Get started with the free Word Online

Most people are probably familiar with Word as a word processor within the Office package. But there is also Office Online. This free package contains stripped-down versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The programs are not on the computer, but can only be used via the internet. They can do less than the paid variants, but work fine for not too complicated tasks. Documents created through Office Online are saved to OneDrive. That’s Microsoft’s virtual hard drive. The documents are linked to your account and can be accessed from any computer, tablet or smartphone.

A Microsoft account is required to use Word Online and the other parts of Office Online. That is an email address that ends in @outlook.com, @hotmail.com or @live.com with a password. Don’t have a Microsoft account yet? Then read the article ‘Create a Microsoft account’.

• Go to office.com and click To register or the icon Account .
• Enter your Microsoft account email address and click Next one.
• Also type the password and click on To register (or Sign in).
• The online Office environment opens. On the left side of the screen, the various Office Online programs are listed below each other. Move the mouse pointer to one of the programs and the name will appear. click on Become.
• Choose what you want to do: start with a new document, browse the templates, or open an existing document. We click on New blank document.
• You may be prompted to enter the password again. click on Verify and type the password.

Word Online starts and opens a blank document.

The functions of Word Online, just like in regular Word, can be found in the Ribbon at the top of the document and in the menus. It concerns the following menus:

• File: This menu contains options such as ‘New’ for a new document, ‘Save (as)’ to save the document (in the meantime), and ‘Print’ to print the document. Click the arrow at the top left to exit the menu and return to the document.
• Start: This section lists things like the font, size, and color of letters, as well as options for pasting text.
• Insert: A section to insert everything from images to page numbers.
• Layout: a less used part. Define or change margins and the size of the document here.
• References: Insert a footnote here, among other things.
• Check: The spell checker can be found here, as well as an option to comment on the document.
• Image: Change the appearance of the document here and show/hide headers and footers.

Give the text in the document a different look with the formatting options.

• Click anywhere on the white page to get started. The cursor appears at the top of the document.
• We’ll type a little bit of text to show you some formatting features. In our example, we’ll type the word “Invitation.”
• Select the word by placing the mouse pointer in front of it and holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse pointer to the end of the word.
• Click on the tab Start.
• Click on the B to make the text bold.
  
• The buttons next to it make the text italicized (I) or underlined (U).
• The font ‘Calibri’ is set by default. Adjust this if necessary by clicking the arrow behind California clicking and then a different font.
• By default, the font size is 11. Select the text to be larger or smaller. Click on the arrow behind ’11’ to change the size. Click a number higher than 11 for larger text, or a lower number for smaller letters.

Tip: You can also use the options box that appears above the selected word. There you will also find formatting options such as ‘bold’.

At the top of the screen is the name that Microsoft has given to the document in the blue bar. Edit this name. Click the default name (usually something like Document 1) and type in a document name. The change is implemented immediately.

The file is automatically saved to OneDrive. So there is no need to save in the meantime. In order to put the document on the computer, it must be downloaded. For example so that you can share it in an email. Do this as follows:

• Click in the Ribbon on File.
• Click on the left Save as.
• click on Download copy to save it as a Word file on the computer. Or choose Download as PDF to turn it into a PDF file.

The file is now in the Downloads folder (unless you have set it otherwise).

Created documents can be found on OneDrive.

• Click on the icon consisting of 9 squares at the top left .
• click on OneDrive.
• OneDrive opens in a new tab.
• If necessary, click My files and double click on the folder Documents.
• Then click on a document to open it.

If necessary, return to the Word document. Then click on the other tab or click on the icon with the squares in the top left and click on Become.

Are you ready? Then you can log out. Or go to another Microsoft service via the icon with the squares in the top left.

• Click on the circle in the top right corner with your initials in it.
• In the drop-down window click on Sign out.