Document Processing CS French Chapter 4

Text editor used for simple text entry and editing not intended to look good for editing programs and data e.g. Microsoft Notepad

Word Processors Allow a user to:  Create (start a new document from scratch)  Edit (change the contents of a document)  Format (change how the document looks)  Store (keep a copy of the document on disc)  Print (produce a hard copy of the document)  text documents Which of the above can a text editor NOT do? Just formatting –This may seem just a little difference, but formatting or laying out a document is a powerful feature.

Advantages of Word Processors A WP program’s advantages over a typewriter include the ability to:  store typed words in memory  view documents on screen before printing  correct mistakes  insert or delete words, sentences and paragraphs  store documents for later recall  incorporate other text without retyping  change the layout of the document  print a document more than once  automatically create different versions of a document for different people.  include images in a document.

How it works Typed text goes in to the computer’s memory Screen displays the part of the contents of memory When a document is ‘saved’ a copy of the text in memory is stored in a file on auxilliary storage – usually a disc When a document is ‘opened’ the text stored in the file on the disc is copied to the computer’s memory and then displayed on the screen When you make changes to a document (edit), this is done in main memory and displayed on the screen. The new document must be ‘saved’ again to disc for these changes to be available at a later time.

Word Processing Features Scrolling –allows you to view a document that is bigger than the screen Word wrap –automatically places a word onto a new line if there is not enough room on the previous one Editing –deleting, replacing or adding text Insert –putting new text between existing text Cut and paste –allows you to specify a block of text and… copy text –…take a copy which you can place elsewhere in the document or into another document move text –..remove the text and place it elsewhere

More Word Processing Features Search and replace –replace cretain words/phrases automatically Formatting –lay out the document Boiler plating –using standard document templates Mail merge –creating slightly different versions of the same document using data from a database – eg. The same letter to a number of people Spellchecker Graphics

Formatting How you lay out your document. 3 different ways of formatting: Characters (letters/font) Paragraphs Page / Section

Formatting Characters Specifying how the individual letters look. Known as formatting the Font You must select a group of characters/letters They can be formatted in the following ways:  Style –Normal, bold, underline, strikethrough etc.  Font –The design of the lettering (courier, etc..)  Size –How big they are.

Paragraph A paragraph is a block of text that is typed in with a return/enter character at the end. It may take up several lines but this is done automatically based on the layout of the margins. A paragraph can be laid out to look different than others in the document in the following ways:  Indent  How much the edge of the paragraph comes in from the edges of the printing area.  Allignment (left, right, centre)  Is the text lined up correctly along the left margin, the right margin or just centered between the margins.  Justification  Extra spaces are automatically placed between words so that it is neatly lined up on both the left and the right of the paragraph.

Page/Section A section of a document can be laid out so that the pages look different from other sections of the document as follows:  Page size  The size and orientation of the paper being used.  Margins  The edges of the printable area on the paper.  Headers and footers  Automatic generation of information to go on the top and bottom of each page (eg. Chapter names, page numbers etc..)