Guide to Microsoft Word

Basics of Word

• Word Environment: Watch the video 
• Text Formatting: Watch the video
  

 Margins

• Go to Page Layout => Page Setup > Margins. This will bring up a drop-down giving you options. Select Normal with 1 inch margins on all sides for academic essays unless your teacher specifies other margin spacing.
• Watch the video

Double spacing Select All

• Go to Home => Paragraph; click on the line spacing button and select 2.0 for double spacing.
• Watch the video

Space after Paragraph Select All

• Go to Home => Paragraph. Click on lower right arrow . Go to Spacing. Set before and after spacing to 0pt.
• Spaces inserted before and after paragraphs are distracting to read. Change this every time you write.

Hanging Indents    Select

• Home => Paragraph. Click lower right arrow. Indents and Spacing tab => Indentation:  Special:  Select Hanging and click OK.
• Essential for MLA Works Cited and Reference pages.
• Watch the video

Ellipsis

• The ellipsis consists of 3 spaced periods . . . like this: 4 spaces and 3 periods: (Word 1)[space 1][period 1][space 2][period 2][space 3][period 3][space 4](Word 2). 
• Hint! Go to Home => Paragraph > Show/Hide (¶). You will see the ellipsis looks like'.'.'.'this.

Footnotes

• References => Footnote => Insert Footnote, type footnote text. Click lower right arrow for more options.
• Required for citing sources, see Essential Citation System handout 

Dash

• Immediately after typing a word, type a hyphen (-) twice then begin the second word (No spaces!). Or go to Insert => Symbol > Special Characters tab. EM dash > Insert. Keyboard Alt+Ctrl+Num –

Grammar-checking and spell-checking

• Use Word’s spelling and grammar check! But you should also proofread carefully and use a dictionary.
• Watch the video