Microsoft Office is by far the most popular suite of productivity applications in the world, and with good reason. Its applications are powerful enough for business and professional use, and yet easy enough that a beginner can catch on to the basics with just a few simple lessons.

Depending on how you purchased Office, your version may be called Office 365 or Office 2019. If you made a one-time purchase, it’s Office 2019. If you are using Microsoft’s subscription service, paying monthly or yearly for Office, it’s Office 365.

Which is better? That depends on your needs. Over the long run, the cost is similar. Using Office 365 provides some extra benefits, though, such as automatic software updates. Whenever Microsoft has new features to add to Office, it rolls them out automatically to Office 365 subscribers over the Internet. Office 2019 users don’t get those new features; their version remains static.

If you’re new to Office, this book can help you separate the essential features you need from the obscure and more sophisticated ones you don’t. For the four major Office applications I cover in this book — Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint — I walk you through the most important and common features, showing you how to put them to work for projects in your job, everyday life, and home.

About This Book

This book is written specifically for mature people like you, who are relatively new to using Office applications and want to master the basics. In this book, I tried to take into account the types of activities that might interest you, such as investment planning, personal finance, email, and documents and presentations that you might need to prepare for work, clubs, volunteer opportunities, or other organizations that you participate in.This book begins by familiarizing you with Office and showing you how to perform basic tasks. Here I explain some basics that apply to all the Office applications generically, such as saving, opening, and printing files. I also show you some features that all Office applications have in common, such as selecting and formatting text, using the Clipboard, and applying formatting themes. such as starting and exiting each application, entering text, moving around, and saving your work. Then it covers each of the four main applications:

Word (Chapters 4-6): This part explores the most popular application in the Office suite, Microsoft Word. This word processing program helps you create letters, reports, envelopes, and myriad other text-based documents. You’ll see how to format text, change page size and orientation, insert graphics, and more.

Excel (Chapters 7-10): In this part of the book, you can read about Excel, the Office spreadsheet application. See how to enter text and numbers in a worksheet, write formulas and functions that perform calculations, and format worksheets attractively. You can also find out how to create charts and use Excel to store simple databases.

Outlook (Chapters 11-13): Outlook is the email, contact management, and calendar application in Office. In this part of the book, discover how to send and receive email in Outlook, and also how to use Outlook to track appointments and store your personal address book.

PowerPoint (Chapters 14-17): In this part of the book, I show you the basics of PowerPoint, the Office presentation application. You can read how to create presentations that include text and graphics; create cool animation and transition effects; add a musical soundtrack; and share your presentation with others, either in a live-action show or on CD.

Finally, an appendix shows some simple ways to customize how Office applications work when you start them.

This book uses certain conventions to help you find your way:

• Wherever possible, I use labels on figures to point out what you should notice on them. These labels reinforce something I say in the text or contain extra tips and hints.
• When you have to type something, I put it in bold type.
• For menu and Ribbon commands, I use the ⇒ symbol to separate the steps. For example, if I say to choose Home ⇒ Clipboard ⇒ Copy, click the Home tab, find the Clipboard group, and then click the Copy button in that group. In most cases, I provide the group name as part of the path to help you find the command more quickly. (Each tab has a lot of different commands on it.)

Foolish Assumptions

This book assumes that you can start your computer and use the keyboard and mouse (or whatever device moves the pointer onscreen). It also assumes your computer’s operating system is Windows 10, and that you have either Office 2019 or Office 365.

If you’re using a computer for the first time, Computers For Seniors For Dummies shows you the essential skills that all computer applications use.

Icons Used in This Book

Tip icons point out extra features, special insights and helps, or things to look out for.

If you don’t get anything else out of a particular chapter or section, remember the material marked by this icon. This text usually contains an essential process or a bit of information that you must know to use Office successfully.

Technical Stuff icons mark paragraphs where I “geek out” a bit, providing a behind-the-scenes look at how something works.

Warning icons indicate potential problems to avoid, problems that are difficult to fix or make bad things happen.

Where to Go from Here

This is your book; use it how you want. You can start at the beginning and read it straight through, or you can hop to whatever chapter or topic you want. For those of you who are pretty new to computers, you might want to start at the beginning. If you’re new to Office, the beginning part will give you a good foundation on what features work similarly in all the programs.

IN THIS PART …

Learn what applications make up the Microsoft Office suite and what each one does

Get familiar with the Office features that are common to all the applications

Find out how to open, save, and print files

Start an Office Application

Follow these steps to start an Office application:

1. Click the Start button in the lower left corner of the Windows desktop, opening the Start menu.
2. Do any of the following (your choice!)
   • Look for a shortcut tile for the application on the right side of the Start menu. If you see one, click it.
   • Scroll down in the Start menu’s left pane until you get to the section for the letter of the alphabet for the desired application (for example, P for PowerPoint) and click the application name.
   • Start typing the first few letters of the application name (for example, po for PowerPoint) and then click the application name on the filtered list that appears.

Explore the Office Ribbon and Tabs

All Office applications have a common system of navigation called the Ribbon, which is a tabbed bar across the top of the application window. Each tab is like a page of buttons. You click different tabs to access different sets of buttons and features.

Figure 1-2 shows the Ribbon in Microsoft Word, with the Home tab displayed. Within a tab, buttons are organized into groups. In Figure 1-2, the Home tab’s groups are Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, Editing, and Voice.

Each Office application has a set of tabs for the tasks it performs. For example, Word has a Mailings tab that holds the commands for doing mail merges. Excel has a Formulas tab that holds the commands for setting up calculations.

If you run Office applications on a device that has a touchscreen, you get an extra tab in the Ribbon: Draw. This contains tools for drawing with a finger or a stylus. The figures in this book were captured from a touchscreen PC, but keep in mind that the Draw tab isn’t present on computers without touchscreens.

You might find tabs that were added by third-party (non-Microsoft) software. For example, if you have a program called Adobe Acrobat installed, you might have an Acrobat tab in each of the Office applications.

The buttons and controls on the tabs operate in different ways. Figure 1-3 points out some examples on Word’s Home tab.

• On/off toggles: When the button is selected (it turns orange), the feature is on. Each time you click the button, it switches between on and off.
• Command buttons: When you click the button, the command executes. If you click a command button again, the command repeats.

• Connected button sets: In connected sets of buttons, selecting a button deselects (cancels) the previous selection in the set.

  For example, Figure 1-3 has four buttons in the bottom row for paragraph alignment. The leftmost one is selected; if you click one of the others, it’s automatically canceled.

• Menu buttons: Buttons with arrows on them open menus or color palettes.
• Galleries: A gallery is like a permanently open menu or palette; click a selection directly from a gallery. Most galleries also have a More button that shows more choices.

You can hover the mouse pointer over a button to see a pop-up box, called a ScreenTip, which tells the button’s name and/or purpose.

With some buttons that contain arrows, you can click anywhere on the button face — directly on the arrow or not — to open the menu or palette (an array of colored squares from which you can choose a color). With others, the button face and the arrow are separate clickable areas. Clicking the arrow opens the menu, but clicking the button face applies whatever setting was most recently chosen from the menu.

To tell the difference between the two types of menu buttons, point the mouse at the button. If the button face and the arrow are different colors or if there is a thin line between them, it’s the type where you have to click directly on the arrow to get the menu. If there’s no separation, you can click anywhere on the button.

In the bottom-right corner of many of the groups is a small square with an arrow. Clicking this square (called a dialog box launcher or a properties button) opens a dialog box related to that group. For example, the one for the Paragraph group in Figure 1-3 opens the Paragraph dialog box, which contains controls for every button in that group plus more options not available on the Ribbon.

Not sure which tab contains the command you want, or what the command is called? The Tell me what you want to do… box (shown in Figure 1-2) enables you to ask questions in plain English. Just type your question in the box and press Enter to see a list of relevant commands, and then click the one you want to issue that command.

When you resize the application’s window so the window is narrower than normal, or when you run the application on a computer that has low-resolution video settings, the controls on the Ribbon compress (squeeze together). Some of the groups turn into single buttons with drop-down lists for accessing the individual controls within that group. For example, in Figure 1-4, most of the groups are compressed, and one of the groups has been opened as a drop-down list.

Above the main part of the Ribbon is a small toolbar called the Quick Access toolbar. You can add buttons for frequently used commands here (as many as you can fit). To add a button, right-click any control from any tab and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar, as shown in Figure 1-5. To change the position of the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click it and choose Show the Quick Access Toolbar Below the Ribbon (or Above, if it’s already below).

You can also customize the Ribbon itself, but that’s beyond the scope of this book. If you want to experiment with it on your own, choose File ⇒ Options and click Customize Ribbon.

Understand the File Menu (Backstage View)

Clicking the File tab opens the File menu, also known as Backstage view. Backstage View provides access to commands that have to do with the data file you are working with — things like saving, opening, printing, mailing, and checking its properties. The File tab is a different color in each application. In Word, for example, it is blue. To leave Backstage view, click some other tab or press the Esc key.

Backstage View lists top-level categories in a navigation pane at the left; click one to see the commands available. The content to the right of the category list depends on what you have chosen.

When a document is open and you enter Backstage View, the Info category appears. It provides information about the current document, and offers commands for protecting the document, checking for issues, and managing versions. In addition, if the document uses a different file format than the latest one, a Convert button appears, enabling you to upgrade to the newest format. See Figure 1-6.

The bottom-most command in the navigation pane is Options, which opens a dialog box from which you can control the settings for the application.

Create a Document

In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the Start screen appears when you start the application, and from there you can create a new document (or workbook, or presentation) by pressing the Esc key or clicking the Blank template. You can then just start typing or inserting content into it.

You can also create additional new documents. An easy shortcut to do so is to press Ctrl+N. You can also choose File ⇒ New. That latter method has the advantage of opening a selection of templates you can use to jumpstart your work if you don’t want a totally blank document to start with. Choose one of the templates that appears, or click in the Search for online templates box, type a keyword, and press Enter to look for a certain kind of template. Let’s forego the templates for now, though, and keep working in this chapter with a blank document.

Type Text

Putting text on the page (or onscreen) is a little different in each of the three major Office applications: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Word: The main work area of the program is a blank slate on which you can type directly. Just click in the work area and start typing! Chapter 2 explains more about typing and editing text. See Figure 1-7.
• Excel: The work area is divided into a grid of cells. Click any cell to make it active, and type to place text into it, as in Figure 1-8. Chapter 7 shows how to work with text in Excel cells.
• PowerPoint: The work area is divided into three panes. The largest one, in the center, is where you insert content on a slide.
  • If a slide has a text placeholder on it, you can click in the placeholder and type, as in Figure 1-9.
  • If there isn’t a placeholder on the slide, or if the placeholder doesn’t meet your needs, you can place a text box on the slide manually. (That’s covered in Chapter 11.)

Insert a Picture

All Office applications accept various types of pictures. Here’s how to insert a photo (or other graphic file) into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:

1. Click the Insert tab.
2. Click the Pictures button. The Insert Picture dialog box opens. See Figure 1-10. The default location that opens is the Pictures folder for the user currently signed into Windows.
3. Select the picture you want to insert. (You might need to change to a different location. That’s covered in Chapter 3.)
4. Click the Insert button.

The preceding steps apply to picture files, such as images from a digital camera or that you downloaded from the Internet. There are lots of other graphic types, such as online images, WordArt (stylized text), and drawn lines and shapes. Each of these has its own procedure for insertion. Later chapters discuss these in more detail.

You can drag and drop pictures directly from File Explorer into any document in an Office application.

Move Around in a Document

As you add content in one of the applications, there might be so much content that you can’t see it all onscreen at once. You might need to scroll through the document to view different parts of it.

The simplest way to move around is by using the scroll bars with your mouse:

• In Excel, a vertical (up and down) and a horizontal (left to right) scroll bar are always available.
• In Word and PowerPoint, the vertical scroll bar is always available. The horizontal scroll bar disappears if there is no undisplayed text from side-to-side.

Figure 1-11 shows several ways to use a scroll bar:

• Click the arrow at the end of a scroll bar to scroll the display slowly in the direction of the arrow (a small amount each time you click).
• Drag the box in the scroll bar to scroll quickly.
• Click in the empty space on the bar to one side or the other of the scroll box to move one screenful at a time in that direction.

The size of the scroll box (the blank rectangle you drag in the scroll bar) indicates how much content you can’t see at the moment. For example, in Figure 1-11, the scroll box occupies about one-half of the scroll bar; this means that there is about one screenful of undisplayed content. In a very large spreadsheet, the scroll box might be very small.

You can also move around by using keyboard shortcuts. As you gain experience with the applications, you might find using keyboard shortcuts more convenient than using the scroll bar. Chapter 4 lists shortcuts for Word, Chapter 7 lists shortcuts for Excel, and Chapter 14 lists shortcuts for PowerPoint.

Select Content

Selecting content is an essential skill for any Office application. Many commands in Office applications apply to whatever text or graphics you select. For example, to make some text bold, select it first, and then click the Bold button. Figure 1-12 shows some selected text.

To select text in Word or PowerPoint, you can either

• Drag the mouse pointer across it (holding down the left mouse button)

  or

• Click where you want to start and then hold down Shift as you press the arrow keys to extend the selection.

When text is selected, its background changes color. The color depends on the color scheme in use; with the default color scheme, selected text is blue.

In Excel, you usually want to select entire cells rather than individual bits of text; when the cell is selected, any formatting or other commands that you issue applies to everything in that cell. To select a cell, click it. You can extend the selection to multiple cells by dragging across them or by holding down Shift and pressing the arrow keys.

You can also select text by using keyboard shortcuts. Chapter 4 lists shortcuts for Word, Chapter 7 lists shortcuts for Excel, and Chapter 14 lists shortcuts for PowerPoint.

To select a graphic, click it with the mouse. Selection handles (white squares) appear around the outside of it. Figure 1-13 shows a selected graphic in Word.

When a graphic is selected, you can do any of the following to it:

• Move it. Position the mouse pointer on the graphic (not on the border) and drag.
• Copy it. Hold down the Ctrl key while you move it.
• Resize it. Position the mouse pointer on one of the selection handles and drag.
• Delete it. Press the Delete key.
• Rotate it. Drag the rotation handle, which is the circular arrow above the graphic.

Zoom In and Out

Figure 1-14

• Drag the slider to adjust the zoom (to the left to zoom out, and to the right to zoom in).
• Click the minus or plus button (at opposite ends of the slider) to slightly zoom out (minus) or in (plus).
• Clicking the number of the current zoom percentage opens a Zoom dialog box, which shows more zooming options.

Zooming doesn’t affect the size of printouts. It is only an onscreen adjustment.

Change the View

Each Office application has a variety of viewing options available. Each view is suited for a certain type of activity in that application. For example, in Word, you can choose Draft view, which is speedy to work with and presents the text in a simple one-column layout. Or you can choose a Print Layout view, where you can see any special layout formatting you applied, such as multiple columns.

These views are available:

• Excel
  • Normal: Displays a regular row-and-column grid.
  • Page Break Preview: Shows a zoomed-out version of the worksheet with page break lines that you can drag to adjust where they fall.
  • Page Layout: Displays the content as it will appear on a printed page.
• Word
  • Read Mode: Optimizes the display for onscreen reading. You cannot edit the document in this view.
  • Print Layout: Shows the document approximately as it will be printed, including any layout features, such as multiple columns.
  • Web Layout: Displays the document as it will appear if saved as a Web page and published on a Web site.
  • Outline: Displays the document as an outline, with headings as outline levels.
  • Draft: Displays the document in simple text form, in a single column.
• PowerPoint
  • Normal: This default view provides multiple panes for working with the content.
  • Outline: The same as Normal view except instead of thumbnails of each slide you see a text outline of slide content.
  • Slide Sorter: All of the slides appear as thumbnail images, which is useful for rearranging the order of slides.
  • Notes Page: Each slide appears as a graphic on a page where notes are displayed.
  • Reading View: Similar to Slide Show view except in a floating window rather than full screen.
  • Slide Show: The presentation is shown to the audience, one slide at a time. The Slide Show view controls appear on the Slide Show tab, rather than on the View tab with the other views.

Each application has shortcut buttons to a few of the most common views. You can find these buttons to the left of the Zoom slider, as pointed out in Figure. Hover your mouse over a button to find out which view it selects.

Enjoying the tour so far? There’s lots more ahead in Chapter 2, where I continue walking you through the important features that the Office apps have in common.