Using Personal Computers

Section 5: Software and Applications

Part 2: Word Processors

	Word processing is one of the most common applications for computers. There are many different word processors, with widely varying costs and capabilities - from ones which are essentially free up to ones costing several hundred pounds or more. In this section we look at a few of the most common ones and discuss some properties common to both of them, but we cannot go into any great detail here. To get more detailed information on a specific program, you can either: Use the built in help (if it has any) Use the manual (if it has one!) Buy a book - there are third party books available for some of the most common programs.
	Which word processor should you choose? It depends on what you want it for. If all you want to do is type a few letters, then Wordpad is quite adequate. If you want to do something a bit more complex such as producing simple leaflets and documents, but are on a restricted budget, then one of the mid-range programs such as Microsoft Works (which is an integrated suite containing a word processor) is a good choice. The "professional" programs are a lot more powerful, but are rather expensive, and take up a lot more disk space. They can also be a little more complex to use, because of the range of options available. However, if you want to create complex documents, then one of these is the correct choice. It is important to take into account when choosing your word processor whether you will be sharing files with other people. As pointed out in the previous section, exporting and importing between different programs is rarely perfect, so it may be best to choose the same program as the people you are sharing files with.

	Most of the features listed at left are present in even the most basic of word processors (note however that Wordpad does not contain a spelling checker). If this is all you need from a word processor, one of the low cost ones will probably suit you best.
	The features at left will not be found in the basic word processors, but will be present in all of the "professional" ones in some form or other. The mid-range programs will probably contain some but not all of them, and the features will be implemented in a more limited way. Some of the features are self explanatory. A few are worth explaining in more detail: Styles. Styles allow you to apply pre-defined formats to text. For example, a style could be defined as Italic, 12 point, bold, Times New Roman font . Styles make it easier to give large documents consistent layout. One of the most common uses is in defining heading styles.
Document templates are predefined outline documents containing the basic layout of a document. They will usually include all the relevant styles for that type of document embedded within them, so those styles are automatically available whenever you create a document based on the template. You might, for example, have one template for business letters, another for personal ones, and another for reports. Contents table and index generation. At its most basic, this feature will generate a contents table at the correct place in a document by listing all of the text which has a heading style, and list the correct page number for each heading. If the document is then edited (for example by inserting another heading, or extending a section so that a heading is moved onto the next page), the program can update the table without you having to check each entry and correct it. Most advanced word processors allow you to create more complex tables by allowing you to "mark" specific items of text in a document as index or contents entries - the "mark" is invisible in the printed document but is stored in the file. Cross references. This is similar to contents table and index generation. It's easiest to illustrate it with an example. If you want to refer to another part of a document, you might type something like "see page 5", "see section 2.1", or "see Early History". If this is done as normal text, then changing or reformatting the document could cause the cross reference to go out of date. For example, the relevant entry might now be on page 6 because you have reduced the length of the pages. If however you use a cross reference, the word processor will automatically insert the correct number or text, and update it if it is changed. Most modern advanced word processors contain many other sophisticated features - too many to go into in detail here. Each one has it's own particular strengths and weaknesses, and it's own approach to how to implement these features. You can use books or the online help to learn more about them, but the best way to learn is to experiment. Try things out and see what happens. Look through the menus and try the different options. You will learn more by experimenting, and understand it better, than you will ever learn just by reading about it.

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