Getting Started with Microsoft Word

Designed for the Mac Lab in Arts & Sci., Rm. 22, USD

Preliminary steps

1. Turn on the Mac if it is not already on. For Macs 1-10 and Macs 15-20, that means pushing in the button right below the floppy disk drive and pushing in the monitor button (to the right, underneath the screen) until the green light comes on. For the newer G3 computers (Macs 11-14 and Mac 21), that means pressing the arrow key in the upper right-hand part of the keyboard and pressing the monitor button (again, a green light will come on).

2. To open the hard drive: using the mouse, move the arrow until it is directly on top of the hard drive icon in the top right-hand corner of the computer screen. (You'll see Mac #2, Mac #12, etc. below the icon.) Using your mouse, double-click (click twice quickly) to open the hard drive. A window will appear.

3. You will see several folders inside the Mac hard drive window. Look for the Microsoft Office folder (Microsoft Office '98 on the G3s) and double-click on it to open it. A new window will appear.

4. To open the Microsoft Word application, position the arrow directly over the icon labeled "Microsoft Word" and double-click. Wait a few minutes.

5. You may get a "Tip of the Day" screen; if you do, just click on the okay button and it will disappear.

Let's format your document!

1. You can change the font if you like (although Times is perfectly acceptable).
   1. Use the pull-down menu (button with arrow pointing down, next to "Times").
   2. Click on the button with your mouse and keep holding your button down.
   3. Drag with your mouse over the list of available fonts and select one that is reader-friendly such as . . . Palatino.
   Avoid sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica for text; because Helvetica has no serifs and is very plain, reading a large passage of text in Helvetica can get tedious.

2. Now, you want to be sure that your paper is numbered and includes your last name in the top right-hand corner (example: Smith 18).
   1. From the menu bar above, you'll select "View," using your trusty mouse to click and hold down as a pull-down menu appears.
   2. Drag the mouse down to the item "Header and Footer." A dotted-line header box and a "header and footer" menu will appear.
   3. Type your last name, and hit the space bar once (to create a space between the space bar and the page number).
   4. Select the # button on the "header and footer" bar that represents numbers (insert page number). A number will appear next to your last name.
   5. Go up to the menu bar above and select right-hand alignment, so that your name and the page number appear on the right side.
   6. Then click the "close" button.

3. Next, check your margins. Your paper should be 1" on all sides.
   1. Pull down the "File" menu and select "Document Layout." (On the G3 computers, pull down the "Format" menu and select "Document.") A "Document Layout" window will appear.
   2. Two folder labels appear in the window, "Margins" and "Layout." Click on the word "Margins" to open the "Margins" folder (if it is not already open.
   3. Make sure that the top, bottom, right, and left margins are all 1"; then click on the "okay" button.

4. Your paper needs to be double-spaced.
   1. From the menu bar, pull down "Format" and select "Paragraph."
   2. Under "line spacing," select "double."
   3. Then click the okay button.

Next: let's begin your paper

Your complete name

Paper #1, Draft #1

Date

                                  Title

            (to center title, click on centered text box above)

     This is the beginning of your paper. Did you remember to change your

alignment back the way it was, with the even left side? Select

even-left-side alignment button above, if you have not already done so.

     For most of your papers, this is what you will need to do. If you

want to use your PC at home that's loaded with Microsoft Word and save the

document on a disk, you should make sure that you will be able to open up 

the document that you created at home in this Mac lab. If you can't, you

should plan on doing all of your papers on one of the Macs on campus.

You'll have fewer problems. (Approximately eight Macs are available in the

Link Lab between I.D. Weeks Library and the Coyote Student Union.)

Saving your document

To save this document in the public folder of the hard drive:
1. Pull down the file menu and select "save" or "save as." (A warning window may pop up, saying "This machine is set to use floppy disks. Please put a disk in now." We'll ignore this message for right now; click on the "OK" button.)
2. Another window will pop up. You'll see a list of folders with a scroll bar on the right side. You want the Public folder. If necessary, scroll down so you can find the public folder by clicking on the light-colored arrow pointing down. (For the G3s, the public folder is already open; skip this step and the next one; go to step 4.)
3. Click on the public folder once to highlight it; click on the "open button on the right side to open the public folder.
4. There may be lots of items in the public folder, but don't worry about that. Under "Save Current Document as:" name your document something that you will remember, that makes sense, such as "practice essay".
5. Click on the "Save" button to save the document.

Printing your document

1. Go up the file menu and select the print option. A print window will appear.
2. One copy is automatically selected; if you want more, change the number of copies to be made.
3. Click the "Print" button. Then wait PATIENTLY; this may take a while if everyone is trying to print at the same time. DO NOT keep doing the print command over and over.

To copy your document file from the public folder to a disk:
1. Quit out of Microsoft Word by going up the file menu and clicking on the pull-down menu. Use your mouse to highlight the last command, "Quit."
2. Close all the windows open on the desktop by clicking once on each window, going up the file menu, and selecting "Close Window."
3. Open the hard drive again by double-clicking on it with your mouse.
4. Double-click on the Public folder to open it.
5. Insert a disk. If it needs to be formatted, follow the directions that the Mac gives you. If you usually use a PC, you'll want to format your disk for the PC (ask for help if you're confused about what to do).
6. In the public folder, click once on your file and, holding down your mouse button, drag the file onto your disk icon. The disk will darken in color when you have dragged the file onto your disk.
7. The Mac will make a copy of this file on the disk. Once it's done, double-click on your disk icon to make sure that the file has been saved on your disk.
8. To eject your disk (PC- or Mac-formatted), hold down the apple key next to the space bar and press the key "Y" at the same time. (Or you can drag the disk into the trash; your disk will pop out.)
9. Empty the public folder by dragging all the files (including your practice document) into the trash can in the bottom right-hand window. Then go up to the "Special" menu and select "Empty Trash."

Here's a couple of helpful hints:

To find out if your paper meets the minimum-word requirement, in Microsoft Word, pull down the "Tools" menu and select "Word Count."

Protect your disks, and ALWAYS make back-up copies of all of your documents! Write on labels BEFORE you stick them on the disks and avoid doing so after the labels are already on the disks. Avoid dropping the disks or spilling anything on them. Avoid setting them close to telephones or magnetic objects. Disks are delicate!

Alternative to using disks: you can upload your documents to your Internet account (at least temporarily).