Quick Start: Type and format text

Whether you start your document from a blank page or a template, you add content of your own by typing text and formatting it. You can apply formatting to whole paragraphs, as well as to particular words or phrases, to make them stand out.

How?

Type your text. The positioning and font of the text depends on the settings of the template you are using. Even a blank document has settings for how the text looks. By default, Word Starter displays text in a blank document in the Calibri, 11-point font. Paragraphs are aligned on the left, with a blank line between paragraphs.

To make the document easier to read quickly, try adding headings that label where you're switching to a new topic. Type the heading, and press ENTER. Click anywhere in the heading you just typed, and then in the Styles group on the Home tab, point to (but don't click) Heading 1. Word Starter shows you a preview of what your heading would look like if you clicked Heading 1. Click the More down-arrow next to the style gallery, and point to the various styles. Notice that the styles called Heading, Title, Subtitle, Quote, Intense Quote, and List Paragraph affect the whole paragraph, while the other styles affect only the word where your cursor is positioned. Styles are predefined formats, designed to work together to give your document a polished look. Click to apply a style you like.

To supplement the formatting you can do with the gallery of styles, you can select the text you want to format, and then choose a command from the Font group of the Home tab. You have many choices here, including: Bold Italics Underline Strikethrough Subscript Superscript Color Size

Next steps

Text formatting commands and the gallery of styles give you many options for giving your document a polished, cohesive look. You can also update the color and font scheme all at once by applying a theme. To learn how, see Apply themes to Word documents.

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