INTRODUCTION TO WORD PROCESSING

Word processor is a computer program used for

creating, editing, formatting, saving, printing and
manipulating a text document.
In word processing, you enter text by typing and the
software provides tools for copying, deleting and
other types of formatting.
Examples of word processing software are:
Microsoft word, WordPerfect, Lotus word pro,
OpenOffice Writer, Apple Pages, Google Docs,
LibreOffice, Word Star, ClickUp, etc.

Features of Word Processing:

• Text manipulation – ability to insert text, copy,
cut, and paste text.
• Font specifications – allows you to change the
look of fonts within the document by bolding,
italicizing, underline, change font size, change
font colour and text effects.
• Page Layout – this involves changing the page
size, margins, indentations, adding headers,
footers, and page numbers.
• Graphics – gives users ability to add simple
tables, graphs, or numbered lists.
 • Spelling and Grammar – allows spell checking
as well as basic grammar checking with
searchable thesaurus to provide suggestions for
word choice.
• Mail merge – is very essential when sending
similar letters or documents to different persons.
• Search and Replace command – allows
searching and replacement of characters.
• Undo – allows action that have been performed
to be reversed.

Introduction to Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processing application
that allows you to create a variety of documents,
including letters, resumes, and more.
It is a component of Microsoft Office Suit.
Microsoft office suite is a suite of office productivity
software that runs on Windows operating systems
and offers different application platform that caters
for office and business needs.
Microsoft (MS) Office is a suit of programs that
comprises of MS Access, MS Excel, MS InfoPath,
MS OneNote, MS Outlook, MS PowerPoint, MS
Publisher, MS SharePoint Workspace, and MS
Word.
Starting Microsoft Word
You need to have computer with Microsoft Office
installed.
To open Microsoft Word:
a. From the desktop or from your ‘Start’ menu,
open Microsoft Word by clicking on ‘All
programs’ then navigating to Microsoft Office
folder, and click on Microsoft word (it comes
with different versions like 2003,2007,2010,
2013, 2016, 2019, …) as below:

b. Microsoft Word will open up and present a

blank document ready for you to start typing.
Terminologies
• Title Bar – displays the title of the document.
• The Quick Access Toolbar – displays shortcut
icons for frequently used tools. By default, it
shows the Save, Undo, and Redo commands, but
you can add other commands depending on your
needs.

To add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar:

 Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the
Quick Access Toolbar and select the command
you want to add.
• Menu or Ribbon Tab - the Ribbon contains
multiple tabs, which you can find near the top of
the Word window.

Each tab contains several groups of related

commands. For example, the Font group on
the Home tab contains commands for formatting
text in your document, the Clipboard group
contains the copy, cut, paste and format painter.
The Paragraph group contains the formatting
commands like the alignment, lists, indentation,
border, sorting, shading, spacing, etc. the
Editing group contains the find, replace and
select commands, etc.
 Some groups also have a small arrow in the
bottom-right corner that you can click for even
more options.
• The Ruler - Is located at the top and to the left
of your document. It makes it easier to adjust
your document with precision. If you want, you
can hide the Ruler to create more screen space.
• Zooming in and out - zoom control slider is at
the bottom-right corner of the Word window.
You can also select the + or - commands to
zoom in or out by smaller increments. The
number next to the slider displays the current
zoom percentage, also called the zoom level.
• Control Buttons: These buttons allow the user
to minimize, maximize or close a document
window. Minimizing takes a document to the
bottom of the screen; maximize reduces the
document to about half the screen while closing
means exiting the document completely.
• Cursor: This is the text insertion point. It shows
where texts would appear once typed from the
keyboard.
• Text area: This is where texts and other
graphics appear in the documents.
 • Scroll Bar – allows you to move the view
contents up and down or left and right.
• Backstage view - gives you various options for
saving, opening a file, printing, and sharing your
document. To access Backstage view, click the
File tab on the Ribbon. Below depicts the
Backstage diagram.

Creating and entering text document in

Microsoft Word
Word files are called documents and that is why the
file name extension (when it is saved) is .doc or
.docx. To start a project in Word, you need to create
a new document which can either be blank or from
a template. You can equally open an existing
document.
To create a new blank document:
a. Select the File tab to access backstage view.
b. Select New, then choose blank document and
click on create.

c. Word opens with a blinking cursor (insertion

pointer) in the document. The cursor tells you
where you’re typing.
d. As you start typing, the words will appear on the
screen in the text area.
 e. To change the location of insertion point, click
on the particular location to show the cursor or
press the spacebar, Enter or Tab keys on the
keyboard. You can equally use navigational
keys to move around document.
How to delete text in MS Word
• Place the cursor next to the text the press the
Backspace key.
• Place the cursor to the left of the text and press
the Delete key.
• Select the text and press the Backspace or
Delete key.
• Select the text and type over the text.
How to select text in MS Word
• To select a single word, double-click within the
word.
• To select the entire paragraph, triple-click
within the paragraph.
• To select entire document, in Home tab, in
Editing group, click select and then choose
select All option. Or, you can press CTRL + A
on your keyboard.
How to Format text
• Select the text you want to format.
• Select the text, choose an option in Home tab,
in Font group to change the font, font size, font
color, or make the text bold, italic, or underline.

• To change the alignment – word aligns text to

the left margin by default. We may adjust the
alignment to center or right, etc.
− Select the text you want to modify
− On the Home tab, in the paragraph group,
select alignment options.
How to save a MS Word document
If you have completed your document or want to
save the work, do the following:
a. Select the File tab
b. Select save or save as – if you are saving for the
first time, choose ”save as”. It allows you to
give your document a name and choose the
location for your file. If you have already named
your file, choose “save” to keep the document
up-to-date.
c. Choose a location for your file – this will make
it easier to find your file. You can choose from a
folder in your computer or any external drive.
d. Choose a file name – try to choose a name that
describes the document so that it will be easy to
locate.
e. Select the format for your file – shows the
document your file can open with. The save as
type with a box “word document” shows we
can open the file easily using word program.
You can save as a PDF or any other version.
 f. Use the shortcut save feature to save your
document – press the CTRL + S on your
keyboard and follow the prompts.

How to print a word document

a. Open the already saved file or you can create a
new document. To open a file, click on File tab
and choose open. A dialog box appears for us to
choose the location of the file.
b. Click on File at the upper-left of the screen.
c. Click Print and a dialog box will open.
d. Select printing options – choose the printer to
print, number of copies to be printed, pages to be
printed, size of paper, orientation of paper,
margins, etc.
e. Click on Print – your document will print to the
printer selected.
Inserting Tables in MS Word Document
MS Word accepts the tabulation of text and
generally allows the insertion of pictures, images
and diagrams.
To insert a table into a Microsoft Word:
a. Click on the Insert tab and select table.
b. Choose insert table.
c. Once you click on the Insert Table tab, a
dialogue box appears, asking you to specify the
number of columns and rows for your intended
table.
 d. Once we are done specifying the number of
columns and rows, we click on the OK button
from the dialogue box and our table would
appear on our document.
We can populate data into the cells of the table.
Movement between cells of the table is done through
the use of the keyboard’s direction (navigation) keys
or tab key.