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Application Title Bar
This is the blue bar at the top of the Word application environment. Almost all Windows applications have a title bar. It displays the title of the application and often the name of the file that you opened, such as ENGL1102 crazy book report thing.doc - Microsoft Word.
Ribbons
Located just beneath the title bar, the Ribbons are where most of the functionality in Word is organized and accessed. There are seven basic Ribbons, and more appear when you select unique objects such as pictures. Click through each ribbon to familiarize yourself with the locations of Word's various functions.
Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar is a short row of icons on the left side of the Application Title Bar. It allows quick access of basic document functionality such as New, Open and Save. You can click on the Office Button on the far left to access a pull-down menu with a more complete and descriptive list of functions.
Status Bar
Located at the bottom of the Word application window, the Status Bar is generally used to show your location within a document as well as the current word count.
Ruler
The top ruler appears when you're in the default Print Layout view, the Web Layout view and the Draft view (explained later). The side ruler appears only in the Print Layout view.
View Mode Buttons
Located at the lower right of the active document window, they allow the document to be viewed in five different ways. We will discuss these different views in detail later.
Zoom Bar
Located to the right of the View Mode Buttons, they allow you to zoom in and out of the document. It's pretty self-explanatory.
Scroll Bars
These are located to the right and bottom of the document window. You probably already know how to use them.
Document Area
The main area of Word where text is composed. This also includes the Ruler, Scroll Bars, Status Bar, View Mode Buttons and Zoom Bar.

Draft view
Shows a white work area with text and graphics. This view is not completely WYSIWYG, so you will not see columns or headers and footers, etc. Instead, you will be able to see page breaks and section breaks (more detail about those features later).
Outline view
In outline view, Word simplifies the text formatting to help you focus on the structure of your document. Each heading level is formatted with the appropriate built-in heading style (Heading 1 through Heading 9) or outline level (Level 1 through Level 9). Paragraph formatting doesn't appear. Also, the ruler and the paragraph formatting commands are not available.
Print Layout view
Displays a document as text on a piece of paper. The display is very close to the way the document will look when printed. Print Layout View is used for precise placement and sizing of objects within a document. On recent versions of Word, this display mode is selected by default.
Web Layout view
This shows your document the way it would appear if you were to save it as an HTML document.
Full Screen Reading view
This shows your document in a possibly easier to read format by splitting your text into smaller pages. Separate pages in this view do not necessarily correspond to page separation in your actual document.

Fonts and Sizes
The list of fonts is in a drop-down menu in the Font section of the Home ribbon. If you press the arrow on the drop-down menu, you can scroll up and down in the list and choose a new font. You will be using the new font when you start typing.
How to change existing text from one font to another:
- Highlight the text (move your cursor to just before the first character you want, click down, and drag the cursor to include the last character you want, then let go of the mouse button. Your selection should be now be displayed in a different color).
- Go to the font drop-down menu and choose a different font.
- The list of font sizes is right beside the list of fonts. Differently sized fonts are often used for headings or titles to make them stand out. You change font sizes the same way that you change fonts.
Style
There are various ways to make your words stand out more, such as bold, italics, and underline. Their icons are also in the Font section of the Home ribbon, underneath the list of fonts. They look like B, I, and U, respectively. Click each option to turn it on, and then click again to turn it off. If you want to change existing text, highlight the text and click one of the buttons.
Alignment
You can make all the text line up on the left margin, right margin, both margins, or the center of the page. The buttons for Align Left, Center, Align Right, and Justify are in the Paragraph section of the Home ribbon.
Spacing
You can single-space, double-space, or set your own spacing for your paragraphs. Single-spacing leaves very little white space between two lines of text in a paragraph. Double spacing leaves one line of blank space between lines of text.
How to change the line spacing from single to double:
- Click the little arrow in the bottom right corner of the Paragraph section.
- A dialog box will pop up that lists the sections.
- Look under the Spacing header and look for the Line Spacing: header. Change the value in the drop-down box from "Single" to "Double".

- To cut text, highlight the text, then right-click in the highlighted area and select Cut from the pop-up menu OR press Ctrl and x.
- To copy text, highlight the text, then right-click in the highlighted area and select Copy from the pop-up menu OR press Ctrl and c.
- To paste text, move the cursor to the desired location, then right-click on that location and select Paste from the pop-up menu OR pres Ctrl and v.
- To move text, use your mouse to highlight and drag the text around. When you have found the place you want to leave the text, let go of the mouse button.
Section
A section is a user-defined area where the formatting you apply to the section does not disturb the formatting in any other part of the document. Sections are useful for separating off parts of the document that need different line spacing, different number of columns (we'll discuss columns in more detail later), or headers and footers.
How to create a section:
- Go into Draft view by choosing Draft from the Document Views section of the View ribbon. (If you are not in Draft view, you will not be able to see the section breaks that Word puts in).
- Put the cursor on the line just above where you want your section to start.
- Choose the Page Break option from the Pages section of the Insert ribbon.
- If your section does not continue to the end of the document, you will also want to define where you want your section to end. Simply repeat steps 1 through 3. The area within the two section breaks is your new section.
Note: to get rid of a section break, go into Draft view, position the cursor on the section break, and press the Delete key.
Page
Each "page" in Word contains text and/or graphics that will fit on a sheet of paper in your printer. You can set the margins (amount of blank space on the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the paper) that you want.
Word automatically determines when text should be moved to another page to comply with margin settings, but sometimes you may want to force your text onto a new page. You can do this by inserting a page break.
How to create/edit a header and footer:
- Look at the Header & Footer section of the Insert ribbon.
- Click on Header or Footer (depending on which one you want) and select the Blank option from the pop-up menu.
- Word will now show you the new header or footer. Type the text you want. You can format it using bold, italic or underline options just like any other text. Note also the appearance of the new Header & Footer Tools ribbon.
- After you're done, switch to Print Layout view to see the new header and/or footer, which will appear in the top and bottom of each page as grey text. (It will still print in black.) To edit the header or footer, double-click on it on any page.
How to add page numbers:
- Look at the Header & Footer section of the Insert ribbon.
- Click on Page Number and select from the pop-up menu where you want the page numbers to appear.
- Continue from step 3 for adding headers and footers. Note that you can add text along with page numbers in the same header.
How to create columns:
- Select the text that you want to flow in columns.
- Select the Columns option in the Page Setup section of the Page Layout ribbon and choose the number of columns you want.


How to create a table:
- Click the Table option in the Tables section of the Insert ribbon.
- From the drop-down menu, you can insert a table in one of two ways: 1. Click on the square from the top left corner that represents the number of rows and columns you want. For instance, if you want a table that's five columns wide and three rows high, select the square that's five squares over and three down from the top left square. 2. Click on the Insert Table option in the drop-down menu and then, in the pop-up window, select the number of rows and columns you want.
- Click on the cell you wish to edit, and enter your data. Note the new Table Tools ribbons that appear.
- Repeat for each cell you want to edit.
Sometimes, you will need to add new columns or rows to a growing table or remove columns or rows that contain data you no longer need.
How to add a row:
- To add a row to the bottom of the table, go to the bottom right cell and press tab.
or
- To add a row to the middle of a table, look in the Rows & Columns section of the Layout Table Tools ribbon. Click Insert Above to insert a row above the row with the cursor and Insert Below to insert a row below the row with the cursor.
Adding a column is done the same way as a row, except you'll select Insert Left or Insert Right instead.
How to delete a row or column:
- Place the cursor in a cell that's a member of the row or column you wish to kill.
- Select Delete in the Rows and Columns section of the Layout Table Tools ribbon.
- Select Delete Rows or Delete Columns from the drop-down menu.

How to insert a text box:
- Make sure that you are in Print Layout view.
- Choose Text Box from the Text section of the Insert ribbon.
- Choose Simple Text Box from the drop-down menu.
- Type text into your textbox. You can also cut or copy text from your main document and paste it into the textbox.
How to insert a picture:
- Make sure that you are in Print Layout view.
- Choose Picture from the Illustrations section of the Insert ribbon.
- Use the file browser to find the picture you want to insert and then click the Insert button.
How to spell check and grammar check your whole document:
- Place your cursor at the beginning of your document.
- Choose Spelling and Grammar in the Proofreading section of the Review ribbon.
- If Word thinks a word is questionable, you can make it ignore this instance of the word, ignore all instances of the word, add the word to the dictionary, take Word's suggestion, or fix it yourself.
- If Word thinks a sentence is questionable, it will tell you why it thinks the sentence is grammatically incorrect and give you some suggested fixes. You can choose them or click directly on the text in your document to edit the sentence. Click the Resume button on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box when you are done correcting the sentence.
How to use print preview:
- Click on the Office button in the top left corner of the screen.
- Select Print -> Print Preview from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll through the pages to make sure things look fine.