Chapter 1 Introduction to Word Processing
Chapter Outline
Word Processing Basics
Terminology
The word processor screen
Creating a document
Saving a file
Paragraph formatting
Footnotes
Spell Checker
Margins
Print Preview
Modifying a document
Replace
What’s wrong with this Document
Summary of Word Processing Basics
Summary of Computer Basics
Review of Menus
Word Processing Basics
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Basics that apply to all 1.
Only hit the Enter Key at the end of the paragraph. 2.
Use the Indent option to start paragraphs and
when appropriate. 3.
Use the Spacing option to space your lines
and paragraphs. 4.
Use the TAB key Once and set the tab stops. Computer
Basics 5.
Use the Spell Checker before you print. 6.
Use Print Preview before you print. 7.
Save BEFORE
you type anything and often while you are working. Figure
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Computers have made typing papers a breeze for those of us who do not know how to type! We can make mistakes left and right and be able to fix them on the computer before we print the paper. We can save a paper as a file on a diskette and keep it for future reference. We can modify papers in a flash and we can even include pictures in our papers.
When using a word processor you should be aware that you can move an entire paragraph or simply one word very easily in your paper. You can also include a new paragraph, a new sentence or just a new word anyplace within your paper. This ability to manipulate your text is the prime advantage and difference between using a word processor and a typewriter. The word processor also allows you to make modifications relatively easily. Especially if you have followed the simple basics as outlined in Figure 1.
The basics of word processing are guidelines to follow to make it easier to change and modify your document. They all relate to something called paragraph formatting features. The 3 computer Basics are common to all applications not just the word processor.
Most word processors are similar, so I want to introduce you to some of the things in general that can be done using a word processor. What I want to stress is the correct way to use a word processor, which is by following the basics that are listed in Figure 1. Anyone can sit down on a computer and type in a paper, but not everyone knows how to type in the paper correctly. If you ever need to modify the paper in some way it will be easier to do if you have followed the basic guidelines.
Terminology
Let’s start with a little word processing terminology so that we are all working from the same reference point.
Cursor / Insertion Point - The cursor, or insertion point, is a flashing vertical bar on the screen. This is where your text will appear when you start to type. The mouse pointer will be an I-beam on your document window and can be used to move the insertion point by clicking the left mouse button.
Word-wrap - When using a word processor we want to take advantage of word-wrap. When you reach the end of the line, the computer will automatically go to the next line; this is called word-wrap. If you were trained to use a typewriter, your most common mistake will be hitting the carriage return key at the end of every line. In word processing, we only want to hit the return (enter) key at the end of the paragraph.
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Cursor Movement Keys Arrow
keys Left arrow - moves cursor one space
to the left. Ctrl + Left arrow - moves cursor one word to
the left. Right arrow - moves cursor one space
to the right. Ctrl + Right arrow - moves cursor one word to
the right. Up arrow - moves cursor one line
up. Down arrow - moves cursor one line
down. Other
Keys Home - Moves the cursor to the
beginning of the current line. Ctrl + Home - Moves the cursor to the
beginning of the document. End - Moves the cursor to the
end of the current line. Ctrl + End - Moves the cursor to the
end of the document. Page Up - scrolls the screen up
one page. Ctrl + Page Up - moves the cursor to the
top of the screen. Page Down - scrolls the screen down
one page. Ctrl + Page Down - moves the cursor to the
bottom of the screen. Figure
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Paragraph - A paragraph is defined as going from one enter key stroke to the next time you hit the enter key. So, every time you hit the enter key, you create a new paragraph.
Formatting -
With word processing, you can change the appearance of your text by formatting
the text. There are two kinds of formatting features:
1. Features that effect characters
or only what is highlighted.
2. Features that effect the entire paragraph.
Highlighted or Selected - Generally speaking, whatever you have highlighted will be affected by the formatting feature that you do, or will be deleted, or will be moved, or will be copied, etc. Highlighted text appears with text in the background color (usually white) and the background color as the text color (usually black). You can highlight text by clicking with the mouse (holding down the left mouse button) and dragging the mouse cursor over the text. Oftentimes when highlighting text in this manner, you may let go of the mouse button too early and miss a letter or two. No problem. Simply hold the shift key down and press the arrow keys to move the highlight in the direction that you want. In fact, you can use any of the cursor movement keys (Figure 2) combined with holding down the shift key to highlight text. Also, if you place the mouse pointer on the extreme left side of the document window you can then click to highlight the entire line.
Toggle - Many features in word processing work as a toggle, which means it is a switch that can be turned on or off. If you decide you do not like the option you simply turn it off. Some of the toggle options include BOLD, Underline, and Italics. These can all be turned on or off. If you have something bold and you do not want it bold, you simply highlight the text and then click the bold switch to turn it off.
Insert mode/over type mode - In “insert mode”, when you type, the text will automatically be pushed forward. In “over type mode” you will type over the text, thereby deleting the text. This is also a toggle and can be changed by pushing the Insert Key on the keyboard. To tell which mode you are in, look at the status bar (Figure 5) of the document window. If OVR shows up on the status bar you are in “over type mode”.
Non-Printing Characters Figure 3 - There are several key strokes that you use all the time that do
not print. These would include hitting the space bar, tab key, and enter key.
All of these characters can be shown on the screen. It is sometimes helpful to
see these characters so that you know what is happening in your document. I
will talk about the non-printing characters more when I talk about the basics
of word processing.
Font Figure 4
- The style of character that your text is in. I am using Arial at the
moment. You can have as many fonts in a document as you want. In fact, you can
make each letter a different font! One very important point about fonts is, the
fonts that you have available to you are dependent on the printer that you
have. So if you don’t see any of the fonts that I have here, that simply means
your printer does not have those fonts. You can buy fonts for your printer and
then you would be able to use them in your documents. You should also know that
you can make your computer think it has a laser printer (has a lot of fonts) by
just setting the option as if you had that printer. Your computer will not know
the difference. You will not be able to print them on your computer but you can
save the file on a disk and bring it to a computer that does have that printer.
The bottom font is Wingding. In fact if
you type a lower case L and change the font to Wingding
you will get a bullet l.
Font Size - The size is how big or small your text is. The larger the number selected the larger the size. Some fonts have more sizes available to them. Again size, just like font, is printer dependent. You can also use as many sizes as you feel like in your papers.
The word processor screen
In Figure 5 you can see what a new word processing file will look like in Microsoft Word. Let me describe the various parts for you. You should begin to recognize some of them. Also, as you practice your word processing, pay attention to how the program works. Most Windows programs work in a similar fashion. For example, opening or saving a file is done in the same way for most applications. You would choose the File option on the menu bar and then look for Open or Save.
Title Bar - This is something that you have seen before. In this case the title bar is showing you the name of the application that you are using (Microsoft Word) and the name of the file (Document2). In this case the name of the file is the default name[1]. You should notice the Minimize - Maximize and Close button on the title bar for the application. The buttons on the menu bar are for the document.
Menu Bar - The menu bar shows all the available menu options that you can choose from. Let me quickly point something out. In almost all applications, File, Window and Help all have almost exactly the same options. File will hold options such as: create a new file, save a file, open a file, page set up options, print preview and print. File also contains the exit option that will close the application (you can also click the close button). Window will have options to arrange your open windows as well as giving you a list of all the windows in this application that you have open. Remember you can have several Windows open at once. Help will allow you to look at the Table of Contents for the help available to you. You can also Search for a particular word by simply typing it in, or you can scroll through the index. Most software applications come with an On-line tutorial as well and that is found under the help menu. There is also an option called About that will tell you what version of the software you are running as well as some system information. No matter what application you are using, these options are almost always the same. So, if you do not know how to use the software, simply choose Help and then read through the tutorial. If you simply want to leave the program, choose File Exit or click the close button.
Status Bar -
The status bar gives information about our position within the document. Page 1
is the page we are on. 1/1 is where we are, on the first page of 1 page total
in our file. At 1” means our cursor is 1” from the top of the paper (we have a
1” top margin in this case). Our cursor is also on Ln 1 (line 1) and Col 1
(column 1). There are also several other options available as well. To get a
groovy description of the status bar simply choose Help, Search
and look for the status bar!
Scroll Bar - The scroll bar simply allows you to scroll through the document. If you click the scroll arrow you will move 1 line at a time. If you click in the scroll bar itself you move one screen at a time. The square box indicates your position in the document. If you click above the square box you will move up, if you click below it you will move down. You can also drag the square box to where you think you want to go.
Toolbar / Formatting Toolbar - The toolbars are designed to give you “mouse access” to some commonly used options that are available to you. Every option on the toolbar is available in the menu bar someplace. The toolbar just allows faster access to them (provided you have a mouse). One of the problems with the toolbars is in trying to remember what those cute little buttons stand for. Software companies have helped this problem by supplying mouse tips. When you place the mouse pointer over a button on the toolbar and wait a few seconds, a small description will pop up on the screen. The formatting toolbar also has list boxes for font and size as you can see in Figure 6.
Document Window - This is simply the window that your document will be in.
Paragraph
Marker -
Our document already has a paragraph even though we have not typed in a single
word. The paragraph marker may not be showing on your screen. It is a toggle to
display non-printing characters or not to display them. Look for the show/hide
button 
on the toolbar to turn this option on or off[2].
End of Document Marker - This will always show up at the end of your document when you are in Normal View. If you do not see the “end of document marker”, then you are not at the end. You may have several blank paragraphs that you accidentally put in.
Mouse Pointer /
I-Beam -
These show the location of your mouse. If you are moving the mouse pointer and
you run out of desk space to slide the mouse on, simply pick the mouse up in
the air and move it to a place you can reach. The mouse pointer will not move
unless the mouse is on the desk. It is helpful to use a mouse pad when using a
mouse. A book or some paper makes a quick mouse pad if you do not have one.
Ruler - The ruler is one of the most important things to understand in word processing as it tells you what is happening. Looking at Figure 7, the ruler is telling us that we have 6” inches of working area, no tabs set (only default at every 0.5”), and no left or right indent set. The zero mark on the ruler is at the left margin. When the layout of the text is wrong the ruler is the first place to look. You may have an incorrect tab setting or indent.
We have just been talking about Microsoft WORD but let’s look at a different
Microsoft product called WORKS (Figure 8). There is really not that much
difference between the two packages except that WORD has more options and you
can easily apply the same concepts to each. The ruler for Works looks a little
different but it is still easy to tell where the default tabs are located at or
what marker stands for the left indent. Instead of Document1 the default name is Word1.
So just because we are learning one specific application package remember that
what we learn is applicable to many other software products as well. Have
confidence in your own ability and try the different packages. If worst comes
to worst, simply choose File, Exit!
If things are really bad turn the computer off, but do this as your last
alternative. You will not break anything (that can’t be fixed) but turning a
computer off when it is still running a package leaves a lot of extra temporary
files[3] on the
computer that normally get deleted.
Creating a document
Well let’s try to create a simple word processing document. Remember to use word wrap, so just keep typing until you get to the end of the whole paragraph and then hit the enter key to start a new paragraph.
When you set formatting attributes you have two choices: one is to set the attribute and then type in the text, the second is to type the text first and then go back and highlight the text and set the attribute. You can use either method. I use a combination of the two myself.
Start up the word processor that you will be using. Some word processors will automatically start a new document for you and some will not (check the title bar for a default document name). If there is not an empty word processing file on your screen, create a new one (use the File, New menu option or the New button on the toolbar).
Saving a file
The first thing I want you to do is to save this blank document! When using computers you should save often; the more you save, the better off you will be. I am guilty myself of typing for an hour and losing all of my information. One thing that can happen is that there may be an error on your disk drive[4]. It is better to find this out before you start typing than after you have been typing for an hour. So, the first time you should save a file is BEFORE you type anything. Another more common problem is that you may turn the computer off by mistake (or the electricity goes off) and then lose all of your information. To save your file, simply choose File, Save As. This will give you a dialog box as shown in Figure 9. Be sure to pick the correct drive and folder to save in. When giving files a name, pick a name that will best describe the file so that you can find it easily in the future.
In
Figure 9 the file will be saved as Chapter3.doc
in the folder My Documents. To see which drive it will be saved on, you
must click the arrow q
to see the drop down list box as shown in Figure 10. In this example it is the
Hard drive C:. This is a good place to save your work if you are using your own
machine.
After you pick (or verify) the drive you then choose the correct folder(s) by double clicking the folder (easier to double click the icon of the folder instead of the name).
To change the file name, you simply type in the name desired.
If you need to change the File Type you do so by picking the correct type in the drop down list box.
Once you are all set, go ahead and choose the Save command button. As you type
your document, be sure to click the save toolbar button 
every now and then (or choose File Save[5]) to be
sure you have saved your work.
So when you save a file you must specify the DRIVE, FOLDER, NAME and the File Type (if needed).
Paragraph formatting
Okay, now that we have given our file a name, let’s start typing it. I want you to type in the following memo just as it appears in Figure 11. I have shown you the non-printing characters so you know when to hit enter. There are 10 paragraphs in this document (remember, every time you hit the enter key you create a new paragraph).
Format the document to look like the one shown Figure 12 (This file is done correctly). Start by selecting the first four paragraphs. The easy way to do this is to put the mouse cursor to the left of the first paragraph (on the extreme left of the document), then with a click and drag motion highlight all four.
Currently the first 4 paragraphs are left aligned; meaning the left side is smooth on the left indent. To change this to center aligned, simply click the center align toolbar button. This will center the paragraph between the left and right indents. If you forget which button this is just leave the mouse pointer on top of the button for a couple of seconds and you should see a mouse tip that will tell you.
We also want to change the font for these paragraphs to Arial. Since they are still highlighted we can simply click the arrow to get the list box for the different fonts available. Scroll to the top of the list and click on Arial. You should note that whatever is selected is going to be changed. If the size is not 12, simply change the size to 12 by clicking on the size list box and choosing 12. If you do not have Arial, simply choose a font that you do have.
Now I want you to make the first paragraph larger than the rest. So we will need to highlight just the first paragraph. Simply double click[6] to the left of the paragraph; this will highlight the entire paragraph. Now change the Size to 20. I want the rest of the document (from Hillary on) set to a size of 14. Simply click the mouse pointer to the left of the fifth paragraph. This will highlight that one line only. Now to get the rest of the document highlighted we will use the keyboard. Remember that we can highlight by holding the shift key down and using the cursor movement keys. I know that if I choose Ctrl + End it will take me to the end of the document. So I want you to press Shift + Ctrl + End. This will highlight from the cursor’s current position, to the end of the document. Now go ahead and change the size to 14. If the Font is not Times New Roman, change that now as well.
A few more things to do and then you will be done. You will notice that there are no paragraph markers between the paragraphs. This is because I have set my paragraph spacing correctly. You will also notice that there is no tab mark at the beginning of each paragraph. I have used a feature called first line indent. The file in Figure 12 is done correctly following the basics of word processing. We can set the line spacing and the first line indent at the same time. Before we do this let’s make sure we have the correct paragraphs highlighted. Click the mouse just before Dear and highlight to the end of the document.
Now
choose Format from the menu
bar, and then choose Paragraph
...; this will give you the Paragraph dialog box (Figure 13). Be sure you
are looking at the indents and spacing tab as shown. I have set this dialog box
to the correct options and this is what I want you to do as well. Set the First
Line Indent to 0.5. Looking at the Special list box choose first line (you may
just have a first line text box and that is the same thing). You can type in .5
or click the up arrow till 0.5 shows.
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Your first line indent is always measured from your left indent. Your left indent is measured from the left margin (the zero mark on the ruler). Your right indent is measured from the right margin. If you were to set your left indent to 0.5” with a first line indent of 0.5”, your first line indent marker would be at the 1” mark as shown in this example.
For spacing I want you to set the Spacing After to 12 pt or 1 Ln[7]. 12 points is the standard size for 1 Line. You can set the spacing to whatever number you want as long as it is in the same form of measurement. For example if I wanted 1 and a half lines I would type in 18 pt.
Notice that the Alignment is set to the left. We changed the alignment earlier by using the toolbar. Also notice the little preview section. If you hit the tab key (to move the focus to another option in the dialog box), it will put into effect your last change in the preview section so you can get an idea of how it will look when you choose OK. One last thing before you choose OK and that is the Help Command button. Choose it now and read all there is to read about the paragraph dialog box (it will explain a lot). When you are done reading Help, click the Help’s Close Button or choose File Exit on the Help menu. When you are ready, go ahead and choose the OK command button. Your document is all set and done correctly.
Let’s take a look at Figure 15, which shows the same file, but this time it was done incorrectly. What was done wrong is that the enter key was used to insert the blank lines for paragraph spacing and the tab key was used to start the paragraphs. If we were not looking at the non-printing characters we would not be able to see any difference whatsoever. I admit it would not make much difference in this example because this is a short one to type in. However you might as well learn the correct way now, so that when you type in a longer document you will be able to make multiple spacing and indent changes much more rapidly than if you had not used your word processor correctly.
Okay, my point is a simple one. When we want to make a
change (if we have used the word processor correctly) we can make them quickly
and easily and our document will look the way we want it to. Suppose I were to
say to you that I wanted 1.5 spaces between each paragraph and I did not want
the first line indented. If you have used your word processor correctly than
all you have to do is:
1) Highlight the paragraphs.
2) Choose Format, Paragraph
3) Set your spacing to 18 pt
4) Set your Special Indent
(First Line) to none.
If you have not used the word processor correctly than you would need to delete all the tabs at the beginning of each paragraph. How would you set the line spacing to 1.5 without formatting the paragraphs, I am not sure[8]. If your document were 20 pages long, this would be a real hassle. However if done correctly, it makes no difference how many pages there are because it requires the same number of steps and the same amount of time.
Now
modify your memo a little by putting your name, lecture, lab and the date at
the top in block format. Simply place your insertion point at the beginning of
the document. You may find it easier to hit enter and give yourself a blank
paragraph. It is okay to hit enter a few times and create blank paragraphs,
just remember to delete any extra ones you may have. Move your insertion point
before this blank paragraph and start typing. If you find you are typing in the
center of the page choose the left aligned button to bring the text over to the
left margin. For the date I want you to insert a date field. The date field will always print the
current date. For example: if you print this document on
TO: Professor's name
FROM: Your name
LECTURE: Your Lecture
LAB: Your lab
DATE:
In
Figure 16 we can see the top half looks correct, however it is done
incorrectly. You do not want to hit the tab twice in a row in order to line up
your information. The bottom half of the diagram is done correctly as far as in
how it was typed in by hitting the tab key only once. We would now need to
highlight the 5 paragraphs and set the tab stop to 1 inch.
To set the tab stop all you need to do is to click the mouse just below the number 1 on the ruler (be sure to highlight the 5 paragraphs first). This will put in a left aligned tab at one inch and align your text like shown in Figure 17. If you need to move the tab simply click and drag it to the desired location. If you want to delete the tab stop simply drag the tab above the ruler.
Now would be a good time to save your document again!
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TO: Professors name FROM: Your name LECTURE: Your Lecture LAB: Your lab DATE: Figure 18 |
Let’s make the TO paragraph bold. This is easy to do, as all
you have to do is highlight the TO paragraph and click on the 
bold button on the toolbar. Again, what
you have highlighted will be changed. Let’s practice this a little more by
making the FROM paragraph bold as well. You can format your text as many ways
as you like, so for practice let’s underline only your name. Simply
highlight your name and click the 
underline button on the toolbar. Try something
on your own. Make your lecture section and lab section Italics. It should look
like the sample (Figure 18) when you are done.
Footnotes
Looking back at the memo I realize that Hillary may not know
where our headquarters are located. Our headquarters are actually located in
Inserting footnotes into a document is very easy. You simply place the cursor where you want to mark the footnote and choose Insert, Footnote.... This will give you the footnote dialog box as shown in Figure 19. You have your choice of a footnote which shows up at the bottom of the page that the mark is on, or endnotes which show up at the end of the document. We are going to use footnotes and Autonumber for this class. As always, to learn more about the various footnote options simply choose Help. When you are ready, choose OK.
This will give us a footnote window at the bottom of the screen. Here we simply type in the information that we want to include in the footnote. The computer handles the numbering for the footnote marks both in the document text and the footnote window. If you have two footnotes on a page and add a third one in the middle, it will be numbered in order as two. The same is true if you delete[9] a footnote, then the existing footnotes would automatically be renumbered.
In the footnote window you can do any formatting feature that you normally would do. You can change the font and size. You can bold, underline, or italicize text. You can set tabs, indents, and spacing. Basically you can do most anything, just try it. If the computer will not let you do something then I guess you can’t, at least try it first. Who knows, maybe someday you will be able to!
The style of footnote that I want you to use follows the Modern Language Association Guidelines for footnotes. The footnote should be a different font and a smaller size than your main document. You should use a first line indent of 0.5” for each separate footnote. Other than that, there really is nothing to it.
Spell Checker
Unless you are a perfect typist and never make any mistakes, chances are that you have made a spelling or typo mistake. I have a tendency to make a million of them when I type! Luckily, word processors come with a spell checking feature that works great. If you made a mistake while typing you may have noticed that the incorrect word was underlined with a red squiggley line. If not type a word incorrectly now to see it. This shows you that a word is spelled incorrectly or is unrecognizable by the computer. You may notice a green squiggley line, which indicates that you have a grammar error. You can continue typing and then check your spelling and grammar at the end or you can fix the words as you go.
It is a good idea to save your document before you run the spell checker[10]. The spell checker is a neat feature as it will check every word in your document and compare it to the internal dictionary to see if it matches any words. So that means the spell checker will look “I” up in the dictionary to be sure you spelled it right! I do not think I would have the patience to literally look every word up in the dictionary. The spell checker will also find repeated words, for example if you type type a word twice, the spell checker will ask if you want to delete one. Also if you type "i" the spell checker will ask you if you want to capitalize it. However the spell checker will not check your grammar so you may spell ‘two’ when you meant to spell ‘to’ and the spell checker will not say anything. The grammar checker will put a green squiggley line under the words.
You can look on the right side of the status bar for the
spell check symbol 
to see if you need to run the spell
checker. The check means it is okay, however the X 
means you have misspelled word(s). To run the
spell checker choose the Spell checker button 
on the tool bar or choose Tools, Spelling ....
When
the spell checker finds a word that it cannot match, it will give you a dialog
box with several options for you to choose (most spell checkers work pretty
much the same). In Figure 20 you can see that patience is misspelled. You will
be shown how you spelled the word with a list of possible correct spellings.
You can Ignore the spelling
if the word is spelled correctly as, some words will not be in the dictionary.
For example, your last name is spelled correctly but will not be found in the
dictionary. If you have used your last name throughout the document you may
want to Ignore All, which
means the spell checker will not stop at that word again. If you see the
correct spelling in the list simply click on the correct spelling and choose Change. This will change the
spelling in your document. If you are a consistent bad speller like myself you
may want to choose Change All
so that the spell checker will just automatically change the word throughout
the rest of the document. If you are using your own computer you may want to Add a correctly spelled word
such as your last name to the dictionary. You simply double check to be sure it
is spelled correctly and choose the add button to add the word to your CUSTOM.DIC. If you accidentally added a
misspelled word you can open the file called CUSTOM.DIC[11] and fix
the spelling. After you have finished, be sure to save your file again so you
do not lose your corrections.
A couple of notes about the spell checker. When you click on
the spell check button, the computer will begin to check the spelling from the
cursor and go down to the end of your document. After the spell checker
finishes with the main document it will then check your footnotes. If you have
started the spell checker someplace in the middle, when the spell checker
reaches the end of your document, it will ask if you want to check the rest of
the document. If you want to just check a word or paragraph simply highlight
what you want to be checked and then run the spell checker (remember what is
highlighted will be affected). If you are using WORD, there is an advanced
proofing option that if it is set to no proofing by mistake, it will not check
those words for spelling (you will get a message that says text formatted as no
proofing was skipped[12]). This 
can
happen when pasting text from another type of document into WORD.
Margins
One thing that I have noticed is that my margins are still set at the default of 1.25” on the left and right side. Let’s fix the margins so that they are set to 1” all around. This is very easy to do as we simply choose File, Page Setup. The dialog box looks like Figure 21. The top and bottom margins are already set to 1” so all we need to do is set the left and right margins to 1”. You can either type in 1” in the text box or click the down arrow to get 1” displayed. Be sure that the Apply To: list box has Whole Document in it. When you are all set go ahead and choose OK.
The reason why (I think) the margins are by default set to 1.25” is that this will allow you a 6” working space in your document. When you change your margins to 1” you find that you can not see the whole width on the screen. You can use the zoom control on the toolbar to zoom down to page width. Of course your text will be smaller. You can also scroll your screen back and forth using the horizontal scroll bar. When you use the scroll bar you may want to be sure you scroll back. Often times you may click on the scroll bar by accident. This will cause your document to shift one way or the other. Simply click on the scroll bar again to move the text back so that you can see it.
Print Preview
Now that we have finished our document, proofread it on the computer, checked the spelling and saved it again we are ready to see what it looks like printed. Word processors come with an option called Print Preview that will show you what your document will look like on a piece of paper. Choose the print preview button on the toolbar and we will see how the document will look on a piece of paper. You most likely will not be able to read the document but you can see the layout. Actually if you move your mouse cursor over the paper it will turn into a magnifying glass. When you click the left mouse button it will Zoom In and enlarge that section so you can read it. Print preview helps you to see the format of your document on paper. It is faster to look at your document in print preview than it is to print the document, look at the printout, make any necessary changes and then reprint the document. It also saves paper!
Some things to look for in print preview are blank pages (we do not want to waste paper). To check for blank pages simply press the page down button until the computer ‘beeps’. This means there are no more pages. If there are blank pages, you need to go back to the document and fix whatever is wrong. Most likely there are several paragraph marks at the end of your document that should be deleted (remember to look for the end of document marker). If on the other hand everything looks fine simply choose the print button on the tool bar. I never use the print button on the standard toolbar as I can easily use the print button found in print preview. You should always check print preview before you print to spot any possible errors.
If you notice that you have only one or two lines showing up on the second page you may as well change your margins or line spacing to get the information to print on one page. Try changing your margins to 0.8” (top, bottom, left and right). This will be close to 1” and is worth the sacrifice from the standard to get your document on one page. You could also change your paragraph spacing to 8 pt instead of 12 pt. The point is that you can do this easily as long as you have used your word processor correctly. The actual numbers that you use, i.e. 8 pt vs. 12 pt, 1” vs. 0.8” are not that important in life. Experiment and use what works the best. However for this class be sure to follow the directions as given.
Modifying a document
No matter how hard you try invariably you will find that sometimes you want to change something after you print your document. The nice thing about using a word processor is that you can easily go back and revise your document and print it again! If you need to add a paragraph simply place the cursor where you want the information to go and just begin typing[13]. If you decide you do not like a sentence simply delete it. You can also move paragraphs by simply highlighting them and then choosing Edit, Cut. This will take the highlighted section out of the document and store it in the computer's memory. Now place your cursor where you want the information to go and choose Edit, Paste. This will take the information you just cut and place it back into your document where you have specified by the cursor location.
I hope that you have noticed a pattern about all the dialog boxes we have seen. Every dialog box has a help command button. If you are not sure of what you are doing simply click the help button and read the information available to you. If you are not sure what to look for use the help feature like a book and search for the key word. If you have the time you may just want to go through the On-line tutorial available with the program itself.
The other points that are important are following the basics of word processing and saving your documents often! I have tried to demonstrate the reason behind the basics but if you do not understand please ask me to explain again until you do.
Replace
Replace is a handy feature found in both the word processor and spreadsheet. What it does, is search for a word or series of characters that you specify and replaces those with whatever you want. The Find feature works the same way, only it does not replace anything, it just finds it. The search will start from where the cursor is and goes to the end of the document (unless you have a highlighted section in which case it would only look in what you have highlighted). So choose Edit, Replace... to get the dialog box shown in Figure 22. Let’s talk about the dialog box for a minute. I have filled in the Find What with ‘Bob’ and Replace With: ‘Robert’ so I can change every ‘Bob’ to ‘Robert’. I have a couple options that I can change. The Search specifies how to search, Down means from the cursor to the end of the document. The Match Case check box specifies that I have to find ‘Bob’ and not ‘bob’. Find Whole Words Only means that what you are trying to find must have a space before and after it. In other words Bobbie would not be replaced with Robert.
The command buttons are also important in what they do. Find Next will simply look for the occurrence of the word in the Find What text box. The computer will simply stop when it finds the word. You can at that point click on Replace to actually change the word.
Replace will simply find the next word and automatically replace it without asking. You can choose Replace again to move on to the next word.
Replace All will find all the words and replace every single one without asking.
A strong suggestion is to save your document BEFORE you do a replace just in case the results are not what you expected. For example, if you replace the word US with United States without checking any of the options, the word ‘just’ will become jUnited Statest! You need to match case and whole word only.
I do not want to get into ‘Use Pattern Matching’ or ‘Sounds like’, so I will leave that up to you to read about in help if you would like. The added feature you have in the word processor (not in the spreadsheet) is the ability to format your Replaced word in any way you like. You can change not only Font characteristics but also Paragraph characteristics (A very powerful feature, check it out). For a simple replace there is no difference in the word processor or spreadsheet so use them wisely and to your advantage. Just be sure to save your file first! Remember you can usually Undo your replace if you do it right away.
What’s wrong with this Document
Looking at the document in Figure 23, you should see several things that are incorrect. The first thing I see is that the enter key was used to put in a space between paragraphs. You should use the Format, Paragraph..., Space Before/After option. The next thing that I notice is the Main paragraph was started using the tab key. You should use Format, Paragraph..., First Line Indent option. The last thing is, what is all that junk near the end of the document? That is all extra and should be deleted. That extra junk can cause a blank page to print out with nothing on it (they are all non-printing characters but that only means they do not show on the page). If this were your document, you would lose points for all of these mistakes. These are the things that I will be checking when I grade your work.
Notice how the first paragraph goes over too far to the left in Figure 24? This is caused by the fact that you have a negative left indent. When you look at the ruler the white area is your working area. The gray area on the ruler is the margin area on your paper. You should not have text in the margin area. To fix this problem, simply choose Format Paragraph and set the left indent to 0”. You probably did not mean to do this but it happens a lot when you use your mouse to set your first line indent. It is pretty easy to fix.
This is what my screen looks like (Figure 25) after I fixed the previous problem! However, now I have a lot of wasted screen space so I cannot read my document. I simply click to the right of the horizontal scroll box and then click to the left of the box. This should move the text over more to the left. This is not a real problem only a display ‘quirk’.
Summary of Word Processing Basics
1. Only hit the enter key at the end of the paragraph. You do this in order to utilize the word wrap feature. If you hit enter at the end of every line and then change your margins, your paper will not adjust to the new margins the way that you would like.
2. Use the indent option to start paragraphs and when appropriate. This is so that you can change the indents for your document easily. Suppose you hit the tab key to start your paragraphs and later you are asked to have no indentation. You would need to delete all the tab marks, whereas if you used the indent feature you could simply highlight the document and remove the indents in a few easy steps.
3. Use the spacing option to space your lines and paragraphs. This is related to using the indent option, since when you need to change the spacing it can be done easily provided you have used the spacing option. If you chose to use the enter key for your spacing you would need to go back and adjust the spacing with each enter key individually, which could be a lengthy process.
4. Use the TAB key once and set the tab stops. This enables you to be able to align your text up so that it is even. If you have to change the alignment it can be accomplished easily. If you used the space bar to align your text it most likely will not be aligned when you print.
Summary of Computer Basics
1. Use the spell checker before you print. This just makes sense! Why print only to find simple spelling errors. That is just a waste of paper and time.
2. Use print preview before you print. This also makes sense so that you can see the layout of your document before you print it. You may find your document has 2 pages. If so, you can change your margins and have your document fit all on one page.
3. Save BEFORE you type anything. Hey it’s your work why risk losing it!
Review of Menus
Menu Pull Down Menu Key Board Toolbar
File
New Ctrl+N 
Save Ctrl+S
Save As
Page Setup
Print
Preview 
Exit
Edit
Cut Ctrl+X 
Copy Ctrl+C 
Paste Ctrl+V 
Insert
Date & Time
Footnotes
Format
Paragraph
Indents & Spacing
Special
- First Line Indent 
(Drag upside down triangle with mouse)
Tools
Spelling F7