Bigger, bolder, and a heading

Make any part of what you have written stand out, and know exactly why nothing happens when you press Bold at the wrong moment.

Almost every "it did not work" in a word processor comes down to one thing: the computer did not know which words you meant.

A button like Bold does not act on the page. It acts on whatever is chosen at that moment. If nothing is chosen, there is nothing for it to act on, so it appears to do nothing at all.

You can make a title stand out in two ways, and they look identical on paper. They are not identical to the computer, and the difference costs nothing today and saves a great deal later.

For a one-page letter, either is fine. For anything with sections in it — a club newsletter, a set of minutes, a report for the committee — the Heading style is worth the two seconds.

Key points

Choose words before pressing a formatting button, and know what to do when nothing seems to happen.
Use a proper Heading rather than making a title big by hand.
Make an entire document comfortable to read in two presses.

What to remember

Choose first, press second. Every formatting button in every program works this way.
A formatting button that seems dead is a formatting button with nothing chosen. It is the commonest false alarm in word processing.
Select all chooses the whole document. It is the fastest way to make anything readable.

Try this

Open something you have already written, press Select all, and set the text size to 14 with the line spacing at one and a half. Read a paragraph. If it feels easier, keep it — and if not, press Undo.

Practice: Bigger, bolder, and a heading. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.