COMPUTER NOTES: WORD PROCESSING
A word processor is a computer program that provides special
capabilities
beyond that of a TEXT EDITOR. The term originated to distinguish
editors
that were "easy to use" from conventional text editors, and to suggest
that
the program was more than just an "editor."
In general, word processors screen the user from structural or
printer-formatting
MARKUP (although some word processors optionally let you see the markup
they
insert in your text). Without visible markup, it’s possible to describe
a word processor as having a WYSIWUG (what you see is what you get)
user
interface. The most popular word processors are WordPerfect, now
owned
by Corel, and Microsoft Word.
Text Editor
A text editor is a computer program that lets a user enter, change, store, and usually print text (characters and numbers, each encoded by the computer and its input and output devices, arranged to have meaning to users or to other programs). Typically, a text editor provides an "empty" display screen (or "scrollable page") with a fixed-line length and visible line numbers. You can then fill the lines in with text, line by line. A special command line lets you move to a new page, scroll forward or backward, make global changes in the document, save the document, and perform other actions. After saving a document, you can then print it or display it. Before printing or displaying it, you may be able to format it for some specific output device or class of output device. Text editors can be used to enter program language source statements or to create documents such as technical manuals.
A popular text editor in IBM’s large or mainframe computers is called XEDIT. In UNIX systems, the two most commonly used text editors are Emacs and vi. In personal computer systems, word processors are more common than text editors. However, there are variations of mainframe and UNIX text editors that are provided for use on personal computers. An example is KEDIT, which is basically XEDIT for Windows.
Markup (Alt F9 or )
Markup refers to the sequence of characters or other symbols that you insert at certain places in a text or word processing file to indicate how the file should look when it is printed or displayed or to describe the document’s logical structure. The markup indicators are often called "tags." For example, this particular paragraph is preceded by a: (or paragraph tag) so that it will be separated by an empty line from the preceding line.
There is now a standard markup definition for document structure (or really a description of how you can define markup) in the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).
Markup can be inserted by the document creator directly by typing the symbols in, by using an editor and selecting prepackaged markup symbols (to save keystrokes), or by using a more sophisticated editor that lets you create the document as you want it to appear (this is called a WYSIWYG editor or word processor).
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG (pronounced "wiz-ee-wig") editor or program is one that allows an interface or content developer to create a graphical user interface (GUI) or page of text so that the developer can see what the end result will look like while the interface or document is being created. WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you get". A WYSIWYG editor can be contrasted with more traditional editors that require the developer to enter descriptive codes (or MARKUP) and do not permit an immediate way to see the results of the markup.
A true WYSIWYG editor, such as Microsoft’s FrontPage or Adobe’s PageMill or Go Live (formerly CyberStudio), conceals the markup and allows the developer to think entirely in terms of how the content should appear. (One of the trade-offs, however, is that a WYSIWYG editor does not always make it easy to fine-tune its results.)
After completing this class the user should be able to:
Navigating the Word Processor
Editing Text
Creating Tables
Using Word Processor Tools