the list. For example, in Figure 1-7, you can see that when Share is selected (in Word), a submenu of commands appears to the right, along with buttons for specific operations.
The bottom-most command is Options, which opens a dialog box from which you can control the settings for the application.
In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the Start screen appears when you start the application, and from there you can create a new document (or workbook, or presentation) by pressing the Esc key or clicking the Blank template. You can then just start typing or inserting content into it.
You can also create additional new documents. An easy shortcut to do so is to press Ctrl+N. You can also choose File ⇒ New. That latter method has the advantage of opening a selection of templates you can use to jumpstart your work if you don’t want a totally blank document to start with. Choose one of the templates that appears, or click in the Search for online templates box, type a keyword, and press Enter to look for a certain kind of template. Let’s forego the templates for now, though, and keep working in this chapter with a blank document.
Putting text on the page (or onscreen) is a little different in each of the three major Office applications: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
✔ Word: The main work area of the program is a blank slate on which you can type directly. Just click in the work area and start typing! Chapter 2 explains more about typing and editing text. See Figure 1-8.
✔ Excel: The work area is divided into a grid of cells. Click any cell to make it active, and type to place text into it, as in Figure 1-9. Chapter 7 shows how to work with text in Excel cells.
✔ PowerPoint: The work area is divided into three panes. The largest one, in the center, is where you insert content on a slide.
• If a slide has a text placeholder on it, you can click in the placeholder and type, as in Figure 1-10.
• If there isn’t a placeholder on the slide, or if the placeholder doesn’t meet your needs, you can place a text box on the slide manually. (That’s covered in Chapter 11.)
All Office applications accept various types of pictures. Here’s how to insert a photo (or other graphic file) into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:
1. Click the Insert tab.
2. Click the Pictures button. The Insert Picture dialog box opens. See Figure 1-11. The default location that opens is the Pictures folder for the user currently signed into Windows.
3. Select the picture you want to insert. (You might need to change to a different location. That’s covered in Chapter 3.)
4. Click the Insert button.
The preceding steps apply to picture files, such as images from a digital camera or that you downloaded from the Internet. There are lots of other graphic types, such as online images, WordArt (stylized text), and drawn lines and shapes. Each of these has its own procedure for insertion. Later chapters discuss these in more detail.
As you add content in one of the applications, there might be so much content that you can’t see it all onscreen at once. You might need to scroll through the document to view different parts of it.
The simplest way to move around is by using the scroll bars with your mouse:
✔ In Excel, a vertical (up and down) and a horizontal (left to right) scroll bar are always available.
✔ In Word and PowerPoint, the vertical scroll bar is always available. The horizontal scroll bar disappears if there is no undisplayed text from side-to-side.
Figure 1-12 shows several ways to use a scroll bar:
✔ Click the arrow at the end of a scroll bar to scroll the display slowly in the direction of the arrow (a small amount each time you click).
✔ Drag the box in the scroll bar to scroll quickly.
✔ Click in the empty space on the bar to one side or the other of the scroll box to move one screenful at a time in that direction.
Selecting content is an essential skill for any Office application. Many commands in Office applications apply to whatever text or graphics you select. For example, to make some text bold, select it first, and then click the Bold button. Figure 1-13 shows some selected text.
To
