Learn about the Insert, Format & Font Menu items in Microsoft Word

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MS Word Menu Items
Using the Insert, Format, and Font menus
Macintosh version

The most commonly used items from the Insert, Format, and Font menus will be explained. A quiz will follow.

Insert menu

Page Break - Use this command to send your cursor to the top of the next page even though the text does not extend to the bottom of the previous page

Table - Create a table around selected text. If no text is selected you will be asked to choose the number of rows and columns needed in your table.

Footnote - Place a footnote at the bottom of the page or the end of the document.

Date and Time - Choose from seventeen formats for displaying date, time, or date and time.

Symbol - Insert a symbol from each of your symbol fonts, or any standard font which includes symbols. There are more than you might think!

Bullet - Place a bullet. New bullets are added following carriage returns. Want to change the bullets? Wait for the next menu.

Text Box (Frame) - Use this to place captions near tables or drawings, or to set off text at the beginning of a page. Click and draw the box after making this selection.

File - Insert a saved document into the active document at the cursor.

Picture - Insert pictures from clip art or a file. You can also insert auto shapes, word art, or a chart.

Drop Cap - Make the first letter of a paragraph or chapter large enough to span several lines.

Object - Insert an object such as clip art, word art, an equation or much more.

Hyperlink - An interesting use of hyperlinks is to place a link to any document stored on your computer. You can later open that document by clicking on the link. Neat?

Format menu

Character - Change font style, size, color and a large number of other features. You can also change the spacing between letters here.

Paragraph - Indent a paragraph using either margin or place some chosen amount of space before or after the paragraph.

Document - If you need to change page margins, or the size of the header or footer, do it from this sub-menu.

Bullets and Numbering - As promised in the Insert menu, if you wish to change the bullet, it can be done here. Your bullets can be literally any symbol you wish them to be

Border - Create borders around blocks of text, or around the entire document. On the Page Border tab, under the Art pull down menu you can find a huge selection of graphic borders; hearts, stars, planets and much more.

Style - If you prefer not to use the Formatting toolbar, document style can be changed here.

Background - Another task which can be handled in the Formatting toolbar, you can choose the color to highlight selected text in your document.

Change Case - DO YOU EVER FORGET THE CAPS LOCK? If so, some to this sub-menu and change the case of the highlighted text. This is a cool feature!

Bold, Italic, Underline - Format selected text; Bold, Italic, or Underlined.

Object - Make changes to any selected object; image, word art, auto shape or any other object inserted into the document.

Font menu

Go to the Font menu to select a new font, or change highlighted text to a new font. One convenient feature of this menu is that the name of the font is displayed in that font. This is to help you make your selection.

Caution: The number of fonts available on your computer can slow the speed with this an application opens. Any application which allows the use of text (quick-name one that does not) must build a list of those fonts as it is launched. Too many fonts will slow your computer down. Unused fonts should be removed. However, you must be sure that the font you remove is not one which is required by an application. Adobe Acrobat Reader is an example of an application that requires certain fonts.

This quiz is available on a page without the tables above

In the Table below, select which menu you would use to perform the stated action.

1.	You want to call attention to a list of items in a document by making a bulleted list. Which menu do you select?	*
2.	The bullets you placed in #1 are too plain, you want to change them. Which menu do you select?	*
3.	For Valentine's Day you want to place a border of hearts around a page. Which menu do you select?	*
4.	On a letter to parents you want to include the date and time. Which menu do you select?	*
5.	You want to print a unit plan. One section covers only half of a page, but you want it on a page by itself. Which menu do you select?	*
6.	A word in the title of a sign does not look right and you want to change the spacing between the letters. Which menu do you select?	*
7.	You want to insert the © sign in your document. Which menu do you select?	*
8.	To make a document fit on one page you need to adjust the page margins. Which menu do you select?	*
9.	You want to change the font on a document to Helvetica. Which menu do you select?	*
10.	YOU DID NOT NOTICE...(Oops) caps lock was on and you want to change the case of those all-caps words. Which menu do you select?	*

Go to Using Word menu items, part 3
Go back to Using Microsoft Word to Produce Classroom Documents

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