Microsoft Word 2004

Learning Document Basics

Once you have opened Word, you will be ready to create your document. The blank screen is like a blank piece of paper. The following instructions will guide you through creating a basic document with Word 2004 including saving, opening, printing, and exiting.

Creating a New Document
Saving a Document
Opening a Document
Selecting a Printer
Using Print Preview
Printing a Document
Exiting Word

Creating a New Document

You can either create a new document by using the menu option or the toolbar option. The menu option gives you more options while choosing your new document. However, the toolbar is a faster and easier way of getting a blank document on your screen.

Creating a New Document: Menu Option

From the File menu, select New Blank Document

Creating a New Document: Toolbar Option

From the Standard toolbar, click NEW BLANK DOCUMENT
A new document appears.

Saving a Document

The Save and Save As commands are located under the File menu. If you are saving a document for the first time, either selection will take you to the Save As dialog box.

Saving a Document: Save As Option

To save and name your document or to save a copy of your document under another name:

From the File menu, select Save As...
The Save As dialog box appears.
From the Where pull-down list, select the desired save location
HINT: Your personal home directory is generally your username$.
EXAMPLE: DOEJANE$
In the Save As text box, type the document name
HINTS:
To help you locate the file in the future, use a descriptive filename.
Word will automatically add a .doc extension.
Click SAVE

Saving a Document: Save Option

Use the Save command to save a document that has already been named and saved. If you select the Save command and you have not saved the document before, you will see the Save As dialog box. Use the Save command to save the changes you make to the original document.

To save a document Using a menu:

From the File menu, select Save
Word will automatically save your document to the location you previously selected.

To save a document Using a button:

From the Standard toolbar, click SAVE
Word will automatically save your document to the location you previously selected.

Opening a Document

Follow these instructions if you have already created a document or if you want to open a document already created in Word.

From the File menu, select Open…
OR
From the Standard toolbar, click OPEN
OR
On the keyboard, press [command] + [O]
The Open dialog box appears.
From the Where pull-down list, navigate to the desired file
NOTE: Although all file types are shown, only those with a .doc extension are able to be opened. The remainder are grayed out and cannot be selected.
To select the document, click the name of the document you want to open
Click OPEN

Selecting a Printer

In order to print any document, a printer must be selected. These instructions will show you how to select a printer and set a default printer which will remain the selected printer every time you print.

From the File menu, select Print...
The Print dialog box appears.
From the Printer pull-down list, select the printer you wish to use
Your printer is selected.

To set a default printer:

To make selecting a printer from the Print dialog box easier, simply set a default printer that will automatically be used every time you print.

From the File menu, select Print...
The Print dialog box appears.
From the Printer pull-down list, select Edit Printer List...
The Printer List dialog box appears.
From the list, select the desired printer
OR
If the desired printer does not appear in the list,
1. Click ADD
  The Printer List dialog box appears.
2. Using the pull-down list and navigation window, locate and select the desired printer
3. Click ADD
With the printer selected, click MAKE DEFAULT
Close the Printer List dialog box
To print, in the Print dialog box, click PRINT
To return to your document without printing, click CANCEL

Using Print Preview

The Print Preview feature is useful for viewing your document prior to printing. You can verify that the page breaks are acceptable and that there are not any extra pages in your document. You can print directly from the Print Preview screen.

From the File menu, select Print Preview
OR
On the Standard toolbar, click PRINT PREVIEW
OPTIONAL: To print from Print Preview, on the Print Preview toolbar, click PRINT
To return to your document, on the Print Preview toolbar, click CLOSE

Printing a Document

The general steps to printing an open document are as follows:

Printing a Document: Menu Option

From the File menu, select Print…
The Print dialog box appears.
In the Copies and Pages sections, make the changes in the range of pages you want to print and/or the number of copies you want
NOTE: For more information about printing, refer to Specifying the Pages to Print.
Click PRINT

Printing a Document: Toolbar Option

From the Standard toolbar, click PRINT
WARNING: When you use the toolbar option, all pages of your document will be printed. This print process does not take you through the Print dialog box.

Exiting Word

When you are done working with your document and would like to take it off the screen, you have two options, depending on whether you would like to start another Word document or exit Word. If you are finished using Word for the day, be sure to select the Exit command.

To close the saved document and begin another document in Word:

From the File menu, select Close
Open another document or create a new document in Word

To close the saved document and exit Word:

From the Word menu, select Quit Word
NOTE: If you have made changes that have not been saved, a dialog box may appear asking you if you want to save the document.
To save the document, click SAVE
To close without saving, click DON'T SAVE
To continue working, click CANCEL