Features of Word 2003

Microsoft Office Word 2003

•      Word processing is the manipulation of characters, words, text, numbers, sentences, and paragraphs in the document so that it is error-free and looks attractive.

•      A word processor is an application software for word processing.

•      The various Word processor packages that are being used are Word Perfect, Word Star, Microsoft Word, etc.

•      Microsoft Word has a wide variety of features that make it one of the most popular and widely used applications. It produces professional documents quickly and efficiently.

Microsoft Word Environment

•      The main window of MS-Word has following components:

         

Getting Help

•      Microsoft Office provides an exhaustive help system to provide assistance when you are experiencing difficulty using any Office application.

Word Help task pane is shown below:

―   A task pane is a window within an office application that provides commonly used commands. You can use these commands while working on your document.

―   In the task pane, simply type your question or keyword relevant to your topic in Search for box and click the  

     (   ) button.

Creating A New Document

 To open a new document, follow these steps:

1. Select New from the File menu to display the New Document task pane.
2. Select Blank Document under the New section. Word opens a new document, which is sequentially numbered like Document1, Document2, and so on. Similarly, you can also create an XML document, a Web page, an E-mail message, and a document from the existing document by selecting appropriate options.

Working with Text

•      Inserting Text: In Word, there are two typing modes:

―   Insert mode: In this the existing text is pushed forward rather than replacing the already written text.

―   Overtyping mode: In this the newly typed text replaces the already written text.

•      Selecting Text: Before performing any operation on text such as moving, copying, formatting, etc., the text must be selected. For example, for selecting a word from the text either Double-click anywhere on the word or press Ctrl+Shift+Right arrow or Ctrl+Shift+Left arrow keys on the keyboard.

•      Formatting Text: It is the process of determining how the typed text will appear on a printed page. Formatting can be done by using the Formatting toolbar shown below or by using the Format menu.

•      Aligning and Indenting Text:  Alignment and indentation operations are a part of paragraph formatting. These operations are performed to give a well-defined “structure” to the document. For example, to left align the selected text or paragraph use (       ) button.

•      Formatting Style: When a document contains many pages, or when consistent formatting is crucial, you should use Styles instead. For example, if a document is divided into sections with headings (like this book has), it is a good idea to use heading styles.

•      Format Painter: A handy feature for formatting text is the Format Painter (   ). It is a time-saving feature for quickly copying the format of a block of text.

•      Using Cut, Copy, and Paste in Word: Cut operation in Word removes the text from the current document and places it in the clipboard. Now to place the text stored in the clipboard, you will have to perform the paste action. Copying the text is similar to the cut operation, except that copy retains the text at the original place.

•      Finding and Replacing Text: Find and Replace option in Microsoft Word is used to locate a particular word, phrase, or set of characters in a document, and replace it with something else.

•      Undo and Redo: If a portion of a document is deleted or changed, you can revert to the original state by using the Undo command. To undo the last action(s), click the Undo button (     ) on the Standard toolbar, or select Undo from the Edit menu.

•      The Redo command can be used to reverse the undo action. To redo the last undo action, click on the Redo button (     ) on the Standard toolbar, or select Redo from the Edit menu.

•      Bullets and Numbering: It is used to list all the steps. Bullets and numbering can be applied to text by selecting Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu.

•      Header and Footer: Headers are text that appears at the top of every page, and footers contain text that appears at the bottom of each page.

Working with Tables

•      In Microsoft Word 2003, tables can be created in number of ways:

•      Select Insert from the Table menu and then choose Table from the pop-up menu to display the Insert Table dialog box, from where you can choose the number of columns and rows required in the document.

•      Another way of creating a table is to click the Insert Table button (  ) on the Standard toolbar. Drag the mouse along the grid, highlighting the number of rows and columns for the table.

•      Tables and Borders Toolbar: It allows you to add border styles, shading, text effects, alignment, and more options to the table.

•      Selecting Parts of a Table: Different parts of a table can be selected either by using mouse or by using the Table menu. For example, for selecting a row, Position the cursor in the row. Click the Table menu, point to Select and then click Row.

•      Converting Text to Table: You can convert any text whether it is a tabbed list or a series of paragraphs, into a table using the Convert Text to Table feature of the Word.

•      Converting Table to Text: You can also convert an existing table to text using the Convert Table to Text feature of the Word.

•      Using Table Auto Format: Microsoft Word provides Table AutoFormat feature that allows to apply different formats such as borders, shading, special fonts and color, etc., to a table in a quick and easy manner.

Checking Spelling and Grammar

•      Using the Auto Spell and Auto Grammar Features: Microsoft Word automatically checks the spelling and grammar as you type the text and provides visual clues about the spelling and grammar unless this feature is turned off. Misspelled words are underlined in red, while sentences with grammatical flaws are under-lined in green.

•      Using Spelling and Grammar Dialog Box: To start the spell check process, perform any of the following steps:

•      Click the Spelling and Grammar button
(     ) on the Standard toolbar.

•      Select Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu.

•      Using AutoCorrect Options: The AutoCorrect Options feature automatically detects common errors like misspelled words, grammatical errors, and incorrect capitalization, and replaces them with the correct text. For example, “grammer” can be rectified as “grammar”.

•      Using Synonyms and Thesaurus: Sometimes you may wish to replace a word with its synonym. Microsoft Word has the Thesaurus feature, which does just the same.

Adding Graphics to Document

Pictures: Pictures are used in the document to enhance its readability and understandability. Some common formats are .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, and .WMF. Pictures can be inserted in two ways:

―   Inserting Picture from a File: Word allows you to insert pictures or scanned photographs from other programs and locations into the Word document.

―   Clip Art:  Microsoft Word comes with its own set of pictures in the Clip Gallery. The Clip Gallery includes a wide variety of clip art that makes it easy for you to enhance your documents with professionally designed images.

―   WordArt: Using WordArt Gallery, you can create many text effects. You can create shadowed, skewed, rotated, and stretched text, as well as text that can be fitted to pre-defined shapes

―   Drawing Objects: Word allows you to add objects such as lines, curves, and WordArt. The drawing objects include:

―   AutoShapes: Microsoft Word comes with a set of ready-made AutoShapes containing several categories of shapes, including lines, basic shapes, flowchart elements, etc., that you can use in your documents. You can resize, rotate, flip, color, and combine the shapes with other shapes such as circles and squares to make shapes that are more complex. The table shown lists all the available buttons on the AutoShapes menu.

Mail Merge :

Components of Mail Merge

•      Mail merge feature of Word allows you to merge generic information which is to be repeated in each letter, mailing label, or envelope, etc., with varying information like, a list of names and addresses of employees. The components of the mail merge are:

―   Main Document: It comprises the generic information in the form of text and graphics. The five types of documents are Letters,
E-mail messages, Envelopes, Labels, and Directory.

―   Data Source: It comprises varying information in which records representing individual items are stored. Each record consists of fields, for example, a record of an employee may consist of name and address, where name may consist of fields, FirstName and LastName, and the address may contain fields HouseNo, City, and State.

―   Merged Document: It comprises the combination of generic text and variable information. When the information in the data source is merged with the main document, the merge fields are replaced with the variable information representing the data for each individual.

Setting Page Margins

•      Page margins determine the distance between the text and the edge of the paper.

•      To specify the margins in the document, choose Page Setup from the File menu to display the Page Setup dialog box.

•      Microsoft Word 2003’s default margins are 1.25 inches on the left and right and 1 inch on the top and bottom.

Printing A Document

•      To change the orientation (whether to print the document in landscape or portrait mode), select the option from the Orientation section.

•      To print on both sides of the page, select the Mirror margins option from the Multiple pages drop-down list under Pages section.

•      To change the size of the paper, click the Paper tab and select the desired size (letter, A4, etc.) from the Paper size list.

•      To view document in print preview mode, choose Print Preview from File menu or click the Print Preview button   on the Standard toolbar.

•      The range of the document to print can be specified by choosing any one of the following:

―   All: To print all the pages of the document.

―   Current page: To print the current page in the document.

―   Pages: To print certain number of pages.

―   Selection: To print the selected portion of the document.

•      Number of copies option allows you to enter the number of copies you want to print.

•      Select the Collate check box to print a complete copy of the document before the first page of the next copy is printed. Now, the copies will come out in the order page 1, 2, 3; page 1, 2, 3 etc.

•      The Pages per sheet option offers you to select the number of pages in the document that you want to print on each sheet of paper.

Advanced Features of MS Word :

Using Index and Tables

•      The Index and Tables feature has two options:

―   Table of Contents: A table of contents (TOC) is an organized list of heading of topics in the order in which they appear in a document. Creating TOC in Word using Table of Contents option is a two-step process: marking the headings to be included in TOC and giving commands to insert a TOC in the document.

―   Index: An index is an alphabetical list of words, phrases, or topics discussed in a document. It provides an easier and faster access to the words or phrases appearing in the document. Creating index in Word using Index option is also a two-step process: marking the words or phrases to be included as Index Entry and giving command to insert an index in the document.

―   A template determines the basic structure for a document and contains document settings such as text, formatting, page layout options such as margins, styles, headers and footers, graphics, customized toolbars, menus, and shortcut keys.

―   Template allows a user to create master documents, which may be used for files with standard information or formatting codes.

―   Microsoft Word comes with various types of templates like, General, Memos, Letters & Faxes, Reports, Publications, etc.

―   A macro is a series of Word commands that have been grouped together as a single command to automate a task. These are mainly used to speed up routine editing and formatting or to combine multiple commands. For example: inserting a table with a specific number of rows and columns.

―   A macro can be created by either recording the steps using the macro recorder or typing the macro in Visual Basic Editor.