Presentation of Microsoft Word
Documents should be clear to read and well presented. This means sentences to the point and use of white space. Where a document is to be commented upon, on the paper, use double spacing with single spacing for quotations. Word Processing can be a simple presentation of text or be used to full advantage to be almost like DeskTop Publishing. The aim should always be a better read, not gimmickry. These days punctuation tends to be less than before; however, it needs to be accurate and is usually not used around the bodies of letters and memors (except for colons).
This training session as much reveals how the Microsoft Word program works in producing fully formatted documents as well as doing some documents themselves, where the emphasis is not on following instructions but producing something interesting to look at. This presentation is a resource.
File types...
There are several levels of formatting files:
.txt / unformatted pure text.rtf / partly formatted text allowing bold, italic, etc but not line spacing, full justification etc. Usually smaller than .doc and suitable for all word processors and therefore the best way to send a formatted text attachment in email. Note also that unlike .rtf , .doc documents can contain macros or program elements which allow viruses. Thus if someone unknown sends a Word document attachment, don't open it!
.doc / Word and 602Text fully formatted text with facilities up to virtually DTP
.lwp / Lotus WordPro fully formatted text with facilities up to virtually DTP
.html / Text documents with tags that can be read by an Internet browser and look fully formatted within the web pages.
Word 97/ 2000 etc will save as html. Advice is not to do it; the result is frequently horrible to the browser, as well as following Microsoft only protocols. Use an assisted text editor to write code or dedicated web page editor for html output.
Template and Page Setup...
A page layout depends upon the file Normal.dot. Whatever is saved as Normal.dot will be the template for subsequent documents. Other .dot files can exist. Word is fussy about saving as something.dot when it exists already. It may be a good idea to save as somethingelse.dot and then doing some file erasing and renaming within the Windows folder. Saving as and choosing .dot usually shows the location of the folder for Normal.dot which is then reached outside the Word program itself. On none network computers the location of Normal.dot is usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates for Normal.dot, and some other templates are in additional folders.
The first document started is called Document1 (and there can be other names) based on Normal.dot. Trying to save this first time results in saving as and entering a filename.doc and navigating to a location.
Tools menu, Options, File locations shows where the default files are to be found. This can be changed.
Normally users do not normally think about saving the .dot file. However, there are changes that do affect the .dot file. Look on the Formatting toolbar. On the left is a list of styles which are preset in appearance.