Chapter 3
IN THIS CHAPTER
Using the scroll bars
Moving the insertion pointer
Getting around with keyboard shortcuts
Getting lost and getting back
Using the Go To command
A computer screen is only so big. Your Word document can be much larger, perhaps requiring several monitors all stacked atop each other so that you could view it all at once. That somehow seems impractical. Therefore, Word offers techniques to let you hop, skip, and jump around your document hither, thither, and yon.
It’s ironic that the word scroll is used when referring to an electronic document. The scroll was the first form of portable recorded text, existing long before bound books. On a computer, scrolling is the process by which you view a little bit of a big document in a tiny window.
The document portion of the Word program window features a vertical scroll bar, illustrated in Figure 3-1. The scroll bar’s operation is similar to the scroll bar in any Windows program. As a review, the figure illustrates the mouse’s effect on parts of the scroll bar.
A key feature in the scroll bar is the elevator button. (Refer to Figure 3-1.) Use the mouse to drag this button up or down to scroll the document. Its position on the scroll bar reflects the location of the text you see. For example, when the elevator button is at the top of the scroll bar, the window shows text at the start of the document.
Using the scroll bar to scroll through your document doesn’t move the insertion pointer. If you start typing, don't be surprised when Word jumps back to where the insertion pointer lurks.
When your document is wider than can be displayed in the window, a horizontal scroll bar appears. It shows up at the bottom of the document part of the window, just above the status bar. Use the horizontal scroll bar to shift the page back and forth, left and right.
When the horizontal (left-to-right) shifting bugs you, consider using Word's Zoom tool to adjust the size of your document on the screen. See Chapter 1.
The computer mouse’s wheel button scrolls your Word document as it scrolls any other window, such as a web page. Roll the wheel to scroll up or down; the direction is set in Windows, so I can’t for certain tell you whether rolling the wheel up scrolls your document up or down. Just try it to see how it works.
Some mice let you press the wheel button or tilt it from side to side. If so, press and hold down the wheel button and drag the mouse forward or backward to slowly pan the document up or down. Tilt the wheel button from side to side to pan the document left and right.
In Word, you can edit any part of your document; you don't always have to work at “the end.” The key to pulling off this trick is to know how to move the insertion pointer to the exact spot you want.
The easiest way to put the insertion pointer exactly where you want it is to click the mouse at that spot in the text. Point. Click. The insertion pointer moves.
If your computer or laptop features a touchscreen, tap the screen with your finger to relocate the insertion pointer.
For short hops, nothing beats using the keyboard’s cursor keys to quickly move the insertion pointer around a document. The four arrow keys move the insertion pointer up, down, right, and left:
Press This Key |
To Move the Insertion Pointer |
↑ |
Up to the preceding line of text |
↓ |
Down to the next line of text |
→ |
Right to the next character |
← |
Left to the preceding character |
If you press and hold down the Ctrl (Control) key and then press an arrow key, the insertion pointer moves in larger increments. The invigorated insertion pointer leaps desperately in all four directions:
Press This Key Combo |
To Move the Insertion Pointer |
Ctrl+↑ |
Up to the start of the previous paragraph |
Ctrl+↓ |
Down to the start of the next paragraph |
Ctrl+→ |
Right to the start (first letter) of the next word |
Ctrl+← |
Left to the start (first letter) of the previous word |
The insertion pointer also bows to pressure from those cursor keys without arrows on them. The first couple consists of End and Home, which move the insertion pointer to the start or end of something, depending on how End and Home are used:
Press This Key or Combination |
To Whisk the Insertion Pointer |
End |
To the end of a line of text |
Home |
To the start of a line of text |
Ctrl+End |
To the end of the document |
Ctrl+Home |
To the tippy-top of the document |
The remaining cursor keys are the Page Up, or PgUp, key and the Page Down, or PgDn, key. As you might suspect, using these keys doesn't move up or down a page in the document. Nope. Instead, they slide through the document based on the amount of text visible in the window. Here’s the round-up:
Press This Key or Combination |
To Whisk the Insertion Pointer |
PgUp |
Up one window full of text or to the tippy-top of the document if you're near there |
PgDn |
Down one window full of text or to the end of the document if you're near there |
Ctrl+Alt+PgUp |
To the top of the current window’s text |
Ctrl+Alt+PgDn |
To the bottom of the current window’s text |
Considering all the various commands for moving the insertion pointer, it's quite possible to make a mistake and not know where you are in a document. Yea, verily, the insertion pointer has gone where no insertion pointer has gone before.
Shift+F5
Pressing the Shift+F5 keyboard shortcut forces Word to return you to the last spot you edited. You can use this keyboard shortcut three times before the cycle repeats. The first time should get you back to where you were before you got lost.
Word's Go To command allows you to send the insertion pointer to a specific page or line or to the location of a number of interesting items that Word can potentially cram into your document. The Go To command is your word processing teleporter to anywhere.
To use the Go To command, follow these steps:
In the Editing group, choose the Go To command.
The Find and Replace dialog box appears with the Go To tab forward, as shown in Figure 3-2.
And now, the shortcut: Press Ctrl+G to quickly summon the Find and Replace dialog box's Go To tab.
To whisk the insertion pointer to a specific location, choose it from the Go to What list. For example, choose Page to visit a specific page. Type the page number in the Enter Page Number box, and then click the Go To button to go to that page in your document.
The Enter Page Number box also accepts relative pages as input. For example, to go three pages forward, type +3. To go 12 pages backward, type –12 in the box.
The last item you chose from the Go to What list affects the behavior of the Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn keyboard shortcuts. For example, if you choose Page and click the Go To button, the Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn keyboard shortcuts navigate through your document a page at a time.
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