Computing Fundamentals

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Application Software – Word Processing

Module 004 Word Processing

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Identify three (3) basic word processing tools that simplify document
editing.
2. Explain what is meant by "selecting" parts of a document
3. Identify five special features commonly found in modern word processing
software.

Application Software
Everyday, millions of people use word processing software to create and edit memos,
reports, and many other kinds of documents.

In this fact comes as a surprise, consider the number of documents that surround you.
Newspapers, magazines, letters, and advertisements crowd your mailbox each day. You read
books for school, and individuals create untold numbers of documents for a myriad of
purposes. On desktops around the world, printers spit out tons of documents every week.
Probably, just as many documents are created but never printed.

If you have not had any experience yet with productivity software, a word processor
is an ideal place to start. Modern word processors are easy to use and require no special
skills to master. A word processor will familiarize you with many common tools. You may
find little or no special use for other types of applications, but you may find your word
processor to be an application that is essential for personal use.

We live in a world that is run "by the numbers." It seems that we must work with
more numerical data and financial information each day. Corporations track profits and
losses, accountants manage huge amount balance sheets, and people balance their
checkbook registers or try to maintain a household budget.

Whether their task is big or small, people commonly use spreadsheets programs to
judge all those numbers. When someone is "crunching the numbers," that person is probably
using a spreadsheet.

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Application Software – Word Processing

If you have ever attended a seminar or lecture that included slides or overhead
transparencies that were projected on a wall screen or displayed on a computer screen or
video monitor, then you probably have seen the product of a modern presentation program.
Presentation program enables the user to create and edit colorful, compelling presentations
that can be displayed in various ways and support any type of discussion.

People need data, so we create all kinds of lists to store and organize it. A grocery list,
a phone book, a library card catalog, and an instructor's list of students are all organized lists
of data. Likewise, computers need to store and manage a list of data, which is why the
computerized database. In fact, many early attempts to build program computers grew out
of a need to manage large data lists.

Word Processing Program and Their Uses

Word processing software, also called a word processor, provides extensive tools for
creating all kinds of text-based documents. Word processors are not limited to working
with text. Word processor enables you to add images to your documents and design
documents that look like a product of a professional print shop. You can create long
documents with separate chapters, a table of contents, an index, and other features using a
word processor.

A word processor can enhance documents in other ways; you can embed sounds,
video clips, and animation into them. You can link to different documents together; for
example, link a chart for a spreadsheet into a word processing report-to create complex
documents that update themselves automatically. Word processors can even create
documents for publishing on the World Wide Web, complete with hyperlink text and graphics.

Note: For the examples given below, you can use MS Office 2010 and above.
The Word Processors Interface

The word processor's main editing window displays a document and several tools. In
addition, a document area or document window, which is where you view the document,
a word processor provides several sets of tools, including:
• Menu bar, which displays titles of menus (list of commands and options).
• Toolbars, which display the button of frequently used commands.
• Rulers show you the position of text, tabs, margins, indents, and other elements on
the page.
• Scroll bar lets you scroll through a document that is too large to fit I side the
document area.

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Application Software – Word Processing

• Status bar, which displays information related to your position in the documents, the
page count, and the status of keyboard keys.

<Figure 1. This is a sample caption>

Menu
Bar

Toolbar

Ruler

Document Scroll Bar

Area

Status Bar

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Application Software – Word Processing

Entering and Editing Text

You create a document by typing on the keyboard-a process known as entering text.
In a new document, the program places a blinking insertion point (called cursor) in the
upper left corner of the document window. As you type, the insertion point advances across
the screen, showing you where the character will be placed. When your text reaches the right
edge of the screen, it automatically moves the insertion point to the next line. This feature is
called word wrap. The only time you need to press enter is at the end of a paragraph.
Note that in word processing, you press Enter to start a new paragraph.

Word processing program lets you change text without retyping the entire page; you
retype only the text that needs to be changed. Changing an existing document is called
editing the document.
The word processor's real beauty is its ability to work with a block of text. A block is
a contiguous group of characters, words, lines, sentences, or paragraphs in your document
that you mark for editing. When you select the text, it changes the color-becoming
highlighted. To deselect a selected block of text, click the mouse anywhere on the screen or
press any arrow key.

Formatting Text

Most word processing features are used to format the document. The process of
formatting a document includes controlling the appearance of text, the layout of text on the
page, and the use of pictures and other graphic elements. Most formatting features fall into
three categories: Character format, Paragraph Format, and Document format.

Character Format

Character formatting includes setting the control attributes of individual text such as:
• Fonts. The term font refers to the characteristics of your document's letters, symbols,
and punctuation marks. Fonts have names like times new roman, lucida, arial narrow.
• Type Size. A font is a measure in points. The most common font size used in business
documents is 12-point type. Characters are measured from the top of the tallest
letters (such as T and P) to the bottom of letters that descend below the baseline (such
as g and p).
• Type Style. In addition to the font and type size, the appearance of the character can
be controlled with typestyles. The most common typestyles are bold, italic, and
underline.

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Paragraph Format

In word processing, the word paragraph has a slightly different meaning than it does
traditionally. Word processing software creates a paragraph each time you press the enter
key. A group of sentences is a paragraph, but a two-word heading is defined as a paragraph,
as well as paragraph formatting includes settings applied only to one or more entire
paragraphs such as:
• Line spacing. The amount of space between each line of text in a paragraph is called
line spacing. Lines can be single-spaced, double-spaced, or set for an amount of
spacing between the lines that you select.
• Paragraph spacing. The amount of space between each paragraph is called
paragraph spacing. Word processing software lets you place extra space before or
after each paragraph.
• Indents. Indents determine how close each line of a paragraph comes to the margins.
In some documents, lines of body text may reach all the way to the left and right
margins, but quoted material may be indented one inch from each margin.
• Alignment. Alignment refers to the orientation of the lines of a paragraph with
respect to the margins. There are four alignment options-left, right, center, and
justified.
• Tab stops. The keyboard tab key moves the insertion point forward until it
encounters a tab stop (or just a tab), inserting fixed numbers of space in the line. A
tab stop is a position, both on-screen and in the document, usually measured from the
document's left margin.
• Borders and shading. Paragraphs can be formatted with borders or shading. A
border is a line that is drawn on one or more sides of a paragraph. Shading consists
of a pattern or color that is displayed as a background of the text in a paragraph. A
drop shadow is a partial shadow around a bordered paragraph, which creates the
illusion that the paragraph is "floating" above the page.

Document format
Document formats include the size of the page, its orientation, and headers and
footers. Word processing software also lets you apply special formats, such as columns, to
documents. You also can divide a document into sections and give each section its own
unique format. Standard document format includes:
• Margins. Margins are the white borders around the edge of the page. Every document
has top, bottom, left, and right margins. And all four margins can be the same or
different.
• Page size. Normally, documents are set up to fit 8 ½ by 11-inch paper, a standard
known as letter size paper. You can set up a word processor document for other
standard sizes, such as legal (8 ½ by 14-inch paper).

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• Orientation. Document dimension is also determined by the orientation of the paper.

By default, documents are set up with portrait orientation (or tall orientation), where
the document is taller than its width. You also can switch to landscape orientation (
or wide orientation ), in which the paper is turned on it side.
• Header and Footers. Long documents generally include header and footer or both.
Headers and Footers are a line of text that runs along the top and bottom of every
page.
• Columns. Columns are effective formats for certain types of documents. Newsletters,
for example, are often laid out in a two or three-column format to make them easy to
read.
• Section. Word processors also allow you to divide a document into sections and apply
a different format to each section.

Special Features of Word Processing Software

All word processing programs are rich in features, many of which have nothing to do
with text editing or formatting. Such utilities and functions are almost like adding new
software or your word processor.

Language Tools

A word processor cannot make you a good writer, but it can help. Many word
processor features language tools that can help you find errors in your spelling and
grammar; they also may have tools to help you find just the right word or avoid overusing
certain words. These tools include the following:
• Spell checker. If your word processor has a spell checker, you can enable it to catch
spelling mistakes as you type or use it to review an entire document for spelling
errors. A spell checker matches each word in a document against a built-in dictionary
containing standard spelling.
• Grammar checkers. Work like a spell checker, but they inspect your document for
grammatical problems. A grammar checker compares each sentence to a set of
standard grammatical rules, notifies you if it finds a potential problem, and provides
correct grammatical options.
• Thesaurus. An electronic thesaurus is just like a printed one-a source of alternative
words. Suppose you think you are using a word incorrectly, or you want to find a
different word with a similar meaning. You can select a word then launch the
thesaurus. A good thesaurus will display a definition of the selected word and a list of
possible replacements.

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Application Software – Word Processing

To view the language tool and check your spelling, click the REVIEW → Choose from the
options 1. Proofing, Check Accessibility, Language, Comments, Tracking, Reviewing, Change,
Compare and Protect.
Tables

Although tables can be used to set up rows and columns of information in a document,
a word processor provides features that you create a table in just a few steps. The size of the
table is limited only by the amount of page space that can be devoted to it, and tables can be
formatted in dozens of ways.
Tables are also useful in arranging images (such as clip art or photographs) on a page
and for arranging images and text in interesting ways.

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Application Software – Word Processing

To insert a table, click the TABLE → Choose from the options 1. INSERT A TABLE this is done
by choosing the size of table 2. DRAW TABLE. If you want to draw your own table, click the
DRAW TABLE. When this is clicked, a pencil icon will be displayed; draw anywhere from the
document area to start creating your own table.

Mail Merge

A mail merge is a process of combining a form letter with the contents of the database,
usually, name and address list-so that each copy of the letter has one entry from the database
printed on it. The mail merge feature makes it easy to send the same letter to a list of different
people with the correct names and addresses printed on each letter.

To create a mail merge, click the MAILINGS → Choose from the options 1. CREATE,
START MAIL MERGE, WRITE A MAIL MERGE, and PREVIEW RESULTS.

Adding Graphics and Sounds

You can easily add a graphic, images-photos, drawings, or clip-art to your documents
with a word processor. You set the cursor where you want the graphic to appear, tell the
word processing program that you want to insert a graphic, and then locate the graphic file.
After the graphic file has been imported, you can move, size, crop, and add borders on it.
You can embed a sounds file in your document in much the same way that you embed
a graphic file. The only difference is that an icon appears in the document.

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To add graphics, sounds, and or any media, click INSERT → Click MEDIA → Then choose
from the available media (example Adding a Movie from the browser, Movie from the file,
audio from the browser, and audio from the file).

Templates

Templates are pre-designed blank documents except for preset margins, fonts,
paragraphs formats, headings, rulers, graphics, header, footers. You can open a document
template, type your text into it, save it, and print the finished document. When you use a
template, you do not have to manually format complex documents.

To add a template, click DESIGN → Click THEMES → Then choose from the available
themes. You may also browse for NEW TEMPLATE Online by clicking BROWSE FOR THEMES
or save the theme created.

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Application Software – Word Processing

Summary

• Word processing software, also called a word processor, provides extensive tools for creating
all kinds of text-based documents.
• Word processors are not limited to working with text. Word processor enables you to add
images to your documents and design documents that look like a product of a professional print
shop.
• A document area or document window, which is where you view the document.
• Menu bar, which displays titles of menus (list of commands and options).
• Toolbars, which display the button of frequently used commands.
• Rulers show you the position of text, tabs, margins, indents, and other elements on the page.
• Scroll bar lets you scroll through a document that is too large to fit I side the document area.
• Status bar, which displays information related to your position in the documents, the page
count, and the status of keyboard keys..
• You create a document by typing on the keyboard-a process known as entering text.
• In a new document, the program places a blinking insertion point (called cursor) in the upper
left corner of the document window.
• When your text reaches the right edge of the screen, it automatically moves the insertion point
to the next line. This feature is called word wrap.
• Changing an existing document is called editing the document.
• A block is a contiguous group of characters, words, lines, sentences, or paragraphs in your
document that you mark for editing.
• Fonts. The term font refers to the characteristics of the letters, symbols, and punctuation marks
in your document.
• Type Size. A font is a measure in points. The most common font size used in business documents
is 12-point type.
• Type Style, the appearance of the character can be controlled with typestyles. The most
common type style is bold, italic, and underline.
• Line spacing. The amount of space between each line of text in a paragraph is called line spacing.
• Paragraph spacing. The amount of space between each paragraph is called paragraph spacing.
• Indents. Indents determine how close each line of a paragraph comes to the margins.
• Alignment. Alignment refers to the orientation of the lines of a paragraph with respect to the
margins.
• Tab stops. The keyboard tab key moves the insertion point forward until it encounters a tab
stop (or just a tab), inserting a fixed number of spaces in the line.
• A border is a line that is drawn on one or more sides of a paragraph.
• Shading consists of a pattern or color that is displayed as a background of the text in a
paragraph.
• A drop shadow is a partial shadow around a bordered paragraph, which creates the illusion
that the paragraph is "floating" above the page.
• Document formats include the size of the page, its orientation, and headers and footers.
• Margins. Margins are the white borders around the edge of the page. Every document has top,
bottom, left, and right margins.
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Application Software – Word Processing

• 8 ½ by 11-inch paper, a standard known as letter size paper, a standard known as letter size
paper.
• Legal (8 ½ by 14-inch paper).
• Portrait orientation (or tall orientation), where the document is taller than its wide.
• Landscape orientation (or wide orientation), in which the paper is turned on its side.
• Header and Footers. Headers and Footers are a line of text that runs along the top and bottom
of every page.
• Columns. Columns are effective formats for certain types of documents.
• Section. Word processors also allow you to divide a document into sections and apply a different
format to each section.
• Spell checker. Catch spelling mistakes as you type or use it to review an entire document for
spelling errors. A spell checker matches each word in a document against a built-in dictionary
containing standard spelling.
• Grammar checkers. A grammar checker compares each sentence to a set of standard
grammatical rules, notifies you if it finds a potential problem, and provides correct grammatical
options.
• Thesaurus. An electronic thesaurus is just like a printed one-a source of alternative words.
• Tables are also useful in arranging images (such as clip art or photographs) on a page and for
arranging images and text in interesting ways.
• A mail merge is a process of combining a form letter with the contents of the database, usually
name and address list-so that each copy of the letter has one entry from the database printed on
it.
• Templates are pre-designed blank documents except for preset margins, fonts, paragraphs
formats, headings, rulers, graphics, header, footers.

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
1. Jain, R.K. (2015). IT Tools and Business Systems. Delhi, India: Khanna Book Publishing
2. McFedries, P. (2016). My Office 2016. Pearson Education
3. Rich, J.R. (2017). Working in the Cloud: Using Web-Based Applications and Tools to
Collaborate Online. Indianapolis, Indiana: QUE Publishing
Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. What are the Benefits of Word-Processing
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-word-processing-business-69022.html
Date of Access: August 24, 2018
2. Types of Word-Processing Applications https://itstillworks.com/12286956/types-
of-word-processing-applications Date of Access: August 24, 2018

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3. Word Processing https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/word_processing.html of

Access: August 24, 2018

Online Instructional Videos

1. What is a Word Processor? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzEmnu3VdT0
Date of Access: August 24, 2018
2. Word-Processing Features https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbXL3rAGi5I Date
of Access: August 16, 2018
3. What is a Word-Processing Software.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlFxW6XDm8QDate of Access: August 16,
2018

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