Lesson 2: Advance to Word
MORE ON WORD PROCESSING
Working with larger documents
2.1 GETTING STARTED
Showing the Full menus and organizing the Toolbars
In case you're using a computer in a lab or some computer other than your own, you
should set the options to Always show full menus, Show the Standard and formatting
toolbars on two rows, List font names in their own font, and Show ScreenTips on
toolbars. You may recall doing this at the beginning of Lesson 1.
Open Word if you have not already done so, then in the Tools menu, select
Customize…, and in the dialog box that pops up, select the Options tab (Fig. 2.1)
Make sure there is a check mark next to the item to Always show full menus
While you're at it, check the box next to Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars
Click the Close button when you're ready
Setting up for the tutorial
This tutorial is designed to give you practice working with a longer document since this
presents problems that do not arise when dealing with documents that are no more than a
page or two in length. Rather than have you type in a long paper of your own, the Work
Disk comes with a document prepared for the exercises in this tutorial.
In the View menu make sure Task Pane is de-selected (no check mark) since you won't be needing it for this lesson
In the File menu select Close to close the new empty document that is always opened when you first open Word
The name of the document you will be working with is Term Paper. You will find this
document in the Practice folder on your Work Disk. Here are the steps to open it.
From the File menu select Open, then in the Open dialog box, select the disk drive that holds your Work Disk
There are four folders on the Work Disk: Merge Documents, Other, Practice, and
Templates. The document you are going to use now is in the Practice folder.
Double click on the Practice folder to see the documents it contains, then double click on the document Term Paper.doc to open it
Now wait while Word adds the document to the desktop. You are ready to begin work.
Inserting Page Numbers
It would be useful to start by inserting page numbers for easier reference as you work
your way through the remainder of this tutorial. You can insert page numbers in either
the header or the footer of your document. Word takes care of keeping the numbers
sequenced if your pagination changes or if you want to start page numbering at some
number other than 1.
From the Insert menu select Page Numbers...
This will bring up the Page Numbers dialog box (Fig. 2.2).
In the dialog box, from the Position pop up menu select Top of page (Header), and in the Alignment pop up menu select Right
Often you don’t want to show the number on the first page of a document.
Click to remove the check mark in the box next to Show number on first page, then click on OK
If you wanted to start a document at some page number other than 1 you would click on
the Format... button (lower right in the dialog box), type the number you want for the
Start at page and click on OK. Simple as that!
2.2 MORE TOOLS FOR FORMATTING TEXT
A word about default settings
As you may recall from the first word processing tutorial, your installation of Word has
default settings for the typical printed page. The top margin is perhaps set at 1", and the
right and left margins at 7/8" or 1½". The default spacing between lines is single spaced.
The default alignment is left (the text is aligned to the left margin).
The font selected for the Term Paper document is Times New Roman (because that is
how it was saved on your Work Disk—the default font in Word is Times New Roman).
The size of the characters is 10 point (the default size in Word). The style is normal (no
underlining, boldface, and so forth), and the color of the text is black.
In general there is no point changing the default settings unless they are unsatisfactory. But should you decide to format the page in your own particular way, you can reset the Format options to meet your needs. The exercises that follow will give you the pportunity to practice doing this now as you format the Term Paper document.
A word about WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG (computerese, pronounced "wizzywig") is an acronym for "What You See Is
What You Get." It is used to describe computer systems such as the one you are using
where the appearance of a document on the screen is what you will get on paper when
you print it out. As you make formatting changes to your document, they will show on
the screen so that you can visually check the effect of the changes before printing the text
on paper.
Setting the margins
The easiest way to change any of the four margins on a page is in the Page Setup dialog
box.
In the File menu select Page Setup...
As you can see (Fig. 2.3), the default margins are 1" top and bottom, and 1.25" left and
right.
These settings are fine for the purposes of this tutorial, so we’ll leave them as they are. If
your settings are different than these, change them so they are the same as those
illustrated in Fig. 2.3. Either way, remember that you can use the Page Setup dialog box
to change any of the margins on your printed page.
Aligning text
Alignment involves aligning your text either to the left margin, the right margin, or on
both margins of the page (this latter format is often called justified text). Alignment also
includes the option to center text. The Term Paper document is already left aligned
throughout.
Justified text
When you align text on both margins, called justified text, both sides of your text run
flush with the right and left margins. Seeing is believing, so carry out the steps that
follow to see the effect of this option.
On the Formatting toolbar are several icons (Fig. 2.4).
The first alignment icon highlighted in Fig. 2.4 indicates left alignment, the second
indicates center alignment, the third indicates right alignment, and the fourth indicates
justified alignment. Let’s see how the different alignment options affect the appearance of your work.
Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight the entire Term Paper document (remember, if you do something you didn’t want to do, you can undo what you did by selecting Undo... from the Edit menu or hit ctrl-z)
Click on each Text Alignment rectangle in turn and scroll up and down through the document so you can see how your text is aligned differently each time
End this exercise by clicking on the icon for Justified text (aligned on both margins—the last of the four alignment icons highlighted in the Formatting toolbar)
Now click anywhere in the background to deselect the highlighted text
You want the final version of the document to be justified. Notice that the margins on
both sides of the screen are now aligned to the left and right margins except lines that do
not reach all the way across the pages (such as the title lines and some of the lines at the
end of paragraphs).
Centered text
Centered text stands out on a page and is often used for titles. The following exercise
steps you through the process of centering the titles on the first page of the Term Paper
document.
Select all 3 Title lines on the first page (down to and including the author's name)
Select the Center Alignment icon in the ruler bar
Click anywhere in the text of the document when you have centered the title lines, then save your work in progress (Ctrl-S)
Choosing fonts
Fonts come in all shapes and sizes, and you probably have at least half a dozen available
on your Windows computer. Times New Roman font comes standard with all Windows
computers, so the text displayed on your screen is almost certainly in this font since the
Term Paper document was saved in this way.
Check this for yourself in the Formatting toolbar (see Fig. 2.4 above)
Times New Roman is a serif font, which means it has serifs.1 Serifs are the small marks
(flourishes) used to complete a letter (Fig. 2.5).
A sans serif font doesn't have these flourishes, as you can see if you look closely at a font
such as Helvetica (Fig. 2.5).
In general, serifs improve readability by increasing the definition of letters. You are
going to practice changing the font of the Term Paper document to any one of those you
have available on your Windows computer. Here are the steps to do this.
From the Edit menu choose Select All to highlight the entire Term Paper document
Select one of the fonts from the Font menu, then click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting
Try this for several different fonts. Each time, check the letters carefully to see what type
of font you chose. Is the font you chose serif or sans serifs? The object of the exercise is
for you to learn how to change fonts and to give you the opportunity to discover the wide
variety of fonts you can use. For the sake of this tutorial, however, you need to return to
Times New Roman font when you are done. This is because there may be variations in
pagination caused by the relative size of fonts, and this may affect the directions for the
rest of the tutorial.
Repeat the steps above (Select All and choose the Times New Roman font) to return the document to the Times New Roman font
Changing the point size of text
The size of fonts is measured in points.
9 point is quite small;
12 point is standard;
1 Sans is French for "without."
36 point is quite large.
The smallest font size is a point size of 4; the largest possible font size is 255. However,
on your computer system you may find you have a narrower range of font sizes. The font
size for the body of the Term Paper document can be left in the default point size for your
computer (probably 10 or 12 point). But it would be interesting to use a larger point size
for the Title lines.
Go to the beginning of the Term Paper document
Highlight the first Title line on the first page: FIRST THINGS FIRST Under the Size menu, select 36
There's a headline for you! Complete this exercise by changing the size of the remaining
Title lines as follows:
Make the second line of the title 24 pt, and make the author's name 18 pt
Inserting Page Breaks
It is often the practice to keep an Abstract on a page by itself. So for this exercise you
need to set a page break at the end of the Abstract.
Position the insertion point cursor at the start of the title line for the section titled “ISTE Foundational skills and concepts” (two thirds of the way down page 1 after the Abstract section)
In the Insert menu select Break...
As you can see, Page Break is selected by default in the Break dialog box. This is what
you want right now.
Click on the OK button to insert the Page Break
In the View menu select Print Layout to best see the effect of the Page Break
Notice that Word moves the text to a new page following the Abstract. Thus the Abstract
will now print on page 1 by itself, following the title lines.
Practice makes perfect
Position the cursor just over half way down the second page of the document at the beginning of the line which reads “It will be useful to examine...” (that’s the line that follows the caption “Table 1 ISTE Foundational teacher skills and concepts”)
Insert a Page Break here too
There are a couple more changes to be made to the table so that it looks like Fig. 2.6.
Scroll back to page 2 if necessary, then highlight the title (Skill or Concept) at the top of the table (drag across it or triple click on it)
Click on the center alignment icon in the Formatting toolbar, make 14 the point size of the Title, and click on the Bold icon (that’s the icon that looks like a big ‘B’) in the Formatting toolbar
Now highlight the caption at the end of the table (Table 1 ISTE Foundational teacher skills and concepts), center it and change its point size to 9
Assuming everything is OK, press Ctrl-S again to save the changes you have made
Spacing before and after paragraphs
Now scroll back to the Table of ISTE Foundational Skills and Concepts on page 2 of the document
Sometimes it’s easier to read a list of items if they are slightly separated one from another
by what is called white space (the parts of a page where there is no text). Let’s do this
next.
Once again, use the mouse and the Shift key to select (highlight) all 13 items in the table (from Demonstrate ability... to Apply computers ...)
Now from the Format menu select Paragraph..., and in the dialog box that pops up on the screen (Fig. 2.7) change the Spacing > Before: to 6 pt, then click on OK
While you still have the table highlighted, change the point size of the text to a point size of 9, then use the mouse to drag the Right margin marker on the right side of the ruler just 2 hash marks to the left (a 1/4” only)
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting, then check the effect of the changes you have just made
In a while you will use the drawing tools to put a box around the table, so this extra 1/4"
of space on the far right side of the table will come in handy. Before proceeding, you’d
better save your work up to this point (Ctrl-s).
Using tabs
Inserting Tab stops
Tabs are very useful for aligning text in columns, as illustrated in Fig. 2.8.
If you have never used Tab stops before, you may find them confusing. The exercise that
follows will help you understand what tabs are all about.
Double click on the File menu to show all the available options in the menu, then select New..., and click on OK to open a new blank document (or just click on the New icon in the Standard toolbar)
Notice the Tab icon button in the Ruler bar towards the top left corner of the screen (Fig.
2.9).
The Tab icon is set by default for left alignment. So if you click anywhere on the small
hash marks along the ruler while this tab icon is selected, a left tab stop will be set at the
spot. Then if you use the Tab key on the keyboard to tab across to that tab, you will be
left aligned on it. You’ll see how this works as you complete the following exercises.
Click once on the Tab icon button in the top left corner of the screen, and you’ll see the icon change to the icon for centering text on the Tab stop (it looks like an upside down ‘T’)
Click again (second time) on the Tab icon button and you’ll see the icon for right alignment on the Tab stop (this tab stop looks like a backwards ‘L’)
Click again (third time) on the Tab icon button and you’ll see the icon for decimal alignment on the Tab stop (this tab stop looks like an upside down ‘T’ with a dot to denote the decimal point)
The Tab stops for the table illustrated in Fig. 2.8 are shown in Fig. 2.10.
Your task is to reproduce the table illustrated in Fig. 2.8. You’ll need to begin by setting
the four Tab stops as they are illustrated in Fig. 2.10.
Click on the Tab icon to select each tab in turn (left, then center, then right, then the decimal alignment tab) and click on the ruler at the appropriate hash mark (1”, 2.5”, 4”, 5”) to put the tab there as per Fig. 2.12 above
Now, with the Tab stops in place, hit the Tab key to move the cursor across to the first tab, and enter the first name in the table
Hit the Tab key again, and enter the class that goes with the first name (notice how it is centered on the Tab stop as you type it)
Hit the Tab key again, and enter the age that goes with the first name (notice how it is right aligned on the Tab stop)
Hit the Tab key again, and enter the donation that goes with the first name (notice how the dollar amount is aligned on the decimal point)
Continue in this way until you have entered all three lines of data in the table
By the time you are done entering all the data you should have a good idea how the Tab
stops work.
Removing Tab stops
To remove a Tab stop, just use the mouse to drag the Tab stop down off the ruler. When
you release the mouse button the Tab stop will be gone.
Try this for yourself by dragging one or two of the tab stops down off the ruler, then Close the document and Don’t Save it; you no longer need it
Selecting the style of text
When writing, it is often important to draw attention to certain words or phrases by
adding emphasis to them. This can be accomplished by boldfacing, italicizing, or
underlining the text. These options are available from the appropriate icons in the
Formatting toolbar.
Boldface
Titles should stand out on a page. Increasing the size certainly helps. Using all capital
(uppercase) letters can also add emphasis and draw the eye of the reader. You have
applied both of these techniques to the Titles at the top of the first page. The three section
headers that run through the paper (Abstract, ISTE Foundational Skills and Concepts, and
References) could be improved.
Take each section header one by one, starting with Abstract, and apply boldfacing to
each of them. Here are the steps to boldface the word Abstract. Once you are done with
that, you can boldface the rest of the section headers as an exercise.
Locate the section header Abstract (just the one word that is the title for the section) and highlight it (by double clicking on the word), then click on the Boldface button in the Formatting toolbar
There is also a keyboard short cut for applying boldface which you might like to use to
boldface the other section headers. The command is Ctrl-B.
Now apply boldface to the two other section headers (ISTE Foundational Skills & Concepts on page 2 and References on page 5)
Boldface, on pages 3 through 5, each of the numbered concepts and skills that begin each section
Underline
On page 2 of the Term Paper document (the page after the Abstract) there is the table of
the 13 ISTE Foundational teacher skills and concepts. Following this table, on pages 3
through 5, each skill or concept is taken one by one for further explanation.
Your task is to underline just the skill or concept at the beginning of each of the sections on pages 3 through 5 ahead of where that skill or concept is explained. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to do the first one, then you can complete the rest by yourself.
Scroll down to the beginning of page 3 and put the cursor immediately before the word "Teachers..." (after the number "1.")
Now hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the next line after the words “...utilize software."
Click on the Underline button in the Formatting toolbar (or just press Ctrl-U)
That's all there is to it. Go ahead now and underline the other 12 skill or concept section
titles after you adjust the indent so it’s a Hanging Indent.
Italics
Your next task is to italicize the author's name on the first page. You can probably figure
this out for yourself, but just in case you need help, here are the steps.
Select the author's name under the title on the first page and click on the Italics button in the Formatting toolbar (or press Ctrl-I)
Setting the spacing between lines
Papers may be printed with variable spacing between lines. The following steps show
you how to do this in Word.
From the Edit menu choose Select All (or press Ctrl-a)
From the Format menu select Paragraph... to bring up the Paragraph dialog box (Fig. 2.11)
In the box for Line spacing: select Double
Notice how the small window at the bottom of the dialog box shows the effect of your
change, so you can check that it looks OK before committing to it for your paper.
Notice, too, how the line spacing increases by degrees. Your document was set in single spacing when you loaded it from the disk. Double spacing is required for many word processing documents and now you know how to do this using Word.
For the sake of this exercise, however, return the document to single spacing so that there are not too many pages to print out at the end of the tutorial
Now press Ctrl-S to save your work to date
2.3 CUSTOMIZING BULLETS AND NUMBERED LISTS
Numbered lists
For the next exercise you are going to use the Word Paragraph Styles to number each of
the items in the Table of ISTE Foundational Teacher Skills and Concepts on page 2 of
the Term Paper document.
Begin by selecting (highlighting) the contents of the ISTE table on page 2, not including the centered Table Title (Skill or Concept) at the top, or the centered caption (Table 1 ISTE....) at the bottom
Now click on the Numbering button in the Formatting toolbar (Fig. 2.12)
numbers stand out and are easy to see.
You can use any of several other numbering and bullet styles. You can also start the
numbering from a number other than 1. You would need to do this, for example, if you
broke up a numbered list into two sections with unnumbered text in between. Here’s how
you do this.
From the Format menu select Bullets and Numbering... (Fig. 2.13)
This will bring up a new dialog box (Fig. 2.14) where you can make any changes you
want to the numbered list settings.
Bulleted lists
If you wanted a different style of numbering, or if you wanted bullets instead of numbers,
or an outline style, you’d select Bullets and Numbering... from the Format menu, and
click on whatever style you wanted. In the Bullets and Numbering dialog box (Fig. 2.13
on previous page), you can select either a Bulleted list, a Numbered list, an Outline
Numbered list, or the List Styles tab to choose from a variety of different styles for your
layout of listed items.
Designing your own bullets
You can even design your own bullets! Here's how you do this.
Make sure the ISTE table on page 2 of the Term Paper document is still selected/highlighted
From the Format menu select Bullets and Numbering
Click on the Bulleted tab and click Customize…
This brings up the Customize Bulleted List dialog box (Fig. 2.15).
customize bullets with pictures of your own. Let's check this out.
Click on the Font… button and check out the options for fonts, styles, size, color, and so forth
Click on OK when you're done
You also can select from a large set of characters for your bullets.
Click on the Character… button to check out this option, then click on OK when you're done
Finally, you can use any picture of your choice for a bulleted list.
Click on the Picture… button to bring up the Picture Bullet dialog box (Fig. 2.16)
Scroll down and check out the nice selection of pre-designed bullets
If you wanted to design your own bullets by using a picture, you'd need to have a picture
that you have selected and that you have already saved on disk. For this exercise you'll
use one that you'll find on your Work Disk, which should already be in the disk drive.
Click on the Import... button at the bottom left of the Picture Bullet dialog box
Now you're prompted in the dialog box to locate the picture you want to use.
From the Practice folder on your Work Disk open the file named Teacher bullet
Notice that the teacher bullet picture has been added to the set of custom picture bullets
from which you can select the one you want for any particular list.
Double click on the Teacher bullet picture to select it, then click on OK
You can add as many custom bullets as you want. For example, if you were teaching a
lesson about amphibians, you could use a picture of a frog or a crocodile as bullets on a
handout. Be sure to show your students how to do this, too. The only limit on what you
can do is your creative imagination. Lesson 3 will give you the opportunity to learn how
to use the Office Drawing Tools. These tools are invaluable for creating images of all
kinds and for any purpose, such as creating customized bullets.
OK. The ISTE Table should now be starting to look more like a table! Later, in Section 2.6, you’ll put a border around the table so it sets off nicely from the rest of the text.
2.4 INDENTING TEXT
Adjusting (moving) the Indent Markers
Indenting refers to the situation where one line or several lines of a paragraph are set in
from the rest of the paragraph. This is best accomplished in Word using the indent
markers on the ruler at the top of the screen (Fig. 2.17).
You were introduced to these markers in Lesson 1 when you adjusted the left margin for
the address and the conclusion of the Conference Call letter.
You also may recall that there are three indent markers one above the other, as illustrated
in Fig. 2.17. The First Line Indent marker is on top, the Hanging Indent marker is in the
middle, and the Left Indent marker is on the bottom—the small box on which the other
indent markers sit.
Carefully examine Fig. 2.17 to clearly identify each marker before moving on
Before you go on, remember that the tip of the mouse arrow is the hot spot. Moving the small indent markers is a precise task, so be sure to position the tip of the mouse arrow on the marker you want to move.
When you drag on the small box (the Left Indent marker) all the markers move together.
Right now the markers are all set at the same 0" hash mark on the ruler.
You are going to change the left and right margins for the Table of ISTE Foundational teacher skills and concepts which should still be on your screen from the previous exercise (page 2 of the Term Paper document).
Click to put the cursor right before the word Demonstrate at the start of the first item in the table
Now hold down the Shift key while you click at the end of the table, after the word educator.
The whole table should now be selected (not including the title –Skill or Concept" or the
caption at the bottom of the table).
Carefully point the mouse so the tip is on the Left Indent marker and drag it across to the right till it’s on the ¾” hash mark (that’s 2 hash marks before 1”)
Next, use the mouse to grab the Right Indent marker and slide it to the left to the 6” hash mark on the ruler
Last, click anywhere outside the table to remove the highlighting (deselect it)
We’ll do some more work on the table later in the tutorial. For now, let’s concentrate
further on these indent markers.
Hanging Indents
The indent markers can also be set independently for two types of indents. First, there is
the traditional indent commonly used for the first line of paragraphs—where you set the
margin for the first line in a few spaces from the rest of the paragraph (Fig. 2.18A).
Second, there is the indentation for lists such as bibliographies or itemized data—where
you set the margin for the first line back a few spaces from the rest of the paragraph.
Word refers to these indents as "hanging indents," because the lines that follow look as if
they are hanging off the first line (Fig. 2.18B).
types of indent markers.
Indenting the first line of paragraphs
Right now in the Term Paper document it is difficult to tell where one paragraph ends
and another begins. Let’s indent the first line of the paragraphs in the Abstract so you can
see what a difference this simple change makes.
Click at the beginning of the first line of the first paragraph of the Abstract (on the next line after the Abstract header) on page 1, hold down the Shift key and click again at the end of the Abstract (to highlight all the Abstract text)
Now position the tip of the mouse arrow on the First Line Indent marker (the upper marker) on the left side of the ruler (Fig. 2.17 above)
Hold down the mouse button and drag this First Line Indent marker across half an inch (to the ½" hash mark)
When you let go of the mouse button notice how Word indents only the first line of the
paragraphs, and adjusts the rest of the paragraphs in the Abstract to accommodate the
first line indentation. This makes it easier to tell where one paragraph begins and another
ends.
Pages 3 through 5 of the Term Paper document are composed of 13 numbered sections which further discuss each of the skills or concepts in the Table on page 2. In this next exercise, you're going to indent the first line of all the paragraphs on pages 3 through 5, except for the numbered one or two-line skills or concepts that start each of the 13 sections on these pages.
Practice now by changing the First Line Indent for all the paragraphs on pages 3 through 5 of the Term Paper document—NOT including the numbered one or two-line skills or concepts that start each of the 13 sections on these pages (for example, DON'T indent the
numbered line that begins 1. Demonstrate an ability…., but DO indent the paragraph(s) that immediately follow it up to the next numbered item, and so on
This task won't take you long, though you are probably thinking to yourself that it would
have been a good idea to set the First Line Indent marker before the document was typed
in the first place!
When you are done with this exercise, save the work you’ve done to this point (ctrl-s)
Using hanging indents to set off text
There are many occasions when it is useful to indent parts of your text using hanging
indents. This is where the second and subsequent lines of a section of text are indented.
For example, you may want to make a list of points with a "bullet" at the beginning of
each one, like this:
· Don't sign up to use the computer until you have carefully planned what
you want to do!
or like this:
Ø Don't forget to clean your teeth and make your bed after you've had your
breakfast every morning!
Bulleted and numbered text is easy to do these days because the bulleting and numbering
is built into the software, as we'll see in a little bit. Hanging indents also are used when
you write a paper that includes a list of sources cited, like this:
Poole, Bernard John. Education for an Information Age: Teaching in the Computerized Classroom…
So it's good to know how to use the indent markers to create hanging indents. Let’s
practice using hanging indents now.
Scroll down to the end of the Term Paper document
Notice that indentation has not been used for the References section, which makes it a
little difficult to determine where one reference ends and another begins. So your next
task is to tell Word to use hanging indents to indent this section of the paper.
Highlight all the references by clicking at the beginning of the first reference (not the References header), then hold down the Shift key and click again after the last reference
Position the tip of the mouse arrow on the Hanging Indent marker (the lower of the two triangular-shaped markers), and drag this Hanging Indent marker across half an inch to the right, then let go of the mouse button
When you let go of the mouse button the References section will be adjusted and should
now look like Fig. 2.18B. Notice how the references are nicely indented after the first
line. That's just the way it should be.
For reinforcement, work your way once again through pages 3 through 5, putting a Hanging Indent for each of the thirteen numbered items (just the one or two line sentences that begin with a number 1-13)—make the indent ¼” (just two hash marks)
2.5 CREATING SECTIONS AND COLUMNS OF TEXT
Columns are often useful for documents such as class newsletters. Reducing the width of
lines of text can make for easier reading. In the exercise that follows, you will create a
two column section within the Term Paper document.
Position the insertion point cursor at the top of page 3
From the Insert menu select Break... to show the dialog box (Fig. 2.19)
we already inserted a page break at this point in the document. We want to insert a
Section break for a new section of the paper without the need to go to a new page. This is
called a Continuous Section break.
In the Break dialog box, click on the Continuous button to tell Word to stay on the same page for the new section, then click on OK
Next, from the Standard toolbar click on the Columns icon (Fig. 2.20) and drag the mouse to select 2 columns from the pop up menu
Scroll down through the document to take a look at the difference this makes
Notice that everything from page 3 on is now in 2 column format. If you had not used the
section break, your whole document (Titles and all) would have been in two column
format. The section break thus allows you to specify exactly which sections of text you
want adjusted in which way. If you needed different formatting for various parts of a
document you would do so by inserting a section break before AND after each of the
sections involved. The Skill Consolidation exercises at the end of this lesson will
provide you with an opportunity to practice this and other more advanced word
processing features.
2.6 FINDING AND REPLACING TEXT
It is surprising how often this Find and Replace function comes in handy when you are
working with large documents. You want to find each place in the document where a
certain word or phrase is used. Or you want to jump quickly to a certain page because
you have to rewrite something or insert a sentence. You could scan through visually, and
you would eventually find what you want. However, this takes time and there is always
the possibility that you might miss the text in question on a first or second pass. The
Word Find function will swiftly and unerringly locate anything you are looking for.
Finding a text string
When you are using computers, a character is anything that you type at the keyboard (including numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks). A sequence of characters is often referred to as a "string" in computerese. In this sense a word is no different from a phrase as far as a computer is concerned; both are strings—sequences of characters.
A point to ponder before you proceed
You are going to add a sentence to the Term Paper document. The proposed new
This is so important if teachers are to succeed in the technology-integrated classrooms of tomorrow.
sentence is as follows:
The new sentence is to go immediately after the phrase: "...teach in the modern
computerized classroom."
Here are the steps to quickly add this sentence in the specified location in the document. It is often easiest to start a search at the beginning of the document if you are not absolutely sure where the text you want to find occurs.
In case you are not already there, use the scroll bar to scroll to the top of the first page of the paper
Place the insertion point cursor immediately ahead of the title FIRST THINGS FIRST at the top of the paper
Press Ctrl-F to activate the Find function (or in the Edit menu select Find...)
Word now displays the Find and Replace dialog box on the screen (Fig. 2.21).
Before selecting and entering the string of text for a search, you should take a moment to
think. The phrase that marks the point of insertion ("...teach in the modern computerized classroom.") begins with a small letter, so you want the search to be case sensitive (more computerese!). In other words, you want to tell Word to match upper and lower case letters exactly.
In the Find and Replace dialog box, click on the More button
This will reveal the expanded set of options for the Find and Replace function (Fig. 2.22).
Now select the box next to Match case
Notice the options in the pop up menu for the direction of the search (Fig. 2.22).
Select All in the pop up menu to tell Word to search the whole document for the text string
Word is now waiting for you to enter the text for the search.
You want to be sure to find the point of insertion as quickly as possible, so you should try to give Word sufficient text on which to base the search such that the insertion point will be located immediately. In other words, you ideally want the string of characters that make up the text to be unique.
This is the most important part of using the Find and Replace function. The word "teach" may occur several times in the paper. To make sure the phrase is unique, you had better type "teach in the modern computerized classroom." as your search text, though you might get away with a shorter string, such as "teach in the modern".
Type teach in the modern computerized classroom. (including the period) in the data entry box at the bottom of the screen, then click on Find Next
Immediately Word scans the text and stops when it finds the string of characters that
matches the text you specified for the search. This string of characters is highlighted on
the screen.
If you mis-typed the search text so that Word is unable to find it, the search will
conclude with a warning beep. A new dialog box (Fig. 2.23) will indicate that the text
was "not found".
Once the search is successful, click on the Cancel button because you do not want to
change the search text in order to insert a new sentence. All you want to do is locate the
place where the new sentence is to go.
Notice that the text you have been looking for is still selected (highlighted). You want
to insert the new sentence immediately after the highlighted text string that Word has
found for you.
Click immediately after the highlighted text (after the period)
This will put the insertion point at the end of "...teach in the modern computerized classroom."
Press the space bar twice in order to space after the period, then type the new sentence: Teachers cannot be expected to use computer-based learning systems effectively unless they acquire these skills and assimilate these concepts.
Read it over to check for errors, then select Save from the File menu to save the changes you have made so far
Replacing a single occurrence of a text string
For example, suppose you have just finished typing the Term Paper document into the
word processor and saved it on your Data Disk. You run off a draft copy on the printer so
that you can review it before producing a finished version. You read through the paper.
Amongst other edits, you decide to change the phrase "skills and concepts," which occurs
throughout the paper, with the words "concepts and skills."
You could use the arrow keys, and your eyes, to visually scan through the text on the
screen until you find each occurrence of "skills and concepts" and, each time you find it,
change the phrase to "concepts and skills." But this might take some time, and you will
be likely to miss some of the changes.
Alternatively, you could use the Replace option to locate each occurrence of "skills and concepts" and change it to "concepts and skills." Follow these steps to use this function now.
Scroll to the top of the document and position the cursor at the beginning of the first line
Press Ctrl-h or, from the Edit menu, select Replace... (you’ll need to click on the down arrows just below Find... to see the Replace... menu item)
Word presents the Find and Replace dialog box with the Replace tab selected in the set of
index options (Fig. 2.24).
Word goes to work and highlights the first occurrence of "skills and concepts". If you
cannot see this highlighted phrase on your screen, it may be because the Find and
Replace window is covering it. You can move the window around on the screen by
dragging on the name bar at the top of the window (the blue bar at the top of the dialog
box).
Try this now to make sure you can see the highlighted phrase you are looking for
The basic options available to you in the Find and Replace dialog box are as follows.
You can:
- Replace All occurrences of the search text in the entire document;
- Replace only that occurrence of the search text;
- or, simply Find the Next occurrence of the search string without changing
anything.
As you can see, you can select more options by clicking on the More button in the lower
right corner of the dialog box.
Click on the More button now, then for the Search option check to see that All (the default) is indeed selected
As a rule of thumb, you should be wary of telling Word to Replace All occurrences
unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. It is surprising how easy it
is to specify a string of characters that turns out to be imprecise. Telling Word to replace
all occurrences might result in your document being peppered with unwanted changes. So
be careful!
Suppose, for example, you told Word to correct a misspelling where you spelled
receive with the "i" before the "e" ("recieve"). You specify "ie" as the search text, and
innocently tell Word to replace all occurrences of "ie" with "ei". Well, in the Term Paper
document the character sequence "ie" occurs many times in all kinds of innocent words
(technologies, belief, etc.)!
Should they all be replaced with "ei"? Clearly not.
So you have to be careful to specify the search text that will get you the result you want.
In our hypothetical case you would type the whole incorrectly spelled word "recieve."
Then you could safely tell Word to replace all occurrences of it with the correctly spelled
version.
In our example, the search string (skills and concepts) is sufficiently unique for you
to go ahead and Replace All occurrences.
Click on the Replace All button
Word may take a few seconds to make the changes, depending on how fast your
Windows computer is. At the end of the processing you will see a window telling you
how many occurrences of the search string were replaced. How many were there? There
should have been 8.
Close the Find and Replace dialog box then press Ctrl-s to save the changes you have made
In the course of completing this exercise you may have noticed a few errors in the text.
Later you will use the Spelling and Grammar feature to clean up the document. The more
you use the word processor, the more you will appreciate the power of simple functions
such as those you have just learned. The best, however, is yet to come.
2.7 MOVING AND COPYING TEXT WITHIN A DOCUMENT
In Lesson 1, you learned to appreciate the power of a word processor as a tool for writing
because of the ease with which you can edit your work. Now you will learn how to move
sections of text from one place to another within a document.
The ability to move text is crucial to the process of successful writing. Using a
traditional typewriter, you would be lucky if you could get away with doing this by using
a pair of scissors and literally cutting and pasting your document onto new sheets of
paper in the sequence that you required. More often than not you might have to re-type
the whole document.
The word processor, on the other hand, makes moving text simple and fast. You can
manipulate the text at will, trying ideas on the fly, and saving different versions until you
home in on the one best version that makes the desired impact.
Moving text within a document
As with all the functions of Word, the steps involved in moving text within a document
are simple enough. In the Term Paper document you are going to move a paragraph from
one place to another in the document. Here are the steps to do this.
Once again, make sure the cursor is positioned at the top of the paper
Use the Find function (Ctrl-f) to locate the phrase: Training is thus important, then click in the close box of the Find and Replace dialog box
The next step can be tricky for beginners, so don't be surprised if you have to try it a
couple of times before you get it right.
Click to position the insertion point cursor immediately before the word "Training"
Scroll down if necessary so you can see the rest of the paragraph, then hold down the Shift Key, and keep it down, while you click at the end of the paragraph
This will highlight all dozen or so lines of the paragraph. Now that the passage is selected
(highlighted) you must cut it to the clipboard.2
Press Ctrl-x (or from the Edit menu select Cut)
Cutting text removes the selected text from the document and transfers it to the clipboard.
Once it is on the clipboard you can move it anywhere you want, either within the same
document, or to some other document altogether.
You want to paste the "Training is thus..." paragraph (currently on the clipboard)
right at the very end of the paper, immediately after the last paragraph, and before the
References section.
Scroll to the end of the document and locate the phrase: References
Click to position the insertion point cursor on the blank line immediately above the word References
Press Ctrl-v (or from the Edit menu select Paste), then hit the Enter key once to space down before the References section
Word completes the paste process in no time at all by pasting the section from the
clipboard back into the document at the insertion point. Now you have a strong
concluding statement before your References are listed. You have just one small task
before moving on with the tutorial. You need to indent the first line of the paragraph you
just moved.
Indent the first line of this moved paragraph ½”
Use the vertical scroll bar to scan back through the relevant sections of the paper to make
sure that the move was correctly carried out. Did you successfully move the entire
paragraph? If you are satisfied that all is well, press Ctrl-s again to save the changes you
have made thus far.
Copying text within a document
The process of copying text is almost identical to that of moving text. You select the
section of text you want to copy in the same way as you did when you cut text in the
previous exercise. But now you will have Word paste a duplicate of it somewhere else in
the document, leaving the original text where it is.
2 Recall that if you click on the right mouse button, Word will bring up a working menu which will allow you to conveniently access the cut and paste functions.
For example, let us say you want to copy the title lines of the paper so that they occur
not only at the top of the first page but also at the top of the second page (after the
Abstract). The title lines include the two title lines followed by the author's name. Follow
these steps to place a copy of the title lines at the top of page two
Position the insertion point at the top of the paper
Hold down the Shift key while you click on the blank line after the author's name
Press Ctrl-c to copy the selected text to the clipboard
Notice that the original text is still in place—you haven't cut it from the document. All
you have done is transfer a copy of the text to the clipboard.
Now scroll if necessary to the top of the second page of the document and click to position the cursor at the top of this second page
This is the beginning of the first section of the paper proper.
Press Ctrl-v to paste the title lines from the clipboard
Word instantly makes a copy of the titles where the insertion point cursor is located.
Press Enter 3 times to space down after the title lines
Use the scroll bar, if necessary, to quickly check that the copy operation was successfully carried out
2.8 SETTING OFF A BLOCK OF TEXT WITH A BORDER
Sometimes, for emphasis or effect, it looks professional to set off a section of a document
with a border or a box. You are going to do this to the Table of ISTE Foundational
Teacher Concepts and Skills on the second page of the document. It will end up looking
like Fig. 2.25.
Start by making room for the box to go around the table. You already adjusted the right
margin by moving the margin marker in 2 hash marks. The same thing happened on the
left when you made the table a Numbered List. So all you have to do now is push the
caption at the bottom of the table down a tad.
Click to put the cursor at the beginning of the caption (before the word Table) and press Enter
Now you have room to put the box around the table.
First, click immediately before the word “Demonstrate...” in item #1 in the Table, then hold down the shift key and click at the end of the last item in the table in order to select all 13 items
Fig. 2.26 shows the Outside Border tool in the Formatting toolbar for putting a border
around selected text. You are going to put a box around the ISTE table which is already
selected on your screen.
Click on the Outside Border tool to put the box around the selected ISTE table
Better save that work again (Ctrl-s)
2.9 USING THE SPELLING CHECKER
Now would be a good time to check the document for spelling errors and other typos.
This will be reinforcement of what you have learned in Lesson 1.
As you may have noticed already, there are a few errors that have been intentionally
introduced into the document you have been working on. Before you begin checking for
errors, remember that a spelling checker is
1. only as good as the person using it;
2. unable to pick up grammar or word choice errors (where the word "to" may have
been typed, when "too" or "two" was intended);
3. may find a misspelling when there is none (such as an abbreviation it doesn't
recognize, or two words run together and a space is needed).
You may already have had the experience where you have corrected a student's spelling
only to have the student retort: "But I ran it through the spelling checker!!" Be sure, of
course, that you know how to spell the word in question yourself. Then, assuming you
are right, take advantage of the situation to tell your student that a computer is just a
dumb machine—depending on us for its intelligent use.
Since the Spelling Checker is only as good as you are, you would be wise to always
have a good dictionary at hand, as every good teacher knows. Get into the habit of always
looking up words that you come across in reading and that are new to you.
This will be the case when you are checking the spelling of the Term Paper document. There are quite a few important technical terms in the document that you may not have come across before. Some of them may not be in the Word dictionary. Does this mean you can't check them? Of course not. Look them up in your personal dictionary or in a text book so as to extend your word power. Make this a lifelong task.
Time to go ahead and run the document through the Spelling Checker.
First put the cursor at the beginning of the Term Paper document
In the Tools menu select Spelling and Grammar...
For each word that is highlighted, choose whether to Ignore (the suggested error), Ignore All (further occurrences of the same word), Add (the word to the dictionary), Change (the word to a suggested alternative or to the correctly spelled version), or Change All (including further occurrences of the same word)
Press Ctrl-s to save the corrected document after you have completed the spelling check
2.10 WRAPPING TEXT AROUND A PICTURE OR IMAGE
For publications such as class news bulletins or magazines, you will often want to
include pictures or images in amongst the text—maybe photos of students, or examples
of their art work, or photos of activities the students have been engaged in, or photos or
charts they've made themselves as part of a project. Sometimes you may want to "wrap"
the text around the images. The following is an exercise which will show you how to do
this.
Position the cursor at the beginning of the first line of the Abstract on page 1 of the Term Paper document
Hit the Del(ete) key to remove the first letter of the sentence (the "T") From the Insert menu, select Picture > From File…
Select your Work Disk from the dialog box and, from the Alphabet folder, open the image file for the letter "T"
Immediately, you should see the image of the "T" at the position of the cursor. But it still
needs to have the text wrapped around it. This is easy enough to do when you know how.
Right click on the image of the letter of the alphabet and, from the pop up menu, select Show Picture toolbar
A new toolbar called the Picture toolbar (Fig. 2.27) pops up on the screen.
That's it! The first letter of the Abstract is now neatly integrated with the text and adds a
touch of interest to the page.
Now it's your turn.
Remove the First line indent from the first paragraph of each of the sections on pages 3 through 5 that discuss the 13 ISTE Teacher Skills and Concepts—NOT the numbered lines— Fig. 2.28 shows you what this exercise requires
Printing the document
When you are ready3, print out a draft copy of the entire document. If you are using a dot
matrix printer or an inkjet or bubble printer, this will mean setting up the printer to print
in draft mode. If you are using a laser printer you don't have to worry about draft mode.
Carefully proofread the printed copy of the paper. Have a dictionary handy. Any words you don't understand, look them up; extend your vocabulary. Use a pen with some color other than black to correct any errors you spot that were not picked up by the spelling checker. Go back to the Word document, correct any errors you find, save the document again, and print a final letter-quality ("Best") version to present to your instructor.
