Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 5

1
INTRODUCTION TO WORD
Writing a Conference Call letter

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Lesson 1 makes the assumption that you are already familiar with the Windows computing
environment, though you may not be an expert in its use. If you are using a computer in a lab at
school, you'll also know:
• where to find the computer lab on campus;
• how to turn the computer on;
• how to log on to the system (if necessary, using your login name and password);
You also should be familiar with the Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers (the so-called
WIMP interface) with which you interact with the computer.
A note to the instructor and students
For the sake of these tutorials, we will assume students are using 3.5" floppy disks rather than,
for example, CD-RW discs or zip disks. Feel free to use two CD-RW discs or two zip disks if
you wish, where the second disk will be used as a backup for all the files. Just create three new
folders on each disk, giving the folders the names specified for the floppy disks above (folder
names such as: Work Disk files, Access files, PowerPoint files).
Lesson 1 also assumes that you have a copy of the work files that you will find on the Work
Disk, the Access Disk, and the PowerPoint Disk which accompany these tutorials.
You should also have prepared (formatted and labeled—with the disk’s name and your own
name clearly written on the label) the following six other floppy disks on which to save your
work:
• a disk named Work Disk Backup on which you should make a backup copy of the
contents of the Work Disk1;
• a disk named Access Disk Backup on which you should make a backup copy of the
contents of the Access Disk;

1 One way to make a backup copy of a floppy disk, put the original disk (in this case the Work Disk, Access Disk,
or PowerPoint Disk) in the floppy disk drive, then double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and
right click on the 3½” Floppy (A:) icon. In the menu that pops up, select Copy Disk... and then follow the
directions on the screen. You’ll be asked to replace the disk you’re copying with the appropriate backup disk half
way through the process, so keep your eyes on the screen and your wits about you!
6 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

• a disk named PowerPoint Disk Backup on which you should make a backup copy of the
contents of the PowerPoint Disk;
• two blank, formatted, 1.44 mbyte floppy disks named Data Disk and Data Disk Backup,
on which to save the documents you will create using these tutorials.
If you do not have all these disks at hand, get them ready now before proceeding with this
tutorial. Getting them ready means:
• if necessary, formatting each one for a Windows computer;
• putting a blank sticky label on each disk;
• writing your name on each label, along with the name of the disk as indicated above.
You are now ready to learn about the Microsoft Word word processor.

A caveat (warning) before you begin: You'll find it easiest to use the tutorial if you follow the
directions carefully. On computers there are always other ways of doing things, but if you
wander off on your own be sure you know your way back!

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Words are among the most important tools of a teacher's trade. You owe it to yourself and to
your students to use words to the best of your ability, and the word processor is the perfect tool
for such a purpose. As you will see, the word processor makes revisions easy and thus
encourages you to correct errors in grammar, spelling, and style.
In this tutorial you will learn the steps required to produce a word processor document from
scratch. These include:
• opening and naming a new word processor document
• some helpful hints while using the word processor
• entering and saving a document
• updating and simple formatting of a document
• checking the document for spelling and grammar errors
• printing the document
• making a backup copy of the document
These days, it's likely you're not a beginner to word processing, so you may think you don't need
to complete this tutorial. That would be a mistake. Most computer users learn only the basics of
what they think they need to use a piece of software, without taking the trouble to learn the many
other features that are very useful.
In other words, even if you've used a word processor for a while, there's a real good chance
you'll learn something new in this beginner's tutorial. So please work your way through it
conscientiously with a view to learning new things.
You'll be surprised at what you don't know! More important, you'll be glad you took the trouble
to complete the tutorial.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 7

1.1 OPENING AND NAMING A NEW WORD PROCESSOR DOCUMENT

Before you can use Microsoft Word, you must first open the program. If this is your first time
using Word for Windows1, here's what you need to do:
Click on the Start button in the lower left corner of the screen, then from the
Programs submenu select Microsoft Word (you may need to choose from
the Word Processing or Microsoft Office submenu—Fig. 1.1)

Fig. 1.1 Open Microsoft Word by clicking on the Word program icon
If you can find Microsoft Word for yourself, open the program. Otherwise get help from a friend,
or your instructor, or from the lab supervisor. After you have opened Word, you should have a
new blank document open on your screen.

1 Apple Mac users may have to follow slightly different steps, though we're confident you'll figure out what to do.
Why? Because Apple led the way with broad-based application of Xerox's WIMP interface which Xerox, too,
recognizes as Doug Englebart's 1960's stroke of genius. In other words, Doug Englebart, if anyone, should be
recognized as the inventor of the WIMP interface which we all now use to browse computer applications.
8 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

If this is not the case, then just select New from the File menu
Showing the Full menus and organizing the Toolbars
When learning any of the Office programs, it's very useful to see the full menus at all times.
When you first use Microsoft Word, you will see that only a few items show up when you select
one of the pull down menus at the top of the window. To see the full menus, you have to either
double click on the menu name, or slide down to the arrows at the bottom of the menu, or, worse
still, wait for the full menu to reveal itself, which it will after a few seconds. But for this tutorial,
we're going to be using quite a few menu items that do not normally appear when you first click
to select a menu. So let's set the Option in Word to Show Full Menus all the time.
In the Tools menu, select Customize…, then in the dialog box that pops up,
select the Options tab (Fig. 1.2)

Fig. 1.2 The Customize dialog box

Make sure there is a check mark next to the item to Always show full menus
While you're at it, check the box next to Show Standard and Formatting toolbars
on two rows, List font names in their font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars
Click the Close button when you're done
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 9

There… Now you'll get the full menus and the other features all the time—if you're working at
your own computer, that is.
If you find this tip useful, and let's say you're working in a school's computer lab where you can't
permanently set defaults like this, remember to select the Customize… option from the Tools
menu when you start work using any of the programs in the Office suite (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Access, and so forth). It'll save you no end of time and annoyance.
Fig 1.3 is an annotated picture of the screen you should be looking at now. Take a moment to
locate each of the toolbars, tabs tool, ruler bar, and indent markers. You'll be using them all in
this lesson.

Title bar
Menu bar
Standard toolbar Ruler bar
Formatting toolbar

Tool for
setting Tab Indent Markers
stops

Fig. 1.3 Annotated picture of the new Word document

Now on with the tutorial…
Let's take a closer look at this new document window.
As you see, there are four bars at the top of the window.
• The blue bar along the top is the Title bar, which tells you the name of the
document that’s in the window. You also use the Title bar to move the window
around on the screen when it is minimized.
• Right under the Title bar is the Menu bar, which you are probably familiar with
already.
• The Standard and Formatting toolbars provide you with tools represented as icons
which enable you to carry out many tasks without needing to go to the menus.
These toolbars are there to save you time.
10 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

Fig. 1.4 shows the Task Pane on the right side of the window.

Every document The Task Pane's

is given a default Close window
name which you tool
should change
right away by
saving the empty
document using a
name that is
meaningful to
you
The Office XP
Task Pane

Fig. 1.4 Intro window for a new Word document

Saving the new Word document
Look at the name of the new document at the top left of the screen (Fig. 1.4). As you can see, the
new document is named "Document1". The document is so called because you haven't yet given
it a name.
It's always a good idea to give a new document a name of your own immediately, before you
even enter any data, and save it on the disk on which you intend to keep it. Otherwise what can
happen (and often does) is that the document gets saved with this default name and the next
thing you know, you have on your disk a whole bunch of documents with meaningless names.
Naming documents sensibly, and keeping them in folders organized according to categories
of documents is part of good computer management. This is easy enough to do. Here are the
steps in case you don't already know.
Put your Data Disk in the disk drive and select Save As from the File menu
Word displays the Save As dialog box (Fig. 1.5), prompting you among other things to select the
disk on which you want to save the document, to create or select a folder in which to save it, and
to name of the document.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 11

Click on this yellow

folder icon to Create a
New Folder

Click on this arrow to pull

down the list of storage
disks or folders on your
computer

List of disk drives and other

storage locations on your
computer

Type the document name here

Fig. 1.5 The Save As dialog box

Click on the small arrow at the end of the Save In: box
Notice the drop down menu that appears listing the various disk drives on your computer (Fig.
1.5). If you are saving your documents on a 3½" floppy disk, your disk will be in the A: drive.
Click on the disk drive that contains your disk in order to open it
Creating a new folder on a disk
Next you need to open a new folder on your disk for all your word processor documents.
In the Save As dialog box click on the Create New Folder icon (Fig. 1.4)
You'll now see a dialog box to name the new folder (Fig. 1.5).

Fig. 1.5 New Folder dialog box

Most every Windows dialog box has a default response which you can select by hitting the Enter
key on your keyboard. If you look carefully at the buttons in the New Folder dialog box, you'll
see that one of them (the OK button in this case) has a heavier border around it.
12 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

For the new folder’s name, type Word Processor Documents and hit the
Enter key (or click on OK)
In the File name: data entry box, type Conference Call to replace the default
name (document1, say) and press Enter (or click on the Save button)
The Save As option thus allows you to name your documents and at the same time determine the
location (the folder, on a particular disk) on which you want to store them. In effect, by naming
the document and specifying the location on which it will be stored, you are reserving a space for
it on the disk.

1.2 SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING THE WORD PROCESSOR

You will shortly type the Conference Call letter into this new word processor document. But
before you start, take note of the helpful hints that follow.
Get to know the tools in the Toolbars
Recall that Word has Standard and Formatting toolbars towards the top of the screen with icons
for commonly used tools that you can click on to quickly carry out many word processing tasks.
Fig. 1.3 above shows you where these toolbars are on your screen. You’ll get to know several of
these tools (and the tools on other toolbars) as you work your way through these tutorials. If you
need to review them again, you should take a look at the Standard and Formatting tools now in
anticipation of using them as you go along.
Move the mouse pointer up to the toolbars and, without clicking, just
position the pointer on one tool icon at a time till you see the description of
the tool
Read the pop up description and familiarize yourself with each of the tools
now
Word processing is not the same as using a typewriter
As you type at the computer keyboard, the letters will appear on the screen. If you are new to
word processing, you need to be aware of the one major difference between using a computer
and using a typewriter. When using a typewriter you have to move the carriage back at the end of
every line so you can start typing at the beginning of the next line on the page. This is called a
carriage return.
When you use a word processor, however, the system takes care of the end of each line. As
you type away in word processing, the program is aware that you are getting to the end of the
line, and it will automatically "wrap around" a word to the beginning of the next line if the word
doesn't fit completely on the end of a line. This means that you don't have to worry about
hyphenating words that are broken up over two lines—unless you want to, of course.
So the only time you need to hit the Enter key is at the end of a paragraph, whether the
paragraph be one word, one line, or several lines.
Type the following passage so you can practice this now (remember, don't
press the Enter key until you get to the end of the paragraph)—don’t worry if
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 13

your text wraps around differently; the lines on your screen may be longer or
shorter, which doesn’t matter for this exercise
And though he tried to look properly severe for his students, Fletcher Seagull suddenly saw
them all as they really were, just for a moment, and he more than liked, he loved what he
saw. No limits, Jonathan? he thought, and he smiled. His race to learn had begun.1

Now press Enter at the end of the paragraph

Notice how the word processor takes care of the end of each line.
There are two cursors you need to know about
When you are word processing, there are two independent cursors you need to know about. One
is called the I–beam cursor and the other is called the Insertion point cursor (Fig. 1.6).

Fig. 1.6 The two kinds of cursors

The I–beam cursor is so called because it looks a bit like an uppercase "I". It becomes an arrow
when positioned outside the page borders or when rolled into the left margin of the page. Try the
following for practice.
Roll the mouse around and notice how the I–beam cursor follows along and
changes to an arrow each time you cross the page border or roll across into
the left margin
• The Insertion point cursor (which blinks on and off on the screen and is not directly
controlled by the mouse) is so called because it indicates exactly where characters will
appear in the text when you type at the keyboard.
• The I–beam cursor is under the control of the mouse and allows you, by clicking on the
left mouse button, to position the insertion point cursor anywhere in the text of your
document. Practice will help you understand how this works.
Use the mouse to move the I–beam cursor on the screen so it is positioned
immediately before the word "Fletcher", then click the left mouse button and
roll the mouse away to your right

1 From the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull: a story" by Richard Bach. New York, NY: Avon, 1970.
14 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

The insertion point cursor, which originally was positioned at the end of the Livingston Seagull
quote, should now be blinking on and off right in front of the word "Fletcher." Notice how you
used the mouse and the I–beam cursor to change the position of the insertion point cursor.
Now position the I–beam cursor immediately before the word "though" in the
first line click the left mouse button so as to move the insertion point cursor
to the same place
Type the word "even" followed by a space
Now click at the end of the paragraph (after the final period (.))
This takes a bit of getting used to, but the more you practice the more natural it will become.
Correcting errors while entering text
If you see you've made a mistake and you want to fix it before you go on, use the mouse to put
the insertion point cursor immediately after the mistake, press the Backspace key (Fig. 1.7) as
many times as necessary to remove the incorrect character(s); then retype the data.

Fig. 1.7 The difference between the Backspace and Del(ete) keys
You can also use the Del(ete) key for this purpose. To use this key you position the cursor
immediately ahead of the character(s) you want to delete. So the Backspace key works
backwards and the Del(ete) key works forwards (Fig. 1.7).
After you’ve deleted the text, you would use the mouse to click at the point in the document
where you want to resume typing. Try the following example.
Position the cursor right after the word "even" in the first line
Press the Backspace key till the word "even" and the extra space have
been deleted, then click at the end of the paragraph to position the cursor
there
Removing unwanted Returns (using the Hide/Show ¶ option)
You can have Word show you exactly in your document where you hit the Enter key (say, at the
end of paragraphs). Here's one way you can do this.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 15

In the Tools menu select Options

The Options dialog box pops up on the screen (Fig. 1.8).

Select the
View tab

Check the
Paragraph
Marks box

Fig. 1.8 The Options dialog box

Make sure you have the View tab selected
In the Formatting marks section, click to put a check mark in the box next to
Paragraph marks, then click on OK
Notice now the ¶ symbol where you hit Enter at the end of the paragraph. This is OK if you want
those symbols to show all the time, but often they can be distracting and messy since they don't
let you see the document as it will eventually appear on paper. So, another (quicker and more
flexible) way to turn the Paragraph marks option on or off is to select the ¶ icon in the
Formatting toolbar. Here’s how you do this.
Go to the Formatting toolbar towards the top of the document window—if
necessary (Fig. 1.9), click on the small arrow at the end of the toolbar to
bring up the remaining set of formatting tools available to you
16 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

Fig. 1.9 Showing or Hiding Paragraph marks

Notice the Paragraph marks symbol (¶) which you can simply click on to
show or hide paragraph marks without needing to go to the Options dialog
box
Since this is a better way to go, let's turn off the Paragraph marks option in the Options dialog
box before we proceed.
In the Tools menu select Options, then make sure you have the View tab
selected and, in the Formatting marks section, click to remove the check
mark from the box next to Paragraph marks, then click on OK
You should still have paragraph marks showing in your document, but if you
don't, just go to the icon in the formatting toolbar and turn them back on
Now, position the cursor at the beginning of the third line of your text, then hit
the Enter key twice
Notice the ¶ symbols that show you where you hit the Enter key (one at the end of the previous
line, and the other on the empty line ahead of the cursor).
Now remove the Paragraph marks you just entered by pressing the
Backspace key twice
Undoing unintended actions
If you do something you didn't intend, like make a mistake, you'll select Undo from the Edit
menu.
Check this option in the Edit menu now so you can see it for yourself
A quicker way to go is to use the shortcut ctrl-z on your keyboard. You also can undo by
clicking on the Undo tool ( ) in the Standard toolbar.
You can undo any number of recent actions by clicking on the arrow next to the Undo tool in
the Standard toolbar (Fig. 1.10).

Click on the
arrow next to the
Undo tool to see
a list of all recent
actions

Fig. 1.10 Selecting a recent action to undo

Be careful when you use this feature, however, because if you undo, say, 11 actions, all the
actions you did prior to that will also be undone!
Scrolling through a document
We need to open a longer document so you can practice various ways of scrolling.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 17

Take out the Data disk from the disk drive and replace it with your Work Disk
From the File menu select Open and, from the Practice Files folder, open
the document called Study Guide
On the right of the screen you have a vertical scroll bar; at the bottom of the screen you have a
horizontal scroll bar (Fig. 1.11).

Fig. 1.11 The scrolling features in Windows

At either end of the scroll bars are arrows pointing in opposite directions (up and down, or left
and right). Clicking on these arrows will scroll a document up or down, left or right, depending
on which arrow you select.
Try this now by clicking on the scroll arrows to move the scroll boxes in the
vertical and horizontal scroll bars
You can scroll a lot faster by positioning the mouse arrow on the scroll box itself, holding down
the left mouse button, and dragging the box up or down, left or right, in the scroll bars.

Try this, too

If you click above or below, or to the left or right of the scroll boxes inside the scroll bars, this
causes the document to scroll in jumps, from section to section, page to page
18 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

Try this as well

You also can scroll and position the cursor very precisely, character by character, by using the
arrow key pad on the keyboard.

Try this as well

Finally, yet another scrolling option is available to you if you have a mouse with a rubberized
wheel between the buttons on top (Fig. 12).

Fig. 1.12 The scrolling wheel on the mouse

When you have finished experimenting with the scroll bars, Close the Study
Guide document, take out the Work Disk, and put your Data Disk back in
the disk drive
Renaming a document
You will sometimes want to rename a document that you've already saved on your disk. There
are several ways to do this from the desktop, as you may already know. Ask your instructor or a
friend to show you if you don't.
In Word, or in any other Office application, you would open the document you want to
rename and simply Save As... This will give you the opportunity to save the document with a
new name of your choice. Bear in mind, though, that when you do this, the document with the
original name will still be on your disk—a second copy, if you like. If you don't want to keep
this copy, you should delete it right away so as to remove unwanted clutter from your disk space.

1.3 ENTERING AND SAVING A DOCUMENT

Practice makes perfect
The rest of Lesson 1, and then in Lessons 2-4, you'll have the opportunity to practice these and
many other features of Word.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 19

You should have the Conference Call document still open on your screen. First of all, you'll
need to clear the Seagull quote from the document. You don't want to save it as part of the
Conference Call letter, so here are the steps to remove it.
Choose Select All from the Edit menu (or drag across the whole paragraph),
then press the Backspace key once to remove the highlighted text from the
document
Notice that the Backspace key removes all highlighted text. The Del(ete) key does the same.
Entering the Conference Call letter
You should now have a blank page with the cursor waiting in the top left corner, ready for you to
type in your letter. Fig. 1.13 has the full text of the Conference Call letter.

Fig. 1.13 Conference Call Letter

It also shows where all the Paragraph marks (¶) are. This is to help you remember to hit the Enter
key only where necessary, not at the end of every line.
20 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

As you type, Word is probably set to automatically warn you of any spelling or grammar errors it
finds (by underlining them on your screen). This will occur as you type the contents of Fig. 1.13.
Don’t worry about these warnings for now. Word also may guess that you are writing a letter
once you type the first address at the top of the page. Just ignore this, too, and click on Cancel
when prompted by the Office Help icon in the lower right corner of the screen.

Go ahead now and type in the text of the Conference Call letter (Fig. 1.13),
saving every few lines as you go along
From the File menu select Save (or press Ctrl-s)
A momentary loss of power is enough for you to lose all your work, so be sure to get into the
habit of saving frequently. Once you have typed in the whole document and saved it, you should
go back and correct any errors you made, and then save it again.
Remember: when you save a document with the same name as before, you are replacing the
earlier version. You won't be creating a second copy.
Shortcuts or quick keyboard commands
The quickest way to save your work is to press Ctrl–s on the keyboard. The Ctrl (Control) key
is in the lower left corner of the keyboard. Locate it now; you'll be using it a lot as you become
more familiar with Word. It is always used in combination with one or two other keys. Ctrl–s,
for example, is executed by holding down the Ctrl key and simultaneously pressing the S key.
You'll learn more shortcuts as you work your way through the tutorials. For ready reference
you can print out the page at the end of this book which lists the most frequently used shortcut
keyboard commands.

1.4 UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT

Now that your letter is saved on disk, you can make any revisions you want.
Word processing allows you to treat text like modeling clay. You can easily mold your words
and ideas. You can change margins, put in underlines, italics, boldface, and so forth. You can
correct errors, move text around, lay it out on the page—all at the touch of a few buttons. In the
next lesson you'll have an opportunity to become quite sophisticated in this regard. But let's keep
it simple for now.
You may need to refer back to Fig. 1.13 while you complete the next few sections.
If you find all those Paragraph marks distracting, turn them off by clicking on
the ¶ icon in the Formatting toolbar
Inserting the date
There is no date on the Conference Call letter in Fig. 1.13. As you know, a letter is incomplete
without a date, so here are the steps to have Word put today's date in the letter.
Use the I–beam cursor to position the insertion point cursor right after the
zip code in the first address at the top of the page
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 21

Press Enter to move the cursor to a new empty line

The cursor should now be waiting at the beginning of the next line.
From the Insert menu select Date and Time...
The Date and Time dialog box (Fig. 1.14) has a list of different formats for the date, as well as
for the time of day.

Fig. 1.14 Date and Time dialog box

Decide on the format you like best and click on it to select it, then put a check
mark in the box next to Update Automatically, and click on OK
You will appreciate the advantage of allowing Word to insert the date for you when you save the
letter as a template. When you use the template, or print a Conference Call letter, for example,
the date will now be adjusted automatically to reflect the current date any time you want to edit
or reprint the document.
Adding text
This is an activity which is fundamental to the whole process of writing. On a typewriter it is
usually messy, and often difficult to do. When you use the word processor, however, it is a
simple task.
There is no limit to the extra details that could be added to the letter, but for the sake of this
exercise you will add just one sentence to the next to last paragraph to help the parents
appreciate what Aaron will get out of his experience at the Institute.
Position the insertion point cursor so it is right at the end of the paragraph
which begins "The institute has a wonderful reputation..."
Press the space bar twice and type the sentence:
22 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

He would thus have the opportunity to meet and make friends with
others of his own age and academic ability.
Read over the sentence you just typed to check for errors. Correct any you may have made.
Before you go on to the next section you should save what you have done so far.
Press Ctrl–s to save the changes you have made to the letter
Removing text
There are several ways of removing text. In a moment you'll learn how to highlight a block of
text in order to move or delete larger sections of text. But if all you want to do is remove a few
words, or a short sentence, the quickest way is to use the Backspace key.
Practice this now.
You are going to remove the second sentence of the second paragraph. This second sentence
begins "I have attended the facility myself ... ".

Position the insertion point cursor so it is in front of the "A" at the beginning
of the third sentence of the same paragraph—the sentence that begins
"Aaron would take part ..."

Press the Backspace key as many times as is necessary until the second
sentence of this paragraph is removed (deleted) from the letter

You'll find the automatic repeat feature of the keyboard (activated by holding down a key such
as the Backspace key) will come in handy for a delete operation like this.

Press Ctrl–s again to save the changes you just made

Changing text
The letter overuses the word "program." The word appears once in the first paragraph as it is,
and then is used twice in the final paragraphs. To improve the letter it would be better to rewrite
the first sentence of the next to last paragraph to read: "The Institute has a wonderful reputation
for its offerings for both children and adults."
To change the existing sentence, follow these steps:
Place the cursor between the period and the "s” at the end of the first
sentence in the second paragraph (right at the end of the word "programs"
but before the period)
Use the Backspace key to remove the text that follows the word “for”
Make sure there is still a space after the word “for”, then type the phrase “its
offerings for both children and adults.”
One last change you need to make is to the telephone number in that last sentence. A common
error with numbers is called transposition, where one accidentally reverses the order of digits.
The number is supposed to be 772–3232, not 3223.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 23

Position the cursor just at the end of the telephone number

Press the Backspace key 2 times, then type the digits "32"
Once again press Ctrl–s
At this stage your Conference Call letter should look much the same as Fig. 1.15.

Fig. 1.15 Intermediate update to the Conference Call letter

Selecting (highlighting) a block of text
Highlighted text is text that stands out from the rest of the document either because the
background turns black and the text white (black and white monitors) or because the background
turns the color you (or someone else) set for the highlighting color on your Windows computer.
When you highlight text, you can do things to it (delete it, move it, copy it, change the margins
set for it, and so on) without affecting the rest of your document.
You can highlight a single character...
24 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

Locate the I–beam pointer on the screen and use the mouse to move it so it
is immediately before the "H" in “Hodge" in the address at the top of the letter
Hold down the left mouse button and carefully drag across just the "H" at the
beginning of the word so that it becomes highlighted
This latter operation is tricky the first few times you try it. The secret is to keep the left mouse
button depressed—and don't panic! So, if you drag across more than just the "H", keep your
finger on the left mouse button and drag back and forth until you have just what you want
highlighted.
Practice this—you can select as much or as little as you want; remember,
you're in control.1
Let go of the left mouse button when just the "H" is highlighted, then click
anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting (i.e. to deselect selected text)
If you're not used to doing this it may seem awkward at first—like the first time you tried to ride
a bicycle, perhaps. But you'll get used to it.
Try it a few times on different letters
You can highlight a single word...
Position the I–beam anywhere over the word "Elementary" and double click
the left mouse button (or drag across the word using the mouse)
The single word "Elementary" should be highlighted on the screen.
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlight
Try this on a few more words till you're comfortable with the action
You can highlight a line of text...
Position the cursor in the margin to the left of the line you want to highlight
(the cursor changes from an I-beam to an arrow pointing in at the line at the
edge of the text) and click the left mouse button
There you have it! The whole line is highlighted.
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlight
Try this on a couple of different lines
You can highlight several selected lines...
Once again, move the cursor into the margin immediately in front of the first
word of the first paragraph (the cursor becomes an arrow pointing in at the
line)

1 If you're new to word processing, the secret here is: don't panic! No matter how much you might think to the
contrary, when you're working with computers you are in control—as long as you know what you're doing. The
computer is just a dumb machine designed to serve your information processing needs. These tutorials will help
you bring this dumb machine under your control.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 25

Hold down the left mouse button and drag up or down to select (highlight) a
couple of lines
Finally, let go of the left mouse button, and click anywhere in the text to
remove the highlight
You can quickly highlight an entire paragraph...
Move the I–beam anywhere in the first paragraph, click quickly 3 (three)
times on the left mouse button and notice the effect this has of highlighting
the entire paragraph; click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting
You can highlight an extended area (or block) of text...
Place the I–beam either at the start or end of the text you want to select and
click the left mouse button to put the insertion point cursor there
Scroll, if necessary, to the beginning or end of the section you want to
highlight, then hold down the Shift key while you click the left mouse button
Notice that the whole section is highlighted.
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting
You can quickly highlight an entire document...
You should be getting the hang of this highlighting by now. You can drag the mouse to highlight
several paragraphs or even an entire document of several pages. However, dragging through a 50
page document would quickly become tedious. So Word provides a short cut to select an entire
document. You may recall using this feature earlier in the tutorial.
From the Edit menu at the top of the screen choose Select All
The entire document is selected. To remove the highlighting, click anywhere in the document.
Changing margins and using the Word Indent Markers
The letter is nearly ready to be printed. One style for letter–writing is to position the first address
(the address of the sender) at the top right of the first page. The closing signature would then be
aligned on the right side of the page at the end of the letter (Fig. 1.16).
26 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

Fig. 1.16 Final version of the Conference Call letter

To carry out these changes you will need to learn how to use the indent markers.
Using the Indent Markers
Before you go on, remember that the tip of the mouse arrow is the hot spot.
Moving the small indent markers is a delicate operation, so be sure to position the
tip of the mouse arrow on the marker you want to move.
Indent Markers are used to adjust the first line and the left and right margins of paragraphs. To
use the indent markers you must have the ruler showing on the screen at the top of your
document (Fig. 1.17).
If you do not see a ruler with hash marks on it you’ll need to make sure it is displayed on
your screen. You can either hide or show the ruler by selecting the Ruler option in the View
menu.

First Line Indent

Hanging Indent
Left Indent

Fig. 1.17 The Word ruler and the Indent markers

To check this out, from the View menu select Ruler
Do this a couple of times—and make sure you end up with the ruler showing
at the top of your document
Click anywhere within the first paragraph of the letter before completing the
next exercise (this tells Word which piece or paragraph of text to reformat)
On the left side of the ruler, at the 0" hash mark, you can see the indent markers that set the
Hanging Indent, the Left Indent and the First Line Indent (Fig. 1.17). These markers move
together when you drag the small box (the Left Indent marker) on which the lower of the two
pointed markers sits. Follow these steps to try this now.
Use the mouse to drag ½” to the right (to the ½” hash mark) the Left Indent
marker on which the Hanging Indent marker (the lower of the two pointers)
sits
Notice that the First Line Indent marker (the upper pointer) shifted right along with the Hanging
Indent marker (the lower pointer) and that the whole paragraph moved to the right half an inch.
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 27

To independently move the First Line Indent marker (the upper marker), point at it with the
tip of the mouse arrow and drag to the left or right (you won't be able to drag further left than the
left edge of the page).
Try this now
To independently move the Hanging Indent marker (the lower of the two markers) you just point
at it and drag it to the left or right (again you won't be able to drag further left than the left edge
of the page).
Try this now
The following directions will give you more practice using these indent markers. You will be
setting the indent markers for all the paragraphs in the body of the letter.
First, click before the first word of the first paragraph to position the
insertion point cursor there
Now, scroll down if necessary till you can see the end of the letter, then, while
holding down the Shift key, click at the end of the third and last paragraph
All three paragraphs of the letter should now be highlighted.
First drag all the indent markers so they are at the left edge of the page (back
at the 0” hash mark)
Now position the tip of the mouse arrow on the First Line Indent marker (the
indent marker on top of the others) and slide it over to the ½” hash mark on
the ruler
Notice that the left margin of each paragraph (except for the first line) is now set at 0 inches and
the first line of each paragraph is set at ½".
Practice makes perfect
If this is the first time you've used these markers you may still feel uncomfortable working with
them. More practice will cure that. You want the final version of the Conference Call letter to
look like Fig. 1.17 (a couple of pages back). You need to adjust the left margin for the first
address at the top, and for the sign off at the end of the letter.
Select (highlight) the first address and date lines at the top of the letter
Point at the Left Indent marker (the small box at the bottom of the indent
markers) and drag all the indent markers together over to the 3½" hash mark
on the ruler, then click anywhere in the text to de-select the highlighted text
The address and date should now be lined up on the new margin. If you weren't successful the
first time, just go through the steps again until you get the hang of it.
Next scroll down to the end of the letter if it doesn't show on the screen
Select the lines that begin: "Sincerely yours," and conclude with "Donna
Hendry" and “Department Chair” (including all the blank lines in between)
With these lines highlighted, move both the indent markers across to the
3½" hash mark on the ruler, as you did for the address at the top of the page
Press Ctrl–s to save this (almost final) version of the document
28 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

1.5 CHECKING THE DOCUMENT FOR SPELLING ERRORS

Microsoft Office XP comes with a spelling checker, and no matter how good you might think
your spelling is, you would do well to take advantage of this fast, effective tool for catching
spelling errors or typos.
Encourage your students to use a spelling checker when they are proofing their word
processed work. The system will highlight any words that it cannot find in its dictionary and may
make suggestions for words or spellings the student intended. It can thus help your students
become better spellers, even broaden their vocabulary if they are curious enough to check out the
meanings of the many words they've never come across before. However, it cannot spell for
them—yet! Nor can it correct errors such as the misuse of "to", "too", and "two"!
A spelling checker is not an alternative to proofreading. Tell your students they should
always proofread their work on the printed page (in hard copy form) after they have run it
through the spelling checker. It also would be a good idea to have another student proofread it.
Assessing a classmate’s work is a valuable learning experience.
Accessing the spelling checker
From the Tools menu select Spelling and Grammar...
This will bring up the dialog box shown in Fig. 1.18.

Fig. 1.18 Spelling and Grammar dialog box

The Word spelling and grammar checkers are probably already working for you if those
functions are in automatic mode, if you see strange looking underlines under some of the words
you typed. If Word highlights a word or phrase, this does not necessarily mean there is anything
wrong with it. You still have to be able to tell if you have made an error and also know how to
correct it. Remember, the computer is just a dumb machine—a tool to assist your intelligence,
not replace it!
It’s useful to know how to turn these functions on or off. Here are the steps.
Click on Options in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box
This will bring up the screen illustrated in Fig. 1.19 (next page).
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 29

Check that the options to Check spelling as you type and Check grammar
as you type are selected, then click on OK
If you tell the Spelling Checker to check your document, and it has "No suggestions" for a word
highlighted, the dialog box gives you the option to have the Spelling Checker Ignore once
(because the word is correct as is); or Ignore All occurrences of the same word in your document
(because you don’t want the Checker to stop for them again); or Add the word to the custom
dictionary (so it won’t be flagged in future documents you work on). This is generally useful for
proper names.

Fig. 1.19 Spelling Checker dialog box

At one time or another you will find all these features useful, so you should take the time to
check them out.
Work your way through the Conference Call letter now and correct any
spelling or typing errors you may have made
Better save your work one last time (press Ctrl–s)
For the most part the Spelling Checker is intuitive, and one of the best things you can do at this
time is take a few minutes to browse through the various selections until you get a feel for what
the Spelling Checker can do.
30 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

In Lesson 2 you will have an opportunity to make more extensive use of the Word Spelling
Checker.

1.6 PRINTING A FIRST DRAFT OF THE DOCUMENT

Print Preview–ing your work
It is always useful to preview your work on screen before sending it to the printer.
From the File menu select Print Preview now to check this out
Running off a draft copy
Press Ctrl–p (or select Print from the File menu) to start the printing process
What kind of printer are you using?
Word will present you with a Print dialog box similar to that shown in Fig. 1.20.

Fig. 1.20 Typical Windows Print dialog box (yours may be different)
If you have a laser printer the quality is always "Best." But if you have a dot matrix, daisy wheel,
or inkjet printer you can choose the quality of output you desire.
If you’re using a dot matrix printer or an inkjet printer, click on the option to
print a fast or draft copy this first time through
Printing a range of pages
With regard to Page Range, the All button is selected by default. Should you want to print a
subset of the pages of a long document, say from page 3 to page 6, you would click in the radio
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 31

button next to Pages (see Fig. 1.20) and enter the page numbers of the range of pages in the data
entry box (ex. 1,3,5-12).
Setting the number of copies
Word also asks you how many copies you want to print. As you can see, the number 1 is already
selected by default, and for a draft copy that is certainly as many as you would normally want.
Manually feeding pages into the printer
Different printers have different options, but you should be able to put the paper into the printer
manually, one sheet at a time. The option to print All Pages in Range is selected by default, and
this is what you will want for this exercise. But if you click on the Properties button in the upper
right corner of the dialog box, you can see that you have the option under Page Setup to hand
feed (manually feed) paper into your printer one sheet at a time. When this option is selected,
Word will stop printing at the end of every page and wait for you to put a new sheet of paper in
the printer. This option is useful when you need to run off resumes or other such documents that
might need special quality paper, or when you need to run off a document on letterhead.
You are now ready to print the document.
Click on OK in the Print dialog box
If all is well with your printer connections and so forth, your printer will now go ahead and
produce a hard copy of your document.
Removing your document from the printer
If you are using a laser printer or an ink jet printer, removing the paper from the printer is simply
a matter of picking it out of the paper tray.
Here are the steps to follow if you are using continuous form paper with a dot matrix printer
(now relatively rarely seen in computing environments).
Hit the Select button on the printer (the green light will go off)
Press the Form Feed button (the paper will advance to the top of the next
page)
Press the Select button again (the green light will go back on)
Carefully remove your document by tearing along the serrated edge
First time users of dot matrix printers will find it tricky removing the printed document from the
printer. Don't be surprised if you damage the page as you learn to get used to tearing along the
serrated edge. This is another good reason to start by producing draft copies of your documents.

Save the environment

A useful environmental tip, for your draft copies, is to recycle paper which has one side
blank. Keep a box near the printer where folks can deposit paper they no longer want and
which is clean on one side. Only use new paper for a final copy of a document.

Now you should take the time to carefully read over what you have typed. If you used the Spell
Checker, remember that it will not necessarily pick up all errors. If you type "me" when you
meant to type "he," the checker won't mind in the least, since both words are in the dictionary.
32 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

As we noted earlier, the golden rule here is: A Spelling Checker is only as good as you are! You
should never rely blindly on the feedback from the Spelling Checker. So always proofread your
writing—and tell your students to do the same. You might also have your students proofread
each other's papers. Let them be teachers, too; it's a great way to learn!
You should also check the overall page layout to see that the document looks good on the
page. If there are problems, now is the time to fix them. Make all necessary changes on the
computer and save the document again on your Data Disk.
If all is well, you are ready to go ahead and print the final version, the one that you will send
in the mail to the parents.

1.7 RUNNING OFF A FINAL COPY

Follow the steps you learned above to run off a final copy of your document. If you are using a
dot matrix printer and have a good ribbon, the resulting Conference Call letter should have a
satisfactory appearance.
Most printers today will accept single sheets of paper. So if you wanted to use your school's
letterhead, this would be no problem. You would, of course, need to remove the sender's address
from the top of your Conference Call letter since this address would already be included on the
letterhead paper. You would also need to select manual feed for the printer.

1.8 MAKING A BACKUP COPY OF THE DOCUMENT

Your last task before completing this session at the computer is to make a backup of your
document on another disk. Earlier in this lesson you were asked to prepare a backup disk for all
your work. Now is the time to learn how to make a backup copy of a single document.
The Conference Call letter (Conference Call) is still open in Word. It is also saved on your
Data Disk, which is in the disk drive.
Close (File > Exit) the Word word processing program
Close or minimize any other windows that may be open on your desktop to
make it easier for you to see what you’re doing
Double click to open the My Computer icon on the desktop, then double
click to open the disk drive that holds your Data Disk
Double click on the folder Word Processor Documents from your Data
Disk to the Desktop and drop it there
Watch while Windows makes a copy of your documents on to the desktop,
then close the Window on your Data Disk
Remove your Data Disk from the disk drive, replace it with your Data Disk
Backup disk and double click to open the disk drive that holds your Data
Disk Backup
Now drag the Word Processor Documents folder from the desktop to your
Data Disk Backup disk
 Lesson 1: Introduction to Word 33

LOOKING BACK
In this tutorial you have learned the basics of Microsoft Office XP word processing. You now
know how to enter text, save it, revise it, set margins, check it for spelling, and print it on paper
in draft, standard, or letter quality. You also learned one way to make a backup copy of your
documents.
Many computer users learn no more than has been covered in this lesson. Under–utilization
is an unfortunate fact of life when using a computer. Ideally, however, this tutorial should have
made you keen to learn more about Word. Remember what you learned in Lesson 1. You may
need to refer back to some of the details spelled out here once you are using the word processor
on your own.

LOOKING FORWARD
This has been a good introduction to the Microsoft Office XP word processor. However, there is
still a great deal to learn. Lesson 2 will give you an opportunity to further advance your skills.
Many of the word processing skills that you have learned will transfer across to other word
processors. The more you use the computer as a tool for writing, the more natural it will become
and the more you will improve your writing ability. The ease with which you can make changes
will have a significant impact on your willingness to generate quality written communication.
Needless to say, word processing will have the same effect on your students, so the sooner you
can get them using the computer for all their writing assignments the better.

SKILL CONSOLIDATION
Complete these exercises to reinforce what you have learned in Lesson 1.
1. Use Word to write a letter to someone in your family or to a friend using the same layout as
the Conference Call letter. Print out the paper as a draft, proof read it, correct any errors, then
print out the paper in best quality.
2. Write a letter to a school district superintendent explaining the details of a field trip that you
are planning for your class. Print out the paper as a draft, proof read it, correct any errors,
then print out the paper in best quality.
3. Write a short story using the word processor. Set the right and left margins at 1.5 inches.
Print out the paper as a draft, proof read it, correct any errors, then print out the paper in best
quality.
4. Use the word processor to type up a paper of your choice. Print out the paper in draft mode,
proof read it, correct any errors, then print out the paper in letter quality mode. This will help
you appreciate the usefulness of the word processor for all your writing tasks.
5. Using the word processor, type a paper explaining what you have learned so far in tutorial 1.
Print out the paper as a draft, proof read it, correct any errors, then print out the paper in best
quality.
6. Call up the Microsoft Office XP word processor to create a new document. Name the
document "Nonsense" and type in half a dozen sentences. Then practice adding and deleting
34 ESSENTIAL MICROSOFT OFFICE XP: Tutorial for Teachers
Copyright © Bernard Poole, Lorrie Jackson, Rebecca Randall, 2002. All rights reserved

words, phrases, and whole sentences. Print out the paper as a draft, proof read it, correct any
errors, then print out the paper in best quality.
7. Open the document "Conference Call Letter", change the date so that it is the current date,
save the updated document. Remove all the first line indents from the paragraphs. Add a
paragraph explaining that if Aaron cannot attend the Institute this year, the offer will be open
again next year. Save the updated document. Proof read it, correct any errors, then print out
the letter.