Essential formatting and editing features of Microsoft Word 2000

¶ … 2000 Features

Word 2000 has a lot of features that can be useful when writing a research paper. Generally, Word 2000 can do almost all things you would need to produce a well-formatted and properly-styled document. Following are some of the basics but important features one might need when writing a document.

Spelling and Grammar Checking

Word 2000 can provide you with an ongoing spelling checking (Johnson, 2001). While working on your document, Word 2000 can automatically check your spellings and make the necessary corrections on minor errors. For instance, Word 2000 can automatically correct typographical error of words such as " the" into "the." Also, when Word 2000 cannot recognize a possibly misspelled word, it places a red wavy line under it to indicate that the word might be mispelled.

Word 2000 also provides grammar checking. However, unlike spelling checking, it does not automatically correct possible grammar errors. It only places a green wavy line under the word that is possibly a cause of an incorrect grammar. The spelling and grammar checking of Word 2000 can be activated or deactivated by the user.

Text Formatting

Word 2000 has a text-formatting feature wherein users can change the looks of fonts. This includes font styles, size, color, background, bolding, italicizing, and underlining. These features are basically useful to indicate headers, body text, and footnotes.

Document Formatting

Document formatting features include page set up where the look of the entire document can be changed. Page set up includes margin settings, paper orientation, page numbering, and header and footer.

Inserting Clip Arts and Tables

Word 2000 allows insertion of graphics and images in a document. It also allows insertion of tables that is ideal for data that needs to be in tabular form. Aside from these, Word 2000 has drawing tools that a user can use to draw shapes such as lines, square, circle, arrows, etc.

Auto-format Wizard

Word 2000 has a wizard that automatically provides suggestions to users about formatting. For instance, when starting to write the salutation of a letter, such as "Dear," a complete salutation of "Dear Sir/Madam:" will automatically appear on top, indicating that Word 2000 is suggesting the use of that salutation. The auto-format wizard not only provides suggestions to a user but also saves time in typing when the suggestion is accepted. This can be done by pressing key upon the appearance of a suggestion.