WORD 2007 TUTORIAL

Getting Started To start Word 2007 from the Start Menu

Click on the Start button, point to All Programs then click on Microsoft Office and click on Microsoft Office Word 2007 from the list displayed.

The first screen that you will see a new blank page document. You can start to use the program.

Exploring Word 2007 Screen Elements

Here are the Word 2007 screen elements:

Description of some important elements: Office button: Opens the Office menu, from which you can open, save, print, and start new presentations. Quick Access Toolbar: A small toolbar next to the Office button contains shortcuts for some of the most common commands. Title bar: Identifies the Word program running and the name of the active presentation. Minimize button: Shrinks the application window to a bar on the taskbar; you click its button on the taskbar to reopen it. Maximize/Restore button: If the window is maximized (full screen), click will changes it to windowed (not full screen) and vice versa. Close (Quit) button: Closes the application. Ribbon: Functions as a combination of menu bar and toolbar, offering tabbed "pages" of buttons, lists, and commands. View buttons: Allow you to see the active Word window/page in different views. Status bar: Reports information about the presentation and provides shortcuts for changing the view and the zoom.

The Word 2007 Ribbon - A new Look of Word Interface!

The Word 2007 Ribbon is a bar across the top of the window that contains tabbed pages of commands and icons/buttons. It replaces the previous versions menu bar and drop down menus. The ribbon is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task.

The ribbon is divided into eight tabs by default, and each tab is a selection of groups that show related items together. Command buttons in each group carry out a command or display a menu of commands.

As you can see, similar commands are grouped together making the ribbon very task oriented. The more popular commands are available directly on each tab; you can directly access the command by clicking on the command icons/buttons.

Here are the elements in a Word 2007 ribbon: Ribbon: The whole bar, including all of the tabs. Tab: A tabbed page of the Ribbon such as Home, Insert, etc. Every tab contains several groups and every group has it own command icons. Group: A section of a tab. For example, the Home tab has the following groups: Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, and Editing. Dialog box launcher: A small icon in the bottom-right corner of a group, from which you can open a dialog box related to that group.

There is no way to delete or replace the Ribbon with the toolbars and menus from the earlier versions of Microsoft Office. However, you can minimize the Ribbon to make more space available on your screen.

To minimize the Ribbon

Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

From the drop-down menu, click Minimize the Ribbon. To use the Ribbon while it is minimized, click the tab you want to use, and then click the option or command you want to use.

To restore the minimized Ribbon

Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar. From the drop-down menu, click the Minimize the Ribbon again.

Note: To quickly minimize the Ribbon, double-click the name of the active tab. Double-click a tab again to restore the Ribbon

Keyboard shortcut: To minimize or restore the Ribbon, press Ctrl+F1.

Word 2007 Formatting

Word Drop Caps: Getting Attention to your Documents!

Some people didnt realize the Word drop caps feature. You may also wonder what is that?

A drop cap is the first letter of a report, article, chapter, or story that appears in a larger than normal and more interesting font than the other characters. So it occupies several lines of the paragraph.

Drop caps can be used to add style to a document and draw attention to something in the document. Maybe you are not aware that you seems the drop cap before, just you dont know that its a drop cap. There are basically two styles of drop caps, dropped and in margin. Here it looks like.

To add a drop caps to your document

Type your paragraph as you normally would. Select the first character of the first word at the start of your paragraph. Click the Insert tab of the Ribbon. In the Text group, click Drop Cap then click on Drop Cap Options.

From the Drop Cap dialog box displayed, in the Position section, you can choose either Dropped or In margin option.

 Change any other options to format your drop cap. Click on OK.

Add Shading to Highlight Text in Word 2007

Add shading to your document text can grab readers attention, this is true.

But with different formatting features available in Word, there are many different ways to draw attention to your document? For example, you can underline, bold, color text, etc to draw attention to it.

What if you want to draw attention to an entire paragraph? One option is to shade the entire paragraph in a different color, making it stand out from the rest.

This shading can be added in conjunction with any border you may specify for the paragraph. Word 2007 even can allows you to precisely control the degree of shading.

To add shading to a paragraph

Position the insertion point in the paragraph that you want to shade. Click the Home tab from the Ribbon. In the Paragraph group, click the down-arrow to the right of the Shading tool.

From the shading color palette displayed, select any one of the theme colors of the palette. There are ten colors, and each option under the colors represents a different percentage of shading for that color.

To remove shading from a paragraph

Position the insertion point in the paragraph with shading applied. Click the Home tab from the Ribbon. In the Paragraph group, click the down-arrow to the right of the Shading tool. From the shading color palette displayed, select No Color. Then, the paragraph shading will be removed.

Word 2007 Styles: How to Use it?

First of all, you may not know: What is Style or Word 2007 Styles?

A style is a set of formatting instructions. In another term, it is a way to give a name to a group of formatting attributes such as font formatting (color, size, etc), paragraph formatting (alignment, spacing, etc).

Microsoft Word 2007 allows you to create your own Word styles and also come with a number of built-in styles. Among the most important built-in styles are the standard heading styles: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.

For example, you might use Title Heading for chapter titles, Heading 1 for section headings, Heading 2 for the sub-headings, etc.

Once you have defined a style, you can quickly and easily format text simply by applying the style without the need to apply text formatting individually. Styles can save a lot of time and help insure consistency in your documents.

With the headings styles, Word can automatically create a table of contents (TOC) , and you also can use headings to define cross-references. Here we show you how to use styles to create a TOC later.

These styles are on the Home tab, in the Styles group.

To apply the Style

Place the cursor in the chapter title or heading in your document. In the Styles group, click on a suitable heading such as Title for the highest level, Heading 1 for the next level, etc. To see more styles, click the More icon in the Styles group and you can choose any intended style.

Note: For each chapter title and heading, you need to apply the style.

The heading styles and the TOC work together as Word designate Heading 1 titles to the highest level in the TOC; Heading 2 corresponds to the next highest level; and Heading 3 is the following level.

To create a Table of Contents

Position the insertion point where you want the TOC to appear, usually at the beginning of the document. Click the References tab of the ribbon. From the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents icon. Word displays a drop-down list of TOC options. Click either Automatic Table 1 or Automatic Table 2, whichever TOC looks best to you in the instant preview.

To modify a Table of Contents

Position the insertion point where you want the TOC inserted. Click the References tab of the ribbon. From the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents icon. Word displays a drop-down list of TOC options. Click Insert Table of Contents. Word displays the Table of Contents tab of the Table of Contents dialog box.

In the Table of Contents dialog box, make sure that the Formats drop-down list is set to From Template. Click Modify button.

From the Style dialog box displayed, click TOC 1 to select the highest level, or Level 1, in the TOC, and then click Modify. From the Modify Style dialog box displayed, change the necessary options in the Formatting section (i.e. use the Font color box to change the color to blue).

Click on OK to close the Modify Style dialog box. Click on OK again to close the Style dialog box. Look in the Print Preview area of the Table of Contents dialog box and you will see that TOC 1 (or Level1) is now blue. After you click the final OK, a message appears asking if you want to replace the TOC. Click OK.

Note: If you want to change TOC 2 (Level 2) or TOC 3 (Level 3) to be blue also, you would do the same procedure selecting TOC 2 or TOC 3 in the Style dialog box before proceeding to the Modify Style dialog box.

The TOC is automatically updated whenever you open the document; but it's a good idea to also update it whenever you add more titles or headings in your document or when you add more content that may affect the page numbers that appear in the TOC.

To update a Table of Contents

Click the References tab of the ribbon. From the Table of Contents group, click the Update Table icon. From the Update Table of Contents dialog box displayed, you have two options to choose:

Update page numbers only: If you've added body text but no new headings (this option is faster). Update entire table: If you have added or changed a chapter title or heading.

Note: Avoid editing entries in the TOC itself; if you ever update the TOC you will lose those changes. To change text that appears in the TOC, be sure to edit this text in the body of the document and then click Update Table to compile the changes.

Adjusting the Width of Characters in Word Document

Sometime you may need to adjust the horizontal size or width of characters in your document. Actually, Word provides you a way to do so and the scaling can be applied to any characters in a selection.

To format the horizontal size of characters

Select the characters you want to adjust. Display the Font dialog box by pressing Ctrl+D. From the Font dialog box displayed, click on the Character Spacing tab.

Use the Scale: drop-down menu to specify the scaling you want applied to the characters. You can select from a pre-defined scale, or enter any value between 1% and 600%. Click on OK.

If you find you have a need to scale quite a few selections in your documents, you can add a scaling tool to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). With the Character Scaling tool in place, you can easily change the scaling of any selected text at any time.

To add a scaling tool to the QAT

Click the Office button and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box. At the left side of the dialog box, click the Customize option. Using the Choose Commands From drop-down list, choose All Commands. Scroll through the list of commands until you find the Character Scaling command.

 Select the command by clicking it once. Click the Add button. The command now appears at the right side of the dialog box. Click the OK button. The command now appears on the Quick Access toolbar.

Word 2007 page break: How to insert and prevent certain types of page breaks?

Word 2007 page break - What is that??

Page breaks force the following text, table or image to appear on the next page. So, there are few things you need to take care when using a page break, such as:

prevent a page break in the middle of a paragraph prevent a page break between paragraphs specify a page break before a paragraph

You can insert a page break anywhere in your document, or you can specify where Microsoft Word positions automatic page breaks.

There are a two ways of inserting page breaks into your Microsoft Word 2007 documents:

To insert a page break

Click where you want to start a new page. On the Insert tab, in the Pages group, click Page Break.

Alternatively, you can press Ctrl + Enter to insert a page break.

To prevent page breaks between paragraphs

Select the paragraphs that you want to keep together on a single page. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

Under the Pagination section, select the Keep with next check box. Click OK. Then, apply the page break.

To prevent page breaks in the middle of a paragraph

Select the paragraph that you want to prevent from breaking onto two pages. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab. Under the Pagination section, select the Keep lines together check box. Click OK. Then, apply the page break.

To specify a page break before a paragraph

Click the paragraph that you want to follow the page break. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab. Under the Pagination section, select the Page break before check box. Click OK. Then, apply the page break.

Table: Creating & Customizing

How to Insert a Table in Word 2007?

There are three ways to insert a table in Word 2007 document:

1) Clicking the Table button creates a table with the number of columns and rows you select from the grid, with all the cells of equal size. 2) You can use the Insert Table dialog box, where you can specify the number of rows and columns as well as their sizes. 3) You can also create a table by drawing cells the size you want.

When table was created, you can then enter text, numbers, and graphics into the table's cells, which are the boxes at the intersections of a row and a column.

To Insert a Table (method 1)

Click the Insert tab of the Ribbon. In the Table group, click the Table icon. Word displays a drop-down list.

Drag the intended table columns and rows from the table grid. For example, 5 X 5 tables. The table will automatically insert into the document.

To Insert a Table (method 2)

Click the Insert tab of the Ribbon. In the Table group, click the Table icon. From the drop-down list displayed, click the Insert Table command.

From the Insert Table dialog box displayed, in the Table size section, specify the Number of columns and Number of rows of the table. Click OK.

As an alternative to using the convenient Insert Table command, you can use Word's draw a table feature.

To Draw a Table
Click the Insert tab of the Ribbon. In the Table group, click the Table icon. Word displays a drop-down list.

Click on Draw Table from the list of options. Word changes to Print Layout view (if you are not already in that view) and changes the mouse pointer so it looks like a pencil. Use the mouse pointer to define the outside borders of your table, much as you would draw in a drawing program. Use the pencil to draw the columns and rows into the table. Press Esc when you are done.

"Create Table in Word 2007 that has Specific Column Widths"

Create table in Word 2007 is not difficult, no matter how many columns or rows. But getting your column widths "as you wish" can be challenging task. For instance, what if you want a ten-column table with the first two columns a certain width, and the rest of the columns sharing the remaining horizontal space? Here's an easy way to define that table setup. All you need to do is set the wider columns, and then use the Split Cells option to create the rest. Here's I show you an easy way to get the desired result:

To delete a column in a table

Move your mouse pointer to the top of the table column that you wish to delete until you see a small arrow pointing downward and click once. The entire column is highlighted. Right-click on the highlighted column and click on Delete Columns.

To create table with specific column widths

Create a one-row, three-column table. This one-row table should fill the whole width of your document, from margin to margin.

Use the mouse to adjust the width of the first two columns, making the column widths as wide as you need. Place the insertion point in the third column of the table.

From the Table Tools Layout tab, in the Merge group, click the Split Cells icon.

From the Split Cells dialog box displayed, in the Number of columns control box, specify that you want the cell split into 8 columns. Click OK.

"Delete a Table: How to Delete Column, Row or Entire Table?"

To create or delete a table is really a normal operations in Microsoft Word. Well, after you create a table, you can type text or numbers into cells and press the Tab key to move the insertion point from cell to cell. Pressing Tab when the insertion point is in the last cell in the last row adds a new row to the bottom of the table. In addition to the Tab key, you can use the Arrow keys (up, down, left and right) to position the insertion point, or you can simply click any cell. If you know how to create/draw a table, you also must know how to delete a table, or even delete a table columns or rows. Actually there is various ways to delete column/row of a table, but here we show you one of the easiest ways to perform that.

To delete a column in a table

Move your mouse pointer to the top of the table column that you wish to delete until you see a small arrow pointing downward and click once. The entire column is highlighted. Right-click on the highlighted column and click on Delete Columns.

To delete a row in a table

Move your mouse pointer to the left of the table row that you wish to delete until you see an arrow pointing inward and click once. The entire row is highlighted. Right-click on the highlighted row and click on Delete Rows.

To delete the entire table

Highlight the entire table that you wish to delete.

On the Table Tools Layout tab, in the Rows & Columns group, click on Delete icon and click the Delete Table option.

Customizing Word 2007

Word 2007 Mini Toolbar
Discover the new Word 2007 Mini Toolbar feature!

When you select or highlight text in Microsoft Word 2007, the Mini toolbar automatically appears. It is faint at first, but when you focus your mouse on it, it becomes more prominent. The toolbar is designed to put common formatting commands close at hand. It is convenient if you want to highlight a selection or change font characteristics.

But, the Mini toolbar can get in the way if you want to rearrange text by clicking and dragging. It can also be distracting when you want to access the contextual menu by rightclicking. If you don't like the Mini toolbar, you can disable it easily.

To disable the Mini Toolbar

From the Office button, click the Word Options button.

From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Popular in the left column. Deselect the "Show Mini Toolbar on selection" option. Click OK button.

If you want the mini toolbar to reappear again, select the "Show Mini Toolbar on selection" option again from the Word Options dialog box.

Disable Automatic Lists in Word 2007

Why you need to disable the Word 2007 automatic lists?

In Word 2007, you can use the asterisk (*) character to automatically create a bulleted list. When you type in the asterisk character, Word recognizes that you want to create a bulleted list.

Also, when you type in a number one, Word automatically assumes that you want to create a numbered list. If you do not like this feature, you can turn off automatic bulleted or numbered lists so that you have to create them manually.

To turn off automatic bulleted lists

Open Word 2007. From the Office Button, click the Word Options button.

 From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Proofing. Under the AutoCorrect Options section, click AutoCorrect Options button.

From the AutoCorrect dialog box displayed, select the AutoFormat as You Type tab. Clear the check box beside the Automatic bulleted lists option. Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box. Click OK again to close the Word Options dialog box.

To turn off automatic numbered lists

Open Word 2007. From the Office Button, click the Word Options button. From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Proofing. Under the AutoCorrect Options section, click AutoCorrect Options button. From the AutoCorrect dialog box displayed, select the AutoFormat as You Type tab. Clear the check box beside the Automatic numbered lists option. Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box. Click OK again to close the Word Options dialog box.

Changing the Word 2007 Language Settings

Although the spelling and grammar feature in Word is useful, as you can use it to correct the spelling and grammatical errors in your documents.

But sometime you may find it annoying to see red and green squiggly underlines throughout the documents, even though there are no spelling and grammar errors.

In Word 2007, the problem lies in the editing language so you will likely want to change the options using the steps listed below.

To turn off the editing language

Click the Office Button then select the Word Options button. From the Word Options dialog box displayed, on the Popular tab, click the Language Settings button.

From the Microsoft Office Language Settings 2007 dialog box displayed, verify that your preferred language is selected under Primary editing language. Under the Enabled editing languages: section, select any unwanted languages and click the Remove button. Click OK.

Now Word 2007 will only check the spelling and grammar for your preferred language so you should see less of those annoying squiggly lines.

Word 2007 Space: How Word Handles Space Before a Heading?

This article shows you how to control Word 2007 Space after a hard page or column break.

If you take advantage of styles in your Word documents, they can make your formatting much more consistent and easier than formatting manually. You can define styles for all sorts of elements in your documents.

One of the most common document elements to format is different heading levels. When formatting headings, it is not unusual to set them off from surrounding text by adding additional space before them. Word lets you do this in the style definition for the heading. You can specify virtually any amount of additional space before the heading that you want.

When the heading style includes additional space before the paragraph, you may be surprised when Word sometimes fails to add that expected space. For example, when the heading appears right after a page break or a column break, Word normally doesn't include that extra space. Instead, the heading appears right up at the top of the page or column.

How to solve this problem when those paragraphs appear after a page/column break is actually a little setting in Word.

To make adjustments to the Word 2007 space

Click the Office Button and then click Word Options. From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Advanced at the left of the dialog box. Scroll to the bottom of the options in the dialog box.

Click the plus sign to the left of Layout Options. Word shows a long list of compatibility options it can use. Scroll through the list of options until you find the option called Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break. If the check mark beside this option is selected, then Word ignores your "space before" specification when the paragraph with that specification occurs right after a page break or a column break. If it is not selected, then your "space before" setting is honored in these instances. Click OK.

You should note that if your heading style specifies space before the heading, and that heading naturally falls at the top of a page, Word suppresses that extra space, no matter what. The reason is because Word "eats up" the extra space, as if it was really at the bottom of the previous page.

More Tips...
Word 2007 Proofread your Documents! See How...

Do you know that Word 2007 proofread your documents with a click of the mouse?

Yes, Word 2007 automatically proofreads your document for grammar, spelling, and style errors as you type. You can correct the errors immediately as they occur or at the end of your Word session.

You can customize how Word proofreads your documents by setting the desired proofreading options before you work on your document.

To proofread your Word documents

Click the Office Button, and then click the Word Options button.

 From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Proofing. Under the AutoCorrect Options section, click the AutoCorrect Options button.

From the AutoCorrect dialog box displayed, clear the check box Automatically use suggestions from the spelling checker. Clear this option will make Word ignore any spelling errors while you types. Click OK. Under When correcting spelling and grammar in Word section, click the Writing Style: Settings button. Scroll down to the Style: section and select the suitable check box.

 Click OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box. Click OK again to close the Word Options dialog box. When you are ready to proofread your document, click the Proofing Errors button in the status bar to sort through and correct any errors that Word has found.

Then from the suggestions pop-up, select the correct word.

Add a Document Watermark in Microsoft Word 2007.

A document watermark is just a 'simple text' appear at the background of your Word documents. It can help signify that your Word 2007 document should be treated as "Do not copy", "Sample", "Confidential", "Draft", etc.

Word 2007 has many options for creating watermarks. Although default watermark types are provided, you can create watermarks with your own custom text or image. You can also tweak the watermark size, font, color, and how much the watermark will stand out from the document.

To add a default Word watermark

Open Word 2007. Click the Page Layout tab in the Word 2007 ribbon. In the Page Background group, click the Watermark icon to open a menu.

From the menu, you can click on any available watermarks and you will see the watermark is inserted in your document.

To add a custom Word watermark

Open Word 2007. Click the Page Layout tab in the Word 2007 ribbon. In the Page Background group, click the Watermark icon to open a menu. Click on the Custom Watermark button to open the Printed Watermark dialog box.

From the dialog box, you have 3 options to choose: 1) No watermark - to remove the current watermark. 2) Picture watermark - to use a picture as the watermark. You need to click on the Select Picture button and choose a picture to be your document watermark. 3) Text watermark - to create a custom text watermark (let say we choose this). Language: Click the drop-down menu to modify the watermark's language. Text: Enter your desired watermark text. Font: Change the watermark font from the drop-down menu. Size: Change the watermark size to ensure it appears correctly on paper. Defaults is Auto. Color: Click the drop-down menu to change the watermark color. Check or uncheck "Semitransparent" to wash out or prevent washing out the watermark text. Layout: To determine whether the watermark should appear diagonally or horizontally.

Click the OK button when finish.

Microsoft Office Diagnostics: Diagnose Problems in Word 2007

Have you ever know that Office 2007 come with Microsoft Office diagnostics tool?

Well, if your Office applications are crash, its probably time to run Office Diagnostics tool. Microsofts Office Diagnostics is a series of diagnostic tests that can help determine what is wrong and guide you repairing the problem.

To begin the diagnostics process, connect to the Internet. Be sure you have the Microsoft Office installation CD on hand as the program may need it to repair certain problems.

To start the Office Diagnostics program

Click the Office Button and then click the Word Options button. From the Word Options dialog box displayed, click Resources.

 Click the Diagnose button. Click Continue, and then click Run Diagnostics.

You will see that it will test the followings:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Check for known solutions: To reviews the data on crashes of the Office 2007 release that have recently occurred on your system Memory Diagnostic: To verifies the integrity of your computer's RAM. Compatibility Diagnostic: To identifies conflicting 2 different versions of Microsoft Office Outlook that might be installed on your computer. Disk Diagnostic: To checks for disk errors logged by the Windows systems event log or by the disk itself. Setup Diagnostic: To checks for corruption in the files and system registry settings in your Office 2007 installation.

Note: If Word has crashed so badly that it will not restart, you can still run the diagnostics program by following these steps:

Click the Start button. Point to All Programs, then point to Microsoft Office, and then Microsoft Office Tools.

Click Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

Mark as Final: Preventing Accidental Changes to a Document.

What does the Mark as Final option do? Simple. It locks a document so that it cannot be edited.

When a document is completely finished, you can mark it as finalized. This prevents users from inadvertently making additional changes to it, and so it gives you some measure of protection against unexpected modifications.

Marking a document as final is also helpful if you share a computer. It will prevent other users from accidentally changing the document. You may even want to mark a document as final to prevent yourself from editing it!

To mark a document as final

From the Office button, point to Prepare, and then click Mark as Final. The following message box appears.

Click OK to save your document and mark it as final. Another message box appears as follow:

Click OK again. This mean that the document has been marked as final, and that editing has been turned off. When you mark a document as final, an icon appears in the status bar to indicate that it is final, and the document becomes uneditable. If you later decide to make changes to your document, you can turn off the finalized document. Just click the Office button, point to Prepare, and then click Mark as Final again.

Note: This feature can be reversed by anyone who opens the document. So, in some cases it is preferable to restricting editing permissions on the document.

Word 2007 Status Bar

The Word 2007 status bar is the area at the bottom of the Word window that gives information and some controls on the current document.

It displays information about what page you are on, line number on the page, total words in the document, etc. It also shows some other information about which editing toggles you have turned on or you can turn it off if you don't need the information provided shows on the status bar.

Right-clicking the status bar produces the helpful Customize Status Bar menu. The Customize Status Bar menu does two things:

it controls what you see on the status bar, informational tidbits as well as certain controls. it lets you turn on or off some Word features.

To control the display on the Customize status bar menu

The menu's options are enabled (selected) when a check mark appears next to them.

The items at the top of the menu (from Formatted Page Number to Word Count) display information about your document. The options from Caps Lock down through Macro Recording are used to turn off or on those features. The last three options on the menu control whether the View or Zoom shortcuts appear on the status bar.

Note: You can try to check or select the available options in the Customize Status Bar and see the changes to your documents.

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