Word basics: preparing documents step by step

Applications, letters and reports in Word and free alternatives: formatting, styles, contents, tables, page numbers, PDF and common mistakes.

Applications, explanatory notes, letters of appeal, work reports and CVs are all text documents. Handwritten paperwork is fading out: schools, district khokimiyats, employers and training centres expect a document prepared on a computer, tidy and easy to read. In this guide we cover the basics of preparing documents in Microsoft Word and its free alternatives: the interface, typing and editing text, fonts, paragraphs and spacing, styles and an automatic table of contents, lists, tables and pictures, page setup, page numbers and headers and footers, spell checking, saving as PDF and printing. Then we build an application, a letter of appeal and a report step by step, look at common mistakes, and finish with a practice exercise and a checklist.

The interface and free alternatives

Word is the most widely used word processor, but it is not the only one. If your computer does not have Word, there are free options:

LibreOffice Writer: free software that you install on your computer. It opens and saves Word files (.docx).
Google Docs: runs in the browser with a Google account, saves changes automatically and lets several people edit a document together.
Word for the web: free to use with a Microsoft account and has the main features.

The menu names in this guide follow the English interface of Word. Other programs place their buttons slightly differently, but the ideas are the same.

The main parts of the Word window:

Ribbon: the tabs at the top: Home (basic formatting), Insert (tables, pictures, page numbers), Layout (page setup), References (table of contents), Review (spell check), View (display).
Work area: the white page where you type.
File menu: saving, opening, exporting to PDF and printing.

Before you start writing, save the document straight away (Ctrl + S) and give it a clear name. Not “Document1” but something like “Application_school_2026-10”, so the file is easy to find later.

Typing, editing and formatting text

Typing and editing

In Word, the Enter key does not start a new line, it starts a new paragraph. Within a paragraph, text wraps to the next line by itself when it reaches the edge of the page, so there is no need to press Enter at the end of every line, and you should not.

The main editing actions:

Selecting. Double-click a word to select it; triple-click to select the whole paragraph. Ctrl + A selects the entire document.
Copying and moving. Ctrl + C, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V. When you paste text from elsewhere (a website or a messenger), unwanted formatting may come along with it. To avoid this, choose Home → Paste → Keep Text Only.
Undo. Ctrl + Z reverses the last action.
Find and replace. In the Ctrl + H window you can replace one word with another throughout the document. For example, you can change every “2025” in a report to “2026” in a second.

A useful habit: the ¶ button (Show/Hide) in the Home → Paragraph group reveals hidden characters, so spaces appear as dots and each Enter as ¶. If the layout looks wrong “for no reason”, switch this on first: the cause is usually extra spaces or empty paragraphs.

Fonts

Fonts are set in the Home → Font group: the font name, size, bold (Ctrl + B), italic (Ctrl + I), underline (Ctrl + U) and colour. Simple rules for an official document:

Use one font for the whole document, two at most.
Many organisations are used to Times New Roman or Arial in size 12–14. If an institution has given its own requirements, follow them.
Keep bold for headings and the most important words.

Paragraphs and spacing

Paragraph settings are in the Home → Paragraph group, or in the window that opens from the small arrow in the corner of that group.

Alignment. Left (Ctrl + L), centre (Ctrl + E), right (Ctrl + R) and justified (Ctrl + J). Official text is usually justified, and headings centred.
First line indent. The indent at the start of a paragraph is set not with spaces or Tab but through Indentation → Special → First line.
Line spacing. 1.0 is tight; 1.15 or 1.5 is comfortable to read.
Space between paragraphs (Spacing Before/After). Instead of pressing Enter on an empty line, set the space in the “After” field.

Styles and an automatic table of contents

A style is a ready-made set of font, size, spacing and indents. Styles are in the Home → Styles group: Normal (body text), Heading 1 (chapter heading), Heading 2 (section heading), Title and others.

Why styles beat manual formatting:

Consistency. All headings automatically look the same.
Quick changes. Right-click Heading 1 and choose Modify, and every chapter heading in the document changes at once.
Navigation. Turn on View → Navigation Pane and a list of all headings appears on the left, so you can jump to any section in one click.
An automatic table of contents. This is the biggest benefit of styles.

To insert a table of contents:

Select each chapter heading and click Home → Styles → Heading 1. Use Heading 2 for subsections.
Place the cursor at the beginning of the document, where the contents should go.
Click References → Table of Contents and choose one of the ready-made designs.
If the text changes, click the table of contents and choose Update Table → Update entire table, and the page numbers and headings will refresh.

Do not build a table of contents by hand, typing rows of dots and page numbers yourself: add one paragraph and all the numbers shift. In Google Docs this is Insert → Table of contents, and LibreOffice has a similar command.

Lists, tables and pictures

Lists

The Home → Paragraph group has two buttons: a bulleted list (Bullets) and a numbered list (Numbering). Do not type the numbers yourself; if you add or delete an item, Word renumbers the list for you. To move to a nested level, press Tab at the start of an item, and Shift + Tab to move back. To end the list, press Enter once more on an empty item.

Tables

You add a table with Insert → Table, selecting the number of columns and rows with the mouse. Inside a table, Tab moves to the next cell, and in the last cell it adds a new row. When the table is selected, the Table Design and Layout tabs appear at the top: use them to set borders, shading, column widths and merged cells.

Tip: make the header row bold and turn on Layout → Repeat Header Rows, so that if the table runs onto the next page the header is repeated there too. If the table involves a lot of calculation, it is easier to prepare it in Excel and then insert it into the document.

Pictures

You add a picture with Insert → Pictures. Once it is inserted, a Layout Options icon appears next to it: “In Line with Text” places the picture like a line of text and disturbs the document the least. If the text should wrap around the picture, choose “Square”. Resize only by the corner handles; the side handles stretch the picture and distort its shape.

Page setup, page numbers and headers and footers

Page setup

On the Layout tab:

Size: the paper size. In Uzbekistan this is usually A4. Sometimes Letter is set by default, so check it.
Orientation: Portrait or Landscape. Landscape is handy for a wide table.
Margins: many institutions make the left margin wider so the document can be bound. Exact values are entered under Custom Margins.
Breaks → Page: a new page. Ctrl + Enter does the same.

Page numbers

Use Insert → Page Number to choose where the number goes: the top or bottom of the page, centred or at the side. If the first page (the title page) should have no number, open the header or footer and tick Different First Page.

Headers and footers

Headers and footers are text repeated at the top and bottom of every page: the organisation’s name, the document title, a date or the page number. Click Insert → Header or Insert → Footer. You write a header once and it appears on every page. To return to the main text, click Close Header and Footer.

Spell check, PDF and printing

Spell check

Word underlines spelling mistakes in red and possible grammar problems in blue. To check the whole document, choose Review → Spelling & Grammar or press F7. Set the language of the text with Review → Language → Set Proofing Language. Proofing for Uzbek is not available in every program and version, so:

read the document aloud before sending it;
check names, surnames, dates, numbers and addresses separately, because the program treats them as “correct”;
do not mix Latin and Cyrillic letters: letters that look identical break searching and checking;
write the Uzbek apostrophe (tutuq belgisi) the same way throughout the document.

Saving as PDF

Send official documents, applications and CVs as PDF: a PDF looks the same on any device and cannot be changed by accident. In Word, choose File → Save As and pick PDF as the type, or File → Export → Create PDF/XPS. In Google Docs, File → Download → PDF Document. Keep the original .docx too, because you will need it for edits.

Printing

The File → Print window (Ctrl + P) shows a preview of the pages on the right. Before printing, check the printer, the number of copies and the page range (for example, only pages 2–3).

Templates: an application, a letter of appeal and a report

The examples below are illustrative and the names are made up. Each institution may require its own form; if you have been given a template, follow it.

An application to a school

Malika Karimova is writing an application to transfer her son to another school.

Top right corner. To whom: “To the Director of General Secondary School No. …”, and on the next line from whom: “from Malika Karimova, resident of … mahalla, … district”. Do not push these blocks across with spaces: set a left indent through Home → Paragraph → Indentation → Left.
The word “Application”. As a separate paragraph, centred and bold.
Main text. Justified, with a first line indent: who is asking for what, and why. Three to five sentences are enough.
Attachments. A numbered list of the document copies you are enclosing.
Date and signature. On one line: the date on the left, the signature and name on the right. Use a right-aligned tab stop or a two-column table without borders for this, not spaces.

A letter of appeal to the district khokimiyat

Jasur Toshmatov is preparing a written appeal to the district khokimiyat because the street lights in his mahalla are not working.

At the top, the recipient’s and sender’s details: full name, address, phone number and email, so there is somewhere to send the reply.
A short subject line: “Regarding street lighting”.
The text in three parts: the situation (which street, since when), the impact (children walk home from school in the dark in the evening), and a specific request.
If you attach a photo, insert it with Insert → Pictures.
Save the finished letter as PDF and send it through the official channel, or print and sign it.

A monthly work report

Nodira Rahimova is preparing a monthly report for her head of department. The report runs to several pages, which is exactly where styles help the most.

The first page is the title page: the report title, the period and the author. After it, start a new page with Ctrl + Enter.
On the second page, a table of contents via References → Table of Contents.
Sections: “Work completed”, “Indicators”, “Problems”, “Plan for next month”, each in the Heading 1 style.
A table of indicators: header row in bold, Repeat Header Rows turned on.
The report title in the header, the page number in the footer, and Different First Page on the title page.
Finally, update the table of contents, check with F7 and save as PDF.

Common mistakes and useful shortcuts

Common mistakes

Aligning with spaces. Pushing text to the centre or right with dozens of spaces. Change the font or the printer and everything moves. The right way is the alignment buttons, indents and tab stops.
Starting a new page with Enter. Pressing Enter many times to get to the next page. Add one line above and the whole document shifts. Use Ctrl + Enter instead.
Manual numbering. Lists, page numbers and contents typed by hand have to be redone after every change.
Headings that are just bold. They look like headings, but to Word they are plain text and will not appear in the table of contents. Use a Heading style.
Sending only the .docx. If the recipient uses a different program, the document may look different. Official documents go as PDF.
Not saving. If the power goes off, your work is lost. Make Ctrl + S a habit.

Useful keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts speed up your work noticeably. These are for Windows; on macOS, Cmd usually replaces Ctrl.

Ctrl + S: save.
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y: undo and redo.
Ctrl + A: select all.
Ctrl + B / Ctrl + I / Ctrl + U: bold, italic, underline.
Ctrl + L / Ctrl + E / Ctrl + R / Ctrl + J: align left, centre, right, justify.
Ctrl + Enter: new page.
Ctrl + F / Ctrl + H: find and replace.
Ctrl + Shift + 8: show hidden characters (in Word).
Ctrl + P: print.
F7: spell check (in Word).

Practice exercise and checklist

To reinforce what you have learned, put together a two-page document. Pick a topic you genuinely need: an application to your child’s school, an appeal to your homeowners’ association, or a weekly report for work.

Create a new document and save it straight away under a clear name.
On the Layout tab, check the A4 size and the margins.
Write a title page on page one, then press Ctrl + Enter.
Format three section headings with Heading 1 and two subsections with Heading 2.
Write 2–3 paragraphs in each section: justified, with a first line indent and 1.15 line spacing.
Add one numbered list and a small three-column table.
Insert one picture and choose “In Line with Text”.
Put the document title in the header and the page number in the footer; the title page should have no number.
Add a table of contents at the start, then change one heading and update the contents.
Turn on ¶ and clean up extra spaces and empty paragraphs.
Check the document with F7 and save it as PDF.

Checklist before sending

One font, one consistent size.
Headings use Heading styles, and the table of contents is up to date.
No alignment with spaces; new pages start with Ctrl + Enter.
Lists and page numbers are automatic.
Names, dates and numbers have been checked separately.
The file name is clear, the PDF copy is ready and the original .docx is saved.

Preparing text documents is the foundation of any office job and a skill you need everywhere, from writing a CV to contacting a government office. Prepare a few documents following these rules and they will become second nature.

If you would like to learn Word and other office software systematically with a teacher, take a look at our association’s free computer literacy programme and other training programmes. When you are ready, submit an application and our specialists will get in touch.