Word processing skills

All students at Skills Institute Australia are strongly encouraged to submit all assessments in a digital format. Handwritten work will only be accepted in limited circumstances.

Our staff are ready to assist any students who require additional coaching in general computer skills or in Word Processing in particular.

There are many word processing applications that are available, many of which are free of charge. Microsoft Word is the most popular, and Google Docs is a free, highly functional alternative.

Here are some very informative help sites:

Software	Help site
Microsoft Word	Word for Windows training
Google Docs	Google Docs training and help

The table below lists some of the most important skills that you need in using word processing software to complete your assessments or assignments in either Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Skill	Description	MS Word	Google Docs
The most important
New	Create a new document	Control-N	File > New > Document
Save	Save your work	Control-S	Google automatically saves.
Send	Prepare your document to send to your teacher	Control-S	File > Download > Microsoft Word
Open	Open a document you were previously working on	File > Open	File > Open
Very useful
Save as	Save the document with a new name	File > save as	File > Make a copy
Bold	Make some text BOLD	Control-B	Control-B
Italic	Make some text ITALIC	Control-I	Control-I
Bullets	Make a list with dot points	Home > bullet button	Bullet button
Numbered list	Make a list with numbers	Home > Numbers button	Numbers button
Spell check	Find words that are misspelled	Right-click on words underlined in red	Right-click on words underlined in red
Word count	Count how many words in your document	Bottom left of your screen	Tools > Word Count
Table	Add a table in your document	Insert > Table	Insert > Table
Print	Send a document to your printer	Control-P	Control-P
Copy	Copy some text from somewhere	Highlight the text, then Control-C	Highlight the text, then Control-C
Paste	Paste the text you just copied	Control-V	Control-V