Computer fundamentals Lab

8. Practice Formatting techniques

Typing and inserting Text
To enter text, just start typing! The text will appear where the blinking cursor is located.
Move the cursor by using the arrow buttons on the keyboard or positioning the mouse and
clicking the left button. The keyboard shortcuts listed below are also helpful when moving
through the text of a document:

Move Action Keystroke

Beginning of the line HOME
End of the line END
Top of the document CTRL+HOME
End of the document CTRL+END

Selecting Text
To change any attributes of text it must be highlighted first. Select the text by dragging the
mouse over the desired text while keeping the left mouse button depressed, or hold down
the SHIFT key on the keyboard while using the arrow buttons to highlight the text. The
following table contains shortcuts for selecting a portion of the text:

Selection Technique
Whole word double-click within the word
Whole paragraph triple-click within the paragraph
Several words or drag the mouse over the words, or hold down SHIFT while
lines using the arrow keys
Entire document choose Editing | Select | Select All from the Ribbon, or press
CTRL+A

Deselect the text by clicking anywhere outside of the selection on the page or press an
arrow key on the keyboard.

Inserting Additional Text

Text can be inserted in a document at any point using any of the following methods:

Type Text: Put your cursor where you want to add the text and begin typing
Copy and Paste Text: Highlight the text you wish to copy and right click and click
Copy, put your cursor where you want the text in the document and right click and
click Paste.

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Cut and Paste Text: Highlight the text you wish to copy and right click and click
Cut, put your cursor where you want the text in the document and right click and
click Paste.
Drag Text: Highlight the text you wish to move, click on it and drag it to the place
where you want the text in the document.

Rearranging Blocks of Text

To rearrange text within a document, you can utilize the Clipboard Group on the Home
Tab of the Ribbon.
Insert picture of clipboard group labeled

Move text: Cut and Paste or Drag as shown above

Copy Text: Copy and Paste as above or use the Clipboard group on the Ribbon
Paste Text: Ctrl + V (hold down the CTRL and the “V” key at the same time) or
use the Clipboard group to Paste, Paste Special, or Paste as Hyperlink

Deleting Blocks of Text

Use the BACKSPACE and DELETE keys on the keyboard to delete text. Backspace will
delete text to the left of the cursor and Delete will erase text to the right. To delete a large
selection of text, highlight it using any of the methods outlined above and press the
DELETE key.

Search and Replace Text

To find a particular word or phrase in a document:

Click Find on the Editing Group on the Ribbon

To find and replace a word or phrase in the document, click Replace on the
Editing Group of the Ribbon.

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Undo Changes
To undo changes:

Click the Undo Button on the Quick Access Toolbar

Styles: A style is a format enhancing tool that includes font typefaces, font size, effects
(bold, italics, underline, etc.), colors and more. You will notice that on the Home Tab of
the Ribbon, that you have several areas that will control the style of your document: Font,
Paragraph, and Styles.

Change Font Typeface and Size

To change the font typeface:

Click the arrow next to the font name and choose a font.

Remember that you can preview how the new font will look by highlighting the
text, and hovering over the new font typeface.

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To change the font size:

Click the arrow next to the font size and choose the appropriate size, or
Click the increase or decrease font size buttons.

Change Text Color

To change the text color:

Select the text and click the Colors button included on the Font Group of the
Ribbon, or
Highlight the text and right click and choose the colors tool.
Select the color by clicking the down arrow next to the font color button.

Highlight Text

Highlighting text allows you to use emphasize text as you would if you had a marker. To
highlight text:

Select the text

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Click the Highlight Button on the Font Group of the Ribbon, or

Select the text and right click and select the highlight tool
To change the color of the highlighter click on down arrow next to the highlight
button.

Copy Formatting

If you have already formatted text the way you want it and would like another portion of
the document to have the same formatting, you can copy the formatting. To copy the
formatting, do the following:

Select the text with the formatting you want to copy.

Copy the format of the text selected by clicking the Format Painter button on the
Clipboard Group of the Home Tab
Apply the copied format by selecting the text and clicking on it.

Clear Formatting
To clear text formatting:

Select the text you wish to clear the formatting

Click the Styles dialogue box on the Styles Group on the Home Tab
Click Clear All

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Formatting Paragraphs

Formatting paragraphs allows you to change the look of the overall document. You can
access many of the tools of paragraph formatting by clicking the Page Layout Tab of the
Ribbon or the Paragraph Group on the Home Tab of the Ribbon.

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Change Paragraph Alignment

The paragraph alignment allows you to set how you want text to appear. To change the
alignment:

Click the Home Tab

Choose the appropriate button for alignment on the Paragraph Group.
o Align Left: the text is aligned with your left margin
o Center: The text is centered within your margins
o Align Right: Aligns text with the right margin
o Justify: Aligns text to both the left and right margins.

Indent Paragraphs
Indenting paragraphs allows you set text within a paragraph at different margins. There are
several options for indenting:

First Line: Controls the left boundary for the first line of a paragraph
Hanging: Controls the left boundary of every line in a paragraph except the first
one
Left: Controls the left boundary for every line in a paragraph
Right: Controls the right boundary for every line in a paragraph

To indent paragraphs, you can do the following:

Click the Indent buttons to control the indent.

Click the Indent button repeated times to increase the size of the indent.

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Click the dialog box of the Paragraph Group

Click the Indents and Spacing Tab
Select your indents

Add Borders and Shading

You can add borders and shading to paragraphs and entire pages. To create a border
around a paragraph or paragraphs:

Select the area of text where you want the border or shading.
Click the Borders Button on the Paragraph Group on the Home Tab
Choose the Border and Shading

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Choose the appropriate options

Apply Styles
Styles are a present collection of formatting that you can apply to text. To utilize Quick
Styles:

Select the text you wish to format.

Click the dialog box next to the Styles Group on the Home Tab.
Click the style you wish to apply.

Change Spacing Between Paragraphs and Lines

You can change the space between lines and paragraphs by doing the following:

Select the paragraph or paragraphs you wish to change.

On the Home Tab, Click the Paragraph Dialog Box
Click the Indents and Spacing Tab
In the Spacing section, adjust your spacing accordingly

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