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Lesson 2: Creating a Letter to Learn about Microsoft Word
There are many, many features in Microsoft Word and learning about each one individually would be very time-consuming and perhaps even boring. Therefore, in order to make this lesson more interesting, we are going to create a letter using some of the most common Word features. It is suggested that you do the Practice by following along with this lesson. Specific instructions to help you create your own letter will follow the word "Practice" in each section. If you need to quit in the middle of the lesson, save your work before you close the Word application. When you are ready to resume the lesson, open your letter document and continue where you left off. Do not skip any steps!
We will use these steps to create our letter:
| 1. | Open Microsoft Word. |
| 2. | Save the document initially and then save often as you work on it.. |
| 3. | Change the page setup/margins. |
| 4. | Set the tabs. |
| 5. | Set the line spacing. |
| 6. | Set the page alignment. |
| 7. | Automatically insert the current date. |
| 8. | Insert AutoText. |
| 9. | Insert the text. |
| 10. | Undo and Redo. |
| 11. | Copy and paste text. |
| 12. | Insert the closing line. |
| 13. | Type the signature line. |
| 14. | Check the spelling. |
| 15. | Use Print Preview. |
| 16. | Print the letter. |
| 17. | Save the letter and close Microsoft Word. |
The first step is to open Word: Open the Start Menu, go to the Programs submenu (All Programs on Windows XP), and select Microsoft Word. If Microsoft Word is not listed, look for a Microsoft Office submenu and see if Word is listed there. If Word still cannot be found, either ask your teacher or perform a search using the Windows Search feature (located on the Start Menu).
Practice: Follow the above instructions to open Microsoft Word.
Step 2: Save the document initially and then save often as you work on it.
It is very important to save your work. If there is a power loss, any work that has not been saved will be LOST! Any unsaved work would have to be re-created after a power loss, so it's important to get into the habit of saving often.
There are two ways to save a Word document. The first way is through the File menu and the second is with the Save toolbar button.
To save using the File menu, simply open the File menu and select Save. (You can also select Save As if you want to; they perform the same task when you save a document for the first time.)
This will open the Save As dialog box. Simply navigate to the location on the computer where you want to save the letter (click on the arrow next to the selection in the "Save In" drop-down box and select a location, double-clicking on folders in the main section to open them if you need to), give the letter a name (in the "File Name" text box), and then click the Save button.
To save using the toolbar button, just click once on it:
Again, the Save As dialog box will appear. Navigate to the location on the computer where you want to save the letter, give the document a name, and click the Save button.
After you have saved a document for the first time, you only need to click on the Save toolbar button (or open the File menu and select Save - not Save As) to continue saving as you work. Click on the Save toolbar button every few minutes as you work on the document. If you want to save the document under a different name, open the File menu and select Save As. Again, navigate to the location on the computer where you want to save the document then give it a new name and click the Save button. After using Save As, the document will be saved under that new name every time you save it from then on.
Practice: Open the File menu and select Save. Change the location of the document to Desktop and type My Letter as the name of the document. (If there is a document already there with that name, type a number after the name such as 2 or 3. For example: My Letter 2.) Click on the Save button.
NOTE: Word documents are saved with the .doc file name extension. If ".doc" is part of the name of your document in the "File Name" section of the Save As dialog box, do not change that part of the name. (For more information on file name extensions, see the Definitions in this program and/or "I Can Teach Myself! Learning the Computer" Intermediate lesson number 3, "File Name Extensions.")
Step 3: Change the Page Setup/Margins.
Page Setup is where you set the margins for your document, and where you decide which direction the document will print on the paper. To open the Page Setup dialog box, open the File menu and select Page Setup.
This will bring up a Page Setup dialog box similar to one of these:
Page orientation is the way the document is printed on the paper. If you look at the picture directly above, you can see two small graphics under the word Orientation. One graphic shows the letter "A" on a piece of paper that is up and down, which is called Portrait. The second graphic shows the letter "A" on a piece of paper that is sideways, which is called Landscape. To choose a page orientation, click on the graphic or on the button next to the page orientation type, depending on your version of Microsoft Word. (NOTE: Some versions of Microsoft Word have the Page Orientation options in the Margins tab section while other versions have it in the Paper tab section. Click on the tab names until you find the Page Orientation options.)
To change the margins, just make sure you are in the Margins tab section (click on the name "Margins"), then highlight the numbers that are in the top, bottom, left and right margin boxes and type your new margins numbers. (NOTE: Your margins may or may not be in inches, depending on your computer's settings.)
To change the paper size, click on the tab named Paper or Paper Size, then click the arrow for the drop-down box next to the word "Size" in the Paper section and choose the correct paper size.
NOTE: There are other Page Setup features that will not be covered in this lesson.
After you have made changes to the Page Setup dialog box, click the OK button to apply the changes to your document. If the margins you changed will not fit on the type of paper selected, a message box will appear similar to the one pictured below. Click the Fix button to automatically fix the problem or click the Ignore button to keep the margins the same. If you click Ignore, however, your document may not print correctly.
For our letter, we are going to make the margins one inch in all four directions, and print in the Portrait page orientation.
Practice: Open the File menu and select Page Setup. Make sure you are in the Margins tab section by clicking on the word Margins at the top of the dialog box. Check to see if the margins are in inches (if they are, it will say "Margins (inches)" or there will be a " after each number). If the margins are in inches, change the top, bottom, left and right margins to 1. If the margins are not in inches, leave them as they are. In the Orientation section of the dialog box (in either the Margins or Paper tab sections), make sure the Portrait graphic or Portrait option button is selected. Click on the OK button to save the Page Setup changes. Click on the Save toolbar button (or open the File menu and select Save) to save these changes to your letter.
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