To enter text, just start typing. The text will appear where the blinking cursor is located.
To change text it must be selected (or highlighted) first.
Select the text by:
- Clicking just before the text you want to select.
- While keeping the left mouse button depressed, drag the mouse over the desired text.
- You will know the text is selected (or highlighted) because the text will have a black background.
The table below contains shortcuts for selecting portions of the text:
| To Select: | Do This: |
| Whole word | Place the cursor over the word and double-click. |
| Whole paragraph | Place the cursor anywhere in the paragraph and triple-click. |
| Entire document | Choose Edit> Select All from the Menu Bar. |
Deselect the text by clicking anywhere outside of the selection on the page or press an arrow key on the keyboard.
Use the BACKSPACE and DELETE keys on the keyboard to delete text.
Backspace will delete text to the left of the cursor and Delete will erase text to the right.
To delete a large selection of text, highlight it using any of the methods outlined above and press the DELETE key.
The Formatting toolbar is the easiest way to change your text. If the toolbar below isn't on your the screen, select View> Toolbars and choose Formatting.
The Formatting Toolbar is shown below, along with what each button does.
Helpful Hint: Remember- you must select text before you can make any changes to it.
- Font Menu - Click the tiny arrow to the right of the font box to view the list of fonts available. Scroll down to the font you want (the font names will be examples of the what the font looks like) and select it by clicking on the name once with the mouse.
- Font Size - Click the tiny arrow to the right of the box to view a list of font sizes available. Select a size by clicking the number.
- Bold, Italics, Underline- Use these buttons to bold, italicize, and underline text.
- Alignment - Use this to align text to the left, center, or right side of the page.
- Numbered and Bulleted Lists - To make a list, highlight the sentences you want in the list. Click the numbered or bulleted list buttons.
- Text Color - This button changes the color of the text. The color shown on the button is the last color chosen. (In this example-black) Click the arrow next to the button to select another color.
The Font Dialog window lets you to choose more formatting options.
Select Format> Font from the menu bar.
Take a look at the window. The options here are really self explanatory.
Choose the options you want, then click OK to apply changes.
Sometimes when you are working in Word, you will make a mistake- sometimes a very big one! You can always undo your last action by clicking the Undo button on the Standard toolbar. 
This applies to any action you have done, not just text changes.
Click the Redo button on the Standard toolbar to reverse your undo. 
Lesson 3: Formatting a Page 
Tutorials Index Lesson 5: Working With Text Part 2