wrap (break between two words) to the next line as appropriate. Press Enter only to
end very short lines, or entire paragraphs.
So now you have a tiny document you created with WordPad. Your document has not been saved yet,
however, and it has no file name. Let’s discuss general techniques for saving any kind of document,
using this little WordPad document as an example.
Editing and formatting a document
Nothing in a document is ever carved in granite. You can make changes at any time. Although tools and
techniques vary from one program to the next, any program that enables you to type text will probably
let you do the following:
To add new text, click at about where you want the inserted text to appear, to move the
blinking cursor to that spot. Then just type your text.
To delete the character to the left of the cursor, press the Backspace key. To delete the
character to the right of the cursor, press the Delete (Del) key.
To select a chunk of text to format or delete, drag the mouse pointer through that text.
To format the selected text, make a selection from the Format menu.
To move the selected text, choose Edit Cut from the menu bar, or press Ctrl+X. Then
click where you want to place the (now invisible) text, and choose Edit Paste or press
Ctrl+V.
To copy the selected text, choose Edit Copy from the menu bar, or press Ctrl+C. Then
click where you want to place the copied text and choose Edit Paste or press Ctrl+V.
Tip The Ctrl+C (Copy) and Ctrl+V (Paste) shortcut keys are virtually universal
throughout Windows and programs that run on Windows. You can often use them
in situations where there is no Edit menu from which to choose those options. You
can even use Ctrl+C to copy something from one program’s document, and then
use Ctrl+V to paste that item into another program’s document.
To delete the selected text, press the Delete (Del) key or choose Edit Clear from the
menu bar.
Of course, for more detailed instructions on using a program, you need to refer to that
program’s written documentation or help.
Printing a document
In most programs, you can print the document you’re working on by choosing File Print from that
program’s menu bar. When the Print dialog box opens, just click its OK button. In many programs you
can press Ctrl+P to print, as opposed to going through the menu. Alternatively, if the program’s toolbar
shows a printer icon or button, just click that.
Saving a document
One thing definitely applies to all documents, and to all programs. And it’s a very important thing, so I’m
going to express it loud and clear here:
Any work you do is not saved until you specifically save it!
This is important because many beginners spend considerable time creating a document and then,
unwittingly, they close the program or turn off the computer unaware that, in doing so, they just lost all
the work they finished. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a computer in the first place.
Saving a document is easy. The only trick is to remember to do it once in a while. Anyway, here’s how
you save a document:
1. Choose File Save from the program’s menu bar. The Save As dialog box appears, as in
Figure 3-4.
Windows XP Bible

Working with Documents
Unlike a program, which is something you generally purchase, a document is usually something you
create on your own. Or, it might be something that you downloaded from the Internet or received as an
e-mail attachment. You use programs to create, edit, view, open, print, and save documents.
You might be tempted to think of documents as being like “real-world” documents, such as typewritten
letters, memos, and such. Although those things certainly are documents, the term has a much broader
meaning in computers. Whereas a program is something you “run” on your computer, a document is
anything you create, edit, print, or view from within some program. Hence, photographs, music files,
videos, Web pages, and so forth are all documents in the computer sense of the term.
Creating a document
If you’ve never created, saved, or opened a document before and you want to try it, you can use the
following steps, right now, to create a simple document using the WordPad program that comes with
Windows XP. Here we go:
1. Click the Windows Start button and choose All Programs Accessories WordPad. The
WordPad program opens on your screen as in Figure 3-3 (although initially the document
area will be all white).
Figure 3-3: WordPad open in the desktop
2. Type some text. Whatever you type automatically appears within the large document area
of WordPad’s open window, as in Figure 3-3.
Tip Unlike a typewriter, you don’t want to press the carriage return (that is, the Enter
key) at the end of each line when typing in a program. Text will automatically word
Windows XP Bible
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rting Programs Not on the Menu
Typically, once you install a program, you can find the icon needed to start that program in your All
Programs menu. Sometimes, however, you might need to run programs that haven’t been installed. In
fact, usually to install a program, you need to run its SETUP.EXE program!
Chapter 16 provides all the details about installing programs. For now, these quick pointers will cover all
the most likely scenarios:
If you downloaded the program from the Internet, just clicking the icon for the downloaded
program should either start the program or begin the program installation procedure.
If you recently purchased a program, and it’s on a CD-ROM, just insert that disk into your CDROM
drive and wait for instructions to appear on-screen.
If you need to install a program from a floppy disk or other disk (including a CD-ROM that won’t
autostart), use My Computer to display the contents of the disk. Then click (or double-click)
the SETUP.EXE file that will likely appear on that disk.
If all else fails, you may need to read the instructions. (Bummer, I know.) If you don’t have any printed
instructions, you’ll probably find them in a file named README.TXT on the same disk that the program
is stored on. Alternatively, in the case of a program you downloaded from the Internet, the instructions
should appear on the Web page from which you downloaded the file.

Closing a program

When you finish using a program, you should close it. Use whichever of the following techniques is most
convenient at the moment:
• Click the Close (X) button in the upper-right corner of the program’s window.
• Or, choose File Exit from the program’s menu bar.
• Or, right-click the program’s taskbar button and choose Close.
• Or, press Alt+F4.
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After you’ve closed a program, its taskbar button will disappear. To reopen the program in the future,
you need to go through the Start button again. Alternatively, if the program has a shortcut icon on the
desktop or in Quick Launch toolbar, click (or double-click) that icon.