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MicroSoft Word Formatting Toolbar
By Computer Tech | September 18, 2008
This computer lesson plan focuses on the formatting toolbar in MicroSoft Word. The options on the formatting toolbar allow you to set up the text on a word document to best meet your project needs.
Open MicroSoft Word by going to Start>Programs>MS Word
(sometimes you have to go Start>Programs>MS Office>MS Word)
First make sure your work space is ready.
Go to the toolbar at the top of the screen, click View>Toolbars>click ’Formatting‘ (if it is not already checked)
The MicroSoft Formatting Toolbar provides the options to change things within the word document.
You can set the formatting up ahead of time. Sometimes it does not stay, in which case you will need to do the following anyway…
After typing about 2 words, highlight those 2 words by clicking at the beginning or end of the words, and dragging your mouse (with the button on the mouse held down) across the 2 words.
Now, go up to the formatting toolbar and make the appropriate changes for the project you are working on.
Following is a breakdown of the options on the Formatting toolbar.
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1. Changing the Font (style of the the text/letters)
This drop down menu is in a WYSIWYG format
Pronounced wizzy-wig. Which stands for - What You See Is What You Get.
In other words it SHOWS you what the font will look like when you use it.
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2. Changing the size of the text/letters.
The sizes are presented in standard numbers but you can usually choose any size in between, by clicking on the number in the small box (12), highlighting that number, and typing in the size you want. Then be sure to click the Enter key on the keyboard.
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3. Changing the style of the text/letters
There are 3 options on the toolbar…Bold, Italics, and Underline. Choose any or all.
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4. Changing text alignment
This option aligns the lines of your document, down the left side margin of the page,
centers the lines on the page,
lines them down the right side margin of the page,
or spreads the words out so the lines fill the page, lined up to the left AND right margins of the page. (like the columns of a newspaper)
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5. Making numbered or bulleted lists.
If you want a list of things numbered, highlight the list and click these options.
If you type the first thing in your list, then click this option, every time you hit Enter on the keyboard, to add to the list, the program will automatically number or bullet the new item on the list.
To get it to quit numbering or bulleting automatically, after hitting the Enter key, click the backspace button on the keyboard, or hit the Enter key twice.
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6. Increase or decrease the indentation.
Just play with this one to see what it offers.
It does just what it says it does, makes the line indent further or lesser on the page. Put the curser (the blinking line that indicates where the text will be entered when you type) at the beginning of the line you want indented, then press these options.
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7. Outlining borders
This option usually has more to do with tables that can be added to a word document, but highlight or click on things in your Word Document to experiment with what it might do in the project you are working on.
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8. Highlighting text
To make different parts of your project stand out you can highlight the text like you can do with a highlighter marker.
Highlight the word(s) you want permanently highlighted, by clicking and dragging across the words you want highlighted on your page, then click the dropdown arrow to reveal the dropdown menu. Click the color you want. If you change your mind later…repeat the process but click a different color or ‘None’ at the top of the color selection.
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9. Text Color
Highlight the word(s) you want to change the text color of by clicking and dragging across the words you want colored on your page, then click the dropdown arrow to reveal the dropdown menu. Click the color you want. If you change your mind later…repeat the process clicking black again or a different color.
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10. Double spaced lines
To double space or set up for 1 1/2 spacing between the lines of text, highlight the lines, by clicking and dragging over the desired lines, then click the icon showing the two lines that are closer together for 1 1/2 sized spacing between lines, or the icon showing the lines further apart for double spacing.
Don’t forget…computers can’t read your mind (yet!) so if you want to change something you have to highlight it first so it knows what to change!
Hope this computer lesson on formatting your MicroSoft Word document has helped you understand how to change the text within your word processing document project!
Told you, you can do it!!
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Topics: MicroSoft Word Processing |
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September 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
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