Word Processing

Slide 1
 What is a word processor?
A word processor is a computer that you use for writing,
editing and printing text. A dedicated word processor is
a system that can only be used for word processing.

Why use a word processor?

You can type your work at the keyboard and print it out when
you need it (this printout is called a hard copy).You can save
your work to disk and use it again. You can make whatever
changes you want to your work.

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 Word Processing
Main Features Word processors have all the features that are
found in all general purpose packages such as Open, Save,Print.
They also have features special to word processing such as:-

1 Word Wrap
If a word does not fit into the space at the end of a line it is
carried to the start of a new line automatically
2 Text Redrafting
Allows the user to edit a document or letter by moving,
deleting or copying words, characters, whole sentences or
paragraphs
3 Text Style
The style of the text can be changed to Bold Italic or
underline
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4 Text Formatting
Allows the user to change the font size, font style, font
colour, line spacing and alignment.
5 Page Break
Allows the user to end a page and start a new page whenever
they want. This is useful when you want to keep paragraphs
together to make the document neat and professional

6 Page Setup
Allows the user to change the margins to make the width
and length of the page bigger or smaller and to change the
layout of the page to landscape or Portrait
Also used to change the size of the page eg A3 or A4

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7 Text Alignment

Left Text lined up on the left-hand side of the page.

Right Text lined up on the right-hand side of the page.
Centre Text lined up in the centre of the page.
Full Text has extra spaces so that the left-hand and
right-hand sides are both lined up.

Left Centre Right Full

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8 Spell Checker.
When a user selects the spell check facility

(i) Each word in their document is compared with a

dictionary file containing approximately 50,000 words.
(ii) Any word not found is highlighted and alternatives
offered to the user.
(iii) The user selects either ignore or replace with one
of the alternatives offered.
Some up to date spellcheckers have an auto correct facility which
automatically corrects spelling without asking. For example if the
user types teh instead of the An auto correct facility would
automatically change it.
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Spellcheckers do have limitations though and a user must always
remember to proof read (read through their document) to make
sure that it is error free.
Some of the errors that a spell checker may miss are

to instead of too or two their instead of there

you instead of your where instead of were

Another limitation is that a spell checker does not recognise

peoples names, towns and abbreviations. This is because they
are not in the dictionary. However the spellchecker can learn
new words by adding them to the dictionary

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9 Grammar Check
Works in a similar way to a spell checker, by highlighting
sentences that it thinks contain grammatical errors and
suggesting alternative words or phrases.

10 Others
Word count and Thesaurus

11 Templates
Are prepared layouts and are used when a certain type of
document is used often. In Microsoft Word there are many
templates eg Letters Memos, CVs, and Reports. Anyone can
create a template eg a school or business may wish to make a
template for a Letterhead

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12 Tabulation
Instead of using the spacebar to lay out columns of text you
should always use the Tab Key on the keyboard. This means
that all columns will line up evenly and give a quality look to a
document.

There are different types of tabs

Left Centre Right Decimal

One One One £372.34

Two Two Two £5.90
Three Three Three £87.00
Fifteen Fifteen Fifteen £0.23

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13 Tables
As an alternative to tabs tables can be easily created and
automatically formatted to give a professional presentation.
Tables also have the advantage of being able to carry out simple
calculations and to provide a data source for mail merging.

Left Centre Right Decimal

One One One £372.43
Two Two Two £5.90
Three Three Three £87.00
Fifteen Fifteen Fifteen £0.23

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14 Search and Replace
Most word processing packages have the facility to replace
all or selected occurrences of a word (or phrase) with
another word (or phrase).

In Microsoft Word it is called Find / Replace.

Slide 11
 There are several options:

(i) Selective search and replace shows you each word

before changing it and asks you to confirm this.

(ii) Global search and replace replaces every occurrence of a

word throughout the whole document without asking you
to confirm each change.

(iii) Find whole or part of a word. Eg search for SMART

whole word: will only find the word smart
Part word : in addition to smart will find all
words which incorporate the word
smart including smarties,
smartipants
(iv)Case ...
sensitive
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15 Standard Paragraphs
Sometimes different letters use the same paragraphs.
Standard paragraphs are stored as separate files and a
combination of these paragraphs can be used to make a
document.

Example: In a lawyers office there are lots of legal terms and

conditions that have to be incorporated into various legal
documents. Having standard paragraphs saves having to type
the same thing in again and again. A legal contract could be
made quickly using standard paragraphs.

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16 Standard Letter
A standard letter is letter saved as a file and can be used
again and again. It has spaces left for personal details such
as names and addresses and dates of appointments.

Example: every month a bank sends out a letter to customers

who have overdrawn their accounts:

The following slide shows an example of a letter sent to these

customers

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 High Street Bank
Main Street
Glasgow
{Name}
{Address}
{Town}
{Postcode}

Dear {Name}
You have overdrawn account no.{number} by £{amount} this
month. Please call in to the bank on {day and date} to discuss
this situation with the bank manager.
Yours sincerely

Manager Slide 15
The personal details {in brackets} that are inserted into a
standard letter are usually stored as records on a database file or
a table in a word processor.

Taking the details from the database/table and putting them in a

standard letter is called a mail merge.
Steps Taken to produce a mail merge

1 Create standard letter using a word processor and save as a

file
2 Create data source using a database or table in a word
processor and save as a file
3 Use the mail merge feature in a word processor and merge
the two files together.
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17 Printer Drivers

When you purchase a printer you also get software called a Printer
Driver. This software allows the printer to understand the codes
that the word processing software is sending it. For example the
word processor will have a special code for underlining text and
the printer driver will translate this into the appropriate code for
the printer being used

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18 Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
This is software that allows text to be scanned and converts it into
a word processed document. Sometimes though characters can be
recognised wrongly eg a 1 (one) and l (letter) and so an OCR
document has to be carefully proof read.
Features of word processors eg spell checker and search and
replace will help the user to edit an OCR document to correct any
mistakes.

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