READ: Word Processing Essentials

Create a Document

Create a google word document and name it Word Processing Essentials.

Then, type the name of your favorite hobby across the top. Now skip a line and type a paragraph (5 sentences) about your favorite hobby.

Inserting an Image

Insert an image underneath the paragraph you just typed. Place your cursor underneath your paragraph, and go up to “Insert” and then click “Image.” This window will pop up:


Choose an image file from your computer and click insert. When I added my image, I clicked on the advance image options and changed the size of my image to 600px so it would fit on the page. You can do whatever you want.

Margins

Now it's time to make some formatting changes to this document.

First, you will change the margins. The margins are the blank space around the edges of the page. To change them, you will need to click on the File menu, then Print Settings. You will see the Margins area. Change them to 1 inch on all sides.

Alignment

Now you should change the alignment of the title of this page. Click on the name of your hobby that you typed at the top, then hit Ctrl+E to change the alignment to center rather than left. You could also choose the “centered” button from the menu above.

Line Spacing

Sometimes, you will be required to use double spacing when you write a paper. This allows comments and corrections to be written in the spaces between each line. Highlight your entire hobby paragraph, click on “Format” and then “Document Settings.” Under the line spacing drop-down, select double spaced. You should only change the line spacing of this paragraph – not the entire document.

Indenting

Your hobby paragraph should all be indented. To indent an entire paragraph, highlight the paragraph and then click on the Increase/Decrease Indent buttons along the top menu. The Increase Indent button is the one you will want to push (the one on the right). This will scoot your whole paragraph in a bit.


You should also further indent the first line of this paragraph by clicking before the first word and hitting the TAB key.

Moving Text

You can easily move text in a document by selecting it with your mouse and then dragging and dropping it with your mouse. Move two sentences in your paragraph around now using this technique. Watch this video for a demo:

Cutting, Copying and Pasting

You can also move things around by cutting, copying, and pasting using the tools in the Edit menu.

If you click on the Edit menu, you can see that the keyboard shortcuts for cutting, copying, and pasting are Ctrl+X (cut – removing a selected object and pasting it in a new location), Ctrl+C (copy – selecting an object and pasting a copy in a new location), and Ctrl+V (paste – putting the contents of a selection at a cursors location ). Try this now by highlighting one of your sentences, pressing Ctrl+C, and then pasting it at the end of your paragraph.

Changing Font

Now you need to change the look of some text. There is a drop-down box in the tool bar above that says “Verdana” in it. Select all of the text in this document by hitting Ctrl+A (for “all”) and then change the font in the drop-box to Courier New. All of the text in this document should now be using the Courier New font.

Underline

Now, select name of your hobby that you centered and change the size of the text using the drop-down box next to the font drop-down box. Select the whole line of text and then change the text to a large size. While you have that text selected, underline it by clicking on the U button above, or simply by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U.

Bold and Italic

At the end of your paragraph, you should have a sentence that you copied there using the Copy command. Highlight that duplicated sentence, and put that text in bold by clicking on the the B button, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B.

Underneath your image, type a caption describing what is going on in the picture. Highlight the caption, and put the caption in italics by using the I key or with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I.

Help and Save

Just a few more things to wrap up the basics of word processing: Any changes you want to make to your document can be found using the menus and tool bars above. If you don't know where to look, you can use the help feature to search for the tool you need.

You can now save your document.