How Do I Start Using Microsoft 365?

The Microsoft 365 applications, or apps, are easy to navigate yet loaded with powerful features designed to save you time and work. The core apps this book covers-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook-share similar commands and procedures, meaning skills learned in one app translate smoothly to the other apps. Dialing in on all the basics will enable you to spend more time developing content. This chapter introduces you to the "must know" skills for your work in Microsoft 365, including essential command and interface navigation features, key techniques for creating and working with files, making selections, copying and moving information, and proofing content.

1. Starting and Exiting an App
2. Taking a Look Around
3. Working with Files
4. Typing in a Word Document
5. Making Your First Cell Entries in Excel
6. Adding Slide Content in PowerPoint
7. Making and Working with Selections
8. Refining Your Content
9. Saving and Closing a File

Starting and Exiting an App

Windows 10 gives you a few options for starting a program so that you can get to work. You may already have your preference for how to start up, but if not, you can try one of these methods:

• Start button. Click the Start button at the left end of the Windows taskbar. Move the mouse pointer over the right edge of the list of programs in the Start menu so that a scroll bar expands, and then use the scroll bar or the scroll wheel on your mouse to scroll down until you see the Microsoft 365 app that you want to start, such as Word, in the list. Then choose the app name. You also can pin a larger tile for starting an app to the right side of the Start menu. Right-click the app name in the list of Start menu programs, and choose Pin to Start. Then you can open the Start menu and click the large tile. If you need to remove the tile later, right-click it, and choose Unpin from Start.
• Windows logo key. Press the Windows logo key on your keyboard. Press the down arrow on your keyboard as needed until the app name is selected, and then press Enter.
• Search box. Click in the Search box to the right of the Start button on the taskbar. If a tile for the app appears in the Top Apps section, click it. If not, start typing the app name, such as Excel, and then choose the app when it appears under Best Match, as shown in Figure 1.1.

  1.1 Choose the app name when using Windows Search to start a Microsoft 365 app.

Additionally, if you choose Office from the Start menu, an Office window with icons for all your apps opens. You can click an app's icon to be prompted to create a document and open the app, and you can leave this window open to launch other Microsoft 365 apps as needed.

If using the Start menu to launch a Microsoft 365 app isn't for you, then you can pin a button for the app to the taskbar. With the app open, right-click its button on the taskbar, and then choose Pin to Taskbar. Click the pinned button on the taskbar to start the program. If you decide you want to unpin the button, right-click it on the taskbar and choose Unpin from Taskbar.

When Word, Excel, or PowerPoint open, they prompt you to create a new document or open an existing one. (Outlook works a little differently when you start it.) The later section called "Working with Files" provides more details about those choices. For now, you could just click the Blank Document, Blank Workbook, or Blank Presentation thumbnail to create a new file.

When you've finished all your work for the day, you should close or exit the program. You could shut down Windows without closing open apps, but it's better to close the app first to ensure you've saved all your work. As when starting an app, you have these options for closing or exiting the program:

• Click the Close (X) button at the upper-right corner of the screen.
• Press Alt+F4.

To close the current file without exiting the app, click the File tab near the upper-left corner of the window, and then choose Close. If you have a file with unsaved work open and exit the app or close the file, a message box asks whether you want to save changes to the file. You can click the Save or Don't Save button as needed.

If you have multiple Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files open or multiple Outlook windows open, closing one of them doesn't close down the program overall. You have to close every open file or window to make sure you've completely exited the program.

Taking a Look Around

You interact with the Microsoft 365 apps through their user interfaces or UIs. Microsoft specifically designs the user interface in each of the Microsoft 365 apps to have similar features, making it easier to perform similar tasks from app to app. The apps still have their differences, which I'll highlight in the areas where I cover the individual apps. Let's start first, however, with the UI features that the apps have in common.

The Account (or Office Account in Outlook) choice on the File tab takes you to a screen where you can sign in and out of your Microsoft 365 subscription and manage updates to the apps, among other choices. The Options choice on the File tab opens an Options dialog box where you can change settings affecting how the app appears and behaves.

Reviewing key screen features

The common interface features in the Microsoft 365 apps enable you to identify the file, give commands, work with the content in your documents, view status information, and change the document view. Figure 1.2 illustrates these common features. (I'll cover screen features specific to the individual apps throughout the book as needed.)

Here's what you need to know about the screen features shown in Figure 1.2:

• Title bar. The title bar identifies the name of the current file and holds other tools.
• Quick Access Toolbar. Found at the left end of the title bar, the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) offers Save, Undo, and Redo buttons by default. The Undo and Redo buttons become active after you start performing actions. Clicking the down arrow at the right end of the QAT opens the Customize Quick Access Toolbar menu, where you can choose the name of another button that you want to add to the QAT.
• Ribbon. The ribbon below the title bar uses tabs to organize the majority of the commands that you'll use in your apps. Click a ribbon tab to see its commands. The names along the bottom of the ribbon identify commands that are grouped together because they have related or similar functions. In most cases, you click a button on the ribbon to choose a command, though clicking a button with a drop-down list arrow on it opens a list of additional choices. Still other ribbon buttons are split, with both a regular button on the top and a down arrow on the bottom part of the button. Clicking the top half of a split button executes the command immediately, while clicking the bottom part with the arrow opens a list of choices. Other buttons are split the other way, with the main button on the left and a drop-down list arrow on the right. Pressing the Alt key displays letters and numbers, sometimes called keytips, that you can press to choose a ribbon tab and then a command.

  1.2 You will work with these tools in Microsoft 365 apps.

  I'll use a type of shorthand throughout the book to tell you which ribbon command to choose, giving the tab, group, and specific button. For example, if I say "Choose Review ? Proofing ? Thesaurus," it means to click the Review tab on the ribbon, look for the Proofing group of commands, and in that group, click Thesaurus. Some command sequences can be longer if a list or menu appears.

• Dialog box launcher. Some groups on the ribbon include a small button called a dialog box launcher in the lower-right corner. Clicking one of these buttons opens a dialog box with more detailed choices, such as the Font or Format Cells dialog box.
• Mouse pointer. When you're using the mouse in various apps, the mouse pointer changes shape often to cue you when it's in the correct position to perform a particular action. By default, when the mouse pointer is over the document in Word, the pointer resembles an I-beam with lines of text beside it, as shown in Figure 1.2. However, it may change to a white arrow, a two-headed arrow, and other shapes. The default mouse pointer in Excel is a bold white plus, but at other times it changes to a black plus, a split black arrow, and more. PowerPoint and Outlook use the white arrow and a plain I-beam as the main app pointers, but you may see other mouse pointers in those apps, too.
• Status bar. This area below the main work area displays status information and has tools for changing the zoom that I'll cover shortly.

The more recent Microsoft 365 app versions have made it easier to get help about a feature or task. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet to receive the maximum results, and then press F1 or choose Help ? Help...