Opening the Program
First, open the "Microsoft Word" application by double-clicking on the appropriate icon. I use Word 2000 on my computer (as opposed to Word XP, 97, 6.0 or a Macintosh version), but the icon for most versions looks something like this:

The Menu Bar
After double-clicking on this icon, you will briefly see an introduction screen, and then a blank document should open. The bulk of this document is a large white space. There is generally a "ruler" above this white space. Depending on the settings of the particular computer you are working at, there will also be an array of small icons, pull-down type fonts, etc.

The small icons and rulers may change, but there will always be a "menu bar" at the top of a Word document. The menu bar in Word has 9 pull-down menus (highlighted below):

Don't worry about getting confused with all the icons! You can do most basic operations in Word by using the menu bar.

For the remainder of this tutorial, I will lead you through Word by means of the menu bar. For example, if I want to undo my typing of the word "goat," I can pull the "Edit" menu down to "Undo." You can undo numerous kinds of formatting in Word, so don't be afraid of leading yourself into a dead end.