Creating Documents in Microsoft Word

Creating Documents in Microsoft Word

What is Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Word is a program we use to create documents, like letters and other
written materials. We use Word like a typewriter, but with many, many more
features.

Creating a Word Document

1. Find the Start menu at the bottom left hand corner of your computer
screen.

2. Click on the Start menu with your mouse, a menu will pop up. Move your
mouse up until you reach “Word 2013”. Click once to open the program –
Microsoft Word.

3.

A menu pops up.

Click once on
Word 2013

Click on the Start

button

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4. A new window will open. This is Microsoft Word.

Click here to
find and open a
document you
have saved.

Click here to
open a new
document.

A new document is just like a sheet of paper, ready for you to type on. To
start a new document click on Blank document.
To open a previous document click on one from the blue menu on the left
side of the screen.

5. Your new document will look like this. You can start typing. The blinking
cursor tells you where you are on the document.

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The blinking
cursor shows you
your place on the
document

Getting Started in Word

There are some basic things you have to know before you can start using Word.
Look over this list and then use it to help you complete the practice exercises.

The Cursor

1. The cursor: The cursor tells you where you are on the page. Wherever
the cursor is on the page that is where your typing will start. The cursor
looks like this │ it blinks after you click the mouse.

2. You can move the cursor around with your mouse. You can place it
anywhere on the page that you want to add text.

Enter

 When you want to move the cursor to the next line, press the Enter button
on your keyboard

 Do not press “Enter” at the end of each line of typing

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Corrections

 If you make a mistake, use the “Backspace” button on your keyboard to go

back

 You can move your cursor anywhere on the page and then use
“Backspace” to erase

Fixing Mistakes
Mistakes are easy to fix. If you accidentally delete or add anything to your
document, you can fix it with the “Undo”- icon. You can even fix multiple
mistakes.

 On the toolbar at the top of the page, find the “Undo” arrow. If you click
once, this will undo your last action.

Undo typing or
(Ctrl +Z)

 Move your mouse down to “Undo Typing” and click once, this will undo
your last action.
 You can also Undo by typing the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘Z’ key together.

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Getting Started in Word

Practice Exercise #1 – Placing the Cursor

1. Open Microsoft Word

2. Type 10 letter Gs

3. Hit the return key twice

4. Type 10 letter As with a space between each letter

5. Insert a space between each of the letter Gs

6. Delete the space between each of the letter As

Practice Exercise #2 – Creating a new document

1. Open a new document by clicking on ‘File – New- Blank Document’

2. Type the numbers one through twenty hitting the return key twice between
each number
One

Two

Three

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Select and Deselect

Selecting words is a very important skill in Microsoft Word.

1. To select words, move your cursor to the beginning of the section you
want to select.

2. Hold down the left mouse button.

3. Move the mouse over the words until you get to the end of the section
(make sure to keep the mouse button pressed down)

4. When you get to the end, release the mouse button.

When words are not selected, they look like this

When words are selected, they look like this

5. Another way to select is to click, double click or triple click on your typing.
A double click will select the whole word while a triple click will select the
whole sentence or paragraph, depending on your settings.

6. To Deselect, use your mouse and click anywhere on the page.

Cut or Copy and Paste

Cutting or copying and pasting is an essential action in all Microsoft programs.

You can use this to move text around, fill in applications, copying information
from the internet and much more.

When you cut a word, it is removed. When you copy a word, it stays. Which
function will work for you will vary. To cut or copy:

1. Highlight the word, sentence or section you want to cut or copy. From the
“Home” toolbar, choose either Cut or Copy.

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Choose
Cut, copy or
paste

2. Go to the place where you would like the information to be place and click
to move the cursor to that spot.

3. From the Home toolbar, choose “Paste”. Your selection should be moved
to this spot.

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Practice Exercise- #3. Select/Cut/Copy/Paste

1. Go back to your document with the numbers one through twenty typed
out.

2. Select each number and then use cut and paste to arrange the numbers
from high to low.

Challenge

Follow these directions to create a silly word document. If you make a mistake,
don’t worry, just use you the “Undo” button to fix it.

1. Open a Word document. Use the Start menu to create a new document.

2. On your document type the following: The only thing better for a person
than pineapple is chocolate

3. Using your mouse, move the cursor until it is between thing and better
then click once. Add the words more costly

4. Move your mouse until it is after the word better. Use your “backspace”
button to delete the word better

5. Move your mouse to the beginning of the word pineapple and then select
the rest of the sentence. Once the section is selected, press the
“backspace” button on your keyboard to delete the entire selection.

6. Move your cursor to the end of the word than. Use the keyboard to type
education is ignorance.

Your finished document should look like this. Compare your document to this
and see if you made any mistakes. If your document is different, repeat the
steps until it comes out just right.

“The only thing more costly for a person than education is ignorance”

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Saving Your Work

You need to save your work on the computer.

1. Look on the toolbar at the top of your screen for this icon. Click once
on this button.

Save

2. A new screen will appear. The computer needs to know WHERE to save
your document. Double-click on ”Computer” and a new window will pop
up.

Double-click
here.

3. Scroll down on the left and find the “Student Docs” shared drive. Click on
“Student Docs”.

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Click on
Student Docs
here.

4. After clicking on “Student Docs”, student folders will appear in the window.
Scroll down on the right side until you find your name. Click on the folder
with your name.

5. After choosing WHERE to save your work, you will need to give it a name.
Choose something that describes the document like “Practice Exercise” or
“Resume”.
Type the name of
your document in
this box

6. After naming your document, click “Save”

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7. You should save your work every few minutes. After saving the first time,
you can just click the to save your work

Another Way to Save

Sometimes, you won’t see the on the toolbar. If this button is not there,
you will need to save your work using the “File” menu.

1. On the toolbar, find the blue “File” menu. Click it once with your mouse.

File tab

2. A menu will open. Move your mouse down until you see “Save” and click
once.

Be Careful!

It is very frustrating to work on a document and then

lose it! Make sure to follow these tips

 Pay attention to WHERE you save your

document. If you save it in a strange place, you
might not be able to find it again.
Click here
 Save often! Anything can happen. If you do not
save your changes, you will have to redo your
work.

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Saving Your Work

Practice Exercise #4

1. Save the documents you created in Practice Exercise #1 and #2.

a. Click once on the file menu at the top of the screen. A menu will
drop down, choose “Save” from this menu.

b. In the “Save In” window, click on the drop down menu and scroll
down on the left until you find the “Student Docs” shared drive.
Click on it and then find YOUR FOLDER. Double click.

c. In the “File Name” window, enter the name “Exercise #1”. For the
second document, choose the name “Numbers”

2. Create a new document by clicking on the “File” menu, then “New”, and
then select a Blank document. On this new document,

a. Type the names of 10 animals, one on each line.

b. Save this file in YOUR FOLDER “Student Docs, name it “Animals”

3. Create a new document by clicking on the “File” menu, then “New”, and
then select a Blank document. On this new document, type

a. Your name

b. Your address

c. Your phone number

4. Save this new document in YOUR FOLDER in the “Student Docs” shared
drive. Name it “Resume for _(put your name here)_”

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Opening a File
Once a file has been saved, you can open it again.

Opening a Saved File on the computer

1. Open Microsoft Word from the icon or the Start Menu

2. Once Word is open, you will see “Open Other Documents” on the left side.
Click once on it.

Click here

3. Double-click on “Computer”.

4. Scroll down on the left and find the “Student Docs”. Click on “Student
Docs”.

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Click once here

5. Scroll in the right window until you see YOUR FOLDER and then double-
click to select it.

Scroll

6. Your document will open!

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Opening a File – Practice Exercises

Exercise 5

1. Open Microsoft Word

2. Click on the “Open” or “Open Other Documents” button

3. Double-click on “Computer” and then scroll down on the left until you find
the “Student Docs” shared drive.

4. Click on “Student Docs” and then scroll down on the right until you find
YOUR FOLDER and click once on it.

5. You should see a document called “Exercise #1

6. Open it

Exercise 6

1. Open Microsoft Word

2. Click on the “Open” or “Open Other Documents” button

3. Double-click on “Computer” and then scroll down on the left until you find
the “Student Docs” shared drive.

4. Click on “Student Docs” and then scroll down on the right until you find
YOUR FOLDER and click once on it.

5. You should see a document called “Animals”

6. Open the document

7. Add the name of another animal.

8. Save the file

Exercise 7

1. Open the file named “resume” from your folder

2. Add the words: “Job Experience” under your phone number

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3. Save the file to your folder on the computer

4. Close the file.

Exercise 8

1. Find the file named “Animals” on your desktop.

2. Move this file into your folder

Printing Your Document

Printing
1. From the “File” menu, choose “Print” and click once

2. When the printing window opens, you will have a preview of the document
on the right. Check out the settings, make any changes necessary and
then click “Print”

Click once here

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