Word Processing
What to know
Word processors create, format and print documents. Distinguish character formatting (font, size, bold, italic, colour) from paragraph formatting (alignment, indents, line spacing, space before and after, bullets, tab stops). Page setup controls margins, orientation, paper size and columns. Styles bundle formatting so headings stay consistent and allow an automatic table of contents. Headers and footers repeat on every page; page numbers are inserted there as fields. Tables organise data into cells that can be merged, split and formatted. Find and Replace can match case or whole words. Track Changes records insertions and deletions for review, and comments attach notes without altering the text. Templates start new documents with a ready-made layout, and mail merge combines one main document with a data source to personalise many copies.
Traps
Margin (space between text and page edge) versus indent (space between text and margin). Line spacing versus paragraph spacing. Save updates the current file; Save As creates a new copy. A page break forces a new page; a section break allows different headers, orientation or columns within one document. Selecting text and pressing Enter replaces that selection.
Rule of thumb
If a change should affect only one paragraph, click inside it and apply the setting; paragraph formatting applies without selecting text. To change every Heading 1 at once, modify the style rather than each heading, and the table of contents will update.