Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies

Introduction

Welcome to Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies, the book written especially for people who use Word every day and need a handy reference to all the various and sundry things this mighty program can do. This book contains all the basic and not-so-basic information you need to know to get the most from Word, whether you use it to compose simple letters or write 200-page government grants.

About This Book

Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies is a big book that’s composed of nine smaller books, each of which covers a specific aspect of using Word. You find minibooks on such topics as editing documents, formatting pages, creating mailings, and customizing Word to make it work the way you want.

Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive reference for every detail of these topics. Instead, this book shows you how to get up and running fast so that you have more time to do the things you want to do. Designed using the easy-to-follow For Dummies format, this book helps you get the information you need without having to labor to find it.

Whenever one big thing is made up of several smaller things, confusion is always a possibility. That’s why Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies is designed to have multiple access points (I hear an acronym coming on — MAP!) to help you find what you want. At the beginning of the book is a detailed table of contents that covers the entire book. Each minibook begins with a miniature table of contents that shows you at a glance which chapters are included in that minibook. Useful running heads appear at the top of each page to point out the topic discussed on that page. And, handy thumb tabs run down the sides of the pages to help you quickly find each minibook. Finally, a comprehensive index lets you find information anywhere in the entire book.

This book isn’t the kind you have to pick up and read from start to finish, as though it were a cheap novel. If I ever see you reading it at the beach, I’ll kick sand in your face. This book is more of a reference, the kind of book you can pick up, turn to just about any page, and start reading. You don’t have to memorize anything in this book. It’s a need-to-know book: You pick it up when you need to know something. Need to know how to do a mail merge? Pick up the book. Need to know how to crop an image? Pick up the book. After you find what you need, put down the book and get on with your life.

How to Use This Book

After you find your topic in the table of contents or the index, turn to the area of interest and read as much as you need or want. Then close the book and get on with it.

This book is loaded with information, of course, so if you want to take a brief excursion into your topic, you’re more than welcome. If you want to know everything about customizing Word, read Book VIII. But if you just want to find out how to create a simple keyboard shortcut to apply a style you use 200 times a day, just read the section on keyboard shortcuts. You get the idea.

If you need to type something, you see the text you need to type like this: Type this stuff. In this example, you type Type this stuff at the keyboard. An explanation usually follows, just in case you’re scratching your head and grunting, Huh?

Whenever I describe a message or information that you see onscreen, I present it this way:

A message from your friendly word processor

Note: The names of dialog boxes, menu commands, and options are spelled with the first letter of each main word capitalized, even though these letters might not be capitalized onscreen. This format makes sentences filled with long option names easier for you to read. (Haven’t we thought of everything?)

How This Book Is Organized

Each of the nine minibooks contained in Word 2010 All-in-One For Dummies stands alone. The first minibook covers the basics of using Word. The remaining minibooks cover a variety of Word topics. Even those minibooks that cover familiar ground are packed with techniques and commands you might not know about. You can find something useful in every chapter. Here’s a brief description of what you find in each minibook.

Book I: What’s in a Word?

This minibook covers the basics you need in order to get going with Word. Even if you’ve been using Word for years, you should read these chapters. Word 2010 introduces an entirely new user interface in which the familiar menus and toolbars are replaced by a gadget named the Ribbon. So, be sure to familiarize yourself with this new user interface. You should also take a close look at Chapter 3, Working with Templates. Many Word users don’t realize the power of the lowly template.

Book II: All about Editing

I discuss in Book II the ins and outs of editing and formatting your text. You discover basic formatting styles such as bold and italics as well as a variety of useful editing techniques. The more you use Word, the more it pays to know all the tips and shortcuts I present in this minibook.

Book III: All about Formatting

In Book III, I give you the lowdown on formatting pages. I cover the basics of working with pages and sections, using themes to create great-looking pages, and creating advanced features such as columns and lists.

Book IV: Inserting Bits and Pieces

The Ribbon has an entire tab devoted to elements you can insert into your document, and this minibook covers the most useful of these bits and pieces. You find out about inserting graphics such as pictures and clip art; using drawing objects such as rectangles and text boxes; and formatting visual aids such as charts, diagrams, and tables.

Book V: Publish or Perish

The chapters in Book V are devoted to various ways you can use Word to share your work with others. First, you find out how to use Word’s new blogging feature, which lets you use Word as the word processor for your blog site. You also read about how to use Word’s collaboration and reviewing features, and how to use Word with SharePoint, a server-based collaboration program that integrates with Word.

Book VI: Using Reference Features

Book VI covers all the features found on the References tab on the Ribbon, including tables of contents, footnotes, and indexes.

Book VII: Mailings

In the chapters in Book VII, I tell you all about creating letters, envelopes, and labels in Word, from single letters to mass mailings using the mail merge feature. You even see how to use Word to send faxes. If you use Word to mail letters to customers, friends, or relatives, you should focus on Chapters 3 and 4.

Book VIII: Customizing Word

The chapters in Book VIII show you how to customize Word so that it works the way you want. You discover how to customize the user interface, set options, insert fields, and create custom forms.

Book IX: Features for Developers

The last minibook is devoted to readers who want to dig deep into the depths of Word by writing macros using Word’s powerful programming language, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The chapters in this minibook aren’t for the faint of heart, but if you’re willing to take the plunge, you can make Word do things you never thought possible.

Icons Used in This Book

Like any For Dummies book, this book is chock-full of helpful icons that draw your attention to items of particular importance. You find these icons throughout this book:

remember.eps Did I tell you about the memory course I took?

technicalstuff.eps Hold it — technical stuff is just around the corner. Read on only if you have your pocket protector.

tip.eps Pay special attention to this icon; it lets you know that a particularly useful tidbit is at hand — perhaps a shortcut or a little-used command that pays off big.

warning_bomb.eps Danger, Will Robinson! This icon highlights information to help you avert disaster.

Where to Go from Here

Yes, you can get there from here. With this book in hand, you’re ready to plow through the rugged networking terrain. Browse through the table of contents and decide where you want to start. Be bold! Be courageous! Be adventurous! Above all, have fun!

Book I

What’s in a Word?

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Word 2010

Starting Word

What Is All This Stuff?

Unraveling the Ribbon

The View from Here Is Great

Taking the Backstage Tour

Creating a Basic Document

Typing and Editing Text

Printing Your Masterpiece

Saving Your Work

Opening a Document

Closing a Document

Exiting Word

Chapter 2: Your Backstage Pass for Managing Documents

Getting Information about Your Document

Creating a New Document

Opening Documents

Using the Save As Command

Save Options

Password-Protecting Your Files

Chapter 3: Working with Templates

Understanding How Templates Work

Getting to Know the Normal.dotm Template

Creating a Document from an Online Template

Creating a New Document Based on a Recently Used Template

Using a Sample Template

Changing the Template Attached to a Document

Activating the Developer Tab on the Ribbon

Creating Your Own Templates

Using Global Templates

How Word Resolves Duplicate Template Elements

Using the Organizer

Chapter 4: Printing Your Documents

Printing the Quick Way

Printing from Backstage View

Using the Print Preview Feature

Chapter 5: Help!

Several Ways to Get Help

Finding Your Way around the Help System

Getting Help on the Internet

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Word 2010

In This Chapter

Getting Word started

Making sense of all the stuff onscreen

Dealing with the Ribbon

Entering and editing text

Printing your document

Saving your work

Closing a document and quitting Word

This chapter is an introduction to the basic principles of using Word: starting the program; working with its user interface; typing and editing text; printing and saving a document; and, perhaps most important, quitting Word when you’re done. Have fun!

Starting Word

You can start Word in so many different ways that you can probably use a different technique every day for a fortnight. Rather than bore you with the details of every possible way to start Word, I show you the most common way first. Then I show you a couple of shortcuts that are useful if you use Word a lot.

Turn on your computer and then follow these steps to start Word:

1. Get ready.

Light some votive candles. Take two Tylenol. Put on a pot of coffee. If you’re allergic to banana slugs, take an allergy pill. Sit in the lotus position facing Redmond, Washington, and recite the Windows creed three times:

Bill Gates is my friend. Resistance is futile. No beer and no TV make Homer something something. . . .

2. Click the Start button.

Find the Start button in the lower-left corner of the Windows display. In Windows XP, it’s a round-cornered box with the word Start in it. In Windows Vista or Windows 7, it’s a round button with a four-colored flag. Either way, clicking the Start button summons the Start menu.

tip.eps You can quickly summon the Start menu by pressing Ctrl+Esc.

3. Point to All Programs on the Start menu.

Move the cursor up to All Programs and hold it there a moment. Another menu appears, revealing a bevy of commands.

4. Click Microsoft Office on the Start menu and then click Microsoft Word 2010.

Your computer whirs and clicks and possibly makes other unmentionable noises while Word comes to life.

The following paragraphs describe some quick ways to start Word. Look into these methods if you use Word frequently and you grow weary of trudging through the depths of the Start menu:

♦ If you use Word frequently, its icon might appear in the Frequently Used Programs List, an area of the Start menu. If so, you can start Word by clicking it directly from the Start menu.

tip.eps If you want Word to always appear at the top of the Start menu, choose Start⇒All Programs⇒Microsoft Office. Then right-click Microsoft Word 2010 and choose the Pin to Start Menu command. This command pins Word to the Start menu, above the Frequently Used Programs List.

♦ You can create an icon for Word on your desktop. Then you can start Word by double-clicking its desktop icon. To create a desktop icon for Word, open the Start menu, navigate through All Programs and Microsoft Office, and then right-click Microsoft Word 2010 and choose Send To⇒Desktop.

♦ My personal favorite way to start Word is to pin it to the taskbar. To do so, while Word is running, right-click it on the taskbar and choose Pin This Program to Taskbar. From that point on, an icon for Word appears on the taskbar even when Word is not running.

♦ Another way to start Word is by using Windows Explorer to browse to a folder that contains a document you want to edit. Then, double-click the icon for the document. Windows responds by starting Word and opening the document you chose.

♦ Here’s one more trick before moving on. If you use Word every day, you can set it to start automatically every time you start your computer. To do that, navigate your way through the Start menu to the Microsoft Word 2010 command. Then drag it into the Startup group under Start⇒All Programs.

What Is All This Stuff?

When you start Word, it greets you with a screen that’s so cluttered with stuff that you’re soon ready to dig out your grandfather’s manual typewriter. The center of the screen is mercifully blank and vaguely resembles a piece of typing paper, but all around the edges and tucked into every corner are little icons, buttons, rulers, menus, and whatnot.

Figure 1-1 shows the basic Word screen, in all its cluttered glory. The following list points out the more important parts of the Word screen:

♦ Title bar: At the very top of the Word screen is the title bar, which displays the name of the document you’re working on. The title bar also includes the standard Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons present in every window as well as the Quick Access toolbar (described later in this list).

Figure 1-1: The cluttered Word screen.

♦ The Ribbon: Across the top of the screen, just below the title bar, is Word’s main user interface gadget, the Ribbon. If you’ve worked with previous versions of Word, you were probably expecting to see a menu bar followed by one or more toolbars in this general vicinity. After meticulous research, Microsoft gurus decided that menus and toolbars are hard to use. So they replaced them with the Ribbon, which combines the functions of both. The Ribbon takes some getting used to, but after you figure it out, it does become easier to use than the old menus and toolbars. The deepest and darkest secrets of Word are hidden on the Ribbon. Wear a helmet when exploring it.

Note that the exact appearance of the Ribbon varies a bit depending on the size of your monitor. On smaller monitors, Word might compress the Ribbon a bit by using smaller buttons and arranging them differently (for example, stacking them on top of one another instead of placing them side by side).

For more information about working with the Ribbon, see the section Unraveling the Ribbon, later in this chapter.

tip.eps Although Word 2010 doesn’t have menus, like versions 2003 and earlier had, many of the keyboard shortcuts (technically, they’re accelerators) that were associated with the Word 2003 and earlier menu commands still work. For example, to call up the Open dialog box, press Alt, F, and O (for the old File⇒Open command). To insert clip art, press Alt, I, P, and C (for the old Insert⇒Picture⇒Clip Art command). To keep things simple, this book doesn’t specifically mention these accelerators. However, if you remember them from your Word 2003 days, you can continue to use them. Keyboard shortcuts with the Alt key are also available for the 2010 menu system; press the Alt key to display key tips for each tab; then type the letter for one of the tabs to see key tips for each command on that tab.

♦ The File tab: The File tab replaces the Office button from Word 2007. You can click it to reveal a major new feature of Word 2010: Backstage view. Backstage view is the place to come when you need to open or save files, create new documents, print a document, and do other file-related chores. For more information, see the section Taking the Backstage Tour, later in this chapter.

♦ Quick Access toolbar: Just above the File tab is the Quick Access toolbar. Its sole purpose in life is to provide a convenient resting place for the Word commands you use the most often.

Initially, this toolbar contains just three buttons: Save, Undo, and Redo. However, you can add buttons, if you want. To add a button to the Quick Access toolbar, right-click the button on the Ribbon and choose Add to Quick Access toolbar. You can also find a pull-down menu at the end of the toolbar that lists several frequently used commands. You can use this menu to add these common commands to it.

♦ Ruler: Word has two rulers: a horizontal ruler and a vertical ruler. The horizontal ruler appears just beneath the Ribbon and is used to set margins and tab stops. The vertical ruler appears on the left edge of the Word window and is used to gauge the vertical position of elements on the page. (If the ruler doesn’t appear, you can summon it by clicking the View tab on the Ribbon and then selecting the Ruler check box in the Show group.)

♦ Task pane: Some commands and options open a task pane to the right or left of the main editing pane, containing additional controls or features. For example, the Clip Art task pane appears on the right when inserting clip art, and the Clipboard task pane appears at the left when using the Office Clipboard. Figure 1-1 doesn’t show task panes; they appear on their own whenever you need them. If a task pane gets in the way, you can always get rid of it by clicking its Close button (the X in the upper-right corner of the task pane).

♦ Status bar: At the bottom of the screen is the status bar, which tells you the page that’s displayed (for example, Page 5 of 11).

tip.eps You can configure the status bar by right-clicking anywhere on it. This action reveals a list of options that you can select or deselect to determine which elements appear on the status bar.

♦ View buttons: The group of five buttons located to the left of the Zoom control, near the bottom of the screen, lets you switch among Word’s various document views. You can find out more about these views in the later section The View from Here Is Great.

♦ Zoom control: In the lower-right corner of the screen is the Zoom control, which lets you zoom in for a closer look at your text. The zoom control consists of a slider that you can slide left or right to zoom in or out, – and + buttons you can click to increase or decrease the zoom factor, and a number that indicates the current zoom percentage. Note that this number consists of a button; if you click it, Word displays a dialog box with additional zoom options.

You never get anything done if you feel that you have to understand every pixel of the Word screen before you can do anything. Don’t worry about the stuff that you don’t understand; just concentrate on what you need to know to get the job done and worry about the bells and whistles later.

tip.eps Lots of stuff is crammed onto the Word screen — enough stuff that the program works best if you let it run in maximized mode. If Word doesn’t take over your entire screen, find the boxy-looking Maximize button on the right side of the title bar. (It’s the middle of the three buttons.) Click it to maximize the Word screen. Click it again to restore Word to its smaller size.

Unraveling the Ribbon

The Ribbon, first introduced in Word 2007, is the all-in-one user interface gadget that replaces the menus and toolbars found in earlier versions of Word. The Ribbon is not just for Word 2010 but also for Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Access 2010.

Across the top of the Ribbon is a series of tabs. You can click one of these tabs to reveal a set of controls specific to that tab. For example, the Ribbon (refer to Figure 1-1) shows the Home tab. Initially, the Ribbon displays these seven tabs:

♦ Home: Basic commands for creating and formatting documents. You can find controls for working with the Clipboard, setting the font, formatting paragraphs, applying styles, and using Find and Replace.

♦ Insert: Commands for inserting various items into your document, including new pages, tables, pictures, shapes, and other types of illustrations, headers and footers, specially formatted text, and much more! Most of these features are covered in Book IV.

♦ Page Layout: Commands that let you tweak the layout of your document’s pages. You can apply a theme to your document to set the overall look of the document or control details such as the page margins and background colors. You find out about these features in Book III.

♦ References: Commands that let you create tables of contents, footnotes, bibliographies, indexes, and other elements. You discover how to use these features in Book VI.

♦ Mailings: Commands for creating mail merges. I show you how to use this tab in Book VII.

♦ Review: Commands for proofing and adding comments to your documents and tracking changes. For more information, see Chapter 3 of Book V.

♦ View: Commands that let you change the view. You can use this tab to switch to different document views, to show or hide certain types of information (such as paragraph marks), and to zoom in for a closer look at your document.

Besides these basic tabs, additional tabs appear from time to time. For example, if you select a picture, a Picture Tools contextual tab appears with commands that let you manipulate the picture. These contextual tabs display in a different color to make them easy to spot. Also, sometimes two or more contextual tabs appear at the same time. For example, if you select a picture within a table, two contextual tabs appear: one for the table, the other for the picture.

remember.eps The commands on a tab are organized into groups. Within each group, most commands are simple buttons that are similar to toolbar buttons in previous versions of Word.

One of the most important differences between Word 2007 and Word 2010 is that you can easily customize the Word 2010 user interface. In Word 2007, the Ribbon was not customizable; you could only add and remove buttons from the Quick Access toolbar. Word 2010 enables you to create your own groups and tabs on the Ribbon. For more information, see Chapter 1 of Book VIII.

The View from Here Is Great

On the lower-right edge of the Word screen (just to the left of the Zoom control) is a series of five View buttons that let you switch among various document views. The following paragraphs describe these five views:

487662-ma213.tif ♦ Print Layout view displays pages exactly as they will appear when printed, complete with columns, headers, footers, and all other formatting details. This view is the one you’ll work in most often.

487662-ma214.tif ♦ Full Screen Reading view was designed for easy onscreen reading.

487662-ma215.tif ♦ Web Layout view shows how a document appears when viewed by a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer. Web Layout view is the mode you normally work in when you use Word to create HTML documents.

487662-ma216.tif ♦ Outline view lets you work with outlines established using Word’s standard heading styles. For more information about using outlines, consult Book VI, Chapter 6.

487662-ma217.tif ♦ Draft view formats text as it appears on the printed page with a few exceptions. For example, headers and footers aren’t shown. Most people prefer this mode.

Taking the Backstage Tour

Every June I attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. A few years ago, I took the special backstage tour, in which I learned all kinds of nifty secrets worthy of a Dan Brown novel.

Let’s take a brief tour of Word’s Backstage feature, which provides access to document management features previously found on the File menu. When you click the File tab in the upper-left corner of the Word window, Word switches to Backstage view, shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2: Backstage view.

The information initially displayed in Backstage view depends on whether you have an active document open. If no document is open, Backstage view displays a list of documents you’ve recently worked with. If a document is open, Backstage view displays information about the document.

The menu on the left — which bears a striking resemblance to what we used to call the File menu, back in the day when programs had plain menus instead of fancy ribbons — provides access to the hidden features of Word available only to those who venture backstage.

I briefly introduce you to some of these commands later in this chapter, but I take you on a more detailed backstage tour in Chapter 2 of this minibook.

tip.eps At this point, probably the most important thing you need to know about Backstage view is how to get out of it. You can close Backstage view and return to your document by pressing the Escape key or by clicking the File tab again (or any Ribbon tab, for that matter).

technicalstuff.eps Okay, the only secret I learned on the backstage tour at Ashland that was truly worthy of a Dan Brown novel is the one about Psalm 46 in the King James translation of the Bible, which was published in 1611 — when William Shakespeare turned 46. If you count 46 words from the start of the Psalm, you see the word Shake. And, if you count 46 words backward from the end of the psalm, you see the word Spear — which clearly means that treasure is buried directly beneath the stage in Ashland’s outdoor theater. Next year, I’m taking a shovel.

Creating a Basic Document

Creating a basic document in Word 2010 is easy: All you have to do is start Word 2010 and a basic document is automatically created for you. This document is initially named Document1, but you give it a more meaningful name when you save it, as described later in this chapter, in the section Saving Your Work.

For more information about creating documents, refer to Chapter 2 in this minibook.

Typing and Editing Text

I devote all of Book II to the many and sundry techniques for editing your documents. In the following paragraphs, I just highlight some basic editing techniques to get you started:

♦ Any text you type is inserted into the document at the location of the insertion point. You can move the insertion point around the screen by using the movement keys (the four keys with arrows pointing up, down, left, and right) or by simply clicking at the location you want to move the insertion point to.

tip.eps ♦ In previous versions of Word, you could switch to Overtype mode by pressing the Insert key. Then any text you typed replaced the text already on the page. Few people switched to Overtype mode on purpose, and it was all too easy to switch to it accidentally. As a result, Microsoft wisely disabled the Insert key for this purpose. (You can reactivate this feature from the Word Options dialog box, if you want, but I don’t recommend it.)

♦ If you make a mistake (never!), press Backspace to back up, erasing text as you go. For more efficient ways to correct mistakes, refer to Book II.

♦ Press Enter at the end of each paragraph to begin a new paragraph.

warning_bomb.eps Don’t press Enter at the end of every line. Word automatically wraps your text to the next line when it reaches the margin.

♦ Press Tab to indent text. Don’t press the spacebar repeatedly to indent text; that’s a rookie mistake.

Printing Your Masterpiece

After you finish your masterpiece, you might want to print it. I have a lot more to say about printing in Chapter 4 of this minibook. But for now, here’s the quick procedure for printing a document:

1. Make sure that your printer is turned on and ready to print.

Check the paper supply while you’re at it.

2. Click the File tab to open Backstage view and then choose Print from the backstage menu.

This action summons the Backstage Print page, as shown in Figure 1-3. The Print page has a myriad of options you can fiddle with to print just parts of your document or to print more than one copy. To print a single copy of the entire document, you can leave these settings alone.

3. Click the Print button.

Make sure that you say Print in a knowing manner, pointing at your printer as you do so. The secret is to fool your printer into thinking you know what you’re doing.

Figure 1-3: Printing from Backstage.

Saving Your Work

After you spend hours creating your document, you have to save your work to a file. If you make the rookie mistake of turning off your computer before you save your presentation, — poof! — your work vanishes as though the eccentric magicians Penn & Teller were in town.

As with everything else in Word, you have at least four ways to save a document:

♦ Click the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar.

♦ Choose File⇒Save.

♦ Press Ctrl+S.

♦ Press Shift+F12.

If you haven’t yet saved the file to your hard drive, the magical Save As dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-4. Type the name you want to use for the file in the File Name text box and click the Save button to save the file. After you save the file once, subsequent saves update the hard drive file with any changes that you made to the document since the last time you saved it.

Figure 1-4: The Save As dialog box.

tip.eps If you somehow miss out on saving your work, such as if the power goes out unexpectedly or Word crashes, all is not lost. Word autosaves your work for you at defined intervals (by default, it’s every ten minutes), and when you restart Word, a Recover Unsaved Documents pane appears listing any recoverable temporary saves.

Keep these notes in mind when saving files:

♦ Put on your thinking cap when assigning a name to a new file. The filename is how you can recognize the file later on, so pick a meaningful name that indicates the file’s contents.

♦ After you save a file for the first time, the name on the Word title bar changes from Document1 to the name of your file. This name is simply proof that you saved the file.

warning_bomb.eps ♦ Don’t work on your file for hours at a time without saving it. Word’s Recover Unsaved Documents feature might save you when disaster strikes, but it’s not perfect, so don’t count on it. I learned the hard way to save my work every few minutes. After all, I live in California, so I never know when a rolling blackout will hit my neighborhood. Get into the habit of saving every few minutes, especially after making a significant change to a document. In fact, I usually save after completing every paragraph. You should also save every time you print.

Opening a Document

After you save a document to your hard drive, you can retrieve the document later when you want to make additional changes or to print it. As you might guess, Word gives you 2,037 ways to accomplish the retrieval. Here are the most common:

♦ Choose File⇒Open.

♦ Press Ctrl+O.

♦ Press Ctrl+F12.

Each of these methods pops up the Open dialog box, which gives you a list of files to choose from, as shown in Figure 1-5. Click the file you want and then click the Open button or press Enter.

The Open dialog box has controls that enable you to rummage through the various folders on your hard drive in search of your files. If you know how to open a file in any Windows application, you know how to do it in Word; the Open dialog box is much the same in any Windows program.

Figure 1-5: The Open dialog box.

tip.eps The fastest way to open a file from the Open dialog box is to double-click the file you want to open. This action spares you from having to click the file once and then clicking Open. Double-clicking also exercises the fast-twitch muscles in your index finger.

tip.eps Word keeps track of files you’ve recently opened and displays them on the right side of the File tab (Recent page). To open a file you’ve recently opened, click the File tab, click Recent (if necessary), and inspect the list of files that appear on the menu. If the file you want is in the list, click it to open it. (Note that in previous versions, Word displayed only the four most recent documents you’ve edited. Word 2010 displays 20 recent documents by default, and you can use the File⇒Options command to change the number of recent documents displayed.)

Closing a Document

Having finished your document and printed it just right, you have come to the time to close it. Closing a document is kind of like gathering up your papers, putting them neatly in a file folder, and returning the folder to its proper file drawer. The document disappears from your computer screen. Don’t worry: It’s tucked safely away on your hard drive, where you can get to it later if you need to.

To close a file, choose File⇒Close. You also can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W, but you need a mind like a steel trap to remember that Ctrl+W stands for Close.

tip.eps You don’t have to close a file before exiting Word. If you exit Word without closing a file, Word graciously closes the file for you. The only reason you might want to close a file is that you want to work on a different file and you don’t want to keep both files open at the same time.

If you made changes since the last time you saved the file, Word offers to save the changes for you. Click Save to save the file before closing or click Don’t Save to abandon any changes you’ve made to the file.

If you close all open Word documents, you might discover that most Word commands are rendered useless. (They’re grayed out on the menu.) Fear not. Open a document, or create a new one, and the commands return to life.

Exiting Word

Had enough excitement for one day? Use any of these techniques to shut down Word:

♦ Choose File⇒Exit.

♦ Click the X box in the upper-right corner of the Word window.

♦ Press Alt+F4.

Bam! Word is history.

You should know a few things about exiting Word (or any application):

♦ Word doesn’t let you abandon ship without first considering whether you want to save your work. If you made changes to any documents and haven’t saved them, Word offers to save the documents for you. Lean over and plant a fat kiss right in the middle of your monitor — Word just saved you your job.

warning_bomb.eps ♦ Never turn off your computer while Word or any other program is running. It’s a bad idea! You might lose whatever work you’ve done since the last time you saved, and you run the risk of losing your document altogether and perhaps even corrupting other documents. Always properly exit Word and all other programs that are running before you turn off your computer.

Chapter 2: Your Backstage Pass for Managing Documents

In This Chapter

Creating new documents

Opening existing documents

Finding files gone astray

Retrieving files from the Internet

Saving documents and setting the Word file-saving options

Password-protecting your files

The new Backstage view in Word is the central place for managing your documents — creating new documents, saving and opening documents, printing and sharing documents, and so on. You can’t get far in Word without knowing how to work with the Backstage view. So, this chapter provides a quick tour of its features.

Note that one of the major features available from Backstage view — printing — is covered in detail in Chapter 4 of this minibook.

Getting to the Backstage feature is easy: Just click the File tab, located in the upper-left corner of the Word Ribbon, as shown in the margin. After you’re in Backstage view, you can get out by clicking any other tab (Home, for example) or by pressing the Esc key.

Getting Information about Your Document

Assuming a document is open when you click the File tab, Word opens Backstage view with a display of interesting and useful information about the current document, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1: Backstage view displays information about the current document, assuming that a document is open.

As you can see, the information on the Info page is grouped into categories:

♦ Compatibility Mode: If the document is not a native Word 2007/2010 document, a Convert button appears here, enabling you to easily update its format. Otherwise, this category does not appear.

♦ Permissions: Indicates whether the document is locked to prevent editing or is still being edited. You can use the controls in this group to finalize the document so that it can’t be accidentally changed, or you can protect the document with a password so that only people who know the password can read the document. For more information, see Book VI, Chapter 3.

♦ Prepare for Sharing: This section highlights important information you should know about your document before you send it to others, such as a record of the edits you made as you developed the document. You can also use the Check for Issues button to find specific issues you might want to address or correct before sharing the document. For more information, refer to Book V, Chapter 3.

♦ Versions: If the document has been saved several times, you may be able to access previous versions of it from this section.

Creating a New Document

Backstage view includes a New command that lets you create a new document. However, as I mention in Chapter 1 of this minibook, the easiest way to create a new document in Word is to simply start Word from the Start menu. Then the program creates a blank document named Document1.

When you create a new document this way, the document is based on the template named Normal.dotm. A template is simply a model document from which new documents are created. New documents based on the Normal.dotm template have these characteristics:

♦ The margins are set at 1 inch from the top and bottom and 1 inch from the left and right. If you want to change these margin settings, turn to Book III, Chapter 1.

♦ The text is formatted using 11-point Calibri. To change the text format, check out Book II, Chapter 2.

♦ The document includes a few — and by a few, I mean more than 100 — built-in styles you can use to format headings. (You can find 16 as quick styles and other types of text.) To discover how to work with these styles or to create your own styles, see Book II, Chapter 3.

The Normal.dotm template is adequate for generic types of documents, such as book reports and letters to your mom. For more specialized types of documents, you can use other templates that come with Word. Or, you can create your own templates. For more information about working with templates, see Chapter 3 of this minibook.

You can create as many such documents as your heart desires without having to worry about closing any of your other open documents. If you’ve already started Word, you can create a second (or third or fourth) blank document based on the Normal template in any of the following ways:

♦ Press Ctrl+N. You use this keyboard shortcut to create a new, blank document.

♦ Click the New button on the Quick Access toolbar. The New button doesn’t initially appear on the Quick Access toolbar, but you can easily place it there by clicking the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button at the right end of the Quick Access toolbar. Then click New from the list of buttons that appears.

♦ Choose File⇒New, and then click the Blank Document icon. (This is the long way around, though; if you want a blank document, either of the other two methods is easier.)

After you create a new document, you can add text and other content and edit the document however you want. Then you can save the document as described later in this chapter.

If you want to create a document based on a template other than the Normal template, click the File tab to open Backstage view and then click New. This command summons the New page in Backstage view, shown in Figure 2-2.

The New page provides several alternatives to creating simple blank documents:

♦ Blank Document: Double-click this icon to create a blank document, the same as if you click the New button on the Quick Access toolbar.

♦ Blog Post: Double-click this icon to create a new post at a blogging Web site. For more information, refer to Book V, Chapter 1.

♦ Recent Templates: Click this icon to list the templates you have recently used. For more information, see Chapter 3 of this minibook.

♦ Sample Templates: Click this option to display a list of templates that are available on your computer. For more information about templates, see Chapter 3 of this minibook.

Figure 2-2: The New page in Backstage view.

♦ My Templates: Click this option to display a list of templates that you have downloaded from the Microsoft Web site and customized for your own use. For more information, see Chapter 3 of this minibook.

♦ New From Existing: Click this option to create a new document based on a copy of an existing document.

♦ Office.com Templates: This section of the New page lets you access templates from the Microsoft Web site.

Opening Documents

The most direct way to open a saved document is to choose File⇒Open. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+O or Ctrl+F12. Or, you can click the Open button on the Quick Access toolbar. Although this button doesn’t initially appear on the Quick Access toolbar, you can easily place it there by clicking the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button at the right end of the Quick Access toolbar and then clicking Open from the list of buttons that appears.

technicalstuff.eps Ctrl+O is the more intuitive keyboard shortcut for the File⇒Open command (O is for Open, of course), but Ctrl+F12 is left over from the early days of Windows, before Microsoft programmers decided that keyboard shortcuts make more sense. Rather than drop an antiquated and senseless keyboard shortcut in favor of one that makes sense and is consistent across all Windows applications (or at least is supposed to be), the Word developers at Microsoft decided to leave both keyboard shortcuts in place.

No matter which method you choose, the Open dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3: The Open dialog box.

One quick way to access different locations is by using the Folders pane, on the left side of the dialog box. It lists shortcuts to many common locations, including the Documents library (the default save location in Word 2010) and Computer, which you can select to browse the entire content of your system. You can also browse and navigate locations by using the Address bar, along the top of the dialog box. Click the right-pointing arrows in the path on that bar to open menus of locations, or click the left-pointing arrows (<<) at the beginning of the path to view the top level of the path.

The folder navigation method on your system may be somewhat different from the one shown and described here if you’re using Windows XP. In Windows XP, you see a Look In drop-down list, as well as an Up One Level button for navigation control.

tip.eps You can open more than one document at a time by selecting several files and clicking the Open button. Use one of these techniques to select several files:

♦ Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the files you want to select.

♦ To select a range of files, click the first file in the range, hold down the Shift key, and click the last file in the range.

Changing views

The Open dialog box lets you switch among several different views of your documents. A Views button near the top of the dialog box displays a menu that lets you choose the view you want.

The views available to you depend on your Windows version. (Word takes many of its settings for saving, opening, and viewing files directly from Windows.)

The available views in Windows Vista and Windows 7 are described in this list:

♦ Icons (Extra Large, Large, Medium, or Small): Shows each file as an icon, with the size of the icon dictated by the view you choose.

♦ List: Displays a list of folders and documents with small icons.

♦ Details: Displays a list of folders and documents with details, including the filename, type, size, and creation date. Headers at the top of columns are buttons; you can sort the list on any column by simply clicking the column’s button.

♦ Tiles: Displays medium-size icons with filenames and file information to the right.

♦ Content: Displays a horizontal bar for each figure, including an icon and a name and file size information.

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can use the Preview button