Meganga

Starting Microsoft Word 2007®

Learning Objectives:

• Launch Word from the start menu
• Pin Word shortcut to start menu

Target Audience:

Complete beginner/novice

Pre-requisites:

Using the mouse course or being reasonably comfortable with the mouse

Introduction

Microsoft® Word is the word processor program that comes bundled with the Microsoft Office® Suite of software programs. There are several ways of starting Word, e.g. from a desktop icon, from the quick launch toolbar, exploring the desktop computer icon, and from the start menu. This lesson will focus on starting Word from the start menu as you will learn how to do all the other methods in other lessons.

Let's get started

Exercise 1: Using the start menu

Click on the start menu button, located in the bottom left of your screen (figure 1).

This will open the start menu (figure 2). You may find that there is already an icon for Microsoft Office Word 2007® in the start menu. If this is the case the all you need to do is simply click on the Word icon and the

program will be launched.

The start menu is a dynamic menu. This means that for an icon to appear in your start menu it will have to be used recently. Therefore if you don't use Word for a while its icon will be automatically removed from the start menu.

Exercise 2: Launching Word when you can't see the icon

Click on the start menu button once again. The start menu will once again appear. Looking at the bottom of the start menu you will see the start menu search box (figure 3). Click in the search box where it says: "Start Search" and type: "word" (without the double quotes). At the top of the search menu you should now see the icon for Microsoft Office Word 2007. Click this icon and Word will start.

Once you have the icon in the start menu you can make sure it stays there by simply right clicking and from the sub menu that now appears select "Pin to Start Menu"

Summary

You should now be able to easily find and launch Word and for that matter any other program by using the start menu effectively.

Where next

Try the following online computer courses for seniors:

• Opening Windows - opening, closing, minimizing and maximizing those windows
• Scrolling