INTRODUCTION TO MS-WORD

INTRODUCTION
Let us consider an office scene. Many letters are typed in the office. The officer dictates a letter.
The typist first types a draft copy of the letter. The officer goes through it to check mistakes
regarding spelling errors, missing words, etc. and suggests corrections. The typist changes the
letter as suggested by the officer. This is a simple example of word processing.
There are many software packages to do the job of word processing. Some of them work in DOS
environment. Example are WordStar, Word Perfect and Professional Write. But in these days
working in WINDOWS is becoming more and more popular. So let us consider software for
word processing which works in WINDOWS. Our choice is MS-WORD because it is the most
popular software in these days.
MS-WORD is a part of the bigger package called MS OFFICE, which can do much more than
word processing. In fact when you open up MS OFFICE you will find four main components in
it. They are MS-WORD (for word processing), MS EXCEL (for spreadsheet), MS ACCESS (for
database management) and MS POWERPOINT (for presentation purposes). However, we will
limit ourselves to MS-WORD only in this lesson.
Features of MS Word

When it comes to bashing out everyday documents, there’s rarely much need to
venture beyond Word’s Home tab. But tucked away within the interface, there’s a
wealth of additional tools waiting to be discovered. These features aren’t really
“secret”, but many users never find them – and they could save you considerable
time and effort.

Below we outline our top 20 easily overlooked features in Word. Many of them
have been in Word for a decade or more, and can be found in the menus of Word
XP and Word 2003, but we’ll focus on the ribbon interface from Word 2007 and
above, which was, after all, invented to help users find the software’s more esoteric
features.
1. Select similar formatting

In an ideal world, every element in your document would have a style assigned to
it. But if you’ve relied on local formatting, it’s still easy to make global changes.
The Editing section, at the far right of the Home tab, includes the handy option to
“Select all text with similar formatting”. This lets you easily highlight all your ad
hoc headings, captions and so forth at once and tweak their appearance in a single
swoop – or apply a style for easier management in the future.

2. Clipboard panel

The clipboard panel offers a convenient way to keep more than one element on
your clipboard at once. Click the tiny pop-out icon within the Clipboard section of
the Home tab to open it. Up to 24 recent cut and copy operations are remembered,
and you can click on any one of them to paste it at the insertion point. The Options
dropdown at the bottom lets you control when the Clipboard panel appears; one
option is to make it appear when you press Ctrl+C twice.

3. Translate

Word’s Review | Translate function sends the text of your document to the
Microsoft Translator web page and displays a translation in a browser window. In
Word 2010 and 2013, you can also activate Review | Translate | Mini Translator,
which presents a ghosted tooltip when you hover over a selected passage of text;
move your pointer onto it to see a pop-up translation in your selected language.
There are dozens of languages to choose from: browse them by selecting Choose
Translation Language from the Translate dropdown.
4. Kerning

Professional desktop publishing software supports kerning – the selective

adjustment of spacing between characters to make text more aesthetically pleasing.
Word doesn’t do this by default, but it can be turned on by clicking the pop-out
icon in the Font section of the Home tab and ticking the box labelled “Kerning for
fonts”; enter a minimum point size in the box to the right. If you use kerning on
tiny fonts, however, the letters can appear to run together, which reduces
readability.

5. Insert Chart

If you want to include an Excel chart in your document, you don’t have to leave
Word. Selecting Insert | Chart in Word will open a miniature Excel view, in which
you can edit or import your data. Just close the Excel window once you’re done –
it will be presented in chart form within Word. At the top of the Word window, the
Chart Tools tabs give you full control over the design and appearance of your
chart, so there’s no need to launch Excel manually.

6. SmartArt

SmartArt helps you illustrate processes and relationships through almost 200 pre-
designed layouts for pyramid organisations, cycles, hierarchies, matrices and more.
To use it in Word, simply click Insert | SmartArt and select a template. Then type
your labels into the floating panel that appears and drag the handles to resize the
SmartArt. If you want it to float over your document, you can achieve this easily
by creating a textbox (via Insert | Text Box) and putting your SmartArt inside it.
OBJECTIVES
After going through this lesson you should be in a position to
· start the MS-WORD package
· be familiar with the MS-WORD screen
· advantages and Features of Word Processing
· some common Word Processing Packages
· how to invoke Ms-Word
· learn the capabilities of Ms-Word

WHAT IS WORD-PROCESSING?
Word Processor is a Software package that enables you to create, edit, print and save documents
for future retrieval and reference. Creating a document involves typing by using a keyboard and
saving it. Editing a document involves correcting the spelling mistakes, if any, deleting or
moving words sentences or paragraphs.
(a) Advantages of Word Processing
One of the main advantages of a word processor over a conventional typewriter is that a word
processor enables you to make changes to a document without retyping the entire document.
(b) Features of Word Processing
Most Word Processor available today allows more than just creating and editing documents.
They have wide range of other tools and functions, which are used in formatting the documents.
The following are the main features of a Word Processor
i) Text is typing into the computer, which allows alterations to be made easily.
ii) Words and sentences can be inserted, amended or deleted.
iii) Paragraphs or text can be copied /moved throughout the document.
iv) Margins and page length can be adjusted as desired.
v) Spelling can be checked and modified through the spell check facility.
vi) Multiple document/files can be merged.
vii) Multiple copies of letters can be generated with different addresses through
the mail-merge facility.
(c) Some Common Word Processing Packages
The followings are examples of some popular word processor available
· Softword
· WordStar
· Word perfect
· Microsoft word
Disadvantages of Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word requires a computer to edit or view the documentswhich may

sometimes not be there especially when on the go , The people use the same
templates , So , The documents just becomeclones of each other and help
option sometimes provides vague answers .
Typing is impossible when there is a black out or laptops run out ofbatteries ,The
plagiarism is easy to do because it is very easy to just copy and paste and the
thesaurus has very limited vocabulary .
Some symbols aren’t easily accessible which makes the typing in different
languages that use a different alphabet is difficult and somecomplex mathematical
equations would be easier to hand write .
While sharing and collaboration of the documents within a small group , only one
person can make corrections at any given time , Theshared documents can not be
edited in real time and restartingnumbering & bullets is problematic .
The people tend to become careless because they know they can easily correct the
mistakes , Spelling and grammar checker can not spot all the mistakes and the
people can become dependent on them .
The bullets and numbering sometimes have a mind of their own , The auto-format
tool can be annoyingly inflexible at times , The images and the figures can be quite
stubborn and hard to position well .
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF MS-WORD
Ms-Word not only supports word processing features but also DTP features. Some of the
important features of Ms-Word are listed below:
i) Using word you can create the document and edit them later, as and when required,
by adding more text, modifying the existing text, deleting/moving some part of it.
ii) Changing the size of the margins can reformat complete document or part of text.
iii) Font size and type of fonts can also be changed. Page numbers and Header and
Footer can be included.
iv) Spelling can be checked and correction can be made automatically in the entire
document. Word count and other statistics can be generated.
v) Text can be formatted in columnar style as we see in the newspaper. Text boxes can
be made.
vi) Tables can be made and included in the text.
vii) Word also allows the user to mix the graphical pictures with the text. Graphical
pictures can either be created in word itself or can be imported from outside like from Clip Art
Gallery.
viii) Word also provides the mail-merge facility.
ix) Word also has the facility of macros. Macros can be either attached to some
function/special keys or to a tool bar or to a menu.
x) It also provides online help of any option.
IN-TEXT QUESTIONS
State True or False
1. (a) Word processor is Software Package that enables you to create, edit, print and save
document.
(b) WordStar is a popular Word processor.
(c) Changing the size of the margins cannot reformat complete document or part of the text.
(d) Word has the facility of Macros.
(e) Word does not allow the user to mix the graphical pictures with text.
GETTING STARTED WITH MS-WORD
We have already told you that for working in Ms-Word you should be familiar with WINDOWS.
If you have not covered WINDOWS so far then read that first and then go through MS-WORD.
By now you must be aware of the fact that a software package is improved from time to time.
These improvements are sold in the market as new versions of the same software. Thus you will
find many versions of MS-WORD being used in different offices. In this lesson we will cover
the version MS-WORD 97, which is latest in the market and contain many improvements over
the older versions. However, you do not have to worry if you have an older version such as
WORD 6.0 or WORD 95. All the commands available in these older versions are also available
in WORD 97 and they are compatible.
While working in MS-WORD you have to work with a mouse. Also one can work, to some
extent, through the keyboard. The use of mouse is simpler as it is fully menu driven. In MS-
WORD every command is available in the form of ‘icons’.
You can go inside MS-WORD by the following way
1. Take the mouse pointer to START button on the task bar. Click the left mouse button.
The monitor will show like as follows:
mail merge
Birthday/Marriage Invitation using Mail Merge Feature of Microsoft Word.
Mailings - Mail Merge

1. Create a New MS Word Document.

2. Mailings Tab >> Start Mail Merge Group >> Start Mail Merge >> Envelopes.
3. Start Mail Merge Group >> Select Recipients >>

 Use Existing (if you have already the list. E.g. Excel List Or Any other Data List Files)
 If not follow the steps.
1. Type new list>>New Address List box will appear.>> To delete some colums click on
"Customize Colums..." button.
2.
3. Select the field which you want to delete>> Then click on delete button>> OK
4.
5. Start Typing your Address lists(Title,Name,Address,Phone ...etc.)
6.
7. Click Ok >> Then Save dialog box will appear>> Give a file name and save it.
4. Write your mail content & Insert Fields >> Insert Merge Field >> Then Click One by one as per your
requirement.
5. Finish Group >> Finish & Merge >> Edit Individual Documents>> Merge Records >> All > OK
 A word processor is a software package that helps to create and edit document. Creating
a Document involves typing in it to the internal memory of computer and saving it by
writing it on the spelling mistake, if any and deleting or moving words, sentences or
photographs.

Starting:-

The steps to activate the Microsoft word are:-

1. Click on the start button on the task bar.

2. Select the programme option from the start menu.

3. Click on the Microsoft word option, this involves MS-Word and displays a Document
window.

TITLE BAR:-

Displays the name of the programmer, the name of currently active word document, the
control menu, icon, the maximize button, minimize button and the restore and close
button.

MENU BAR:-

It is positioned below title bar. It contains options like- file, edit, view and format. Each
of these menu bars has drop menu.

TOOL BAR:-

Helps the user to perform tasks faster and with ease. Two of the most commonly used
tool bar are standard bar and the formatting tool bar. The standard toolbar provides
shortcuts for menu command while the formatting toolbar contains tools related to
formatting of the text in the documents. When the user starts MS-Word, these toolbars
are displayed just below the menu bar.

RULAR BAR:-

Allows the user to format the vertical alignment of text in a document.

STATUS BAR:-

Displays the information about the active documents or the task on which the user is
currently working. This includes page number, the column number, and the line number
on which the cursor is positioned & so on. The status bar is positioned at the bottom of
the window.

SCROLL BAR:-

Helps to scroll the contents of documents. The word document window has two scroll
bars.

CREATING A DOCUMENT

Word allows you to create and save a document on the disk. The steps to create and save
a new document are:-

1. Select the new option from the File menu.

2. Select the blank document icon.

3. Click on the document radio button in Create new box.

4. Click on the OK button.

A Blank new document is displayed.

OPENING

The steps to open an existing document are:-

 1. Select the open option from the file menu.

2. Select the appropriate drive and folder.

3. Type the name of file to be opened in the file name text box or select the file from the
list.

4. Click on the Open button.

SAVING

When a document is typed, it is stored in the internal memory of the machine. In order to
preserve the document for the future use, it needs to be saved on the disk. The steps to
save a document are:-

1. Select the Save as option from the File menu.

2. Type the file name in the File name box.

3. Click on the save button. By default, new document is saved as.

Advantages of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel allows you to manipulate, manage and analyze data helping assist in
decision making and creating efficiencies that will directly affect your bottom line.
Whether you’re using it for business or to help manage personal database and expenses
Microsoft Excel gives you the right tools to enable you to accomplish all your needs.

The advantages of Excel are wide and varied; here are the main advantages:

 Easy and effective comparisons - With the powerful analytical tools included
within Microsoft Excel you have the ability to analyze large amounts of data to
discover trends and patterns that will influence decisions. Microsoft Excel’s
graphing capabilities allows you to summarize your data enhancing your ability to
organize and structure your data.
  Powerful analysis of large amounts of data - Recent upgrades to the Excel
spreadsheet enhance your ability to analyze large amounts of data. With powerful
filtering, sorting and search tools you are able to quickly and easily narrow down
the criteria that will assist in your decisions. Combine these tools with the tables,
Pivot Tables and Graphs you can find the information that you want quickly and
easily even if you have hundreds of thousands of data items. While you will need
the latest technology to get the best out of Microsoft Excel it is scalable and can be
used at home on your low powered PC or at work on your high powered Laptop.
 Working Together - With the advent of the Excel Web App you can now work
on spreadsheets simultaneously with other users. The ability to work together
enhances your ability to streamline processes and allows for ‘brainstorming’
sessions with large sets of data – the collaboration tools allow you to get the most
out of the sharing capabilities of Microsoft Excel.The added bonus is that as the
Excel Worksheet is web based you can collaborate anywhere – you are no longer
tied to your desk but can work on spreadsheets on the go – this is ideal for a
businessman on the go.
 Microsoft Excel Mobile & iPad Apps - With the advent of the tablet and the
smart phone it is now possible to take your worksheets to a client or a meeting
without having to bring along your Laptop. The power of these mobile devices
now allows you to manipulate data and update your spreadsheets and then view
the spreadsheets immediately on your phone or tablet.

Microsoft Excel is a very powerful tool, but it is versatile enough to have some fun.
Within the templates is a section of games - this is an interactive Battleships worksheet. |
Source

Advanced users of Microsoft Excel can use Visual Basic for Applications to automate
Excel. VBA is a very powerful programming language that allows you to enhance the
overall functionality of Excel.
Disadvantages of Microsoft Excel

 Not easy to share – Microsoft have made great strides with their Web
applications but the sharing functionality still has a long way to go to become
world class. Part of the problem is that often the ability for sharing a tool requires
extra software to be installed on the PC and this often becomes cumbersome.
Tools like Google Documents are revolutionizing the way people share documents
online.
 Non relational – I use MS Access for databases and love the relational aspect of
the database. The idea that you can link data by common elements (such as
employee ID, Stock Number etc) greatly assists in the reduction of data, and the
ability to analyze data. Aside from some database functions and some lookup tools
Microsoft Excel lacks any true relational functionality.
 Scalability – Excel 2010 has introduced larger spreadsheets and binary formats,
howver using large amounts of data on the average PC will slow down and often
freeze the PC. As some of the competing tools are in the 'cloud' file size does not
become a problem.
 No Forms – while you can use forms within VBA, the average user will not have
much knowledge of VBA and therefore not be able to incorporate functional forms
into their spreadsheets quickly.
 Customizable Graphs – Microsoft Excel does offer a good variety of graph
capabilities, however the customization of the standard formats, and the
combination of different data sets and different types of graph is awkward and not
intuitive. For a powerful worksheet this is a big disadvantage.
 Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that

combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and
software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications,
included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine.
It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.[1]

Software developers, data architects and power users can use Microsoft Access to
develop application software. Like other Microsoft Office applications, Access is
supported by Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), an object-based programming
language that can reference a variety of objects including DAO (Data Access Objects),
ActiveX Data Objects, and many other ActiveX components. Visual objects used in
forms and reports expose their methods and properties in the VBA programming
environment, and VBA code modules may declare and call Windows operating system
operations.

Uses

In addition to using its own database storage file, Microsoft Access also may be used as
the 'front-end' of a program while other products act as the 'back-end' tables, such as
Microsoft SQL Server and non-Microsoft products such as Oracle and Sybase. Multiple
backend sources can be used by a Microsoft Access Jet Database (ACCDB and MDB
formats). Similarly, some applications such as Visual Basic, ASP.NET, or Visual Studio
.NET will use the Microsoft Access database format for its tables and queries. Microsoft
Access may also be part of a more complex solution, where it may be integrated with
other technologies such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word,
Microsoft PowerPoint and ActiveX controls.
Access tables support a variety of standard field types, indices, and referential integrity
including cascading updates and deletes. Access also includes a query interface, forms to
display and enter data, and reports for printing. The underlying Jet database, which
contains these objects, is multi-user and handles record-locking.

Repetitive tasks can be automated through macros with point-and-click options. It is also
easy to place a database on a network and have multiple users share and update data
without overwriting each other's work. Data is locked at the record level which is
significantly different from Excel which locks the entire spreadsheet.

There are template databases within the program and for download from Microsoft's
website. These options are available upon starting Access and allow users to enhance a
database with predefined tables, queries, forms, reports, and macros. Database templates
support VBA code but Microsoft's templates do not include VBA code.

Programmers can create solutions using VBA, which is similar to Visual Basic 6.0 (VB6)
and used throughout the Microsoft Office programs such as Excel, Word, Outlook and
PowerPoint. Most VB6 code, including the use of Windows API calls, can be used in
VBA. Power users and developers can extend basic end-user solutions to a professional
solution with advanced automation, data validation, error trapping, and multi-user
support.

The number of simultaneous users that can be supported depends on the amount of data,
the tasks being performed, level of use, and application design. Generally accepted limits
are solutions with 1 GB or less of data (Access supports up to 2 GB) and it performs quite
well with 100 or fewer simultaneous connections (255 concurrent users are supported).
This capability is often a good fit for department solutions. If using an Access database
solution in a multi-user scenario, the application should be "split". This means that the
tables are in one file called the back end (typically stored on a shared network folder) and
the application components (forms, reports, queries, code, macros, linked tables) are in
another file called the front end. The linked tables in the front end point to the back end
file. Each user of the Access application would then receive his or her own copy of the
front end file.

Applications that run complex queries or analysis across large datasets would naturally
require greater bandwidth and memory. Microsoft Access is designed to scale to support
more data and users by linking to multiple Access databases or using a back-end database
like Microsoft SQL Server. With the latter design, the amount of data and users can scale
to enterprise-level solutions.

Microsoft Access's role in web development prior to version 2010 is limited. User
interface features of Access, such as forms and reports, only work in Windows. In
versions 2000 through 2003 an Access object type called Data Access Pages created
publishable web pages. Data Access Pages are no longer supported. The Microsoft Jet
Database Engine, core to Access, can be accessed through technologies such as ODBC or
OLE DB. The data (i.e., tables and queries) can be accessed by web-based applications
developed in ASP.NET, PHP, or Java. With the use of Microsoft's Terminal Services and
Remote Desktop Application in Windows Server 2008 R2, organizations can host Access
applications so they can be run over the web.[24] This technique does not scale the way a
web application would but is appropriate for a limited number of users depending on the
configuration of the host.

Features

Users can create tables, queries, forms and reports, and connect them together with
macros. Advanced users can use VBA to write rich solutions with advanced data
manipulation and user control. Access also has report creation features that can work with
any data source that Access can access.

The original concept of Access was for end users to be able to access data from any
source. Other features include: the import and export of data to many formats including
Excel, Outlook, ASCII, dBase, Paradox, FoxPro, SQL Server and Oracle. It also has the
ability to link to data in its existing location and use it for viewing, querying, editing, and
reporting. This allows the existing data to change while ensuring that Access uses the
latest data. It can perform heterogeneous joins between data sets stored across different
platforms. Access is often used by people downloading data from enterprise level
databases for manipulation, analysis, and reporting locally.

There is also the Jet Database format (MDB or ACCDB in Access 2007) which can
contain the application and data in one file. This makes it very convenient to distribute
the entire application to another user, who can run it in disconnected environments.

One of the benefits of Access from a programmer's perspective is its relative

compatibility with SQL (structured query language) — queries can be viewed graphically
or edited as SQL statements, and SQL statements can be used directly in Macros and
VBA Modules to manipulate Access tables. Users can mix and use both VBA and
"Macros" for programming forms and logic and offers object-oriented possibilities. VBA
can also be included in queries.

Microsoft Access offers parameterized queries. These queries and Access tables can be
referenced from other programs like VB6 and .NET through DAO or ADO. From
Microsoft Access, VBA can reference parameterized stored procedures via ADO.

The desktop editions of Microsoft SQL Server can be used with Access as an alternative
to the Jet Database Engine. This support started with MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server
Desktop Engine), a scaled down version of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, and continues
with the SQL Server Express versions of SQL Server 2005 and 2008.