Word processing

"Word Processing" refers to a computerized system for producing and manipulating written material. A word processor can be anything from an electric typewriter to a sophisticated desktop publishing system for your personal computer.

As you key the words you want in your document, they are displayed on the screen. Nothing is printed on paper until you want it printed. You can store the text without printing it, or you can print it, make modifications to the text, and then print it again. You can create any type of document from a half-page memo to a doctoral thesis.

Word Processed documents can be printed in a variety of font sizes and typestyles and utilize font design and formatting capabilities; many typeface enhancements are possible

BOLD - To make characters stand out from the page by making them darker than the rest of the type.

CLOSE- You CLOSE the document after you have keyed it, saved, and printed.

COPY-To copy text and/or graphics to another location within the same document or to another document.

CURSOR- A flashing or solid rectangle or horizontal line which indicates on the screen the position of the next typed letter.

CUT - When you cut text from a document to either delete it or move it.

DOCUMENT - A document can consist of text or graphics or both; that is dependent upon the application program for its creation.

EDIT - To change text in some way by overtyping, deleting, inserting, or rearranging.

FILE- Information that is stored on the computer is called a file. Documents, data, and programs are all files.

FONT- A font is the combination of typeface and other qualities such as size, pitch, and spacing. For example, Times Roman is a typeface that defines the shape of each character. Within Times Roman, however, there are many fonts from which to choose -- different sizes, italic, bold, etc. (The term font is often incorrectly used as a synonym for typeface.)

JUSTIFICATION The way lines of text are arranged relative to the edges of a block of text. e.g. left, right, centered, full justification.

LINE SPACING Refers to the number of blank spaces between lines of type. Single-spacing and double-spacing are the most common line spacing.

LOWER CASE Text which is not capitalized.

MARGINS The blank space to the left and right sides and to the top and bottom of a page.

SAVE To store a document onto your computer so you can open it to edit, format, or reprint it at a later date.

SCROLL Moving text up, down, left, or right to view the entire document.

UPPER CASE Text which is capitalized.

WORD WRAP A feature that permits information to be keyed on successive lines without having to press the enter key at the end of each line.

FORMAT- The layout or appearance of a document covering margins, tabs, etc.

GRAPHICS Pictures, photos, etc., that are not text but can be inserted into the document as an object.

HARD COPY The paper copy of a processed document.

INDENT Moves the left-hand margin of the text into a position specified by the user.

OPEN (RETRIEVE) To bring your file back onto your screen for editing and formatting.

PAGE BREAK The end of a page of text. In word-processing systems, you can enter special codes, called hard page breaks or forced page breaks, which cause the printer to advance to the next page.

PASTE Inserts cut or copied data at the location of the cursor.

POINT SIZE A point is about 1/72 of an inch and is used to measure the height of characters.

SELECT Highlighting words or graphics by clicking and dragging or clicking multiple times.

TABULATION Moves the text to positions indicated by the user so subsequent lines of text can then be aligned to the same positions.