User:Mallamibro/Mallamibro's Computer Tutorials/Wordprocessing

What is a Word Processor?

A word processor is a computer or a computer program that is used to create, edit and print documents. A word processor allows you to create a document, store it electronically (such as on a disk), view it on a computer screen, modify it and print it.
The first Word Processing software program that was commercially successful was called WordStar. It was released in 1979 and relied on a combination of keyboard commands to edit text in a document.
Over the years, newer Word Processing applications such as WordPerfect and Ami Pro (later called Word Pro) made word processing on a computer both simpler, and more versatile. In the late 80s and early 90s, WordPerfect had almost become the standard word processing application. When Microsoft Windows became common however, it was a while before WordPerfect became available on the new operating system. By the time it did, Microsoft’s Word for Windows was already on its second version and had become the word processor of choice for many Windows users. These days, Microsoft Word has seen many improvements and has become the most common word processor. The seventh major version of Word for Windows is Word 2003, which is the version shown in these exercises. The program has developed to the point that changes in recent versions have been minor.

Ms Word has been further revised (reformed ?) in the 2007 and 2010 releases, but  i will use Ms 2003 for these explanations because i feel with a solid knowledge of Ms Word 2003, you will find it much easier to use the newer versions.

How does Ms Word Work?

Word is what’s known as a WYSIWYG application (What You See Is What You Get – pronounced wizzy-wig). This means that what you see on the computer screen should be the same as what you will see when you print. In early Word Processing applications, you never quite knew how your document would look until you actually printed it.
You enter text in to your document by pressing keys on the keyboard, in much the same way as you would with a type writer. The advantage that Word has over a type writer is that you can easily make changes and corrections to your document to make sure it is just right before it goes on paper. You can also access a wide range of additional features using your computer’s mouse and a range of key combinations.
Like most Word Processing computer programs, Word has a feature called Word Wrap. This means that as you are typing and reach the end of a line, any additional text you type will automatically move on to the next line. There is no need to press the [Enter] key every time you reach the end of a line unless you want to begin a new paragraph.
You have a great deal of control over how your documents look. When you are working on a document you can change things such as the size, style, spacing and colour of text. You can also arrange text using columns, tables and lists. You can even insert additional objects such as pictures or graphs that have been created in other programs.

Some Important Terms In Word-Processing Using Ms Word

• Format / Formatting – Changing the way things look in your document, for example changing the style of some text.
• Margins – The blank area around the edge of a printed page. You can adjust how much of the page is taken up by margins
• Font – Different text styles are referred to as fonts. Here are some examples of DIFFERENT fonts.
• Serif – A serif font has small decorative lines added to each letter such as the small lines at the top and bottom of a capital letter I. This text uses an example of a serif font.
• Sans-Serif (without Serifs) – A Sans-serif font doesn’t include the decorative lines. This is an example of a Sans-serif font.
• Alignment – How things are lined up on the page. For example, centre aligned text will be lined up with the centre of the page.
• Tabs – Even spaces that can be used to line things up on a page.
• Header – Information that can be repeated at the top of each page, such as the title of the document.
  
• Footer – Information that can be repeated at the bottom of each page, such as “Compiled and edited by Ibrahim K. Oyekanmi (Mallamibro@gmail.com)” at the bottom of these pages.