A Beginner's Guide to Word Processing Using Microsoft Word
Introduction:
There are many reasons for using computers today. Word processing is one area that has demonstrated how powerful computers can be. There are many different names of word processors, and many can be quite complicated. In fact today it is difficult to buy a computer without word processing software included some how. Although there are many different kinds of software, most share the same basic functions, and do not require advanced computer or typing skills to use. These basic functions include: 
typing 
saving documents 
opening documents 
copying 
pasting 
cutting 
printing 
checking spelling 
Starting Up
As mentioned above there are many different names of software for both the Macintosh and Windows computer. These include Microsoft Word, ClarisWorks, Word Perfect, WordPad, AppleWorks, etc. Typing skills make using all of them easier, of course, but not necessary. Even somebody who hunts and pecks all of their keys will still actually type faster than writing by hand. Therefore you need not worry about being able to type faster than your boss can talk. 
To start, open up your word processor. This is usually done by single or double clicking on the icon of the software. 

When the software has loaded, it already has opened a blank document to start with. You can now start typing right away. To indent at the start of a paragraph, use the tab key instead of the space bar. The space bar may look alright on the screen, but will look sloppy when printing your document out. 

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am having a great time here on the moon.  The weather is always sunny and with no clouds.  The view of the stars at night is incredible

Since this letter is being typed using Microsoft Word from Office 2003, it will underline in red any words that the software does not recognize. This feature can be turned off, or you can ignore it (most software does not do this anyway). The red lines will not appear when printing on paper. 
You should also notice that the text that you are typing automatically scrolls to the next line. You do not have to hit Return or Enter at the end of each line. The only time you should hit Enter or Return is at the end of a paragraph. 
  
Continue to type your paragraph and hit enter or return at the end. Hit tab to indent your next paragraph and continue to type. 

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am having a great time here on the moon.  The weather is always sunny and with no clouds.  The view of the stars at night is incredible.  The days are always warm, and the nights are quite chilly.

I am having no trouble getting my feet off the ground here, although the small amount of gravity does make it difficult to build a new business.

Saving
By now it is a good idea to save your document. This is easy. Since it is the first time to save this document, click with your mouse and hold the button down on the word File at the top left hand corner of the screen. This pops up a menu. Slide down to Save as… and let go of the mouse button.

A window pops up, and you have to choose where you will save to. You can do this by clicking with your mouse.

It is always a good idea to save every ten or fifteen minutes. Computers are known to freeze or crash. If this happens and you have not saved, you could lose all of your work. From now on you only need to click on File and slide down to Save.