Word Basics

Microsoft Word has become the standard for word processing. I've used it for about 15 years, since way back when it wasn't even a part of Windows (if you can imagine a Windows-less world).

It's a good program. It has its quirks and annoyances, but it's fairly powerful and easy to use. One thing to keep in mind about Microsoft application is that Microsoft has attempted to standardize the menus across applications. In other words, you'll find File, Edit, View, Format, etc, on most Microsoft menus.

If you have questions on Word or Excel, feel free to leave them in a comment - i'll answer them in a future entry. Yes, this is a free service.

I guess it might be helpful to know some of the more powerful commands in Word:

• File, Page Setup is where you will find settings like margins, page orientation, paper source, etc.

• Edit, Find and Edit, Replace are handy for finding specific words or phrases in the document, and replacing them.

• View, Header and Footer allows you to not only view them, but edit them.

• Format Character is all about changing the appearance of text - font style, font size, bold, italics, etc.

• Format Paragraph, on the other hand, takes care of spacing, indents, and similar stuff.

• Tools, Spelling is something that, in my opinion at least, you should become very familiar with. Nothing looks worse than a document with spelling errors. One cool thing about the spell checker is that it allows you to create dictionaries. More on that later.

• Tables are my favorite feature. There are lots of uses for them. Basically, any time you want your text to line up in columns and/or rows, tables will come in handy.

Word UP!