A basic guide to Microsoft Word (part 1)

Click on the General Templates option in the Task Pane to browse through the templates already installed on the computer. Select Blank Document from the Task Pane and the main part of the screen will be plain white.

Make sure that the page size and margins are correct by clicking on the File menu and selecting Page setup.

To give more space on the page, reduce the size of the margins by clicking the up and down arrows, but be careful not to do this too much as few printers can print all the way to the edges of a document.

Click on the Paper tab to select the paper size; change it to A4 if it is not already that setting. The blank document will have a cursor at the top-left point ready to accept text.

Type a headline such as “Smith family news”, for example, and press Enter twice.

As the length of the documents grows, it is possible to move the cursor and insert text in two ways: use the arrow keys on the keyboard, or move the mouse and single-click where text is to be inserted.

If you hold down the Ctrl key when using the arrows, the cursor will skip whole words or paragraphs instead of single characters or lines.

It is also possible to insert text from other documents. Click on the Insert menu and select File. Change the Files of type menu to Text Files and locate the text file downloaded from the Computeractive website.

Click on it and then on Insert. If you’re using our Lorem Ipsum sample text, the first thing that will happen is Word will alert you to incorrect spelling and grammar with lots of squiggly red lines, because we’re not using English.

It’s a handy feature for real text, but for now turn the checker off by choosing Options from the Tools menu and clicking on the Spelling & Grammar tab.

Click in the boxes marked ‘Check spelling as you type’ and ‘Check grammar as you type’ so the boxes are unticked. You can reverse this process to turn the tools back on.

If your version of Word fails to spot words misspelled using American English (such as color instead of colour) right-click the offending word and choose Language from the menu that appears, then select UK English.

It’s best to choose the Set Language option, as then your change will apply to the whole document.

Now save the document by clicking on the File menu and selecting Save. Word will insert the first line of text in the document as a suggested name.

Change the name to Smith Family News 2005 and click on Save. Word can save in a variety of formats, which is useful for sharing files with users of Works, WordPerfect and older versions of Word.

Word can also save documents as web pages, although it is better to use a dedicated web editor. The most useful format is Rich Text Format. This preserves formatting and any pictures, but it does not include macros.

As macros can contain viruses, this is the safest format to send and receive emails.