Word 2019 for Dummies

The book goes into scintillating detail on paragraph formatting

The obnoxious keyboard shortcut to summon the Paragraph dialog box is Alt+H, P, G

The left margin, however, is jagged

Both the left and right sides of a paragraph are flush with the margins

Word conjures new pages when needed, pulling them in from the electronic ether.

That makes the concept of a page ethereal

That doesn't mean that the text is sideways, but rather that the text prints wide on a page.

Most English teachers and book editors want margins of this size because these people love to scribble in margins. (They even write that way on blank paper.)

Heed these directions:

You see oodles of samples, so don't cut yourself short by not scrolling through the menu.

Pluck a page-numbering style from the list

You can even suppress page numbers for a section, such as not numbering the first (cover) page of a document.

When the urge hits you to regress a few centuries and use Roman numerals to tally a document's pages

When the urge hits you to regress a few centuries and use Roman numerals to tally a document's pages

That's refreshing, but it's not the end of Word's capability to thrust new pages into your document

The first choice is to keep whacking the Enter key until that new page shows up

A menu plops down with a host of predefined watermarks that you can safely tuck behind the text on your document's pages

A menu plops down with a host of predefined watermarks that you can safely tuck behind the text on your document's pages

A menu plops down with a host of predefined watermarks that you can safely tuck behind the text on your document's pages

Navigating its implementation is akin to wandering archeological digs in the Jungle of Doom.

Navigating its implementation is akin to wandering archeological digs in the Jungle of Doom.

Document section helps you craft great-looking documents.

All documents feature one section.

A document, however, can sport multiple sections

Position the toothpick cursor where you want the new section to start

The sneakiest way to slap down a cover page on your document is to use Word's Cover Page command

The sneakiest way to slap down a cover page on your document is to use Word's Cover Page command

Headers and footers dwell in special, exclusive areas outside the realm of regular text.

Headers and footers dwell in special, exclusive areas outside the realm of regular text.

To accomodate your hurried desires,

To accomodate your hurried desires, you can quickly shove one of these preset headers or footers into your document.

You can even suspend the header and footer for a page or two.

You can alter the header or footer for a given document section.

Such agility requires knowing a few tricks, which I'm happy to share.

A style is a single command that applies a virtual stew of formatting commands.

Caption style for figure and table captions

These types come into play when you create your own styles as well as when you're perusing styles to apply to text

Styles dwell on the Home tab, in the aptly named Styles group.

The shortcut key to summon the Reveal Formatting pane is Shift+F11

As you hover the mouse pointer over a style in the Style Gallery,...

..., where you can remove or alter the formatting

The dialog box is brimming with style command buttons

Right-click the style you want to obliterate.

Awash in a sea of styles, it's easy to overlook some of the more subtle aspects of Word's styles.

Like just about anything in Word, the Normal style can be modified - but I urge caution if you do so.

SYN. awkward; Press the ungainly Ctrl + Shift + Alt + S key combination.

This trick can be useful, but the Style Gallery shows only a pittance of the styles available to a document.

Computers are supposed to save you time, so why exert great effort on the formatting task

These tools format your prose easily and rapidly.

You can choose from a preset template or theme

If you enjoy the thrill and excitement of templates, you'll just burst at the thought of creating your own.

SYN. Speed Up; Your own, custom templates greatly help expedite your document production duties.

..., giving your written efforts a professionally formatted feel while keeping hordes of graphics designers unemployed.

Word template

Word theme

You have no need to pore over the keyboard and scout out the best character to highlight some chunk of text in your document.

SYN. Examine; You have no need to pore over the keyboard and scout out the best character to highlight some chunk of text in your document.

PHR V.; You have no need to pore over the keyboard and scout out the best character to highlight some chunk of text in your document.

As a paragraph format, a border is coupled to a paragraph on the top, bottom, left, or right or some combination thereof.

A hanging indent isn't in imminent peril. No, it's a paragraph in which the first line breaks the left margin.

A hanging indent isn't in imminent peril. No, it's a paragraph in which the first line breaks the left margin.

To fully flex Word's border bravado, summon the Borders and Shading dialog box.

To fully flex Word's border bravado, summon the Borders and Shading dialog box.

One gem hidden in the Borders and Shading dialog box is the tool to place a border around an entire page of text.

That's how it works, up until the information you're trying to organize is best presented in a grid.

In olden times, writes used the Tab key to build a table, setting various and clever tab stops and formatting the text accordingly.

Word offers something better: the Table menu and its array of Table-making commands.

These feats are beyond the capabilities of the silly old Tab key.

Free your mind from the constraints of conventionalism, clutch a crystal, and use the mouse to draw a table inside your document:

Free your mind from the constraints of conventionalism, clutch a crystal, and use the mouse to draw a table inside your document:

If you’ve used the Tab key to create rows and columns of text, you can quickly snap that part of your document into an official Word table.

SYN. mixture; Word comes with an assortment of spiffy predefined tables

SYN. mixture; Word comes with an assortment of spiffy predefined tables

To utterly remove the table from a document, text and all, heed these destruction directions:

At some point, you may surrender the notion of needing a table.

Although a single cell can deftly handle vast quantities of text

You can also perform math in tables, similar to what Excel does but without all the heartburn.

It makes the cell formatting all funky.

When the pointer is in the sweet spot, it changes to a downward-pointing arrow.

You may need to add or remove a row or column, adjust the width or height, or otherwise fine-tune and format the table.

Use the Split Cells dialog box to determine how to best mince up the cell.

Unless you want your table to look like it was made from hog wire, I recommend applying some table formatting.

Rather than get bogged down with details, you should know that the spiffiest way to spruce up a table is to choose a preset format from the Table Styles gallery.

Rather than get bogged down with details, you should know that the spiffiest way to spruce up a table is to choose a preset format from the Table Styles gallery.

position the mouse pointer at a thumbnail in the gallery to see a preview.

If you choose that format, the borders vanish, and it makes working with the table more difficult.

The best way to stick a title or caption on a table is to use Word’s Insert Caption command

The best way to stick a title or caption on a table is to use Word’s Insert Caption command.

And if you think of rows of marching soldiers or rolling tanks, you’re a military buff

..., so a typical sheet of paper can have up to 12 columns — not that such a layout would be appealing or anything.

When you desire to impress someone with your word processing prowess, I suggest putting two columns on the page.

If you create text after setting the number of columns, you see your scribblings flow down the left side of the page and then hop up to the upper right to start a new column.

The space between columns is called the gutter. Word sets a gutter width at 0.5” (half an inch).

SYN. keen; You might find Word overly eager to format a list for you.

To choose a different bullet style, click the menu triangle next to the Bullets command.

..., or you can concoct a numbering scheme by choosing the command Define New Number Format.

As long as you use Tab and Shift+Tab to organize the topics, you don’t break the format, and the list stays intact.

Unless you remember the trick about pressing Tab and Shift+Tab to format the list, things can get screwy.

It’s sacrilege, of course. Word processing is about words.

Images and words mix and mingle in the software realm of desktop publishing

Images and words mix and mingle in the software realm of desktop publishing

The door to Word’s graphical closet is found on the Insert tab

Your computer is most likely littered with picture files

A nifty picture to stick at the end of a letter is your signature.

Shapes need not be clunky, colorful distractions

To slip a smidgen of text into a shape

The image can float in front of the text, like some little kid pasted a sticker on the page.

SYN. restrict; After choosing either Behind Text or In Front of Text, you see the image released from the confines of the text.

It’s as if the image is linked or anchored to a specific paragraph, which helps keep the document’s graphics associated with the tidbit of text that references them.

Then look for the Anchor icon, shown in the margin, next to a paragraph of text. To change paragraphs, drag this icon to another paragraph — hopefully, one that references the image.

you can use the Height and Width controls to nudge the image size vertically or horizontally

In graphics lingo, cropping works like taking a pair of scissors to the image

In graphics lingo, cropping works like taking a pair of scissors to the image

..., just as an angry, sullen teen would use shears to remove his cheating scumbag former girlfriend from a prom picture

..., just as an angry, sullen teen would use shears to remove his cheating scumbag former girlfriend from a prom picture

..., just as an angry, sullen teen would use shears to remove his cheating scumbag former girlfriend from a prom picture

You have two handy ways to rotate an image, neither of which involves turning the computer’s monitor or craning your neck to the point of chiropractic necessity.

You have two handy ways to rotate an image, neither of which involves turning the computer’s monitor or craning your neck to the point of chiropractic necessity.

you can choose to rotate the image 90 degrees to the left or right or to flip the image horizontally or vertically.

To wash out a picture you placed behind the text, click the Color button and choose the Washout color from the Recolor area.

A slew of interesting, artistic brushstrokes and other effects are found on the aptly named Artistic Effects button menu.

Graphics are plunked down on a page one atop the other.

To change the order and shuffle images in front of or behind each other

When you use smaller shapes to cobble together a complex image, use the Group command.