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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
Take a deep dive into the most popular word processor on the planet
Word, Microsoft's powerful and popular word processor, is capable of extraordinary things. From template building to fancy formatting and even AI-powered editing and proofing, your copy of Word stands ready to help you supercharge your productivity and save you time and energy. You just need to learn how it's done. And, thanks to this easy-to-understand book, learning is the easy part!
This latest edition of Word For Dummies is packed with the essentials you need to turn any old copy of the famous word processor into a document-creating, table-formatting, graphics-editing super app. You'll even learn how to customize your version of Microsoft Word so it's absolutely perfect for you, at home and at work.
You'll also find out how to:
- Navigate the Word interface and menus and figure out a ton of hotkey shortcuts
- Edit, format, and comment documents to make team collaboration a breeze
- Use the new Microsoft Copilot's AI capabilities to make Word even more powerful
So, grab your copy of the latest edition of Word For Dummies today. It's perfect for casual users interested in upgrading their knowledge of this ubiquitous app as well as power users looking for the latest productivity tips and tricks.
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Microsoft® 365 Word For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Microsoft 365 Word For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
How to Use This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: I’ll Take Word for $100
Chapter 1: Word Origins
Word of the Day
Your First Word
Last Word
Chapter 2: The Typing Chapter
The New Hunt-and-Peck
Keyboard Do’s and Don’ts
Stuff That Happens While You Type
Part 2: Your Basic Word
Chapter 3: Moving Around a Document
Scroll the Document
Move the Insertion Pointer
Return to the Previous Edit
Go to Wherever with the Go To Command
Chapter 4: Text Editing
Remove Text You Don’t Want
Paragraph Playtime
Undo Mistakes with Undo Haste
Chapter 5: Search for This, Replace It with That
Text Happily Found
The Replace Part
Chapter 6: Blocks o’ Text
Meet Mr. Block
Mark a Block of Text
Block Manipulation
Chapter 7: Spell It Write
Check Your Spelling
AutoCorrect in Action
Grammar Be Good
All-at-Once Document Proofing
Document Proofing Settings
Chapter 8: Documents New, Saved, and Opened
Some Terms to Get Out of the Way
Behold! A New Document
Save Your Stuff!
Open a Document
Recover a Draft
Chapter 9: Publish Your Document
Your Document on Paper
Electronically Publishing Your Document
Part 3: Fun with Formatting
Chapter 10: Character Formatting
Text Formatting Techniques
Basic Text Formats
Text Transcending Teensy to Titanic
More Colorful Text
Change Text Case
Clear Character Formatting
Behold the Font Dialog Box
Chapter 11: Paragraph Formatting
Paragraph Formatting Rules and Regulations
Justification and Alignment
Make Room Before, After, or Inside Paragraphs
Paragraph Indentation Madness
Chapter 12: Tab Formatting
Once Upon a Tab
The Standard Left Tab Stop
The Center Tab Stop
The Right Tab Stop
The Decimal Tab
The Bar Tab
Fearless Leader Tabs
Tab Stop, Begone!
Chapter 13: Page Formatting
Describe That Page
Page Numbering
New Pages from Nowhere
Page Background Froufrou
Chapter 14: Section Formatting
A Document Sliced into Sections
That First Page
Headers and Footers
Chapter 15: Style Formatting
The Big Style Review
Make Your Own Styles
Style Tips and Tricks
Chapter 16: Template and Themes Formatting
Instant Documents with Templates
Templates of Your Own
The Theme of Things
Chapter 17: Everything Drawer Formatting
Weird and Fun Text Effects
Steal This Format!
Automatic Formatting
Center a Page, Top to Bottom
Part 4: Spruce Up a Dull Document
Chapter 18: They’re Called Borders
The Basics of Borders
The Borders and Shading Dialog Box
Stick a Thick Line Between Paragraphs
Chapter 19: Able Tables
Set a Table in Your Document
Text in Tables
Table Modification
Chapter 20: Columns of Text
All about Columns
Column Tricks
Chapter 21: Lots of Lists
Lists with Bullets and Numbers
Document Content Lists
Footnotes and Endnotes
Chapter 22: Here Come the Graphics
Graphical Goobers in the Text
Image Layout
Image Editing
Image Arrangement
Chapter 23: Insert Tab Insanity
Characters Foreign and Funky
Spice Up a Document with a Text Box
Fun with Fields
The Date and Time
Part 5: Famous Last Words
Chapter 24: Multiple Documents, Windows, and File Formats
Multiple Document Mania
Other Document Types
Chapter 25: Word for Writers
Organize Your Thoughts
Humongous Documents
Dan’s Writing Tips
Chapter 26: Let’s Work This Out
Comments on Your Text
The Yellow Highlighter
Look What They've Done to My Text, Ma
Remote Collaboration
Chapter 27: Mail Merge Mania
About Mail Merge
I. The Main Document
II. The Recipient List
III. Fold In the Fields
IV. Preview the Merged Documents
V. Mail Merge, Ho!
Chapter 28: Labels and Envelopes
Labels Everywhere
Instant Envelope
Chapter 29: A More Custom Word
A Better Status Bar
The Quick Access Toolbar
Customize the Ribbon
Add More Features with Add-Ins
Chapter 30: Meet Your Copilot
Write Me Something
Help from That AI Brain
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 31: Ten Cool Tricks
Side-to-Side Page Movement
Automatic Save with AutoRecover
Accelerate the Ribbon
Ancient Word Keyboard Shortcuts
Build Your Own Fractions
Electronic Bookmarks
Lock Your Document
The Drop Cap
Map Your Document
Sort Your Text
Chapter 32: Ten Bizarre Things
Equations
Video in Your Document
Hidden Text
The Developer Tab
Hyphenation
Document Properties
Document Version History
Collect-and-Paste
Click-and-Type
Translations
Chapter 33: Ten Automatic Features Worthy of Deactivation
Bye-Bye, Start Screen
Restore the Traditional Open and Save Dialog Boxes
Disable the Mini Toolbar
Select Text by Letter
Disable Click-and-Type
Set Paste Options
Disable AutoFormat Features (×4)
Index
About the Author
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 6
TABLE 6-1 Keyboard Selection Wizardry
TABLE 6-2 Mouse Selection Arcana
TABLE 6-3 Paste Option Options
Chapter 22
TABLE 22-1 Image Layout Options
Chapter 23
TABLE 23-1 Those Pesky Foreign Language Characters
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: The Word Start screen.
FIGURE 1-2: Word's visage.
FIGURE 1-3: The ribbon.
FIGURE 1-4: Better click that Save button.
Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A typical PC keyboard.
FIGURE 2-2: The touch keyboard.
FIGURE 2-3: Text predictions in action.
FIGURE 2-4: Stuff that lurks on the status bar.
FIGURE 2-5: A page break in Print Layout view.
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: The vertical scroll bar.
FIGURE 3-2: Telling Word to Go To you-know-where.
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: The Navigation pane.
FIGURE 5-2: The Find and Replace dialog box.
FIGURE 5-3: The Replace tab in the Find and Replace dialog box.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: A block of text is selected.
FIGURE 6-2: The Mini toolbar and the block pop-up menu.
FIGURE 6-3: Pasting options.
FIGURE 6-4: The Clipboard task pane.
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: Deal with that typo.
FIGURE 7-2: Adjusting an AutoCorrect correction.
FIGURE 7-3: Adding an AutoCorrect entry.
FIGURE 7-4: A grammatical error is flagged.
Chapter 8
FIGURE 8-1: The Save This File dialog box.
FIGURE 8-2: The Open screen.
Chapter 9
FIGURE 9-1: The Print screen.
FIGURE 9-2: Specific buttons on the Print screen.
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10-1: Text formatting commands in the Font group.
FIGURE 10-2: Options for changing the text case.
FIGURE 10-3: The neatly organized Font dialog box.
Chapter 11
FIGURE 11-1: Paragraph groups.
FIGURE 11-2: The Paragraph dialog box.
FIGURE 11-3: Spacing in and around a paragraph.
FIGURE 11-4: The ruler.
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12-1: Tab stops on the ruler.
FIGURE 12-2: The Tabs (tab stop) dialog box.
FIGURE 12-3: Two-column list.
FIGURE 12-4: Tab-tab-paragraph format for text.
FIGURE 12-5: Center tab stop in action.
FIGURE 12-6: Right tab stops are used to center-align this list.
FIGURE 12-7: Right tab stops right-align the second column of this list.
FIGURE 12-8: Using the decimal tab to line up numbers.
FIGURE 12-9: The mysterious bar tab.
FIGURE 12-10: Leader tab styles.
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13-1: The Margins tab in the Page Setup dialog box.
FIGURE 13-2: Gain more control over page numbers.
Chapter 14
FIGURE 14-1: How sections control page formatting.
FIGURE 14-2: Applying page formatting to one section only.
FIGURE 14-3: Text in a header and a footer.
FIGURE 14-4: Header in Section 2, linked to Section 1.
Chapter 15
FIGURE 15-1: Where Word styles lurk.
FIGURE 15-2: Style Inspector.
FIGURE 15-3: The Create New Style from Formatting dialog box.
Chapter 16
FIGURE 16-1: Choosing a template from the New screen.
FIGURE 16-2: The Themes menu.
Chapter 17
FIGURE 17-1: Text effects galore.
FIGURE 17-2: AutoFormat As You Type settings.
FIGURE 17-3: AutoFormat options.
FIGURE 17-4: This title is centered on a page.
Chapter 18
FIGURE 18-1: The Borders and Shading menus.
FIGURE 18-2: The Borders and Shading dialog box.
FIGURE 18-3: Fancy borders.
Chapter 19
FIGURE 19-1: The Table menu.
FIGURE 19-2: Creating a 4-by-3 table.
FIGURE 19-3: Drawing a table in a document.
Chapter 20
FIGURE 20-1: The Columns menu and dialog box.
FIGURE 20-2: Trifold brochure in Word.
FIGURE 20-3: Column break.
Chapter 21
FIGURE 21-1: A multilevel list.
Chapter 22
FIGURE 22-1: An image in a document.
FIGURE 22-2: Cropping an image.
FIGURE 22-3: Working with multiple images.
Chapter 23
FIGURE 23-1: The Symbol dialog box.
FIGURE 23-2: The Field dialog box.
Chapter 24
FIGURE 24-1: Splitting a document window.
FIGURE 24-2: Change file types in the Open dialog box.
Chapter 25
FIGURE 25-1: A typical outline.
FIGURE 25-2: Topics in an outline.
Chapter 26
FIGURE 26-1: The comment box.
FIGURE 26-2: The shameful changes show up here.
FIGURE 26-3: Buttons for reviewing changes.
FIGURE 26-4: Inviting strangers on the Internet to abuse your work.
Chapter 27
FIGURE 27-1: A mail merge main document.
FIGURE 27-2: Making a recipient list.
Chapter 28
FIGURE 28-1: The Labels side of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.
FIGURE 28-2: The first label dictates how other labels are formatted.
FIGURE 28-3: The Envelopes side of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.
Chapter 29
FIGURE 29-1: The Customize Status Bar menu.
FIGURE 29-2: The Quick Access toolbar.
FIGURE 29-3: Adjusting the Quick Access toolbar.
FIGURE 29-4: A custom tab and groups on the ribbon.
FIGURE 29-5: Add-ins to peruse.
Chapter 30
FIGURE 30-1: Getting creative with Copilot.
FIGURE 30-2: The Copilot panel.
Chapter 31
FIGURE 31-1: Working on a document from side to side.
FIGURE 31-2: A drop cap.
FIGURE 31-3: The Navigation pane document map.
Chapter 33
FIGURE 33-1: The Mini toolbar.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Author
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Microsoft® 365 Word For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Media and software compilation copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Microsoft 365 is a trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Microsoft® 365 Word For Dummies®, 2ndEdition is an independent publication and is neither affiliated with, nor authorized, sponsored, or approved by, Microsoft Corporation.
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Introduction
The only thing standing between you and your writing is your word processor. Yes, it tries to be helpful, but computers can do only so much. As a smart person, you desire more help than the computer is capable of giving, which I’m guessing is why you opened this book.
Welcome to Word For Dummies, which removes the pain from using Microsoft’s greatest and most bewildering word processing software ever! This book is your friendly, informative, and entertaining guide to getting the most from Word.
Be warned: I’m not trying to force you to love Word. This book won’t make you enjoy the program. Use it, yes. Tolerate it, of course. The only promise I’m offering is to ease the pain that most people feel from using Microsoft Word. If you get in a good laugh at Word’s expense along the way, all the better.
About This Book
Please don’t read this book from cover to cover. It’s not a novel, and if it were, it would be a political space opera with an unlikely antihero and a plucky princess fighting corrupt elected officials who are in cahoots with an evil intergalactic urban renewal development corporation. The ending would be extremely satisfying.
This book is a reference. Each chapter covers a specific topic or task that Word otherwise pretends is easy. Within each chapter, you find self-contained sections, each of which describes how to perform a specific task or get something done. Here are some sample topics you encounter in this book:
Moving a block
Check your spelling
Save your stuff!
Text formatting techniques
Working with tables in Word
Plopping down a picture
Mail merge, ho!
Drafting with Copilot
I give you no codes to memorize, no secret incantations, and no tricks. Nothing is assumed, and everything is cross-referenced. Technical terms and topics, when they come up, are neatly shoved aside, where you can easily avoid reading them. The idea here isn’t for you to master anything. This book’s philosophy is to help you look it up, figure it out, and get back to writing that novel, grocery list, or secret plan to invade Liechtenstein.
How to Use This Book
You hold in your hands an active book. The topics between this book's yellow-and-black covers are all geared toward getting things done in Word. All you need to do is find the topic that interests you and then read.
Word uses the mouse and keyboard to get things done, but mostly the keyboard.
I use the word click to describe the action of clicking the mouse’s main (left) button.
This is a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+P. Press and hold down the Ctrl (Control) key and type the letter P, just as you would press Shift+P to create a capital P.
Sometimes, you must press more than two keys at the same time, such as Ctrl+Shift+T. Press Ctrl and Shift together and then press the T key. Release all three keys.
Commands in Word exist as command buttons on the ribbon interface. I refer to the tab, the command group, and then the button itself to help you locate a specific command button.
Menu commands are listed like this: Table ⇒ Insert Table. This direction tells you to click the Table command button and then choose the Insert Table item from the menu that appears.
Some of Word’s key commands dwell on the File screen. To access this screen, click the File tab on the ribbon. To return to the document, click the Back button, found in the upper left corner of the File screen and shown in the margin. Or you can press the Esc key.
When I describe a message or some text you see onscreen, it looks like this:
Why should I bother to love you, Evelyn, when myfemale robot makes better tacos?
If you need further help with operating your computer, I can recommend my book PCs For Dummies (Wiley). It contains lots of useful information to supplement what you find in this book.
Foolish Assumptions
This book was written with a few assumptions. Foremost, I assume that you're a human being, though you might also be a pod person, but, heck, they need to write, too.
Another foolish assumption I make is that you use Windows as the computer's operating system. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 are current, though which version you’re using makes no difference to this book. This book doesn’t cover Windows.
This book focuses on the Microsoft 365 subscription version of Microsoft Word. It also applies to the standalone version, as well as Microsoft Word online. Most recent versions of Word forward are similar, so you should be covered here. This book also mentions the Copilot artificial intelligence feature, which is an extra subscription service beyond Microsoft 365.
This book does not cover the macOS version of Word that runs on a Macintosh computer. This version of Word is different from what’s covered in this book. Very little of the text here applies to the macOS version of Word. Sorry.
Icons Used in This Book
This icon flags useful, helpful tips or shortcuts.
This icon marks a friendly reminder to do something.
This icon marks a friendly reminder not to do something.
This icon alerts you to overly nerdy information and technical discussions of the topic at hand. The information is optional reading, but it may enhance your reputation at cocktail parties if you repeat it.
Where to Go from Here
Start reading! Behold the table of contents and find something that interests you. Or look up your puzzle in the index.
Read! Write! Let your brilliance shine!
My email address is [email protected]. Yes, this is my real address. I reply to all email I receive, and you get a quick reply if you keep your question short and specific to this book or to Word itself. Although I enjoy saying hi, I cannot answer technical support questions or help you troubleshoot your computer. Thanks for understanding.
You can also visit my web page for more information or as a diversion: www.wambooli.com.
My YouTube channel contains hundreds of videos about Word, including tips, tricks, and tutorials. Check it out at youtube.com/dangookin.
To find this book’s online Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for Word For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
Enjoy this book. And enjoy Word. Or at least tolerate it.
Part 1
I’ll Take Word for $100
IN THIS PART …
See how to start Word and decipher the Word screen.
Explore differences between Word the program and Word online.
Get to know the computer keyboard and the touchscreen.
Learn how to read the status bar and discover special symbols representing secret characters in your text.
Chapter 1
Word Origins
IN THIS CHAPTER
Starting Word
Deciphering the Word screen
Understanding the ribbon
Viewing a document
Zooming in and out
Quitting Word
Minimizing Word
Before you get too far into word processing, keep in mind that the pencil is truly the ultimate writing tool. Its application is obvious. It’s easy to use, it’s wireless, and it features an eraser — the original Undo command. This information is presented in the seminal book Pencils For Dummies, which weighs in at a hefty six-and-a-half pages.
This book is far longer than Pencils For Dummies. The reason is that Microsoft Word is a far more powerful and sophisticated tool than your typical Ticonderoga #2. Though, as a bit of trivia, when Microsoft Word made its debut in 1983, one of the more popular word processing programs at the time was called Electric Pencil.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is Start. Yesterday’s word was Run. Tomorrow’s word is Launch.
These terms all describe how to begin your word processing day with Microsoft Word. Even so, the method by which you coax Word into existence depends upon what you want to do with the program.
Obviously, you can’t use Word unless your computer is on and toasty.
Please don’t put toast into your computer.
Word can be obtained as its own program, which is part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs, or as a subscription to the Microsoft 365 service.
The computer version of Word dwells on your PC’s mass storage device, where it labors as a program, like so many others.
The online version of Word abides ethereally on the Internet. Yes, the Internet must be available for you to access this version, though you can do so from a mobile device as well as from a computer.
Ensure that you sport a proper posture as you write. Your wrists should be even with your elbows. Your head should tilt down only slightly, though it’s best to look straight ahead. Keep your shoulders back and relaxed. Uncross your toes.
Starting Word, the program
As a program on your computer, Word is nothing special. It’s started like any other program, even those not used by great writers such as Tolstoy, Stein, and Faulkner. Follow these same steps as those authors writing their immortal texts:
Tap the Windows key on the keyboard.
The Windows key sits squat between the left Ctrl and Alt keys on the keyboard. The key may be adorned with the Windows logo icon or the keyboard manufacturer’s icon.
Upon success, the Start menu pops up.
Type word.
As you type, programs matching word appear on the Start menu. The program you desire is titled Word, with the subtitle App. Yes, App is the program’s last name.
Choose the Word app to start the program.
Watch in amazement as the program unfurls upon the screen.
Starting Word, the online version
The web-based version of Word works best when you’re already familiar with the program version. This pale version of the program is available at this address:
office.com/launch/word
POKING A PIN IN THE WORD PROGRAM
I use Word every dang doodle day. To make its initiation easy when inspiration strikes, I pin the Word program’s icon to the taskbar (in Windows 10) or the Start menu (in Windows 11). This pin draws no blood, but instead permanently affixes the program’s icon in a handy location from whence it can be started quickly.
To pin Word, follow Steps 1 and 2 in the earlier section “Starting Word, the program.” Below the Open item that appears, you find two other actions: Pin to Start and Pin to Taskbar. (If you don’t see these items in Windows 10, click the chevron to expand the list of actions.)
When you pin the Word icon to the Start menu, it’s readily accessible each time you pop up the Start menu.
Pinning the icon to the taskbar means the icon always appears on the taskbar, at the bottom of the screen.
Clicking the Word icon from its pinned location starts the program instantly, which gets you writing more quickly, before those lingering thoughts escape from your head.
If you aren’t already signed into your Microsoft account, you’ll be pestered to do so. After identifying yourself to the digital warden, you see the online version of the Word Start screen. See the later section “Working the Word Start screen.”
The online version of Word is limited from the full power of the Word program. Differences are ridiculed throughout this book.
You need a Microsoft 365 account to use the online version of Word.
Word online grants you access to the documents saved to your OneDrive folder.
OneDrive
is Microsoft’s cloud application, providing access to your files over the Internet. Microsoft badly wants you to use OneDrive and will pester you about it endlessly.
Opening a document to start Word
Word spawns documents like hens spawn eggs. Open an egg and you see breakfast. Open a Word document and you see the Word program with the document presented inside, ready for action — no cooking required.
To open a document and start Word, obey these steps:
Locate the document icon.
Use your Windows kung fu to open the proper folders and hunt down a Word document icon, as shown in the margin.
Online, browse your OneDrive folder for Word document icons, though the icon image is often replaced with a thumbnail image showing the document’s teeny-tiny contents.
Double-click the icon.
On OneDrive, a single click is all you need.
The document is opened and presented on the screen, ready to sate your writing whims.
You use Word to create documents. These are saved to storage on your computer or on the cloud. Details are offered in
Chapter 8
.
Documents you create on the cloud stay there — unless you have the cloud app (such as OneDrive) installed on your computer. In this configuration, the cloud files are also available on your computer. Likewise, files you save to the cloud storage folder (or one of its subfolders) on your computer are also available on the cloud, and you can use the online version of Word to abuse them.
The document’s name is assigned when it’s first saved. Use this name to determine the document’s contents — providing that it was properly named when first saved.
Documents are files. They exist separately from the Word program, saved individually on the computer’s storage media. As such, they are managed by Windows. To organize, manage, and find lost documents, you use Windows, not Word.
Your First Word
As a program, Word presents itself on the screen in a window adorned with various gadgets and goobers designed to assist or thwart you in the writing process. If you’ve been victimized by computers for some time, this presentation should be familiar to you, though some items may be new or odd. After all, if every program worked the same, people would be far happier using computers, and such a notion chills me.
Working the Word Start screen
Word begins its existence by thrusting forward a Start screen, illustrated in Figure 1-1.
FIGURE 1-1: The Word Start screen.
The advantage of the Start screen is that it shows recently opened documents. If you want to pick up working where you left off, choose a document from the items listed (refer to Figure 1-1).
To start a new document — that foreboding fresh sheet of digital paper — click the Blank Document button.
Recently used templates also appear in the list, allowing you to start a new document with styles, text, and stuff ready for you to work.
After making your choice, all excuses are gone. Time to start writing.
A
template
is a document that contains preset elements, such as formatting, styles, text, and possibly graphics. Use a template to help you start a common type of document, such as a résumé, a report, or an angry letter to the editor. See
Chapter 16
.
Pinned
documents are those you want to keep in the list shown on the Start screen, such as a recipe you’re working on to make it more digestible. Choose the Pinned tab (refer to
Figure 1-1
) to see the list.
Chapter 8
coughs up details on pinning a document.
The Word Start screen doesn't appear when you open a document to start Word, as foretold in the earlier section “
Opening a document to start Word
.”
You can disable the Start screen so that Word always opens with a blank document.
Chapter 33
discloses the secret. The Start screen cannot be disabled in Word’s web version.
The Word Start screen appears only when you first start the Word program. It doesn’t appear every dang time you start a new document while using the program.
Beholding Word’s main screen
Writing is scary enough when you first see that ominous blank page. With a computer, the level of terror increases because Word festoons its program window with all kinds of controls, options, and doodads. I recommend that you refer to Figure 1-2 to recognize what these items are called. Ignore this jargon at your peril.
The details of how all these gizmos work, and the terms to describe them, are covered throughout this book. The good news is that the basic task of typing text is straightforward. See Chapter 2 to get started.
The view buttons (Read Mode, Print Layout, and Web Layout in the lower right corner in
Figure 1-2
) are absent from the online version of Word.
To get the most from Word’s window, adjust its size: Use the mouse to drag the window’s edges outward. You can also click the window’s Maximize button (refer to Figure 1-2) to have the window fill the screen.
The largest portion of Word’s screen is used for composing text. It looks like a fresh sheet of paper, but it doesn’t smell the same. If you choose to use a template to start a new document, this area may contain some preset text.
FIGURE 1-2: Word's visage.
Navigating the ribbon
An important part of Word’s interface is the ribbon. This festive name refers to a location where the majority of Word’s commands dwell and where settings are made. These items appear as buttons, input boxes, and menus. Alas, you find no bows on the ribbon.
The ribbon is divided into tabs, as illustrated in Figure 1-3. Each tab holds separate groups. Within the groups, you find the command buttons and doodads that carry out various word processing duties.
To use the ribbon, first click a tab and then choose a command from a group. For example, to set the right paragraph alignment, click the Home tab and then look in the Paragraph group for the Align Right button. Click the button to activate the command.
Some buttons feature a menu, which pops up automatically or when you click the down-pointing chevron next to the button.
FIGURE 1-3: The ribbon.
Various tabs on the ribbon may feature a gallery, which is a palette of buttons that preview information, such as the paragraph styles shown in Figure 1-3. Click the Show Gallery button to display the entire gallery of thumbnails.
This book describes finding commands on the ribbon in this manner: tab, group, command button.
The online version of Word features a different ribbon, more abbreviated than the full Word program.
Some items on the ribbon let you input text or values.
Use the Dialog Box Launcher icon in the lower right corner of a group to open a dialog box that’s relevant to the group's function. Not every group features a dialog box launcher.
The amazingly frustrating thing about the ribbon is that it can change. Some tabs appear and disappear, depending on what you're doing in Word. Groups and icons (buttons) come and go, depending on the width of Word’s program window.
To ensure that you always see all command buttons on the ribbon, adjust the program’s window as wide as is practical.
Clicking the File tab replaces the contents of the Word window with a screen full of commands and other information. To return to the Word window, click the Back button (shown in the margin) or press the keyboard’s Esc key.
Showing and hiding the ribbon
Yes, some users desire the ribbon to go away and be replaced by the familiar old menu system. Alas, this change will never happen. But, to ensure that you hold a continued level of frustration, Microsoft believes that showing and hiding the ribbon is a feature. Don’t be surprised when the ribbon disappears altogether, though you can control its fate.
To resolve ribbon frustrations, use the Ribbon Options menu, located at the far right end of the ribbon, shown in Figure 1-3. Choose an item to determine how to display the ribbon. These are your choices:
Full Screen Mode:
The most annoying choice; the Word program engulfs the entire screen, and the ribbon disappears. Click the top part of the screen to show the ribbon. With the ribbon again visible, choose another option from the Ribbon Options menu to revive the ribbon.
Show Tabs Only:
With this choice, only the ribbon’s tabs appear. Click a tab to reveal the bulk of the ribbon, which disappears again after you choose a command.
Always Show Ribbon:
This option shows the entire ribbon — tabs and commands — as illustrated in
Figures 1-2
and
1-3
. This is probably the choice you want.
There’s no truth to the rumor that the ribbon was originally going to be called the enchilada. Microsoft programmers joked that you could show “the whole enchilada” when using Word, though upper management lacked a sense of humor on the matter.
Word 2007 was the first version of the program to introduce the ribbon interface. Before then, Word used a messy array of menus and toolbars to hold its commands.
Using Word on a touchscreen
Word processing is a typing thing, so my guess is that most of the time you work the Word program, you’re using a keyboard and mouse. For laptops, tablets, and desktop PCs with a touchscreen, you can activate the ribbon’s Touch mode. This mode adjusts the spacing between buttons on the ribbon, making it easier for you to stab various buttons by using your stubby fingers.
Follow these steps to enable Touch mode for Word’s ribbon:
Click or touch the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button.
The button appears to the right of the Quick Access toolbar (refer to Figure 1-2).
Choose Touch/Mouse Mode.
The Touch Mode button appears on the Quick Access toolbar, shown in the margin.
The Touch/Mouse Mode button doesn’t activate the Touch Mode feature. No, that would make too much sense. Instead, tap the button to choose between Mouse mode and Touch mode for the ribbon’s presentation.
In Mouse mode, the buttons on the ribbon appear closer together.
In Touch mode, more space is added between the buttons, which makes it easier for you to tap the proper command on the touchscreen.
Deactivating Touch mode doesn’t remove any fingerprints or smudges from the monitor.
Changing the document view
You never had to worry about a sheet of paper changing its size or text when using a typewriter. The Microsoft Word program is far more fickle when it comes to presenting a document in its window: The blank area where you write can be altered to present information in different ways. Why would you want to do that? You don’t! But it helps to know about the different ways the view can change so that you can change it back.
Here are your view choices:
Print Layout:
This view is the standard way to view a document. Print Layout is the view shown in this book, and it’s how Word typically presents a document. A virtual page appears on the screen, with four sides, like a sheet of paper with text in the middle. What you see on the screen is pretty much what you’ll see in the results, whether printed or published as an electronic document.
Read Mode:
Use this view to read a document like an eBook. The ribbon, and pretty much the rest of Word, is hidden while in Read Mode.
Web Layout:
This view presents a document as a web page. It’s available should you use Word’s dubious potential as a web page editor.
Focus:
It’s the briefest of presentations. Only the document and your text appear — no controls or other whatnot.
Immersive Reader:
This funky presentation allows Word to read your document to you.
Outline:
This mode helps you organize your thoughts, as covered in
Chapter 25
.
Draft:
Draft view presents only basic text, not all the formatting and fancy features, such as graphics.
To switch between Read Mode, Print Layout, and Web Layout views, click the related icon found in the lower right corner of the Word program window (refer to Figure 1-2). These buttons are absent in the online version of Word.
To get to Outline and Draft views, as well as to see all View modes in one location, click the View tab and choose the appropriate command button from the Views group. The Focus and Immersive Reader options appear in the Immersive group.
Not all views are available in the online version of Word.
When your document looks weird, switch back to Print Layout view. Click the Print Layout button on the status bar, or click the View tab and choose Print Layout in the Views group.
Viewing a document vertically or side-to-side
Since the first teletype machine, documents presented on a computer scroll vertically. Word documents inherit this vertical scrollability — unless you prefer a side-by-side presentation, like a book.
To make the switch, click the View tab and gander at the Page Movement group. Click the Vertical button to view a document vertically; click the Side to Side button to page through your document from left to right.
The side-to-side option works best on a large monitor when the Word program window is maximized. Otherwise, the text becomes too small to work with.
Word also lets you view two different documents side-by-side or even the same document in two windows. See
Chapter 24
for details.
Making the document appear larger or smaller
Word’s digital equivalent of a magnifying glass is the Zoom command. It enlarges or reduces a document’s presentation, making it easier to see without altering the text size (font size).
Several methods are available to zoom in or out of a document in Word. The most obvious is to use the Zoom control, found in the lower right corner of the Word window on the status bar, illustrated earlier, in Figure 1-2. Adjust the slider right or left to make the text larger or smaller, respectively.
HELP ME, WORD!
As in most Windows programs, a Help system is available in Word. In addition to the Help tab on the ribbon, press the F1 key to summon this support, which displays the Word Help pane to the side of the document window. There, you can type a topic, a command name, or even a question in the box to search for help.
The ribbon also features a Help tab, which provides other options, such as online support and training. Be aware that the Help feature may be unavailable without an Internet connection or when Word otherwise is feeling unhelpful.
To set specific zoom sizes, click the 100% button on the status bar. Use the Zoom dialog box to set a size based on percentage, page width, or even multiple pages.
Zooming doesn't affect how a document prints — only how it looks on the screen.
For more specific zoom control, click the View tab and use the commands found in the Zoom group.
If the computer’s mouse has a wheel button, you can zoom by holding the Ctrl key on the keyboard and rolling the mouse wheel up or down. Rolling up zooms in; rolling down zooms out.
Last Word
It's the pinnacle of etiquette to know when to leave, or even whether to leave. Typically, I leave a party when the host returns to the room wearing his pajamas or when I realize that he’s already in bed. Sadly, the Word program doesn’t wear pajamas, so you’re left with three options for bidding adieu: Quit the program outright, close a document, or put Word aside like that fresh cup of tea you forgot about in the kitchen three hours ago.
Quitting Word
When you've finished word processing and you aren't expecting to return to it anytime soon, quit the Word program: Click the X button in the upper right corner of the Word program window, as illustrated earlier, in Figure 1-2.
The catch? You must close every dang doodle Word document window that’s open before you can proclaim that you’ve completely quit Word.
The other catch? Word won’t quit during that shameful circumstance when you’ve neglected to save a document. If so, you’re prompted to save, as shown in Figure 1-4. My advice is to click the Save button to save your work; see Chapter 8 for specific document-saving directions.
FIGURE 1-4: Better click that Save button.
When you click the Don’t Save button, your work isn’t saved and Word quits anyway, not thinking any less of you.
To continue working on the document, click the Cancel button.
You don't have to quit Word just to start editing another document. Refer to the next couple of sections for helpful, time-saving information.
Closing a document without quitting Word
To finish one document and start on another, you close the first document. You don’t need to quit Word to do so, which is a time-saver. Heed these directions:
Click the File tab.
The File screen appears. Various commands litter the left side of the screen.
Choose the Close command.
The Close command for the online version of Word doesn’t close the document. Only the Close command for the Word program closes the open document.
Save the document, if you’re prompted to do so.
The shame! Always save before closing.
After the document has closed, you return to the main Word window. You don’t see a document in the window, and many of the ribbon’s command buttons are dimmed (unavailable). At this point, you can create a new document or open a previously saved document. These options are available from the File tab.
There’s no urgency to close a document. I keep mine open all day as I flit in and out of my office, pretending to do work — but save often. To return to the document-in-progress, click the Word button on the Windows taskbar.
The keyboard shortcut for the Close command is Ctrl+W. The letter
W
may seem weird, as I can think of no synonym for
Close
with a
W
in it, but it’s a standard keyboard shortcut, used to close documents in many programs on several planets.
To swiftly start a new, blank document in Word, press the Ctrl+N keyboard shortcut. Yes, N stands for new.
Setting Word aside
Don’t quit Word when you know that you’ll use it again soon. In fact, I've been known to keep Word open and running on my computer for weeks at a time. The secret is to use the Minimize button, found in the upper right corner of the screen (refer to Figure 1-2).
Click the Minimize button to shrink the Word window to a button on the taskbar. With the Word window out of the way, you can do other things with your computer: shop, play games, argue on social media, and so on. Then when the boss shows up, click the Word button on the taskbar to restore the full, glorious Word window to the desktop.
Chapter 2
The Typing Chapter
IN THIS CHAPTER
Knowing the keyboard and mouse
Using the spacebar
Using the Enter key
Observing the status bar
Minding the space between pages
Showing and hiding hidden characters
Dealing with weird underlines
Long before all the fancy graphics, the mouse, and computer programs became popular, typing was how you processed words. I remember learning to type in junior high school, all 30 students clacking along at their manual typewriters in sync to The Blue Danube. Things move faster today, but typing is still a necessity.
You must know how to type to gain the most benefit from Word. But using a keyboard involves more than the old hunt-and-peck. Keyboard commands and shortcuts can tie your fingers into knots. Get to know how typing works on a word processor and your life will be easier — although I do miss that reassuring “ding!” when the typewriter reached the end of a line.
The New Hunt-and-Peck
When you process words, you use your fingers and one thumb to manipulate the computer keyboard. Typing is an important part of getting text on a page, but also important is the mouse. No, you don’t type with the mouse, but you do some pointing and clicking in addition to clickity-clack-clacking.
Using the PC keyboard
When you’re presented with a toaster, a forklift, and a computer keyboard, I’m guessing that you can successfully pick out the computer keyboard most of the time. But what do you know about the details? After all, the thing has over 100 keys. I know because I counted them. To avoid confusion (or to help promote it), the computer keyboard is organized into different areas, as illustrated in Figure 2-1.
FIGURE 2-1: A typical PC keyboard.
Out of the 100-plus keys, a few play important roles in the word processing task:
Enter:
Marked with the word
Enter
and sometimes a cryptic, bent-arrow thing, this key ends a paragraph of text. See the later section “
Pressing the Enter key
.”
Spacebar:
Not the place where Captain Kirk orders his drinks, this wide key inserts a space between words and sentences. Yes, just one space. See the section “
Whacking the spacebar
.”
Tab:
This key inserts the Tab character, which shoves the next text you type over to the next tab stop, as described in
Chapter 12
. The Tab key is also used to complete a predictive text suggestion; see the section “
Using text predictions
.”
Backspace and Delete:
Use these keys to back up and erase text. Read more about these keys in
Chapter 4
.
Each character key you press on the typewriter-keys area of the keyboard produces a character in your Word document, on the blank part where you write. Typing those character keys over and over is how you create text in a word processor. That’s how Shakespeare did it.
A laptop keyboard’s layout is different from the desktop keyboard layout, shown earlier, in
Figure 2-1
. For example, most laptop keyboards lack a numeric keypad. The cursor keys are clustered tightly around the typewriter keys in unusual and creative patterns. The function keys might be accessed by pressing special key combinations.
Keys on the numeric keypad can be number keys or cursor keys. The split personality is evident on each key cap, which displays two symbols. When the Num Lock key’s lamp is on, the keys generate numbers. When the lamp is off, the keys serve as duplicate cursor keys.
Cursor keys control the cursor, which is officially known as the
insertion pointer
in Microsoft Word. The cursor keys include the four arrow keys (up, down, left, right) plus the keys Home, End, PgUp (or Page Up), PgDn (or Page Down), Insert, and Delete.
Ctrl is pronounced “control.” It’s the Control key.
The Delete key may also be labeled Del on the keyboard.
The
modifier
keys — Shift, Ctrl, and Alt — work in combination with other keys.
Yes, your keyboard may look different from what’s shown in
Figure 2-1
. You may find bonus keys, knobs to adjust the computer’s speaker volume, media keys, monkeys, and donkeys. These bonus keys have nothing to do with word processing.
Working the touch keyboard
Two-in-one laptops, tablets, and other touchscreen devices sport an onscreen keyboard called the touch keyboard. You can use this keyboard when a real keyboard is unavailable to type text in Word. In fact, in Windows, you can summon the onscreen keyboard regardless of whether the computer has a touchscreen: Press the Win+Ctrl+O (letter O) keyboard shortcut. The onscreen keyboard appears, as shown in Figure 2-2.
For email or short missives, the onscreen keyboard is tolerable. And though you look so high-tech using it, for true word processing, use a real keyboard instead. Don’t torture yourself.
The onscreen keyboard’s operation works basically the same as a physical keyboard: You type text using your fingers, albeit probably not as fast as on a physical keyboard.
Accessing some of the specialized keys (function keys, cursor keys, and others) is problematic. Sometimes they’re available by choosing a different touchscreen keyboard layout, but often they’re unavailable.
FIGURE 2-2: The touch keyboard.
Using the Ctrl key on the onscreen keyboard is a two-step process: Tap the Ctrl key and then touch another key — for example, Ctrl and then the S key, for Ctrl+S.
Not all Ctrl-key combinations in Word can be replicated by using the onscreen keyboard.
Refer to
Chapter 1
for information on activating Touch mode, which makes it easier to use Word on a tablet.
Understanding the mouse pointer
Though word processing is a keyboardy task, you inevitably lift your hand from the keyboard to fondle the computer mouse. Use the mouse to choose commands, to select text, and to scurry around the document. Specific information on these tasks is concealed throughout this book. For now, it helps to understand how the mouse pointer changes its appearance as you work in Word:
For editing text, the mouse pointer becomes the I-beam.
For choosing items, the standard 11 o’clock mouse pointer is used.
For selecting lines of text, a 1 o’clock mouse pointer is used.
The mouse pointer changes its appearance when the click-and-type feature is active: Teensy lines appear below and to the left and right of the I-beam mouse pointer. Refer to Chapter 32 to learn why no one uses click-and-type.
When you point the mouse at a command button or any icon on the Word screen, you see a pop-up information bubble. The text in the bubble describes the command and perhaps offers a hint on how the command is used. Do not try to pop the bubble.
Keyboard Do’s and Don’ts
You don’t need to be a 70-words-per-minute touch typist to use a word processor. And, if you don’t know how to type, see the nearby sidebar, “Do I need to learn to type?” — although I can tell you that the answer is, “Yes, you need to learn to type.” It also helps to know a few typing do’s and don’ts that are specific to word processing.
Following the insertion pointer
Text you compose in Word appears at the insertion pointer’s location. The insertion pointer looks like a flashing vertical bar:
|
Open and close your eyes as you look at this insertion pointer on this page to form an idea of how it appears on the screen.
“DO I NEED TO LEARN TO TYPE?”
No one needs to learn to type to use any computer program, though knowing how to type is a huge plus. My advice is to find a computer program that teaches you to type. I can recommend the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing program, even though I receive no money from her and none of her children resemble me. I just like the name Mavis, I suppose.
I’m forced to mention the program Typing Instructor Platinum, though none of these words pleases me.
No matter which software you choose for typing training, knowing how to type makes the word processing chore a tad more enjoyable.
Characters you type appear before the insertion pointer, one at a time. After a character appears, the insertion pointer hops to the right, making room for more text.
The insertion pointer moves as you type, but its location can be set to any position in the document’s text.
Chapter 3
covers moving the insertion pointer.
Some documentation refers to the insertion pointer as the cursor. The mouse pointer might also be referred to as the cursor. For clarity, this book refers to the insertion pointer and mouse pointer without using the term cursor.
Whacking the spacebar
Pressing the spacebar inserts a space character into the text. Spaces are important between words and sentences. Withoutthemreadingwouldbedifficult.
The most important thing to remember about the spacebar is that you need to whack it only once when word processing. Only one space appears between words and after punctuation. That's it!
I'm serious! Back in the dark ages, typing instructors directed students to add two spaces between sentences. This extra space was necessary for readability because typewriters used monospaced characters. On a computer, however, the second space adds little to the text and potentially leads to formatting woes down the road.
Word flags two spaces between words as a grammatical error. See
Chapter 7
.
Anytime you feel like you need two or more spaces in a document, use a tab instead. Tabs are best for indenting text as well as for lining up text in columns. See
Chapter 12
for details.
Backing up and erasing
Two keys are used to obliterate text: Backspace and Delete.
