SUBJECT

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
TECHNOLOGY

COURSE
GETTING STARTED WITH
MICROSOFT WORD

COMPILED BY
MICHELLE MEYER
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Contents

Creating a New Document in Word .............................................................. 4

How to Save a New Document .................................................................. 5
How to Save a Document in a Different/Older Format .............................. 5
The Home Tab ............................................................................................. 6
Clipboard Group ...................................................................................... 6
Font Group .............................................................................................. 6
Paragraph Group ..................................................................................... 6
Styles Group ............................................................................................ 9
Editing Group .......................................................................................... 9
Layout Tab .................................................................................................. 9
Changing the Margins .............................................................................. 9
Changing the Page Size and Orientation ................................................. 10
Columns ................................................................................................ 10
Breaks ................................................................................................... 10
Insert Tab ................................................................................................. 11
Cover Page ............................................................................................. 11
Tables .................................................................................................... 11
Illustrations Tab..................................................................................... 11
Links Group ........................................................................................... 13
Header and Footer Group ....................................................................... 13
Text Group ............................................................................................. 14
Symbols Group ...................................................................................... 14
Design Tab ................................................................................................ 15
Watermark ............................................................................................. 15
Page Colour............................................................................................ 15
Page Borders .......................................................................................... 15
References Tab .......................................................................................... 16
Table of Contents ................................................................................... 16
Referencing ............................................................................................ 17
Review Tab................................................................................................ 18
Proofing Group ....................................................................................... 18
Protect Group......................................................................................... 18

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Tracking and Comments Group.............................................................. 18

View Tab ................................................................................................... 19
Show Group ........................................................................................... 19
Zoom Group ........................................................................................... 19
Headers and Footers ................................................................................. 19
Printing a Document ................................................................................. 19
Protecting (Encrypting) a Document .......................................................... 20
Mailings Tab ............................................................................................. 20
Start Mail Merge Group .......................................................................... 20
Developer Tab ........................................................................................... 22
Controls Group ...................................................................................... 22
Keyboard Shortcuts .................................................................................. 23
General .................................................................................................. 23
Editing ................................................................................................... 23
Formatting ............................................................................................. 23

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Creating a New Document in Word

When opening MS Word for the first time, you will see a Word window with a
blue pane on the left. Documents recently accessed will be listed there.
In the right-hand pane, you will see a thumbnail of a blank Word document
as well as some templates.

Click on the blank Word document thumbnail to open a blank document.

You should immediately save the document under a name suitable for the
type of document you are creating. Keep the file name short and sweet, but
descriptive enough so you’re able to find it at a later stage. For instance, if
you are creating an English essay in the first cycle of 2019, name it
eng_essay1_cycle1_2019.docx, where the “.docx” is the file extension
automatically added by Word.

eng_essay1_cycle1_2019.docx

file name default Word extension

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How to Save a New Document

You can save a new document by following these steps:

▪ Click on the File tab in the ribbon

▪ Click Save As
▪ Click Browse to navigate to the place you
want to save it
▪ Give the file an appropriate name
▪ Click Save

Thereafter, save your document every two to

five minutes to prevent losing your work due to
a power outage or a non-responsive program.
The shortcut for saving is <ctrl><s> or click on
the  symbol in the top left corner.

How to Save a Document in a Different/Older Format

It is sometimes
necessary to save a
document in a
different format,
example, as a .pdf
file or an older
version of the
same file in order
to open it with
Word 2003, for
instance. To save a file as .pdf is very useful, especially if you do not want the
file to be edited once you send it to someone. Also, anyone is able to open it if
they have a PDF Reader installed on their computers.

You can save a file in a different format by following these steps:

▪ Click on the File tab in the ribbon

▪ Click Save As
▪ Click Browse to navigate to the place you want to save it
▪ Click on the dropdown list, Save as type
▪ Choose the type of file you want to save it as
▪ Click save

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The Home Tab

All your basic editing options of a document is found in the Home tab.

Clipboard Group

You can cut/copy a selection of text or graphics in a

Word document by selecting the text/graphic and
clicking copy or cut.

If you want to keep a copy of the original text in the same

place or make a duplicate, you will select copy.

If you want to move the text/graphic, you will select cut. Alternatively, the
keyboard shortcut for cut is <ctrl><x> and copy is <ctrl><c>.

Place the cursor where you want to place the selected text and click on paste.
Alternatively, use the shortcut <ctrl><v>.

Font Group

In the font group, you can do the following:

▪ Change the font style

▪ Change the font size
▪ Change the font colour
▪ Bold, italics and underline text
▪ Change text to superscript or subscript, example 52 or H2O
▪ Add text effects, such as , shadow and glow
▪ Highlight text

Paragraph Group

Alignment

You can left, centre, right or justify a paragraph, by choosing the correct
alignment in the paragraph group.

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Bullets and Numbering

You can bullet or number a list from pre-set

options or define your own bullet or numbering
style. You can define a new bullet, by selecting
the arrow next to the bullet icon and selecting
Define new bullet. In the dialog box, select if you
want to use a symbol or a picture bullet.

You can also select the multi-level

bullet/numbering option, which indents the
different levels.

Borders and Shading

Add paragraph borders by clicking on the arrow next to the border icon. You
can select different border styles and colours by clicking on the Borders and
Shadings option at the bottom of the list.

Line and Paragraph Spacing

Word’s default line spacing is set to 1.15. This can be

increased or decreased using the line spacing icon. The
larger the spacing is, the more legible the text will be.
Just keep in mind that if you make it too big, it takes up
a lot of unnecessary space in your document. You can
find more options by selecting Line Spacing Options.

Indentation

You can indent a paragraph by either choosing the Increase or Decrease

Indent icons in the paragraph group or you can simply drag the indent
pointers on your ruler. This paragraph has been indented by half a
centimetre on the left as shown in the screenshot below:

Note : If your ruler is not shown, click on the View tab and select Ruler.

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Tab Stops

It is always necessary to align data neatly and this can only be done using tab
stops. To activate the Tabs window, click on the arrow in the bottom right
corner of the Paragraphs group and select Tabs. Enter the places where you
want your stops to be, the alignment of the tab and whether you want a leader.

The following is an example of a menu created with spaces (using spacebar)

and one aligned using tab stops.

Menu 1 – created using spaces. Notice how it is aligned.

Soft drinks………………………………………….....R15.00
Milk shakes…………………………………………….R25.00
Coffee…………………………………………………….R10.00
Tea………………………………………………………..R8.00
Juice................................................................R18.00

Menu 2 – created using tab stops as shown in the screenshot below.

Soft drinks ........................................................ R15.00

Milk shakes ...................................................... R25.00
Coffee ............................................................... R10.00
Tea ..................................................................... R8.00
Juice ................................................................ R18.00

In the above example, the first tab is set at 1.5cm. It is a left aligned stop with
no leader. This was used to align the menu items in Menu 2. The second tab
was set at 13cm. It is a right aligned stop with a dotted leader (option 2). This
was used to align the prices in Menu 2.

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Styles Group

In the Styles group, you

can find pre-defined Title,
Heading and Body styles. You will make use of the heading styles later when
we learn how to do an automatic Table of Contents.

Editing Group

In the Editing group, you can

see the find and replace
options. Here you can find a
specific word in a document
and replace it with another
word or phrase. This is
especially helpful when you
accidentally misspelt a word a couple of times in a long document. You can
also access the find and replace box by using the shortcut, <ctrl><f>.

Layout Tab

In the Layout tab, you can find the Page Setup group. The following are some
of the changes you can make in this section:

Changing the Margins

The margin is the white space around the edge of the page. The default
margins in Word are set to Normal which is 2.54cm all round (top, bottom,
left and right). You can select from a pre-set list of margins or click on Custom
margins to set your own as shown in the screenshots below:

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Changing the Page Size and Orientation

The default Page size is set to A4. You can however, select the Size icon and
change it to any other size. You can even create your own custom size.

Orientation can be set to either Portrait or Landscape. Sometimes, you only

want one page in a document to be displayed the other way. To do this, place
the cursor at the top of the page you want to change, click on Margins, then
Custom Margins. Select the orientation you want to change to, select Apply
to: This point forward and click Ok. When you get to the top of the new page,
do the same.

Columns

If you are busy creating a new inserting a line between the

document, first type out the columns.
paragraph you want in columns.
Then select the text and click on the
columns icon. You can choose how
many columns you want from the
pre-set options or you can click on
More Columns if you want to add
anything, example, making one
column bigger than the other or

Breaks

To add a break at your current location to have

your text pick up again at the next page, section
or column, one can use the respective break in the
Page Setup group.

A Page break will move all the text from where the
cursor is placed to the next page.

Likewise, a Column break will move the text over

to the next column.

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Insert Tab

Cover Page

You can choose from a small

range of pre-designed templates
by clicking on the cover page icon
in the Pages group. You can also
download more from Office.com.

Tables

Tables consist of rows (across) and columns (down). To

quickly insert a simple table in Word, click on the Tables
icon, and select how many rows or columns you want.

Once a table has been

inserted, you can right
click on the rows or
columns and you can
insert or delete them. Here
you can also choose to add
colour to the cells, merge
the cells or change text direction. Please see the
example below.

Word also allows simple functions to be added in a table. The functions

can be found in the Table Tools Layout tab, using the fx button. An
example of a function would be =sum(above).

Illustrations Tab

Pictures

To insert a picture from your library:

▪ Click on the Pictures icon

▪ Navigate to the place where the picture is saved
▪ Click insert.

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Once a picture is inserted and selected, the Picture Format tab will appear in
your Ribbon.

In the Format tab, you can do the following:

▪ Add an artistic effect
▪ Crop the picture
▪ Add a border
▪ Change the size

Shapes

You can add any shape by clicking on the Shapes icon, such as a rectangle,
circle, arrow, callout, etc.

Once you have drawn the shape, you can change its colour or add text.

SmartArt

This tool can be used if you want to insert basic lists, cycles or flowcharts.

Screenshots

A screenshot is the whole or part of

the screen. If you select screenshot,
it will take you to the underlying
document or screen.

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Links Group

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are used to mark places or specific

sections of text in a document, enabling you to
navigate to these places quickly and easily. You
can insert a bookmark as follows:

▪ Place the cursor at the position where you

want to add a bookmark.
▪ Click on Bookmark.
▪ Type in a name (the name must begin with
a letter and may contain letters, digits and the underscore character).
▪ Click Add.

Hyperlinks

By using a hyperlink, you can jump to

any heading in a document, where the
heading has been formatted with one
of the built-in heading styles. If you
want to jump to another place in the
document, you must first bookmark
it. You can create a hyperlink as
follows:

▪ Select the text which must be turned into a hyperlink.

▪ Insert tab, Links group, Link (or use the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl><K>).
The Insert Hyperlink dialog box appears.

Header and Footer Group

A header or footer may contain a field, such

as the document name, plain text or an
image. It is what appears on the top or
bottom of every page. It is advisable to use
page numbers and perhaps the title of your
document in either the header or the footer.
There are many different page numbering
formats to choose from.

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Text Group

In the text group you can easily insert or draw a text box, by clicking on the
Text box icon.

You can also insert different styles. Once the style is

selected, the following formatting tab will pop up so you are able to format
your text.

T he text group also offers the Drop Cap option which allows you to make
the first letter or word in a paragraph, drop down to the number of lines
specified by you.

Symbols Group

Equations

For mathematical question papers, the Equations option is very useful. When
clicked on, the following ribbon appears:

Symbol

When you need to insert special characters, click on the symbols icon. The
following options appear for normal text amongst many others:

When you want other special symbols, select the Webdings or Windings 1, 2
or 3 font in the Font dropdown list.

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Design Tab

Watermark

Sometimes you may want to insert a page watermark across a page whether
it be text or a picture. You can do this in the Page Background group under
the design tab.

If you click on the Watermark icon, you will see a couple of pre-set
watermarks. Click on the Custom Watermark option to enable the following
text box where you can customize your watermark.

Page Colour

You can click on the Page Colour icon to change the colour of a page in Word.
Note, that by default, Word will not print the background colour to save ink.

Page Borders

If you want to insert a border around the whole page of the document, you
can insert it here.

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When the dialogue box is activated the previous screen will appear. Here you
can customize your border according to style, colour, width, border art and
whether you want to apply it to the whole document or not.

References Tab

Table of Contents

After you have changed all your headings in a document to various levels of
Heading Styles like I have done in this document, you can insert an automatic
table of contents by choosing an Automatic design from the drop-down list
when clicking on the Table of Contents icon.

You can then still add to the document afterwards and keep the table updated
by clicking on the Update Table icon.

Example:

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Referencing

Word offers a couple of useful referencing techniques, all of which can be

found in the References tab. The following are a couple of examples:

Footnotes and Endnotes

Captions

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Bibliography

You can add items for the bibliography using the citations feature.

Review Tab

Proofing Group

You can do a spelling and grammar check in this section.

You can also add a word count or access the thesaurus.

Protect Group

Here you can Restrict Editing to a document so that it may

be read but not edited. You can also restrict parts of a
document, such as a form, so that a user may only fill in a
form, but not be able to edit text, images or tables. You can
choose to add a password to your restriction or not.

Tracking and Comments Group

By using Track Changes you can keep track of changes made to a document.
This is especially useful if the document is almost done, and you’re working
with others to make revisions or give you feedback.

You can also add a comment to a word or paragraph to make a suggestion or

for your own reference.

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View Tab

Show Group

In the show group you can choose to view your ruler and gridlines. It is
advised that you always view your ruler before attempting to edit a document.

Zoom Group

Using the zoom option, you can enlarge your document without making it a
large size.

Headers and Footers

How to activate the header and footer tab:

▪ Double click anywhere in the top margin.

▪ The following tab will appear.

Here you can choose from different header and footer options, including page
numbering. It is always advised that you don’t show a header or footer on a
cover page of a document as shown in this booklet. Note that page numbering
only starts on the second page in the header and the title of the document is
in the footer.

Printing a Document

Follow these steps to print a document:

▪ Click on File
▪ Click Print <ctrl><p>
▪ Review your document before printing
▪ Choose the correct printer, paper size/scaling
▪ Print on both sides to save paper.

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Protecting (Encrypting) a Document

You can Encrypt a document by following

these steps:

▪ Click on File
▪ Protect document
▪ Encrypt with password

Mailings Tab

Start Mail Merge Group

Creating a Letter using a Mail Merge Wizard

You can create a basic letter by merging fields from a chosen data source,
such as a spreadsheet, database table or text file. The following steps will
guide you to create a basic letter using a mail merge wizard.

▪ Create a data source using the fields you need. The example below is
done in a MS Excel spreadsheet. Your headings are your fields.

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▪ Next, create a letter containing your fields from your data source.

▪ Click on the Start Mail Merge button in the

Mailings tab and select Step by Step Mail Merge
Wizard.

▪ Follow the wizard instructions to complete

your mail merge.

▪ The last step is to complete your merge by

editing individual letters. If you used all the
fields, you should end up with a document
consisting of five pages displaying a personal
letter to each individual.

▪ For a detailed mail merge, you can watch the How to do a Mail Merge
video by clicking on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXlUnurXgEY

Creating Labels using a Mail Merge Wizard

Using the same wizard, select labels instead of letters to merge your fields
into custom labels.

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Developer Tab

To enable the Developer Tab:

▪ Click File, Options

▪ Customize Ribbon
▪ Check the box next to Developer Tab

Controls Group

You can use the features in the Controls group to create an electronic form.
The following are some examples:

Rich Text Content Control

This can be used to enter a field such as a Name or Surname.

Name: Click or tap here to enter text.

Check Box

This can be used to tick a list of values (more than one option can be selected).

Activities: ☒Movies ☐ Music ☒ Gaming ☐ Other

Option Button

This can be used to choose an option (only one option can be selected).

Gender: Male Female

Combo Box and Date Picker

This can be used to select an option/date from a drop down list.

Activities: Date:

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Keyboard Shortcuts

General

New document .................................................. <Ctrl><N>

Open document ................................................ <Ctrl><O>

Print ................................................................. <Ctrl><P>

Save .................................................................. <Ctrl><S>

Close a document ............................................. <Ctrl><W>

Select all ........................................................... <Ctrl><A>

Help .................................................................. F1

Editing

Cut ................................................................... <Ctrl><X>

Copy ................................................................. <Ctrl><C>

Paste................................................................. <Ctrl><V>

Undo................................................................. <Ctrl><Z>

Redo ................................................................. <Ctrl><Y>

Formatting

Bold .................................................................. <Ctrl><B>

Italics................................................................ <Ctrl><I>

Underline .......................................................... <Ctrl><U>

Align left ........................................................... <Ctrl><L>

Align right ......................................................... <Ctrl><R>

Align centre....................................................... <Ctrl><E>

Justify .............................................................. <Ctrl><J>

Getting Started with Microsoft Word Compiled by: Michelle Meyer