1. Introduction

A word processing package is used to prepare and edit text. Word processors are used to create all types of documents such as letters, reports and essays. Using a word processor you can type, revise and correct a document on the screen before printing it out. The layout of the page can be changed and a wide variety of different styles of text can be used to improve the presentation of a document. Tools such as spelling checkers can help ensure that the contents of a document is accurate.

The functions of a word processor can be divided up into several different categories :

Page Layout	The page layout functions let you decide how each page will be set out.
Text Presentation	The appearance of text can be easily altered. Different fonts and styles can be used and the size of text can be varied. Text can be neatly lined up on the page.
Editing of Text	Text editing functions are used to revise and change text that you have entered.
Blocks of Text	The style and position of selected blocks of text can be changed.
Text Analysis	The word processor can look at your document and try to highlight any errors such as spelling or grammatical mistakes that you have made.
Templates	Template files let you save favourite document layouts that you have created so that you can use them over and over again.
Other Features	Most modern word processors will offer lots of extra features such as tables, bullet points and fancy text effects.
Mail Merging	A database of names and addresses can be used to personalise letters that have been created in a word processor.

A word processor is not always the best package to use to produce a document. Sometimes you may require more control over the layout of a page or you may wish to include a lot of graphics in a document. If this is the case then a Desktop Publishing (DTP) package would be more suitable. Desktop Publishers are often used to produce newspapers and books. As extra features are added to word processors it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between a word processor and a desktop publisher.

2. Page Layout

Size

Computer printers will let you print word processed documents on several different sizes of paper. Most printers can use Letter and A4 size paper. Bigger printers will also print on A3 paper. Letter size paper is the standard in America and A4 is the standard in Europe.

It is important that the word processor is set to use the correct size of paper for your printer. This will ensure that all of your text will fit onto the page and that there will not be a large unused gap around the edge of the page.

Orientation

You can print onto a piece of paper in one of two orientations, which are usually known as portrait and landscape. These two orientations look like this :

Sometimes portrait is known as tall and landscape is known as wide.

Margins

It is usual to leave a small gap between the writing on a page and the edge of the page. This gap is called a margin. Leaving a margin is especially important when you need to bind a document together. Even if you do not want to leave a margin you will probably have to. Most printers can not print right to the edge of the page. 

You can normally set the size of the top, bottom, left and right margins separately by typing in the distance from the edge of the page to the text.

Headers and Footers

When writing a document containing many pages such as a report you may want the same information to appear at the top and bottom of each page. For example you may want the name of the document and your name to appear at the top of each page. You may want to print each page's number at the bottom of the pages.

• Header : Text appearing at the top of each page is known as a header.
• Footer : Text appearing at the bottom of each page is known as a footer.

Many word processors will let you type special codes which will automatically insert information such as the current date or current page number into the header or footer of a document.

Columns

A page can be divided up into a number of columns. This is particularly useful if you want to produce a newspaper, newsletter or a leaflet which will be folded.

3. Text Presentation

The text presentation functions let you specify what printed text will look like and how it will be positioned on the page.

Fonts

A font is a style of writing. Modern word processors are supplied with a wide range of fonts for you to choose from. Different fonts are useful for different purposes. Plain fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman are good for writing letters and reports. Fancier fonts such as Keystroke and Lincoln are suitable for use on posters.

Font Size

Most fonts are scalable. This means that you can use them at any size you want. The size a font appears at is specified by a number known as the font size. Sizes 10 and 12 are the most common for writing letters and reports. Fonts sizes are specified in 1/72ths of an inch. So fonts at size 72 are one inch tall and fonts at size 36 are half an inch tall. Larger fonts can be used for headings, posters etc.

Font Style

Each font can have a range of extra styles applied to it. The six common styles are :

• Normal : No special style is applied to the font.
• Italic : The font will be displayed as if it is leaning slightly to the right.
• Bold : The lines used to draw the font will be drawn extra thick to make the text stand out.
• Underline : A line will be drawn underneath the text.
• Superscript : The text is raised up to the top of the line and printed at a smaller size.
• Subscript : The text is lowered to just below the line and printed at a smaller size.

Alignment

Alignment describes the position at which text appears on a line on the page. Alignment is sometimes known as justification. There are four different type of alignment :

• Left Alignment : Text is lined up with the left hand edge of the page.This is the default alignment in most word processors.
• Right Alignmnent : Text is lined up with the right hand edge of the page. This is mainly used to put addresses onto letters.
• Center Alignment : Text is placed on the middle of the line. This is often used for headings.
• Full Justification : Text is automatically spread out so that it is lined up with both the left and right hand edges of the page. This form of layout is often used in newspapers.

Indentation

Text on the first line of a paragraph is often indented a short distance from the left hand margin. The first line of this paragraph has been indented :

4. Editing Text

One of the biggest advantages of using a word processor over preparing text manually is entered text can be easily edited. This means that mistakes can be corrected without spoiling the presentation of the final document. There are three main methods that you can use to edit text :

• Deleting and Retyping : The simplest way to edit text is to delete any incorrect text using the backspace or delete keys and then retype the correct text in its place.
• Copy / Cut and Paste : The copy and paste function can be used to duplicate text that has already been typed in. Cut and paste can be used to move a block of text from one position in a document to another.
• Search and Replace : The search and replace function will look through the document to find a word that the user specifies. When the word is found the computer can automatically replace it with another word that the user types in.

5. Blocks of Text

Many word processor functions can be applied to selected blocks of text. A block of text can be selected by using a mouse or the cursor keys. The selected text is usually highlighted by the word processor. When a block of text has been highlighted its properties can be changed. For example :

• The font, style and size can be changed.
• The alignment of the text can be changed.
• Cut or copy and paste can be used to move or duplicate the text.
• The block of text can be deleted.

6. Text Analysis

Word processors provide tools which will check the text that you have typed and highlight and possibly correct any errors that it contains. Almost all word processors will include a spelling checker. More sophisticated packages also include thesaurus dictionaries and grammar checkers.

Spell Check

A spelling checker will examine the text that you have typed and identify any spelling mistakes. When a mistake is found most spelling checkers will attempt to "guess" what the correct word should be and make some suggestions to you. You can accept one of the suggestions or retype the word correctly yourself.

Spelling checkers have quite large dictionaries, typically 80,000 words. However there will be some words that are not in the dictionary such as peoples' names. You can usually add extra words to the dictionary that is supplied with the word processor.

A spelling checker can not spot mistakes where you have typed the wrong word, e.g. it will not spot "their" instead of "there" or "the" instead of "they".

Thesaurus and Grammar Check

Advanced word processors may also offer thesaurus or grammar check features :

• A thesaurus will suggest alternative words with the same meaning as a word that you have typed in. Such words are known as synonyms. For example if you type "big" the thesaurus might suggest "large", "huge" and "vast".
• A grammar checker will examine the structure of any text you have typed. It may highlight some grammatical errors or give you a score to indicate how good your grammar is. The grammar checkers that are available at the moment are not very good.

7. Templates

When you have designed a document layout that you like you may want to use it again for other documents in the future. For example :

• A company may want to set out all the letters it sends in a particular way. The letters may always include a logo and the company's address at a particular position on the page. The same font may be used for the text on each letter.
• A student may want to present all her essays in the same way. The essay title and the student's name could appear at the top of each page and the page number could appear at the bottom of each page. A standard font could be used for the main text and a different font could be used for each heading.

If you have designed a document layout that you want to reuse then you can save it as a template file. When you start a new document you should load the template file to begin with. The template file will contain all the layout information for the new document. Using templates can ensure that the appearance of the documents you produce is consistent. It can also improve your productivity as you do not have to recreate the layout you want every time you start a new document.

Word processors are often supplied with a variety of templates for common tasks such as letter writing, reports and producing curriculum vitaes.

8. Other Features

Most modern word processors will include lots of extra features in addition to those described above. Some common "extras" include :

• Tables : Many word processors contain a special tool that will let you create tables and format them as you want. If a word processor does not contain a table tool then you can use tab stops and the tab key to line tables up neatly. Using the tab key like this is known as tabulation.
• Bullet Points and Numbering : If you want to present a list of points then many word processors will automatically add bullet points before each item in the list or number the points.

9. Mail Merging

Mail merging is a technique used mainly by companies and clubs to send personalised letters to customers or members. Using a standard (or form) letter and a database of names and addresses personalised letters addressed to the people in the database can be easily produced. The names and addresses of the people are automatically put onto the letters :

There are four main steps that must be followed to create mail merged letters. They are :

• Create The Database : If the database containing the names and addresses of the people to send the letter to does not already exist then it must be created.
• Link The Letter And Database : The database and letter must now be linked together so that the mail merge function knows which file contains the names and addresses to fill into the letters
• Write The Letter : The letter to send should be created in the word processor. Special codes must be placed in the letter where the names and addresses of the customers should appear.
• Perform The Mail Merge : When the mail merge is performed one letter will be produced for each person in the database. The names and addresses will be filled in on each letter.

Companies believe that personalising letters in this way will increase the probability that customers will respond to advertisements. The customer is fooled into believing that the company has sent an advert specifically to him. In fact many thousands of people could receive the same letter.

Selective Mail Merges

Mail merged letters can be sent to every person whose name is recorded in a database. Alternatively a query can be used to select only some of the people in a database to send the letter to. For example :

• A company that is trying to market conservatories would not want to waste money sending letters to people who live in flats which have no garden. A query could be used to select only the people who live in houses from a database of names so that money is not wasted sending advertisements to people who could not possibly want a conservatory.
• A club could use a query to select the names of people who need to renew their membership from a database of members. Mail merged reminder letters could then be sent to these people.

When letters are sent to only some of the people in a database this is a selective mail merge. Selective mail merges are much more useful than simple mail merges which produce letters for everyone in a database. If you intend to use a database to carry out a selective mail merge then you must register the database with the Data Protection Commissioner to comply with the Data Protection Act.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004