WORD
PROCESSORS
What are
they?
Word processors are among the most familiar productivity applications
in computing. They represent the most basic tool available to the typical
user. Traditionally, word processing has been about putting text to page.
Essays, letters, reports, recipes and newsletters are the traditional end
products of word processing. Over time, the abilities of these tools have
grown very robust so that they now can be used for drawing images, calculations,
Internet publishing and equation editing. Hand in hand with the increase
in capability has been increased complexity. Nevertheless, the basic functions
of most word processors remain very accessible to teacher and student.
Several word
processing tools exist. It's very likely you are using one of the following.
- Wordpad
- a basic text editing tool built into the Windows operating system
-
MS Word - the
market leader available for both Windows and Mac platforms and employed
by most large businesses and many school divisions.
- WordPerfect
- a
full featured competitor to Word usually found as part of the WordPerfect
Suite. Its profile is lower than it once was but is undergoing a resurgence
of late.
- MS Works
- a home oriented software package containing a functional word processor.
Bridges the gap in features between the very basic (and free) Wordpad
and the powerful Word. The Works Suite is a bundle that includes Word.
- OpenOffice.org
- a
free software suite containing a powerful word processor. A subset of
Sun StarOffice (see below) that is currently available for Windows and
in development for the Mac.
- Sun
StarOffice Writer - a
commercial competitor to MS Office and WordPerfect. This product is
available to schools and school divisions at no cost. Reviews suggest
it is robust but less feature packed than the MS office family of products.
All these
products have similar basic functions. The more powerful offer tools for
sophisticated writing projects.
Tutorials
and Helps
The
balance of this tutorial site provides guidance in finding help to resolve
problems or tutorials for enhancing skills.
Using
help - The easiest and often fasted way of find a solution to
a specific problem is the internal help system. All the products have
built in help functions. Detailed below is an example using MS Word 2000.
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In
MS Word, click help on the menu bar then choose the first item.
Alternatively, you can hit the F1 key at any time. The content
tab organizes help but category. The answer wizard allows
you to ask a natural language question and receive a series of responses
that may match. An example is "How do I insert a page break?"
The index provides a lengthy list of keyword links.
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Microsoft
Word
Microsoft
publishes a number of tutorials directly from their web site. These offer
step by step instructions on many of the basic functions of the software.
These Word
tutorials extend this by including more advanced functions and adding
a PowerPoint companion to aid the learner.
Other MS
Word links
Other Products
Microsoft
Word dominates the marketplace and thus the majority of helps have been
created for it. However, many of the principles for creating documents remain
the same if take slightly different path to complete. Listed below are helps
for competing products.
WordPerfect
StarOffice
OpenOffice
- User
guides for specific tasks are available from the OpenOffice web
site.
Teacher
Resources
-
Word
Processing Activities - This
site contains links to resources that may help you teach word processing
and keyboarding skills to students. Please review the sites prior to
teaching to review grade level/ability
compatibility.
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