Here are some shortcut keys for Microsoft Word:

1. Ctrl + A: Selects all text in a document or webpage

2. Ctrl + B: Bolds selected text
3. Ctrl + C: Copies highlighted text or objects to the clipboard
4. Ctrl + V: Pastes copied text or objects
5. Ctrl + X: Cuts selected text or files
6. Ctrl + Z: Undoes the last action
7. Ctrl + P: Prints the document
8. Ctrl + S: Saves the document
9. Ctrl + N: Creates a new document
10. Ctrl + F: Searches for text in a document or webpage
11. Ctrl + H: Replaces text
12. Ctrl + I: Italicizes selected text
13. Ctrl + U: Underlines selected text
14. Ctrl + E: Centers selected text
15. Ctrl + L: Aligns selected text to the left
16. Ctrl + R: Aligns selected text to the right
17. Ctrl + M: Indents selected text
18. Ctrl + Shift + L: Creates a bullet list
19. Ctrl + Y: Redoes the last action
20. Ctrl + O: Opens a document
21. Ctrl + End: Moves the cursor to the end of a document
Styles: Documents, Paragraphs, Lines, and
Words
When you create a new document, Word uses default values to know how

to create the document. Default values for such items as the page layout,

paragraph format, line spacing, font, and font size, among many other

formatting options, are set using a style template. You will learn more

about templates in Lesson 2.

The standard default template used by Word is called Normal style. Notice

in the “Style” area of the “Home” ribbon that “Normal” has a blue box

around it. This indicates that it is the selected style. We will discuss the

other styles Word provides in Lesson 3.

By default, Word uses the values in the Normal style to control how the text

is entered and how the document is displayed. Figure 1.21 shows some of

the page, paragraph, line, and font styles that are part of the Normal style.

Normal style includes page margins of one inch. The font face is Calibri and

the font size is 11 point. Line spacing is set at 1.08, which inserts a small

amount of white space between lines. Paragraphs are left aligned with 8

points of white space after each paragraph.

Changes to line spacing, paragraph alignment, space between paragraphs,

and so forth can be changed using the icons in the “Paragraph” group on

the “Home” ribbon. Changes made with those icons affect an entire

paragraph. Figure 1.20 shows the drop-down for the “Line” and “Paragraph

Spacing” options. These options can be used to set the line spacing to a

standard size or a custom size, and to increase or decrease the spacing

before or after the paragraph. In Figure 1.21, the second paragraph is

double-spaced.

Figure 1.20: Line and Paragraph Spacing Drop-Down

Two other paragraph formatting options used frequently are the 1.

Paragraph, Increase Indent and 2. Paragraph, Decrease Indent functions.

The Paragraph, Indent function indents the entire paragraph a standard

amount, usually ½ inch, with each click on the “Increase Indent” icon.

Clicking the “Decrease Indent” icon removes one indent stop with each

click.

It is not necessary to highlight the entire paragraph to make these changes.

It is only necessary to have the cursor located somewhere inside the

paragraph when clicking on the “Paragraph” icons.

Changes to fonts and font sizes can be made using the icons in the “Font”

group. Those changes affect only the text that has been highlighted. Figure

1.21 shows some text that has been highlighted and changed to bold.
 Figure 1.21: Normal Style Plus Paragraph Changes

Typing Text
Entering text into the Word environment is simple: type the text you would

like to store in the document (see Figure 1.21). When you first type a

document, the text is entered paragraph by paragraph. Once you have

finished entering a paragraph, press the Enter key. The cursor skips some

space and positions itself for the next paragraph.

Let’s take a second and define several terms: the mouse pointer and

the cursor. The mouse pointer is the small image that is controlled by the

mouse and can be moved anywhere on the screen. The computer knows

exactly where the mouse pointer is and it will carry out actions based on
the location of the mouse pointer. For example, hovering the pointer over a

hot spot will cause some action to occur, such as a tool tip appearing. The

pointer image also changes depending on its location. For example when

the pointer is over the ribbon it is a pointer, but when it is over some text,

it becomes an I-beam.

The cursor is the small vertical line that defines the location where the text

is entered as you type. That point is also called the insertion point for

entering text. To change the location of the cursor, or the insertion point,

move the mouse I-beam to the desired location and left-click.

The “Font” group displayed in Figure 1.21 has several icons that are

frequently used to modify the text. Three common ones are the tools to

emphasize the text with bold, italics, or underline. Other icons allow you to

increase or decrease the font size, change the case of the text, change the

color of the text, or add a highlight color. Another icon allows you to cross

out text, which does not delete it, but does put a line through it. Other

types of fancy graphic modifications can also be made to the text.

To modify text, first highlight the text you wish to change, and then make

the changes to that text. Highlighting text can be done either with the

mouse, by holding down the left button and dragging across the words to

be selected, or with the keyboard, by positioning the cursor either in front

of or behind the text, then holding down the shift key and pressing the

appropriate arrow key until the desired words are selected. Another term

that is synonymous with highlighting text is selecting text.

Tip—Selecting Text
Clicking on a word sets the insertion point on the word. Double-clicking on a
word will select the word. Clicking in the margin to the left of a line will select the
whole line. Double-clicking in the margin will select the whole paragraph.

Using Backspace and Delete

Sometimes novice users get confused between the Backspace key and the

Delete key. Both can be used to delete characters, words, or sentences

from a paragraph. The major difference between the two keys is when you

are deleting single characters or characters next to the cursor. To delete a

few characters using the Backspace key, position the cursor to the right of

the characters to delete. The Backspace key deletes characters to the left

of the insertion point. To delete characters using the Delete key, position

the cursor to the left. The Delete key deletes characters to the right of the

insertion point.

To delete entire words, sentences, or even entire paragraphs, first select

the text to be deleted (see the above tip about selecting text), then press

either the Backspace key or the Delete key. All the text that was selected

will be deleted.

In the following figure, Figure 1.22, we show a paragraph with a duplicate

word. In part (a) the word is selected. Pressing either the Backspace key or

the Delete key will remove the duplicate word and close up the blank

spaces correctly as shown in part (b).

 Figure 1.22: Deleting a Duplicate Word

Undoing Your Work

As you edit a document, you may decide that you really don’t want to keep

what you just did. You could just delete what you typed using the

Backspace key. However, a quick and easy way to return the document to a

previous state is to use the “Undo” feature.

There are two primary ways to undo the changes you made: One is to press

Ctrl+Z until the document is back to the state you want. If you prefer to use

your mouse, the second method is to click “Undo” in the Quick Access

Toolbar, in the upper-left corner of the Word window.

After using the “Undo” feature, you may decide you really did want the text

or change you just undid. To quickly return the document to how it was

before you used “Undo,” press the “Redo” button on the Quick Access
 Toolbar or use Ctrl+Y. Both “Undo” and “Redo” can be applied multiple

times.

Autocorrect Spelling and Grammar Checking

For many people, one of the biggest advantages of using Word is its ability

to check the grammar and spelling of a document as you type. Text

underlined in blue indicates that Word has identified a grammar error. Text

underlined in red indicates a spelling error.

By default, Word checks grammar and spelling as you type. If you see an

error while you type, the quickest way to correct the error is to right-click

on the word and select the correction from the suggested list. Keep in mind

that not all words underlined are actual grammar or spelling errors.

Figure 1.23 illustrates this autocorrect feature. The blue underline indicates

that the period is not next to the e in stove. The red underlines are

misspellings. The drop-down menu illustrates the pop-up that displays when

you right-click on the misspelled word.

 Figure 1.23: Document with Grammar and Spelling Errors

Rechecking the Entire Document

If you don’t correct the grammar and spelling errors as you type, you can

check the whole document at one time. It is also a good idea to do a final

spelling and grammar check after you finish working on a document.

Clicking the “Spelling & Grammar” button on the “Review” ribbon will open

the “Spelling and Grammar” window.

From this window, you can choose “Ignore” or “Change” for each word. If

the word is found frequently in the document, you will see the “Ignore All”

and “Change All” options. You can also use the “Add” button to add a word

to the dictionary if it is spelled correctly but isn’t currently in the Word

dictionary.
 Figure 1.24: “Spelling and Grammar” Window

Using the Thesaurus

Another feature on the “Review” ribbon is the thesaurus. The thesaurus

will help you make word choices in your document. As you work with a

document, you may find a word that doesn’t really describe what you want

to say, but you may not know what word you want to use. Or, as your

English teacher has taught you, it may be better to use alternative words

rather than to repeat yourself too many times in a document. The

thesaurus is a great tool to assist you. Simply place the cursor within the

word you would like to research and click on the “Thesaurus” icon in the

“Review” ribbon. Figure 1.25 illustrates the thesaurus. This window shows

other words you can use in the document.

Another feature on the “Review” ribbon is the thesaurus. The thesaurus

will help you make word choices in your document. As you work with a

document, you may find a word that doesn’t really describe what you want

to say, but you may not know what word you want to use. Or, as your

English teacher has taught you, it may be better to use alternative words

rather than to repeat yourself too many times in a document. The

thesaurus is a great tool to assist you. Simply place the cursor within the
 word you would like to research and click on the “Thesaurus” icon in the

“Review” ribbon. Figure 1.25 illustrates the thesaurus. This window shows

other words you can use in the document.

Figure 1.25: “Thesaurus” Window

Saving a File
There are multiple ways to save a file in Word. The quickest way is to click

the “Save” button in the Quick Access Toolbar. “Save” and “Save As” are

also available on the “File” tab. Saving a file before you start editing a

document will give your file a name you can remember and also place it in

the correct folder on your computer. After you save the file for the first

time, any additional selection of the “Save” button will update the file.

The first time you save a file, the “Save As” screen displays. On that

screen, you must first select a location—a folder on your computer or in the

cloud—where you will save the file. Then the “Save As” dialog box opens

up. There are three important pieces of information that you must provide:

1. The location where the file is to be saved

2. The name of the file

 3. The format or type of file that is to be used

Figure 1.26 illustrates the “Save As” dialog box. The text box displays the

path and folder that you selected and where the file will be saved. If you

need to change the path and folder, you can do it here. There is also a text

box where the name of the file is entered. Beneath that is a drop-down box

to select the file type. The .docx file type is the latest Microsoft Word

format. However, remember in Figure 1.9 that you saw many other

available file formats. File types include files for previous versions of

Microsoft Word, .pdf files, .html files, plain text files in .txt type, and

even .xml files.

Figure 1.26: “Save As” Dialog Box

One of the dangers of working with technology is that sometimes, although

only once in a while, a computer or a program will crash. When that

happens, it is possible to lose all your work from the last several hours, or

since the last time you saved your work. The first solution, obviously, is to
 save your document frequently. Microsoft Word also has an automatic save

feature to save your document automatically in a backup folder. The

location and frequency of saving is set using the “Save” features found

under “Options” in the “File” tab. Microsoft Word comes configured to

automatically save your work in one of its system folders at a frequency of

every 10 minutes.

If your computer crashes, when Word opens up again, it will try to recover

your work from this backup folder. Word will ask you if you want to use the

recovered file. There have been several times when this feature has saved

me many hours of rework.

Closing a File
There are two ways to close a file when you have completed your work. The

close option is on the “File” menu. If only one file is open, this command

will close the file and Word. If multiple files are open, it will close only the

active document. A quick way to close the active document is to select the

red button in the top-right corner of Word.