Word Processing Basics - Highlighting & Fonts

As requested, for the next few posts we are going to review some WORD PROCESSING BASICS:

SELECT TO EFFECT (highlight)

When you want to edit/change text (add Bold, Italic, Underline, Delete, change color, cut, copy, past, change font size or style and lots of other "formatting options") remember to "select the text first/highlight it" and then click the button of your choice..  

TIP: To highlight everything in a document, whether 1 page or 100 pages: use SELECT ALL or CTRL + A (keyboard shortcut)

BASIC SCREEN: Insertion Point “I” vs. Work Bar, Title Bar, Menu Bar, Toolbars, Ruler, Scroll Bars (right & bottom), Status Bar & Task Bar

BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINE: B – I – U Highlight text, use icon on formatting toolbar OR Menu Bar, Format, Font

DON'T PANIC WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - Use your "Undo" & "Redo" buttons

FONT STYLE:  The design of your characters – letters – numbers

FONT SIZE: the size of your characters – letters – numbers

STANDARD  BUSINESS FONT & SIZES

Commonly used in business:

Times New Roman, 12pt.

Arial, 14 pt.

STANDARD INTERNET/WEB PAGE FONT STYLE & SIZES:

Verdana or Tahoma – 8 pt, 9 pt or 10 pt.  (smaller than normal business prints)

What do DIFFERENT font sizes mean?

A 72 pt. Is always equal to 1" inch high Upper Case Letters

so a 36 pt = to 1/2" inch high; 9 pt = 1/8" inch high 

Dealing With Error Messages

From time to time, we all have error messages appear on our monitor that we don’t know what they mean. Next time this happens this tip will help:

First:
I always save the error message in word for future reference. To do that easily:

· Use your CTRL Key – Print Screen Key together (this will take a copy of the error message & all that is on your monitor at the time)

· Now open your WP software (Word, Works, Word Pad) and use your PASTE command-now the error message is on a clean piece of paper-Now Save it so once you know what this means, you can type the answer on the same page for future reference

· And print the message so you can see it easily

Next:

· Type the error message into Google Search.

· You are not the first (and won’t be the last) to get this error message.

· Personally I read a few answers, to be sure I am getting an answer I understand and resolution I can work with

Last:
Once I have the explanation and resolution I need, I use my copy and paste skills:

· Highlight the information

· Activate your copy command

· Open the document that has the error message copy on it

· Put my cursor on that document and activate the paste command, which adds the answer and resolution

· And save it once again

Now in the future if the error message comes back up, I have my answer.

Tips to use your mouse effectively

USING YOUR MOUSE CORRECTLY

• Left Click – Makes something happen “gives the computer a command”
• Right Click – Will always show you an action menu list of commands to choose from, based on whatever your mouse/cursor is on…

MOUSE SELECTION “HIGHLIGHTING” SHORTCUTS

TO SELECT A LINE OF TEXT: Place the mouse pointer in the left gutter area (the mouse will turn into a right facing arrow). Now left click the left mouse button once.

TO SELECT A BLOCK OF TEXT: Place the insertion point at the beginning of the block of text you want to select, Hold down the SHIFT Key, Place the I-beam at the end of the block of text and left click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT: Left click Edit on the menu bar and Choose Select All, OR Hold CTRL Key + A

TO DE-SELECT (or unselect) ANYTHING HIGHLIGHTED/SELECTED: Left click anywhere in the white space of your document.

Printing Tips

TO PRINT A PORTION OF AN INTERNET ARTICLE OR EMAIL RECEIVED:

• Highlight the portion of the article or email you want to print
• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Bar and choose “Print”
• When the Print Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “selection”
• On the right side, choose the number of copies you want
• Choose OK and that is what will print..

TO ENLARGE THE PRINT SIZE OF A PORTION OF AN INTERNET ARTICLE OR EMAIL RECEIVED OR TO SAVE EITHER IN A FILE ON YOUR COMPUTER..

• Highlight what you want to copy & enlarge
• Give the command to copy (Go to Edit – choose Copy, Right Click on what you’ve highlighted & choose copy, or use the action key on your keyboard and choose copy)
• Open your Word processing program: Word, Word Perfect, Word Pad, Note Pad
• Put your cursor on the blank document when your WP program opens
• Activate paste (Go to Edit –choose Paste; Right Click on the document and choose Paste, or use the action bar on your keyboard and choose paste)
• What you copied is now on the document
• Highlight what you want to enlarge (to do the entire text – use the CTRL Key + A or go to Edit & choose “Select All”
• Once text is highlighted, change font size & text
• To print, Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Print”
• When the Print Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “selection”
• On the right side, choose the number of copies you want
• Choose OK and that is what will print....

TO SAVE THIS NEW DOCUMENT ON YOUR COMPUTER IN A FOLDER:

• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Save As”
• When the Save As Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “My Doucments/Documnets”
• Choose or create the folder you want the document saved in
• Name the document at the bottom of the dialog box
• Choose OK and that is what will print....

TO PRINT TWO OR MORE PAGES OF A DOCUMENT ON ONE SHEET OF PAPER
PAGES:

• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Print”
• Under Zoom, click 2 OR more pages in the Pages per sheet box
• Choose OK and that is what will print

Printing Options-What to print

When you are in any of the office types of software programs (Word, Excel, Power Point etc), the quickest way to print what you are working on is to use the Printer Icon on your toolbar, BUT when you do this, you will print the entire document, spreadsheet or presentation.

Often we want to print just a paragraph/selection, or just the current page, slide or worksheet we are working on – or possibly several different pages or slides, such as page 2, 7-11, and 27.. You can do either of these very easily – you control what is going to be printed…

To control what you are printing when your work is open:
Go to the Menu Bar > File > Print OR in the newer versions of Office (2007, 2010) open the Office Button > Print
The Print Dialog Box opens > In the bottom left side, you can now choose:

• All
• Current Page
• Pages
• Selection (this is only a choice when you have highlighted something such as a paragraph)

On the right side, you can choose:

• Whether you want it collated or not
• How many copies
• In Word, you can choose how many pages you want printed on a page

PRINTING FROM THE INTERNET Part 2 of 2

The first two options we reviewed in Part 1, are for quick-easy printing directly from the internet. But, many times we want to be able to change/enlarge the Print style or size of what we are printing from the Internet to make it easier to read, especially with articles, directions, and other important information. So that is when this option works well…

Option 3:

• “Highlight” the portion of the Internet item you want to print & change (to copy to Word)
• Be sure pointer is on what’s highlighted then "Right click" on what you have highlighted and an action menu appears - choose/left click on "copy"
• Minimize email/internet; Open Word, NotePad, Works, whatever WP program you use
• Right click again (be sure pointer is on the blank page Word, etc), Left click "paste"
• Now in Word, NotePad or Works, make your print/font style, size changes
• To print, either left click on the printer icon on the toolbar OR
• Left click on "file" on the toolbar, then left click on "print"
• Left click “selection or current page" in page range section & "number of copies you want"
• Left click "OK" and it will now print with all your changes

To Save what you have now worked on, left click on "File", then "Save As", then be sure you are in "C" Drive, then "My Documents" or find your Flash Drive/Memory Stick and choose that - then choose the folder you want to put it in and left click on Save

TIP: try not to use the printer icon on your internet toolbar, because when you print using this ICON, you will print everything on your monitor including the ads, etc..

PRINTING FROM THE INTERNET – Part 1 of 2

When you are reading something on the “Internet” - your email, a newspaper article or something else on a website, you may want to print it for someone else or for your own future reference. There are a few options on how you can do this quickly & easily...

OPTION 1:

• Almost all email and other media websites today show a “Print” icon or “Print view” – formerly known as Printer Friendly Version) usually at the top or sometimes at the bottom of what we are reading.
• When you click on this Print icon, the website will copy what you have chosen, but eliminates almost all unnecessary info/ads from the page so that you only print the article or email – saves a lot of ink and paper.
• Now the print dialog box will appear, choose/left click "selection" in page range section (one of the "print range" choices)
• Then left click "number of copies you want"
• Then left click "OK" and what you have chosen prints without all the unnecessary ads etc.

OPTION 2:

• Another option is to “Highlight” just the portion of the email/article that you want to print
• Left click on "file" on the toolbar, then left click on "print"
• The print dialog box will appear, choose/left click "selection" in page range section (one of the "print range" choices)
• Then left click "number of copies you want"
• Then left click "OK" and "what you highlighted" will now print

TIP: try not to use the printer icon on your Internet toolbar, because when you print using this ICON, you will print everything on your monitor including the ads, etc..

COPY, PASTE & HIGHLIGHTING TIPS

COPY AND MOVE FILES & FOLDERS:
Cutting, copying, and pasting are essential techniques in working with and organizing files and folders. There are several ways to copy and move objects in Windows Explorer (AND TO OPEN WINDOWS EXPLORER-USE YOUR WINDOWS FLAG KEY + E)

• Copying a file or folder by using the Standard Buttons Toolbar
• Copying a file or folder by using the Menu
• Copying a file or folder by dragging

COPYING A GROUP OF DOCUMENTS, PHOTOS OR MUSIC:

• In the left pane, choose/highlight the drive you want to add items to: C Drive; Removable Drive or CD/DVD (to see what's on it); Right click on it – choose PROPERTIES on the menu list to see how much space is used/available
• Point to the drive you are taking the work/photo’s from, "C" drive, "My Documents", "Your folder".. On the right pane you will see all the sub-folder, highlight the folder/folders (see highlighting tips noted below) you want to copy, Activate COPY command
• In the left pane, Add/create a new folder for the items in the Drive they are going to
• Once created, point/highlight the folder the work is being sent to
• Now activate the PASTE command – you will see them flying over!!
• On the left pane, highlight the new folder and you will see all the work that’s been added on the right pane

To Copy documents from one folder to another, you can select all the documents by either holding down the shift or control buttons, then holding down the left mouse button and dragging the documents into the correct folder.

HIGHLIGHTING TIPS:

• JUST ONE ITEM: Simply left click on it to highlight it
• RANDOM: To highlight “random documents, files, pictures etc.: Hold down your CTRL key on the keyboard, then left click/choose the files you want
• GROUP: To highlight “group of documents, files, pictures, etc” Left click/choose the first picture or file in the group; hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard, then left click/choose the last photo or file in the group
• ALL: To highlight all of the documents, files, pictures, etc. at once, simply use hold down your CTRL key and the letter A (CTRL+A) or go to the Menu Bar, File, and choose Select All.

HOW TO CUT/COPY & PASTE:

1. Select /highlight what you want to Cut or Copy
2. Then activate CUT or COPY (any of 5 ways)
3. Go to Where you Want what You’ve Cut or Copy to GO-be sure to choose the correct drive, folder and or sub-folder..
4. To find your travel drive-Open my computer & find the right drive Then activate PASTE (any of 5 ways)

MOUSE SELECTION SHORTCUTS

When you "select or highlight" a word, sentence, phrase, page etc. you are telling the computer that is what you want to work with...

TO SELECT ONE WORD: Place the insertion point in the middle of the word. Double click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A SENTENCE: Place the insertion point anywhere in the sentence.
Hold down the Ctrl Key and click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A PARAGRAPH: Place the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph. Triple click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A LINE OF TEXT: Place the mouse pointer in the left gutter area (the mouse will turn into a right facing arrow). Click the left mouse button once.

TO SELECT A BLOCK OF TEXT: Place the insertion point at the beginning of the block of text you want to select. Hold down the SHIFT Key. Place the I-beam at the end of the block of text and click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT: Click Edit on the menu bar then choose Select All (or simply hold the CTRL + A keys).

TO DESELECT A SELECTION: Click anywhere in the white space of your document.

Word Processing Tips

MICROSOFT WORD – is the #1 word processing program used in the world today – remember once you learn the feature commands and corresponding icons for these commands, they are the same in any other software you might learn
Special Note: All Microsft Office 97-2003 Program (including Word) use toolbars; whereas Office 2007 Programs, incuding Word use the new Tab/Ribbon Format

SELECT TO EFFECT (highlight)
When you want to edit/change text (add Bold, Italic, Underline, Delete, change color, cut, copy, past, change font size or style and lots of other "formatting options") remember to "select the text first/highlight it" and then click the button of your choice.. TIP: To highlight everything in a document, whether 1 page or 100 pages: use SELECT ALL of CTRL + A

BASIC SCREEN: Insertion Point “I” vs. Work Bar, Title Bar, Menu Bar, Toolbars, Ruler, Scroll Bars (right & bottom), Status Bar & Task Bar

BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINE: B – I – U Highlight text, then use icon on formatting toolbar OR Menu Bar, Format, Font

DON'T PANIC WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - Use your "Undo" & "Redo" buttons

FONT STYLE: The design of your characters – letters – numbers

FONT SIZE: the size of your characters – letters – numbers

STANDARD BUSINESS FONT & SIZES
Times New Roman - 12 pitch
Arial-14 pitch
Note: 72 pitch always = 1" high

WANT THE RULER ON OR OFF YOUR SCREEN?
Click "View" - Activate or deactivate the ruler.. choice is yours

Cut - Copy – Paste

Once you master the skill of copying and pasting, so many things we do on the computer: working with emails, the internet-such as shopping & banking, directions; of course working with word processing - writing letters, recipes, flyers, invitations; saving to flash drives, portable hard drives, moving photos from our digital cameras to folders; burning CD's & DVD's; and much more, becomes so easy. So practice these skills often - and remember there are 5 different ways that you can activate the commands to cut - copy - paste...

TO CUT/COPY & PASTE:

• Select /highlight what you want to Cut or Copy
• Then activate CUT or COPY (any of 5 ways)
• Go to Where you Want what You’ve Cut or Copy to now be placed
  
  (To find your travel or portable hard drive-Open my computer & find the right drive; or open your email or open the software-Word, Excel, Power Point etc.)
• Then activate PASTE (any of 5 ways)

5 WAYS TO CUT, COPY OR PASTE…

1. MENU BAR: Go To Edit, left click on cut, copy or paste
2. ICONS: Use the cut, copy or paste/clipboard icons on your toolbar/ribbon
3. MOUSE: Use RIGHT CLICK-Be sure your mouse is on what you’ve highlighted & RIGHT CLICK; action menu will appear and now you can left click on cut, copy or paste/clipboard
4. KEYBOARD ACTION KEY: Use the Action/function key (bottom row, right of the shift bar before the CTRL key) and choose cut, copy or paste/clipboard
5. KEYBOARD: Use keys on your Keyboard (Copy is CTRL + C; Paste is CTRL + V; Cut is CTRL + X; Print is CTRL +P )