Farmata Guisse

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the market leader in word processors and the most commonly used text
editor for individuals and organizations. Get an overview of the basic guide to Microsoft word
and learn how to use its toolbar, including the document views and reference tabs, among
other features.

This lesson will begin making a couple of assumptions. First of all, it's assumed that Microsoft
Word is already installed on your computer, and you are ready to open the program and start
working. Second, it's assumed that you work on a personal computer (PC) and not an Apple
device.

When you first open Word, you have the option to select a new document, which is a blank
Word file that can be used for typing, graphics, tables, and figures. There are also templates you
can open, but understanding the menus we discuss in this lesson will help you with those other
templates. Beginning with the first menu, we'll provide a brief overview of what can be found
under that menu, and how it can help you draft a professional looking document.

This lesson is based on the 2013 version of Microsoft Word. The instructions may differ slightly
from your experience if you're using a later version.

Microsoft Word Menus

In Word 2013, Microsoft has gone away from using the menu format in favor of the tab format,
or tool ribbon. In this format, each tab across the top of a document opens a new set of options
in the ribbon format - options and buttons are laid out horizontally along the top of the
document page. Here, we'll review the nine standard tabs in a Word document.

1. File
When you open a new file in Word, the first tab you will see is File. Look carefully - you may miss
it because it is a different color than the other tabs (depending on what color scheme you have
your desktop set on). The File tab has just what you would think: options related to the entire
file, such as save, print, share, and open.
2. Home
The Home tab has the most commonly used features, especially as they relate to modifying
text. In the Home tab you can select your font, size, color, attributes (bold, italics, underline),
and alignment (left, center, right). You can also select a style, which is a predetermined text
made to fit certain document parts, such as headings, subtitles, and text.

3. Insert
Under the Insert tab, there are a number of choices. In a Word document, there are many
types of visual aids and highlights you can add to a file to help summarize and present
information. It's in the Insert ribbon tab where you can find options for graphics, charts,
hyperlinks, page breaks, headers, footers, textboxes, and reference information, such as date
and time, comments, page numbers, and bookmarks.

4. Design
The Design tab can be either very useful or hardly used, depending on your own understanding
of Word. Most of the space in the Design tab is taken up by examples of document designs that
you can select, such as documents with centered titles, offset headings, and left justified text.
However, in addition to those less popular tools, the Design tab also includes watermarks, page
color, and page borders, which may be used by advanced Word users.

5. Page Layout
The Page Layout ribbon is an important tab to determine how your document looks. This is the
tab that has the options to modify margins, page orientation, paper size, columns, indents,
spacing, page breaks, and the arranging of any parts of the document, such as text and
graphics or tables.

6. References
The References tab is one that you may never use, or may be used heavily, depending on the
type of work you do in Word. For students, the References tab is the easiest way to insert
citations and references into the Word document. It can help with creating the reference page,
table of contents, footnotes, and sources.

7. Mailings
The Mailings tab is another example of how the ribbons get more complex and obscure as we
continue along the top of the page. The Mailings tab is where you would go to create labels,
print on envelopes, or perform a mail merge. These are all very useful tools if you need them.
8. Review
Here, you can find the track changes options, commenting tools, language and translation tools,
and what you might expect to see in a review section: spell check, thesaurus, word count, etc.

Lesson Summary
Let's take a moment or two to review what we've learned about Microsoft Word. Microsoft
Word will likely continue being the word processor of choice for the next decade. It's important,
both for reading and editing documents that are sent to you, and for writing reports or
memorandums you need to provide, that the basic tenets are easily understood. Certainly, this
lesson wasn't a comprehensive view of everything Word can do, or a review of all of the menus
and tabs that Word is able to add, based on the add-ins you put into Word. Here's the things we
covered in this lesson:

 New document, which is a blank Word file that can be used for typing, graphics, tables,
and figures.
 The File tab, which includes options related to the entire file, such as as save, print,
share, and open.
 The Home tab, which has the most commonly used features, especially as they relate to
modifying text.
 The Insert tab, which has many types of visual aids and highlights you can add to a file
to help summarize and present information.
Questions:

Read the document and answer the questions below. Submit your work for grading.

1. What are the assumptions made at the beginning of the lesson regarding
Microsoft Word?
The lesson assumes that Microsoft Word is already installed on my computer and that I am
working on a personal computer (PC) and not an Apple device.

2. What are some of the features found under the Home tab in Microsoft Word?
The Home tab consists of abridged functions such as font, font size, color, and text attributes including
bold, italic and underline options. It also can perform the left, center, right alignment adjustments as well
as it has the predesigned styles for headings, subtitles, and the normal text.

3. How does the Insert tab enhance the functionality of a Word document?
The Insert tab let me embed and emphasize on other objects and highlights that needs to be
incorporated in a document such as graphics, charts, page break, headers, footers, hyperlinks,
comments, page numbers, and bookmarks. Some of these features can be useful in presenting the
information as well as in organizing it.

4. What options are available in the Page Layout tab to modify the
appearance of a document?
The Page Layout tab assists me in determining how the document looks by such features
as margin settings, orientation, paper size, columns, spacing, indent size, breaks, and
positioning text, graphics, or tables.

5. Describe the purpose of the View tab and the different document views it offers.

The View tab lets me change how I can see my document. It things it includes:

 Print Layout: Shows the document as it will look when printed, including page breaks.
 Read Mode: Enlarges the text for easy reading but prevents editing.
 Web Layout: Removes page breaks and stretches the text across the screen, similar to how it
would appear on a webpage.