My Teacher Center Course this week focused on Microsoft Word 2010. My district upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and I have offered this course (or slightly different versions of it) a few times this year. I use this page on my website as our starting point and then have a list of skills in a Google Doc. During the course we go through the list of skills, practicing them hands-on.
While I don't want to spend too much time talking about Google Docs, I must admit using it for this course left me frustrated. I love the fact that I can link the skills doc to my Word page and update the doc so visitors always have the latest info, however, I'm frustrated with my inability to make a Google Doc "pretty". Maybe its simply because the course itself is about Word 2010, which enables you to easily make professional and appealing documents but Google Docs just doesn't seem to have the same ability, especially when printing!
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| 2nd & 3rd level bullets didn't print making this difficult to read! |
Now I know what you are going to say....Google Docs isn't intended for online viewing but in this case the participants needed the printed copy to read and take notes on while having Word open in front of them. (When trying to learn a new software, constantly flipping between multiple programs on screen can be difficult - even for savvy users!) When I printed the Google Doc, none of my pictures printed (even though they appear in the print preview) and all second and third level bullets didn't print (see picture). If you know how to help me overcome these obstacles I will forever be in your debt!
Anyway - Here are some of my favorite "tips" and features for using Word 2010:
- Templates - found Backstage (File - New) the variety and flexibility of the templates available are amazing! My district used to buy and support a separate software program simply to make things like banners, brochures, sign etc. The software was expensive and difficult to use, now I just show teachers the templates and immediately lose their attention for the remainder of the course!
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| Show/Hide Icon in Word |
- Show/Hide - found on the Home Ribbon - Paragraph Group. The icon looks like the paragraph symbol. Turning this feature on will show you all the keystrokes in a document. Not sure how this is useful? Have you ever gotten an email or document shared with you and it has a blank page at the end? Chance are - enters or other characters unseen are at the bottom of the document. Show/Hide will let you see them so you can remove them. Its also helpful when trying to format a document. You'll be able to see why the picture or text isn't really centered even though you've indicated to center it. Keep in mind these characters don't print even when you see them on screen! Simply click the icon again to turn if off and hide the characters. Here's what the characters mean:
- Dot = a space
- Arrows = tab
- Paragraph symbol = enter/return
- Format Painter - found on the Home Ribbon - Clipboard Group. The icon looks like a paint brush and allows you to copy and paste formatting. Think of the times you applied a font, size, color and other formatting to some text and then tried to apply the same formatting to different text but couldn't remember exactly what shade of blue you used or what size font. Format Painter saves you time and frustration (it works great with bullets or number lists too).
- Simply select what you would like to copy the formatting of, click on the icon once and then select what you would like to copy the formatting to. If you want to copy the formatting to multiple things double click on the icon (just remember to click on it again to turn it off when done).
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| Test Effects Icon |
- Word Art - Are you wondering where the old styles of Word Art went? Insert Word Art by first selecting the letter style (Insert Ribbon - Text Group). Type your text and then go to Text Effects - Transform (Drawing Tools Ribbon - Word Art Styles Group).
