Microsoft Word 2007 represents a major update from Word 2003. Much is familiar from earlier versions but the program’s interface is now more visual. The new organization of the interface makes finding the commands that you need easier.

The most conspicuous change resides in what Microsoft calls the Ribbon. The Ribbon is the strip of tabs at the top of the page that provides a logical and visible sorting of commands. Microsoft incorporates the Ribbon into most of the programs in Microsoft Office 2007, thereby creating consistency amongst Office products.

The Ribbon is the best starting place for learning to use Word 2007.

The Ribbon

The Ribbon is the tabbed band of options at the top of the page. The Ribbon contains eight tabs. Each tab contains several boxes that gather commands into logical groupings. The Home tab presents the most commonly used commands. On the Home tab, the groupings are:

• Clipboard
• Font
• Paragraph
• styles
• Editing

Above the tabs and to the left are six basic command icons that always remain visible.

• The icon to the left is Start, pictured above. Click this to begin a new document, or save, print, prepare, send, or publish it. You can also set preferences by clicking Options. Recent documents are listed here, as well.
• The arrow to the left is Undo Typing. Click this to undo your most recent action. Click the triangle to see all of your recent actions listed chronologically. You can roll back to any point in your document by clicking on earlier changes.
• The arrow to the right is Repeat Typing. Click this to repeat your last action.
• The folder icon is Open. Click this to open a document.
• The diskette icon is Save. Click this to save your document.
• The chart and pencil icon is Draw Table. Click this to draw a table.
• The printer icon is Print. Click this to print your document.
• The triangle to the right is Customize Quick Access Toolbar. Click this to select which commands you want visible on this toolbar. You can select almost any Word command.
  Help
• To access Word Help, click the question mark icon at the top right. This opens the Word Help dialogue box

Word Help lets you search topics as well as browse them. Word Help answers specific questions as well as presents general articles on working with Word. Some of this material is online so you will need an internet connection to access it.

Beginning a Document

Word starts with a blank document. You can begin creating your document immediately. To begin a new blank document:

1. Click Start.
2. From the dropdown menu, click New.
3. Click Blank Document.

Word offers many templates. Templates are pre-formatted documents like letters, calendars, and resumes, into which you can type your own information. Click on one to download.

Opening a Document

To open any document on your computer or on any external drive connected to your computer:

1. Click Start.
2. From the dropdown menu, click Open. This opens a search box in the last folder that you opened. Word’s default is Documents or My Documents but you can search anywhere on your computer, or on exterior drives. Search the directory using the Explorer Bar at the top of the search box, or select one of the folders in the favorite links list.

Note: To facilitate your search, click one of the buttons in the search box to sort files in the folder. For instance, if you know the name of the file that you want, click Name. This will alphabetize the file list. You can also sort by date, file size, or by a tag that you created.

3. Click the file that you want. It will open and you can begin working on it.

Note: Word lists recently opened documents. Click the Start Button then click any listed document to open.

Saving a Document

The next two items on the start menu are for saving your document. Save saves your document in whatever way you have already selected. If your document has not already been saved, Save will open the Save As dialogue box. This lets you determine where to save the document, and in what format. The Save As procedure follows.

1. Click Start.
2. From the dropdown menu, click Save As. This opens a dialogue box listing formats to which you can save your document.
3. Click a format (more on formats follows).
4. Choose or confirm which folder to save the document to in the explorer bar.
5. Supply a file name for your document.
6. Click Save to save the file, or click Cancel if you change your mind.

Compatibility needs consideration. Word 2007 can save to many formats, including Microsoft’s new proprietary format docx. This new format allows the greatest use of Word 2007’s features but it is not compatible with earlier versions of Word. Word 2007 can write to and save documents in earlier Word formats, but previous versions of the program cannot read docx. Remember this when sending files to others. Saving in Plain Text or Rich Text Format will produce documents that anyone can open, but those bare bones formats lack much formatting ability.

Word 2007 saves to numerous other formats, including many older Word versions, Word templates, web page, xml, and more.

Note:Save often so that you do not lose your work. You can also use the keyboard shortcut ctrl-s: hold down the control key and the ‘s’ key at the same time.

Note: Word also has an Auto Recover feature, which you can set to save at files whatever interval you choose. AutoRecover saves a copy of your document, in case of a program or system crash. The next time you open Word, Word will give you the option to save any document that was open during the incident.

1. Click Start.
3. From the dropdown menu, click Word Options.
4. Click Save. Make sure that Save AutoRecover information is selected.
5. Click the up or down arrow to set the interval between AutoRecover saves.
6. Click OK.

Formatting a Document

Most formatting for your document can be done from the options on the Home tab of the Ribbon. These options control how your document looks.

• The Clipboard lets you move text and images around in your document or import from other documents.

Note: Hover the pointer over an icon to see the name of the button and a brief description of its function.

• Cut, Copy, and Paste are familiar commands for selecting and moving images or text within a document. The keyboard shortcuts for these are, respectively: ctrl-x, ctrl-c and ctrl-v.
• Format Painter copies format from one place to another. Click Format Painter, then click on a portion of text with the format that you want to copy. Click on the target text to copy the source format.
• Clipboard stores what you have cut. Click the double arrow to see all the cut items from your session. Place pointer where you would like to paste the item, then click the item.

Font

Microsoft Word offers many fonts to add distinction and emphasis to your document.

Select a Font Face or Attribute.

Two ways exist for making format selections:

1. Click the appropriate format button then enter text. Click the button again to turn off the formatting.
2. Select the text that you want to format then click the appropriate format button. Everything within your selection will conform to your format choice.

Selecting a Font

1. Click the arrow in the font list to reveal the drop down menu.
2. Select a font face from the illustrated list of fonts.
3. Click the font size arrow to open the drop down menu.
4. Select a size from the drop down menu. You can also click Grow Font (the Large A and Shrink Font (the small a to increase or decrease font size, respectively. Font size will increase or decrease incrementally with each click. Alternatively, enter a font size directly into the box.
5. To clear formatting, click Clear Formatting (the AA) icon.

Changing Font Attributes

You can change the look of fonts in several ways:

• Bold. The font is extra dark.
• Italic. The font is slanted.
• Underlined. The font is underlined. Click the arrow for a drop down menu of different line styles and colors available.
• Strikethrough. Strikethrough is mostly used in the review process to indicate words to remove from a document but it is sometimes used in non-standard ways.
• Subscript. Small font set lower than regular fonts. Used in chemical notation, such as H₂0.
• Superscript. Small font set higher than regular fonts. Used in mathematical notation, such as E=MC².

Note: Font attributes can be combined. For instance, bold and italic can be combined like this.

• Change Font (AA). Lets you change font case.
• Sentence Case. Changes the selection to conform to normal sentence capitalization.
• Lower Case. Changes all words to lower case.
• Upper Case. Changes all words to upper case.
• Capitalize Each Word. Capitalizes the first letter of each word.
• Toggle Case. Changes the case of every letter.
• Text Highlight Color. Places color over selected text as if a highlighter was used. Click the arrow for a drop down menu of available colors.
• Font Color. Change the font color. Click the arrow for a drop down menu of available colors.
• Click the double arrows to open the Font dialogue box. This gives all font options. Set font style for a letter, a word, the entire document, or change the defaults for all your work.

Additional Font Attributes

In addition to the options already described, the Font dialogue box lets you do many other things to the fonts. Select the attributes that you want to use, then click OK:

• Shadow.
• Outline
• Emboss
• Engrave
• Small Caps
• All Caps

Note: As already mentioned, attributes can be combined. Obviously, combining too many attributes will prove unreadable.