Editing Text

Editing text is the process of making changes to text ”adding, removing, or moving characters , words, or paragraphs. When creating documents, you will typically start by typing a rough draft of what you want the document to contain, and then you ll go back and edit the contents until you are satisfied with them. In this topic, we ll cover the editing techniques you can use in all the Office programs. (Because you are working in Word, you ll be dealing with text, but these techniques can be used with any type of entry.) Other techniques are covered in the chapters about specific programs.

Managing files

To print, delete, rename, or move a document from within the Open dialog box, right-click its file name in the Open dialog box and click a command on the shortcut menu. You can perform most of these tasks from the Save As dialog box as well. (You can also click the Tools button on the dialog box s toolbar to drop down a file-management menu.)

 

Deleting and Replacing Text

We ll start by making a few small changes to the Carson Dinner document. Let s practice deleting and replacing text:

1. Click an insertion point to the left of the e in the first occurrence of Carsen , press the Delete key to delete the character to the right, and without moving the insertion point, type o .

   The red, wavy underline that flagged the typo disappears.

2. Click an insertion point to the right of the e in the second occurrence of Carsen , press the Backspace key to delete the character to the left, and again type o .

3. Select the words no doubt in the first line, and press either Delete or Backspace to delete the words.

4. Double-click the word further in the last line , and with the word selected, type more as its replacement.

5. You decide that you prefer the word further , so double-click more , and type further .

   We ll show you a quicker way to reverse editing changes in a moment.

6. Click the Save button to save the Carson Dinner document.

   Information about  

   AutoCorrect, page 36

   Information about  

   Undoing changes, page 23

The Office Clipboard

In Office programs, you can use the Office Clipboard to cut or copy several items from one document and paste them into another document. To display the Clipboard task pane, click Office Clipboard on the Edit menu. Each item you cut or copy is represented in the Clipboard task pane by the icon of the program in which it was created, as well as the first few characters of text or a thumbnail image. To paste one item, click an insertion point in the desired location, and then in the Clipboard task pane, click the item you want to paste. To paste all of the items at once, click the Paste All button at the top of the task pane. To clear the items from the task pane, click the Clear All button. To change when and where the Clipboard task pane is displayed, click the Options button at the bottom of the task pane and then click the command you want. To close the task pane, click its Close button.

 

Moving and Copying Text

You can move or copy any amount of text within the same document or to a different document. Move operations can be carried out in all Office programs using the Cut and Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar. Similarly, copy operations can be carried out using the Copy and Paste buttons . Let s experiment with moving and copying text:

1. In the Carson Dinner document, select the word sensitive , and click the Cut button on the Standard toolbar.

   If the Cut button is not visible, double-click the Standard toolbar s move handle to expand the toolbar and display all of its buttons. Word removes the text from the document and stores it in a temporary storage place, called the Office Clipboard, in your computer s memory.

2. Click an insertion point to the right of the y in environmentally , and click the Paste button on the Standard toolbar.

   Word inserts the cut text, preceding it with a space, and displays the Paste Options button below the text. You can decide how you want to format the pasted information by clicking the button and then clicking the command you want. The available commands change depending on the type of information you are pasting, as well as what program the information comes from and what format it is in.

   Now try copying text to a different document.

3. On the Edit menu, click Select All to select all the text in the Carson Dinner document, and then click the Copy button.

4. Click Tip Top Letter on the Window menu, or click its button on the Windows taskbar to activate that document. Then maximize the window.

5. Press Ctrl+End to move to the end of the letter, and press Enter to add a blank line.

6. Click the Paste button on the Standard toolbar to insert the selected paragraph.

Undoing and Redoing a Command

For those occasions when you make an editing mistake or simply change your mind about what you ve just done, the Office programs provide a safety net: the Undo command. Follow these steps to use this command:

1. You re not sure you need the paragraph you copied into the letter, so click the Undo button on the Standard toolbar to reverse the paste operation from the previous steps.

2. You change your mind again, so click the Redo button on the Standard toolbar to paste the paragraph back into the letter. Then click the Save button.

Undoing and redoing multiple actions

In Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and FrontPage, you can undo and redo several actions at a time. Click the Undo or Redo button s down arrow, and drag through the actions in the list that you want to undo or redo. You cannot undo or redo a single action other than the last one. For example, to undo the third action in the list, you must also undo the first and second.