Objectives
Tips
Creating, Designing, Saving, and Opening a Document
-
Click on the word "Start," scroll up to "Programs," slide
over to "Microsoft Office," and click on "Microsoft Word."
-
In the upper-left corner of the screen, you will see a blinking
vertical line, which is called a "cursor."
To type a draft of a paper, simply begin typing.
-
As soon as you have typed one word, you should save
your document. When you save a document, you tell the computer to store
the information that you have typed, either on a diskette or on the hard
drive. If you are working in a lab, you will want to save your document
on a diskette. Put a diskette in the disk drive, click on "File," and slide
down to "Save." A dialog box will appear. Type a name for your document.
Select the "a" drive. Click "OK." From time to time, you should save your
work to make sure that you don't lose something.
-
To adjust the margins, click on "File" and then on
"Page Setup." Type the number of inches you want each margin to be. For
example, if you want the left margin to be one and a half inches, type
"1.5" in the box next to the word "Left." Click "OK."
-
To add page numbers, click on "View" and then on "Header/Footer."
A dialog box will appear. Press the tab key twice. Type your name and a
space; then click on "#." Finally, click on the word "Close."
-
Before you leave the computer lab, make sure that you can open
the document that you just saved. While you still are in Word, click on
"File" and slide down to "Open." In the dialog box that appears, select
the "a" drive, click on the name of your document, and click on "Open."
-
To quit, click on "File" and slide down to "Exit."
Cut, Copy, and Paste
-
You can save yourself many hours of typing and ensure accuracy
if you know how to cut and paste,
which is a way to move material--such as a word or even several paragraphs--from
one place in a document to another, from one document to another, or even
from a file in one kind of software to another kind of software. Begin
by highlighting the words, phrases,
or paragraphs that you want to move. You can highlight this material in
one of two ways: If the material is a paragraph or less, place your cursor
at the beginning of the material, press and hold down the left button on
the mouse, and drag the cursor over the material you want to highlight;
when you reach the end of this material, let up on the mouse button. If
the material that you want to move is more than a paragraph, place your
cursor at the beginning of the material and simply click the left button
on the mouse; without holding down the button, move your cursor to the
end of the material--you may need to scroll down the document--and, while
holding down the shift key on the keyboard, click the left button on the
mouse. In either case, the material that you have highlighted should appear
as white words on a colored background.
-
If you want to move this material without leaving something
behind, click on "Edit" at the top of the screen and then on "Cut."
-
If you want to copy the material--leaving it here while also
placing the same material someplace else--click on "Edit" at the top of
the screen and then on "Cut."
-
To paste this material, simply move your cursor to the place
where you want to move the material--either in the same document or in
a different document--click, click on "Edit" at the top of the screen,
and then click on "Paste." The material that you highlighted earlier now
will appear in the new place.
Outline
-
Starting: Click on "View" and then on "Outline." A
small rectangle will appear in the upper left part of your screen. You
now are in the outline function, which allows you to input and organize
information very easily.
-
Creating a point: Next to the rectangle in the upper
left part of the screen, type "Introduction" and press the "Enter" key.Another
rectangle will appear below the first one.
-
Demoting a point: Under "Introduction," type your
claim. To demote this point--in other words, to make it a minor point in
the introduction section of your outline--click on the right-hand arrow
in the upper-left corner of the screen. You should see your claim move
to the right. Press "Enter."
-
Promoting a point: To promote the current point--in
other words, to make it another major point on your outline--click on the
left-hand arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen. Now, type "Background"
and press "Enter." Type a word or phrase referring to each major point
in your argument, pressing "Enter" after each.
-
Moving a point: To move a point up or down in your
outline, place your cursor in the point and click on the up or down arrow
in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Editing
-
To use the spell check function in WordPerfect, place
your cursor in front of the first word of your document. Click on "Tools"
and scroll down to "Spelling and Grammar." The computer will point out
words that appear to be misspelled. Remember to proofread a hard copy of
your paper, as well. Spell check will not catch misspellings such as "their"
for "there."
-
To find a word or phrase in a document that you have
typed, click on "Edit" and then on "Find." In the dialog box that appears,
type the word or phrase you wish to find and click on "Find."
-
To make comments on a paper--in a draft workshop, for example--highlight
the word or phrase on which you want to comment. Click on "Insert" and
drag down to "Comment." When a dialog box appears, type your comment and
click on "Close." The material you highlighted now will appear in yellow.
To see the comment, place your cursor over the yellow portion.
|
Terms
Resources
Techweb:
In addition to features current on technology and an online encyclopedia
of computer terms. |