How to Write a Letter or Other Document 1. Double-click your word processor's icon: Or go to "Start", then Programs and then look for word processor in the list of programs! The two icons above are two popular ones. There's also WordPerfect. There are some very sophisicated programs too, such as Adobe Acrobat, QuarkXpress 2. Just start typing! 3. To Select a word, line, or whatever, point your mouse to the beginning of said word and hold down the right button and move it to the right or up or down to highlight as much or as little as you want. 4. To italicize, bold, or underline, go to the top of the screen and look at your set of toolbars. On there, you'll see an italicized "I," a "B", and an underlined "U". Click those to do what you need before you type. If you need to bold, italicize or underline something already underlined, then you need to select it and then click one of those buttons. * An alternative is to click CTRL+B to bold text, CTRL+I to italicize text, and CTRL+U to underline text. 5. To Copy text, select it and then go to the top of the screen and click on the Edit drop-down menu. You'll find Copy, Paste, Cut, and other features there. Click Copy and then position your cursor where you want it. Then go back to the Edit menu and click on Paste! * Alternatively, you can also push the ctrl key (On the lower right and left hand side of your keyboard) plus the letter "C" to copy. CTRL+C * CTRL+V is how to Paste. * CTRL+X is how to Cut. 6. To change text size, you'll notice that there's a couple of words on that toolbar at the top of the screen. It says, "Normal" then "Times New Roman" right next to it, and then there's the number "10." Click on the little inverted triangle next to the number 10 and choose a larger number to make the text bigger! 7. To double-space, click on Format, then Paragraph, then you'll notice that there's a couple of options. Choose the one labeled "spacing." It has a drop-down box (another inverted triangle) with the word "single" in it. Click the triangle and you'll be able to choose double or another option. If you need another copy or an updated version of this paper, go to the homeschool website and download it: http://iowahomeschool.tripod.com