The Status Bar
The status bar at the bottom of the Microsoft Word window displays information about where your insertion point is currently positioned in the document. From left to right, it shows:
- The page number. This is based on the numbering you’ve defined, so if you’ve set the first page of the document to begin at page 10, then on the first page the status bar will display “Page 10.”
If you’ve inserted section breaks into your document, Word displays the page number defined for that page in the section. For example, if the first section of your document is a cover page, and the second section is front matter, such as a table of contents, and the third section is Chapter 1 of a report, and you’ve set the front matter (Section 2) to begin on page iv and Chapter 1 (Section 3) to begin on page 1, when you position your insertion point on the first page of Chapter 1, the status bar will display “Page 1” and then “Sec 3.”
- The section number.
- The physical page number (regardless of the numbering you’ve defined), out of the total number of pages in the document. If you’ve set the first page of the document to begin at page 10, the first page will still be displayed as “1” out of the total number of pages (for example, “1/25”).
- The number of inches the insertion point is positioned below the top of the page.
- The line number.
- The number of characters from the left margin to the insertion point.
Also displayed is the current status of:
· The macro recorder (REC)
· Track changes (TRK)
· Extend selection mode (EXT)
· Overtype mode (OVR)
These are dimmed when the corresponding features are turned off. You can double-click inside the box in the status bar to turn on one of the features; for instance, to turn on the track changes feature, double-click TRK. To turn it off, double-click TRK again.
The spelling and grammar check status is displayed on the book icon in the status bar. If an error is found, an X appears on the book. Double-click the book to see Word’s suggestion for correcting the error.
Finally, disk and printer icons may appear when Word is autosaving or background printing the document, respectively. When you’re printing a document, Word displays the number of the page currently being printed next to the printer icon.
