10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95

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- 3 -
Creating a New Document

In this lesson, you'll learn how to enter text, how to move around the screen, and how to select and delete text.

Entering Text

When starting Word for Windows 95, you see a blank work area that contains only two items:

Since your new document is empty, these two markers are at the same location. To enter text, simply type it by using the keyboard. As you type, the text appears and the insertion point moves to the right. If the line reaches the right edge of the screen, then Word automatically moves to the start of the next line; this is word wrapping. Press Enter only when you want to start a new paragraph. As you enter more lines than will fit on the screen, Word for Windows 95 automatically scrolls previously entered text upward to keep the insertion point in view.


Timesaver Tip: Leave It to Word Wrap Press Enter only when you want to start a new paragraph.

Moving Around the Screen

As you work on a document, you will often have to move the insertion point so that you can view or work on other regions of text.

Table 3.1 Moving the Insertion Point around the Screen

To Move Perform This Action

With the mouse

Up or down one line Click the up or down arrow on the vertical scroll bar.
Up or down one screen Click the vertical scroll bar between the box and the up or down arrow.
Up or down any amount Drag the scroll bar box up or down.
To any visible location Click the location.

With the keyboard

Left or right one character Press <- or ->.
Up or down one line Press [arrowup] or [arrowdown].
Left or right one word Press Ctrl+ <- or Ctrl+->.
Up or down one paragraph Press Ctrl+[arrowup] or Ctrl+[arrowdown].
Start or end of a line Press Home or End.
Up or down one screen Press PgUp or PgDn.
Top or bottom of current screen Press Ctrl+PgUp or Ctrl+PgDn.
Start or end of the document Press Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End.

Selecting Text

Many Word for Windows 95 operations require that you first select the text that you want to modify. For example, to italicize a word, you must select the word first and then specify italics. Selected text appears on the screen in reverse video, as shown in Figure 3.1, which has the phrase Dear Mr. Johnson selected.

Figure 3.1
Selected text appears in reverse video.


You can select text with either the mouse or the keyboard. With the mouse, you can use the selection bar, an unmarked column in the left document margin. When the mouse pointer moves from the document to the selection bar, it changes from an I-beam to an arrow.

Table 3.2 Methods of Selecting Text

To select text Perform this action

With the mouse

Any amount Point at the start of the text; drag the highlight over the text.
One word Double-click anywhere on the word.
One sentence Press and hold Ctrl and click anywhere in the sentence.
One line Click the selection bar next to the line.
Multiple lines Drag in the selection bar next to the lines.
One paragraph Double-click the selection bar next to the paragraph.
Entire document Press and hold Ctrl and click anywhere in the selection bar.

With the keyboard

Any amount Move the insertion point to the start of the text, press and hold Shift, and move the insertion point to the end of the desired text using the movement keys described earlier.
Entire document Ctrl+A.


To cancel a selection, click anywhere on the screen or use the keyboard to move the insertion point.


Timesaver Tip: Fast Select Double-click a word to select it quickly.

Deleting Text

You can delete single characters or larger blocks of text.

If you make a mistake, you can recover deleted text with the Edit Undo command. Depending on how you deleted the text, this command appears on the Edit menu as either Undo Typing or Undo Edit Clear. In either case, the effect is the same: the deleted characters are replaced in their original position. You must select this command immediately after deleting and before performing any other action. You can also click on the Undo button on the Toolbar or press the shortcut key, Ctrl+Z. You can select Undo more than once to undo several most recent editing actions.

In this lesson, you learned how to enter, select, and delete text. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to create a new document using Word's templates and Wizards.


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