Starting Word      page 1

Starting Word

Before you start this lesson: Have you done the Intro lesson?  It will acquaint you with Windows 2000 and may answer some of your questions before you begin this lesson. AND, you must take the Intro Test to get your first point! NOTE: These lessons are created with Microsoft Office 2000 products in mind.  If you are familiar with earlier versions of Microsoft Office, there are no huge changes to throw you off.  Most everything will seem familiar, except that many things are easier or more intuitive now.
If you are not very familiar with Microsoft WORD, you might want to first look through this  PowerPoint Presentation: Start Using Microsoft Word
Starting WORD at Bijou After logging on, find and double-click the Word icon.  It should be on the desktop, or in the Start menu in Programs. Word Icons:   (Word97)... (Word2000 & XP) Starting Word in Windows 95/98/2000 as you would do on a stand-alone system at home, for example: Click the Start button, in the lower-left corner of the screen Position the mouse pointer to Microsoft Word, and click again. -or- position the pointer on Programs, then on Microsoft Word, and click. Word will start, and a new document should open.  If a "Wizard" opens, click on normal, or ask the teacher for help.
	Note If your software installation looks different from this image, click Programs to see the menu, and select Microsoft Word.

The Word Window

Here is a portion of the initial screen you will see when you open WORD.
 Note some of the features of the Word window below.
  Some are explained below the window.

As you become more familiar with the options available in Word, you can customize the menus and add buttons to the toolbars.

Views, or, "How we see our documents."

Test HINT #2:     2.     Name the 4 views listed near the beginning of this lesson.

The Print Layout view, which is the view shown above, shows your document almost as it will look when you print it. It is probably the view you will use most.

Other views include

• The Normal view,
• The Outline view,
• The Web Layout view.

For complete explanations, see the Word help files using the Office Assistant.

To choose between the different views

- Go to the View menu (see above) and pull it down to the view you want, or click one of the buttons in the lower left corner of your Word document, like you can see here:

A view with a different purpose, and not found among the View Choice Buttons, is the Document Map. It is explained here.

File names:

The Word window shown above is named "Document 1."

As you open more documents they will be called "Document 2," "Document3," etc., until you save them with your own name.

Test HINT #1:    1.    List the "bars" found at the top of the standard Word window.

Menu bar:

The Menu bar serves the same function throughout most Windows-based programs.
Menus are accessed as noted in the Win2000 Intro.
Menus drop down to give you a large number of function choices.

Toolbars:

Toolbars contain buttons and drop-down windows. 
The main two toolbars that should always be shown are:

1. The Standard toolbar
   • Contains commands like save, print, copy, Insert hyperlink, columns.
2. The Formatting toolbar
   • Contains commands like Font type, size, style, alignment, indent, color.
3. The Drawing toolbar
   • A convenient toolbar that doesn't automatically open up. It has its own button on the Standard Tool bar:
     When you click it, the Drawing toolbar opens up on the bottom of the document window, just above the Status Bar.

Customize the toolbars

View more toolbar choices by clicking View>Toolbars>then choose from the list
-or-
Right-click in the toolbars or menu bar.

At the bottom of this list is Customize...

1. Click Customize... then you can view the list of many available command buttons and drop-down boxes that you can place on your toolbars when you click and drag from this list to the place on the toolbar you want to place it.
   • In the Word Window above the "Change case" button has been added in this way to the formatting toolbar.

Using the "Office Assistant"

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other MS Office products have an Office Assistant that can answer your questions and give tips to help you improve your documents and increase your productivity. Wherever you are doing your task, your Office Assistant is available. Use it to learn more about and to discover faster and easier ways to use Word.

When you first install Word, the Office Assistant looks like a little paper clip guy watching you work. If you don't like this, you can hide him:  Right-Click on him and then click "hide."

Selecting a different image for the Office Assistant

NOTE: Usually can't be done on  our school's network system.

Although the paper clip is the default image for the Office Assistant, you can choose other images. There is a cat, a bouncing ball, an Einstein-like character, and others, some that can be downloaded from the web.

To choose a different image ...

1. Right-mouse click the Office Assistant image.
2. Click Choose Assistant.
3. Click the Next button until you find the image you want for your Office Assistant.
   - or-
   follow the instructions to insert the Install CD containing WORD or OFFICE...
   
4. Click OK when you have made your selection.

Using the Office Assistant
If your Office Assistant is not visible, click the question mark button on the Standard toolbar, and the Office Assistant will appear.

Presetting topics for assistance

1. Click anywhere on the Office Assistant to display the Office Assistant dialog box.
2. Click Options, and click the boxes next to the options you want to preset.

Note
The Office Assistant light bulb signals a tip about how a Word feature could help you perform your current task.

Posing questions  to the Office Assistant

Ask a specific question:

1. Click anywhere on the Office Assistant to display the Office Assistant dialog box.

2. Type your question, or a keyword or two, into the dialog box.
3. Click Search or just press the Enter key on  your keyboard.
4. Click on one of the choices that appear in the box that opens, or click on See more...

Saving Your Work!!!!

• It is important to save your work carefully, and often!!!!1
• You must pay attention to what you name the document and where you place it, in order for you to be able to find it again.
• Unless you specify otherwise, Word saves all files to a default folder on your computer called My Documents.
• However, if you are not on your own computer, that may NOT be where you want to save it!
• My Documents is located on your computer's hard drive (the C: drive).
• If you are on a network, you must know where to go to save to a personal folder, or you must save to a floppy disk (on the A: drive).

-- How to find lost files

There are 2 commands for saving: "Save", and "Save As..."

Saving for the first time:

If you are creating a new document, the first time you choose Save the command is treated as a Save As...

NOTE: Once you have saved the document, the file name is displayed in the title bar at the top of the document.

NOTE: When you save the file for the first time, you should name the file as descriptively but as briefly as possible. Sometimes, you will want to name it as a particular version, or as a type of document, or with other info:
 (e.g., Tech_Report_v1_12-11-98.doc; TechReport_JRC_Bijou.doc; etc.)

• If you can't use a particular character in the file name, the computer will inform you so you can change it.

Saving a new document:

1. On the File menu, click New.

2. Type  February 24, your name (or anything else socially acceptable) at the top of the page, then press Enter on your keyboard.

3. Pull down the File menu, click Save or Save As...

4. In the File name box, type the name you want to give the file, or leave it as it is.
  Note that there is already a name there: 
   It is what you typed at the top of the page of your new document!

NOTE: The file name that WORD puts in the box as a default is already "selected" so: if you want to change it, start typing the new file name.

5. Click on the little black downward-pointing arrow to the right of the white box that has "My Documents" in it, called the Save in: box, to change your location.
6. To select the (A:\) Drive (your floppy disk) find it in that same window; just click on it .

NOTE:  If there is a folder with your user name on it, double-click on it, and then double click on the Portfolio folder to save your file there.  That is your "U" drive you hear so much about.  It allows you to access your saved files from any computer in the school!

7. Click Save to save the file.

Do I click Save or Save As... ??

Study the Save As... window above.  Notice these things: (and note the Summary below)

• Save in: drop-down box.  It allows you to choose any location your computer has access to to save your file in.  This includes the hard drive, a floppy disk, a CD-RW, a network location.  At Bijou, a primary location for you to save is your "U" drive, which is your own personal folder on a network computer.  It is not on the machine you are physically sitting at!

• File name: drop-down box.  It is where you can name your file.  If the default name is okay, you don't have to do anything, but often you need to give your file a different name.  If your file is a just opened, never-saved document, the the default name is something like "Doc1.doc"  which isn't going to be very helpful when you look for it later.  See the note above about naming your document.  Use common sense, and follow the standards of your class or your business.

• Save as type: drop-down box.  This allows you to save as an older version of Word, say, or to save a file that will be readable on a Macintosh, or by another application such as WordPerfect.  You can even save as a plain text file that is readable by almost any word processor out there.

Test HINT #4:    4.  Which one should you use? Save or Save As… ?

Summary of Save and Save as...

In the Save As... window, you can:

1. Choose the file Location
2. Choose the File Name
3. Choose the File Type

Save ...

Most of the time you are essentially Re-Saving your work.

If you are saving your file after the first time you saved it:
Click Save to re-save the file.

Utilize the Save button:

If you have not yet saved your work, and you click Save or the Save Button, you will be shown the Save As... window anyway.  Word, and many other applications, knows that you need to give your file a name or may want to change the location.

So, What is Save for? Again, most of the time (except for the first time you save a file) when you click Ctrl+S or File>Save or the Save button (pictured just above) you are essentially Re-Saving your work.

There is more information on Saving files on page 3 of this section.

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Go Back To: WORD Index	UPDATED 02/11/07
	The original idea for the format of these lessons was from the Microsoft website  "In and Out of the Classroom"  © 1998 Microsoft Corporation.