Note: I am in the [slow and intermittent] process of rewriting this chapter for Ribbon versions of Word. It is unfinished - in progress - but can be found here. After completing this lesson, you will be
able to:
Other Chapters Related to Topics Covered in this Lesson
Additional Written (or Web) Resources
Last edited by Charles Kenyon Tuesday 14 June 2022 as to links only. Valid for Word 97-Word 2003. Principles applicable to later versions. Some notes as to Word 2010. [ Home ][ Introduction ][ Web Resources ][ Word Books ][ Confidentiality ][ Word FAQ ][ Downloads ][ Word 2002 ]
(this guide table of contents) ----- (MS Word New Users FAQ) Search Usersguide to Microsoft Word using Google CK Introduction to WordWelcome to Word. It is a very good computer program for putting words and images on paper. That is what it is designed to do. Everything else is added on and may not work as well as other programs. Word is a combination Mack Truck and Back Hoe disguised as a Volkswagen. Think "Transformers." It has a lot of power to do major work, but that power comes with a number of confusing controls. In Word 97-2003 those controls are in the menus and toolbars. In Word 2007-2013 you reach them through the Ribbon tabs. Always remember: Ctrl+Z (UnDo) is your friend. When working on a major project and trying something new, consider working with a copy of your document. Let's start with some basic tools to let you peek under the hood and see what Word is doing with your formatting: Reveal Formatting and display of non-printing formatting characters. Checking Formatting - Word's Reveal Codes
CK Section on Creating a New DocumentThere are a number of ways to create a new document. The simplest is to click on the new document icon If you see a template in Windows, you can create a new document based on the template by double-clicking on the template. To get to these templates from within Word you need to select New under the File menu. In Word 97-2000 this will bring up the new file dialog box:
In Word 2002 and later, it will bring up the New File Task Pane. (If you don't like this and would prefer to just get the new document dialog box, see the NewFileDialog Add-In.)
Clicking on "General Templates" (Word 2002) or "Templates ... On My Computer" (Word 2003) in the Task Pane will bring you to the New File Dialog. If the template you want is in your User Templates Folder or in the Workgroup Templates folder it will show up in the dialog box. If it is in a subfolder of these, it will show up when you click on the tab representing that subfolder. (These folders are explained in Templates in Microsoft Word.) The "More" Tab in the dialog will show you folders that might not show up in the tab space.
The "Blank Document" template shown in the New File Dialog is really your normal.dot template. The General Tab displays the contents (other than folders) of the User Templates Folder and the Workgroup Templates Folder. Word 2007-2013 put different steps in the way of getting to the templates on your computer but do give easier access to templates provided by Microsoft online. To get to the FileNew dialog shown above in Word 2007-2013 add the command to your QAT.
Selecting Text (CK Section)
It is important to distinguish between selecting text (picking it out for some manipulation) and highlighting text. Highlighting is marking the text as in using a highlighting marker to change the background color in the document, it shows up when you print. Selecting is pointing out text so you can manipulate it. It is a method of using your computer to manipulate text. It does not show up when you print.
Highlighting is accomplished using the Highlighting formatting button. (Shading is also possible using a different control.) Character Formatting (CK Section)A page on formatting should have some things about how to apply formatting to your text. First, you should apply most of your formatting by using Styles in Word. This allows you to keep the formatting in your document consistent and makes it easier to make changes. But even if only to set up the styles, you need to know how to change the formatting directly. Some people only need the Bold, Italic, and Underline formatting commands that appear on the formatting toolbar. These can be applied individually or in combination. However, there are many other character formatting options available on the Font Formatting dialog box. Some that I use often are strikethrough, double-strikethrough, and hidden. (I have my computer set up to display hidden text but not print it. I put instructions in hidden text on forms. Note that this is metadata that you might not want to be sharing.) You can also change the font in the . You can get to the character formatting dialog by using the Format > Font command, or if you select a word or series of words, you can right-click and select the "format font" command to open the dialog box. Note that Word calls it Format Font and I call it character formatting because I think that designation is more precise. You are not really changing the font at all, you are changing how the characters of different fonts appear on your page. In Word 2007-2013 you can reach the font formatting dialog box through the drop down in the Font Group on the Home Tab or with Ctrl+D.
See also: the Font Group in the Ribbon (Word 2007+). An additional type of character formatting that is valuable in a legal environment is language formatting. Specifically, you can apply "no proofing" formatting to case citations and party names so that you won't have to OK them in spell check. I find this best applied, though, through a character style rather than by direct formatting. Instructions on setting up such a style can be found in the chapter on styles. Repeat Formatting Key: If you are going through a document and applying the same formatting to various words, you can use the Ctrl+Y combination or the F4 key to repeat formatting. This only applies, though, to the last formatting applied. So, if you are making something bold and then Italic, only the Italic is applied by the repeat key. If you want to apply more than one formatting change repeatedly either use a character style or use the font formatting dialog (Ctrl+D) for the first change. The repeat key will then let you repeat the full change. (This is actually the Repeat Typing key or "Do Again" key - the opposite of the UnDo key.) (this section unfinished as of 12/15/13) Moving and Copying Text
Practice: Use Cut, Copy And Paste
Practice: More with Cut, Copy and Paste
Collect and Paste (New for Word 2000)Practice: Work with the Office Clipboard
See also the Clipboard Group on the Home Tab (Word 2007+). See also Control the Formatting When You Paste Text - Microsoft Paste Special
Format Painter
Clear Formatting - CK SectionSometimes you just want to start over. If you select text and press Ctrl+Spacebar you will remove all character formatting from the selection, including formatting based on a character style. It returns it to the paragraph style. If you press Ctr+Q it will remove and paragraph-level formatting from the selected text or any paragraph containing such text. If you want to strip out paragraph style based formatting from a selection you need to Cut it and use Paste Special to paste it back as unformatted text or use the Clear Formatting command in the Styles Pane (Word 2003 and later). (In Word 2007 and later you can use the Clear Formatting button on the font group of the home tab to do the same thing.) Pasting back in as unformatted text will paste it in the current paragraph style. The Clear Formatting button or command in the Styles Pane returns the text to the normal format. If you want, you can select all text in an area and apply the normal style to it.
Paragraph Formatting DialogMuch formatting is handled at a paragraph level. It is best handled using Styles. However, you can do direct formatting for a particular paragraph using the Ruler or the Paragraph dialog box. In Word 97-2003 this is reached using Format > Paragraph. In later versions it is reached using the dialog launcher at the bottom right of the Paragraph Group on the Home Tab.
Indents
Keyboard shortcuts are available for Left Indents (Ctrl+M) and Hanging Indents (Ctrl+T). Those set an indent at 1/2 inch. They can be undone with Ctrl+Shift+M and Ctrl+Shift+T. Practice: Set Indents Using the Ruler
Practice: Set Indents Using the Paragraph Dialog Box
Working with Tabs
CK NOTE: In all versions of Word through Word 2010 both Tabs and Indents can be set outside left and right page margins. Tabs can be set outside the left and right Indents. I've never known a reason to set a tab outside the left Indent, though. There are some examples of this shown in Text Justification in Microsoft Word. (See below for Word 2013 and later) When you set paragraph level formatting like tabs in one paragraph and press Enter at the end of that paragraph, your settings will usually continue into the next (new) paragraph. That is not always true. Every paragraph has style formatting assigned (even if you didn't know anything about it). That style formatting may assign use of a different style for the following paragraph. In that case, the tab settings in the new style will apply.
Practice: Set Tabs Using the Tabs Dialog Box
Page SetupPractice: Insert Section Breaks to Change Headers and Footers
Practice: Section Breaks and Columns
Practice: Attach an Envelope and Insert an Automatic Section Break
The second and third pages will be TABLE OF CONTENTS and TABLE OF AUTHORITIES. The fourth page will be TEXT. The fifth page will be the TABLE. The sixth (and final) page will be the APPENDIX. To accomplish the above exercise you must do the following:
Dividing a Document Into Sections
There are four types of section breaks in Word: Some reasons for inserting sections breaks include:
Text Alignment / JustificationText in a Word paragraph can be aligned along the left indent, the right indent, centered, or fully justified. Note the term "indent" rather than margin. These are often the same but can be different. See Text Alignment in Microsoft Word for more.
Styles Basics
Practice: Design a new Style (My Style) to be Single-Spaced and 1- Inch Indented on Both Right and Left Sides
Automatic Paragraph Numbering
Practice: Apply Outline Numbering
For more on numbering, see that section.
Clean Up or Remove Unwanted Formatting
See: Autoformat as you Type / AutoCorrect (link is to incomplete draft chapter) See also: Word is always making changes I don't expect. How can I get more control over my formatting? by Suzanne S. Barnhill, MVP, and Dave Rado, MVP.AutoFormat as You Type changes you don't wantImmediately after AutoFormat makes the change
Fixing AutoFormat changes later (can't undo)If you have gone past the point where you can use UnDo... Unwanted Lines
Changing Case of Text Using Formatting and Keyboard ShortcutsFont Formatting Resetting formatting
Text Boundaries - display of margins
Multiple (Selective) Undo
Paragraph Marks, Manual Line Breaks and Manual Page BreaksParagraph Marks
Manual Line Breaks
Page Breaks (more like line breaks than paragraph marks)
Section Breaks
Deleting a Page in WordWhy is this a problem?
How to Delete a Page
Using Themes in Microsoft Word
Changing the Default Font in Word 2013
See Space-Before and Space-After paragraph formatting in Styles for information on that topic. This chapter from original Legal Users Guide to Microsoft Word 2002 - document in zip format
Copyright 2000-2002, 2004-2006, 2010-2022 Charles Kyle Kenyon See information about copy permission. Search Intermediate Users Guide to Microsoft Word Using Google My office page as a Madison, Wisconsin Criminal Defense Lawyer. Original Legal Users Guide to Microsoft Word 2002 - Documents in Zip Format A note about link exchanges. This site does not participate in link exchanges to build web presence. If you have a link that you think would be of use to people reading this page, please send it to the webmaster with the url of the page where you think it should appear and it will be considered. Your placing a link to this site will not affect the decision on whether to add your link, though. What is the most efficient way to remove all formatting characteristics from a piece of Unhighlighted text?Use Ctrl + A to select all text in a document and then click the Clear All Formatting button to remove the formatting from the text (aka character level formatting.) You can also select just a few paragraphs and use the same method to remove formatting from part of a document.
Which type of style will you apply if you want to affect the appearance and position of an entire paragraph?To apply a built-in style
If the style you want to apply is a paragraph style, you can position the cursor anywhere in the paragraph. If the style you want to apply is a character style, you must select the text.
How do you change the level for a bulleted or numbered list quizlet?To remove numbers or bullets from a list, select the list and click the Bullets or Numbering commands. Hold Shift and press Tab to decrease the level.
Which command should you use to tell Word to restart the numbering for a new list?Restart numbering at 1
Click the item that you want to be the first item in the new list. Ctrl+click or right-click the item, and then click Restart numbering.
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