Text Editing

TEXT EDITING

A word processor is all about working with large amounts of text, so learning the basics of text editing is essential to being able to make the most of the program. The first thing we will do is to open an existing document that already has a lot of text so you can practice without having to do a lot of typing first (not that a good bit of typing practice ever hurts anyone).

Exercise 1 Opening a Word Document

Like saving a file, opening a file can be done using the menu, toolbar or a keyboard shortcut.

1) Use one of the following methods to display the Open File dialog box.

• Select Open from the File menu.

• Click the Open icon on the toolbar.

• Press [Ctrl] [O].

2) When the Open dialog appears, use the Look in: list at the top to select the folder where the files for these exercises are saved.

3) Select the file called Word 2003.doc and click the Open button (or double-click on the name of the file to open it).

Moving Around a Document

You can tell how long a document is by checking the status bar at the bottom of the window. For example, when you opened the Word 2003 document, the status bar will show that you are on page one of a three page document.

Tip In a large document with a lot of pages, you can double-click the page number indicator and then enter a page number to quickly jump to that page.

There are many ways to move around a document. One method is to use the vertical Scrollbar on the side of the screen.

Exercise 2. Inserting and Deleting Text

Usually when you type text in Word, any existing text will move over to make way for that you type.

1. Make sure your insertion point is at the beginning of the document (before Word 2003). Type the word Microsoft followed by a space. The rest of the text will move across so that the whole line reads Microsoft Word 2003.
2. Caution Sometimes Word may be set to Overtype mode so that what you type replaces existing text instead of being inserted in front of existing text. When Overtype mode is turned on and indicator will be highlighted in the status bar at the bottom of the window. You can turn overtype off or on by either double-clicking the indicator or by pressing the [Ins] (Insert) key.
3. Removing text can be done by either the [Delete] key or the [Backspace] key. The difference is that pressing the [Delete] key will remove text to the right of the insertion point, while pressing the [Backspace] key will move text to the left of the insertion point.
4. You can also delete entire words by holding down the [Ctrl] key while you press [Delete] or [Backspace].
5. Move the insertion point to the second heading just before the word better.
6. Press [Ctrl] [Backspace] to delete the word More to the left of the insertion point. The heading should now read Communicate and Share Information Better.
7. Edit the text in the first paragraph so that it appears as follows.

Word 2003 is the latest version of the best-selling word processor. Word takes customer experience and feedback to deliver many innovations you can use to create more impressive-looking documents and help you work better with other people.

8. Save your file by: FILE -> SAVE AS -> in drive F: -> go to word processing folder -> with the filename: _text editing

Selecting Text

When you are editing a document it is often necessary to select a section of the document. Some of the things that require you to select text first include, copying text, moving text and formatting text. Since we are going to learn about copying and moving text, we will first look at some different methods for selecting text.

Exercise 3. Selecting Text Using the Mouse

1) Make sure the Word 2003 document is still open.

2) Move your mouse pointer to the beginning of the paragraph that begins with the words, “Work together better”. When your mouse is over text, the mouse pointer changes to a letter “I” shape.

3) Hold down the mouse button and drag to the end of the paragraph until the whole paragraph is selected. When the text is selected, the colours become reversed to indicate what part of the text is selected.

4) To de-select the text, click anywhere on the page. If you want to select a large amount of page (especially more than one screen’s worth) then it can be difficult to select by dragging.

5) Click at the beginning of the same paragraph.

6) Scroll down to the second page and move your mouse (without clicking yet) to the end of the paragraph that finishes with the words, “through the thumbnail view”.

7) Hold down the [Shift] key while you click. Everything in between will be selected. If you want to adjust the point where the selection ends, simply hold down [Shift] and click on the new end point.

8) Move your mouse to the left of the, “Capture and Reuse Information” heading. When your mouse is to the left or a row of text, the pointer will turn in to a right pointing arrow.

9) Click to the left of the row to select the entire row. When your mouse is to the left of the text, you can also click and drag up or down to select several rows.

10) Move your mouse over any word in the document. Double-click to select the entire word. Word will select everything between two spaces. If you keep your mouse held down on the second click and drag left or right, you will select a word at a time.

11) Make sure no text is selected and move your mouse over any sentence in the document. Hold down [Ctrl] and click to select a whole sentence. Word will select everything between two full stops but this will only work when there is nothing already selected.

12) Move your mouse over any paragraph in the document. Triple-click to select the entire paragraph. Word will select everything between points where the [Enter] key has been pressed.

Tip: If you already have text selected then holding down the [Ctrl] key will allow you to select additional text, even if there is a gap between the areas you are selecting. This allows you to select more than one area at the same time.

Exercise 4. Selecting Text Using the Keyboard

For selecting text using the keyboard, the important key to remember is the [Shift] key. Earlier we looked at ways to move around a document using keyboard shortcuts. If you hold the [Shift] key while using any of the other keyboard shortcuts, Word will select all of the text you move over.

1) Move up to the beginning of the document.

2) Click at the beginning of the, “Work together better” paragraph.

3) Hold down the [Shift] key and press the right arrow key [..]. If you keep pressing the [..] key while holding [Shift] you will increase the amount of text selected.

4) Hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift] at the same time while pressing the [..] key. This will select one word at a time.

5) Press any arrow key without holding down [Shift]. Moving without holding down the [Shift] key will deselect any text you have selected.

6) You can also use extend mode to select text with the keyboard.

7) Press [F8] to activate extend mode. An indicator in the status bar will show that Extend mode is on. While extend mode is turned on. You can select text without having to hold the [Shift] key. Any text you move over will be selected.

8) Once extend mode is selected, press [F8] again to select a whole word. Pressing it again will select a sentence, again for a paragraph and a gain for the whole document.

9) Press [Esc] to turn off extend mode. Press an arrow key to deselect the text. You can also turn extend mode on and off by double-clicking the status bar indicator.

10) Hold down [Ctrl] and press [A] to select the entire document.

11) Deselect the text.

Copying and Moving Text

As part of editing text, it is often necessary to rearrange text in a document using copy and move techniques. The two methods for moving and copying that will be explained in the following exercises are Copy & Paste and Drag & Drop.

The Copy & Paste method uses the Windows Clipboard. The clipboard is a temporary storage tool in Windows that can be used to copy or more information around in a program or even from one program to another. It works by placing information, such as selected text, in the clipboard and then pasting the information where you want it to go.

The Drag & Drop method uses the mouse to drag text from one location and drop it in another location.

Exercise 5. Moving Text Using Cut & Paste

To use Cut & Paste you need to use the following steps.

a. Select the text you want to move.

b. Use the Cut command to place the selected text in the clipboard.

c. Move the insertion point to the position you want the cut text to go.

d. Use the Paste command to place the information from the clipboard in the destination.

1) Make sure you are on the first page of the Word 2003 document and locate the paragraph that begins with, “Designate certain sections”.

2) Select the sentence at the end of that paragraph which says, “Collaborate with confidence.”

3) Use one of the following methods to select the Cut command.

a. Select Cut from the Edit menu.

b. Click your right mouse button on the selected text and select Cut from the right-click list.

c. Click the Cut icon on the toolbar.

d. Use the [Ctrl] [X] shortcut.

When you cut the text, it will be removed from the document as it is placed in the clipboard.

4) Move to the beginning of the paragraph and use one of the following methods to select the paste command.

a. Select Paste from the Edit menu.

b. Click your right mouse button on the selected text and select Paste from the right-click list.

c. Click the Paste icon on the toolbar.

d. Use the [Ctrl] [V] shortcut.

The text will now be placed at the beginning of the paragraph.

Exercise 6. Moving Text Using Copy & Paste

The only difference between the Copy command and the Cut command is that the Copy command will leave a copy of the selected text at the original location while the Cut command will remove it from the original location.

1) Locate the paragraph that begins with, “Work together better”. In that paragraph you will see “™” after, “Microsoft Windows Server”. We will copy this so that it also appears after, “SharePoint”.

2) Select the trademark symbol “™”.

3) Select the Copy command using one of the following methods.

a. Select Copy from the Edit menu.

b. Click your right mouse button on the selected text and select Copy from the right-click list.

c. Click the Cut icon on the toolbar.

d. Use the [Ctrl] [C] shortcut.

4) Move the insertion point so that it is just after the word “SharePoint”.

5) Paste the copied text.

Exercise 7. Drag & Drop Editing

Another simple way to move and copy text is to use the drag & drop method. This is especially useful when you want to quickly move or copy text over short distances in your document.

1) Locate the paragraph that begins with, “Go mobile”.

2) Select the last sentence in the paragraph, from, “You can”, to “send to others” (remember you can hold down [Ctrl] while clicking to select the entire sentence).

3) Move your mouse over the selected text and your mouse pointer will be arrow shaped.

4) Hold your mouse down on the selected text and drag to the beginning of the paragraph. Release the mouse when your mouse pointer is after, “Go mobile.” and, “If you own”.

5) Save changes to the document and close the file.