Applications Session 12 - Introduction to Advanced Word

Before we start looking at Word, lets get the business of the Excel assessment out of the way!

Details of the assessment task are included in the course Moodle blog. This assessment is due 5 June 2017 and is worth 30% of your grade for the applications unit.

Before we move onto advanced Word, I would like to do a quick recap/session on Word Basics, in particular a reminder on why Styles are awesome and why we should use them. Styles are central to the way that modern versions of MS Word work. They are undervalued as a feature, but should be used for all documents!

The following has been copied from my Certificate IV Notes and is a really quick Styles Primer.

Getting started

N.B. These notes will be using Office 2013. This is what my Laptop is running, but depending on which computers you use within Chisholm, you may get Windows 10 and Office 2016. Where possible, I will show the Word 2016 screens as well.

Word 2013 will be located on your Start page, or as a shortcut on the desktop, depending on the computer and operating system installed.

When you start Word, you can create a Blank Document or choose an existing document from the recent list. If your document isn't there, you can browse the drive and folder to locate it.

Word 2016

Microsoft Office 2013 utilises the Microsoft Ribbon (actually all Office applications from version 2007). Above the ribbon, are TABS that will display other tools. The tools that you use regularly will be on the Home TAB. Your cursor will be placed on the document ready for you to start typing.

If your Rulers are not displayed, you can use the View tab to add them. I find the rulers very useful and great for quick page formatting stuff.

Styles and Templates - The basics

Although not compulsory, I strongly recommend that you use styles to format your documents in Word. Styles in Word have a Preview feature, or what I call WYSBYGI (What You See Before You Get IT).

The styles are linked to various Templates. When you create a blank document, you are still using a template, although you may not realise it. The standard template is called Blank Document or Normal, depending on your version of Office.

Word comes with a range of templates that can be used to help you create a variety of different documents. Some are installed on your computer with the software and others are available through Microsoft Office Online.

To start a document with a Template, Select File / New

 

Word 2016 templates

If you don't like the ones that are standard, you can search Microsoft Online to find others.

Word 2016

The selected document will then be loaded into Word.

SO Why use styles?

There are SOOOOO many reasons to use styles and really no reasons not to use them. Many of these will become obvious as we go along, but to start with here are a few:

• Consist formatting within your document
• Easy to change templates
• Navigation
• Table of Contents
• Outline View

Hopefully these will become evident as we explore Word and that you will be convinced by the end of the topic.

Selecting Text

As well as using templates, you can start with a blank document, type in your text, and style it yourself. To format text, you need to first select the text that you want formatted. You can select text using either the mouse or the keyboard.

SELECTING TEXT USING THE MOUSE - The Basics

To Select:

Any amount of text - Click where you want to begin the selection, hold down the left mouse button, and then drag the pointer over the text that you want to select.

A word - Double-click anywhere in the word.

A line of text - Move the pointer to the left of the line until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then click.

A sentence - Hold down CTRL, and then click anywhere in the sentence.

A paragraph - Triple-click anywhere in the paragraph.

Multiple paragraphs - Move the pointer to the left of the first paragraph until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then press and hold down the left mouse button while you drag the pointer up or down.

A large block of text - Click at the start of the selection, scroll to the end of the selection, and then hold down SHIFT while you click where you want the selection to end.

An entire document - Move the pointer to the left of any text until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then triple-click.

Headers and footers - In Print Layout view, double-click the dimmed header or footer text. Move the pointer to the left of the header or footer until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then click.

Footnotes and endnotes - Click the footnote or endnote text, move the pointer to the left of the text until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then click.

A vertical block of text - Hold down ALT while you drag the pointer over the text.

A text box or frame - Move the pointer over the border of the frame or text box until the pointer becomes a four-headed arrow, and then click.

SELECTING TEXT USING THE KEYBOARD - The Basics

One character to the right - Press SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW.

One character to the left - Press SHIFT+LEFT ARROW.

A word from its beginning to its end - Place the insertion point at the beginning of the word, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW.

A word from its end to its beginning - Move the pointer to the end of the word, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW.

A line from its beginning to its end - Press HOME, and then press SHIFT+END.

A line from its end to its beginning - Press END, and then press SHIFT+HOME.

One line down - Press END, and then press SHIFT+DOWN ARROW.

One line up - Press HOME, and then press SHIFT+UP ARROW.

A paragraph from its beginning to its end - Move the pointer to the beginning of the paragraph, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW.

A paragraph from its end to its beginning - Move the pointer to the end of the paragraph, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+UP ARROW.

A document from its end to its beginning - Move the pointer to the end of the document, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME.

A document from its beginning to its end - Move the pointer to the beginning of the document, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+END.

From the beginning of a window to its end - Move the pointer to the beginning of the window, and then press ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN.

The entire document - Press CTRL+A.

A vertical block of text - Press CTRL+SHIFT+F8, and then use the arrow keys. Press ESC to turn off the selection mode.

The nearest character - Press F8 to turn on selection mode, and then press LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW; press ESC to turn off the selection mode.

A word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a document - Press F8 to turn on selection mode, and then press F8 once to select a word, twice to select a sentence, three times to select a paragraph, or four times to select the document. Press ESC to turn off the selection mode.

Formatting Text

Once you have selected text, you can apply a range of different formats. An easy way is by using the formatting Mini Toolbar. The Mini Toolbar appears just above text that has been selected when you hover over it. The Mini Toolbar appears in what I call a ghost format until you move the mouse to it.

The Mini Toolbar allows you to change the Font and Font size, apply bold or italics, change the colour of text and indent text – basic text formatting.

You can also change text formatting by using the Font and Paragraph tools on the Home Ribbon. The Font Tools will only affect the text that is selected. Paragraph formatting, however, will change the whole current paragraph or paragraphs that may be selected.

By clicking the little arrows in the corner of the menu group, you can open the relevant dialogue box.

There is also a special tool called the Format Painter. This tool will pick up all of your formatting options and store them and then allow you to paste the formatting to the next selection of text. This would have to be one of my Favourite tools!!

Table of Contents and Styles

Heading styles are linked with your Table Of Contents. If you are creating a large report and need to have a table of contents that can be easily updated, you should use heading styles throughout your report. It is also an easy way of making sure that your headings and text items are consistently formatted throughout your document.

Example

Within Moodle, you will able to download the 2015 Long Document file so you can do this exercise when you have your work session.

Using the long document provided to you, add styles to the document, including different levels of Headings.

DESIGN BRIEF (heading 1)

Project Scope and Design Brief (Heading 2)

Initiation (Heading 3)

Scope planning (heading 3)

Scope definition (Heading 3)

Scope verification (Heading 3)

Scope change control (Heading 3)

The project manager needs to: (Heading 3)

Creating a Multimedia/Web Design Scoping Questionnaire (Heading 2)

Client Experience (Heading 3)

Type of project (Heading 3)

Type of Product (heading 3)

Market sector (Heading 3)

Project Bias (Heading 3)


This is what it should look like

Table of Contents

Table of Contents is in the References TAB of the ribbon.

The Table of Contents button is used to add a Table of Contents to your document.

The Add Text button allows you to add items to your Table of Contents that were not included as Heading styles.

Update Table is used to update a table of contents after changes have been made to your document - new headings or even additional text - that will make the existing table of contents inaccurate.

To add your Table of Contents, move to the top of your document and click on the Table of Contents button. Select the style of contents that you want. It will be placed in your document at the cursor.

You can also create one manually by typing in each heading and sub heading within your document. This is not wrong, but can be quite time consuming if your document changes and you need to update the Table of Contents.

Outline View

Outline View allows you to view a document's structure based on where the Heading styles were used.
Outline View also allows you to manipulate your document levels by moving items up or down and by promoting or demoting levelled items.

Modifying Styles and levels

To modify a style, right click on the style button and you will get the Modify Style dialogue box

If you click on Paragraph, you will see a section for Outline level - this is what links the style to the Table of Contents. It also allows you to use the Outline View, where you are able to just look at the headings and levels of a large document.

You can change any of the style attributes such as colour, font, size, alignment and formatting. Click on the Format button at the bottom left of the dialogue box.

Changing Fonts, Colours and Themes.

As well as the current style colour and fonts, you can also view and change to any others from a list of presets (and of course you can edit or add your own).

In Word 2013, these are accessed from the Design Ribbon.

The relevant buttons are the Themes, Colors and Fonts. You will get a WYSBYGI preview by moving your cursor over any of the choices.

You can watch a video on using Styles in word on YouTube - Click Here



ACTIVITY

1. Download and Load the Long Document from Moodle into Word (copy onto your USB)
2. Try out the various ways of selecting text
3. Use the mini toolbar to format text
4. Close the document WITHOUT saving
5.Open the document and apply the styles as per the example
6. Create a Table of Contents 
7. Try modifying the Heading 2 style and apply to your document
8. Try changing themes and colours
9. Close the document


AND NOW TO THE REAL LESSON FOR TODAY

Word 2013 and Forms

Creating forms in Word 2013 - "Let me count the ways".

There are a gazillion ways to create Forms using Word. If you are creating the form and then printing it so that it can be filled out later (offline), any of these methods will work. If you are creating the form to be filled out in Word, then you may need to think about which method you use.

When we created forms in Access and Excel, their whole purpose was to get data accurately into a table or spreadsheet. The form was just used as a front-end data entry module. In Word, the purpose is different - yes it is about getting the information so it can be entered somewhere, but it is not as an automated process.

For these exercises, I will be created a sign up form for membership to the Mysty River Regional Library Service. I will need to capture the following information:

First name & Last Name
Residential Address (address lines X2, Suburb, Postcode)
Postal address (if different)
Date of Birth
Home Phone Number
Mobile Number
Email address
Preferred method of contact (Home phone, mobile or email)
Parent/Guardian details if under 18

I am sure there is more, but this will do for our exercise.

Method 1: Tabs and Underlines

This is Form creation at its most basic.

Using TABS to help with lining up and underlines to show where the information is to go, you can create a simple, but functional form.

And this is what it looks like in Print Preview:

Whilst this is perfect to be printed and completed using a good old fashioned pen, it is much harder to use this to enter online in Word because as soon as you start to type in the details, you lose your pretty formatting.

Method 2 - TABS and leaders

Using the same document, you can use dot leaders to show where the text is to go rather than underlines. Whilst still fiddly, you don't lose the formatting quite as easily once you start putting in the information.

I have added a few extra TAB stops so that there is a gap between the leader and the next form information.

With a bit of tweaking, removing the underscores and adding the extra TAB characters, the dot leaders are set.

and the top section looks like this:

Shows document With paragraph marks

Shows document Without paragraph marks

Method 3 - Tables

One of Word's best features is the ability to create a table of any shape and/or size. You can use tables to create a form that will work well printed and/or filled out online.

I use the Draw Table feature of Word, which is fun and visual.

And the Print Preview:

This looks great printed and can be filled out on screen as you do not lose the table formatting once you start to type into it.

Method 4 - Developer Tools

You can use the developer tools in a table, like method 3, or using TABS and lines as per method 1 and 2.

I have used the table from the previous example (with a few tweaks just for fun).

To add Controls, you need to have the Developer Ribbon available. If it is not currently displayed then you need to go to File / Options and tick the Show Developer tab in the Customise Ribbon section.

Within the Developer TAB, you will see the Controls section. These are the tools we need to complete this form template.

I am going to add some plain text fields to my table form. If you go into Design Mode, you can use the Properties box to add some extra options to your controls.

The above are all plain Text controls. For the next field, I want  to use a checkbox with a tick as the character for the item being checked.

This is the properties box for the Date control:

You can also use the properties to include further instructions if necessary.

Saving your Form

When creating Forms, regardless of what method you use, the best way to save them is as a Template. Why? Because it is!! If you save it as a Template, when it is opened it is treated as a new document and you will be asked to save it with a new name when the time comes and you WON'T OVERWRITE YOUR BEAUTIFUL FORM!

Using your form

To use your form, open Word and select your Template.

Complete the details and Save if required.

Class Activity 1

Using each of the methods above, create a membership form for your chosen library or the Mysty River Regional Library Service.

Test each form for usability

USING ACROBAT READER DC

Forms can also be completed using Adobe Acrobat. If you have Acrobat Pro, you have access to a whole swag of tools that can be used to create forms. Unfortunately, you have to buy Acrobat Pro, but there are some things that we can do with Acrobat Reader DC, which is free.

I created an extremely basic form in Word and saved it as a PDF. Being able to fill in the document, sign it, email it off or just add text to it is very useful.

Applications Session 11 - Basic forms and validation

Creating a Simple Form

Today we will look at how to create a simple Excel data form for entering information into a spreadsheet. A data form can be created using the existing column headings in a table or cell range.

For this example, I am using the same spreadsheet as last week - 2015PivotTable.xlsx

Before we can create a form, we need to add the Forms Button to the Quick Access Toolbar. Click on the little arrow at the end of the quick access toolbar to display the customise menu.

Click on More Commands, then All Commands. Locate the Forms Button and add it to the toolbar.

Highlight the table (A3:G29) and click on your newly created Form button.

Are you impressed? Excel should have created a nice data entry form for your table. You can even use this to scroll through the existing data in your table.

If you have a blank "template" or partially completed spreadsheet, you can still create a form. In our example, lets say you have the names and branches, but no data. You can create the form so that the missing data can be entered easily.

You will see that now the form has blank data - the user can enter the Q1 - Q4 figures and it will calculate the total as you go. Use the navigation buttons to move from one row to the next.

You could name the sheet to create an even more meaningful form as it would have a relevant title rather than just Sheet1

EXERCISE 1

Create a new spreadsheet to keep a list of all of your books. Have a title at the top - My Book Library

Include the following headings:
Title
Author
Edition details
Date acquired
Cost
Rating

Enter your first book straight into the spreadsheet.

With your cursor on the first item, create a form

Use this form to add another 5 or so books to the table. If you don't have the exact information handy, just make it up.

Data Validation

Data Validation is simple in Excel 2013. You can access the data validation button from the Data ribbon.

For this example, I will be using the Pivot Table spreadsheet.

To start with, I am going to validate the Branch.

Click on the Data Validation button to load the dialog box.

We want to restrict the data that can be entered to ensure that a valid branch is entered. The easiest option is to choose List and allow the user to select the Branch from a drop down list. You can either type in the items for the list separated by a comma, or you can have the list items on the spreadsheet and put the range details in.

You can validate other data types such as numbers and dates.

You can also set up validation and check to see if there are any cells that do not meet the criteria. One way of doing this would be to copy and then using Paste Special, paste only the validation.

Validation with Form Controls

You can also use form controls to validate data. This is useful if you want to use one of the funky control slike spin buttons or check boxes.

Here is an example using a spin button

Combo Charts

Combo charts allow you to have different values in your chart represented using different chart types. Here are some examples.

Protection

Some of you may have already had "the talk" and be aware of the protection, but there may be a couple who haven't so this is a quick and nasty version.

Why Protection? The best reason to use protection (apart from the obvious) is so that all the great work you have done in preparing, formatting, and perfecting your spreadsheet is not ruined by someone putting information in the wrong spot.

By default, all of the cells in Excel are "protected", so if you want people to be able to edit cells, you need to unprotect them or unlock them. Any protection that is applied to individual cells is not enforced until the actual spreadsheet is protected.

To unprotect the cells, use Format Cells.

Once you have unprotected the cells that YOU want people to be ABLE to access - protect the sheet.

There are a few different levels of protection that you can apply. You will find these under Review.

OR from the Home Ribbon

 

You can be very specific about what you will allow others (or yourself) to change when using the spreadsheet and you can set a password which must be entered before the spreadsheet can be unprotected. Stay safe people!!