Computer Info – June 21, 2000

This Week’s Program

        Steps to writing a letter using MS-Word – but many of the steps will work with WordPerfect or Works.
Steps to Creating a Letterhead in MS-Word
MARGINS AND PAPER SIZE
        Margins and paper size are set under FILE – PAGE SETUP.
CREATE YOUR LETTERHEAD
        Choose the font – the font size – the justification – and then type the information that you would like on your letterhead.
        Maybe you would like to add a line to separate your information from the rest of the letter. From the Drawing toolbar (if it is not visible – then choose VIEW – TOOLBARS – DRAWING – and this will open the Drawing toolbar for you) – click on the Line icon. Your cursor will change to a cross shape. Place your cursor at the point you would like your line to start. Press and hold the left mouse button and drag your mouse to create the line. If you hold the shift key down, the line will be straight. Release the mouse button when you have your line completed. If you now right-click on the line and choose FORMAT AUTO SHAPE, you can change the color and width of the line.
        Maybe you would like to add a small picture to your letterhead. To do this, choose INSERT – PICTURE – and then either CLIP ART or FROM FILE. Choose the picture that you want and it will appear on your letter. Click on the picture and the PICTURE toolbar should open. One of the icon on this toolbar is called TEXT WRAPPING. Click on this icon and a drop down menu appears. Click on EDIT WRAP POINTS (if it is the only choice available). Now when you click on the TEXT WRAPPING icon again, all of the choices will be available. Choose NO WRAPPING. This will allow you to place your picture anywhere on your paper regardless of where there is text. The next step is to adjust the size of your picture so that it will fit nicely within your letterhead. You do this by clicking on one of the handles (the square blocks that are visible at the corners, sides, top and bottom of the dotted box) and dragging it to the size that you want. It is always best to use ONLY the corner handles so that the picture does not become distorted!. When you have completed the adjustments to your picture, then click outside of the picture box, and the dotted box around the picture will disappear.
        How about adding a date to the letter. That can be done automatically. Use CTRL-END (on the keyboard) to get to the end of your information that you have entered so far – then hit the ENTER key. This will place your cursor under the line that you have drawn on your letterhead. Decide what justification that you want for the date (left – center – right) and then choose INSERT – DATE AND TIME. You will be given a list of date and time formats – choose the one that is right for you – place a checkmark in front of UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY. Then click on OK. This will place the date on your letter.
SAVE YOUR LETTERHEAD AS A TEMPLATE
        Let’s save our work as a TEMPLATE. From the FILE menu, choose SAVE AS. The first thing that you will do is change the SAVE AS TYPE to DOCUMENT TEMPLATE (*.DOT). This will automatically move you to the Templates folder. Since this will be considered a letter, double-click on the LETTERS AND FAXES folder to open it. Now give your letterhead a name and click on SAVE.
        Now let’s close the letterhead that we have on the screen and learn how to retrieve it everytime that we want to use it. To close it, from the FILE menu, choose CLOSE.
USING YOUR TEMPLATE
        When you are in Word, from the FILE menu, choose NEW. Click on the LETTERS AND FAXES tab. You should see your letterhead listed there. Click on it to highlight it. Then click on OK. You will notice that the date is correct. If you now learn to hit CTRL-END on the keyboard, you will be taken to the point where you now start typing your letter.
ADDING A WATERMARK
        Add a watermark to your template. Decide on a picture that you would like to be used for your watermark.. Then choose INSERT – PICTURE – and then either CLIP ART or FROM FILE. Choose the picture that you want and it will appear on your letter. Click on the picture and the PICTURE toolbar should open. One of the icon on this toolbar is called TEXT WRAPPING. Click on this icon and a drop down menu appears. Click on EDIT WRAP POINTS (if it is the only choice available). Now when you click on the TEXT WRAPPING icon again, all of the choices will be available. Choose NO WRAPPING. This will allow you to place your picture anywhere on your paper regardless of where there is text. The next step is to adjust the size of your picture so that it will fit on your page as large as you would like. You do this by clicking on one of the handles (the square blocks that are visible at the corners, sides, top and bottom of the dotted box) and dragging it to the size that you want. It is always best to use ONLY the corner handles so that the picture does not become distorted!. When you have resized your picture, then click on the IMAGE CONTROL icon on the drawing toolbar and choose WATERMARK from the drop down menu. Your picture will be immediately lighten. If you would like to lighten it further, click on the MORE BRIGHTNESS icon on the drawing toolbar. When you have completed the adjustments to your picture, then click outside of the picture box, and the dotted box around the picture will disappear.
ADDRESSING AN ENVELOPE FOR YOUR LETTER
        To address an envelope to go with this letter, choose TOOLS - ENVELOPES AND LABELS. Normally, the program seem to be able to pickup the name and address from your letter – if not, you can highlight the name and address in the letter and then go to ENVELOPES AND LABELS. Your information should appear on the form then.
ADDRESS LABELS THAT YOU TYPE
        Type on the labels that you want. Choose TOOLS – ENVELOPES AND LABELS. On the labels tab – be sure you do not have any information written into the ADDRESS box, place a checkmark next to FULL PAGE OF THE SAME LABEL -- and then click on NEW DOCUMENT – this will place the open sheet of labels on your screen and not send them to the printer until you are ready. You can then click on any label – choose what font – font size – color that you want your name and address typed in – and you are also determining which labels are being printed on.
        It is always best to use the labels from the bottom of the sheet as it allows better traction for the printer to start feeding the document with.
Changing the Font of Your Labels in MS-Word
        To change the font of your labels once you are viewing them on the screen – choose EDIT – SELECT ALL. This will highlight all of the labels – then just change the font and the font size – and the changes will be made to all of the labels at once.
Web Addresses
Discovery -- Webcam of the Panama Canal
        Here you can see live pictures of the Panama Canal and you have choices of other webcam also.
                 http://www.discovery.com/cams/pancan/pancan.html
Listings of many dictionaries and special references
        Here you will find quite a listing of dictionaries for special subjects.
                 http://onelook.com/browse.shtml
A page full of activities for children.
                 http://www.kidsdomain.com
Bureau of Land Management
        This is a good site for genealogy research. On the left side of the page, you can choose to search for land patents (deeds) from all the states.
                 http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/visitor/stateresearch.asp