The Vast Capabilities of Microsoft Word (2003 Version)

Most people use Microsoft Word only to write letters or reports, but they miss the vast possibilities available from a simple text editing software. Microsoft Word is capable of changing margins, inserting and editing pictures, inserting tables, text boxes, and much more. It all depends on what you want to do. Many people see Microsoft Word as only capable of text, and they think they need special programs for newsletters, brochures, posters, signs, etc. Honestly, one of the only limits for what Microsoft Word can do for you is you.

So you're new to this and you want to try something besides just typing a school paper. What should you try? Well, depending on your version of Microsoft Word (whether one of the two more recent '03 or '07 or a more ancient such as '97 or before) it may take different methods to do the same thing, but for simplicity, in this article we'll deal mostly with '03.

We'll try something simple but helpful to start out with. Let's change the margin settings. Margins determine the space between the edge of the page and the edge of the text. First you need to go to the menu across the top. Click on FILE. You should go down the list until you reach PAGE SETUP. Click on it. It should automatically come up to the margins setting. You can choose to change the margins by clicking the arrows up and down or you can simply highlight the number and start typing whatever margin you want. The normal default is about 1 inch; however, I like to keep mine set at 0.6 inches because it looks just as nice and you can usually fit more text on each page. That saves money on paper if you have to print out pages in bulk. Once you've chosen the margins you'd like you can also choose to make the paper landscape or portrait landscape will position the page horizontally and portrait will make it vertical. Now that you've chosen how far from the edge to put your text, you can click OK at the bottom of the menu and you're done!

Now that your text is exactly where you want it, we'll shift away from text and look at pictures. Pictures and graphics can make otherwise boring documents look much more exciting and professional. Some people try to steer clear of using graphics, but a few well-placed clipart or real pictures can dramatically increase the effect of your presentation or even just keep you awake while you're working on that report for work or school. Inserting pictures and clipart images are easy to manage. First, you need to go to the top menu again and this time click INSERT. Scroll down that menu until you hit PICTURE. If you let your mouse hover over PICTURE it should open another menu to the side. On that list, you can decide where to get your picture from. If you have picture files saved on your computer you can choose the FROM FILE option, then it should open a menu that lets you explore your local C: drive for the pictures. If you know where they are saved you can go directly to the one you want, double click on it, and it will be inserted into the document. If you want to look for CLIPART instead click CLIPART and it will open a menu that lets you search for whatever kind of image you're looking for.

Once you have the image inserted into your document you should get a menu that allows you to control the picture. If no menu appears, simply click once on the picture and that menu should come up. On that menu, the first button should just let you insert another picture, the second button from the left affects the coloring of the picture. You can make it black and white, a washout which looks more like a watermark, or greyscale which is somewhat similar to a straight black and white. The next two buttons affect contrast, the two after that deal with brightness, there's a button for cropping (which lets you trim around the edges), another button rotates the whole image, and there are several after that with even more features to explore.

Another beneficial tool offered by Word is the option to insert a table. Going back up to our favourite top menu choose the TABLE option this time. Go down to the INSERT button. A menu should pop up asking you how many rows and columns you want. Just a hint: rows go all the way across horizontally, columns are vertical. Once it's been added, you can just click on the boxes to enter information in them, also, you can hit the TAB key on your keyboard to go directly to the next box.

The last feature we're going to deal with here is inserting text boxes. A text box is simply that, a box you can insert text in. The best part of text boxes is that you can move them by simply clicking on the box, holding down, and moving it wherever you want on the page. To insert a text box go back to the top menu, click on INSERT, go down to TEXT BOX. It will automatically bring one up. You can make it whatever size you want by clicking and dragging the corners or sides of the box. You can write whatever text you want, and do all sorts of things with text boxes. To learn more simply try all different buttons and see what it does.

These are merely a few of the vast features that Microsoft Word offers. If you find these features simple, try to figure out other more advanced ones. Word is a good program for the adventurous because you can use different features in a combination to do something the program designers probably never figured on. So, don't let this article be the limit of your use of this program. Explore on your own to learn this program, and if you have a different version, use it until you know how to make it do what you need from it. Don't be afraid to mess up your formatting, you can always go back with Control-Z or clicking the UNDO which looks like an arrow pointing back to the left. So, go have fun, and learn your program. If you're going to pay that much money for the program, you should get all the use out of it you can. Find a version that fits you best and go for it!