Word keeps track of the documents you’ve worked on most recently. You can quickly open one of these documents by choosing it from the list at the bottom of the File menu. As many as nine documents can be listed at the bottom of the file menu. To change the number of documents in this list, click the Tools menu and select Options…; then select the General tab. Type the number of documents you want to list in the Recently used file list field.

If you want to edit or add to a document that you’ve saved previously, you can open it by clicking the File menu and selecting Open. The Open dialog box appears listing Word documents. If you’re not sure where the document is located, click the Tools button and select Search. This feature allows you to locate a file if you know the file name, specific text in the document, or the date it was created or last modified. Word lists documents that meet the search criteria you specify.

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To save a document, click the Save button on the Standard toolbar or click the File menu and select Save. If this is the first time you’ve saved the document, the Save As dialog box appears. From the Save in: field, select the drive, directory, or folder where you want to save the file. Type a name for the document in the File name: field. Click Save.

For subsequent saves, click the File menu and select Save. The file is saved automatically to the location you selected previously. When you save a document, it remains open on your screen so that you can continue working. Word can protect your work by saving a temporary copy of a document periodically as you work. To set up this option, click the Tools menu and select Options…; then select the Save tab. Click on the AutoRecover info every: field and then specify a time for how often you’d like this to occur. You still must use the Save command on the File menu to save the document normally when you finish working on it. To close a document when you’re finished with it, click the File menu and select Close. If you have a document that you’ve already saved, but want to save it under a different name or in a different format, click the File menu and select Save As. This allows you to choose a new name, directory, or format to save the document as.

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Once you’ve typed your document, you may want to check the spelling. To start the spell check process, press the Spelling and Grammar button or click the Tools menu and select Spelling and Grammar. Pressing [F7] will also start the process. Microsoft Word checks for spelling errors by using its main dictionary, which contains the most common words. When a misspelled word or a word is found that isn’t in the spelling dictionary, the dialog box will list the misspelling and suggested corrections. Click on the correct word in the list and click Change to accept the correctly spelled word. If the word is spelled correctly, you can click Ignore and the spell check continues.

Word also checks the grammar of the document as it checks the spelling. As with spelling errors, suggestions are provided for different sentence wording or corrections for sentences Word thinks are grammatically incorrect.

While typing a document, misspelled words will be underlined in red and grammatical errors will be underlined in green. To turn the spelling and/or grammar functions off, click the Tools menu and select Options. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab and uncheck Check spelling as you type and/or Check grammar as you type.

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Create a first-line indent

1. Select the paragraph you want to indent.
2. If you don’t see the horizontal ruler, click Ruler on the View menu.
3. On the horizontal ruler, drag the First Line Indent marker to the position where you want the text to start.

Tip: For more precision in setting a first-line indent, you can select options on the Indents and Spacing tab (Format menu, Paragraph command). In the Special list under Indentation, click First line, and then set the other options you want.

Increase or decrease the left indent of a paragraph

1. Select the paragraph you want to change.
2. On the Formatting toolbar, click Increase Indent or Decrease Indent.
3. The paragraph indent is increased/decreased by one tab stop each time the icon is selected. If you want to change the position of the indent, you can first set a different tab stop.

Change the right indent of a paragraph

1. Select the paragraph you want to change.
2. If you don’t see the horizontal ruler, click Ruler on the View menu.
3. On the horizontal ruler, drag the Right Indent marker to the position where you want the text to end.

Set an indent by using the Tab key

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
2. Under Automatically as you type, be sure the Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces check box is checked.
3. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.
4. To set indents on a paragraph, press the TAB key.

• To indent the first line of a paragraph, click in front of the line.
• To indent an entire paragraph, click in front of any line but the first line.

Note: To remove the indent, press BACKSPACE before moving the insertion point. You can also click Undo on the Edit menu.

Create a hanging indent

1. Select the paragraph in which you want to create a hanging indent.
2. If you don’t see the horizontal ruler, click Ruler on the View menu.
3. On the horizontal ruler, drag the Hanging Indent marker to the position at which you want the indent to start.

Tip: For more precision in setting a hanging indent, use the Indents and Spacing tab (Format menu, Paragraph command). In the Special list under Indentation, select Hanging. In the By box, set the amount of space for the hanging indent.

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In default are tab stops set at 0.5-inch intervals starting from the left margin. To move the insertion point to the next tab stop in the current paragraph, press [TAB]. When setting or changing tab stops, make sure that you select all paragraphs that should be affected by the change. If you want tab stop settings to be the same for several paragraphs, you can save time by setting the tab stops before you start typing. When you press [ENTER] or [RETURN] to start a new paragraph, Word carries the paragraph formatting, including the tab settings, to the next paragraph.

To set precise measurements for tab stops, click the Format menu and select Tabs…. The Tabs dialog box appears. In the Tab Stop Position field: type the position for a new tab. Under the Alignment section, select the alignment for text typed at the tab stop. Under the Leader section, select the leader character you want, and then click Set. Set as many tab stops with alignments and leaders as you like. After all tabs are set, click OK. The ruler can also be used to set tabs. To add a new tab, click once on the ruler where you want the new tab setting to be. Setting tabs will eliminate all the default tabs to that point. You can move an existing tab by clicking and holding on the tab symbol while dragging it to the new location. A tab can be removed by dragging it off the ruler.

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The Styles and Formatting task pane provides you with formatting information about your document. You can also use it to modify or clear the formatting; compare the formatting of different selections, or to find blocks of text with similar formatting.
To access this task pane, click the Format menu and select Styles and Formatting. When Available formatting is selected in the Show box in this task pane, you can see the formatting used in your document, including styles you’ve created and default heading styles. You can also show all styles in the task pane, or define a custom view.

To make adjustments to the formatting in your Word document:

1. Click on the Format menu and select Reveal Formatting.
2. Select the text whose formatting you want to review. The formatting information appears in the Reveal Formatting task pane.
3. You have several formatting options:

• To change any formatting properties, such as the font, click the hyperlinked text in the task pane, and then change any options you want in the dialog box that appears.
• To determine the formatting source, such as whether the formatting comes from a style, select the Distinguish style source check box.
• To show formatting marks, such as paragraph marks and tabs, select the Show all formatting marks check box.
• To format a text selection so it matches the text that surrounds it, select the text. Point to the Selected text box, click the arrow, and then click Apply Formatting of Surrounding Text.
• To view a feature-by-feature comparison of your text selection with another block of text, select the Compare to another section check box and then select another block of text.

Note: It’s easy to select all text with the same formatting in your document using the Styles and Formatting task pane. This can be helpful for viewing the text, changing its formatting, or deleting it. To select all text with the same formatting, open the Styles and Formatting task pane, and then, in your document, click a word that’s formatted like the text you want to select. (The formatting description appears under Formatting of selected text in the Styles and Formatting task pane.) In the Styles and Formatting task pane, click Select All.

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