Using the insertion point to add text

The insertion point is the blinking vertical line in your document. It indicates
where you can enter text on the page. You can use the insertion point in a
variety of ways.

 Blank document: When a new blank document opens, the insertion point will
appear in the top-left corner of the page. If you want, you can begin typing from
this location.

 Adding spaces: Press the spacebar to add spaces after a word or in between
text.

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 New paragraph line: Press Enter on your keyboard to move the insertion point
to the next paragraph line.

 Manual placement: Once you begin typing, you can use the mouse to move the
insertion point to a specific place in your document. Simply click
the location in the text where you want to place it.

 Arrow keys: You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the
insertion point. The left and right arrow keys will move between adjacent
characters on the same line, while the up and down arrows will
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 move between paragraph lines. You can also
press Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right to quickly move between entire words.

In a new blank document, you can double-click the mouse to move the
insertion point elsewhere on the page.

Selecting text

Before you can move or format text, you'll need to select it. To do this, click
and drag your mouse over the text, then release the mouse. A highlighted
box will appear over the selected text.

When you select text or images in Word, a hover toolbar with command
shortcuts will appear. If the toolbar does not appear at first, try hovering the
mouse over the selection.

To select multiple lines of text:

1. Move the mouse pointer to the left of any line so it becomes a right slanted
arrow.

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2. Click the mouse. The line will be selected.

3. To select multiple lines, click and drag the mouse up or down.

4. To select all of the text in your document, choose the Select command on the
Home tab, then click Select All. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+A on your
keyboard.

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Other shortcuts include double-clicking to select a word and triple-
clicking to select an entire sentence or paragraph.

To delete text:

There are several ways to delete—or remove—text:

 To delete text to the left of the insertion point, press the Backspace key on your
keyboard.
 To delete text to the right of the insertion point, press the Delete key on your
keyboard.
 Select the text you want to remove, then press the Delete key.

If you select text and start typing, the selected text will automatically be
deleted and replaced with the new text.

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To change the font size:
1. Select the text you want to modify.

2. On the Home tab, click the Font size drop-down arrow. Select a font size from
the menu. If the font size you need is not available in the menu, you can click
the Font size box and type the desired font size, then press Enter.

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3. The font size will change in the document.

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You can also use the Grow Font and Shrink Font commands to change the
font size.

To change the font:

By default, the font of each new document is set to Calibri. However, Word
provides many other fonts you can use to customize text.

1. Select the text you want to modify.

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2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Font box. A menu of
font styles will appear.
3. Select the font style you want to use.

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4. The font will change in the document.

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When creating a professional document or a document that contains
multiple paragraphs, you'll want to select a font that's easy to read. Along
with Calibri, standard reading fonts include Cambria, Times New Roman,
and Arial.

To change the font color:

1. Select the text you want to modify.

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2. On the Home tab, click the Font Color drop-down arrow. The Font
Color menu appears.

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3. Select the font color you want to use. The font color will change in the
document.

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Your color choices aren't limited to the drop-down menu that appears.
Select More Colors at the bottom of the menu to access the Colors dialog
box. Choose the color you want, then click OK.

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To use the Bold, Italic, and Underline commands:

The Bold, Italic, and Underline commands can be used to help draw
attention to important words or phrases.

1. Select the text you want to modify.

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2. On the Home tab, click the Bold (B), Italic (I), or Underline (U) command in
the Font group. In our example, we'll click Bold.

3. The selected text will be modified in the document.

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To change text case:

When you need to quickly change text case, you can use the Change
Case command instead of deleting and retyping text.

1. Select the text you want to modify.

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2. On the Home tab, click the Change Case command in the Font group.
3. A drop-down menu will appear. Select the desired case option from the menu.

4. The text case will be changed in the document.

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To highlight text:

Highlighting can be a useful tool for marking important text in your

document.

1. Select the text you want to highlight.

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2. From the Home tab, click the Text Highlight Color drop-down arrow.
The Highlight Color menu appears.

3. Select the desired highlight color. The selected text will then be highlighted in
the document.

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To remove highlighting, select the highlighted text, then click the Text
Highlight Color drop-down arrow. Select No Color from the drop-down
menu.

If you need to highlight several lines of text, changing the mouse into
a highlighter may be a helpful alternative to selecting and highlighting
individual lines. Click the Text Highlight Color command, and the cursor

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changes into a highlighter. You can then click and drag the highlighter over
the lines you want to highlight.

To change text alignment:

By default, Word aligns text to the left margin in new documents. However,
there may be times when you want to adjust text alignment to the center or
right.

1. Select the text you want to modify.

2. On the Home tab, select one of the four alignment options from
the Paragraph group. In our example, we've selected Center Alignment.

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3. The text will be realigned in the document.

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To format line spacing:
1. Select the text you want to format.

2. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command, then
select the desired line spacing.

3. The line spacing will change in the document.

Adjusting line spacing

Your line spacing options aren't limited to

the ones in the Line and

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Paragraph Spacing menu. To adjust spacing with more precision, select Line
Spacing Options from the menu to access the Paragraph dialog box. You'll
then have a few additional options you can use to customize spacing.

 Exactly: When you choose this option, the line spacing is measured in points,
just like font size. For example, if you're using 12-point text, you could use 15-
point spacing.
 At least: Like the the Exactly option, this lets you choose how many points of
spacing you want. However, if you have different sizes of text on the same line,
the spacing will expand to fit the larger text.
 Multiple: This option lets you type the number of lines of spacing you want.
For example, choosing Multiple and changing the spacing to 1.2 will make the
text slightly more spread out than single-spaced text. If you want the lines to be
closer together, you can choose a smaller value, like 0.9.

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Paragraph spacing

Just as you can format spacing between lines in your document, you can
adjust spacing before and after paragraphs. This is useful for separating
paragraphs, headings, and subheadings.

To format paragraph spacing:

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In our example, we'll increase the space before each paragraph to separate
them a bit more. This will make it a little easier to read.

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to format.

2. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command.
Click Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from
the drop-down menu. In our example, we'll select Add Space Before
Paragraph.

3. The paragraph spacing will change in the document.

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From the drop-down menu, you can also select Line Spacing Options to
open the Paragraph dialog box. From here, you can control how much space
there is before and after the paragraph.

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You can use Word's convenient Set as Default feature to save all of
the formatting changes you've made and automatically apply them to new
documents.

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To create a bulleted list:
1. Select the text you want to format as a list.

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command. A
menu of bullet styles will appear.

3. Move the mouse over the various bullet styles. A live preview of the bullet style
will appear in the document. Select the bullet style you want to use.

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 4. The text will be formatted as a bulleted list.

Options for working with lists

 To remove numbers or bullets from a list, select the list and click
the Bulleted or Numbered list command.
 When you're editing a list, you can press Enter to start a new line, and the new
line will automatically have a bullet or number. When you've reached the end
of your list, press Enter twice to return to normal formatting.
 By dragging the indent markers on the Ruler, you can customize the indenting
of your list and the distance between the text and the bullet or number.

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To create a numbered list:

When you need to organize text into a numbered list, Word offers
several numbering options. You can format your list with numbers, letters,
or Roman numerals.

1. Select the text you want to format as a list.

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2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to
the Numbering command. A menu of numbering styles will appear.

3. Move the mouse over the various numbering styles. A live preview of the
numbering style will appear in the document. Select the numbering style you
want to use.

4. The text will format as a numbered list.

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To restart a numbered list:

If you want to restart the numbering of a list, Word has a Restart at

1 option. It can be applied to numeric and alphabetical lists.

1. Right-click the list item you want to restart the numbering for, then
select Restart at 1 from the menu that appears.

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2. The list numbering will restart.

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You can also set a list to continue numbering from the previous list. To do
this, right-click and select Continue Numbering.

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Customizing bullets
Customizing the look of the bullets in your list can help you emphasize
certain list items and personalize the design of your list. Word allows you to
format bullets in a variety of ways. You can use symbols and
different colors, or even upload a picture as a bullet.

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To use a symbol as a bullet:
1. Select an existing list you want to format.

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command.
Select Define New Bullet from the drop-down menu.

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3. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. Click the Symbol button.

4. The Symbol dialog box will appear.

5. Click the Font drop-down box and select a font.
The Wingdings and Symbol fonts are good choices because they have many
useful symbols.
6. Select the desired symbol, then click OK.
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7. The symbol will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog
box. Click OK.

8. The symbol will appear in the list.

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To change the bullet color:
1. Select an existing list you want to format.

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2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command.
Select Define New Bullet from the drop-down menu.

3. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. Click the Font button.

4. The Font dialog box will appear. Click the Font Color drop-down box. A
menu of font colors will appear.
5. Select the desired color, then click OK.
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6. The bullet color will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet
dialog box. Click OK.

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 7. The bullet color will change in the list.

Multilevel lists
Multilevel lists allow you to create an outline with multiple levels. Any
bulleted or numbered list can be turned into a multilevel list by using
the Tab key.

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To create a multilevel list:
1. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the line you want to move.

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 2. Press the Tab key to increase the indent level of the line. The line will move to
the right.

To increase or decrease an indent level:

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You can make adjustments to the organization of a multilevel list by
increasing or decreasing the indent levels. There are several ways to change
the indent level.

 To increase the indent by more than one level, place the insertion point at the
beginning of the line, then press the Tab key until the desired level is reached.

 To decrease the indent level, place the insertion point at the beginning of the
line, then hold the Shift key and press the Tab key.

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  You can also increase or decrease the levels of text by placing the insertion
point anywhere in the line and clicking the Increase Indent or Decrease
Indent commands.

When formatting a multilevel list, Word will use the default bullet style. To
change the style of a multilevel list, select the list, then click the Multilevel
list command on the Home tab.

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