Creating a document
Documents can be created in various ways like creating a new blank document, a Web page, by using a wizard, creating from a template or creating a document from a copy of an existing document. Click File, point to New option and click. A new blank file is opened. The other way to open a new file is to press “CTRL” key and then press “N” holding down the CTRL key and this key press sequence is denoted as “CTRL + N”.
Saving a document
As we enter and edit a text to create a new document, the changes we make are immediately displayed on screen and are stored in computer’s memory. However, changes are not permanently stored until we save our work to a file on our hard disk. We can press “Control” and “S” key or in File Menu click on save option (from the menu bar). Saving first time for new document opens “Save As” dialog box but after first time save, no dialog box opens on consecutive saves.
The Save As dialog box is used to specify the location to save the file and the file name. The “Save in” drop down list displays the default folder as the location where the file will be saved. File Name text box displays the proposed file name. The file list box displays the names of any word documents in the default location. The windows documents can have up to 256 characters in the file name. Names can contain letters or numerals, special symbols, with exception of underscore. Word files are identified by the extension.doc, which is automatically added to the file name when the file is saved. Document can be saved with new file name, at different location or as different file extension, in File menu after clicking Save As, apply following steps
Save a file with a new name
- In the File name field, enter the new name of the file and click Save
Save a file at different location
- In the Save in drop down box select the directory where to save and click Save
Save a file as different file extension
- In the Save as drop down box select the file type to save the document as.
- Click Save
Closing Document
On the File menu, click Close or use shortcut key combination – “Control” and “W” or click on Document close button in right end of menu bar.
Opening Document
Click File Menu than Open. If we want to open a document that was saved in a different folder, locate and open the folder. Double-click the document we want to open. If we can’t find the document in the folder list, we can search for it.
Exiting Word
The exit command in the File Menu is used to quit the Word program. Alternatively we can click the X close button in the application window title bar. If we attempt to close the application without first saving our document, word displays a warning asking if we want to save our work. If we do not save our work and we exit the application, all our changes are lost. The keyboard shortcut is Alt + F4