 A word processor is a computer that can be used for writing, editing and printing text.  We are going to use a word processing package called Microsoft word. This is an example of a general purpose package.  The word processing program allows us to enter and edit text. This can be saved to your computer and sent to a printer to obtain a hard copy.

 Enter text  Edit text  formatting  Spell check  Grammar check  Standard paragraphs  Standard letter  Mail merge  Create template

 We use a keyboard to enter text into our word processing document.  There are also other ways that we can enter text.....can you think of any? Microphone(voice recognition) – mobile phone Scanning(OCR) Touch sensitive screen – tesco self service

 Once the text is entered we can edit it.....this involves: INSERTING DELETING AMENDING - change

 When we type in text and reach the end of a line we do not need to press the return key. If a word is incomplete the word processor automatically moves the word to the next line.

 Alignment  Line spacing  Text size  Page size and layout  Set margins  Page breaks  Tabs  tables

 Line spacing is the amount of space between each line of text. Single line spacing Computing is fun,fun,fun We like to run,run,run All the programs Double line spacing Computing is fun,fun,fun We like to run,run,run All the programs

 The size of a page and page layout (orientation) can be altered.  The page can be changed from a standard A4 size to A4 small, A3, A5,letter and envelope.  The orientation can be changed from portrait to landscape

 You can change the length of the text by changing the page margins.  You will be able to see your margins in your wp file as it will appear as a blue area on your ruler.

 This is simply where a page becomes full a new one is automatically made.  We can also insert a page break to make a new page before it is full.

 By placing tab stops along the ruler you can produce tables.  The tab key allows you to move between the tab stops.  There are different types of tabs left, right, centre and decimal. This allows you to layout the text accordingly.

 Tables allow us to display information neatly allowing it to be easily read. Class Marks3F3A3H WP Marks529 DB Marks3611 Spreadsheet Marks 7710 Total15 20

 There are four ways to position your text in a document.  Align left This is an example of left alignment. I hope you are enjoying this!  Align centre  Align right  Justify

 Justifying text means that the word processor adjusts the spaces between the words in each line to make the ends even. Here is an example of justification of text. I hope that you are enjoying this powerpoint presentation third year!!....As it took me ages to prepare.

 This allows us to find a word in a document and replace it with another. This is useful as it saves us having to read the whole document and look for the every occurrence of the word, therefore saving time and eliminating human error.

 The computer compares the spelling of all the words you have typed in with all the words in the computers dictionary.  The computer highlights all the discrepancies in the comparison and offers alternative spelling.....there may be a problem with this, can you think what it is????? things like names and addresses cannot be spellchecked although can be added to your computer dictionary. the dictionary may pick up American spellings. mistakes like using there instead of their will not be highlighted.

 The computer highlights any sentences that it thinks may be grammatical errors and offers an alternative.

 Useful as you may have to produce an essay under a specified word limit.  Thesaurus produces a list of words with the same meaning that you can choose. This is useful as you won’t have to use the same word over and over again.

 If we are sending letters to lots of people we may often find ourselves writing the same things over and over again. A standard paragraph is a piece of text that can be saved and used over and over again. We use the copy and paste functions to do this or we can Insert text from a file as we did in the fiddle club task.

 A standard letter is similar to a standard paragraph as it is used to save time as we don’t have to type the same thing over and over again. Examples of standard letters being used in business are: schools sending letters home to parents, junk mail, legal documents. Standard letters are personalised with names and addresses this is where we mail merge!

 Blanks are left in the standard letter for information such as the customer name, address or order number. The required information is then loaded from a database using a feature called a mail merge. The standard letters are then printed out.

 You try!

 A template is a readymade blank document with spaces for graphics and text.  Templates speed up the creation of a file. Examples of packages with templates are;  MS PowerPoint  MS Word

 A scanner is a piece of hardware that we can use to copy a hard copy of a document without having to type it all up.  This is done using Optical Character Recognition(OCR) Software. The document will usually require some editing after it has been scanned in.

Wizards are a help feature built into packages like Word Processors which give the user step by step instructions on how to complete a given task. For example, there is a Wizard within Microsoft Word which leads us step by step through a Mail Merge.