Exercise 1 - Basics of text processing

In the following exercises you will familiarize yourself with using a text processing program. The exercises include editing the document structure and inserting different objects to the document.

The exercises are designed especially for Microsoft Word 2000 text processing program. It is possible to do the exercises using another program but the command menus differ.

1. Start Microsoft Word. Select File | New to create a new document. Select General | Blank Document in the window that opens. An empty document will automatically open when starting the program.
2. Let's study the menu structure of MS Word. Menus are arranged according to a certain logic. Find the following functions in the menus of your text processing program. Try concluding the correct menu before searching the command!
   • Find and Replace
   • Open
   • Paragraph
   • Page Numbers
   • Print
   • Insert table
   • Style
   • Save As
   • Picture |ClipArt
   • Header and footer
   • Symbol
   • AutoCorrect
   • Options
3. Use Windows Explorer to create a folder applications to drive U:. Save all the documents you create on this course to this folder so that you can use them in the following exercises. You can for example create a subfolder for every exercise.
4. Copy an unformatted text to clip board from <URL: http://appro.mit.jyu.fi/2002/kevat/ohjelmistot/demot/demo1/virukset.txt and paste it to the blank document.
5. Save the document to folder applications on the U: drive using Word. Make sure the document is saved in the Word Document (*.doc) form. Save the document every few minutes when processing it!
6. Try using the clip board for editing the document. What is the difference between copying and moving? Use either the Edit menu or the right button of the mouse for copying and moving.
   • Move some paragraphs to another place. Move complete paragraphs to maintain a rational document structure.
   • Also try moving a paragraph by using a mouse. Use the left button of the mouse to drag an active paragraph to another place.
   • Copy some paragraphs to another locations.
   • Click one word in the paragraph by using the left button of the mouse. What happens when you double click or triple click the word?

   Save the document! You can use CTRL-S key combination for saving. Remember to save every now and then!

7. Undo all the changes you made to the document by selecting Edit | Undo.
8. In the following you will use styles to divide the document to structurally more rational units. Follow the instructions below:
   • The original text is at: <URL: http://appro.mit.jyu.fi/doc/virus/>. Compare your document to the original when structuring the text! Never mind the appearance of the document at this phase, only pay attention to its structure!
   • Activate the whole document by selecting Edit | Select All. Use the Normal style for all paragraphs. Use the list on the Formatting toolbar for using styles that already exist (see the figure below). If the style menu is hidden off the toolbar you may have to put some effort to finding it.
     
   • Use Heading styles of correct level for the heading texts you find. There are headings of three different levels in the text.
   • Use List Bullet styles for all lists you can find. There are lists of two different levels so you have to use two different styles. If the styles you need are not on the toolbar list, select Format | Style to view all of them. Make sure it shows all the styles. If not, select All Styles in the drop menu below the list of styles.
   • Use the Strong style for all the highlightings in the document.
   • Use the Hyperlink style for all WWW addresses. You don't have to use any style for link texts that are underlined and are not WWW addresses.
   Save the document! Its appearance differs from the original and the appearance is modified in the exercises later on.
9. Open a new blank document and copy a chapter from the edited document to it. Save the new document. You can close the old document edited above.
10. Divide some of the paragraphs to two columns. First select and activate the paragraphs. Then select Format | Columns to divide them to columns. By selecting Insert | Break | Column break you can break the column if you want to cut the text divided to columns after a certain line.
11. Insert a table to the text by selecting Table | Insert table. Make a table of two columns and four rows.
12. You can use the right mouse button or the Table menu for editing the properties of the table. Try adding and deleting rows and columns. You will learn formatting the tables in the spreadsheet computation part of the course but you can try it now if you like.
13. Add two ClipArt images to the document (Insert | Picture | ClipArt). Try finding an image that is relevant to the text somehow. Save the document.
14. Edit the properties of the ClipArt image. Click the right mouse button on the image and select Format Picture in the menu that opens. Study all the tabs and properties of the image.

Additional exercises

1. The exercises below are for practising the use of the helps of the text processing program. Finding answers can be difficult, therefore it is worth learning several ways to utilize the helps. Find the answers for the following small problems using as many different ways as possible.

   • How to insert symbols to the document?

     Insert the following symbols to the document (µ, ®, ¼, Ø, ©, ¿, Æ, ¥, Ð, ±). Save the document.

   • How to insert equations?

     Try writing an equation by using the editor. It may not be installed on the computers in the computer lab.

   • How to insert WordArt text? WordArt is text presented as an image but the text can be given several properties that affect its appearance.

     Insert some WordArt texts close to the ClipArt images in the document. All the computers in the computer lab may not have the WordArt utility. Save your document!