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Chapter 1. Creating, Opening, and Saving DocumentsEvery Word project you create—whether it’s a personal letter, a TV sitcom script, or a thesis in microbiology—begins and ends the same way. You start by creating a document, and you end by saving your work. Sounds simple, but to manage your Word documents effectively, you need to know these basics and beyond. This chapter shows you all the different ways to create a new Word document—like starting from an existing document or adding text to a predesigned template—and how to choose the best one for your particular project. You’ll also learn how to work faster and smarter by changing your view of your document. If you want, you can use Word’s Outline view when you’re brainstorming, and then switch to Print view when you’re ready for hard copy. This chapter gets you up and running with these fundamental tools so you can focus on the important stuff—your words. TipIf you’ve used Word before, then you’re probably familiar with opening and saving documents. Still, you may want to skim this chapter to catch up on the differences between this version of Word and the ghosts of Word past. You’ll grasp some of the big changes just by examining the figures. For more detail, check out the gray boxes and the notes and tips—like this one! Launching WordThe first time you launch Word after installation, the program asks you to confirm your name and initials. This isn’t Microsoft’s nefarious plan to pin you down: Word uses this information to identify documents that you create and modify. Word uses your initials to mark your edits when you review and add comments to Word documents that other people send to you (Section 16.3). You have three primary ways to fire up Word, so use whichever method you find quickest:
TipIf you need to get familiar with the Start menu, Quick Launch toolbar, and other Windows features, then pick up a copy of Windows XP: The Missing Manual, Second Edition or Windows Vista: The Missing Manual. So, what happens once you’ve got Word’s motor running? If you’re a newcomer, you’re probably just staring with curiosity. If you’re familiar with previous versions of Word, though, you may be doing a double take (Figure 1-1). In Word 2007, Microsoft combined all the old menus and toolbars into a new feature called the ribbon. Click one of the tabs above the ribbon, and you see the command buttons change below. The ribbon commands are organized into groups, with the name of each group listed at the bottom. (See Figure 1-1 for more detail on the ribbon.) Creating a New DocumentWhen you start Word without opening an existing document, the program gives you an empty one to work in. If you’re eager to put words to page, then type away. Sooner or later, though, you’ll want to start another new document. Word gives you three ways to do so: Figure 1-1. When you start Word 2007 for the first time, it may look a little top-heavy. The ribbon takes up more real estate than the old menus and toolbars. This change may not matter if you have a nice big monitor. But if you want to reclaim some of that space, you can hide the ribbon by double-clicking the active tab. Later, when you need to see the ribbon commands, just click a tab.
TipMicrosoft provides a mind-boggling number of templates with Word, but they’re not the only source. You can find loads more on the Internet, as described in Section 5.2.1. Your employer may even provide official templates for company documents. To start your document in any of the above ways, click the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen. That’s Office 2007’s new Office button. Click it, and a drop-down menu opens, revealing commands for creating, opening, and saving documents. Next to these commands, you see a list of your Word documents. This list includes documents that are open, as well as those that you’ve recently opened. The Office button is also where you go to print and email your documents (Figure 1-2). Figure 1-2. The phrase most frequently uttered by experienced Word fans the first time they start Word 2007 is, “Okay, where’s my File menu?” Never fear, the equivalent of the File menu is still there—it’s just camouflaged a bit. Clicking the Office button (the one that looks like a Windows logo) reveals the commands you use to create, open, and save Word documents. Creating a New Blank DocumentSay you want a new blank document, just like the one Word shows you when you start the program. No problem—here are the steps:
Better get to work. Figure 1-3. Open the New Document box (Office button → New, or Alt+F, N), and Word gives you several ways to create a new document. Click “Blank document” to open an empty document, similar to the one Word shows when you first start the program. Or you can click “New from existing” to open a document that you previously created under a new name. Creating a New Document from an Existing DocumentA blank Word document is sort of like a shapeless lump of clay. With some work, you can mold it to become just about anything. Often, however, you can save time by opening an existing document that’s similar to the one you want to create. Imagine that you write the minutes for the monthly meetings of the Chief Executive Officer’s Surfing Association (CEOSA). When it’s time to write up the June minutes, it’s a lot faster to open the minutes from May. You keep the boilerplate text and all the formatting, but you delete the text that’s specific to the previous month. Now all you have to do is enter the text for June and save the document with a new name: JuneMinutes.docx. NoteThe .docx extension on the end of the filename is Word 2007’s new version of .doc. The switch from three-letter to four-letter filename extensions indicates a change in the way Word stores documents. (If you need to share documents with folks using earlier versions of Word, choose Office button → Save As → Word 97-2003 document when you save the file. See the box in Section 1.2.3 for details.) Word gives you a “New from existing” document-creation option to satisfy your desire to spend more time surfing and less time writing meeting minutes. Here’s how to create a new document from an existing document:
Figure 1-4. Use the New from Existing Document box to find an existing Word document that you’d like to open as a model for your new document. When you click Create New at bottom-right, Word opens a new copy of the document, leaving the original untouched. You can modify the copy to your heart’s content and save it under a different file name. TipWindows’ Open File boxes, like New from Existing Document, let you do a lot more than just find files. In fact, they let you do just about anything you can do in Windows Explorer. Using keyboard shortcuts, you can cut (Ctrl+X), copy (Ctrl+C), and paste (Ctrl+V) files. A right-click displays a shortcut menu with even more commands, letting you rename files, view Properties dialog boxes, and much more. You can even drag and drop to move files and folders.
Creating a New Document from a TemplateSay you’re creating meeting minutes for the first time. You don’t have an existing document to give you a leg up, but you do want to end up with handsome, properly formatted minutes. Word is at your service—with templates. Microsoft provides dozens upon dozens of prebuilt templates for everything from newsletters to postcards. Remember all the busy stuff in the New Document box in Figure 1-3? About 90 percent of the items in there are templates. In the previous example, where you use an existing document to create the meeting minutes for the Chief Executive Officer’s Surfing Association (CEOSA), each month you open the minutes from the previous month. You delete the information that pertains to the previous month and enter the current month’s minutes. A template works pretty much the same way, except it’s a generic document, designed to be adaptable to lots of different situations. You just open it and add your text. The structure, formatting, graphics, colors, and other doodads are already in place. NoteThe subject of Word templates is a lengthy one, especially when it comes to creating your own, so there’s a whole chapter devoted to that topic—Chapter 20. Here’s how to get some help from one of Microsoft’s templates for meeting minutes:
TipIf you’d rather not download the Formal Meeting Minutes template every time you use it, then you can save the file on your computer as a Word template. The steps for saving files are just around the corner in Section 1.5. Opening an Existing DocumentIf you’ve mastered creating a document from an existing document and creating a document from a template, you’ll find that opening an existing document is a snap. The steps are nearly identical.
Figure 1-6. This Open dialog box shows the contents of the tale of two cities folder, according to the “Look in” box at the top. The file tale of two cities. docx is selected, as you can see in the “File name box” at the bottom of the window. By clicking Open, Mr. Dickens is ready to go to work. TipOpening a file in Word doesn’t mean you’re limited to documents created in Word. You can choose documents created in other programs from the Files of Type drop-down menu at the bottom of the Open dialog box. Word then shows you that type of document in the main part of the window. You can open Outlook messages (.msg), Web pages (.htm or .html), or files from other word processors (.rtf, .mcw, .wps). Your Different Document ViewsNow that you know a handful of ways to create and open Word documents, it’s time to take a look around the establishment. You may think a document’s a document—just look at it straight on and get your work done. It’s surprising, though, how changing your view of the page can help you work faster and smarter. When you’re working with a very long document, you can change to Outline view and peruse just your document’s headlines without the paragraph text. In Outline view, you get a better feeling for the manuscript as a whole. Likewise, when you’re working on a document that’s headed for the Web, it makes sense to view the page as it will appear in a browser. Other times, you may want to have two documents open on your screen at once (or on each of your two monitors, you lucky dog), to make it easy to cut and paste text from one to the other. The key to working with Word’s different view options is to match the view to the job at hand. Once you get used to switching views, you’ll find lots of reasons to change your point of view. Find the tools you need on the View tab (Figure 1-7). To get there, click the View tab (Alt+W) on the ribbon (near the top of Word’s window). The tab divides the view commands into four groups:
All the commands in the View tab’s four groups are covered in the following pages. NoteThis section provides the short course on viewing your Word documents. For even more details and options for customizing your Word environment, see Chapter 17. Figure 1-7. The View tab is your document-viewing control center. Look closely, and you see it’s divided into four groups with names at the bottom of the ribbon: Document Views, Show/Hide, Zoom, and Window. To apply a view command, just click the button or label. Document Views: Five Ways to Look at Your ManuscriptWord gives you five basic document views. To select a view, go to the View tab (Alt+W) and choose one of the Document Views on the left side of the ribbon (Figure 1-8). You have another great option for switching from one view to another that’s always available in the lower-right corner of Word’s window. Click one of the five small buttons to the left of the slider to jump between Print Layout, Full Screen Reading, Web Layout, Outline, and Draft views. Each view has a special purpose, and you can modify them even more using the other commands on the View tab. Figure 1-8. On the left side of the View tab, you find the five basic document views: Print Layout, Full Screen Reading, Web Layout, Outline, and Draft. You can edit your document in any of the views, although they come with different tools for different purposes. For example, Outline view provides a menu that lets you show or hide headings at different outline levels. NoteChanging your view in no way affects the document itself—you’re just looking at the same document from a different perspective.
Show and Hide Window ToolsWord gives you some visual aids that make it easier to work with your documents. Tools like rulers and gridlines don’t show up when you print your document, but they help you line up the elements on the page. Use the ruler to set page margins and to create tabs for your documents. Checkboxes on the View tab let you show or hide tools, but some tools aren’t available in all the views, so they’re grayed out. You can’t, for example, display page rulers in Outline or Full Screen Reading views. Use the checkboxes in the Show/Hide group of the View tab (Figure 1-10) to turn these tools on and off:
Zooming Your View In and OutWhen you’re working, do you ever find that you sometimes hold pages at arm’s length to get a complete view, and then, at other times, you stick your nose close to the page to examine the details? Word’s Zoom options (Figure 1-11) let you do the same thing with your screen—but without looking nearly as silly. Figure 1-10. Use the Show/Hide group on the View tab to display or conceal Word tools. The Ruler gives you a quick and easy way to set tabs and margins. The Document Map is particularly helpful when you work with longer documents because it displays headings in the bar on the left of the screen. In the left pane, you can see that Mr. Dickens wrote more than his fair share of chapters. Figure 1-11. The Zoom group of options lets you view your document close up or at a distance. The big magnifying glass opens the Zoom dialog box with more controls for fine-tuning your zoom level. For quick changes, click one of the three buttons on the right: One Page, Two Pages, or Page Width. NoteEven though the text appears to get bigger and smaller when you zoom, you’re not actually changing the document in any way. Zoom is similar to bringing a page closer so you can read the fine print. If you want to actually change the font size, then use the formatting options on the Home tab (Alt+H, FS). On the View tab, click the big magnifying glass to open the Zoom dialog box (Figure 1-12). Depending on your current Document View (see Section 1.4), you can adjust your view by percentage or relative to the page and text (more on that in a moment). The options change slightly depending on which Document View you’re using. The Page options don’t really apply to Web layouts, so they’re grayed out and inactive if you’re in the Web Layout view. Figure 1-12. The Zoom dialog box lets you choose from a variety of views. Just click one of the option buttons, and then click OK. The monitor and text sample at the bottom of the Zoom box provide visual clues as you change the settings. Zooming by percentageIn the box’s upper-left corner, you find controls to zoom in and out of your document by percentage. The view varies depending on your computer screen and settings, but in general, 100% is a respectable, middle-of-the-road view of your document. The higher the percentage, the more zoomed in you are, and the bigger everything looks—vice versa with a lower percentage. The three radio buttons (200%, 100%, and 75%) give you quick access to some standard settings. For in-between percentages (like 145%), type a number in the box below the buttons, or use the up-down arrows to change the value. For a quick way to zoom in and out without opening a dialog box, use the Zoom slider (Figure 1-13) in the lower-right corner of your window. Drag the slider to the right to zoom in on your document, and drag it to the left to zoom out. The percentage changes as you drag. Figure 1-13. The Zoom slider at the bottom of the document window gives you a quick and easy way to change your perspective. Drag the slider to the right to zoom in on your document, and drag it to the left to zoom out. To the left of the slider are five View buttons: Print Layout, Full Screen Reading, Web Layout, Outline, and Draft (Section 1.4.2). Since the first button is selected, this document is in Print Layout view.
Zooming relative to page or textNot everyone’s a number person. (That’s especially true of writers.) So you may prefer to zoom without worrying about percentage figures. The Zoom dialog box (on the View tab, click the magnifying-glass icon) gives you four radio buttons with plain-English zoom settings: Page width. Click this button, and the page resizes to fill the screen from one side to the other. It’s the fastest way to zoom to a text size that most people find comfortable to read. (You may have to scroll, though, to read the page from top to bottom.) Text width. This button zooms in even farther, because it ignores the margins of your page. Use this one if you have a high-resolution monitor (or you’ve misplaced your reading glasses). Whole page. When you want to see an entire page from top to bottom and left to right, click this button. It’s great for getting an overview of how your headings and paragraphs look on the page. Many pages. This view is the equivalent of spreading your document out on the floor, and then viewing it from the top of a ladder. You can use it to see how close you are to finishing that five-page paper, or to inspect the layout of a multi-page newsletter. WarningWhen you’re zoomed out to Whole or “Many pages” view, watch those fingers on the keyboard. You can still make changes to your text in these views, even though you can’t see what you’re doing. Changing page view from the ribbonThe ribbon offers radio buttons for three popular page views. (You can see them back in Figure 1-11, to the Zoom tool’s right.) They’re a quick and dirty way to change the number of pages you see onscreen without fiddling with zoom controls.
The Window Group: Doing the SplitsBack when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people used typewriters (or very early word processors), you could work on only one document at a time—the one right in front of you. Although Word 2007 has more options for viewing multiple documents and multiple windows than ever, some folks forget to use them. Big mistake. If you ever find yourself comparing two documents or borrowing extensively from some other text, then having two or more documents visible on your screen can double or triple your work speed. The commands for managing multiple documents, views, and windows are in the View tab’s Window group (Figure 1-14). Figure 1-14. In the Window group, the three commands on the left—New Window, Arrange All, and Split—let you open and view your work from multiple vantage points. The commands in the middle—View Side by Side, Synchronous Scrolling, and Reset Window Position—are helpful when reviewing and comparing documents. The big Switch Windows button lets you hop from one document to another.
Figure 1-15. One downside of Office 2007’s ribbon: It takes up more space on your computer’s screen than menus or even the older button bars. When you open a couple of windows, you’re not left with much space to do your work, especially when you’re working on an ultra-portable laptop or a computer with a small screen. You can double-click the active tab to hide the ribbon, but in most cases, you’re better off working with a split screen, as shown in Figure 1-16. Figure 1-16. When you’re viewing two different parts of a single document, use the Split command; it leaves you more room to work than two separate windows, as shown in Figure 1-15. Each section of the split window has a scroll bar, so you can independently control different parts of your document. If you want to fine-tune your split, just drag the middle bar exactly where you want it. When you’re done, click Remove Split to return to a single screen view. Viewing multiple windowsOne common reason for wanting to see two documents or more on your screen at once is so you can make line-by-line comparisons. Imagine you have two Word documents that are almost identical, but you have to find the spots where there are differences. A great way to make those differences jump out is to put both versions on your screen side by side and scroll through them. As you scroll, you can see differences in the paragraph lengths and the line lengths. Here are the commands to help you with the process:
Saving and Closing DocumentsFrom the earliest days of personal computing, the watchword has been “save early, save often.” There’s nothing more frustrating than working half the day and then having the Great American Novel evaporate into the digital ether because your power goes out. So, here are some tips to protect your work from disasters human-made and natural:
The Many Ways to Save DocumentsIt’s the Microsoft Way to give you multiple ways to do most everything. Whether that’s because the company’s programmers believe in giving you lots of choices, or because they can’t make up their minds about the best way to do something is a question best left to the philosophers. But the point is, you do have a choice. You don’t have to memorize every keystroke, button, and command. Especially with saving, the important thing is to find a way you like and stick with it. Here’s a list of some ways you can save the document you’re working on: Saving by keyboard shortcut
Saving by menu command
Figure 1-18. When you see this message box, you have three choices: Yes saves your document before closing it; No closes your document without saving it; Cancel leaves your document open without saving it. Saving with a new nameWhen you save a new document or save a document with a new name (Save As), you’ve got three things to consider: a filename, a file location, and a file format. Figure 1-19. To open a backup file, choose All Files (*.*) in the “Files of type” drop-down menu at the bottom of the Open dialog box. Look for a file that begins with the words “Backup of.” Double-click to open the file. Here are the steps for saving a file, complete with a new name:
Figure 1-21. The Save As dialog box has all the controls you need to navigate to any location on your computer—including five nifty buttons in the upper-right corner. From left to right: The left arrow button steps you backward through your past locations (just like the back button in a Web browser). The up arrow takes you out to the folder enclosing the one you’re in now. The X button deletes folders and files—be careful with it. Click the folder with the star in the corner to create a new folder. Which command is used to save a workbook?While you'll use Save or press Ctrl+S to save an existing workbook in its current location, you need to use Save As to save your workbook for the first time, in a different location, or to create a copy of your workbook in the same or another location.
Which command is used to save a workbook in different versions in MS Excel?To export a workbook to other file types:
Click Export, then select Change File Type. Select a common file type, then click Save As. The Save As dialog box will appear. Select the location where you want to export the workbook, enter a file name, then click Save.
What is the different file name of workbook?Excel file formats. Which tab contains option to save files and create new files?File tab is the answer.
File tab is present in home page. File tab contains options like new, open ,save, save as, print, prepare, send, publish and close. It is the four coloured box located in top left side corner.
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