The Principles of Word Processing

A word processing program allows you to create, edit, format and print many types of documents
such as letters, memos, CVs, etc. You can also create World Wide Web pages with some word
processing programs. The program used in this book is called Microsoft Word 2007 (often called
simply Word). However, you can also use free software such asOpen Office.

Looking at Word Documents

All items created in Word are known as documents. There are many types of documents you
can create, such as:

 Letters
 Memorandums
 Fax Forms
 Curriculum Vitaes
 Reports
 Essays
 Assignments
 Flyers
 Posters
 Web pages
 Adverts
 Labels
 Contracts
 Forms
 Envelope Labels
 Invoices
 Minutes
 Newsletters
Word Features
Microsoft has created features which you can use in your word processing; the idea of these
features is to allow you to do more than just creating and editing documents.
Microsoft Word has a wide range of other tools and functions, which are used in formatting the
documents. The following are the main features of a Word Processor:

Ability to enter text into the computer, which allows alterations to be made easily.

Words and sentences can be inserted, amended or deleted.

Paragraphs or text can be copied /moved throughout the document.

Margins and page length can be adjusted as desired.

Spelling can be checked and modified through the spell check facility.
 Multiple document/files can be merged.

Multiple copies of letters can be generated with different addresses through the mail-merge
facility.

Using word you can create the document and edit them later, as and when required, by
adding more text, modifying the existing text, deleting/moving some part of it.

Changing the size of the margins can reformat complete document or part of text.

Font size and type of fonts can also be changed. Page numbers and Header and Footer can
be included.

Spelling can be checked and correction can be made automatically in the entire document.
Word count and other statistics can be generated.

Text can be formatted in columnar style as we see in the newspaper.

Text boxes can be inserted.

Tables can be made and included in the text.

Word also allows the user to mix the graphical pictures with the text. Graphical pictures can
either be created in word itself or can be imported from outside like from Clip Art Gallery.

Word also provides the mail-merge facility.

Word also has the facility of macros. Macros can be either attached to some function/special
keys or to a tool bar or to a menu.

Document Creation

To create a document, you type in some text that appears on a screen. You then save it
to a storage medium and, if you want to, you can print it.

Naming Documents (File Name Conventions)

You name your document before you save it. A filename should be meaningful so it is
easy to find when you want to use it again.

A filename can be up to 255 characters, including spaces, but it is good practice to keep
it shorter than 20 characters.

You cannot use the following characters in a filename: \ / : ; * ? “ < > |

Show/Hide (Non-Printing ) Symbols/Characters
 These display new paragraphs , tabs ⇒, spaces ......, new lines on the screen
and do not print out.

Click on the icon (Show/Hide) OR Ctrl + Shift + 8 to turn these off/on

Show/Hide non-printing characters

Show/Hide is really useful to see why “something” isn’t working out, e.g. too many
tabs or not enough spaces etc.
The Show/Hide (non-printing) characters look like this:

1. Check that your Active Tab is Home

2. Click on Show/Hide ¶ to turn these off/on.

You will notice the ¶ icon becomes highlighted when the Show/Hide (non-printing)
characters are showing.
Keyboard shortcut for Show/Hide: Ctrl + Shift + 8

How to Get Help from Word

The easiest way to get help from Microsoft Word is to press the F1 key. The cool part about
the F1 key is that it is context-sensitive: that is, if you press it while you're performing some
obscure task deep inside some strange dialog box or task pane, Word summons help for that
specific issue, telling you how to do what you want to do. Press F1any time you have a question,
and help arrives.

1. In the Search box in the upper-left corner of the Help window, type a topic, command
name, or question. Then press Enter or click Search
2. Information regarding your query will appear in the Help window