Basically this topic is more commonly referred to as Desktop Publishing.***See Desktop Publishing***
Evolution
In the old days printing and publishing were time consuming and cumbersome tasks not to mention expensive. Once upon a time, books could not even be afforded by the common man. Many books (i.e. printed materials were forever lost because of the expense or complication of duplicating and preserving the materials. However in the age of information amidst the technological revolution, we can produce, print and even publish our materials ourselves and in a most inexpensive and ergonomic fashion.
Desktop publishing applications allow developers to use a combination of word processing prowess, graphical implementation capabilities, high-end print formatting options and special layout editors/viewers all in one powerful application. These types of software applications are designed to make creating, printing and publishing high quality documents using a desktop computer or workstation a breeze. The latest in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) technology is also provided to insure that the layout that is created on the virtual desktop is what is printed out on tangible media or published to the Web.
Advantages
Word processing applications for computers can harness the power of all system hardware and software and give developers powerful document creating abilities. Many up-to-date applications allow developers to change a text document to a Web page with a few mouse clicks. This being accomplished without the developer knowing a stitch of HTML (hypertext markup language) which is used to create Web pages. This ability allows the developer to share their document with the world (theoretically).***See Web Programs***
Furthermore developers can upload their document to the Web using the same application. As a matter of fact, some applications have "Web browsing" capabilities that allow developers to view Web content from within the application. The ability to multitask from within an application helps developers to be more productive while conserving the use of system resources.