Word Processor (Microsoft Word)
Introduction
Menus
Document management
Paragraph Format
Word for Windows from Microsoft is the most popular word processor in both the PC and Macintosh worlds.
The version that will be used in this manual is Word 2000 for Windows 95/98/NT (more specifically, the US English version will be used. With version 6.0, Microsoft unified the numbering for Macintosh, MS-DOS and Windows.
In the specific case of Windows, versions 3, 4 and 5 did not come into existence, having gone directly from version 2.0 to version 6.0. With the appearance of Windows 95, Microsoft unified the numbering of the three main Office products, which was called Office 95.
In 1997 Office 97 appeared whose most important new features were the Office Assistant and in Word 97 the grammar check and the possibility of saving documents in HTML format. In mid-1999, Office 2000 appeared, the main components of which are Word 2000, Excel 2000, and PowerPoint 2000.
Word 2000 maintains a certain continuity of style with Word 95 and Word 97. In addition, Word 2000 and Word 97 use a practically identical data file format (except for some new features).
This means that files created by Office 2000 programs can be read by Office 97. However, they are not compatible with Office 95 and earlier versions. Microsoft offers several solutions for this problem.
Like Word 97, Word 2000 also supports the HTML format by offering an HTML-specific display mode that makes it easier for users to write simple Web pages.
Word 2000 can mix text, mathematical formulas, images, graphs, tables, spreadsheets, etc. in a document, and display on the screen an exact image of how said document will be printed. This is what is called a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) application.
WYSIWYG applications are very easy to learn and use. Since the effects of each command or action can be immediately observed on the screen, errors are detected immediately and can usually be cleared with a simple action.
It is also very easy to test until the desired effect is achieved in the document being prepared.
The major improvements in Word 2000 over Word 97 are as follows:
- Easier to learn and use.
- Possibility of working with several languages at the same time in the same document (if the corresponding modules for each language are installed).
- Editing of web pages.
- Use of Word as an email editor.
Word 2000 is a fully integrated application in Windows 95/98/NT, making full use of the features of these operating systems.
One of these features is the contextual menu, which opens when the right mouse button is clicked on a certain element on the screen, offering the selection of options and commands that are considered most appropriate for that situation.
Template Parts
You can distinguish 5 horizontal elements or bars.
The upper part is the title bar, and it shows the name of the application (Microsoft Word) and the name of the file that is open.
The figure shown shows Word2000.doc, which is the name of the file corresponding to this manual.
In a new document, Document1 would appear, which is the default name used by the program for a document to which the user has not yet given a name.
At that moment the user can start writing anywhere on the blank page by clicking twice with the mouse (it is one of the novelties of Word 2000).
Word 2000 toolbars can be repositioned on the screen. To do this, simply click with the mouse on an area of the bar that is not a button and drag it to the new position. Buttons can also be added and/or removed via the dialog box that is opened with the Tools/Customize command.
Just above the text is the last bar, called the Ruler. With the ruler you can control the indentation of the text, the tabulations, and in general what has to do with the measurements of the page in cm (or inches).
At the bottom of the Word 2000 window is the status bar, shown in Figure, which displays other general information such as page and section, total number of pages, line and column of the screen the cursor is on, the time, etc.
There are also four small icons or buttons -on the left- that allow you to go from one way of viewing the document to another. This will be referred to in the following section.
Menu Operation
The behavior of the menus has changed compared to Office 97. When a menu is opened, the most used or most recently used options appear. To view all the menu options, click on the symbol that appears at the end of the menu.
Different Ways of Viewing a Document
There are several possibilities for viewing a document, almost all of which are controlled by the View menu.
In Outline mode (outline), a document can be seen hiding most of the information, that is, seeing only the titles of the different sections and perhaps - if desired - the first line of each paragraph.
However, the same results can be achieved by activating the Document Map mode in the View menu.
Work Several Documents at the same Time
In Word 2000 it is possible to work simultaneously with several documents. To do this, all you have to do is open all of them -as will be seen in the next chapter- and go from one to the other through the Window menu.
It is possible to copy or move text and any other type of elements (graphics, formulas, etc.) from one document to another. Unlike Word 97, Word 2000 creates a new, separate window for each file.
Working with two Parts of the Same Document
Word 2000 can work with two different parts of the same document, which is very useful for example when you want to compare two paragraphs that are on different pages and perhaps copy or move text from one to the other.
To do this, Word 2000 has the ability to divide the screen into two parts, each with its own scroll bars.
The relative height of these two parts can be changed by keeping the mouse clicked on the separating border and dragging it to the desired position. To eliminate the subdivision of the screen, just double click on the point where the two vertical scroll bars meet.
Word 2000 is a word processor, or what is the same, a program to manage documents.
This section reviews the main ways to create, open and close documents.
Opening New or Existing Documents When Word 2000 is started from the Start menu, a new blank document will appear on the screen, which by default is called Document1.
To create a new document at any other time, click on the Standard toolbar (New button) or via the New option on the File menu.
The default names with which successive new documents are created are Document2, Document3, etc.
Save or Close Documents
To save documents, use the Save icon from the Standard toolbar, or the Save or Save As commands from the File menu, depending on whether you are updating an existing file or creating a new one that has not yet been assigned a name.
It is very important to fully understand the difference between the Save and Save As commands.
Insert Documents
Word 2000 allows existing documents to be incorporated into the currently active document, inserting its content in the desired position.
To do this, place the cursor at the point in the active document where you want to insert the second document. Select Insert/File and in the dialog box that opens --similar to the File/Open command-- choose the file you want to insert.
Search Documents
Sometimes you want to find documents contained in files for which you do not exactly remember the name or the directory in which they are stored. In Word 2000 this problem is solved with the Find option, which is activated through the Tools menu of the File/Open command dialog box.
Format Text
One of the most typical characteristics of a word processor is its ability to format text, changing any of its characteristics, such as margins, fonts, spacing between lines, etc.
Cut, Paste and Copy Text
Closely related to text selection is copying and/or moving text from one part of the document to another. Perhaps these are one of the most frequent operations when writing, correcting or modifying a document on the screen.
Most of the text formatting operations typical of paragraphs can be done with Word 2000 without opening any menu, directly using the rule or ruler, and the buttons on the Formatting toolbar.
Paragraph formatting tasks are performed either by using the buttons on the Formatting toolbar, or by using the Format/Paragraph command.
Paragraph alignment
If the Indents and Spacing tab is selected in the Paragraph dialog, you can make different changes to the alignment of the paragraph text using the Alignment drop-down list.
(When they exist, buttons that perform the same operation are attached):
- Alignment to the left (Left). Aligns the text on the left margin, leaving the right margin irregularly.
- Right alignment (Right). The text is aligned only to the right.
- Alignment centered (Centered). Arrange text centered between the left and right margins.
- Alignment justified (Justified). Text is aligned to both the left and right margins.
Paragraph Indentation
Paragraph indentation -Indents- allows the first and/or all other lines of a paragraph to start a certain distance from the left margin.
The indentation can depend on the tab positions, or be set independently of them. The Left and Right boxes control the position of the left and right margins.
The position of the first line is controlled by the Special box: if First Line is chosen the first line is offset relative to the text; if Hanging is chosen, the text scrolls relative to the first line.
Space between lines and between paragraphs
You can control the distance between the lines of a paragraph (Line Spacing), as well as an extra space (Spacing) before and after each paragraph.
tabs
By default, tabs are usually preset at half-inch (1.27 cm) intervals, starting from the left margin.