LAUNCHING MS WORD 2010

What is the first thing to do if you wish to use MS Word? You got it right – you need to launch it first.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to launch Word and also how to exit from it.

Task-1: Launching Word

Launch Word using --

• Windows All Programs Menu
• Windows Start Menu
• Word icon on desktop
• Word icon on Windows Taskbar
• An existing document

Step-by-Step Instructions

Method-1: Using Windows All Programs Menu

1. Locate and click the Windows ‘Start’ button on the left side of Windows ‘Taskbar’, which is a horizontal bar spanning the width of your computer’s screen right at its bottom. The button has the familiar Windows logo on it. The Windows ‘Start’ menu will pop up. 
2. Click ‘All Programs’ at the bottom of ‘Start’ menu to pop the ‘All Programs’ menu. All programs installed on your computer appear in this Menu in an alphabetical order. If you have installed only Word 2010, you will see its name along with the icon in ‘All Programs’ menu. However, if you have installed it as part of the MS Office 2010 package, look for a folder titled ‘Microsoft Office’. 
3. Click ‘Microsoft Office’ folder to reveal all programs of the package.
4. Click on ‘Microsoft Word 2010’. Word programme window will open on your screen.

Method-2: Using Windows Start Menu

1. Click the Windows ‘Start’ button and check if Word icon is there in the ‘Start Menu’.
2. If ‘Start Menu’ does not show the Word 2010 icon, right click ‘Microsoft Word 2010’ in ‘All Programs Menu’ and click ‘Pin to Start Menu’ in the popup context menu. Word icon will now appear on Start Menu and will always remain there.
3. Click Word icon in Start menu to start Word.

Method-3: Using Word Icon On Windows Desktop

1. If Word icon is visible on the Windows desktop, just double click it to start Word.
2. If you do not see the Word icon on the desktop, click the Windows ‘Start’ button and find the ‘Microsoft Word 2010’ in ‘All Programs’ menu and right click it. A popup menu will appear.
3. Move the mouse pointer to ‘Send to’. A secondary menu will open.
4. Select ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’ from this menu. You will find that a Word icon with an upward pointing arrow (which signifies that it is a shortcut) has appeared on the desktop.
5. Double click this shortcut to launch Word.

REMEMBER!

• When you click the right button of the mouse, a popup menu appears at the location of the mouse pointer.  This is known as the Context Menu. The options on this menu change depending on the location of the pointer.
• You will notice that the menu option ‘Send to’ mentioned in step 2 shows a small triangle on the right hand side. This triangle signifies that there is a secondary menu attached to the ‘Send to’ option which opens up when the mouse pointer hovers over it. You will find this triangle on many menu entries in Word and in each case pointing the mouse pointer to the entry bearing the triangle will open up a secondary menu.

Method-4: Using Word Icon On Task Bar

1. Click the Windows ‘Start’ button, find the ‘Microsoft Word 2010’ in ‘All Programs’ menu and right click it.
2. If you are using Windows 7, you will find the option ‘Pin to Taskbar’ on the menu while in Windows Vista you will see ‘Add to Quick Launch’. Click the option. Word icon will now appear on Taskbar.
3. In case of Windows XP, however, a slightly different procedure needs to be followed as the ‘Add to Quick Launch’ entry is not there on the context menu. Check if there are any icons on the taskbar just next to the Start button. If there are none, right click the task bar and point to ‘Toolbars’ option and a secondary menu will show up. Click the ‘Quick Launch’ entry. Now you will see some icons next to the Start button. This is the Quick Launch toolbar.
4. Drag the Word shortcut from the desktop to the Quick Launch toolbar and you are done.
5. Click on the Word icon on the Taskbar to start Word.

Method-5: Using an Existing Word Document

Navigate to the folder where the document is saved and double click the document. When you do so, Word will start with the saved document open in the programme window. Please note that in all the other methods explained earlier, the Word programme shows a blank document on launch.

Why So Many Methods and Which One Should I Follow?

Word is designed to offer several alternative ways of doing the same thing. It offers you these choices so that you can select the option that suits you best. Sometimes one option provides better accuracy or control over the result than other options.

Usually, the choice of one option over several alternatives available in Word is guided by the amount of effort required for each. The option that produces the desired result with minimum effort is generally preferred. Now, let us see which of the methods listed above is most economical by counting the number of ‘clicks’ required for launching Word.

• Method-1: 4 clicks (Start > All Programmes > MS Office > MS Word 2010) + Navigation effort
• Method-2: 2 Clicks (Start > MS Word 2010)
• Method-3: 2 clicks (Double click Word shortcut)
• Method-4: 1 click (Click Word icon)
• Method-5: Several clicks for navigating to folder where document  is saved + Double click the document name   

It is easy to see that clicking the Word icon on task bar is the most efficient way of starting Word. This is the method that I prefer.

TIP!

• An added bonus of using the Word icon on taskbar is that right clicking it brings up a menu showing recently opened documents, and simply by one additional click you can select a document and open it in Word programme window.
• If you hover the mouse pointer over the taskbar Word icon, a small window pops up showing all open Word documents. You can choose the desired document by clicking it in this window and the selected document will come on screen.

Task-2: Exiting Word

Close the Word programme window and exit from Word.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. To exit Word, click on the File tab, located just below the Word logo in the top left corner of Word window. The document window is replaced by another screen showing a number of menu choices.
2. Click on ‘Exit’ at the bottom of the menu. The document and Word programme will close.

Recap

• Clicking the Word icon on the taskbar is the quickest method of launching Word. You can also start Word by double clicking desktop Word icon or by selecting Word icon in Windows Start menu or All Programs menu.
• If you click an existing Word document in the document folder, Word will launch with the document open in programme window.
• To exit from Word, click ‘Exit’ in the File tab.

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