the colour you want your text to change to.

Using the spellchecker

When you are typing a document into Word, some words that you type in will appear with a red, wavy line beneath them. This is because Word thinks you have made a spelling mistake. However, it might be the case that you have spelled a word correctly, but Word doesn't know that the word exists: this often happens with place names.

Correcting a word that has been spelled incorrectly

1. Right-click on the word that has been mispelt.
2. A small menu will appear. At the top of this menu, you will be given a list of words to choose from. Click on the correct spelling for the word you typed in, and Word will make the necessary changes.

Adding a word (for example, a place name) to the list of words Word knows about

1. Right-click on the word you want to add to the word list.
2. Click on "Add to Dictionary". The word will now be added to the word list and Word will no longer think you have made a spelling mistake.

Writing a letter in Word

Writing a letter in Word is reasonably straightforward. The only slight complication is getting your address to appear in the top right corner of the page. There are many ways you can do this; the method outlined here is perhaps the quickest and simplest.

1. Write your letter as normal, but don't worry about placing your address in the top right for the moment. Just put it on the left of the letter, like this:

1 The High Street
New Town
County
NT1 1NT


23 March 2007
James Smith
25/4 Hazel Court
Edinburgh
EH7 3QG

Dear Mr Smith,

This is a letter.

Yours sincerely,

Joe Bloggs

2. The bold text in the letter above is what you want to move to the right hand side of the page. To do this, you first need to highlight all of this text;
3. Once the text is highlighted, click on the "Format" menu at the top of the screen, then select "Paragraph..."
4. A new window will open, which allows you to change various settings for the paragraph of text you are editing. The setting we want to change is the "Left" "Indentation"; i.e., the amount of space inserted to the left of each line of the paragraph. Setting this to around 13cm often works well. Once you have set the left indentation, click the "OK" button. If you find that this is too much or too little, you can always repeat the steps above to change the indentation again.

Performing a mail merge

1. Create an Excel spreadsheet containing the addresses you want to use in your mail merge. Use a new row for each new address, and in each row use a new column for each line of the address. You can use a database to do this, but it's usually easier to use a spreadsheet.
2. Once you have created your spreadsheet of addresses, save it and create a new Word document. In this document, type in all of the "fixed" elements of your mail merge: i.e., the bits that don't change from document to document.
3. Click Tools > Letter and Mailings > Mail Merge.
4. A new panel will open on the right of the screen. Assuming you are writing a letter, leave the radio button set to "Letters" and click "Next" at the bottom of the panel.
5. Leave the radio button at the top of the panel set to "Use the current document", and hit "Next" at the bottom of the panel.
6. Leave the radio button at the top of the panel set to "Use an existing list", and then click "Browse...".
7. A dialog box opens; use this to navigate to your addresses spreadsheet, and open it.
8. Another dialog box opens; use to to select the sheet from the spreadsheet that you want to use - if in doubt, use Sheet 1.
9. Another dialog box opens, showing you a preview of your data. Make sure everything is OK, and then click OK.
10. Make sure the Mail Merge toolbar is visible at the top of the screen - if it isn't, right-click in a blank area of the toolbar, and left-click "Mail Merge".
11. Now add your fields to your document: use the "Insert Merge Fields" button, which is directly to the left of the "Insert Word Fields" button.
12. When you're finished inserting fields, click the "Merge to New Document" button which is towards the right hand end of the mail merge toolbar - or use the Alt + Shift + N shortcut.