The task pane, one of the new features in Word XP, is designed to make it easier for you to select recently used documents, create new documents, and get help when you need it. Positioned on the right side of the screen, the task pane is out of the way but still accessible.
When you open Word XP, the task pane lists your most recently opened documents.
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Electronic copies of documents have virtually replaced paper copies, so even if you don't think you'll ever work with a document again, saving it on disk is a good idea so that you can keep a record of it.
Saving a Document in Word Format
Until you save your document, it is stored in memory, which is a temporary location. Memory is considered a temporary storage location because when you turn off your computer, the memory space is cleared. If the power is interrupted, or if your system locks up, you may lose everything that you haven't saved.
Follow these steps to save a document:
1.Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar or choose File==>Save (Ctrl+S).
![[4.jpg]](/d/file/Business-Applications/MS-Word/Formatting/2009-04-22/821b47c6b75c2a852ea6f5c1935c523f.jpg)
Type a filename and press Enter (or click the Save button).
Filenames can be up to 255 characters in length and can contain letters, numbers, and spaces. Some symbols can be used, but not others, so to avoid problems, stick with hyphens (-) and underscores (_).
When you type a filename without selecting a location, the document is saved in the default folder, which is the folder that Word is currently pointing to.
Word is the dominant word processing program on the market, but others are available. You can freely share your Word documents with someone who uses a completely different program, such as WordPerfect, or someone who uses a different version of Microsoft Word by simply saving the document in a different format. Word has a nice collection of conversion files, or filters, as they are sometimes called. You can save documents in all the frequently used formats including WordPerfect, previous versions of Word, Rich Text Format (RTF), Web Page (HTML), XML, and Plain Text (*.txt).
To save a file in a different format, follow these steps:
1.Choose File==> Save As.
2.In the Save As dialog box, click the Save as type drop-down list arrow to open the list of file types.
3.Scroll through the list to locate the file format that you want to use see pic. As you can see, Word can save to many different file formats.
![[5.gif]](/d/file/Business-Applications/MS-Word/Formatting/2009-04-22/fdc5a6358bec1be1eacbc51ea1b7e086.gif)
4. Select the format from the Save as type drop-down list.
5. If necessary, type a filename and select a location for the file.
6. Click Save.
The fastest way to exit Word is to click the application's Close button, which is represented as an X icon. Two Close buttons appear in the upper-right corner. This can be a little confusing. The top one is the application Close button; the bottom one is the document Close button.
To exit Word, follow these steps:
1. Click the application Close button. Before you close the program, Word prompts you to save any unsaved changes (in every open document window).
2. If necessary, give filenames to any documents that you have not yet saved and named.
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