MS Word How-to

Here is an approach to using MS Word Online without getting lost in that strange template which seems to be a paper about exotic birds, written by Rama Gokhale. I wrote this to avoid some of the problems you might run into, beginning with the whole “Paragraph Styles” issue. (I simply left them out.) There are at least six current versions of MS Word, and they differ a lot in their appearance and the User Interface. This discussion only applies to the online version you can get through the AU Copilot link.

Note: Most Windows keyboards have an Enter key. Most Apple keyboards have a Return key. They are the same.

1. Open Microsoft Word and click the blue Create a blank document box.
2. In the upper left, you will see “Document X” (where X is the number of documents you have created). Double-click those words and type a name for the file, then press the Enter/Return key. (Note: If you don’t do this, all of your files will be titled with a document number—very confusing.)
3. Click the View menu and click Header & Footer.
4. A new box opens with three sections. Click in the section on the right and type your last name. Then hit the spacebar once. Now click the Insert menu and choose the Page Numbers drop-down menu. Click the one that puts the page number in the upper right.
5. Now click anywhere in the main body of your paper to get out of the header.
6. Aptos 12 point type is the default and it is pretty good, so leave that alone.
7. You need to set up for double-space. Click the Layout drop-down menu and choose the three-dot menu … at the extreme right.
8. Choose Paragraph Options. On the right, where it says Spacing, select these options:
   • Before: 0 pt
   • After: 0 pt
   • Line Spacing: Double
   Now click the blue OK box
9. Finally you are ready to type.
   • Type your own name (first and last) and press the Enter/Return key.
   • Type the name of your teacher and press the Enter/Return key.
   • Type the name of the course and press the Enter/Return key.
   • Type the date the paper is due and press the Enter/Return key.
   • Type the title of your paper (capitalizing the first letter of each important word). Then press Enter/Return. I know that the title is at the extreme left. Do not worry about that—we will fix it in a minute.
10. Now type a few words of the body of your paper. We are going to set up for the half-inch first line indent:
    • Click the Layout drop-down menu and choose the three-dot menu … at the extreme right.
    • Choose Paragraph Options.
    • In the Indentation menu, your choices should be:
      • Before text: 0”
      • After text: 0”
      • Special: First line
      • By: 0.5”
11. Now we need to go back and center that title. Double-click it and choose the Home drop-down menu. Now you need to find the drop-down which can center things. You are looking for three little lines all flush left with a drop-down caret. Click that to open the Alignment menu and choose the one with three lines centered on each other. (Apple shortcut: Press Command+e. Windows shortcut: Press Ctrl+e.)

After all this, you should be ready to type. Go back to the material you typed in step #10. The machine will figure out the line endings and the page endings for you. Just press the Enter/Return key at the end of each paragraph.