We all need to use some kind of documentation tool in different areas of our life most common being writing school or office project reports, term papers, project reports, thesis, everyday letters in your workplace, manuscripts, articles, proposals etc. It has touched every aspect of our life in some way or the other. This article is also written using one such tool.
Microsoft Word is one of the most common documentation tool used by people across the world. Unfortunately many of the users just start working on it without having much knowledge about its vast capability in streamlining the activities.
In this article, I am going to touch upon some fundamental points which can make it easy to use MS Word for beginners*. I will be touching upon lot of keyboard shortcuts in this document so that the reader can reduce his/ her dependency on the mouse. Believe me it is much easier and faster to work solely with the keyboard.
* (It is assumed that the prospective reader of this article is reasonably versed with the basic computer operations.)
STARTING UP MS WORD IN A COMPUTER
Click on Start Button --> Programs --> Microsoft Office --> Microsoft Office Word
There are other ways of executing the application too. You can create a Shortcut of Word on the Desktop. (This will be explained at the end of the document) Alternately one can also find a tab called New Office Document on clicking the Start button.
GET ORGANIZED, SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT
Yes, you read it right. Most people have the practice of writing the document and then saving it. Imagine what will happen if there is an error in your application and the program shuts off or the computer stalls and has to be rebooted – Whoosh!!! All your data that you had painstakingly typed will be lost. One of the best practices while working with any document using computers is to save it at the outset.
Another aspect is that once you are clear about the aim of writing the document, you need to store it in a particular location which will help you retrieve it easily next time when you need it. Novices sometimes store their file in odd locations and then end up futilely searching for it when it is needed the most. A computer is used to help you get your work organized. Start getting organized from the beginning.**
** (Activating Auto-Save is outside the scope of this document)
Click on File --> Save as --> Select the location in the Save In Drop Down Menu (This could be your C or D Drive or a sub-folder in one of these drives) Write an appropriate file name in the File Name Box (The name should be short but self explanatory) Save as Type should be Word Document --> Click on the Save button
You can also Press Alt+F and then A keys. Alt+F and A is equivalent to clicking on File Save As. You will straightaway get you the Save As window. Your file will be saved on completing the above steps.
When I type the character ‘+’ as in Alt+F, I imply that one has to press Alt and the F key together at the same time. Do not touch the + key.
FAST SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT ON THE RUN
Once a file has been saved with a file name then subsequently you should save it after short intervals by simply pressing Ctrl+S keys. Here you do not need to specify the file name since it has already been done.
ORIENTATION, PAPER SIZE AND MARGINS – DEFINE THE PAGE SETUP
Orientation: How do you want your document to be printed or displayed on the computer once it is ready? The 2 common orientations are portrait or landscape. Portrait is basically when you print a document whose height is more then its breadth and landscape is when the width is more then the height.
Paper Size: Another consideration is whether you want to print on an A4 or A3 size paper. The most common paper sizes are A4 or Letter and in some cases A3 when you want to print a huge tabular data. A3 size paper is larger then A4.
The usual sizes in ascending order are A5 A4 A3 A2.
(A4 is twice the size of A5 and A3 is twice the size of A4 or four times the size of A5.)
Margins: When you print on a document, you do utilize the entire area. There are 2 main segregations in a document in terms of printing – printable and non-printable area. In order to differentiate between the 2 you have to define the margins of the page. It is important that you leave more margins to the left of your document since normally it is punched and filed. Visualize a scenario if you print too much to the left of the document. A part of the document will get cut due to the punch holes and will make it difficult to read.
Click on File Page Setup Margins (Set the Top, Bottom, Left and Right Margins which are defined in inches) (Suggested Settings: Top – 0.5”, Bottom – 0.5”, Left – 1.25”, Right – 0.5”) Do not touch the Gutter or Gutter Position settings. (Try to set too less left margin and then file the document and see the difference)
Click on Orientation – Portrait or Landscape (as required)
Click on the Paper Tab on Top (There are 3 tabs – Margins, Paper, Layout)
To set the paper size – select the drop down menu and click on A4, Letter or A3 as may be required
Click on the Layout Tab to set where you want to print the Header and Footer of your document. Normally we print the page numbers, document name etc in the header and footer areas. These areas are relative to the Top and Bottom margins. You can set it to 0.3” each.
Click on OK
The shortcut key to get the Page Setup window is Alt+F and U. Try it!
You have now saved your document and set the print attributes of your page. This will ensure that your document will automatically set itself for printing and ensure that you do not write in the non-printable areas.
ARIAL OR TIMES NEW ROMAN – SET THE FONT
The standard fonts used in formal communication are Times New Roman or Arial. Times New Roman is a Serif Font and Arial is Sans Serif. Serif means a short line at the end of the main strokes of a character. See the difference in the examples given below.
Times New Roman – Serif - Sun rises in the east.
Arial – Sans Serif - Sun rises in the east.
Your document will look highly unprofessional if you use fonts like Windings or Comic Sans.
One other font used commonly in the websites is Verdana.
Wingdings –
Comic Sans – Sun rises in the east.
Verdana – Sun rises in the east.
Click on Format Font Select the Font, Font Style (See example below), Size (Suggested size is 10 or 12) Click on OK
Font – Arial, Style – Regular, Size – 10: Sun rises in the east.
Font – Arial, Style – Bold, Size – 10: Sun rises in the east.
Font – Arial, Style – Italics, Size – 10: Sun rises in the east.
Font – Arial, Style – Bold, Italic, Size – 10: Sun rises in the east.
The shortcut key for setting the font is Alt+O and F.
SET THE PARAGRAPH ATTRIBUTES
The most common attribute is the spacing between 2 lines. You can set it to 1 or 1.5. You can set the attributes before you start typing your document or alternately the settings can be done after writing the text in the body of your document. See the examples below.
Sun rises in the east.
Sun rises in the east.
-------------------------
Sun rises in the east.
Sun rises in the east.
Secondly you can specify how your document should be aligned - left, right, center or justified aligned. See the examples below:
Left aligned Shortcut Key. Ctrl+L after selecting the text
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.
Right aligned Shortcut Key. Ctrl+R after selecting the text
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.
Center aligned Shortcut Key. Ctrl+E after selecting the text
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.
Justified aligned Shortcut Key. Ctrl+J after selecting the text
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.
Sample Text Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Independence
Click on Format Paragraphs Select the Alignment, Select the Line Spacing in Spacing option (Suggested – Single or 1.5 Lines)
The shortcut key is Alt+O and P. to get the Paragraph Settings box.
The shortcut key for setting the line spacing is Ctrl+1 for Single spacing and Ctrl+5 for 1.5 Lines spacing. These shortcut keys should be pressed only after selecting the text for which you want to set the attributes.
The basic blueprint of your document has been defined. You can proceed by typing the body of your text. It is recommended that first you should complete typing the entire body and then make the necessary attributes like Heading, Sub-heading, bulleted points, indention etc.
The only way you can move from being a Beginner to an Expert is by practically implementing what has been mentioned in the document. Working with Microsoft Word is an iterative process whereby you can learn more features by trying them out in a real life situation.
We had discussed about creating a shortcut of Word on your Desktop in the beginning of the article.
Click on Start Button --> Programs --> Microsoft Office --> Microsoft Office Word (Right click on the Name – Microsoft Office Word and select Send To --> Desktop (create shortcut)
I will be touching upon points like page number, inserting tables, pictures, drawing items, adding footnotes and endnotes, additional font features and using columns in my next article.
For the formatted pdf version leave me a comment! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment