Microsoft Office Word Tutorial

Microsoft Word 2003 has probably one of the most powerful drawing and illustration utilities around short of other full-fledged drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand.

The miracles start when you display the DRAW toolbar by selecting View > Toolbars > Drawing from the main menu.

The AUTOSHAPES drop-down list alone can go a long way towards creating your "masterpiece" illustrations because it's got so many options, all configurable through other buttons on the same toolbar. BY selecting a drawing object and piling up different effects from other buttons, you can create an almost infinite variety of shapes and drawings, embedded right inside your text document.

AUTOSHAPES offers the following options: Lines, Connectors, Basic Shapes, Block Arrows, Flow Chart, Stars and Banners, Callouts, More Autoshapes (which opens up the Clip Art collection in a neat sidebar).

Here is how you can pile up different effects to obtain very pleasing and complicated illustrations:

Let's assume you have selected an Block Arrow shape from Autoshapes.

MS Word will insert a canvas for you. Now your cursor has become the arrow tool and is ready for you to draw an arrow. Click and drag your mouse to draw the arrow automatically. As you can see, this arrow has no color. Let's make it RED.

Select the arrow by clicking on it. Then select the color RED on your BUCKET tool. Click the bucket and your arrow is now RED.

Let's also say you'd like to have a 3-D arrow. That;s very easy too. Click and select your arrow again and then click the 3D Style button at the far right of the DRAW toolbar. You'll be presented a great many 3D effect choices. Click one and zap! You now have a RED and 3-D arrow!

You can easily multiply the number of effects and all the crazy possibilities by experimenting with the DRAW toolbar arrows. You'll soon be addicted to this very powerful but very well-integrated smooth drawing utility and use it often.

The world today has gone literally gone acronym crazy. Every industry has its own plethora of acronyms to bamboozle the uninitiated. Acronyms are also often a source of great pain for those people who have to create procedure documents for their industry. There is a way to survive this turmoil through the power of Autocorrect and it will definitely save you time.

Autocorrect was originally developed by Microsoft to help those people using Microsoft Office and in particular Microsoft Word overcome typing issues but it has also become the saviour to those working in an acronym world.

I hear you saying it, HOW!

An acronym in essence is short couple of characters that have a special meaning for example in Australia we have a term called the Australian Business Number which has an acronym abn. If you were producing a lot of documents that refer to the term Australian Business Number you would find it takes a little time to right that whole name. In many cases it would be inappropriate to actually use the acronym. What Autocorrect allows you to do is to program into the application the term abn and associate it with the full name Australian Business Number.

What this means is that when you are typing your documents and you need to refer to the term Australian Business Number, you simply type in abn and as you press the space bar Microsoft Word will then convert the acronym abn to Australian Business Number.

So why does it do this?

Like I mentioned before, Autocorrect was really developed to overcome the issue of people mistyping words. Essentially as you type Autocorrect checks to see if what you are typing is correct and if its not it will correct it with the options in the Autocorrect list. Some of the common typing mistakes you might incur would cna instead of can. If you open Microsoft Word and type in cna it will automatically correct it to can.

Autocorrect is actually available in all Microsoft Office Applications which include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Outlook and FrontPage. Now the really cool part about this is that if you setup an Autocorrect entry in say Microsoft PowerPoint, it will also be available in all of the other applications. This means that you are going to save time both in the initial setup but also whilst you are creating these documents.

If you find that when you tried the example I gave to you before that it did not convert the misspelt word to the correct word then most likely the AutoCorrect function has been turned off. To turn it on in Microsoft Word 2003 simply choose the Tools menu and then choose AutoCorrect Options. You will see a checkbox next to the words “Replace Text as you type”. If the checkbox does not have a tick next to it then you need to click once on the check box to activate it. Then finish off the process by pressing the OK button.

There are three autocorrect entries which I think are absolutely essential to know and that is how you can insert the Trade Mark Symbol, Registered Symbol and Copyright Symbol without using the symbol command. All you do is type the following –

(tm) - Creates the Trade Mark Symbol

(c) - Creates the Copyright Symbol

(r) - Creates the Registered Symbol

Autocorrect is certainly one of the tools that I think is really cool but is often misunderstood and not used to its full potential. Using AutoCorrect in this way will save you hours of time when dealing with acronyms. It might take a little time setting up your acronyms but once its completed it will save you countless hours and make you far more efficient and effective in using the Microsoft Office Suite.

Cycle Diagrams show the circular relationships between related processes.

You can create an amazing variety of fantastic-looking Cycle Diagrams in Microsoft Word 2003 without using any external graphic programs.

1) Display your DRAW toolbar by selecting View > Toolbars > Drawing.

2) Place your cursor where you want to insert your chart or diagram.

3) Click the 3-spinning-balls icon on your DRAW toolbar. The tooltip message should read “Insert Diagram or Organization Chart.”

4) From the Diagram Gallery window, select the Cycle Diagram button on the Upper Center. The DIAGRAM Mini-Bar displays automatically.

5) Click the Insert Shape drop-down menu on the Mini-Bar to insert new Arrows and diagram elements. To delete one, select it with your mouse and then press the Delete key.

6) Click the “Click to Add a Text” label to add a text.

7) To move the typed-in text around in a circle, select and click one of the “Ball Icons” (Move Shape Backward, and, Move Shape Forward) on the Mini-Bar..

8) Click the Layout drop-down menu to fit the diagram to contents, expand the diagram, shrink the diagram, or resize the diagram.

9) To autoformat the diagram, click the Autoformat button on the Mini-Bar and select one of the available format templates.

10) Select a text wrapping option (if need be) by clicking the Text Wrapping button on the Mini-Bar and selecting one of the available options.

11) Switch to a different diagram by clicking the Change To drop-down menu on the Mini-Bar.

12) Experiment with other buttons on the DRAW toolbar for an infinite variety of different effects. For example, select an arrow and change its color by clicking the Paint Bucket button, or add drop shadows by clicking 3D button and selecting an option.

Microsoft Word 2003 has this great and foolproof functionality to create borders and shades with which you can whip up your own stationeries and fliers in no time.

For example, let's say you have an import-export business and you'd like to create a stationery that visually signals a world-wide involvement.

1) Create a blank new document (File > New > Blank Document).

2) Select Format > Borders and Shading… from the main menu. (Word menu options that display a dialog box are always followed by an ellipsis -- three dots).

3) In the PREVIEW box on the right, click the left top button, displaying a selected TOP BORDER.

4) From the ART drop-down list at the bottom center, select the WORLD GLOBE clip art.

5) To make each individual shape smaller or larger, use the WIDTH field.

6) To have a FRAME all around your stationery made up of the same clip art, select BOX option from the SETTING list on the left.

7) Under the top border, type in your business name, contact info, and all the other relevant information.

8) To add a background color to your text, use the SHADING tab.

9) Save your document as a Document Template (.dot) and you are done.

Try all the other options in the ART drop-down list. I especially like the STARS and other GEOMETRIC borders further down the list. They make an eye-catching graphic addition to your document that will never fail to grab interest.

Borders and Shading is great to create garage sale flyers and small business brochures too. Try and find out for your self all the endless ways in which this functionality can help you design your own marketing materials.

You can create an amazing variety of fantastic-looking Organization Diagrams in Microsoft Word 2003 without using any external graphic programs.

1) Display your DRAW toolbar by selecting View > Toolbars > Drawing.

2) Place your cursor where you want to insert your chart or diagram.

3) Click the 3-spinning-balls icon on your DRAW toolbar. The tooltip message should read “Insert Diagram or Organization Chart.”

4) From the Diagram Gallery window, select the Organization Chart button on the Upper Left. The ORGANIZATION CHART Mini-Bar display automatically.

5) Click Insert Shape drop-down menu on the Mini-Bar to insert “subordinate,” “coworker” or “assistant” boxes.

6) Click the Autoformat button on the Mini-Bar to select one of the chart templates.

7) To delete a box, click the Select drop-down menu on the Mini-Bar, then press the Delete button.

8) Click on individual boxes on the chart to add text.

9) Click Layout drop-down menu on the Mini-Bar to change the layout of the whole chart and select one of the following options: Standard, Both Hanging, Right Hanging, Left Hanging.

10) Select a text wrapping option (if need be) by clicking the Text Wrapping button on the Mini-Bar and selecting one of the available options.

11) Experiment with other buttons on the DRAW toolbar for an infinite variety of different effects. For example, select an organizational box and change its color by clicking the Paint Bucket button, or add drop shadows by clicking 3D button and selecting an option.