Microsoft Word is Office software and it has many interface elements that you may be familiar with from other applications you've used. This lesson will ensure you are familiar with the basic methods of using words interface and will introduce you to operating that interface to better work with Word documents. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify the components of the Microsoft Word interface and create a Word document. Microsoft Word is a powerful, easy to use Word processor. Many people worldwide use it each day to create reports, letters, memos and many other types of documents. If you have used earlier versions of Microsoft Word or programs such as Pages or Open Office Writer, then you may already be familiar with some of Words features. Whether you have used Word before or just starting now, don't worry, we'll go through everything you need to know. Before you know it, you'll be a confident Word user. Microsoft Word is available through the subscription based Office 365 service. Using Word you will be able to create many different types of documents. The documents you create can contain tables, charts, shapes, photos, videos and much more. Best of all Words interface is intuitive and customizable. So the features that are most important to the way you work are easily accessible. The files that you will create with Microsoft Word are called documents. Each document is composed of one or more pages. Since these documents are electronic files, they can be easily saved modified, shared and printed. Let's explore how you can start with Word documents. When you launch Microsoft Word you get the start screen. From the start screen, you can click on the type of document that you would like to create. If you choose to begin by using a blank document, the Word window immediately opens and you are ready to begin work on your document. Essentially this is like opening your writing pad to a blank sheet of paper. Starting blank is not for all of us. If you choose another type of document, it may come with more content. Some of these other document types may display description or prompt you to type in set up data such as dates or locations. When you click Create the Word document window appears displaying your chosen document type. Normally the words start screen appears anytime you start Word. It can be turned on or off in the options menu. If you want to access similar commands during a Word session, just select file menu and the home area is displayed. Let's begin exploring what is on your screen when you use Microsoft Word. This will give you an overview of everything in the Word UI or user interface so that you can start to identify the main areas. It may also help to get you familiar with some of the common terminology that is used whenever Microsoft Word areas, features and components are mentioned. There are several different details displayed on the title bar. The name of the open file has shown. You may also see more information about the file. For example, if it is open in read only mode or has been opened from the internet, the last time it was saved and so forth. In the middle of the title bar is the search box allowing you to locate files, data in your document or even specific Word commands. To the right of the title bar, you will see the display name and profile picture or icon of the registered user of Microsoft Word. You can manage your Microsoft account from here. Using the set of icons in the top right hand corner of the screen, you change how the ribbon is displayed, minimize the window, maximize or restore the window or close the current document. As the name implies, the quick access toolbar gives you immediate convenient access to frequently used commands. The toolbar holds only a few commands by default but is completely customizable, allowing new buttons to be added and facilitating adjustment of the bar position. Groups of light commands are organized under tab names. You click a tab to view the command that it contains. Then you can choose a command from that tab, move to a different tab or move to the home tab to access the more common commands. The area that displays the tab names and their commands is known as the ribbon interface or just the ribbon. I could really have started to show you this first because this is the main place you go to begin using any Word feature you need. As we explore the ribbon you may notice that some of the commands might be grayed out. This is because those commands are only usable in certain situations. The great outlook indicates that right now the command is not available. Of course, you won't always be looking at a ribbon and choosing commands. Most of us are concerned mainly with the content we are working with. The area of the open file that your content is in is known as the working area. If the Word document spans more than one screen, you can use a vertical scroll bar to move through its pages. With other views you may also see a horizontal scroll bar. The status bar displays information about the document. The page and Word counter on the left hand side. You may also get spell checking, proofing and macro commands here depending on your current task. On the right hand side, there are commands to change views and zoom the document. Word 365 also has a different type of tab called a contextual tab. These are special tabs that only appear when you were working with a specific object or group of information. For instance, the picture tap is a contextual tab. Selecting an image in your document causes the picture tab to appear. You can collapse the ribbon using this icon or by using the Ctrl+F1 shortcut. You might do this to have more screen space to view your document content. While the ribbon is collapsed, clicking any tab name will temporarily expand it so that you can choose a command. You can permanently expand the ribbon again using the same icon or Ctrl+F1 shortcut. Change the ribbon display by clicking the arrow icon in the top right hand corner of the Microsoft Word screen. Each option here has a description of how the ribbon will look. Just click your chosen option to display the ribbon in that view. If you change your mind, display the ribbon in one of the other views at any time by clicking the arrow icon again. Within a tab some groups feature an option button beside the group name, take this button to open a dialogue box or task pane with more specific controls relating to this group and other commands in the tab. If the screen tip option is turned on, when you mouse over a command you will see the command name in a screen tip pop up. The screen tips include a short description and sometimes give a keyboard shortcut. The file tab operates a bit differently to the other tabs. When file is clicked, it opens a special screen called backstage view. Here's a quick summary of all the backstage items. New, you've seen this in a previous lesson, it creates a new document from a template. Use Open to open a document from your one drive account, your computer or any other location to which you have access. Info shows metadata about the document. The save command will update the current file with any changes made since it was last saved. If the file has not been saved, the command will be the save as command so that you can give your document to save name and save. In print you can browse your document in print preview as it would look if it were printed. Select which pages to print and change settings such as paper size margins and more. Use share to share this document to the cloud or send it to others by email. Export is used to save the document as a pdf or XPS file or a different file type. Close, closes the current document. Account will let you modify your Microsoft account settings. Feedback, opens the Windows feedback tool and options opens the Word options dialog box. To close backstage view without choosing any option, click the back arrow at the top of the menu. Some of Microsoft Word's commands are also displayed using task panes. For example, if you click the option button in the clipboard group on the home tab you will see the appropriate task pane. This task pane works much like a dialog box in that it contains additional commands for the option on which you clicked. You can also click and drag the task pane title bar to move it around the window. And this title bar has one more useful option. You can use the commands in the task panes top right corner to modify its display. Use the drop down arrow or close it entirely with the X button. One final item to check out is galleries. Many of Microsoft Word's design options are presented in an item called galleries, for example, on the home tab, you can see a gallery of styles. You can click one of these styles to apply it to your text. For any gallery use the arrows on the right hand side to scroll through the gallery and see more options. Or click the More arrow to see the full gallery. That's your quick tour of the Word user interface. So now you know what each piece of the screen is called and what it is used for. Obviously this was just a fast visit and later you will get a chance to become more familiar with the key areas and main commands.
