Microsoft Word

When you open Word you are basically starting with a blank sheet of paper. Later you will be able to set up your computer so that you can also load paper with a heading such as your address on for writing letters. These specially saved headings are called Templates. But for the moment just use the screen in Word as somewhere to start typing. Then we will start to look at a few of the ways in which you can modify the appearance of your text. You will not have an identical set of icons to these but we will look at some of the most useful ones. 

The words along the top line (File, Edit, View etc) all have ‘drop down menus’ enabling you to do all sorts of different things with your writing. Put your mouse on the word File and click once to see an example of a menu. 

With experience you will be able to click on anything on this or any other menu to do all sorts of different things with your writing. To put the menu away again, click somewhere on the screen away from any of the icons or the menu itself. Incidentally if your menu is not as long as this but has an arrow at the bottom, try resting your mouse on the arrow and watch the menu grow. 

Where it says 'Times New Roman' that is the name of the type face. The figure 12 tells you the size of the print. This is printed in Times New Roman, 12. You can make the print very much larger if you want to but anything smaller than 8 is virtually illegible. Beside each of these there is a little black arrow. Click on the arrow and you will get a drop down menu giving a choice of different type faces (or print sizes). If you want to choose a different one from the drop down menu just click on it and it will come up instead.

 Where it says 100% that means that what you are seeing on the screen is the same size as it will eventually be when printed. You can make what is on the screen bigger or smaller than the final print out if you want, again by using the drop down menu.

The question mark beyond the 100% is a Help programme. If you click on the ? you can type in a question and the computer will try to suggest answers which you may or may not find useful! 

To change the appearance of some of the words you must first use the mouse to select those you wish to alter. Here the mouse has been moved over the two words 'typing something' while the mouse button is held down. Those two words are now selected. Practice doing this with different parts of text you have written. It is a most important skill to be able to select sections of text quickly and accurately. 

While the words were still selected I moved the mouse pointer to the capital B next to the number 12 and clicked on it. It has caused the selected text to appear in bold. 

Here I have gone on to select 'screen like' then clicked on the I next to the B to put those words into italics. Then I selected 'can test' and clicked on the U to underline them. Practise all these. Two other points to note: the U is showing orange meaning that it is still selected. Anything you type while the U is showing orange will come out underlined. To turn off these special effect buttons click on them again. The upright line after the t in test is called the cursor. This shows where you are up to in your typing and will normally be at the end of what you have so far written ready to go on to the next part. If you started typing with the screen as it is in this illustration the new words would go into the middle of 'test'. To move the cursor to a different place, put the mouse pointer where you would like the cursor to be and give a single click. The cursor will appear in that position. 

Any fan of A.A.Milne will realise that the lines are in the wrong order.

To move the bottom line we must first select it (make sure that it goes black) then move the mouse button to the pair of scissors pictured just above and slightly to the right of the number 12. When you click on the scissors, the last, selected, line will vanish, but not with luck for ever.

Next take the mouse to the position where you want to move the line to, (i.e. just in front of 'A soldier's) and click so that the cursor appears there. Then move the mouse to the little icon two to the right of the scissors which is highlighted in this picture. That is called the clipboard and when you rest your mouse quietly on it before you click it will say PASTE. When you cut things out with the scissors that is where they go while they wait for you to paste them into the correct place. It is all a great deal neater than real scissors and glue, and once you get used to it much quicker and easier too. Now click on the clipboard and hey Presto! A.A.Milne fans need have no further complaints. 

The clipboard shows on screen at this stage - don't worry, it will disappear before you print it out. Now let us suppose that you feel it would improve A.A.Milne's work if "Says Alice" was repeated a second time at the end of the verse. Use your mouse to select Says Alice. But this time do not use the scissors. Instead go to the icon between the scissors and the clipboard. This shows two sheets of paper and it is for Copy. Click on this and once again the highlighted words will be taken to the clipboard. But this time they will also stay on the screen. Now take your mouse to the position where you want them to appear (in this example it could either be before or after the original Says Alice) and click to put the cursor there. Now go back to the clipboard and click to paste the words. 

If you put your cursor in front of Says Alice it will have worked like this. Otherwise you may have to use the Enter key on the keyboard to start a new line or the Backspace to close up a gap. But neither takes very long. Suppose you now decide that it was all a big mistake: A.A.Milne knew what he was doing after all and you wish you had not tried to improve on his writing. Just go to the squirly back-facing arrow two to the right of the clipboard. Click that and your recent misguided work will be removed. It is there to undo what you have done wrong. 

There are several other icons which you may wish to experiment with. Try writing a larger block of prose (not verse) and selecting it all. Then click in turn on the right of the underlining U: the first icon is showing orange as it is selected in the current illustration. After you have clicked on each icon in turn click elsewhere on a blank part of the page to see the result. You will have to reselect all the text before trying the next icon.

Printing: for this exercise you will not need to select any text, just click on the icon showing a printer (sixth icon from the left in the middle row.) If your printer is set up correctly whatever you have written on the screen will print. If you want to print part of what you have written only - particular pages, or a selected section - or to see how it will print before you actually print (well worthwhile on bigger projects - sometimes you can get a shock!) you will have to use the drop down menus under File.Finally it is very important to be able to save what you have written, and find it again next time you need it. Go to the drop down menu under File then click on Save As 

You have to decide where you want to file it. All the little yellow pictures on the white background represent folders on my computer. You can create a new folder by going to the similar one with a star on it on the top row, just to the left of where it says Tools. If you click there you will be asked to name your new folder. Every folder contains numbers of files. Suppose you were organising a party. You might create one Folder called Party. Inside you might have different files called Catering, Music, Guest list, Wine and so on. If you want to put the piece of work into an existing folder double click on the folder you wish to use. Then type in the name you want your file to have in the box labelled File name. Until you do that it will automatically be called by the first word or words. Then all you have to do is click Save and it should be safe. 

Here I have decided to put it in my File called Favourites (which does not appear to have much in it!) and I have named the file Alice. The word Save is highlighted because I am about to click on it to save the piece. 

The remaining vital skill is to be able to find documents again when you want them. Here I have clicked on Open, the icon which is highlighted and is second from the left showing an open file. I want to open a document called Christmas Shopping which I have filed under Household. Open has opened my full list of folders for me: if it had only shown me one folder because I had just been using a particular one (not Household) I would first have double clicked on My Documents on the left of the box to see the full list. I will now double click on Household to see what files are in that folder. 

I have now found the file which I want (Christmas Shopping) in the folder where I keep it (Household). If I double click on it now it will appear on screen and I can make whatever amendments I need. When I have finished working on it I will not have to go to Save As because it is already all set up. I will just go to the picture of the floppy disk to the right of the Open folder which is currently highlighted and click on that. My new work will then be saved and I can safely go to Close in the drop down menu under File and click Close. This will close the file but leave the program (Word) open. 

To close down a whole program (put that book away on the shelf) click on the white cross on the red background in the top right hand corner. If instead you click on the little icon on the left in the illustration the program will be reduced to a miniature version represented by an icon at the bottom of the sreen. A double click on the icon will bring it back into view. The middle button makes the window for the program smaller but it remains on the screen. If you have a lot of windows open at the same time you may not be able to see them all at the same itime but they are all still on the screen. You can bring the one you want to look at to the front by clicking on its icon. It is possible to arrange the screen so that you are looking at two or more windows at the same time side by side. 

Here four different programs are all on the screen at the same time, Word, Messenger, the calendar from Outlook and Skype (the free on line telephone service,) A fifth program which I am using to make these pictures, is also running but its window is not showing.