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Word processing and Desk Top Publishing
Word processing software is used to create documents.

Documents may be many pages long.

Microsoft Word is an example of a word processing program.
Facilities will include....
  • creating new documents
  • setting page properties (size, margins, orientation)
  • entering and deleting text
  • saving and loading documents
  • import of text or pictures from other sources or files.
  • cut/copy and paste (to move text within a document or between different documents)
  • setting of tabs and indents
  • text alignment (left, right, centre or fully justified)
  • text formatting including
    • colour
    • selection of fonts and font sizes
    • bold, italic and underline
  • line spacing
  • headers and footers
  • bullets and numbering
  • borders
  • import of text and graphics
  • templates - pre-defined layout, format and graphics. An example may be a letterhead for a business.

Other facilities which may be included...

  • a spell-checker which checks spelling and suggests corrections.
  • a grammar checker
  • arranging text in columns
  • statistical functions eg word count
  • setting 'styles' usually as a style sheet.
  • re-sizing and cropping of graphics
  • macros - a sequence of tasks may be put together to form a macro which is given a name and can be run at any time using a single instruction. Using a macro saves time when using often repeated sequences of instructions.
  • mail merge - using a form letter into which fields from a database are inserted. The form letter is merged with the database to create a number of similar documents.
  • thesaurus - gives alternative words with the same meaning

Recent versions of word processing software incorporate many of the features of Desk Top Publishing software.

  

 

 
Landscape
 
Portrait

An example of a well-designed document which makes use of indents and line spacing, colour and different font sizes.

A header and a footer have been used.

Other pages in the document would have the same design to give consistency of appearance.
A badly designed document...less easy to read...

How would you improve it?