Editing

Moving and Copying Text by Dragging

Move and copy text by dragging when you can see by the start and goal locations at one time on the screen. Click here for instructions on moving and copying text using the Clipboard.

1. Select the text.
2. Place the mouse cursor over the selected text.
3. Press and hold down the left mouse button as you move the mouse to the
4. desired location. This is called dragging.
5. Release the mouse when the vertical cursor is where you want

To copy the text, following the same procedure except press the Ctrl key (PC)/Option key (Mac) as you drag.

Finding Text

Choose Edit > Find.

1. On the Find tab, type the text you wish to find in the Find What text box.
2. To be more specific, click More. In the new area, specify the criteria you want to use. For example, if you are looking for the word and, but don't want to find sand, check Find Whole Words Only. To find HELP but not help, check Match Case.
3. Click Find Next. Word highlights the first match.
4. Continue to click Find Next to find the next time the word appears until you find what you want.
5. Click Close when you're done.

Replacing Text

Choose Edit > Replace.

1. On the Replace tab, type the text you wish to find in the Find What text box.
2. Type the text you want to replace the found text with in the Replace With text box.
3. To be more specific, click More. In the new area, specify the criteria you want to use. For example, if you are looking for the word and, but don't want to find sand, check Find Whole Words Only. To find HELP but not help, check Match Case.
4. To specify the formatting of the text you want to find (and replace), click in the Find What box and choose Format, one of the suboptions (such as Font), and specify the format. For example, if you only want to find text with the Arial or Helvetica font, you can specify that here.
5. To specify the formatting of the text you want to replace the found text, click in the Replace With box and choose Format, one of the suboptions (such as Font), and specify the format. For example, if you want to change certain text to the Arial or Helvetica font, you can specify that here.
6. In both the Find What and the Replace With boxes, you can use the Special drop-down box to specify certain symbols that you can't type on the keyboard. For example, you could use this feature to replace en dashes with em dashes or replace two paragraph marks (pressing Enter/Return twice) with one paragraph mark (pressing Enter/Return once).
7. Click Find Next. Word highlights the first match.
8. Click Replace to replace the highlighted text. Click Replace All to replace every occurence of the text.
9. Click Close when you're done.

Checking Spelling and Grammar

Word underlines misspelled words in red and grammar mistakes in green. To correct an error:

1. Move the mouse cursor over the error.
2. Click the right mouse button (PC)/press Ctrl and click (Mac).
3. Choose from the menu suggestions to correct the error. To ignore the error, choose Ignore All or Ignore Sentence. To add the word to the custom dictionary, click Add. Use this feature to add commonly used proper names so they don't appear as misspelled any more.

Using the Thesaurus

The thesaurus replaces a word with one that is more suitable.

1. Select the word you wish to replace.
2. Choose Tools > Language > Thesaurus.
3. Choose the word you want to use instead and click Replace.

Using AutoCorrect to Correct Mistakes

Word automatically corrects hundreds of common typing, spelling, and grammar errors. You can add your own entries to automatically correct words you often mispell.

1. Choose Tools > AutoCorrect.
2. In the Replace text box, type the way you usually mispell the word.
3. In the With text box, type the correct spelling.
4. Click Add
5. Click OK

Tip: You can use AutoCorrect to speed up typing long phrases and difficult words. Let's say you want a shortcut for typing Maharishi University of Management. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, type m.u.m. in the Replace text box and type Maharishi University of Management in the With text box. Click Add, then OK. Just be careful not to use a shortcut that you might use for another purpose.

Inserting Symbols

To insert special symbols not on the keyboard, choose Insert > Symbol.

1. Select the font from the Font drop-down list. Some fonts have fun symbols, such as Wingdings and Monotype Sorts. Use (normal text) for most uses.
2. Click a symbol to see it enlarged.
3. Choose Insert to insert the symbol.
4. If you use the symbol often, click Shortcut Key and define a keyboard shortcut by pressing the actual keyboard combination you want to use. Be careful not to use commonly used shortcuts. Word tells you if a shortcut is currently assigned.
5. Choose Assign, then Close.
6. Close the Symbol dialog box by choosing Insert or Cancel.