Section 2.1. Typing in Word | Word 2007[c] The Missing Manual

2.1. Typing in Word

Whenever you're entering text into Word, the insertion point is where all the action takes place (Figure 2-1). It's that vertical, blinking bar that's a little taller than a capital letter. When you press a key, a letter appears at the insertion point, and the blinking bar moves a space to the right. To type in a different spot, just click somewhere in your text, and the insertion point moves to that location.

Press Shift to type capitals or to enter the various punctuation marks you see above the numbers keys (!@#$*&^). When you want to type several words in uppercase letters , press the Caps Lock key. You don't have to keep holding it down. It works like a toggle. Press it once and you're in caps mode. Press it again and you're back to lowercase.

The Backspace key and the Delete key both erase characters, but there's a difference: The Backspace erases the characters behind the insertion point, while the Delete key eliminates characters in front.

Figure 2-1. As you type, the characters appear at the insertion point. Sometimes people call the insertion point the "cursor," but the insertion point and the mouse cursor are actually two different things. You use the mouse cursor to choose commands from the ribbon, select text, and place the insertion point in your document. The cursor can roam all over the Word window, but the insertion point remains hard at work, blinking patiently, waiting for you to enter the next character.

Note: Word's cursor changes its appearance like a chameleon, hinting at what will happen when you click the mouse button. When you move the cursor over the ribbon, it turns into an arrow, indicating that you can point and click a command. Hold it over your text, and it looks like an I-beam, giving you a precise tool for placing the insertion point between characters.

But if all you do with Word is type, you're missing out on 95 percent of its potential. What makes Word a 21st-century tool is the ease with which you can edit text, as described next.

2.1.1. Click and Type for Quick Formatting

Word's Click and Type feature makes it easy to position and align text on a blank spot on the page. It's great for those jobs where you want to position a block of text in an unusual place. Imagine you're putting together a title page for a report and you want the title about a third of the way down on the right side of the page with text aligned to the right. All you have to do is position your mouse cursor where you want the text. Notice, as you move the cursor around the page, sometimes four small lines appear near the I-beam. When the cursor's on the right side of the page, the lines trail off to the left (Figure 2-2). When the cursor's in the center of the page, the lines are centered at the bottom of the I-beam. As usual, the cursor is giving a hint about what will happen next.

If you double-click when the cursor's on the right side of the page (with the lines trailing off to the left), then several things happen. Most noticeable, your insertion point is exactly where you clicked. Behind the scenes, Word makes several other adjustments. If necessary, Word positions the insertion point vertically and horizontally on the page by adding paragraph marks and tabs as needed. Word changes the paragraph alignment setting to Align Rightit's just as if you clicked the button on the ribbon. Fortunately, you don't need to worry about these details; all you have to do is type the text (Figure 2-3).

Figure 2-2. The Click and Type cursor changes (circled) depending on where it's located on the page. Here the cursor indicates that text will be aligned to the right.

Figure 2-3. When you double-click with the Click and Type cursor shown in Figure 2-2, Word adds several paragraph marks to position the insertion point down the page. When you type some text, it's right-alignedjust as the cursor indicated. (To see these usually hidden paragraph marks, click the Show/Hide button on the Home tab.)

POWER USERS' CLINIC
Entering Special Characters

Letters, numbers, and punctuation are the common currency of most documents. Still, you may want to use a bunch of other fairly common characters, like and , that don't show up on your keyboard. And where are all those foreign characters, math symbols, and fractions?

They're waiting for you on the Insert tab. Choose Insert Symbols Symbol. If the character you need is on the menu, then click to insert it into your text. When you dont see it, click "More symbols" to see a much more comprehensive list of characters (Figure 2-4). The first groupSymbolsgives you access to every character Word can put on the page.

Use the Font box on the left to select your typeface. If you want to use the typeface you're currently using in your document, as is often the case, then leave this set to "(normal text)." Use the Subset drop-down menu to choose a language (like Greek, Cyrillic, or Latin), or choose from other groupings ( accented letters, math symbols, and so on). You can also use the scroll bar on the right to visually search for a symbol. Symbols that you've used recently are lined up near the bottom of the dialog box, so you can grab them quickly.

Figure 2-4. To insert a character in your text, either double-click the character or singleclick it, and then click Insert. The right-hand tabSpecial Characterscontains a list of specialized punctuation marks like dashes and nonbreaking hyphens.