Closing Microsoft Word (Word 2007, 2010)

Alt key help

• Press the Alt key and you will see numbers and letters displayed over icons, tabs or commands, towards the top of your screen. 

• If you type in a number or letter you will activate a command.  For instance in the example shown, the number 1 is displayed over the Save icon.  Type in 1 and you will see the Save As dialog box displayed.  Close this dialog box.  

• Press the Alt key again and you will see an N displayed over the Insert tab.  Press N and you will see the contents of the Insert tab displayed.

• This is a very easy way of learning keyboard shortcuts.  You now know that Alt+S will display the Save As dialog box and that Alt+N will display the Insert Tab.

• Click on the Home tab before continuing.

Closing Microsoft Word 

• To close the Microsoft Word program, click on the Microsoft Office button and then click on the Exit Word command.  If there are any unsaved documents, Microsoft Word will always ask if you want to save these documents prior to closing.

Saving documents using different formats

• Normally you simply save a document as a standard Microsoft Word document.  However you can save your document in a range of different formats.  It is important to realise that Microsoft Word 2007 stores documents in a different type of file format than used by previous versions of Microsoft Word and you may have to save your documents in a format that can be opened by people who are using an earlier version of Microsoft Word.  

• If necessary start Word.

• Create a new document and type in your name.  

• Click on the Save icon (top-left of your screen).  This will display the Save As dialog box.  In the File Name section of the dialog box, enter the file name 'My file formats'.  Click on the down arrow to the right of the Save as Type section of the dialog box.  This will display a drop down list of file format options.   As you can see there are a range of options to select from.  Word Document:  This format will save the document using the standard Microsoft Word 2007 file format.  This is the format that is used by default and if you do not go out of your way to select a different file format then this is the format that is used when you normally save a Microsoft Word 2007 document.   Word 97-2003 Document:  Saving your document in this format means that you can distribute copies of your document via disk or email to other people who are using earlier versions of Microsoft Word and they should be able to read and edit the document without problems.  If you have used complex formatting or some of the new advanced features within your Microsoft Word 2007 document, some of the advanced formatting may be lost in the conversion process.   Plain Text:

Saving your document as a plain text file will remove all the formatting you have added to your documents (such as bold, italics & underlining).  If will also remove any pictures or other features such as tables.  Only plain text will be saved.  Be very careful about using this option.    Rich Text Format:  This is a generic word-processing file format.  If you wanted to distribute the document to someone using a totally different word-processing program from a different software manufacturer, such as WordPerfect, then you may wish to use this file format.  Some advanced formatting may be lost in the file conversion process.  The file name extension will change to become .RTF.   Template: You normally save a document as a document file.  You can however save a document as a template.  This means that you can create new documents in the future, based on the templates you create.  There are quite a few other file format options but at this stage we do not need to worry about them! 

• Experiment with saving your document in the file formats described above. 

• When you have finished experimenting, save your changes and close any open documents.

• Close the Microsoft Word program.

Creating documents using different templates

• Re-open the Microsoft Word program.  By default the Word program opens and displays a new, blank document, based on the default template.  We will now investigate some of the other templates available.

• Click on the Office button and select the New command.    This will display the New Document dialog box. 

• Click on the Installed Templates option (displayed in the list within the left section of the dialog box).  This will display templates installed on your computer.

• Use the scroll bar in the middle section of the dialog box, to scroll down and see what templates are available.  Select one of the fax templates and then click on the Create button.

• You will see a fax document, based on the particular fax template that you selected, as illustrated. 

• You could then fill-in the details on your fax as required.  As this is just an example, do not fill in the fax, simply close the document without saving your changes. 

• If your computer is connected to the Internet, you could try experimenting with some of the other templates.  The example below shows the options displayed within the Brochures section.   

• Experiment with creating new documents based on the Agenda templates, as illustrated below.  

• Save the document based on an Agenda template as My New Agenda. 

• Experiment with creating new documents based on the Memo templates, as illustrated below (note you may have to scroll down the Template list to see the Memo templates available).

• Save the document based on a Memo template as My New Memo. 

• When you have finished experimenting, close Word saving any of your changes.