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You are at eyeway.org : inform : careers : job seekers: microsoft word step-by-step Microsoft Word step-by-step: Advanced formatting The second part and the final step by step guide, on how to begin using MS-Word. Creating numbered and bulleted Lists Checking the spelling in a document Using macros to automate tasks click here to download full document It refers to changing the appearance of the characters. Characters include all alphabets, numbers, and punctuation marks etc. Character formatting includes size, styles, colour of the characters. A set of all characters of a particular appearance is called FONT. There are numerous fonts that can be used on the computer such as TIMES NEW ROMAN, ARIEL, UNIVERSE, GARAMOND, and COURIER etc. The default font in MS WORD is TIMES NEW ROMAN but it can be replaced with a font of your choice. The size of the characters is measured in POINTS. 72 POINTS are equal to one inch; therefore, one POINT is equal to 1/72 of an inch. The normal font size in office communication is 12 points.
It refers to changing the appearance of the paragraphs as a whole. It includes indents, line spacing, paragraph spacing and page breaks. For doing all this you have to go to Paragraph dialog box, which is in the Format menu. This dialog box has the following fields.
When Tab key is pressed, the insertion pointer moves to the right by a certain distance. In fact, the insertion pointer jumps to the next tab stop. By default the tab stops are set at every half-inch. The tab stops can be removed. They can also be created at the desired locations within the line width. This feature is used for creating tables by aligning the text within the column. This can be done using the following steps:
Tab stop edit combo: Type the width or distance that you want for the first stop. Remember that the distance is always calculated from the left edge of the paper. Default tab stop: Generally this is 0.5 inches that is even when you don't do any tab setting by yourself the pointer moves by this distance on pressing the tab key. Alignment radio button: When you come to this field it will speak one of the following: Left, right, center, decimal or bar. If you want the text to be typed on the right of the tab stop then keep it left aligned. When the tab stop is right aligned the text appears to the left of this tab stop. If a column contains decimal numbers then make the tab stop of this column decimal aligned. In such a case the decimals will be aligned one below another. Center alignment means that the text will be distributed equally on both sides of the tab stop. If it is bar aligned then a vertical bar will appear at the tab stop. Choose the option using up or down arrow. Leader tab: You will get the following options by using up or down arrow. None, dot, dash, underline. When tab is pressed the pointer jumps to the right and leaves blank space in between if none option is selected. Dots, dashes or a straight line will fill the blank space when the relevant option is selected. Set button: Press enter on this button after choosing options for each tab stop. Clear all button: It removes all tab settings in the document. OK button: Press Enter finally. Creating numbered and bulleted lists It is used for giving numbers or bullets to items in a list. It is in the Format menu. Bullets and numbering dialog box has three Tab pages namely bullets tab, number tab and outline number. On all these three pages there are eight options or formats for selection. These choices are in the form of buttons and are arranged in two rows and four columns. Use the arrow keys to choose any button. Bullets: It has choices of symbols, which can be placed before points. Number tab page: It has options like 1 2 3, a b c, a) b) c) etc Outline Number: It has options for sub points. Special Considerations: In the Auto Correct item given under tools menu opens the multiple page dialog box. One of the pages in this dialog box is Auto Correct As You Type. If the check box of Automatic Bulleted List and Automatic Numbered List are checked the following will happen:
If an already typed line is needed to be given a number, the procedure for that would be: to place a pointer at the beginning of the line. Go into the bullet and numbering dialog box from the format menu. Select the numbered tab page. Select the numbering scheme and press enter. The new number for the item is inserted at the location of the cursor. The numbering provided to the items can be of 9 levels. The numbering in this document is also provided using this feature. The main topic numbers are of level 1 whereas the sub-points within each topic are of level 2. Any sub-points of the level 2 items would be assigned level 3 numbering. If the Auto Numbering feature is on you get a new number by pressing the enter key. At this stage press the tab key to increment the level number by 1. Use the shift tab key to decrease the level number by 1. It refers to setting of margins and choosing paper size etc. Press Enter on Page set-up in the file menu. A dialog box opens which has four tab pages. The following two pages are relevant: Margins tab: Type the margins in the various edit boxes which include left margin, right margin, top margin and bottom margin. Gutter margin refers to the binding margin. The binding margin is the space which is left blank on the left-hand side on the odd pages and on the right hand side on the even number pages. This is useful for double side printing. The margins can be written in inches, cms, or points. For expressing the margins in inches type the number followed by a double quote sign. For typing the margins in the centimeter type the number followed by cm. To type the margins in point type in the number followed by the letter pt. You might recall that there are 72 pts in an inch. There is a combo box for choosing where you want to apply these settings. Choose whole document or this point forward as the requirement may be. Paper size: Choose from the standard sizes that are available in the combo box or type the width and height in the edit boxes. Choose how you want to print that is portrait for lengthwise or landscape for width wise printing. Text can be written in more than one column on a page. In magazines or newspapers the text is written in columns.The text we are referring here is the running text. Do the following to create a multiple column document: Activate column command from the format menu. A dialogue box will open.Selecting number of columns: Focus is on edit spin box. Choose number of columns you wish to create. Column width and space between columns: These are two edit boxes. Default width is suggested. Type in new value to change the suggested width and space between two columns. Equal column width: This is a check box. If checked, it will automatically assign column width to the columns. Pre-set column styles: There is a set of 5 radio buttons. These correspond to the five types of column styles:
Apply to: This is a combo box. The column settings can be applied to whole document or from current cursor position. The column settings can also be applied to the selected text. Select the text before entering this dialogue box. Only then the option of applying column settings to selected text will be available. Activate the OK button after making appropriate entries in the dialogue box. Navigation in columns: You can know the current column number by pressing Insert+tab key. If you have made two columns in five rows, the first line of the second column is treated as line 6. You can get this information from the status bar. To move to the next column do the following: Go to the last line and last character of the current column. Press the right arrow key. To go to the previous column, go to the first line and first character of the current column. Press the left arrow key. Command for reading the current line reads line with in the current column. However, in JAWS, when the jaws cursor is active, command for reading current line reads corresponding line of all the columns. You can move the jaws cursor to the text of any column in the current line. Pressing left click will bring the insertion pointer to the position of the jaws cursor. This is another way of moving from one column to another. Current date and time can be inserted in any document without typing. It gets inserted at the point where the pointer is present. Press Enter on date and time, which is in the Insert menu. A dialog box opens which has a combo box showing available formats. Choose the format you like using arrow keys and press Enter. The date and time get inserted. Files can be given two types of passwords to protect them from unauthorisd use. Password to open: A person who does not have the password will not be able to open or read the file. Password to modify: Without the password a person can read the file but can't make changes. To give password:
At the time of opening the file password will be asked. If a wrong password is given the file will not open. If you don't have the password but you are getting a read only button on pressing tab then press enter here the file will open in read only mode. Password for preventing modification to a document:
Tip: If you're writing a document for review, you can allow others to make suggestions by using comments or tracked changes but still leave the document protected from other modifications. Click Protect Document on the Tools menu, and then click Tracked Changes. To let reviewers insert comments but not change the contents of the document, click Comments. Checking the spelling in a document Word has a built in dictionary. When spell check command is given it compares the words in the document with the words in the dictionary. If it does not find a match it refers to it as a mistake and gives similar words as suggestions for correcting the spelling. To start the spell-checker, activate the spelling and grammar command from the tools menu. The accelerator key for the same is F7. The spell check dialog box opens and it tells you the first wrong spelling it detects. This dialog box has the following fields:
You will get a message when the check is complete. Press enter then. This feature is useful when you want to check the meanings of words or replace words with better alternative words. Place the insertion pointer on the word and then press shift plus F7. A dialog box opens having the following important fields: Meanings list box: Shows list of meanings for the selected word. Replace with synonym list box: Displays a set of simonizes for each meaning. Any of these words can be used to replace the word in the file. Replace button: After selecting the word in the synonym list activate this button for changing the word in the document with this new word. Press Enter on Print. in the File menu or use Control plus P. The dialog box has the following relevant fields: Number of copies: Type in the desired number of copies of the document required to be printed. Print: All pages in range are what you will hear. This combo box is useful when you want to print on both sides of the paper. First select odd pages and print them. Then put the printed papers back into the printer with their sides reversed. Now select even pages in this combo box and print. Print Range Radio Button: You can select one of all the following options:
Print Range Edit Box: This edit box is useful only if the Print Range Radio Box is selected in the previous control. This edit box is used to specify the page numbers to be printed. For example type 5 - 8 to print from page 5 to page 8. Type 5, 8 to print page 5 and page 8. Selection: If a portion of the text is to be printed then select it. In the print range radio button you will now find one more option that is selection radio button. This should be used for printing selected text. Select Header and Footer from the View menu and press Enter. The view changes to Print Layout and displays the header area. A Header and Footer Toolbar also appear on the screen at this point of time. Write the header directly over here. Press Down Arrow to display the footer area and now type the desired footer. If the header is more than one line than pressing down arrow after reaching the last line of the header will take the control to the footer area. The text written in header and footer area can be formatted in the same way as other text in Ms Word. Now this view needs to be closed. The closed button appears at the bottom right corner of this view. You can either click on this button using the Jaws cursor or press the Alt C to activate this button. As you type you will realise that there are some mistakes that are made quite often. MS Word provides the AUTO CORRECT feature for automatically correcting such mistakes. You can make certain auto correct entries so that word automatically corrects spelling errors. To create Auto Correct entries do the following:
From then on every time this word is misspelled in the same way MS Word would automatically correct it. The dialog box of the auto correct has five check boxes -- correct two initial capitals, capitalize first letter of sentence, capitalize names of days, correct accidental usage of caps lock key, replace text as you type. These check boxes should be kept checked.
A spreadsheet type of table can be created in a word document. The grid of columns and rows can be created. Go to the TABLE menu and select table from INSERT submenu and press ENTER. A dialog box opens. Mention the number of rows and columns that you want. The other options need not be changed in normal case. A table gets inserted where the insertion pointer was present. Use TAB to move between the columns and UP and DOWN arrows to move between rows and write the text. Use the DELETE submenu in the TABLE menu to remove rows or columns and INSERT submenu to insert rows and columns. Use the SELECT submenu to select table, rows or columns. This is essential before formatting. Remember that the text in the table is formatted through the FORMAT menu of Word only like other text. AUTO FIT TO CONTENTS command inside the AUTO FIT submenu is very useful for changing the size of the table. This command adjusts the width of the column according to the number of characters entered in the data. This command is available from word 2000 onwards. Text if written in a particular way can be converted into tables. While writing the text a separator like DASH, TAB or COMMA should be used between the entries of different columns. At the end of every row use the enter key. Now select the entire text which needs to convert into table. Activate the TEXT TO TABLE from the TABLE menu. In the dialog box that opens mention the separator that you have used. Also check the number of columns. On doing OK the text is changed to table. Imagine a situation where you have to send one letter to 75 different persons. MS-Word has a feature called a Mail Merge to avoid the typing of this letter 75 times. With Mail Merge, merging happens between two documents. The first document is the body of the letter and the second document contains names and addresses of those 75 persons. In the body of the letter special codes are placed at the places where names and addresses are to appear. On issuing the merge command MS-Word print this body of the letter 75 times. Each time new name and the address is picked up from the list of names and addresses. To create the two documents and to take merged print outs do the following: Activate the Mail Merge Commands from the Tools Menu. This will open the Mail Merge Helper Dialog Box. This dialog box is divided into three parts. First part is for creating or editing main document, the second part is for the data source and the third one is to merge the documents. When you enter into this document only the first part is available. The screen reader announces create main document. Use up or down arrow key to select the type of main document. Available types are form letter, envelopes, mailing labels and catalogs. Press enter to activate one of these options. You will now be prompted whether you want to use the current document window for creating this main document or create a new document window. Tab to the appropriate option and press enter.
Choose the appropriate option and press enter. Note: It is recommended for the ease of use with the screen reader to use MS-Excel to create data sources and use the open data source option from the above mentioned list. On choosing the open data source item you will be prompted to give the file name to be used as the data source. This will be done through a file open type of dialog box. After the selection of a data source file you will be prompted to edit the main document to place the fields at the appropriate places within the body of the document. Press enter on the edit main document button. The control is now returned to a blank document window. Type in the text of the letter. Inserting fields at the appropriate places: Now you need to insert the fields from the data source at the places in the main document where the data from the data file will be placed. In the current document window a new tool bar has appeared. Reach this toolbar by pressing Alt key then pressing the Ctrl tab repeatedly till you hear "Insert Merged Field". This is the list of the fields available from the data source. Select the appropriate field and press enter. The field name now appears at the place of the insertion pointer within the brackets. Printing a merged document: From the toolbar you can activate the View Merged Data button. This will display the data of the current record from the data source. Give the normal print command mentioned in the file menu to print the letter with the data of the current record. The second option is to go back to the Mail Merge Helper Dialog Box by activating the Mail Merge command from the tools menu. Now the third section of the dialog box with the heading Merge Document is also available. Activate the Merge Document button. You will be prompted for a target. The following options are available:
The table of contents is a very useful feature of MS-Word. This not only provides an overview of the contents of the full documents but also allows jumping to the section indicated by an entry in the table of contents. There are several ways of creating table of contents. The methods described here are outline and heading style method. Follow the given steps: Layout Line Method: If you have used the numbering feature described in section 25 of this document. You can create a table of contents where each of the number and the text appearing on that line along with the page number will appear on the table of contents. Apply the numberings of the appropriate levels to the headings and sub-headings which need to be listed in the table of contents. Activate the Index and Table command from the Insert Menu. In Windows- 2000 and Windows-XP, this command is in the sub-menu of Reference. The Reference is in the sub-menu of Insert. This command will open a dialog box which has four tab pages. Go to the Table of Contents tab page.
Press enter on the OK button. This would create the Table of Contents at the location of the insertion pointer. If the Table of Contents needs to be created at the beginning of the document make sure to go to the beginning of the document before activating the Index and Table command. Heading style: Instead of using the outline numbering you can apply styles to headings that you need to include in the Table of Contents. For doing this:
Using macros to automate tasks If you perform a task repeatedly in Word, you can automate the task by using a macro. A macro is a series of keystrokes, word commands and instructions that you group together as a single command to accomplish a task automatically. Instead of manually performing a series of time-consuming, repetitive actions in Word, you can create and run a single macro-in effect, a custom command-that accomplishes the task for you. Here are some typical uses of macros:
Word offers two ways for you to create a macro: the macro recorder and the Visual Basic Editor. Recording a macro: The macro recorder can help you get started creating macros. Word records a macro as a series of word commands in Visual Basic for Applications. When you record a macro, you can use the mouse to select commands and options, but the macro recorder doesn't record mouse movements in a document window. For example, you can't use the mouse to move the insertion point or to select, copy, or move items by selecting or dragging. You must use the keyboard to record these actions. When you're recording a macro, you can temporarily pause recording and then resume recording where you stopped. For quick access to your macro, you can assign it to a toolbar, a menu, or shortcut keys. Running the macro is as simple as selecting the toolbar button or menu command or pressing the shortcut keys. You can also use the Macros command (Tools menu, Macro submenu) to run a macro. Perform the following steps:
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