Make a Program Work for You

Transcription

1 Conventions used in this document: Objects to be clicked on with the mouse will be shown as or. Keyboard keys that must be pressed will be shown as Enter or Ctrl. Cross Reference Links will be shown as Appendix A. Tips will be shown in this format. Indicates additional detailed Class Notes for the subject are available via a link. The table of contents is interactive. Click on any topic to go directly to that section of the document. You can return to the table of contents at any time by holding down the Ctrl key while you press and release the Home key (Ctrl + Home). Table of Contents MICROSOFT WORDPAD PROGRAM... 2 OPEN WORDPAD ON THE DESKTOP... 2 WORDPAD WINDOW... 2 Resize a Window... 3 Typing on the Computer... 4 Insert Point... 4 Editing Text... 5 Editing Individual Characters... 5 Editing Blocks of Text... 5 Undo and Redo Actions... 6 Word Wrap... 6 MULTI-TASKING... 6 WORDPAD DOCUMENTS... 6 FORMATTING YOUR DOCUMENT... 6 HOW TO APPLY COMMANDS... 6 The Ribbon... 7 View Ribbon... 7 Home Ribbon... 7 FORMAT OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN WORDPAD... 7 Default Format Options... 8 Apply Format Changes Prior to Typing... 8 FORMAT COMMANDS... 9 INSERT A PICTURE INTO A DOCUMENT PAGE SETUP COMMANDS Page 1 Revised 1/16/17

2 Microsoft WordPad Program A program is designed to help you complete a task on the computer. In this discussion our task will be to create a document in a program. We will use a Word Processor for this task. There are many Word Processors available and they all function basically the same. The major difference between Word Processors is the number of features they make available within each program. As we use controls we will utilize Rule #1. Before you use a control you must tell the computer where you are going to apply the command associated with the control. You do this by selecting the text or object to which the command is to be applied, before you activate the command. Then when the command is activated the instructions in the command will be applied only to what was selected. Rule #1 is simply stated as: 1. Select first. 2. Then Activate. WordPad is a program provided by the Microsoft Corporation and was installed on your computer when the Windows Operating System was installed. It is considered a basic or entry level program and is ideal for use by a beginner. Microsoft WordPad is a program of the general type called word processors. A word processor is a great starting point to learn how to use a program on a computer. It has features that are used in many other programs. We will be using many of the controls introduced earlier to make the WordPad program work for us. WordPad will also teach us how to type on a computer. Typing is a skill that you will use constantly on the computer. I cannot show you every command or nuance of WordPad. I would recommend that you follow up this class by taking a class dedicated to one particular program such as Microsoft Word or Excel. This will expand your knowledge of the tools available to you in a program. Open WordPad on the Desktop You must open WordPad or any other program before you can use it. You can open WordPad from the All Apps menu. To open WordPad: 1. Activate the Start Button to display the Start Menu. 2. Scroll down the All Apps menu to the Windows Accessories Program Group shortcut. 3. Expand out the Windows Accessories Group by activating the Expand button. 4. Scroll down to the WordPad shortcut within the Windows Accessories Group. 5. At this point I suggest you pin the WordPad shortcut to either the Taskbar, the Start Screen, or both. This will make it easier to open WordPad the next time you want to use it. 6. Activate the WordPad shortcut to open the WordPad program. You can use this same procedure to open any program or app installed on your computer. Programs and Apps are listed alphabetically by either manufacturer or name. WordPad Window All programs will open in their own window. A program s window contains everything you need to use the program. The interface will vary some from program to program but will be very familiar. Almost all programs will have a workspace in the center of the window and the various controls and control groups around the edge of the window. Some of the controls will be available in every program you open and others will be specific to a program. Page 2 Revised 1/16/17

3 The WordPad window is very typical of all programs. Title Bar Ribbon Control Group Workspace Status Bar Resize a Window Most windows can be resized to make them easier to work with. You can resize a window to full screen, partial screen, or even hide it temporarily. You can also move a window that is in partial screen to a new position and adjust its size. The controls used to resize a window are the same in all windows that have this capability. How to Resize a Window Command Control Action Maximize Restore Down Minimize Active Program Resize Move Located at the right of the Title Bar. This control will be available if the window is in partial screen view. Activate the control to take the window to full screen view. Located at the right of the Title Bar. This control will be available if the window is in full screen view. Activate the control to take the window to partial screen view. Located at the right of the Title Bar. When activated the window will be minimized to the taskbar and not visible on the desktop. The program will remain active. An active program will display it s icon on the Windows taskbar. The blue bar at the bottom of the icon indicates the program is active. If the program is minimized it can be restored to the screen with a click on the icon. Located at the bottom right of the window. While the window is in partial screen view click and hold on the icon. The cursor will change shape to a directional cursor. Move the cursor to resize the window. Release the mouse button when complete. While the window is in partial screen view point the cursor at a blank section of the window s title bar. Click and hold down the mouse button and move the window to a new location on the screen. Page 3 Revised 1/16/17

4 Typing on the Computer There are designated spaces on the computer where you can type called text boxes. A text box is a specialized control designed to accept typed characters. Text boxes come in various sizes and have different capabilities. There are small text boxes that can only accept one line of text and can be limited to the number of characters that can be typed in the text box. Examples of small text boxes include: A Password box - First Name box on a form - The workspace in WordPad is a Multi-line text box. Multi-line text boxes can be very large and can accept multiple lines of text, pictures, and other objects. You can also apply various formatting techniques to text in a multi-line text box. All Word Processors will use a Multi-line text box. The use of a text box is universal and all text boxes will function identically. The procedures for editing text are also universal and will not change regardless of where you are typing. All text boxes share certain characteristics. The standard point and click mouse cursor has this shape. Whenever you are pointing at a text box the cursor will change to this shape, called the vertical I bar. This will help you identify any area that you can type into. Before you can type, you must tell the computer that you are going to type in a text box by clicking once in the text box. This will place the insert point in the text box. Insert Point WordPad Workspace Insert Point The insert point in a text box is your guide to typing. The insert point will start at the top left hand corner in a new blank text box. Each time you enter a single character, a block of text, or an object like a picture, it will be placed at the location of the insert point. The insert point will then reposition itself to the right of the last character entered to indicate where the next character will be entered. You can also locate the insert point manually within the text box to indicate where you want to enter new characters. You can only move the insert point within the body of text in the document. Once the insert point has been relocated the next character or object entered will appear at that location. Relocate the Insert Point Manually Name Control Action Arrow Keys The arrow keys will move the insert point one character or one line in the indicated direction. The arrow keys are excellent to fine tune the insert point s location. Home Will relocate the insert point at the beginning of the line it is located on. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Home will relocate the insert point at the beginning of the document. End Will relocate the insert point at the beginning of the line it is located on. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + End will relocate the insert point at the end of the document. Page Up If the document extends beyond the boundary of the text box, the Page Up key will scroll the document one screen length up. You can then relocate the insert point. Page Down If the document extends beyond the boundary of the text box, the Page Down key will scroll the document one screen length down. You can then relocate the insert point. Page 4 Revised 1/16/17

5 Editing Text Relocate the Insert Point Manually Name Control Action Mouse Click Point the cursor while it has the shape of the Vertical I Bar at any location in the text box. Click once and the insert point will be relocated at the location you were pointing at. I know that you will probably never make a mistake while typing. However, if you do you will need a method to revise your text. Some people erase the whole thing and start over but there is a more efficient way to do this in a word processor. You can edit single characters or entire blocks of text. In each case you must follow rule #1 and select the location of the character or block of text you are going to edit before you can make any changes. EDITING INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS Editing text is simply removing or adding new characters to the document. Prior to making a change you must relocate the insert point to where you want to make a revision. The insert point will always appear between characters or objects. The location of the insert point will determine where the next character will appear when typed or be next to a character to be removed. Adding a character is easy. Relocate the insert point and type a character. The character will appear at the location of the insert point. To remove a character, you will relocate the insert next to the character you want to remove. Since the insert point is between two characters you have to be able to tell the computer whether you want to remove the character to the left or the right of the insert point. You can do this by using either the Delete or Backspace key. The Delete key will remove a character to the right of the insert point and the Backspace key will remove a character to the left of the insert point. In the example the Delete key will remove the capital D and the Backspace key will remove the small e. EDITING BLOCKS OF TEXT To edit a block of text you must first place a highlight to indicate the text to be edited. A highlight expands the Insert Point to cover the text you want to alter. You will use highlights extensively when you apply format options to your document. There are many methods to establish a highlight but we will only use the most basic ones. Text Highlighting Methods Click and Drag Click and Shift Click Backward Pointing Cursor Ctrl + A Reset a Highlight Point the mouse cursor at the beginning of the text to be highlighted. Click and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the cursor to cover the text to be highlighted. Release the mouse button when the highlight covers the correct text. Point and click once to position the insert point at the beginning of the text to be highlighted. Move the cursor to the end of the text to be highlighted. Hold down the Shift key and keep it down while you click at the end of your planned highlight. The highlight will appear between the two clicks. Move the cursor into to the left margin of the document. The cursor will change shape and point backwards. While the cursor is reversed click and hold the left mouse button while you drag the cursor up or down to highlight the numbers of lines to be selected. Release the mouse button. Only entire lines can be highlighted with this method. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A to select the entire contents of the text box. You can also use the Select All command from a control group. To clear a highlight, simply click anywhere in the texting area. Once you have placed your highlight over the text you want to edit in the document you can take the following actions: Text that has been highlighted can be easily removed from the document by pressing the Delete key. You can replace the text by simply typing. The characters you type will replace the contents of the highlight. Point your mouse at the highlighted area. Click and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the highlighted text to a new location. Release the button to drop the highlighted text in the new location. You can Format the text and change the look of the document. We will discuss this in detail later. Page 5 Revised 1/16/17

6 Undo and Redo Actions You can correct mistakes immediately by using the Undo and Redo commands. The Undo command will reverse the last action taken and restore the document as it was before the action was taken. Each subsequent use of Undo will reverse the next action taken in reserve order until there are no more available. Redo will become available with the first Undo action. Redo will restore an action removed with Undo. It will restore in the reverse order of the Undo actions until there are no more available. To activate Undo or Redo: Activate Undo with the Undo button or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z. Activate Redo with the Redo button or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Y. Word Wrap Multi-tasking Word wrap is a built in procedure of Windows that will organize your typing into paragraphs. Word wrap is enabled in WordPad by default but you may have to enable the word wrap setting in select programs. Word wrap will automatically move the insert point to the next line each time you reach the right hand margin of your document. You do not have to tell the program that you are at the end of a line. This continuity will be kept until you press the Enter key. When you press the Enter key you are telling WordPad that you are at the end of a paragraph. When you end a paragraph the insert point will automatically go to the next blank line ready for a new paragraph. You can also insert a blank line by pressing the Enter key. The computer will allow you to work with more than one program at a time. Multi-tasking is simply having 2 or more programs open at the same time. You can actually open as many programs as you want until you run out of capacity. I routinely will have 4 or 5 programs open. Multiple open programs will run simultaneously with one program having the focus and the others will be in the background. Every open program will have an active program icon on the taskbar. The program with the focus is the program you have selected to work with. When you select another program it will have the focus and the others will be in the background. The focus program will be displayed on top of all other programs. You can use Multi-tasking to view and work with the class notes for the subject you are studying while at the same time have WordPad, or any other program being discussed, open at the same time. You can easily switch back and forth between the open windows. For example, you can be reading these notes and applying the exercises to WordPad as you go. I recommend you use the Side by Side method. The details of how to open and view multiple windows at the same time is discussed in detail at Multi-tasking. WordPad Documents WordPad is designed to help a user create a document. A WordPad document can contain text, formatting, pictures, and a few other select objects. You enter the information to be contained in the document into the WordPad workspace. You can manipulate the data as much as you want until you are satisfied with the results. The information in the workspace can be preserved by saving it into a digital file that can be stored. The digital file containing the document can be opened again so that you can revise the contents of the document. Each time you revise a document you can save the file again so that all of your revisions are preserved. Create and save your First Document File with these step-by-step instructions. Formatting Your Document In this section we will use many different commands and controls. We will also make extensive use of Rule # 1. You can practice along with the exercise by opening your First Document in WordPad and keeping these notes open. How to Apply Commands We will use many of the commands pre-programmed in WordPad to tell the program what we want it to do. Each of the commands is associated with a control that can be activated to execute the command. You can activate a control with the mouse cursor or you can use a keyboard shortcut if it is available. The cursor will take the shape of the Point and Click cursor when you are in a Control area. You can only activate a control when you have selected it by pointing and highlighting it with the mouse cursor. Before you activate a control, you have to select in the document where you want the command to be applied. The cursor will take the shape of the Vertical I Bar cursor when you are in a Text area, the document. You can select where you want to apply a command by relocating the Insert Point in the document or by highlighting a block of text. By default, the Insert Point is always selected which means that expanding the Insert Point with a highlight also selects the highlighted text. As long as you do not clear a highlight you can apply multiple Page 6 Revised 1/16/17

7 commands to the highlighted text. If you accidentally click in the document and clear the highlight you must re-highlight the area before you can apply additional commands. If you do not highlight any text, then any commands you select will be applied to the Insert Point. Those commands will then be applied to any text you type from that point in the document. Everything I just described can be summed up with Rule #1: 1. Select first. 2. Then Activate. The method of selecting and activating Commands and Controls in WordPad is exactly the same as using Controls in any other program. In another program the commands available will be different and tailored to the program you are using. The interface may also look different and may have different control groups. Other than that the basic method does not change. Rule #1 will apply in every program you use. The Ribbon The Ribbon is a control group. It is a newer control and is found in many Microsoft programs including WordPad and This PC. The Ribbon is located at the top of the WordPad window. It is actually 2 separate ribbons, labeled Home and View. You can select the ribbon you want to work with by activating either the Home or View tabs above the ribbon. View Ribbon When the View ribbon is displayed you can use any of the controls available. Each control has a command with instructions to change some aspect of how the document is displayed on the screen. View changes do not affect the physical document. The View ribbon has 3 categories of commands: Zoom you can change the size of the document on the screen without actually changing the document. Zoom in and out will increase or decrease the entire document view incrementally each time they are activated. The 100% button will return the view to its default size. Show or Hide the ruler and status bar are shown by default. You can show or hide either one by activating the check box and toggling to add or remove the checkmark. Settings There are minimal settings in WordPad compared to other programs. The default settings are Word Wrap - on and Measurement Units - inches. You can drop down the list with the drop down arrow to change the option. I recommend you leave them as is. Home Ribbon The Home ribbon contains the commands and their controls that will physically change the document. Every control has a tool-tip available. Any control that is greyed out is not currently available but will become available under the right circumstances. Commands are also arranged in categories on the Home ribbon: Clipboard Holds the commands to copy text or objects in the document to place them in another location. Font Has commands to change the look of the text characters in a document. Paragraph Will affect the layout of blocks of text in the document. Insert You can put objects such as picture files into a document. Editing Will let you find specific words in the document and replace them with other words. The Select all command can also be found there. Format Options Available in WordPad Formatting options let you customize the look of your document. WordPad has a number of format options available that you can apply to any section of your document. Format options include the shape and size of the characters in your document as well as a number of style characteristics you can apply. You can apply the format commands to one character, a block of text, or the whole document. You can use as many different format commands as you want on different areas of text. Page 7 Revised 1/16/17

8 The formatting Controls and their associated Commands will apply the formatting options to your document. A full listing of every format command and its control in WordPad can be found at Format Commands. WordPad Format Options Type Description Font Family A font family is a group of characters that share a common shape. Most font families include all the letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation, and special characters. Use of a font family gives your document a uniform look for the text it is applied to. WordPad has close to 200 different font families for you to choose from. Font Size Font size is the height of the characters. It is expressed in pixels. There are 72 pixels in an inch. A font size of 12 would print out at 1/6 of an inch high. Characteristics Page Setup Style Default Format Options Characteristics are applied to characters without affecting the font or size of the characters. Examples of characteristics include: Bold Italic Underline Text color Background color Strikethrough Page setup has options to be applied to the entire document. Options include: Paper size Margins Orientation Page numbers While not used in WordPad, styles are used in many other word processor programs such as Microsoft Word. A style includes a number of characteristics including a font family, font size, and select characteristics under one style name. Use of a style will apply all of the style s format options with one click of the mouse. A new document will open in WordPad with default format options already applied. The default options will create a good looking document even if you do not apply any additional formatting commands. You can go ahead and create a document and the default options will apply automatically to the text you type. You can also apply your own format options to the Insert Point before you begin typing. Any options you choose will be applied to the subsequent text you type. The default options are: Default font family - Calibri Default font size 11 Text color - Black Text alignment left Indentation - 0 Line spacing 1.15 Add 10 points after each paragraph Margins left and right, 1.0 top and bottom Paper size - Letter Document orientation - Portrait Print page numbers Apply Format Changes Prior to Typing WordPad will automatically apply the default format options to any new document. If you are happy with those options, you can simply start typing and the default format options will be applied to the text. You can later apply changes to existing text to customize your document. If you want to create a document that will use format options that differ from the default options, you can select those options prior to typing your document. The document will then display your format options rather than the defaults. You can also later apply changes to existing text to further customize your document. To change format options before you type, simply select the options you want from the Home Ribbon. Those options will be applied to the Insert point and will then be applied to the subsequent text as you type. Be aware that if you relocate your insert point into an area that has different format options already applied the Insert Point will automatically use those options in that area. When you return the Insert Point to the original area the Insert Point will then use the original format options for the area. Page 8 Revised 1/16/17

9 Format Commands The Font and Paragraph categories on the home ribbon contain the controls you use to apply the format commands. Each control is labeled to indicate which command will be applied with the control. There is also a tool tip for each control that will display for a short period when you point at the control for a couple of seconds without moving the cursor. Each control will execute and run its instructions when activated. The instructions will apply the characteristic defined on the control to the selected text. Activating a control will not clear your text selection. When you are pointing at a control area the cursor will be in point and click mode. The cursor will display the point and click shape. You can apply as many characteristics as you wish as long as the cursor has this shape. All characteristics activated will be applied to the selected text. Font Category Controls Name Control Type Action ToolTip Automatic Hover the cursor over a control and a tooltip may appear describing the controls action. This tooltip describes the Font Family control. Font Family Font Size Drop Down Selection List Drop Down Selection List A click on the triangle will drop down a selection list from which you choose a Font Family to display your text in. A click on the triangle will drop down a selection list from which you choose the size of your text. Font Grow Each click on the icon increases the font size of the selected text one level. Font Shrink Each click on the icon decreases the font size of the selected text one level. Bold A click on the icon will apply a Bold characteristic to the text. Italic A click on the icon will apply the Italic characteristic. Underline A click on the icon will underline the text. Strike Through A click on the icon will line through the text Subscript A click on the icon will place the text below the line Superscrip t Font Highlight Font Color Drop Down List Drop Down List above the line A click on the icon will place the text A click on the triangle will drop down a selection list from which you select a color to makes it appear that the text has been outlined with a highlighter. A click on the triangle will drop down a selection list from which you select a color to apply to the text. Use various commands to Format your First File in a number of exercises with step-by-step instructions. Paragraph Category Controls Name Control Type Action Decrease Indent Will decrease the indentation of a block of text. You cannot reduce the indentation past the margins of the document. Page 9 Revised 1/16/17

10 Paragraph Category Controls Name Control Type Action Increase Indent Will increase the indentation of a block of text. You cannot increase the indentation past the margins of the document. Start a List Drop Down Selection List Will drop down a list of styles of lists. Both ordered and unordered lists are available. Line Spacing Drop Down Selection List Will drop down options to revise the spacing between the selected lines. You can also select to add or remove the option for 10 points after each paragraph. Align Left Will align the selected text to the left margin of the document. This is the default option. Align Center Align Right Will align the selected text to be centered between the right and left margins of the document. Will align the selected text to the right margin of the document. Justify Will spread out the selected text to line up to both the right and left margins of the document. Requires multiple lines be selected. Paragraph Will display the paragraph dialog box when activated. Insert a Picture into a Document WordPad has commands that will let you insert a limited number of objects. An object is the computer term for any single entity like a picture, button, menu, chart, and etc. Full featured word processors are capable of inserting a great variety of many more useful objects. The insert commands are located on the Home ribbon in the Insert category. Inserting objects is generally considered an advanced skill. However, inserting a picture is relatively simple. The picture you insert must be in a digital file and the file must also be available on your computer. The picture will be selected by using This PC to locate it on one of your storage devices. You can review a document on how to use This PC by activating the link. An exercise demonstrating how to Insert a Picture with step-by-step instructions. Page Setup Commands Page setup is found on the WordPad menu. To access page setup: 1. Click on the file icon to drop down the menu. 2. Point at and click on the icon. Page 10 Revised 1/16/17

11 3. The Page Setup dialog box will appear. 4. Make any changes to the available options. 5. Click the button to apply your changes or click the button to close the dialog box without applying any changes. Page Setup Commands Name Image Description Title Bar Preview The Close button on the title bar indicates that this window cannot be resized or minimized. This is not a true preview of the document. This basically indicates if Portrait or Landscape mode is selected. Paper You can change the Paper size and the printer tray it is in. You must have the correct paper in the tray to match the selection. Default values are fine for the average user. Orientation Orientation indicates how your page will layout and print. Portrait will have the short size for the width and the longer size for the length. Landscape will have the long size for the width and the shorter size for the length. Margins Shown are the default margins. Click in a box to select it and type in a new value for a margin. Don t forget the decimal point. Print Page Numbers OK Button The default is checked which indicates that page numbers will print on a page. Clear the check from the check box to not print page numbers. means yes means no Activating the OK button will apply your changes in the dialog box and close it. Activating the Cancel button will abort your changes in the dialog box and close it. Page 11 Revised 1/16/17

12 Page Setup Commands Name Image Description Cancel Button Page 12 Revised 1/16/17