How to make text in word

Add and edit text

Try it!

Follow these steps to add, replace, and format text in Word.

Add text

1. Place the cursor where you want to add the text.

2. Start typing.

Replace text

1. Select the text you want to replace.

   • To select a single word, double-click it.

   • To select a line, click to the left of it.

2. Start typing.

Format text

1. Select the text you want to format.

2. From the pop up toolbar or the Home tab, select an option to change the Font, Font Size, Font Color, or make the text bold, italics, or underline.

   

Copy formatting

1. Select the text with the formatting you want to copy.

2. Click  Format painter, and then select the text you want to copy the formatting to.

   Tip: Double-click  Format painter if you want to copy the formatting in more than one place.

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Word Quick Start

Whether you’re a one-person business operating out of your kitchen, or a billion-dollar company on Wall Street, the expectation is the same. Your business documents must be the paragon of professionalism and competence.

This expectation shouldn’t be a cause for worry. With applications like Microsoft Word you can create professional-looking documents with your own computer. Through the years, Word has become more powerful, yet more intuitive. Anyone with basic computer skills can use Word to create well-designed documents. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to format text in Word to make your business documents easier to read and understand. You’ll also pick up tips on how to make sure your formatting doesn’t look amateurish—even if you’re getting started with Word.  

Formatting Text in Word

Formatting text in Microsoft Word refers to controlling how text appears in your document. This includes the size, color, and font of the text. It also covers text alignment, spacing, and letter case.  

Microsoft Word styles make it easy to change and apply styles throughout a document. A “style” is a set of formatting settings applied to a specific kind of text. 

For example, you can set up a style for headings that’s bold, 14 points, aligned left, and uses the Tahoma font. This means all text in your document with the heading style will be formatted the same way. You don’t have to manually format each heading in your document.

In this post, you’ll see how to use MS Word styles.

How to Format Text in Word

To show you how to format text in Word, we’ll walk through formatting a completely unformatted business document file. 

This is what my marketing report looks like without any formatting in Word:

As you can see, it’s plain and boring. Nobody would be inspired to read it, let alone act on the findings of the report!

Some basic Word text formatting can fix that. 

1. How to Apply Typographic Emphasis

1. For starters, let’s use typographic emphasis (bold, italic, underline) to make the report title stand out.

To do this, select the text you want to emphasize. Click on the bold button on the Microsoft Word ribbon. 

Note that the ribbon also has the buttons to apply italic, underline, strikethrough, and other formatting effects for text. Follow the same steps to apply those effects.

2. Now, let’s change the font, font size, and color of the title.

Again, select the text. Click the drop-down arrow on the font section of the ribbon, then select the font you want to apply. In this case, I’m using Arial bold.

3. To change the font size, highlight the text. Click the drop-down arrow on the font size indicator on the ribbon. Click on the font size of your choice.

Or, after highlighting the text, you can type the font size into the font size indicator on the ribbon. This is especially useful when the font size you want isn’t available in the font size selector.

4. You can also use the Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size buttons on the ribbon to quickly change the font size.

5. We can easily change the font color as well.

Highlight the text, then click the down arrow beside the Font Color selector. Click on the color of your choice.

Choose More Colors… if you wish to apply a custom color.

2. How to Change Capitalization in Word

Microsoft Word also allows you to easily and quickly change the capitalization of your text. For example, if we want to make the title all uppercase, we don’t have to retype it.

Highlight the title, then click the Change Case button on the ribbon.

Or, highlight the text, go to Format > Change Case…

… then click on the radio button for the case you want to apply. Click OK.

Now the title is looking much better. It’s the most prominent part of the document and commands the reader’s attention. However, we can still improve its readability.

3. How to Format Paragraphs

One way to make your document easier to read is by increasing white space around lines and paragraphs. 

1. To adjust the line spacing, select the text. Click on the arrow on the Line and Paragraph Spacing button. Select the line spacing you wish to apply.

2. To change the spacing around a paragraph, select the paragraph. Click on the arrow on the Line and Paragraph Spacing button > Line Spacing Options…. Then, type the amount of spacing before and after the paragraph. (Tip: You can adjust other settings from this dialog box as well.)

For the title, I’ll add a generous amount of space after the paragraph, to set it apart from the rest of the document.

3. Finally, let’s change the alignment of the title. Select the text, click on either the Align Left, Center Text, Align Right, or Justify button on the ribbon. Since this is a title, let’s use Center Text.

These simple formatting effects make the title stand out from the rest of the document.

4. How to Work With MS Word Styles

As much as Word makes it easy to format text, if you need to apply formatting effects on the entire document, the process becomes tedious.

Word solves that through styles. MS Word Styles allow you to define a set of formatting commands and apply them automatically to every item in the document with that style. 

Let’s look at a specific example:

1. How to Modify a Paragraph Style

Let’s follow the steps above to define a style for the main headings of the report with the following characteristics:

• Font: Arial
• Size: 14 points
• Color: Blue-grey 
• Typographic Emphasis: Bold
• Case: Capitalize each word
• Alignment: Left
• Line spacing: Single 
• Paragraph spacing: 6 pts before paragraph, 0 pts after paragraph

It would look like this:

One way to apply this exact formatting on every main heading is to modify the existing Heading 1 style in our document. Place your cursor anywhere in the main heading. Go to Styles, right-click on Heading 1, then choose Update Heading 1 to Match Selection.

You can also modify any style by going to Format > Style…. The Style dialog box opens. 

Select the style you want to modify from the Style list. This gives you a preview of the paragraph and character, as well as a description of the current style settings of the selected style.

Click Modify…. The Modify Style dialog box pops up.

Change the text and paragraph format settings. You can control the font, font size, font color, typographic emphasis, alignment, and spacing. When you’re done, click OK.

2. How to Apply a Paragraph Style

Now, go to each main heading in the document and apply the Heading 1 style to it. Place the cursor on a heading, go to Styles > Heading 1.

The selected text instantly takes on the formatting of Heading 1. 

3. How to Create a List Paragraph Style

You can also create a new paragraph style from scratch, instead of modifying an existing one. To demonstrate, let’s create a list-type paragraph style.

1. Go to Format > Style…. Fill in the Properties section of the dialog box that opens. For Style based on, you may wish to use one of the pre-existing list styles as a starting point.

2. Next, change the formatting options. The box below gives you a preview of what the list paragraph would look like with those settings. There’s also a summary of the formatting properties you’ve specified.

You also have the option to do the following for this style:

• Add to template. Adds the style you’re creating to the document template.
• Add to Quick Style list. Shows the new style to the Quick Style list, making it quickly accessible from the ribbon.
• Automatically update. Automatically updates the style when you manually format a paragraph with that style. 

When you’re happy with the settings you’ve made, click OK. Notice how the new Bullet style you created is now included in the Quick Style popup.

Once the bullet style is applied, our list now looks like this:

4. How to Use Character Styles in Microsoft Word

You can also define a style to an individual word or a block of text, rather than a paragraph. In the next example, I’d like to apply a character style for every URL in the document.

1. Select the text. Then, go to Format > Styles…. From the Style dialog, click New…. The Create New Style from Formatting dialog opens. 

2. Give the new character style a name. For Style type, choose Character. Then, make the formatting settings you want to apply to this character. Note that you can’t change alignment and spacing for a character style. The preview box shows you a sneak peek of the text based on the settings you specified.

3. When you’re done, click OK.

To apply the character style, place your cursor in a word or select a set of words. Go to Format > Style…. Find the character style you wish to apply. Click Apply.

Tip: To quickly find the MS Word styles you’ve created, for List, choose User-defined styles.

5. How to Use Table Styles in Word

We can also define a table style to provide a consistent look to the tables in our document. 

1. Create the table. Go to Insert > Table…, then indicate the number of columns and rows you need in your table (you can always add or remove these later). Click OK.

2. Add your text to the table. If necessary, click and drag any of the borderlines to adjust the width or a column, or the height of a row.

3. To apply a table style, click anywhere on the table, then go to Table Design. The Table Design ribbon appears.

4. Click on the down-arrow for table styles to display the table styles gallery. 

5. Click on any style to apply it to your table.

Expand the table styles gallery again to change the existing style, clear the style you applied, or create your own table style.

Discover Great Microsoft Word Templates for 2020

Some experts say it’s a good idea to set up your formatting styles in Word first before typing or copying the text into the document. One quick way to do this is by starting with a Microsoft Word template. Templates come pre-formatted by professional designers to look current and impressive.

You can find thousands of Word templates for all kinds of business documents in Envato Elements. 

For a small monthly subscription fee, you get unlimited downloads of all the templates at Elements. You also have unlimited access to everything else in the Elements catalog: 

• presentation templates
• web templates
• fonts
• photos
• graphics
• other digital assets 

Use as many of these assets as you want, as often as you want, without paying more. This makes Elements a terrific source for all the creative assets you need to create remarkable marketing and communication materials.

You can also pay as you go at GraphicRiver. This marketplace also offers a huge library of templates for Microsoft Word and other digital assets for all your marketing and communication needs. The difference is, you only pay each time you use an item. This can be a very economical option.

Below are some of the best print templates for Word available on Envato Elements and GraphicRiver:

After downloading any of these Microsoft Word templates, you can apply what you’ve learned about formatting text in Word. This way, you can personalize the template so that it aligns with your visual branding and preferences. You now know how to take any Word template and make it your own!

5 Top FAQs on Formatting Text in Microsoft Word

Below are some of the questions that come up as people format text in Word.

1. How Do You Make a Word Document Easier for the Reader to Scan?

Your primary goal when formatting text in Word is to make it easy for people to scan, read, and understand the content of the document. The different formatting options in Word help you achieve this:

• Use typographic emphasis like bold, italics, and underline to emphasize specific text and add variety to your document. 
• Break up the document into sections with headings and sub-headings to help the reader scan and navigate their way through it.
• Use either bulleted or numbered lists where appropriate to shorten paragraphs and make lists easier to comprehend.
• Set up line and paragraph spacing so that there’s plenty of white spaces throughout the document.

2. How Many Fonts Should I Use in a Word Document? 

It’s easy—and fun—to apply different fonts in Word. Too easy, in fact, that you could end up overwhelming your reader and making your document look like someone played with the formatting. 

Avoid this by sticking to a maximum of two different fonts in a single document. For instance, you could choose a sans serif font for your title and headings, and a serif font for all other text. You could even use one font for the entire document, relying on typographical emphasis and color to distinguish different types of text from each other.

3. Why Should I Use Microsoft Word Text Styles?

Use Microsoft Word text styles because they let you apply formatting settings globally throughout your document. This is important in long documents, where formatting each line or paragraph is too onerous. With text styles, you only need to determine what style you want for each piece of text. Word will do the rest.

4. How Can I Make My Document Formatting Consistent?

Using MS Word styles, as you’ve learned in this article, is an easy way to make your document formatting consistent. You decide and set how you want each type of text to be formatted. Then you can apply those styles consistently through your entire document.

Beyond Microsoft Word styles, also make sure that the recurring parts of your document are consistent as well. These include your headers and footers, for example. You must also be consistent with the placement of images: Do they have borders? Are they always within the document’s margins or do they bleed to the edge of the page?

When you use a Word template, these design decisions are already made for you. So, if you want a consistent design without all the hard work, then starting with a template for Word is the way to go.

5. How do You Copy text into Word without also copying junk code?

When you copy text from one application and paste it into Word, you run the risk of also copying the underlying formatting code for it. This code or set of formatting commands is invisible so you won’t know you’re copying it inadvertently. This can mess up your formatting in Word. Soon, you’ll be pulling your hair wondering why Word won’t “follow” your commands.

To avoid this grief, make sure you strip all formatting when you copy and paste the text into Word. Here’s how: Copy the text. In Word, click Edit > Paste and Match Style.

That’s all there is to it!

Using Microsoft Word, Style Your Business Document for Maximum Impact

You’ve learned how to format a document in Word to make it easier to scan and read. Good formatting is also essential to make sure the final document represents you and your business in a favorable light.

You’ve seen how doable formatting is, even if you’re starting from scratch with completely unformatted text. You’ve also discovered that you can rely on professional designers to make the formatting decisions for you by starting with a template for Word.

For unlimited downloads of print templates for Word at a fixed subscription fee, look to Envato Elements. Here, you can also have your fill of fonts, icons, photos, and other design assets you’ll need without having to pay more. Or, get your premium Word templates from GraphicRiver on a pay-per-use basis. You also get a wide range of choices without having to commit to a subscription.

With Microsoft Word styles and formatting tools, there’s no more excuse to have poorly designed business documents. Make your next business document one you’ll be proud of.

1.  Select the text you want to format.

2.  Apply the formatting.

2. Changing the font

1.  Select the text you want to apply the font to.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Single-left-click the Font drop-down list then single-left-click the font you want to use.

A sample of some popular fonts are provided below.

3. Changing the font size

To change the size of your selected text:

1.  Single-left-click the Home tab

2.  Click the Font Size drop-down list on the Font group.

3.  Choose a font size.

You can also click one of the two ‘A‘ icons, situated next to the font size drop down list.

4. Adding bold, italic or underline for emphasis

To apply emphasis to a word or phrase, bold and italic are the quickest techniques to use. Here is a comparison:

There are 3 standard icons that you will find in every Microsoft Office program.

To change the underline style:

1.  Click the drop-down arrow next to the U icon.

2.  Select the underline type that you want – single, double, thick, dotted, dashed etc.

To change the underline colour:

3.  Click Underline Color (at the bottom of the menu).

4.  Choose a colour from the palette.

5. Changing the font colour

To change the colour of your text

1.  First, select the text that you want to change the colour for.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Single-left-click the Font drop-down list in the Font group.

4.  Single-left-click a colour from the palette.

6. Striking through the text

Strikethrough puts a line through your text like this.

This is an example of text that has been struck through.

1.  Select the text.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Single-left-click the Strikethrough icon in the Font group.

7. Superscripting or subscripting text

To apply superscript:

1.  Select the text.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Single-left-click the Superscript icon in the Font group.

4.  The keyboard short cut is Ctrl Shift +.

To apply subscript:

1.  Select the text.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Single-left-click the Subscript icon in the Font group.

4.  The keyboard short cut is Ctrl Shift =.

8. Changing the case

UPPER CASE WORDS stand out on a page. Some people describe it as SHOUTING. To change the case of your text:

1.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

2.  Click the Aa icon in the  Font group.

3.  Choose from Sentence case, lower case, UPPER CASE, Capitalise Each Word and tOGGLE cASE

Sentence Case

Capitalise the first letter of the first word in the sentence.

lowercase

Make all the selected text lower case (i.e. un-capitalise everything).

UPPERCASE

CAPITALISE all selected text.

Capitalise Each Word

Capitalise the first letter of EVERY word.

tOGGLE cASE

Convert UPPER CASE letters to lower case and convert lower case letters to UPPER CASE.

10. Highlighting text

Method 1 (for a one-off highlight):

1.  Select the text you want to highlight.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Click the ab Highlight icon in the Font group (to use default yellow).

4.  If you want to choose your own highlight colour, click the drop-down arrow on the icon, then choose one of the highlight colours in the palette. Stick with the lighter colours.

Method 2 (for multiple highlights)

1.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

2.  Double-left-click the ab Highlight icon in the Font group.

3.  The regular mouse pointer will change to a highlighter icon.

4.  Select the first portion of text that you wish to highlight. The highlight is added but the highlighter tool is still active.

5.  Select as many other portions of text as you want.

6.  When you are done, press Escape or single-left-click the  the ab Highlight icon again

Reset highlighted text

1.  Select the highlighted text.

2.  Single-left-click the Home tab.

3.  Click the drop-down arrow on the ab Highlight icon in the Font group and choose No Color.

11. Creating a pretty title or heading

Here’s the process:

Here are some samples of text effects and typography:

12. Key Takeaways

13. what next?

Is this article up to date?

Мы уже неоднократно писали об инструментах для работы с текстом в MS Word, о тонкостях его оформления, изменения и редактирования. О каждой из этих функций мы рассказывали в отдельных статьях, вот только для того, чтобы сделать текст более привлекательным, удобным для чтения, понадобится большинство из них, причем, выполненных в правильном порядке.

Урок: Как добавить новый шрифт в Ворд

Именно о том, как правильно выполнить форматирование текста в документе Microsoft Word и пойдет речь в данной статье.

Выбор шрифта и типа написания текста

О том, как изменять шрифты в Ворде мы уже писали. Вероятнее всего, вы изначально набирали текст в понравившемся шрифте, выбрав подходящий размер. Более подробно о том, как работать со шрифтами, вы можете узнать в нашей статье.

Урок: Как изменить шрифт в Word

Выбрав подходящий шрифт для основного текста (заголовки и подзаголовки пока что не торопитесь изменять), пройдитесь по всему тексту. Возможно, некоторые есть фрагменты нужно выделить курсивом или полужирным шрифтом, что-то нужно подчеркнуть. Вот пример того, как может выглядеть статья на нашем сайте.

Урок: Как подчеркнуть текст в Ворде

Выделение заголовка

С вероятностью в 99,9% у статьи, которую вы хотите отформатировать, есть заголовок, и, скорее всего, подзаголовки в ней тоже имеются. Конечно же, их нужно отделить от основного текста. Сделать это можно с помощью встроенных стилей Word, а более подробно с тем, как работать с этими инструментами, вы можете ознакомиться в нашей статье.

Урок: Как сделать заголовок в Ворде

Если вы используете последнюю версию MS Word, дополнительные стили для оформления документа вы можете найти во вкладке “Дизайн” в группе с говорящим названием “Форматирование текста”.

Выравнивание текста

По умолчанию текст в документе выравнивается по левому краю. Однако, если это необходимо, вы можете изменить выравнивание всего текста или отдельно выделенного фрагмента так, как вам это необходимо, выбрав один из подходящих вариантов:

По левому краю;

По центру;

По правому краю;

По ширине.

Урок: Как выровнять текст в Ворде

Инструкция, представленная на нашем сайте, поможет вам правильно расположить текст на страницах документа. Выделенные красным прямоугольником фрагменты текста на скриншоте и связанные с ними стрелки показывают, какой стиль выравнивания выбран для данных частей документа. Остальное содержимое файла выровнено по стандарту, то есть, по левому краю.

Изменение интервалов

Расстояние между строчками в MS Word по умолчанию составляет 1,15, однако, его всегда можно изменить на большее или меньшее (шаблонное), а также вручную задать любое подходящее значение. Более подробную инструкцию касательно того, как работать с интервалами, изменять и настраивать их вы найдете в нашей статье.

Урок: Как изменить межстрочный интервал в Ворде

Помимо интервала между строками, в Word также можно изменить и расстояние между абзацами, причем, как до них, так и после. Опять-таки, вы можете выбрать шаблонное значение, которое вас устраивает, или задать собственное вручную.

Урок: Как изменить интервал между абзацами в Ворде

Примечание: Если заголовок и подзаголовки, которые имеются в вашем текстовом документе, оформлены с помощью одного из встроенных стилей, интервал определенного размера между ними и следующими абзацами задается автоматически, а зависит он от выбранного стиля оформления.

Добавление маркированных и нумерованных списков

Если в вашем документе содержатся списки, незачем нумеровать или уж тем более маркировать их вручную. В Microsoft Word для этих целей предусмотрены специальных инструменты. Они, как и средства для работы с интервалами, расположены в группе “Абзац”, вкладка “Главная”.

1. Выделите фрагмент текста, который необходимо преобразовать в маркированный или нумерованный список.

2. Нажмите одну из кнопок (“Маркеры” или “Нумерация”) на панели управления в группе “Абзац”.

3. Выделенный фрагмент текста преобразуется в красивый маркированный или нумерованный список, в зависимости от того, какой из инструментов вы выбрали.

Совет: Если развернуть меню кнопок, отвечающих за списки (для этого нужно нажать на небольшую стрелочку справа от значка), вы можете увидеть дополнительные стили оформления списков.

Урок: Как в Ворде сделать список в алфавитном порядке

Дополнительные операции

В большинстве случаев того, что мы уже описали в данной статье и остальном материале по теме форматирования текста более, чем достаточно для оформления документов на должном уровне. Если же вам этого будет мало, либо же вы просто пожелаете внести какие-то дополнительные изменения, коррективы и т. д. в документ, с большой вероятность, вам будут очень полезны следующие статьи:

Уроки по работе с Microsoft Word:
Как сделать отступы
Как сделать титульный лист
Как пронумеровать страницы
Как сделать красную строку
Как сделать автоматическое содержание
Табуляция

Совет: Если во время оформления документа, при выполнении той или иной операции по его форматированию, вы допустили ошибку, ее всегда можно исправить, то есть, отменить. Для этого просто нажмите на закругленную стрелку (направленную влево), расположенную возле кнопки “Сохранить”. Также, для отмены любого действия в Ворде, будь то форматирование текста или любая другая операция, можно использовать комбинацию клавиш “CTRL+Z”.

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На этом мы смело можем закончить. Теперь вы точно знаете, как отформатировать текст в Ворде, сделав его не просто привлекательным, а хорошо читабельным, оформленным в соответствии с выдвигаемыми требованиями.

No word processor would be complete without a way to format text, and Microsoft Word has a full set of tools that let you stylize text in your document files. Instead of having only standard fonts, you can change text to represent styles such as sub-titles, titles, section headers and other non-standard content.

Text Editing Functions

All basic text editing functions are found in the «Home» ribbon tab.

(Word text editing controls)

Notice that Word offers several stylizing features in the «Font» category in the «Home» tab. As you type content into a document, you’ll use these features and controls heavily.

The top row of font styles is the font type and the size of the characters. By default, Word opens a blank document using Calibri as the font for the body of a document. The default size is 11, but you can change this style with a simple click of the dropdown control. Alternatively, you can highlight text in your document, and then hover your mouse over the text and a list of standard font style choices will display.

When it comes to fonts in a Word document, only the fonts installed on your computer will show in the dropdown control. This is different from having fonts display in a web browser where developers pull fonts from a cloud location, so if content is meant for a website, you’ll need a way to implement the font using code or the browser will be unable to display the same font that you’ve used in your Word document.

You aren’t limited to one font size and style. If you have no content highlighted in the document, then the font changes will only take effect on new content typed into Word. If you have any content highlighted when you make these changes, Word will change the font and size of the highlighted content.

(Font style changes)

In the image above, the first line of text is the default font and size. The second line of text is a much larger size with a different style. This shows you that you can have several different font styles in a document without any restrictions. The dropdown control in the «Home» ribbon tab will show you all fonts available on your computer. Some third-party programs have their own fonts installed when you add the software to your computer. These fonts will then show in the Word font dropdown control.

(Word dropdown font control with selection options)

Adobe Reader was installed on the computer in the image above, so several Adobe fonts are available in the Word dropdown. Not every application prefaces font names with the brand, so after you install some programs, you might just notice new fonts available. You can also download fonts from the Internet or purchase them from designers to add more fonts to your computer and Word availability.

Basic Font Styles

There are three basic font styles common with every text editing program: bold, underline and italics. Word offers other styles, but these three are the most common with standard content. All three buttons are under the font dropdown control.

(Bold, Italics and Underline controls)

The first «B» button sets any text to a bold style. The second «I» button sets text to italics, and then the «U» button sets an underline style. You can highlight any text and click one of these buttons to change to the style that you want. You can also click multiple buttons and have all three styles applied to text.

When you click one of these buttons and start typing, the style takes effect until you want to go back to the original style. Click the button again to stop the style from being applied to future text. Should you change your mind and want to remove a style, highlight the text and click the button to remove the style.

Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl+B keyboard shortcut for bold. Ctrl+I will apply italics style to selected text, and Ctrl+U will underline selected content.

Subscript and Superscript

Word supports subscript and superscript styles. These styles are used mainly for either math equations or referencing content within your documentation. The two controls are to the right of the font styles explained in the previous section (bold, italics and underline).

(Subscript and superscript controls)

The two font styles can be applied the same way as the others. Highlight the text that you want to stylize and click the button. You can remove the style by clicking the button again with the text highlighted.

(Example subscript and superscript styles)

In the image above, notice that the superscript text is slightly above the «Font» text, and then the subscript text is slightly below. These two styles help you create math equations in a document or reference text similar to an academic paper references sources.

Adding a Hyperlink 

When you create web pages, it’s not uncommon to add a link to another page on a website. You can do the same with Microsoft Word, except clicking a link will open the user’s browser and bring them to the linked web page.

To add a hyperlink, you can right click the text that should have a hyperlink applied and a context menu will display.

(Font style context menu)

In the image above, notice that the «Link» selection is highlighted. Click this link option and a window opens asking for the link location.

(Hyperlink configuration window)

The «Address» input text box is where you type the URL. You can also copy and paste a URL from your browser. Notice that the window also displays local directories from your computer. You aren’t limited to just URLs on the Internet. You can also link to files on your local computer or on a network drive. If this document is sent to another user, remember that any links to external documents on your computer won’t be accessible to a third party.

Highlighting and Font Color

Microsoft Word has a highlighter function that imitates when you run a physical highlighter over text on a sheet of paper. You have your choice of several different colors and using a highlighter will make specific sentences and words stand out.

(Highlighter and font color controls)

The first button is the highlighter control. Click the arrow icon next to this button and a list of color options appear. After you choose a color, click the highlighter button. Your cursor changes its icon and displays a highlighter icon indicating that any actions that you take will highlight text rather than prompt you to start typing.

Text highlighted with the tool will display a different background than the one in the document.

(Highlighted text)

The image above shows what text looks like when the highlighter tool has been used.

The default font color is black. Whenever you create a blank Word document, font color is black until you change it. Just like any other text in your document, you can change parts of it to be a different color. Any text selected can have its color changed using the font color tool.

Just like the highlighter tool, click the arrow to the right of the button and several color options are displayed. These color choices aren’t the only ones available. Click the «More Colors» option and another window opens where you can choose a custom color based on a more granular color palette.

(Custom color choices)

The above image shows the color palette range. Just click somewhere on the palette and the color code will be automatically filled. Click «OK» when you choose your color, and any text highlighted will have its color changed. If you change the color with no text selected, the new color will take effect as you type your text.

These text changes are common when you create long documents. Even with small documents and notes, you’ll use these text edits to customize the way it displays on your screen or when you print it to hardcopy. Text editing tools are one of the most common features available in Word.

Selecting Text

Now that we’ve gone over the more exciting features of what word 2019 can do to enhance your text, let’s buckle down and get to the actual basics of how to enter and edit text.

The first step in editing text that appears on the screen in Word is to learn how to select it for editing. You can always click within a document to move the cursor to change text, or use Backspace and Delete to remove text.   However, this can be time consuming.   What if you want to remove a whole chunk of text?   Or what if you want to move one paragraph to another location?   Well, by selecting text, you can delete or move entire paragraphs or pages. You can also format your document. You can change the font size, color, style, or any number of other things.    Being able to select text in Word is mandatory, even for the absolute beginner. 

Whenever you select text in Word, the text appears highlighted, as shown below.

Selecting text is easy and done in three easy steps.

1. Move the cursor to the beginning of the text that you want to select. 
2. Click and hold in the left button on your mouse. 
3. Drag it over the text you want to select. It will highlight the selected text, as shown above. Simply release the mouse button when you are finished selecting text.

If you want to select the entire document, simply click on the Home tab and click Select on the far right in the Editing group.

Click the downward arrow beside Select and choose Select All.

This will highlight all your text for formatting. Also note that you can select objects or text with similar formatting as your selected text when clicking on ‘Select.’

Once you’ve selected text, there are several things that you can do with it.   Naturally, you can select text to format it. Perhaps you want to change the font type or size.   We’ll cover how to do that later. 

However, you can also cut selected text from a document as a way to either delete it from one location, then paste it elsewhere in the same or different document.  

If you’d like to remove text from one location in the document to paste into another location, use the Cut command.

For example, below is an excerpt of the biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Let’s say we want to reverse the two paragraphs.   In other words, we want the second paragraph to be the first paragraph.

We will use the Cut feature in Word to accomplish this.

1.  Select the text or object to be cut and copied. We’ve selected the second paragraph. 

2.    Click the Cut icon  in the Clipboard group under the Home tab. As you can see below, the paragraph is now cut from the document. 

3.   Now, click on the area in the document where you want to «paste» the text that you just cut. Using our example, it’s before the first paragraph. Once you see the cursor, go to the Ribbon. Under the Home tab, click Paste in the Clipboard group. 

Delete and Cut should not be used interchangeably. When you cut an object, it is copied to the Clipboard. When you delete an object, it is simply removed from the document and the only way to restore it is by clicking the Undo Typing button. To delete text, select the text, then click Delete on your keyboard.

Copying Text

Once you select text, you can also copy it. Copying text means you copy the text you’ve selected, then you can paste it somewhere else in the document – or in another document.   When you copy text, the text you’ve copied remains in the document. 

There are three ways to copy text and objects to the clipboard.

1.  Select the text or object to be copied and click the copy icon  in the Clipboard group under the Home tab.

2.  Select the text or object to be copied, position the mouse pointer over it and right click. Then select Copy from the menu.

3.  Select text or object to be copied and hit CTRL + C.

The Clipboard

Whenever you copy anything in Word, it is automatically sent to the Clipboard. The Clipboard does just as its name implies. It holds the text that you copy and paste for you to use. The Clipboard and its associated tools can be found on the Home tab at the far left end of the ribbon. The Clipboard group looks like this:   

Click the arrow at the bottom of the Clipboard group to see its contents.

The clipboard will open as a long window to the left of your document. It can only hold 24 objects. When a 25th object is added, the first copied item is removed. To empty the Clipboard, click the Clear All button at the top of the Clipboard menu.

You can remove individual items from the clipboard by moving the mouse pointer over the item, then clicking the arrow button that appears to the right of the object. In the dropdown menu, select Delete.

       

Paste

The Paste command allows you to copy an object from one location in the document to another, or from another Office Program into Word. You can use the Cut or Copy feature to move an item to the clipboard, then use Paste to place it elsewhere into a document. We’ve already covered Paste briefly earlier in this course.

There are three ways to Paste text or an object into a document:

1.  Move the cursor to the point in your document where you want to place the item and click the Paste icon. It looks like this:

2.  Move the mouse pointer to the place you wish to insert the item and click the right mouse button. Select one of the paste options from the dropdown menu. We’ll discuss the options in just a minute. 

3.  Move the cursor to the point in your document where you wish to place the item and press CTRL + V.

Ordinarily, Word pastes the most recently copied item. To paste an object that was copied earlier, position the cursor at the point in your document you wish to paste the item, then open the clipboard and click the item you wish to paste. You can also move the mouse pointer over the item to be pasted, and click the arrow that appears to the right of that item.   Then select a paste option.

Paste Options is what you see when you right click your mouse to paste into a document. See below.

You also see Paste Options when you click the downward arrow below Paste on the Ribbon.

Paste Options allows you to specify the method of pasting that you want to use.   This will be important if you want to keep or remove formatting for the selected text. 

Let’s explain what we mean.   This course is typed using Calibri font.   Let’s say for example, that we want to paste a paragraph of this lesson into another lesson with a different font size, or into another document with a different font. Word gives us the option of preserving formatting, making the formatting match the area of the document where we paste our text, or pasting text only and not any images that we cut or copied.

Again, Paste Options only appears when you right click your mouse to paste – unless you select your Paste option from the Ribbon.   Once you’ve copied or cut selected text, then right click, you’ll see this:

These are your paste options:

Paste using original formatting of pasted text.

Merge formatting. Paste using the formatting of the majority of the text in the document. 

 Allows you paste text only. Any graphics or images will not be pasted, only text.

 Paste using the formatting of the destination text, or the text where you paste into.

 Paste a Picture.

Inserting Text

You can insert text anywhere in a document simply by moving the cursor to the desired location and typing. 

Word automatically moves all text to the right of the cursor over as you type. However, if you’d rather replace the text as you type, Word gives you two options:

1. Select the text you’d like to replace and start typing. This deletes the highlighted text and positions the cursor in its place.
2. Use Overtype Mode. To turn on overtype mode, click on the File tab, then select Options.

You will then see this dialogue box.

Click on Advanced in the left column.

Put a Checkmark beside «Use the Insert key to control overtype mode» or the «Use overtype mode» box.

If you select the «Use the Insert key to control overtype mode» box, you can toggle overtype mode on or off by pressing the Insert key. 

If you select only «Use overtype mode» you must manually turn it off by deselecting it.

AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect automatically corrects some errors you make. For example, by default, Microsoft Word will start the first letter of every new paragraph with a capital letter.   It also may recognize certain words and make corrections for you without ever having to use Spell. However, you can customize AutoCorrect to find and correct certain errors — or to leave certain «errors» alone. 

To customize AutoCorrect, click on the File tab, then click Options on the left. 

Click Proofing in the column on the left.   

Next, click the AutoCorrect Options button. The screen you will see will look like the one below.

Click on the AutoCorrect options button, and you can specify words or even math that you want Word to correct as you type. 

As you can see, by default, Word will automatically turn: (into a smiley face emoticon: J. It will also create a trademark symbol ™.   These are default corrections that Word makes for you. You can add your own too. 

To add your own, type in what word or symbols you will enter in that you want Word to automatically correct. We’re going to type «Universal Class» and have it replaced by «Universal.» We’re doing this to have uniformity in our documents. Click the Add button when you’re finished.

Now, let’s click the Math AutoCorrect tab in the dialogue box.

We’ll talk about mathematics later in this course. However, you can set AutoCorrect for mathematics just as you would with text.

Undo and Redo    

But let’s say you accidently delete something or deleted it and then decided that you want it back.   You grit your teeth and start to grumble, trying to remember the exact wording. It’s a lost cause, right? Wrong. The makers of Word anticipated this problem and supplied an easy solution. The Undo button!  

The Undo button is on the Quick Access Toolbar. It looks like this: . You can click the downward arrow beside the Undo button to determine how many steps backward you want to take with your undo.

If you scroll down the list above to the bottom to AutoFormat, everything above AutoFormat will be undone too. You can undo up to 100 actions. 

The Redo button is to the right of the Undo button.  It looks like this: . The redo button allows you redo an action that you just undid or to repeat the last action. If Word cannot redo the last action, the button will be faded.

Hyphenation

Word can hyphenate words at the end of lines for you, or you can choose to do it yourself. By default, hyphenation is turned off, which means Word won’t hyphenate words that are at the end of a line. Instead, it will just move the word to the next line.  

To use the hyphenation feature in Word, click on the Layout tab, then go to the Page Setup group on the ribbon. You’ll see Hyphenation, as shown below.

If you click the downward arrow beside Hyphenation, you’ll see that None is selected. This means no hyphenation (default.) 

If you want Word to hyphenate words for you, select Automatic.   This means that Word will hyphenate words that appear at the end of a line rather than moving it down to the next line to keep your text within the margins. Word will use its settings to decide how to hyphenate words.   Just keep in mind, it does NOT mean Word will hyphenate words such as ‘how-to.’ It won’t.

You can also select Manual. This box will pop up and ask you to specify how you want words hyphenated. Word will search your text for words that can be hyphenated and ask you how you wanted hyphenated.   See the snapshot below:

You can also set options to tell Word the maximum amount of space to allow between the word and the right margin. This is called the Hyphenation Zone. To set the amount of space yourself, go to Hyphenation, click the downward arrow, then click on Hyphenation Options.   

In this window, you can also select to automatically hyphenate the entire document, hyphenate words that are in CAPS, and manually set hyphens as we just learned to do. 

If you’re looking to add a little bit of pizzazz or graphic design elements to your Word document, you can easily create diagonal text using the text box and WordArt options. In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to make diagonal text in Word.

One of the easiest ways to make diagonal text in Word is with a text box. To do so, you need to make a text box first!

Switch to the “Insert” menu.

Click the “Text Box” button.

Your text box will now appear in Word. You can double-click the text box to type any text you’d like.

To adjust the angle of your text box, click anywhere in the box. You’ll see a semicircular “Rotate” arrow at the top of the box.

Click and hold the arrow, and then drag to rotate your text box in whichever direction you’d like.

Presto! Diagonal text.

How to Make Diagonal Text in Word with WordArt

If you want your text to be even fancier, you can use WordArt! WordArt allows you to insert stylish text AND make it diagonal.

Switch to the “Insert” menu.

Click the “WordArt” button.

Select the style of text you’d like to insert. The menu shows how the text will appear in your document.

Insert your WordArt of choice. Then, click and hold on the semicircular arrow at the top of the box.

Rotate away in whatever direction you’d like.

Now you have beautiful, diagonal text!

Rotate to a Specific Angle

Have a text box or WordArt that you need to rotate to a specific angle? No problem; Word can do that, too.

Start by selecting the text box or WordArt object in your document.

On the Drawing Tools > Format menu, click the “Rotate” button and then click “More Rotation Options” on the drop-down menu.

The Layout window that opens should default to the “Size” tab. Set the “Rotation” value to whatever degree of clockwise rotation you want (you can use negative numbers to rotate counterclockwise) and then click “OK.”

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Certain types of documents, like flyers or newsletters, might need special formatting when they are created. If text in that document needs to be displayed in a manner other than horizontal, you may need to know how to write vertically in Word 2013. It’s an option that is found relatively easily in some other Microsoft Office products, but you may be having trouble finding it in Word.

While normal text that is inserted into your document can not be written vertically, you can write vertically in Word 2013 with the assistance of a text box. A text box in Microsoft Word exists on a level above the actual document and can be manipulated separately from the main document body. So continue below to see two ways that you can write vertically in Word by taking advantage of text boxes.

1. Open the document.
2. Click Insert.
3. Choose Text Box, then Simple Text Box.
4. Select Text Direction, then Rotate all Text 90 or Rotate all Text 270.
5. Type the text to display vertically.

Our guide continues below with additional information on writing vertically in Microsoft Word, including pictures of these steps.

How to Make Vertical Text in Word 2013 (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this guide will show you how to write vertically in Word. This guide was written specifically for the Word 2013 version of the program, but the same concept will work in other versions as well.

Step 1: Open your document in Word 2013.

Step 2: Click the Insert tab at the top of the window.

If the vertical text is going in a specific location of an existing document then you might want to click at that spot in the document before continuing with these steps.

Step 3: Click the Text Box button in the Text section of the ribbon, then click the Simple Text Box option.

You can use one of the other text box options, however, if you would prefer.

Step 4: Click the Text Direction button in the Text section of the ribbon, then click the Rotate all text 90 or Rotate all text 270 option, depending upon the direction that you would like your vertical text to go.

The Rotate all text 90 option has your text going from the top of the text box to the bottom, while the Rotate all text 270 option has the text going from the bottom of the text box to the top.

If this isn’t creating the desired result, or if you would prefer to use another option, then the next section shows an additional way to type vertically in Word.

Alternate Method – How to Rotate Text in Word 2013

If you want to write vertically in Word 2013 without rotating your text, however, then you will need to use a very thin text box that you manually resize. Once a text box gets thin enough, the letters in your text will be forced onto separate lines. You can do this by typing your text into a normal text box, then clicking and dragging the right border of the text box to the left.

Once you make the text box thin enough, the text will start splitting into additional rows, with one letter on each row.

This can look pretty odd depending on what you are typing and which font options you have chosen, so you may need to select all of the text in the text box and adjust various formatting options to make it look better.

Does your document need to be single-spaced, but you are having difficulty getting that setting to work properly? Find out how to single space in Word 2013 by changing some style settings that you can even set as default options.

Why Would I Want to Write Vertically in Microsoft Word?

Many users that create a Word document will do so infrequently for school assignments, or for something at work. For many of these users Microsoft Word is thought of more as a text editor than anything else.

But there are a ton of Format options on the Format tab of the application, and you can add a number of useful objects from the Insert tab where we showed how to insert a text box. For example, you might want to adjust the text alignment of a sentence or phrase and make it appear at the center of the page, such as when you create a title page.

The Layout tab, or Page Layout tab, also lets you dramatically change the appearance of your document and the positioning of the objects within that document.

All of these different tabs have assorted ways to change your text or add a shape or item to the document, and even more options can be found among the dialog box menus that appear when you click the small buttons at the bottom-right corner or many of the sections of these ribbon tabs.

This combination of menu options and tools generates an impressive assortment of ways to create more visual documents like newsletters or flyers. Microsoft Word is quite advanced as you start exploring its features and can be used in many more ways than it might initially seem possible.

More Information on How to Write Vertically in Word

Before you elect to use vertical text in your Word doc, it’s best to make sure that you are creating this document for a school or organization that has strict formatting restrictions. Most of those formatting restrictions will not allow things like vertical text, so it’s best to ensure that its usage is approved before changing content in the document.

In the tutorial above I recommend selecting the “Simple Text Box” option, but this is more a habit of mine than something that is required. You can choose from most of the other text box options and achieve the desired result.

If you don’t want to enter your text vertically, but instead want it to be at an angle, or you want to write diagonally, then you can select the Rotate option in the Arrange section of the ribbon. You will find some default rotation options there, as well as a “More Rotation Options” item that allows you to choose the specific angle of the rotation, which allows for custom rotation options like 45 degrees and other non-90 degree options.

If you choose the “Text Direction” option to write vertically then you will see the text immediately in the desired orientation. If you choose the “Rotate” method for writing vertical text then you will need to click out of the text box before you can see what it will look like on your document page.

Additional Reading

One way to change the appearance of text in a document is by changing its font type. A font is a set of letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols designed around a shared appearance. A font will have variations for size and styles, such as bold and italics.

Change the Font

Changing a font itself will have the greatest effect on the appearance of text.

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click the Font list arrow on the Home tab.

You can also click the Font list arrow on the Mini Toolbar that appears when text is selected.

3. Select a new font from the list.

The text is now set in the selected font.

When changing fonts, be sure to choose the right font for the tone of your document. Don’t use casual script fonts in a professional document, and also avoid using too many fonts at once.

Change the Font Size

Changing the font size helps differentiate between titles, headers, and body text.

1. Select the text.
2. Click the Font Size list arrow on the Home tab.
3. Select a font size.

The font size changes.

Click the Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size buttons to increase or decrease by one point at a time.

Font size is measured in points (pt) that are 1/72 of an inch. The larger the number of points, the larger the font.

Change the Font Color

You may need to change font color to make text stand out, comply with brand standards, or add visual appeal.

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click the Font Color list arrow.

   You can also click the Font Color list arrow on the Mini Toolbar.

3. Select a new color.

   If you don’t like any of the available theme colors, select More Colors to display the Colors dialog box.

   

Apply Bold, Italic, or an Underline

In addition to changing font type, size, and color, you can also enhance the text further by using other features in the Font group like bold, italic, or underline.

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Select Bold, Italics, or Underline.

   Shortcuts:

   • To bold: Ctrl + B
   • To italicize: Ctrl + I
   • To underline: Ctrl + U

   

The effect is applied.

Change the Case

If you want to change the case of a block of text, you don’t need to retype the whole thing. You can easily change the case of selected text with the Change Case menu.

1. With the text selected, click the Change Case button.
2. Select a case option:
   • Sentence case
   • lowercase
   • UPPERCASE
   • Capitalize Each Word
   • tOGGLE cASE

   

Clear Formatting

If you change your mind and want to remove all formatting from text, you can easily clear all formatting at once.

1. With the text selected, click Clear All Formatting.

The extra formatting is removed, and the text is reset to the default style.

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