Getting Started with Word 2013
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Microsoft Word is a word-processing application—perhaps the most widely used word-processing application in existence. You can use Word to write letters, memos, reports, and essays. Because it is so pervasive and allows you to save in a variety of file formats, there’s an excellent chance you can create a version of a given Word document that can be opened by almost any recipient.
In this introductory chapter, you’ll learn about the Word interface, working in different views, and entering and editing text. For information on launching and quitting Word, as well as performing basic document-related tasks, such as creating, opening, saving, and closing documents, see Chapter 2.
The Word Interface
This section discusses the interface elements 
you’ll use when creating and editing Word documents. Many elements, such as the Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar, can also be found in Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
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File tab. Click the File tab to perform file-related activities in the Backstage 
, such as creating, opening, saving, and printing. Click Options to set Word preferences. To open a document on which you’ve recently worked, select Open and then click its filename in the Recent Documents list.
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When printing the current document in the Backstage, print settings options and a preview are automatically displayed.
Quick Access Toolbar. Icons for common commands (such as Save and Undo) can be found on this customizable toolbar.
Help. Click this icon or press F1 to open the Word Help window 
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Click text links and icons in Word Help to view help topics. Click the close box (X) to dismiss Word Help.
Ribbon. The Ribbon is Office’s replacement for the program menus found in Word 2003 and earlier versions. Similar commands and procedures are listed together on a tab, such as Insert or View. Within each tab, procedures are further divided into groups, based on similarity of function. To perform a command, you switch to the appropriate tab by clicking it and then click the command’s icon, menu, or control.
Rulers. Click the View : Show : Ruler check box to hide or show the horizontal and vertical rulers. Use the controls on the horizontal ruler to set or change tab stops and indents for the selected paragraph(s). The vertical ruler is visible only on the page that contains the text insertion mark.
Task panes. To make it easier to format and edit certain types of material, such as inserted charts and photos, you can open a task-related pane on the side of the document window. Many task panes are opened by clicking what was formerly a dialog box launcher on the Ribbon 
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Click this icon at the bottom of a Ribbon group to launch a related task pane or dialog box.
Navigation Pane. When the Navigation Pane is displayed (View : Show : Navigation Pane), you can use it to go to a particular spot in a document by clicking a listed heading, page thumbnail, or search result.
Document. Most of Word’s window is reserved for the current word-processing document. You can close panes or switch to Read Mode to increase the display area for the document.
Scroll bar and scroll box. You can drag the scroll box, click in the scroll bar, or click the arrow icons at either end of the scroll bar to navigate through a document’s pages.
Page indicator. This indicator displays the current page number, as well as the total number of pages in the document. Click it to open or close the Navigation Pane.
Words indicator. This indicator shows the word count for the document. If text is selected, it shows the number of words in the selection. Click the indicator to open the Word Count dialog box 
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For detailed word count information, open the Word Count dialog box.
Proofing indicator. This indicator shows if there are proofing errors that need to be addressed, such as misspellings, repeated words, or extra spaces between words. Click the indicator to open a task pane in which you can view and optionally correct each suspected error.
View controls. Click an icon to switch views 
. You can also switch views by clicking an icon in the View : Views group. The purpose of each view is explained in the following section.
You can switch to some views by clicking an icon in the status bar.
Zoom controls. Change the current magnification by dragging the slider, clicking the + (increase) or – (decrease) button, or clicking the zoom percentage text.
Close. Click the close box (X) to close an open document or to quit Word. (When the current document is the only one that’s open, clicking the close box quits Word.) You can also close the active document by clicking Close in the Backstage 
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Resume Reading
When you reopen a Word document, the first page is displayed and the text insertion mark is set at the beginning of the document. In Word 2013, you can optionally jump to where you previously left off.
On opening, a Resume Reading icon appears in the right margin. Hover the cursor over it to learn the approximate jump point; click the icon if you want to scroll to that spot in the document.
