Chapter 5
IN THIS CHAPTER
Moving the cursor with the mouse and keyboard
Navigating through a document
Finding and replacing text
Checking spelling and grammar
Viewing a document
The whole purpose of Microsoft Word is to let you type text and make it look pretty so you can print or send it for other people to read. So the first step in using Microsoft Word is finding how to enter text in a Word file, called a document.
In every document, Word displays a blinking cursor (technically called the insertion point) that points to where your text will appear if you type anything. To move the cursor, you can use the keyboard or the mouse.
When you move the mouse, Word turns the mouse pointer into an I-beam pointer. If you move the mouse over an area where you cannot type any text, the mouse pointer turns back into a traditional arrow, pointing up to the left.
To move the cursor with the mouse, just point and click the left mouse button once. The blinking cursor appears where you click the mouse.
If you have a blank page or a blank area at the end of your document, you can move the cursor anywhere within this blank area by following these steps:
Move the mouse pointer over any blank area past the end of a document.
Word defines the end of a document as the spot where no more text appears. (Remember, Word considers blank spaces as text.) To find the end of a document, press Ctrl+End.
Notice that a Left, Left Indent, Center, or Right Justification icon appears to the right or bottom of the I-beam mouse pointer, as shown in Figure 5-1.
Make sure that the correct justification icon appears next to the mouse pointer.
For example, if you want to center-justify your text, make sure that the Center Justification icon appears at the bottom of the I-beam pointer.
Getting the Left, Center, or Right Justification icon to appear in Step 2 can be tricky. The Left Justification icon appears most of the time. If you move the mouse pointer slightly indented from the left margin of the page, the Left Indent icon appears. To make the Center Justification icon appear, move the mouse pointer to the center of the page. To make the Right Justification icon appear, move the mouse pointer to the right edge of the page.
Double-click the mouse pointer.
Word displays your cursor in the area you clicked. Any text you type now will appear justified according to the justification icon displayed in Step 1.
Moving the cursor with the mouse can be fast and easy. However, touch-typists often find that moving the cursor with the keyboard is more convenient (and sometimes faster too). Table 5-1 lists different keystroke combinations you can use to move the cursor.
TABLE 5-1 Keystroke Shortcuts for Moving the Cursor in Word
Keystroke |
What It Does |
↑ |
Moves the cursor up one line |
↓ |
Moves the cursor down one line |
→ |
Moves the cursor right one character |
← |
Moves the cursor left one character |
Ctrl+↑ |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph (if the cursor appears in that paragraph) or the beginning of the preceding paragraph (if the cursor appears beneath that paragraph) |
Ctrl+↓ |
Moves the cursor down to the beginning of the next paragraph |
Ctrl+→ |
Moves the cursor right one word |
Ctrl+← |
Moves the cursor left one word |
Home |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line |
End |
Moves the cursor to the end of the line |
Ctrl+Home |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of a document |
Ctrl+End |
Moves the cursor to the end of a document |
Page Up |
Moves the cursor up one screen |
Page Down |
Moves the cursor down one screen |
Ctrl+Page Up |
Moves the cursor to the top of the preceding page |
Ctrl+Page Down |
Moves the cursor to the top of the next page |
If you have a large document that consists of many pages, you won’t be able to see all the pages at the same time. Instead, you’ll have to scroll through your document by using either the mouse or the keyboard.
To scroll through a document with the mouse, you have two choices:
The scroll bar gives you multiple ways to navigate through a document, as shown in Figure 5-2:
If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can use that to scroll through a document in one of two ways:
If you know the specific page number of your document that you want to scroll to, you can jump to that page right away by using the Go To command. To use the Go To command, follow these steps:
Choose one of the following:
The Find and Replace dialog box appears with the Go To tab selected, as shown in Figure 5-3.
Click in the Enter page number text box and type a page number.
If you type a plus sign (+) or a minus sign (–) in front of a number, you can scroll that many pages forward or backward from the currently displayed page. For example, if the displayed page is 5, typing –2 displays page 3 and typing +12 displays page 17.
Click the Go To tab.
Word displays your chosen page.
To help you find text, Word offers a handy Find feature. Not only can this Find feature search for a word or phrase, but it also offers a Replace option so you can make Word find certain words and automatically replace them with other words.
The Find command can search for a single character, word, or a group of words. To make searching faster, you can either search an entire document or just a specific part of a document. To make searching a document more flexible, Word lets you search for specific words or phrases, headings, or pages.
To search for words or phrases by using the Find command, follow these steps:
Click the Find icon in the Editing group.
The Navigation Pane appears in the left side of the screen, as shown in Figure 5-4.
If you click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Find icon, a menu appears that lets you choose the Find or Go To command.
Click in the Navigation text box, type a word or phrase to find, and press Enter.
The Navigation Pane lists all matching text, as shown in Figure 5-5.
As you type, Word displays all matching text. So if you start typing hel, Word will find all text that matches “hel,” such as “hello,” “helicopter,” or “help.”
Click any of the text displayed in the Navigation Pane.
Word highlights your chosen text in your document.
Click the X icon that appears in the Navigation text box in the Navigation Pane.
Word closes the Navigation pane.
If you just want to find a word or phrase, the ordinary Find command works, but if Word finds too much irrelevant text, you may want to take time to customize how Word searches for text. Follow these steps:
Click the Find icon in the Editing group.
The Navigation Pane appears in the left side of the screen (refer to Figure 5-4).
Click the Magnifying Glass icon in the Search Document text box in the Navigation Pane.
A pull-down menu appears, as shown in Figure 5-6.
Click Options.
A Find Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-7.
Click OK to make the Find Options dialog box disappear.
The next time you search for text, Word will use the options you chose.
Rather than search for a word or phrase, you may want to browse a long document by headings. After you find the heading you want, you can edit or read the text underneath that heading.
To search by headings, follow these steps:
Click the Find icon in the Editing group.
The Navigation Pane appears in the left side of the screen (refer to Figure 5-4).
Click the Headings tab (underneath the Search Document text box) in the Navigation Pane.
A list of headings appears in the Navigation Pane, as shown in Figure 5-8.
Click a heading in the Navigation Pane.
Word displays the heading in your document.
In a long document, you often have to scroll or flip through multiple pages to find specific text. To simplify this task, Word can display all pages as thumbnail images. You can browse through these thumbnail images and click the page that you want to view in more detail.
To browse through multiple pages, follow these steps:
Click the Find icon in the Editing group.
The Navigation Pane appears in the left side of the screen (refer to Figure 5-4).
Click the Pages tab (the middle tab) in the Navigation Pane.
Word displays thumbnail images of all your pages, as shown in Figure 5-9.
Click the thumbnail image of the page that you want to view.
Word displays your chosen page.
Rather than just find a word or phrase, you may want to find that text and replace it with something else. To use the Find and Replace command, follow these steps:
Click the Replace icon in the Editing group. (You can also press Ctrl+H.)
The Find and Replace dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-10.
As you type, Word tries to correct your spelling automatically. (Try it! Type tjhe, and Word will automatically change it to the in the blink of an eye.) If you type something that Word doesn’t recognize, it underlines it with a red squiggly line.
To correct any words that Word underlines with a red squiggly line, follow these steps:
Right-click any word underlined with a red squiggly line.
A pop-up menu appears, as shown in Figure 5-12.
To spell check an entire document, follow these steps:
Click the Spelling & Grammar icon.
A Spelling pane appears in the right side of the document window, as shown in Figure 5-13.
Sometimes Word may underline one or more words with a green squiggly line to highlight possible grammar errors. To correct any grammar errors, follow these steps:
Right-click any text underlined with a green squiggly line.
A pop-up menu appears, displaying a list of possible corrections.
Word can display your document in one of five views, which can help you better understand the layout, margins, and page breaks in your document:
Microsoft Word gives you two ways to switch between different document views, as shown in Figure 5-14:
Click the view icons in the bottom-right corner of your document window.
The only view icons in the bottom-right corner of the document window are Read Mode, Print Layout, and Web Layout.
Print Layout view can help you edit and create the design of your pages, including page margins and headers and footers. If you just want to focus on writing and not see your page margins or headers and footers, you may be happier switching to Draft view instead. The two most unusual views are Read Mode and Outline views.
Read Mode can be handy for making text easier to read just the way you’d see it a book, as shown in Figure 5-15. To “turn the pages” of a document displayed in Read Mode view, click the Previous Screen or Next Screen button on the left and right edge of the screen.
To exit Full Screen Reading view, choose one of the following:
Outline view divides a document into sections defined by headings and text. A heading represents a main idea. Text contains one or more paragraphs that are “attached” to a particular heading. A subheading lets you divide a main idea (heading) into multiple parts. A typical outline may look like Figure 5-16.
Within Outline view you can
Moving a heading automatically moves all subheadings and text. Instead of cutting and pasting multiple paragraphs, Outline view lets you rearrange a document by just moving headings around.
To switch to Outline view, click the View tab and then click the Outline icon.
Outline view considers each line as either a heading or text. To define a line as either a heading style (Level 1 to Level 9) or text, make sure you have switched to Outline view and then follow these steps:
Word displays Level 1 headings in large type justified to the far-left margin. Level 2 headings appear in smaller type that’s slightly indented to the right, Level 3 headings appear in even smaller type that’s indented farther to the right, and so on, as shown in Figure 5-17.
After you define a heading (such as a Level 1 or Level 3 heading), you can always change its level, such as changing a Level 1 heading to a Level 2 heading or vice versa:
To promote or demote a heading to a different level, follow these steps:
You can move headings up or down within a document.
To move a heading, follow these steps:
Text can consist of a single sentence, multiple sentences, or several paragraphs. Text always appears indented underneath a heading (or subheading). To create text, follow these steps:
Move the cursor to the end of a heading or subheading.
This is the heading (or subheading) that your text will be attached to if you move the heading (or subheading).
Press Enter.
Word creates a blank heading.
Click the Demote to Body Text button (or click in the Outline Level list box and choose Body Text).
Word displays a bullet point, indented underneath the heading you chose in Step 1.
If a heading or subheading contains any subheadings or text underneath, you can collapse that heading. Collapsing a heading simply hides any indented subheadings or text from view temporarily. Expanding a heading displays any previously hidden subheadings or text.
To collapse a heading along with all subheadings or body text underneath it, double-click the plus (+) icon that appears to the left of the heading.
If you just want to collapse the subheading or body text that appears underneath a heading, choose one of the following:
To expand a collapsed heading to reveal all subheadings and body text, double-click the plus icon that appears to the left of the heading.
If you just want to expand the subheading or body text immediately underneath a collapsed heading, choose one of the following:
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