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Start A New Document With A Direct Template:

MS Word gives you the privilege to start work on a designed and formatted document instead of starting a document afresh and begin input formatting and style one after the other, which is known as a start from the blank document. There are two types of templates, namely: online templates, which are templates prepared by MS Word, and personal templates, the ones designed by the user. To start a document on designed online templates or personal templates, kindly:

  • Click on the File tab and select New from the File backstage.
  • Select any list from the available template; you can scroll down to see more of the available template; if you can’t see the desired template, browse the internet to check the MS Word template that is available online.
  • The template will be opened, then start working on it; any formatting used inside the template will be reflected on the document.

Creating A Template From A Prepared Document:

If you wish to make an exploit from the template making, you will grab the decision to make a template from a prepared document. The template created from a fully formatted document will hold the document style and formatting, and whatever text you type into the template document will be structured in the pattern of that document formatting and style where you created it from. To create a template from the prepared document:

  • Prepare a document with specific formatting and style that you can pass to another document.
  • Click on the File tab and select Save as from the File backstage.
  • Click on the browse button to open the Save As dialog box.
  • Insert the desired name for your new template.
  • Move and click the Save As Type menu and select the Word template.
  • Click on the save button to save and close the template.

Note: You may prepare a perfect title page and cover page well and fully formatted and save it as a template so that you can use it to prepare the title page and the cover page next time you want to prepare something of that kind.

Design The Document With A Theme:

A theme contains fonts and colors that you can use to beautify your document; a theme enhances your document formatting; a theme does not alter the style formatting but supports it with different colors and fonts. A theme is majorly concerned with color and font, but it can also take care of graphic works at times.

Applying A Theme To The Document:

The selection of a theme will influence the entire document at a time; if you do not wish to apply a theme to all documents, apply the theme by selecting the text the theme will affect; otherwise, go for style formatting. To apply the theme to a document:

  • Click on the design tab and click on a theme command button.
  • Select a theme for your text from the available theme.

Note: To remove theme formatting from the text, click on Reset to Theme from Templates.

Using Watermark:

A watermark can be an image or text that is implanted across or horizontally over the paper to beautify and to pass out more information, though the watermark is usually dim so that it will not cover the actual text in the paper. Add a watermark to your document with this simple trick

  • Click on the Design tab and menu bar to the page background section.
  • Click on the watermark down arrow and select a watermark template from the available list of watermarks that you can put across your document, You can also edit and insert your text into those watermark templates.

Note: Customize a watermark by selecting Custom watermark from the watermark drop-down menu, Create your watermark within the Custom watermark dialog box, either with graphic or text.

Remove watermark by clicking the Remove watermark command from watermark drop-down menu

Adding Page Colors:

In MS Word there is a special feature called Page Color in which you can add color to the pages of your document. It has a range of beautiful colors. Also, you can customize your own background color. Adding page color makes your document more attractive and beautiful.

  • On the navigation menu, click on the Design option.
  • On the right side of the menu, click on the Page Color option.
  • A color panel will open. Choose your color according to your document as shown:
  • Finally, page color will apply to your document.

Customize Page Color:

  • You can also customize your own color by selecting the More Color option.
  • A Color dialog box will open.
  • Move the pointer according to your color as shown:
  • You can also choose color from the standard option as shown.
  • After selecting color, click on OK.
  • Finally, your customized color will be added to your document.

Knowing More About Borders:

 
 
 
 
 

A border is part of paragraph formatting; it is used to design a paragraph, perhaps the top of the paragraph, bottom, right and left, or any possible combination of the four sides. The border is informed of a line, but the line is of various types such as dash, dot, and so on.

Putting A Paragraph Into A Border:

You can quickly insert a border around your paragraph. To do that, observe the following steps:

  • Select the border or put a cursor pointer anywhere around the paragraph you want to insert with a border.
  • Click on the Home tab and move to the paragraph section, then click on the border menu button.
  • Choose a border style from the drop-down list; you have various border patterns that you can select from the list.

Note: You can apply several borders to a paragraph; for instance, you may select a right border and start the process again to select a left border. You can as well select styles for the border, such as dot, dash, and so on. There are also various colors for the border; all those settings are embedded in the border and shading dialog box.

Putting More Than A Paragraph In A Box:

Use outside borders to enclose more than two or more paragraphs; it will wrap around the group of the paragraph, though there will not be any line to separate this paragraph.

Use all borders to enclose more than two or more paragraphs with the borderline to separate them from paragraph to paragraph.

Getting Border Removed:

Border can get its way out of the paragraph by selecting the paragraph with border and then clicking on no border from the Border drop-down list.

Dealing With Borders And Shadings Dailog Box:

The border and shading dialog box is the storeroom of border settings, where every border apparatus is being kept. To access the border and shading dialog box, do well to:

  • Click on the Home tab and navigate to the paragraph section.
  • Click on the border menu button to list the available border menu.
  • Select the border and shading command below the list to open the border and shading dialog box.

Note: The border and shading dialog box provides you with an option to set the thickness of the borderline from the width section and more border settings.

Enclose The Text With A Border:

You can design the text by enclosing it with an amazing border box. To enclose your text with a box. These are the procedures:

  • Select the block of text you want to enclose with text.
  • Open the border and shading dialog box.
  • Select the border style of your choice and pick “Text” from the “Apply to” drop-down list.
  • Then click on Ok.

Correcting Mistakes with UNDO Command:

The Undo command reverses any mistake you made in MS Word before you press the save button to save your document, actions such as typing, deleting, and any form of formatting. You can access the undo command in two ways:

  • Clicking the undo command from the (QAT) Quick Access toolbar.
  • Undo with shortcut keys by pressing (Ctrl + Z).

Note: the fastest and quickest method to undo an action in a document is to press Ctrl + Z; nevertheless, when you use an Undo command in the (QAT), it will give you more information about an item you want to undo. Remember, you can’t undo action after you have saved a document.

Using REDO Command to Reverse The UNDO Command:

The redo command has no work until you make use of the undo command. Redo command is used mainly to reverse the work that is still in use that you mistakenly undo with undo command. For instance, you type Football World Cup coming up in the year 2025, but it is supposed to be 2023, but you have undone the action reaching up in the year, and thus you have to reverse the action with the redo command. You can access the redo command in two ways:

  • Clicking the redo command from the QAT Quick Access toolbar.
  • Redo with shortcut keys by pressing (Ctrl + Y).

Note: Redo and undo work hand in hand; it means you can reverse an undo action with the redo command, and at the same time you can use undo to reverse too much redo action.

How To Find A Text:

The Find and Replace command has been the greatest basic instrument in MS Word that gives you the chance to be on page 99 and search for a specific word on page two (2) or any page in the document. With the Find and Replace commands, you can carry out any action on the word you find, such as removing, editing, and replacing; for instance, search for the word “thousand” in the document and replace it with the word “million.”.

MS Word has two powerful tools that can be used to search through a document and look for the desired word; they are the navigation pane and the find dialog box.

Find A Piece Of Text:

The perfect tool for finding a piece of text or word is the navigation pane. The navigation pane will highlight the work you search for; immediately, the navigation pane detects the text. The shortcut to bring out the navigation pane is “Ctrl +G,” and you will be given a navigation pane dialog box of this type:

  • Search box: it refers to a field where you will put the text you want to find.
  • Clear button: it is used to clear the text you inserted into the search box.
  • The search results comprise the results gathered from the document.
  • Results: the result section of the navigation panel.
  • The scroll bar: the scroll bar is used to scroll up and down within the result section to view the whole result.

Note: Navigation is the best when it comes to finding a single word; if it fails to find any result, it will display we couldn’t find what you are looking for.

 

 

Finding Formatting:

The Find and Replace dialog box helps you to find a certain text and search for specific formatting on that particular text, or you can search for formatting alone without checking the format through any text. To do either of the above-mentioned, you have to explore the Format button located at the bottom of the Find and Replace dialog box.

As soon as you click on the format button, you will be provided with the categories of formatting that are available, such as tab, frame, and paragraph. Select any category to extract the format that comes with such a category. For instance, if you want to search for a blue card in your document, you can see that the card is blue, underlined, and bold. No qualms, just observe the following steps to find both the text and format:

  • Click on the home tab and move to the Editing group.
  • And click on the Find drop-down arrow, then click on Advance find from the Find drop-down list.
  • Insert the text you are searching for; in this case, you are searching for blue card.
  • Set the dialog box to show details such as all highlight/read highlight, to give about the details of your search text in the document, and click on more/less if needed.
  • Click on no formatting to erase prior formatting applications.
  • Then touch the format button and select the format category you are looking for, for example, Font. Immediately,  the Find Font dialog box will come forth.
  • Now you can choose the format you want to find, such as bold from the font style, blue from the font color, and underline from the underline style, click OK to send the Find font box out, and bring in the Find and Replace dialog box.
  • Under the Find What dialog box, you will see the text search for, and below it, you will see the format search for by making a list of all the format features that the Advanced Find command has found.
  • Click on the Find next button to search for the formatted text. It will immediately be highlighted on the screen.

Note: If you wish to search for format alone without searching for text, kindly follow the same procedure, but you will only need to skip step (c) above, which is the Find What box.

Before using the Find and Replace dialog box at another time, kindly click on the No formatting button to erase any prior formatting features and search for ordinary text because the Find What command was used to remember the previous formatting option.

Making Substitute For A Found Text With Replace Command:

You have nothing to replace until you find something that you will use to replace it. That is why the Find and Replace dialog box merges to search for unwanted text and replace it with the accurate one. Are you confused about how to find a specific word and replace it with another one? Is not difficult; simply ensure to observe the following step:

  • Click on the home tab.
  • Navigate to the Editing group and click on the Replace command, or press the Ctrl + H shortcut on the keyboard to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
  • Insert the text you do not want in the document into the Find what box, which is to be replaced with another; for instance, you may be looking for the weekend, which you will replace with the weekday, then type weekend.
  • In the Replace With box, insert the item you want to use to replace the result of the Find What box in the (c) above, then type weekday.
  • Then click on the Find Next button; immediately, Find What will start the process by searching through the document to find the text; as soon as it sights the text, it will be highlighted.
  • Click the replace button to replace the word selected with the Find What box.
  • Perhaps you want to replace the same text (weekend) with (weekday) throughout your document; kindly click on Replace All instead of Replace. In a jiffy, every word with weekend will be replaced with weekday throughout the document.

Note: If the Find What box finds nothing, you will have to repeat step (c); perhaps the word you type is not in the document.

Interpreting Block Of Next What Is A Block In MS Word:

Block is the range of text selected in MS Word; what makes it a block is that it draws a border around the selected item. Anytime you select a character, word, line of text, etc., you have made a block of text, and the distinguishing feature of a block of text is that its items will be highlighted from the start to an end from another item in the document. Immediately a block of text is made, a tiny toolbar will appear at any side of the block. Given you a chance to format the block of text, such as bold, italic, underline, etc., you can as well carry out a specific action on the block of text by right-clicking on the block of text, such as move, copy, delete, and many more.

A block of text could be text, image, character, and non-text character.

Indication Of The Block Of Text:

The major indication of a block of text amidst other text in the document is the border creation, which is characterized with a highlight from the start to its endpoint, which can only be achieved by selecting a concerned text.

Making Text Selection With The Mouse:

A mouse can be used to select a block of text in a major two-perfect way, either by dragging over the text or by clicking. We have to check the two ways for more understanding:

To make a text selection with the mouse dragging over, simply:

  • Locate where you want your selection to start from and place your mouse cursor at that location.
  • Immediately you place the cursor at the beginning of the spot, drag the mouse over the text to the exact end where you want to end the selection

To make a text selection with the mouse clicking, I have never seen the fastest and most accurate means of selecting a block of text other than the mouse clicking method. Let us quickly check the mouse-clicking method.

Copying and Moving A Block Of Text:

Once you select a range of text (block), such a block can be moved or copied; copying means to retain the original and duplicate it to another location, while moving means taking away the original block to another location. Let us quickly check what it involves to move or copy a block:

  • Select the block of text you want to move or copy.
  • Touch the Home tab.
  • Move to the clipboard group, and choose copy or cut for copying and moving, respectively.

Place the cursor pointer to the spot where you want to paste the block you have copied or cut above in (d).

 

Saving A Document For The First Time:

  • Saving a document is an essential part of MS Word. Saving gives you the privilege to retrieve your document anytime the need arises and use it for whatever purpose it is being created for. When you save a document, you create a room for it in the local storage or cloud storage.
  • You have to save your document as soon as you type a page or the first line; you can’t tell anything that can happen; the PC may crash, the power may be taken off, and the like. Study the below process to save a document for the first time.
  • Click on the File tab and choose Save As or press Ctrl + S for the shortcut
  • Select appropriate storage for the document, such as PC for the local storage or OneDrive for cloud storage. You may select recent folders you have used to save a file before. When you choose PC or OneDrive, you will be prompted to select a folder, either desktop, document, or another folder you created. The moment you select a folder location, the Save As dialog box will come forth.
  • Enter a concise and identifiable name in the File name box; Word will guess a file name for you based on the heading or any words in the document.
  • If you like the document name the program guesses for you, click on the Save button, but if you do not, type another perfect one and click on the Save button, and the document will save immediately.
  • Immediately after you click on the save button, you will be transited back to your document, with the name you inserted as the document name in the File name box at the center of the screen, provided your document is saved successfully.
  • Note: The Save As command can also allow you to save your document to another location in another format with a different name. It is advisable to first save your file on the main system storage, then use Save As to later save it to the removable disc or other storage media.

Abiding With The Saving Rules To Avoid Saving Error:

  • You have to stick to word-saving rules, such as do not save two documents with a similar name, do not add a special character to the file name, and so on. Any time you violate the rule you have, you will receive an error note, such as the file name is not valid, the file already exists, and so on.
  • For the file name that is not valid, remove any special character of this kind that is banned from naming a file (: *? \ /|< >).
  • For the file name that already exists, kindly pick the best option, which is Save change with a different name, then type a different name in the File name box and click on save.

Saving Changes To An Already Saved Document:

After the initial saving, the more you incorporate changes to your document, the more you have to apply the saved changes to the document to keep updating the document. To save a document Click on the save button on the Quick Access toolbar or press (Ctrl + S).

Creating a PDF File:

Many people prefer the PDF format of a document to the original word format of a document, though the universally acceptable format is that of the word format Whether you are sharing a document on the web, saving it on the cloud, or sending it to others via email, some person will specify PDF format. For instance, an employer can specify that your resume or CV be in PDF format. To change word format to PDF, kindly study the guides below:

  1. Update the current changes by saving your document once more, either with Ctrl + S or other means.
  2. Click on Print from the File tab backstage to send for the print screen.
  3. Click on the printer menu to access the list of available printers.
  4. Select Microsoft Print to PDF and click on the Print button. It will not print anything, but you will be transited to the Save Print Output As dialog box.
  5. Select a file location for the NEW PDF document and insert a file name.
  6. To create a PDF file, click the Save button.

Personalize The Custom Dictionary:

Word permits you to create a correctly spelled word that MS Word has labeled as a misspelled word; as soon as you add them to a custom dictionary, such texts will be recognized as correct spelling. You can add a word to the custom dictionary and remove any text as well. To do so, simply:

  • Click the File tab and select the Option from the file backstage to open the Word Options dialog box.
  • Select proofing from the box and click the custom dictionary.
  • The custom dictionary dialog box will come forth; select “Custom (Default).” You may not have any other option apart from “Custom (Default)” unless you upgrade your PC.
  • Then Click Edit word list, A dialog box will be opened, which will provide you with a box where you can add a new word to the Custom dictionary, and you will also see the previous list of the word you have added, To erase any word from the list, kindly click on any word and choose delete

Creating and opening A Document Essential Terms You Have To Understand:

The first activity to undertake in MS Word is creating a new document, then working on the document and saving it for another time, whether for printing or opening for later editing. Before that, let us quickly paraphrase some essential terms before document creation proper:

  1. Folders: This is the container where you store your document. You can store as many documents into the folder until there is no storage on the hard disk.
  2. File: It is the equivalent file; when you save a document, you find it easy to call it a file rather than call it a document; in short, you can call File a document and vice versa.
  3. Local Drive: This is the main storage of your PC; its size depends on the capacity of the hard drive. Nothing can happen to the files or documents you saved on the local drive unless the PC does not work anymore.
  4. Cloud storage: It is otherwise called iCloud; it is used to save files to the internet. There are many means of storing files or documents on the internet, but the most reliable and steady is the Microsoft OneDrive. Saving on the cloud gives you two benefits: it will be saved forever without losing it, and it can be accessed anytime at any place on any device.

Create A Brand-New Word Document Form A Blank Document Or Template:

Setting the Status Bar:

The status bar is located at the bottom left of the Word document. The status bar has a lot of settings that can help you work at a fast pace if you set it very well. Right-click the status bar to access and customize the status bar.

Customizing the status bar will help you to off/on any item. When an item has a mark indication, such a feature is activated, and you will see those items on the status bar, but the items without marks have been disabled and are not visible in the status bar.

The Quick Access Toolbar (QTA):

QAT is the storeroom of all items you find useful most of the time; it is based at the upper left corner above the menu bar, though you can bring it down below the ribbon if the item you added to it increases to a great extent by tapping on the show below the ribbon.

Adding Commands To The QTA:

For your convenience, any item you find useful and helpful most of the time in the course of preparing a document is bound to be added to the QAT. To add an item to the QAT, please

  • Tap on the QAT menu button and place a mark on any command you want to add to the QAT list.
  • For the commands that are not listed in the QAT list, do well to: Move to the Ribbon and search for the command you can add; right-click on the command and pick Add to QAT from the fly-out menu.

Regulating the QAT:

To get deeper into using the QAT, you can click on the More command from the QAT menu button. Immediately you will find yourself in the Word Options dialog box, having selected Quick Access Toolbar, where all commands reside.

You can add any command; hereby, simply click on the command to select it, then click on the Add button to add the command to the QAT list, and click Ok.

Note: To access more commands, tap on the Word command instead of the popular command from the “Choose commands from.”

Personalizing the Ribbon Tab:

You can personalize the ribbon tab, but to some extent, the in-built tabs can’t be restructured, and thus, they can’t be amended, but you can add the ribbon of your own. Put whatever command you prefer and name it any name. To personalize the ribbon tab, do well to:

  • Click on the File tab and pick Option from the backstage to open the Word Options dialog box
  • Pick the customize ribbon at the left side of the Word Options dialog box.

Note: command and main tab are arranged left and right, respectively, in the customize the ribbon and shortcuts menu.