How to Learn Word Processing

Dust And All

Gone are the days of the old, dusty typewriter with its sticking keys and ink spills. Learning how to use a word processor is a must for anyone who wants to become adept at writing. Generating reports, essays, articles and even novels becomes easy once you have mastered the program. Word processors are efficient and are mainly used by desktop publishers, writers and anyone who requires spell-checking capabilities. This guide covers the fundamentals of this software and a tutorial on how to use it.

Things You'll Need

• Computer or laptop
• Word processing program
• Pen/pencil and paper for note-taking

Instructions

1. Decide which word processing program is right for you. Several programs available are free or low-cost. Some programs allow the author to maintain tabs to work on more than one document. There is no need to purchase the latest software complete with all kinds of bell and whistles. Your main focus is to write, so a simple program that checks spelling and grammar, creates files and saves for later reference is sufficient.

2. Start by creating a new file. Using your mouse, click on the File and New button at the top of the program. This will start a new document to write in.

3. Start writing your document from where the blinking cursor begins.

4. Several tools are available within the software toolbar that can assist with monitoring formats, keeping track of word counts and saving or opening documents. For example, to insert page numbers, dates, pictures or other objects, simply go to the toolbar at the top of the program menu and click the insert button. A list of tools will drop down to select. The format button is available to format paragraphs, change text colors, change the style of fonts, add bullet points and also change the border and shading color of your document. To insert tables, click on the tables button. The single most important part of the program is the actual tools button at the top of the program window. This button holds the spelling, grammar check, thesaurus and dictionary tools.

5. When your document is finished, you are ready to save it. Using the file menu again, scroll down to the save feature and save your document. A box will pop up that requests you to designate where you would like your file to be saved to and the name of your new file. Once this is completed, your document can be retrieved and edited any time.

Tips & Warnings

• Before starting a new document, be sure to name and save it. Use the auto-save feature and set it to save every five minutes or less.

• Though word processors are intelligent programs, the writer should always manually check his or her documents.

References

• Word Processing Guide

Resources

• Free Web Based Word Processor