LAUNCHING MS WORD 2007

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

In this tutorial, you will learn how to launch MS Word 2007.

Task-1: Launching Word

Launch Word using

1. Windows All Programs Menu
2. Windows Start Menu
3. Word icon on desktop
4. Word icon on Windows Taskbar
5. 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 (see Figure 1). 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 will appear in this Menu in an alphabetical order. If you have installed only Word 2007, 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 2007 package, look for a folder titled ‘Microsoft Office’. Folders on the menu look like this: . Click ‘Microsoft Office’ folder to reveal all programs of the package.
3. Click on ‘Microsoft Word 2007’. Word programme window will open on your screen.

Figure 1

Method-2: Using Windows Start Menu

1. Click the Windows ‘Start’ button and check if MS Word 2007 icon is there in the ‘Start Menu’ (see Figure 1).
2. If ‘Start’ Menu does not show the Word 2007 icon, right click ‘Microsoft Word 2007’ in ‘All Programs Menu’ and click ‘Pin to Start Menu’ in the popup context menu. MS Word 2007 icon will now appear on Start Menu and will always remain there.
3. Click MS Word 2007 icon in ‘Start’ menu to start Word.

Method-3: Using Word Icon On Windows Desktop

1. If MS Word 2007 icon is visible on the Windows desktop, just double click it to start it.
2. If you do not see the MS Word 2007 icon on the desktop, click the Windows ‘Start’ button and find the ‘Microsoft Word 2007’ in ‘All Programs’ menu and right click it. The context 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 2007 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 2007.

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 Taskbar

1. Click the Windows ‘Start’ button, find the ‘Microsoft Word 2007’ 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 2007 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 next to the ‘Start’ button. If you see some icons there, it means that the ‘Quick Launch Toolbar’ is already installed and in that case move to step 4. However, if there are no icons on the taskbar next to the ‘Start’ button, right click the taskbar 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 2007 shortcut from the desktop to the Quick Launch toolbar and you are done.
5. Click on the Word 2007 icon on the Taskbar to start it.

Method-5: Using an Existing Word Document

Navigate to the folder where the Word 2007 document is saved and double click the document. When you do so, Word 2007 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 four methods listed above is most economical by counting the number of ‘clicks’ required for launching Word.

Method Operations No of clicks
1-Using All Programms Menu Start button > All Programmes > MS Office > MS Word 2010 4 + navigation effort
2-Using Start Menu Start button > MS Word 2010 2
3-Using Word shortcut on desktop Double click Word shortcut 2
4-Using Word icon on taskbar Click Word icon 1
5-Using Word document Several clicks for navigating to folder where document is saved + Double click document Several clicks + navigation effort

It is easy to see that clicking the Word icon on Windows Taskbar 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 2007 programme window and exit from Word 2007 .

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. To exit Word 2007, click on the Office Button, located in the top left corner of Word 2007 window (see Figure 2). A drop down menu will open showing various options.
2. Click on ‘Exit Word’ located in the bottom bar of the menu. The document together with MS Word 2007 programme will close.

Figure 2

REMEMBER !
 
If you choose the ‘Close’ option from the drop-down menu of the ‘Office’ button, the current document will close, but the Word 2007 programme will remain in the computer memory, and if there are other documents open, they will not be affected. On the other hand, selecting the ‘Exit Word’ option will close the Word together with all open documents.

Recap

• Clicking the Word 2007 icon on the taskbar is the quickest method of launching it. You can also start Word 2007 by double clicking desktop Word 2007 icon or by selecting Word 2007 icon in Windows Start menu or All Programs menu.
• If you click an existing Word 2007 document in the document folder, Word will launch with the document open in programme window.
• To exit from Word 2007, click the Office button and choose ‘Exit Word’ from the drop-down menu.

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