ECDL Part 2

Is this course for you?

The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) is becoming one of the most widely recognised 'generic' qualifications, and is intended to represent a broad level of PC competence.

The Reeltime ECDL courses have been developed specifically around the skills required by the ECDL syllabus and are an ideal way to prepare for the ECDL examination.

This course covers ECDL Module 3 - Word Processing. It is based on Microsoft Word 2000.

The course includes the basics of word processing, so previous experience is not required. Some experience with Windows is highly desirable and we recommend that novices start with our ECD1 course. The course includes the following elements:

Lesson 1: Word 2000 basics 1 Lesson 13: Styles and pagination
Lesson 2: Word 2000 basics 2 Lesson 14: Headers and footers
Lesson 3: Help functions Lesson 15: Spelling and grammar
Lesson 4: Adjust basic settings Lesson 16: Page setup
Lesson 5: Document exchange Lesson 17: Printing and previewing
Lesson 6: Basic operations 1 Lesson 18: Tables 1
Lesson 7: Basic operations 2 Lesson 19: Tables 2
Lesson 8: Find and replace text Lesson 20: Pictures and Clip Art
Lesson 9: Text Formatting 1 Lesson 21: AutoShapes
Lesson 10: Text formatting 2 Lesson 22: Import objects
Lesson 11: Text formatting 3 Lesson 23: Use Mail Merge
Lesson 12: Templates
Pre-defined curricula What you will need to enrol

Lesson 1: Word 2000 basics 1 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Start the Microsoft Word application
  • Open an existing document
  • Select Normal view for easy editing
  • Make simple modifications to a document
  • Save a modified document
  • Save an existing document using another name
  • Close a document
  • Close the Word application
The Reeltime ECD2 course covers the ECDL Module 3: Word Processing. This course assumes that you know the basics of using Windows. If you are new to computers then you should go through the Reeltime course ECD1 which covers modules 1 and 2 before attempting any of the other ones. In this lesson we look at first steps in word processing. Word processing applications allow you to create quite complex documents. However, they all start from the same basic starting point, which involves saving them on disk.

Lesson 2: Word 2000 basics 2 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Open several documents
  • Switch between open documents
  • Arrange all open documents
  • Close all documents
  • Create a new document and save it
  • Understand file naming conventions
In the previous lesson we started by opening an existing document, making some changes and saving them. That is fine if you want to update an existing document stored on disk. More often you will be starting new ones from scratch so in this lesson we look at different ways you can do this.

Lesson 3: Help functions top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Use ToolTips to identify toolbar buttons
  • Display the Office Assistant
  • Move the Office Assistant
  • Search for help on a topic
  • Display help information
  • Recognise Help window features
  • Use the Help tabs
  • Change Assistant appearance
  • Change Assistant options
  • Recognise when the Assistant has a tip
  • Show/Hide the Office Assistant
  • Turn off the Office Assistant
  • Get help at a dialog box
In this lesson we look at different ways of getting help. You can use the Office Assistant to open the Word Help window and display information about different topics. You can change the Office Assistant appearance and control what sort of information it gives you. The Office Assistant can guess help topics and make suggestions about the type of work you are doing. It can offer hints, tips and other messages while you are working with Word.

Lesson 4: Adjust basic settings top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Modify the toolbar display
  • Control where toolbars appear
  • Control how menus appear
  • Identify toolbar buttons
  • Change page display modes
  • Change Normal view Zoom settings
  • Change Print Layout view Zoom settings
  • Use the Zoom toolbar button
  • Use the View control buttons
As you work with longer documents, you can control how much text is displayed and how it is viewed. You can control which toolbars are displayed and where they appear on the work area. In this lesson we look at different document views and how to control the toolbar display.

Lesson 5: Document exchange top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Change the save type
  • Open files saved in different formats
  • Open a file form its icon
  • Save a document in a web page format
  • Move to the end of a web page
  • Add a hyperlink
  • Recognise and use a hyperlink
  • Save changes to a web document
So far, we have left it up to Word to control which format is used to save a document. That is fine if it will only be used with the Word application. However, you may need to exchange a document with another user. If they do not have the same version of the Word application as you, their word processing application may not be able to open and display the document contents. To get around this potential problem you simply save the document in a different format. Similarly you may want to convert a document you have created using Word into a format suitable for posting on a web site and we look at that in this lesson.

Lesson 6: Basic operations 1 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Move the text insertion point with the mouse
  • Insert the date using the menus
  • Insert data from a file
  • Insert words
  • Insert paragraphs
  • Insert page breaks
  • View page breaks in Normal view
  • Display the formatting characters with the Show/Hide button
  • Delete a manual page break
You can create very sophisticated documents using Word 2000 and view them in different ways, but it all starts from the basics of simple text editing. You can build up a document by inserting different types of information (or data). In this lesson we concentrate on inserting different amounts of text, creating paragraphs of text and controlling how much information appears on a page. We also look at inserting special symbols such as the trademark symbol and using the Undo command to undo the previous action.

Lesson 7: Basic operations 2 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Use the Selection bar
  • Select a word
  • Select a sentence
  • Move the insertion point with the keyboard shortcuts
  • Select with the Shift key
  • Delete text
  • Cut and Paste text in a document
  • Copy and Paste text in a document
  • Copy and move text between active documents
So far, you have seen how to insert information into a document. One of the benefits of word processing applications is that it is easy to select different amounts of text and move or copy it to another part of a document. You can even copy it to document, or delete it, using the standard Cut, Copy and Paste options. In this lesson we look at how to select data and use the cut, copy and paste tools.

Lesson 8: Find and replace text top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Find a word
  • Use the Search options
  • Search for a phrase
  • Replace a word
  • Replace a phrase
  • Use the Sounds Like option
Word's Find feature allows you to quickly move to text in a document even if you do not know exactly where it is. It is much more reliable and faster than scrolling through the document as it is surprisingly easy to miss text when you are reading it from a computer screen. In this lesson we look at how to search for and replace words and phrases in a document.

Lesson 9: Text Formatting 1 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Change font size and style
  • Use bold, underline and italic effects
  • Apply colour to selected text
  • Use alignment and justification effects
  • Hyphenate text manually
  • Use the Hyphenation tool
When you start a new document, the font, size and any special effects are controlled by the template. You are not limited to these settings. You can apply a range of text formatting effects to make your documents look more interesting. You can even get Word to hyphenate text for you, and we look at these topics in this lesson.

Lesson 10: Text formatting 2 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Indent text using the toolbar buttons
  • Indent text using the menus
  • Control line spacing in a paragraph
  • Copy the formatting from a selected piece of text
  • Add spacing before and after a paragraph
In the previous lesson we looked at ways of enhancing text. In in this lesson we concentrate on controlling where the text appears on the page. You can indent text, you can change the spacing between each line in a paragraph, as well as put extra spacing at the beginning and end of paragraphs to make the text easier to read. Finally, when you have text formatted in the way you want, you can apply that formatting to other parts of the document using the Format Painter.

Lesson 11: Text formatting 3 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Use the default tabs
  • Set custom tabs
  • Display the Ruler
  • Set and clear tabs from the Ruler
  • Create bulleted and numbered lists
  • Add border effects
In this lesson we look at setting up special formatting for parts of a document. When you want to line up columns of information you can use Word's tab settings to give you different effects. Alternatively, when you are inserting lists of information you can make them stand out by adding bullet points at the beginning of each one, or even get Word to number them automatically. Finally you can add different types of Border effects to selected text.

Lesson 12: Templates top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Choose a document template
  • Preview templates
  • Work within a template
  • Select the Letter Wizard
  • Control the letter format
  • Add recipient information
  • Include other elements and send courtesy copies
  • Specify the sender information and closing details
  • Reopen the Letter Wizard
Every document you create with Word is based on a template of some kind. Some templates are blank, others contain text and graphics with panels for you to fill in. Some of the template icons are called Wizards. These 'automatic helpers' guide you through a set of steps, which help you fill in standard text and choose the look of the documents. You can set up your own templates, but it is worth having a look at the ones provided with Word, as they will save you a lot of work if you use them as a starting point.

Lesson 13: Styles and pagination top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Understand how a style is made up
  • Apply a style to the active paragraph
  • Apply a style to selected text
  • Apply a heading style
  • Insert page numbering
  • Control the page number format
  • Control the page numbering style
When you start a new document, you are set to use the default Normal style, which sets the font size, type and so on. You can modify text using the menus and toolbar buttons but a quicker way is to use Word's preset Styles, which give you a quick way of making a document more interesting. With longer documents it is useful to add page numbering which, with Word, can be automated so you always have the correct numbering. In this lesson we look at applying styles to a document and controling the page number format and style.

Lesson 14: Headers and footers top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Add headers and footers
  • Add the date and time
  • Insert AutoText items
  • Apply basic text formatting
  • Use different headers and footers for odd and even pages
  • Use the header and footer toolbar buttons
You have already seen how Word uses the area set aside for headers and footers for automatic page numbering. When you are creating reports or other long documents, which are going to be printed, you may need to repeat text at the top or bottom of each page. In this lesson we look at the different effects you can produce using headers and footers.

Lesson 15: Spelling and grammar top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Correct spelling mistakes
  • Correct grammar
Spelling checkers have been around for a long while, but you still had to remember to use them. Word brings a new level of sophistication to spelling checks, because it can check as you type and underline spelling and grammatical errors and suggest corrections. You can make changes to each underlined item as you go along, or correct all the items once you have your final version. In this lesson we look at how to correct spelling and grammar mistakes.

Lesson 16: Page setup top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Set document measurement units
  • View the document setup
  • Control paper size and orientation
  • Change document margins
  • Add a gutter margin
  • Change the header and footer margins
  • Control other margin settings
  • Select a paper source
  • Change layout settings
So far in the course we have been working on prepared documents. These were created using pre-set page layouts from the document templates. These assume a standard paper size, margins, measurement units and so on. Word allows you to change these settings to give different effects to suit the document you are working on. In this lesson we look at how to control different aspects of document page layouts.

Lesson 17: Printing and previewing top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Use Print Layout view
  • Use Print Preview
  • Print using basic print options
  • Control the print options
  • Print from an installed printer
  • View the printer properties
Despite the increasing use of electronic mail and the Internet you will still need to print some documents out on paper. You can preview your document before printing and choose which parts you want to print. You can select the number of copies and collate them in proper binding order as well as control how much information is to appear on each sheet of paper. In this lesson we look at how to preview a document and control how the printed version looks.

Lesson 18: Tables 1 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Convert text to a table
  • Display the gridlines
  • Enter text in a table
  • Add rows to a table
  • Delete rows
  • Insert columns
  • Delete columns
  • AutoFit a table
  • Delete cell contents
  • Create a table
  • Delete a table
Word has some very useful features for producing tables, which gives you much more control over the text than using a tabular layout set up with the Tab keys. Once you have set up a table you can easily add and remove data. Word also gives you control over how wide each column is to suit the information in the table. In this lesson we look at how to create a simple table.

Lesson 19: Tables 2 top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Add borders to a table
  • Change text formatting
  • Change text alignment
  • Change cell size to fit the text
  • Change the table alignment
  • Increase the height of a row
  • Change alignment of text in selected cells
  • Rotate text in a table
  • Specify the height of a row
  • AutoFormat a table
  • Edit AutoFormat settings
The previous lesson looked at table basics and how to control the information it contains. In this lesson we move on to look at how to improve the look of the table contents by controlling the sie of cells and adding special effects.

Lesson 20: Pictures and Clip Art top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Select a picture image to add to a document
  • Choose between linking and embedding a picture
  • Select a picture
  • Change the picture layout
  • Move a picture
  • Resize a picture
  • Use picture image controls
With Word it is easy to add pictures and Clip Art images to a document. You have full control over the size of the picture and where it appears on the page. You can change how the image looks and even turn it into a watermark. In this lesson we look at inserting pictures and controlling how ithey look and how they appear on the page.

Lesson 21: AutoShapes top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Display the AutoShapes and Drawing toolbars
  • Add AutoShapes to a document
  • Change line style and colour
  • Add fill colour
  • Add custom fill colours
  • Move a shape
  • Change the order of shapes
  • Group drawing shapes
  • Control object format
  • Use the shortcut menu to hide toolbars
Many documents can be greatly enhanced with simple drawings and diagrams. To make things easier for you Word has a range of preset shapes called AutoShapes, which you can add to a document. You can change the line and add background colours as well as add text inside a shape. In this lesson we look at creating shapes and adding custom effects.

Lesson 22: Import objects top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Insert an Excel worksheet
  • Link the object with the source file
  • Edit a linked object
  • Delete an object
  • Import a chart
In a previous lesson you saw how to add graphics to a document. These are saved with the document. Changes made to the original graphic file do not effect the version in the document. In this lesson we look at how to import other non-text items, which have been created with other applications. We also look at linking an item with the original source as well as embedding items.

Lesson 23: Use Mail Merge top list 
Learn how to... Tutor's summary
  • Start the Mail Merge Helper
  • Specify the main document merge type
  • Create a data source
  • Add data to the data source
  • Add fields to a main document
  • Edit a data source
  • Check query options before merging
  • Merge the data with the document
One of the great benefits of word processing applications is the ability to send a copy of the same document to people on a mailing list. You set up your mailing list data in one file, then create the document you want to send to your list of contacts. In this lesson we look at creating and using merge documents.

Pre-defined curricula

Like all courses at the Reeltime College this course comes supplied with a number of predefined curricula designed to help you go straight to the subjects you're most interested in. Curricula supplied with this course include:

  1. Standard curriculum (all lessons)
  2. Getting Started
  3. Basic Operations
  4. Formatting
  5. Finishing a document
  6. Printing
  7. More Advanced Features
  8. Personal curriculum (designed by you)

What will I need to enrol?

This is what you need to get the most from the course:

  1. A Pentium-class PC with Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP.
  2. Sound card and loudspeakers or headphones
  3. A CD-ROM drive (or DVD drive) either on the PC or accessible over a local network.
  4. Approximately 10 Mb spare disk capacity. If you have another 30 Mb spare, you can choose to copy introduction movies onto the hard disk.
  5. If you download the course handbook, you'll need approximately 2 Mb spare for the download.
  6. The course assumes you have a copy of the target software (Word 2000) correctly installed on your computer. If not, you'll be able to watch the movie segments, but not complete the hands-on segments.

You can enrol on the course by using the Reeltime software, which also allows you to preview the course content off-line. For more information, go to the How to join Reeltime College  page.

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