Microsoft Word 2003 Windows XP

Getting Started in Microsoft Word 2003

Where to find this software

Word 2003 is standard for public clusters and/or offices.

It is installed in offices by IS, so users requesting installation need to call the helpdesk (x3333) and arrange a time for installation.

Getting Started

To launch Word 2003, click on the Start menu > All Programs and select Microsoft Office Word 2003 from the list.

Contents:

The Word 2003 Window

When Word is first started, a new blank page titled Document1 is opened automatically. This is a fresh page where you can begin typing a new document.

• At the top of the window is a row of menus, including File, Edit and View.
• Below that row of menus is a row of buttons for various tools (collectively called the "toolbars") to use in creating and editing your document.
  • Directly below the toolbars is a ruler.
• Use the ruler to set tabs, indents, and margins.
• There are scrollbars on the right side and on the bottom of the screen.
  • By clicking on the arrows at the ends of the scrollbars, you can move up and down or left and right through your document.

The Task Pane

The Task Pane is a rectangular window that may appear on the right side of the screen when Word opens. It acts as an open menu, giving you a list of functions and commands to perform depending on what you are doing at the moment. For example, when you first launch a new presentation, the Task Pane will be labeled Getting Started. The Getting Started task pane allows you to open recent documents, search for documents and files, create new documents, and access Microsoft Office Online.

If the Task Pane does not show up: To reopen a Task Pane that has been closed, go to the View menu > Task Pane and it will reappear to the right of your screen.

Closing the Task Pane: If you want to close the Task Pane, click on the X on the upper right corner of the pane. To reopen it, go to the View menu > Task Pane.

If you do not want the Task Pane to open each time you launch Word: Select the Tools menu > View tab > uncheck the Startup Task Pane box.

You can go to any of the Panes by clicking on the down-arrow that appears on the upper right of the Task Pane. This arrow brings up a menu of the panes to select from. Otherwise, the Task Pane will change to the appropriate task as you choose items and commands from the menus or toolbars.

You can also navigate the task pane using the Back and Forward buttons, and return to the Getting Started task pane by choosing the Home button.

Other Task Panes Include:

• Help - allows you to search the Microsoft Office help feature
• Search Results - allows you to search different features of Office
• Clip Art - allows you to search the Clip Art Gallery using keywords and displays the Clip Art in thumbnails for you to choose.
• Research - allows you to look up text strings in a variety of online resources
• Clipboard - contains a list of the items you have recently cut, pasted, or copied.
• New Document - gives options to create a new blank document
• Protect Document - places restrictions on the way the file is edited
• Styles and Formatting - opens the text formatting task pane
• Reveal Formatting - reveals all the different types of formatting used in the document
• Mail Merge - opens the Mail Merge task pane. More information on Mail Merge can be found here.

Layouts in Word 2003

Normal - Normal is the default Word 2003 view. It shows just the text that you are working on, without margins or header and footer information. It doesn't differentiate between different pages of text.

Web Layout - The Web Layout displays the document as if it were a web page

Print Layout - The Print Layout shows the entire page you are working on, including margins, header and footer information. It shows the layout of the text on the page the way it would be displayed if printed.

Reading Layout - The Reading Layout is a new layout in Word 2003. It displays your document like a book, showing two pages side by side without the editing toolbars for reading that is easier on the eyes than the standard Word .toolbars.

Outline - The Outline Layout displays the document as an outline.

Creating a New Blank Document

To create a new blank document:

From the File menu choose New.

You can also click the New button on the toolbar to create a new blank document.

Opening a Document

To open a document:

From the File menu, choose Open.

You can also click the Open button on the toolbar to open a document.

Saving a Document

To save a document for the first time:

1. Select the File menu > Save As.
2. Word will display the following dialog box.
3. In the field next to File name, type the name of your document.
4. Navigate in the top portion of the dialog box to the folder where you would like to save the document.
   • For example:
   • To save the document to a disk, click the arrow on the right of the Save in box from the pull-down menu, and choose the A: drive. Select the Save button.
     • When saving, use a file name that is under 31 characters (in case you work on your document in Word 98), and refrain from using punctuation.
5. Once you have saved your document for the first time you can save further revisions by selecting the File menu and choosing Save, or clicking on the Save button on the toolbar .

*Word allows fast saves which background saves your document. 

The saves only the current edits and not the entire document, which may be potentially harmful.

To disable this feature:

1. From the Tools menu choose Options
2. Select the Save tab.
3. Uncheck the box marked Allow fast saves.

NOTE: As of Windows 98, you can no longer save word documents as WordPerfect documents.

Saving a Document Under a Different Name

1. Open the document by selecting the File menu > Open .
2. From the File menu, choose Save As… A dialog box will appear.
3. In the File name field, type in a new name for the document.
4. Select the Save button .

You now have two copies of the document, one with the original name, another with a new name.

NOTE: Remember to always back up your documents and save them to a safe place before closing Word!

Moving and Copying Text

Moving Text:

• To move text, select and highlight the section you want to move.
• From the Edit menu, choose Cut.
• Move the cursor to the place you would like the text to be inserted. Click in the document to place the cursor there.
• From the Edit menu, choose Paste.

Copying Text:

• To copy text, select and highlight the section you want to copy.
• From the Edit menu, and choose Copy. Move the cursor to the place you want the copied text to be inserted.
• From the Edit menu, and choose Paste.

Shortcuts

Word provides you with shortcut key strokes which are a combination of letters and symbols that act as codes that allow you to accomplish frequently executed tasks. For example, if you would like to move text, you can highlight the selection and press the CNTL + X keys instead of selecting Cut from the Edit menu.  This keystroke is written out for you directly across from the Cut command in the Edit menu.

Here are some other commonly used shortcuts:

• Paste: CTRL + V
• Copy: CTRL + C
• Undo: CTRL + Z
• New document: CTRL + N
• Open document: CTRL + O
• Print document: CTRL + P

Setting Up Toolbars

It may be helpful to make sure that you are working with the toolbars standard to Word, namely the formatting toolbar and standard toolbar.

To show any toolbar:

From the View menu, select Toolbars. Under the Toolbars submenu, make sure the necessary toolbars are checked and if not, check them by clicking on the name of the toolbar

Online Help

Word offers excellent and extensive online help which can be accessed by selecting the Help menu > Microsoft Office Word Help.  Word Help will appear in the task pane. Select Connect to Microsoft Office Online. You can find almost everything you need to know from the online help that is available.

Formatting Your Document

Below is a picture of the Word 2003 Standard and Formatting toolbars.

• The Standard Toolbar is the toolbar just below the list of menus. It includes icons for creating new documents, saving, opening, and printing your documents, as well as cutting, pasting, copying, and a whole host of other options.
• The Formatting Toolbar is the bar below that.
• The Formatting toolbar in Word allows you to change fonts and font size, to bold and underline and to center text, as well as change the alignment of your font and other useful options.
• You can surmise from the symbols on the various buttons the functions that each performs.
• If you leave the pointer on a button for a few seconds, the function of that button will appear in a small box below the pointer.

Word offers a wide range of character formats, including various fonts, font sizes, and styles such as bold and italic. The quickest and easiest way to apply fonts, font sizes, bold, italic, and underlining is to use the toolbar buttons.

Fonts

To change the font of the text in your document:

1. From the formatting toolbar, select the Font box, a drop-down menu list of font names.
2. Click on the arrow to the right of the font name.
3. Scroll through the list of fonts until you find the one you want to use.
4. Click the name of the font to select it. No matter where your cursor is, you will now begin typing in the new font from that point on.

To change the font of already typed text:

1. Highlight and select the text you want to change.
2. From the formatting toolbar, select the Font box.
3. Click on the arrow to the right of the font name.
4. Scroll through the list of fonts until you find the one you want to use.
5. Click the name of the font to select it.
6. The highlighted text will change to the newly selected font.

Bold, Underline, and Italics

• These are the buttons useful in formatting text:
• To bold, underline, or italicize words, highlight the text you want to affect. Click on the button with the B on it to bold the selected text. Click on the button with the I to italicize the selected text. Or, click on the button with U to underline the selected text.
• These stylizations can also be found in the Format menu under Font or in the pop-up menu after you have right-clicked on the highlighted selection.

Text Spacing and Alignment

To align the text to either the left, center, right, or to justify text:

• Select the text that you wish to align and click on the appropriate button in the formatting toolbar.
• For example, to align text to the left, select the text and click on the align left button .

To change spacing between lines:

1. select the paragraphs in which you want to change line spacing.
2. From the Format menu, select Paragraph, then in the dialog box that pops up, click on the Indents and Spacing tab.
3. Under Spacing, select the appropriate spacing options and click OK (e.g. changing line spacing to double-spaced instead of single-spaced).

Tabs

To set tab stops:

1. Select the paragraph in which you would like to set the tab stops.
2. Click on the Tab button at the left of the horizontal ruler until it changes to the tab that you want (left , right , center , or decimal tab).
3. Finally, click on the horizontal ruler where you want your tab stop.

• If you then press the Tab button, your cursor will move over to where you set your tab.
  • The left tab aligns your text to the left.
  • The right tab aligns your text to the right.
  • The center tab aligns your text to the center.
  • The decimal tab aligns your text with any periods in your text or decimals in your numbers.

To clear a tab stop:

• Select the paragraph with the tab stop and drag the tab marker off the ruler.

To move a tab stop:

• Select the paragraph with the tab stop and move the tab marker to the right or left on the ruler.

Margins

To change page margins:

1. From the View menu select Print Layout.
2. For left or right page margins, point to a margin boundary on the horizontal ruler until it changes to a double arrow and drag the margin boundary to the right or left:
3. For top or bottom page margins, point to a margin boundary on the vertical ruler until it changes to a double arrow and drag the margin boundary to the top or bottom.

To specify exact page margins:

1. From the File menu, select Page Setup.
2. You will see a pop-up page setup window.
3. Click on the margins tab.
4. You can change either top, bottom, left, or right margins by clicking in the appropriate text boxes or on the arrows next to the numbers.

Page Numbers

To insert page numbers:

1. From the Insert menu, select Page Numbers.
2. In the page numbers pop-up window, make sure the position and alignment of the page numbers is to your preference.
3. For more page number options, click on the Format button.

Suppressing Page Numbers on First Page

• Uncheck the Show Number on First page checkbox, if you do not wish the number to appear on the first page.

Headers and Footers

To create Headers and/or Footers:

• From the View menu, select Header and Footer. You should see a Header and Footer floating toolbar as well as a Header area:

• To create a Header, enter text or graphics into the Header area.
• Or, to insert page numbers, click on the page number button in the toolbar:
• To insert the time or date, click on the time or date button.
• To insert common header items such as file name, author name, etc., click on the Insert AutoText button for the pull-down menu and select the appropriate item.
• To create a Footer, click on the switch button to switch between header and footer.

• When you are finished, click on Close to exit the Header/Footer.

Adding Footnotes or Endnotes

To change the view: Choose the View menu > Normal.

To add footnotes or endnotes:

1. Click within the document where you want to insert your footnote/endnote reference mark.
2. From the Insert menu, select Footnote.
3. In the dialog box that pops up, select either the footnote or endnote radio button and click OK.
4. Type in the footnote or endnote in the footnote/endnote window that appears at the bottom, and click on your document above to continue typing in your document.

Previewing and Printing Your Document

• To preview your document before printing, choose the File menu > Print Preview.

• To switch between viewing one page and multiple pages:
  • Click on the buttons at the top which look like one page, or four pages laid out.

• To zoom in, place your cursor on the document--it will turn into a magnifying glass with a + symbol inside. Then click on your document.
• To zoom back out, place your cursor on the document and this time your cursor will turn into a magnifying glass with a - symbol inside. Click on your document.

To print, choose the File menu > Print.

1. A dialog box will appear.
2. Choose the number of copies and pages you want to print.
   1. Make sure that the printer you want to print to is at the top.
   2. If it is, click OK to print .
   3. If not, click on the arrow next to the name of the printer for the pull-down menu and select the correct printer.

How to Quit

To close Word 2003 completely, choose the File menu > Exit. Or, press ALT + F4 on the keyboard.

• Erin Foti
• Information Services
• Created: July 8, 2004
• Last Modified: June 15, 2006
• Expires: July 1, 2007