Introduction to Microsoft Word 2019

The whole purpose of Word is to let you create and edit text, so in this lesson, you'll go over the basics of moving the Insertion Pointer, or Cursor, and deleting text. Pressing the BACKSPACE and DELETE keys can delete text one character at a time. The keyboard lets you move the cursor one character, one word, or one line at a time. The mouse lets you quickly move the cursor and scroll through large documents far faster than the keyboard. By knowing the pros and cons of navigating through a document with the keyboard and mouse, you can use both to help you work faster in Word.

In this lesson, you're going to learn how to save the documents you create in Word. You'll learn how to save documents with unique names, as well as in other formats so that you can share your documents with people using different word processors or even different computers. Finally, you'll learn how to rename, copy, and even delete any files you've created so that you'll always be in complete control of all the files you create.

After you've typed some text in a Word document, you may need to edit that text. The easiest way to edit is to delete individual characters using the BACKSPACE or DELETE keys. Another option is using Word's Overtype mode by typing over text you no longer need. If you ever delete anything by mistake, don't panic! Word's handy Undo and Redo commands retrieve unintentionally deleted text. You may also want to delete large chunks of text. Use your keyboard or mouse in tandem with the BACKSPACE or DELETE keys to efficiently remove entire sections of text. By learning how to delete text and undo mistakes, you can edit your documents quickly using Word.

Most people use Word to view and edit a single document at a time, but Word actually lets you open and view two or more documents at the same time. This can be handy for copying text from one document to another, comparing two different drafts of the same document, or simply using one document as a reference while writing in the second one. By learning how to open, switch between, and view multiple documents, you can increase your productivity with Word.

Once you know how to add, delete, copy, and move text, the next step to modifying your document is to change the physical appearance of your text. You can make text appear in different colors or background highlighting, change the actual size of text, alter the alignment of text, and even choose different fonts to modify the way individual letters look. As you can see, Word provides plenty of ways to help you both edit text and change it so it looks visually appealing.

Most people use Word to print letters and reports. But Word also helps you get creative by letting you choose different paper sizes and orientations. For example, you can print a letter in portrait orientation or print a sign in landscape orientation. Just think of turning a page up so its height is taller than its width (portrait orientation) or turning the page on its side so its width is wider than its height (landscape orientation). Word also lets you choose to print on different paper sizes, such as envelopes, just as long as you can run those odd-shaped paper sheets in your printer. With Word's ability to print on different types of paper sizes and orientation, you can create more than just typical documents using Word.

Most of the time when you create a document, you can use the default page settings. But sometimes you may want to modify those settings to change margins around a page to give you more (or less) space on the top, bottom, left, or right sides of a page. By knowing how to set and use margins, you can modify an entire document or just a single page. By using tabs, you can modify how individual paragraphs look on a page. Finally, you'll also learn how to add page numbers to the top or bottom of a page to keep track of the right page order when you print out your document.

Word can be handy for typing and formatting text, but once you've written several paragraphs worth of text, you may need to format individual paragraphs separately from the rest of your document. Word provides ways to change the appearance of a paragraph's first line, line spacing within a paragraph, and line spacing between paragraphs. In addition, Word lets you create bullet and numbered lists, so you can display short bits of information in a visual manner. With Word's various paragraph-formatting options, you can customize the appearance of all your paragraphs.

It's not enough just to write and format your text. After you're done writing, you may need to check your spelling, change your words, and even hyphenate your text to make your entire document look the best it can. For important documents, you may even need to collaborate with others. To keep track of all the changes multiple authors may make to a single document, Word offers a Track Changes feature, so you can see exactly what and who changed the document. With so many ways to polish your document, there's no reason not to write exactly what you want to say with Word.

Word can easily handle any characters you type with a keyboard, but sometimes you may need to type an occasional foreign language character, a mathematical symbol, or another unusual character that doesn't appear on your keyboard. With Word, you can press different types of keystrokes or search and click the symbol you want to use. This lets you add practically any type of unusual character to your documents, even smiley faces. You probably won't need to type all of these characters regularly, so just find the ones you'll likely need and remember how to use them. Word lets you type practically anything you want, regardless of the limitation of the keys on your keyboard.

Writing involves more than just typing and editing text. With Word's advanced features, you can insert page breaks and cover pages to adjust how your text appears when you print it out. To make text on each page look its best, you can use drop caps and styles. Finally, you can use outlines to organize your text and quickly move chunks of text within a document just by rearranging an outline heading. By learning these advanced features of Word, you can make each document display text in the most appealing way possible.