Explore the World of Software 2: Kids, Adults, Educational

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████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ WORD PROCESSING - THAT FEELING OF SYNTAX ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ You'll never forget your first word processing software package. The bond is strong. It is usually the first program a new computer user learns and for many, the most frequent and only package ever used. The time and effort spent learning a quality word processing package is a an investment with instant productivity payoffs and continuing usefulness into the distant future. If personal computers were designed to run only ONE software package, this would rightfully be the choice for most users. But the time and effort learning a word processing package can sometimes work against learning additional features already inside the program or causing you to stay with a program when a better alternative or upgrade is available. ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ WORD PROCESSING PREHISTORY ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ But let's back up a bit and take a trip down memory lane. Although the manual typewriter existed for many years, serious word processing took shape with the classic IBM selectric which was introduced in July, 1961. The Selectric had changeable ball fonts which allowed better control over typeface size and quickly became the executive and corporate standard. By 1971 Wang Labs brought to market the Wang 1200 dedicated word processing system which stored up to 133,000 characters on crude cassette tapes. It was a miracle! Unlike the selectric typewriter, you could format documents and store them on tape for later recall and editing. Wang improved on this model and five years later had expanded document storage to a disk system having 4,000 page capability and additional word processing features. In September of 1976 personal computers were one year old and the original CP/M operating system was introduced which allowed early personal computers to store data and documents on disk. Wordstar for the CP/M operating system, the grandfather of all personal computer word processing programs, appeared in June of 1979 from a fledgling company named MicroPro. At about the same time Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian of the Wordperfect Corporation of Orem, Utah were working to develop a powerful but easy word processing program for the town government. Their original product, the Wordperfect Word processor, ran only on the Data General Minicomputer. Between 1980 and 1981 both Wang Labs and IBM introduced two dedicated word processing systems with the IBM Displaywriter appearing in June of 1980 and the WangWriter in December of 1981. The market was primed. IBM introduced the original desktop PC hoping for modest corporate sales in August of 1981. A relatively simple machine by today's standards, the machine initially held only 64K of RAM and a crude cassette recorder port for data storage. But the PC attracted favorable reviews for its reliable design, exceptional keyboard and quality workmanship. The official and only word processing package for the PC at the time was EasyWriter. In September another package, Volkswriter for the PC, was added. Despite this initial small offering of software packages, most serious word processing continued to be done on dedicated systems and CP/M personal computers with Wordstar as the standard for CP/M hobbyists. One odd solution for some early IBM PC enthusiasts was to retrofit the early IBM PC with a card which could run CPM word processing programs - the so called "Baby Blue" card. However, the momentum was building behind the IBM desktop PC standard and other suppliers were busy re-writing word processing packages from CPM to the IBM standard. Wordstar for the PC was introduced in June of 1982 and was an instant hit. In July of 1982 Wordmate appeared which was a redesign of the popular MultiMate corporate standard word processing package. In April of 1983 Wordstar Version 3.3 was released which brought a robust and full-featured package to the needs of corporate user anxious to do serious word processing on the IBM PC. By then, the desktop PC was becoming an inexpensive option compared with dedicated word processing office equipment. The momentum escalated. One month later a truly easy word processing package PFS: Write emerged to capture the market for home and small office word processing users requiring simplicity and ease of use. Later in the year, Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington became the first to issue a full-featured WYSIWYG word processing package (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) named appropriately Microsoft Word. The new concept of seeing graphics and text on screen was stunning. Unlike the Wordstar image of text and funny control codes representing differing styles of bold and italic type, Microsoft Word showed the actual letters on screen in the same glorious form as they would appear on the printed page. By 1984, word processing packages were proliferating rapidly in features and menu options and the Hewlett-Packard Company released the desktop laser printer which produced print close to typeset in quality. Now text could look great both on screen and on paper. The feeling was addictive. The printed page looked better than ever and the computer and printer now formed a "professional image team" which rivaled professional typesetting at a fraction of the cost. By 1985 the first desktop publishing packages began to appear. Desktop publishing combined typeset quality text with images and layout design concepts. Pagemaker, the first desktop publishing package, appeared for the Apple Macintosh computer and was available for the IBM PC family by 1986. During the remaining years, word processing packages have begun to incorporate features formerly seen in desktop packages - such as graphics images and columnar layout capabilities. Another trend is that packages have become more feature rich offering nearly something for everyone at constantly decreasing prices. Spelling checkers, thesaurus options, footnotes and even style checking have become standard. When you consider the fact that word processing programs are generally more difficult and time consuming to design than spreadsheets and databases, it is surprising how inexpensive the packages have become in such a short time. Today there are hundreds of word processing packages from which to chose. Predictably each package has a somewhat fanatical following. How to chose from the richness at hand? Some initial considerations are primary. What size of documents will you be editing? Is there a particular printer or network the package will not support? Do you require full or partial compatibility with other software or hardware in your office? Are special features such as technical or scientific symbols offered? Generally, word processing software is divided into five broad categories. The first, personal word processors are easy to learn and low in cost but have limited features such as lack of spell checking or limited document length capabilities. Professional packages, the second broad category, are more difficult to learn but have more advanced features which may be needed later. Document length may be limited by disk space, not RAM memory space. All have spelling checkers and a plethora of features. Technical word processing packages are a third option which can perform calculations with onboard mathematics functions. They are used by engineers and scientists and may incorporate math and engineering symbols and the ability to construct special symbols when needed. Foreign language word processing software, a fourth option, provides non-English writing and style capabilities Finally, Desktop Publishing packages allow the operator to convey both text and pictures (graphics) on the printed page. They also incorporate advanced formatting capabilities such as columnar style sheets, the ability to wrap text around images and "flow" text from one column or page to the next. All desktop publishing packages show text as it will appear on the printed page which is highly appealing to the writer who works with the look of printed text as well as its content. Before we shift gears and briefly discuss some specifics about word processing software, you might want to review the suggested references in the recommended reading/bibliography section elsewhere on this disk. Detailed reviews of the many current packages are available in current and back issues of many computer magazines. ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ FEATURES AND OPTIONS WITHIN WORD PROCESSING PACKAGES ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ All word processors share certain basic features, but beyond the basics, the available options become overwhelming. Some of the more common and useful options include: ██ SAVING DOCUMENT TO DISK ██ This may seem like an obvious option, but it is important in its nuances. Does the package save only when you tell it or will it automatically save your document at timed, frequent intervals in case of power failure? Can it also save the document in standard ASCII text for use by other programs? Can it work with large documents on disk or only when the document has been brought into RAM memory? Is the saving of a document to disk a simple one or two keystroke sequence or a complex multi-keystroke nightmare? ██ FORMATTING ██ This means the ability to neatly and automatically move text into tightly aligned columns between two or more tab or margin marks. Is the process easy or complex? How do you set the margins? Can you store different column mark settings or must you manually set and reset this option each time. Is the process intuitive? Can centering, right flush and left flush formatting be done in various sections of the same document at the same time? Does the package support ruler lines or similar formatting option? ██ CORRECTING, ADDING, DELETING, COPYING AND MOVING BLOCKS OF TEXT ██ This is one of the most, if not the most basic word processing function. Is it easy and comfortable marking a block of text for moving it to another area of the document or deletion? Is the screen logical in how this is done? ██ HELP SCREENS AND INSTRUCTION BOOKS ██ Word processing packages by their nature are complex and subtle animals. Faulty documentation, non-intuitive help screens and overwhelming and difficult commands may be interesting later on, but finding the keys to doing your task RIGHT AWAY is frequently more important. The best packages give you a choice between drop-down or mouse driven menus for beginners and shortcut key combinations for speed as you grow more proficient. ██ SPELLING CHECKERS ██ A spelling checker may not seem an essential item. Until you have used one, that is. The best can be called up in simple fashion and have alternate words, alternate spellings and the ability to add unusual or technical words which the user may need but which are not within the dictionary normally. ██ DOCUMENT MERGING ██ As you become more sophisticated working with documents, you start merging old ones with new text. The ease and logical fashion with which this can be done is important. ██ MAIL MERGING ██ This is a variation of document merging which allows you to type a form letter annotated with blank spots for names, addresses, and other details. The software can then automatically merge it with another list of the data to produce "form letters" which have the names, addresses and data plugged into the proper slots. Mail merging also goes hand in hand with your database. Can the word processor accept data from your database to create these mail-merged documents? Can the program prepare mailing labels with ease and minimum waste? ██ MACRO CAPABILITY ██ Sounds intimidating, but macros merely mean the useful capability for a package to memorize frequently used keystrokes and then "type them in rapid fashion" to the program when you press a single "trigger key." You can prepare macros to type routine phrases like your address, initiating long menu sequences for saving documents to disk and other useful functions. ██ POPDOWN MENUS AND MOUSE CAPABILITY ██ The best packages let you start slowly with popdown menus or a mouse and then switch over to keystroke combinations as you gain speed and experience. ██ PRINTER SUPPORT ██ Many word processing packages support printers, but the key to a good package is support for YOUR PRINTER and its various typefaces, fonts and eccentricities. ██ WINDOWS ██ This is a simple term with broad ramifications to the word processing community. Windowing capability allows you to work on one document in a portion of the screen and then switch to working with another document in another portion of the screen. Useful as you grow in skills. Also useful if you need to compare or update two documents side by side. ██ FOOTNOTES, HEADERS, BOOKMARKS ██ And other whistles and bells become important to students, engineers and folks writing technical or scholarly documents with needs for these document essentials. ██ SPEED ██ This is a crucial item to many users. Some word processing packages are tightly written and whistle rapidly though long document formatting chores. Others just poke along. A wonderful package may have many features which are great when working with a small document, but with a large document, their speed of execution drops to a crawl. ██ SEARCH AND REPLACE ██ This is an essential item. If you have a long document and entered "David Smythe" when it should have been "David Smith," the package can find all occurrences of "Smythe" and instantly switch it to "Smith." This feature is an essential jewel. ██ ASCII INPUT ██ Can the software import (read in) documents created by other word processing packages or at least documents in standard ASCII? If not, you are stuck working with documents which must be manually typed rather than pulled in from alternate sources for revision. Importing at least ASCII text files is a bare minimum with other formats such as Microsoft Word or Wordperfect format import additional healthy alternatives. ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ WORD PROCESSING TIPS AND TECHNIQUES ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ Next let's branch away from features the word processor contains and look at some helpful habits you should cultivate when using a word processing program. When you save a document within a word processor, try to assign a single key or macro to the saving function. It should be easy to reprogram an infrequently used key or key combination to make it possible to frequently save documents every ten or fifteen minutes or if you are otherwise interrupted. Many word processing packages have easy keystrokes for the file saving routine while others are awkward and inconvenient. Use a macro or keyboard reassignment portion of the package to make the file saving keystroke fast and easily remembered. Try to use dates as a part of the file name so that files can be identified for later use and editing. Instead of the cryptic BUDGET.DOC you might name the file LG011589.TXT which might be the bank ledger documentation file written on 01/15/89. Forethought in naming files saves many moments of wasted thrashing about directories trying to find THAT letter from last March. Also consider using the file extension productively. If all of your employee training documents end in .TNG it is easy to find, sort, update or delete them quickly using the DOS wildcards. One system could be a key or token starting the filename. Files containing these symbols could equate as: @=letter, )=initial draft, &=research, !=final version, <=expenses and so on. These internal codes which perhaps start a document filename can save hours later on searching and sorting among similar documents. Paper slipping can be a problem if you are feeding single sheets into a printer without the tractor feed. Try taping some stiff paper to the top of the printer so that the sheet to be printed can only move about 1/2 inch. Line up paper squarely when you begin to print. When all else fails, use the document preview and spell checker to make sure how the final output will look. Nothing is more maddening than having to print a document again when you find a single incorrectly spelled word in an otherwise perfect word processed document. Watch out for platen wear on the printer, also. When you always insert the paper at the same place, the platen will develop a groove or wear line. Insert the paper towards the middle of the platen and change to a wider margin from time to time to minimize platen wear. Experiment with the printer until you find the correct location to insert each piece of paper so that it prints perfectly. Then tape or etch marks on the printer and tractor feed to align future sheets the same way. Sample books are a great idea. Print standard document styles or formats you use and keep them in a binder for future reference with the settings or file names where they are located. Also keep the special symbols and printer setup codes you use frequently in the same binder. Using search and replace creatively. Want to change the justification of a document to flush left instead of every paragraph indented five spaces? Use the search and replace feature to find all occurrences of five blank spaces and then replace that with no spaces. Who says you can't teach an old word processor new tricks? In addition, some communications files downloaded from modems have excess carriage returns or control characters. Try using your word processor's search and replace to quickly find and remove the offending symbols or excess carriage returns. Grab a printed ASCII chart from the back of your DOS manual and locate the 3 digit decimal code. Next enter the code for that character within the search function of your word processor. You can enter any of these by holding down the alt key and hitting the three digit decimal code listed in the ASCII chart. When you release the alt key the ASCII symbol will appear. For instance the ASCII decimal code for { is 123. Try it! More tricks of the trade. When printing envelopes a clever trick is to prepare a special format file for printing to the odd size and space of envelopes. When ready, add this short file to the end of your document and copy or transfer the name and address info from the body of the letter to the envelope template at the bottom. Put a printer pause mark at the end of the letter so that when you print, first the document prints and then pauses at the end of the page for you to unload the sheet and insert an envelope. Hitting continue will print the envelope as the final task! If your package permits, store several templates for the various styles of documents you prepare. Each file hold the special tabs, margins and space plus any macros in a separate, easily recovered file. When you use citations to books and a bibliography or other footnotes, it is a wise idea to repeat them in the body of the text. That way you can use the search function to quickly zoom to the paragraph wherein the book was cited and update as necessary. When you are all done, you can use search to remove the citation(s) in the body of the text just before you print. Saving scraps is essential. If you chop out small or large blocks of text, save them to a file possibly named SCRAPS.TXT. You will be surprised that weeks or months later you may need that crucial deleted scrap for another document! Two are better than one. Sometimes you can't be sure if you should remove or leave a portion of text. Prepare a file for each and save BOTH to disk. Then read each version on screen or paper and then decide, knowing you have recourse to BOTH styles on the disk. Placeholders or bookmarks are useful. If a portion of the text needs more work in a certain area, devise a little bookmark such as <xxx> or other odd symbol. That way you can quickly come back to the section by having the search feature quickly zoom in to find that odd little symbol. Use an assortment of bookmarks for different stages of progress. Maybe a series of different bookmarks have different meanings, but all can be found quickly with the search feature. To save time when spell checking, try reverse checking. This means that if you have already spell-checked the majority of the document and have recently added only a couple of new paragraphs to the end, then move the cursor to the bottom of the document and instruct the spell checker to scan BACKWARDS from the bottom to the top since only the last two paragraphs need to be checked! This can save a considerable amount of time. Likewise you can tell the spell checker to start checking from a point deep within the document if that is all you need. Writing techniques are varied. If you can't find the next idea, take a walk and get some fresh air. Try expressing your thoughts in a letter to a friend rather than staying with documentary style; this might "unglue" the stuck part of your "idea factory." Try taking the place of the character's role to shake off writer's block. Try reverse outlining: if the manuscript is done, but just doesn't sound clear; outline the ideas as you read them off the page - outlining after the fact sometimes clears up illogical presentation or poor writing skills. And don't forget outlining in general. If the subject is complex, take a moment to jot down key ideas in the order they should appear. Long documents and technical presentations can sometimes be prepared only by outlining core concepts. Also try several "speedstyles" of writing to get the job done. Don't always write at the SAME tempo for every project. Three possible writing "speedstyles" are like stages of a dance: Sprint, putting many ideas out quickly and worry later about going back to edit. Stride, slowing down and occasionally going back to rework and edit. Waltz, carefully and deliberately polishing and reworking each thought before going on to the next item.