Manipulating Text

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Manipulating Text

In this section, you will learn about various functions that can be used to manipulate the text in your document.

In the document window, enter the text: "Computers in Education"

Next, select the text by clicking and dragging your pointer across it.

TIP: You can also select text by placing the cursor before the first letter of the text to be selected. You can do this by moving your pointer there and clicking once. Next move your pointer (no dragging - the mouse button should be released) to the end of the text to be selected. Hold down the "shift" button on your keyboard and click once.

Next, you are going to make several copies of this text.

With the text selected, go to the Edit menu
Select Copy. This stores a copy of the text in a storage area called a "clipboard."
Click at the end of the text to de-selected it
Move the cursor down one line by pressing enter. Here, you want to insert the text.
Go to the Edit menu again and select Paste. A copy of the text should be inserted.
Insert another line of text in the line below the last insertion. This time, use a shortcut. Under the Edit menu, the Paste command appears as follows:

The text to the right "Ctrl+V" is called a shortcut. Instead of going to the Edit menu, hold down the "Ctrl" button and click "V" to insert the text again. There are shortcuts for many of the commands listed in the menus. Another shortcut can be found in the "Standard" toolbar where the following command buttons appear:

Three buttons are displayed here. In order, these are the commands "Cut," "Copy," and "Paste."

Insert the text again, but use the paste command button this time. Repeat inserting the text so that it appears six times. Each on a different row. Your document should look like this:

Computers in Education
Computers in Education
Computers in Education
Computers in Education
Computers in Education
Computers in Education

The Cut command is different from the Copy command in that it removes the selected text from the document and inserts it into the clipboard space for pasting, whereas the Copy command leaves the selected text as is and copies the text into the clipboard. The Cut command is one way to move text around in your document. Another way is to select the text you want moved, then drag and drop it to your desired location. To drag the selected text, move the pointer on top of the selection, then click and hold your mouse button while you move the pointer (and the text) to the new location.

Format Font

Next, you will change the appearance of each of the six lines in your document by formatting the font. You will also change the case of the text.

Line 1

Select the first line of the "Computers in Education" text
Go to the Format menu and select Font...

You will see the following window:

In the above format font window, change the settings for the first line in your document as follows:

change the font to "Courier New" (where Times New Roman is showing above)
change the font style from "Regular" to "Bold"
change the font size to "14"
set the underline style from "(none)" to "Dot dot dash"
change the colour from "Auto" to "Red"
leave all the effects options unchecked
Click OK

The first line of your text should change to these settings. Next, you are going to change the second line of text.

Line 2

Select this text
Go to the Format window and click Font.
This time, click on the Character Spacing tab. You should see the following:

Change the settings as follows:

change the scale from "100%" to "200%"
change the spacing from "normal" to "expanded" and in the "By" field, enter "4 pt"
change the position from "normal" to "lowered" and in the "By field, enter "3 pt"
leave the "kerning for fonts" box unchecked.
Click OK

Line 3

For the third line, select the text, go to the Format menu, click on Fonts, then click on the Animation tab. You should see the following window:

Change the animation setting for line three from "(none)" to "Sparkle Text" and click OK. If this animation is not available in your window, choose an alternate animation setting.

Line 4

Next, select the fourth line, view the "Formatting" toolbar, then click on the down arrow next to the "highlight" button, so you can view the colour options. This drop-down menu will look as follows:

Select a colour of your choice by moving your pointer on top of it, then click to highlight the text.

Line 5

For the fifth line, you will change the text to all uppercase without having to retype it. This can be done in two ways:

1) Go to the "Format" menu, select "Font," choose the "Font" tab, and put a checkmark next to the "All Caps" option, or

2) Go to the "Format" menu (shown earlier on this webpage) and select "Change Case" to get the following window:

The default selection is "UPPERCASE" as shown above, so you do not have to change the selection. Click OK to change the fifth line to all caps.

Line 6

For the sixth line, you will select only the words "in Education" and then raise it. Go to the "Format" menu, select "Font," then go again to the "Font" tab. Under the "Effects" section, put a checkmark next to "Superscript" and click OK. This feature can be very helpful for writing mathematical notation, such as E=MC².

The six lines in your document should appear as follows (note that the animation for the third line shows up without motion when viewed on the web):

Go to the File menu and click "Save" to save these changes to your word document, then continue to the next section on Borders and Shading.