There are many types of document which can benefit from word processing, for example, letters, essays, stories, projects, information sheets, poems and plays. The majority of authors writing longer works such as novels, non-fiction and academic papers now use a word processor.
The chief benefit of using a word processor is probably the ability to edit text and not create an illegible mess on the page. Some say this will deprive future generations of the record of how great authors worked as most in the past wrote by hand and first drafts still exist for scholars to examine and compare with the finished work.
A DTP program is still the first choice for magazine design and publishing with features such as close control of type, graphics facilities and colour separations. The popularity of word processing and DTP programs has led to a sharp rise in the amount of published material found in the world, especially of magazines and business documentation.
The largest area is taken up with the document window which is where your text appears.
Across the top of the screen is the Title Bar. This includes your current document title and also the control buttons for the application - Minimise, Restore and Close.
Below the Title Bar is the Menu Bar which includes controls for the document - Minimise, Restore and Close:
Below the Menu Bar are the tool bars of which there are 9 in all, though it is best not to have too many active at one time.
The Standard tool bar includes the File/New, File/Open and File/Save icons on the left side:
The Formatting tool bar includes buttons for most text formatting operations such as bold and underline. The left part contains Heading Style, Font and Font Size options:
The right part contains character formatting (Bold, Italic, Underline, and Colours) and paragraph formatting (Left Justify, Centre, Right Justify and Justify, and Numbered List and Bullet List). There is also the Border tool.
On the right hand side of the document window is the vertical scroll bar. At the bottom of the scroll bar are three small buttons for navigating between objects. The double headed arrows move up and down one object while the middle button allows you to choose the object for navigation.
Top:
and bottom:
The default browse object is the page but you can select other objects such as headings, images and tables.
Under the document window is a row of icons which controls the display in the document window with options for normal, online or web browser layout, page layout, and outline view.
These are equivalent to the options in the View menu.
On the same horizontal strip as the view buttons is the horizontal scroll bar. You would mainly view your document at a scale which removes the need for horizontal scrolling.
At the bottom of the screen is the Status Bar which includes information on the section, the page, the line and column. The OVR (overtype) button is worth noting as it is easy to catch the Insert button on the keyboard and turn on overtype; in normal use the OVR button is greyed out.
When you start a word processor you already have a new blank document waiting for input. Any change to this document will cause the word processor to ask whether you want to save the changes. It is good practice to write a few words and save the document using File/Save As. You can use up to 256 characters in the title. When you have saved a document once you need only select File/Save or click on the Save button on the Standard toolbar. Control/S is a useful shortcut for saving. If you want to rename a document use File/Save As again. Use Tools/Options to set the interval for Auto-Save. Use File/Save As to change the file format and Save As HTML to create pages for a Web browser.
Before printing a document you should use the Print/Preview facility by clicking on the Preview button in the Standard toolbar or by choosing it from the File menu. The Print Preview toolbar provides various options such as showing multiple pages, View Ruler, Shrink to fit and Full screen.
To print a document select File/Print or click the button on the Standard toolbar. The Print dialogue box gives you various options such as the pages you want printed and the number of copies required.