Microsoft Word (Entering Text, Formatting, Editing, Headers and Footers, Column and Section Page Layout, Thesaurus, Replace, Cut and Paste)

Microsoft Word (or simply Word) is a word processor developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983.

Sometimes called Winword, MS Word, or Word, Microsoft Word is a word processor published by Microsoft. It is one of the office productivity applications included in the Microsoft Office suite. Originally developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, it was first released in 1983.

Microsoft Word is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, Android, and Apple iOS. It can also run on the Linux operating system using WINE.

What is Microsoft Word used for?

Microsoft Word allows you to create professional-quality documents, reports, letters, and résumés. Unlike a plain text editor, Microsoft Word has features including spell check, grammar check, text and font formatting, HTML support, image support, advanced page layout, and more.

What are the uses of Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Word is a word processor, and, like other word processors, it’s capable of helping users create a variety of different types of documents. For example, users can create a résumé, business contract, instruction document, or a letter to another person. We’ve included a list of the top uses of a word processor on our word processor page.

How many lines are there on a page in Microsoft Word?

By default, there are 29 lines on one page in Microsoft Word.

What type of files can Microsoft Word create and use?

Early versions of Microsoft Word primarily created and used the .doc file extension, while newer versions of Word create and use the .docx file extension.

More recent versions of Microsoft Word can create and open the following types of files:

• .doc, .docm, .docx
• .dot, .dotm, .dotx
• .htm, .html
• .mht, .mhtml
• .odt
• .pdf
• .rtf
• .txt
• .wps
• .xps
• .xml

1. Entering Text – Microsoft Word

Document area is the area where you type your text. The flashing vertical bar is called the insertion point and it represents the location where the text will appear when you type. keep the cursor at the text insertion point and start typing the text. We typed only two words “Hello Word” as shown below.

The following are the two important points that will help you while typing −

• You do not need to press Enter to start a new line. As the insertion point reaches the end of the line, Word automatically starts a new one. You will need to press Enter, to add a new paragraph.
• When you want to add more than one space between words, use the Tab key instead of the spacebar. This way you can properly align text by using the proportional fonts.

2. Formatting in Microsoft Word

Formatting text in Microsoft Word involves tasks like bolding the text, italicising it, and changing the font and size. The commands to perform all of these formatting tasks are found on the Home tab in the Font group. Select your text and then click on the required formatting button to see the effects.

Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcuts for those commands. Here are the shortcuts for some of the more commonly used formatting commands:

• Bold: ctrl-b
• Italic: ctrl-i
• Underline: ctrl-u

You can also set the formatting before you type by clicking the appropriate button or using the shortcut, and then anything you subsequently type will be formatted. To unset the formatting, you click the same command button or use the same shortcut.

3. Editing

Step I: Open your document to begin editing. If you’re unsure about your editing skills, save an extra copy under the name “DocumentName-edit” so that your document stays in its original format. Edit the new version. If you like your changes, rename the document afterwards.

Step II: Delete single letters one at a time. Place the cursor to the right of the letters to be erased and press the “Backspace” key or place the cursor to the left and press the “Delete” key. Continue pressing the key until all the letters are gone.

Step III: Erase entire words, sentences, paragraphs, or pages. Highlight the text you want to delete by either dragging the mouse to highlight the text, or by holding down the shift key and using the arrows. Once the text is highlighted, press “Backspace” or “Delete” to erase the text.

4. Headers and Footers

Headers and footers are typically used in multiple-page documents to display descriptive information. In addition to page numbers, a header or footer can contain information such as: The document name, the date and/or time you created or revised the document, an author name, a graphic, a draft or revision number.

This descriptive information can appear in many different combinations. For example, the second page of a business letter typically contains a header with the name of the addressee, the page number, and the date. A report can contain a footer with the report name and a header with the page number and chapter name. A newsletter can contain a header with a title and logo on the first page and a footer with the title and page number on the pages that follow. Adjust your Headers and Footers via the “Header and Footer” selection on the View dropdown menu on the Menu toolbar.

5. Column and Section Page Layout

The layout of your pages can have a big impact on how they’re read, and layouts, used well, allow you to position text, images, macros, charts, and much more, to have the best visual impact.

There are two ways to modify the layout of a Confluence page:

• Use page layouts to add sections and columns
• Use macros to add sections and columns.

Page layouts provide a simple, visual representation of your page layout in the editor, while the macros are more flexible and allow for greater complexity in your layout.

To add a section:

Choose the Page Layout button in the toolbar

The Page Layout toolbar appears.

Choose Add Section

The new section appears below your current content, with the boundaries of the section(s) indicated by dotted lines (the dotted lines aren’t visible when you view the page).

To change the column layout in a section:

• Place your cursor in the section you wish to change
• Choose a layout from the page layout toolbar (for example, two columns or three columns)

Any text, images or macros in your section are not lost when you change the column layout. When you decrease the number of columns, Confluence will move your content to the left. When you increase the number of columns, Confluence will add blank columns to the right of your existing content.

To move a section to another part of the page:

• Place your cursor in the section you wish to move
• Choose the Move up or Move down buttons

The section and all of its content will be moved above or below other sections on the page.

To delete a section:

• Place your cursor in the section you wish to remove
• Choose Remove section

The section and all of its content will be removed.

6. Spelling and Grammar Checkers

Microsoft Word comes with built-in spell checker and grammar checker. It also offers robust support for dictionaries.

Given we now produce so much content in a digital format, the tools are useful. You’re much more likely to make spelling errors when using a keyboard rather than a pen.

The tools work automatically most of the time, but there are many ways to customize them. For example, you can use AutoCorrect to speed up your typing. And the dictionary menus are packed with clever features and hidden options.

6. Thesaurus in Microsoft Word

In addition to the spell checking and grammar checking tools that Microsoft Word offers, there is also the Word thesaurus we can take advantage of to improve our documents. Using the thesaurus, you can find synonyms (different words with the same meaning) and antonyms (words with the opposite meaning).

In Microsoft Office Word you can look up a word quickly if you right-click anywhere in your document, and then click Synonym on the shortcut menu.

Thesaurus in Word now: click Review > Proofing > Thesaurus. The Research pane opens on the right hand side of the workspace.

Type in a word into the Search for box and press Enter. Alternatively, press ALT on the keyboard and click a word in your document. Word displays a list of alternatives that you can use. If you find a word in the list that you’d like to use, click on the down arrow that appears to the right and select Insert.

If you had selected a word in your document, the word you select in the Research pane will replace it. If not, the word will simply be inserted into your document where the cursor was positioned.

If you want to continue your research and look up further synonyms for another word in the list, click on it. That word will be placed in the Search for box and its synonyms will be displayed in the list.

7. Replace, Cut and Paste

Cutting, copying, and pasting are three of the most basic features available to a computer user, but as you might expect Microsoft Word gives you more options than just those. There’s a built-in Office clipboard that’s pretty powerful, the ability to choose the format of content you paste, and more. Here’s how it all works.

Paste Text the Way You Want

When you paste text using Ctrl+V, Word defaults to pasting both the text and any formatting applied to that text. This means that the text will look like it did in the original location. Technically, Word copies the formatting marks in the text, which can be interpreted in different ways. This is why you might find that text copied from a website can appear much larger in Word; the formatting marks are interpreted differently by Word than they are by your web browser.

Instead of hitting Ctrl+V, you can click Home > Paste to see some different options.

The “Paste” drop-down menu shows a few options as icons across the top. From left to right these are:

• Keep Source Formatting: This is the default option you get when pressing Ctrl+V, as described above.
• Merge Formatting: This command pastes just the text you’ve copied but changes the formatting to match the surrounding text into which you’re pasting.
• Picture: This command inserts the text as a picture.
• Keep Text Only: This command removes all formatting from the original text. The text will take on the default formatting of the paragraph into which you insert the text.

There are also a couple of other options on the “Paste” drop-down menu. The “Paste Special” command lets you paste whatever you’ve copied as a special document type. For example, you could paste as a Word document, picture, or even HTML. The options available in the Paste Special window change depending on what you’ve copied. If you copied text, for example, you could insert it as a separate Word document. If you copied an image, you can change the format of the image when you paste (which we’ll talk more about in the next section).

The “Set Default Paste” option lets you change the default paste action (when you press Ctrl+V) if you don’t want “Keep Source Formatting” to be the default.

Copy Formatting and Apply it to Other Text

You’ve got your formatting set just so, and now you want various other parts of your document to look the same. It would be a pain to have to change each block of text to match manually, so Word provides the Format Painter tool to help. Format Painter copies the formatting from selected text and then pastes it into other text. If you select an entire paragraph, it copies the paragraph formatting. If you select just a few words of text, it copies any character formatting applied to that text.

Select the text with the formatting you want to copy, hit Home > Format Painter and then select the text to which you want to paste the formatting. If you want to paste formatting to multiple locations, select the text and then double-click the “Format Painter” button. Anything you click or select after that gets pasted with the original formatting, and you can click the “Format Painter” button again to turn it off.