<p>Keyboard Shortcuts - Cut, Copy, and Paste Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V are shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste respectively, and apply to all applications in the Office suite as well as to Windows applications in general. (The shortcuts are easier to remember when you realize that the operative letters X, C, and V are next to each other at the bottom left side of the keyboard.) You can also use the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar.</p><p>Show the Keyboard Shortcut You can expand the ScreenTip associated with any toolbar button to include the equivalent keyboard shortcut. Pull down the View menu, click Toolbars, then click Customize to display the Customize dialog box. Click the Options tab and check the box to show the shortcut keys in the ScreenTips. Close the dialog box, then point to any toolbar button and you should see the name of the button as well as the equivalent keyboard shortcut.</p><p>The Word Count Toolbar How close are you to completing the 500-word paper that your professor assigned? Pull down the Tools menu and click the Word Count command to display a dialog box that shows the number of pages, words, paragraphs, and characters in your document. There is also a command button to display the Word Count toolbar so that it remains on the screen throughout the session. Click the Recount button on the toolbar at any time to see the current statistics for your document. </p><p>Change the Default Location The default file location is the folder Word uses to open and save a document unless it is otherwise instructed. To change the default location, pull down the Tools menu, click Options, click the File Locations tab, click the desired File type (documents), then click the Modify command button to display the Modify Location dialog box. Click the drop-down arrow in the Look In box to select the new folder (e.g., C:\Exploring Word). Click OK to accept this selection. Click OK to close the Options dialog box. The next time you access the Open or Save commands from the File menu, the Look In text box will reflect the change</p><p>Create a Backup Copy Microsoft Word enables you to automatically create a backup copy of a document in conjunction with the Save command. Pull down the Tools menu, click the Options button, click the Save tab, then check the box to always create a backup copy. The next time you save the file, the previously saved version is renamed “Backup of document” after which the document in memory is saved as the current version. In other words, the disk will contain the two most recent versions of the document. </p><p>About Microsoft Word Pull down the Help menu and click About Microsoft Word to display the specific release number and other licensing information including the Product ID. This help screen also contains two very useful command buttons, System Information and Technical support. The first button displays information about the hardware installed on your system including the amount of memory and available space on the hard drive. </p><p>The Page Border Command You can apply a border to the title page of your document, to every page except the title page, or to every page including the title page. Pull down the Format menu, click Borders and Shading, and click the Page Borders command. First design the border, by selecting a style, color, width, and art (if any). Then choose the page(s) to which you want to apply the border by clicking the down arrow in the Apply to list box. Close the Borders and Shading dialog box.</p><p>Print Selected Pages Why print an entire document if you want only a few pages? Pull down the File menu and click Print as you usually do to initiate the printing process. Click the Pages option button, then enter the page numbers and/or page ranges you want; for example, 3, 6-8 will print page three and pages six through eight. Selecting Text The selection bar, a blank column at the far left of the document window, makes it easy to select a line, paragraph, or the entire document. To select a line, move the mouse pointer to the selection bar (the pointer changes to an arrow), point to the line and click the left mouse button. To select a paragraph, move the mouse pointer to the selection bar, point to any line in the paragraph and double click the mouse. To select the entire document, move the mouse pointer to the selection bar and press the Ctrl key while you click the mouse.</p><p>Find and Replace Formatting The Replace command enables you to replace formatting as well as text. For example, to replace any text set in bold with the same text in italics, pull down the Edit menu, and click the Replace command to display the Replace dialog box. Click the Find What text box, but do not enter any text. Click the Format command button, click Font, click Bold in Font Style list, and click OK. Click the Replace With text box and again do not enter any text. Click the Format command button, click Font, click Italic in the Font Style list, and click OK. Click the Find Next or Replace All command buttons to do selective or automatic replacement. Use a similar technique to replace one font with another; for example, to replace Times New Roman with Arial.</p><p>The Format Painter The Format Painter copies the formatting of the selected text to other places in a document. Select the text with the formatting you want to copy, then click or double click the Format Painter button on the Standard Toolbar. Clicking the button will paint only one selection. Double clicking the button will paint multiple selections until the feature is turned off by again clicking the Format Painter button. Either way, the mouse pointer changes to a paintbrush to indicate that you can paint other selections in the document with the current formatting. Just drag the paintbrush over selected text, which will assume the identical formatting characteristics as the original selection.</p><p>The Windows Clipboard The Windows clipboard is a temporary storage area that is available to all Windows applications. Selected text is cut or copied from a document and placed on the clipboard from where it can be pasted to a new location(s). You can use the clipboard (with the appropriate combination of Cut, Copy, and Paste commands) to move and copy text within a document. You can also use it to move and copy text from one document to another or from one application to another; e.g., from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word.</p><p>The Task Pane All applications in Microsoft Office provide access to a task pane that facilitates the execution of subsequent commands. The task pane serves many functions. It can be used to display the formatting properties of selected text, open an existing document, or search for appropriate clip art. The task pane will open automatically in response to certain commands. It can also be toggled open or closed through the Task pane command in the View menu. </p><p>Separate the Toolbars You may see the Standard and Formatting toolbars displayed on one row to save space within the application window. If so, we suggest that you separate the toolbars, so that you see all of the buttons on each. Click the Toolbar Options down arrow that appears at the end of any visible toolbar to display toolbar options, then click the option to show the buttons on two rows. Click the down arrow a second time to show the buttons on one row if you want to return to the other configuration.</p><p>Foreign Language Proofing Tools The English version of Microsoft Word supports the spelling, grammar, and thesaurus features in more than 80 foreign languages. Support for Spanish and French is built in at no additional cost, whereas you will have to pay an additional fee for other languages. Just pull down the Tools menu and click the Select Language command to change to a different language. You can even check multiple languages within the same document. The Office Clipboard The Office clipboard is different from the Windows clipboard. Each successive cut or copy command (in any Office application) adds an object to the Office clipboard (up to a maximum of 24), whereas it replaces the contents of the Windows clipboard. Pull down the Edit menu, click the Office Clipboard command to open the task pane, and click the Options button at the bottom of the task pane. Check the option to always copy to the Office clipboard.</p><p>Select Non-contiguous Text Anyone who has used a previous version of Word will be happy to learn that you can select non-contiguous blocks of text, and then apply the same formatting to the selected text with a single command. Click and drag to select the first item, then press and hold the Ctrl key as you continue to drag the mouse over additional blocks of text. All of the selected text is highlighted within the document. Apply the desired formatting, then click anywhere in the document to deselect the text and continue working.</p><p>The Page Setup Command The Page Setup command controls the margins of a document, and by extension, it controls the amount of text that fits on a page. Pull down the File menu and click the Page Setup command to display the Page Setup dialog box, click the Margins tab, then adjust the left and right (or top and bottom) margins to fit additional text on a page. Click the down arrow in the Apply to area select the whole document. Click OK to accept the settings and close the dialog box. </p><p>View the Formatting Properties Open the task pane and click the down arrow in the title bar to select Reveal Formatting to display complete information for the selected text in the document. The properties are displayed by Font, Paragraph, and Section, enabling you to click the plus or minus sign next to each item to view or hide the underlying details. The properties in each area are links to the associated dialog boxes. Click Alignment or Justification, for example, within the Paragraph area to open the associated dialog box, where you can change the indicated property.</p>