What Is Microsoft Office?

Software applications such as Microsoft Office are used in everyday life, mostly for creating documents, presentations, etc. In this text, we will be looking at the Microsoft Office Package, the Microsoft Office Word application, its uses, and how to operate it. 

Microsoft Office is a software package that contains other applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Excel, and so on.

It is an all-in-one software package that is capable of providing users with various programs that can create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, notes, etc.

Microsoft Office is owned by Microsoft, a software company located in the US and founded by Bill Gates.

Applications in Microsoft Office

The software package contains various applications/programs such as:

  • Microsoft Office Word
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft OneNote

What Is Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Office Word is a word processing application. Its major function is in the manipulation of text to create documents that can be altered.

Word is one of several word processing tools in the computing world today, others include WPS Office, Google Docs, etc.

Features Of Microsoft Word

For this article, we will be looking at two types of features. They are the General and Specific Features of Microsoft Office Word.

General Features

These are special tools provided by the program to help in modifying, editing, and creating a well-defined document. They are largely the same for every version of Microsoft Word. They include the following:

  • Home: In the Home option, features such as font style, font size, font color, alignment, line spacing, paragraphing are present. 

The Home feature helps in-text formatting.

  • Insert: This feature enables the user to bring in shapes, pictures, graphics, graphs, headers, footers, page numbers, etc into the text.

The Insert feature is used to give additional information to the main text.

  • Design: The Design tab is used to create an aesthetically pleasing page. It contains Document Formatting and Page Background.
  • Page Layout: This tab helps you to organize the pages of your document of your choosing. It has under it effects like margins, page orientation, line breaks, paragraph indentation, etc.
  • References: This deals with the correct referencing of text in your document. It helps you to add a table of contents, footnotes, cross-references, selection of different reference style formats(such as MLA or APA).
  • Review: The review tab allows cross-checking text,  with specific functions such as check, translation, apply changes, comments, etc.

Specific Features 

Under these features, they can only be seen in the latest version of Microsoft Word; that is version16.0(Word 2021)

These special features are as follows

  • Co-authoring

Here, instead of the normal one-to-one workspace per document, you and a colleague can work on the same document at the same time.

  • Dark Mode

The document page can turn dark, instead of its usual white color.

  • Visual Refresh

Enables for easier user interface with the application as it is enhanced to suit the user. 

  • Microsoft Search

A search tool designed to access keywords or text such as commands, help, etc.

  • Line focus 

A new feature that grants users the capability to view one line of the document, rather than the normal view showing the entire document.

Functions Of Microsoft Word

The Word application has a basic function; which is word processing. Other functions are:

  • Creating, editing, and printing documents
  • Formatting and editing text in documents
  • Correction of spelling and grammar inside text
  • Insertion of tables and other media into documents

Operations on Microsoft Word

An operation is a task given to a program to perform for the user.

Basic operations on Microsoft Word involve text editing and formatting and they include

  • Save  
  • Copy
  • Paste
  • Cut
  • Retrieve
  • Create
  • Edit

Applications of Microsoft Word

The uses are diverse and cut across different spheres of life such as

  1. Education
  2. Journalism
  3. Entertainment
  4. Publishing
  5. Corporate Offices

Conclusion

Word processing has become an integral part of our digital lives and as such, we need tools to effectively carry out tasks on it. Hence, the need for applications such as Microsoft Office Word which provides an easy user interface to allow a fast and efficient process.