The objectives of laboratory 2 include learning the basic features offered by wordprocessors.
Word processors allow people to create, view, modify (edit), save, and print documents containing text and graphics.
You have already seen that some fonts are proportional while others are non-proportional. Another characteristic of font families is whether they are serif and sans serif.
Now that you understand what the term ASCII means, you will realize that most text inside word processors is based on ASCII character representation. Some other special characters are used to control the type of character displayed (font, size, underlining, etc.) and formatting features such as centering, page numbering and footnotes, and some other features found in word processors. Therefore, although you would be able to use the DOS command "TYPE" to display a word processor text, you would almost always see some non-ASCII characters embedded in the text.
To understand how you can use word processors effectively, you need to consider the many different features that go into today's word processing packages. The remainder of this set of notes summarizes some of the more important elements inherent in most modern word processing packages.
In general, it is desirable during input to minimize the number of keystrokes required to achieve various specific options. Use of function keys, a mouse or other aids to make this possible are desirable. It is also helpful to display the current status of key features such as cursor position, font type, insert/replace mode, and guides to any commands being executed.
Wraparound: it is desirable to continue typing at the end of a line, and have the computer adjust the text so that words are not broken at the end of a line. This feature is called wraparound.
Insert/typeover: It should be possible either to insert new text or to have current text replaced by typing. The user should know which mode is active.
Moving around in a document: It should be easy to move around the document, using either arrows or mouse control. One should be able to skip words, lines, paragraphs, and pages forward and backward. One should also be able to search for a specific text string and move there immediately.
Ideally, one should see the text as it will appear in the final document, including different sizes and types of fonts, an entire page at a time, with graphics and tables included. This feature is called WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.
It should be possible to insert, replace and delete, with delete capabilities extended to words, lines or paragraphs. One should also be able to select blocks of text to move or copy. It would be nice to have two texts visible at one time, and to copy or move text from one to the other.
The ideal system would have spelling support for individual words, domain-specific words and place names. User-definable extensions to the dictionary should be possible. Suggestion of alternate words with similar meaning (thesaurus) capability should also be provided.
Many options should be available for modifying the format of text on a page. Such items include margins, page size, use of multiple columns, right-, left- and center justification of text, positioning text around tables or other graphic illustrations, page numbering, headers or footers, selection of appropriate end-of paragraph options for the end of a page (so-called "widows and orphans") inclusion of footnotes, formulas, superscripts and subscripts, and so on.
It should be possible to incorporate images of various types: photographs, charts, tables, sketches and the like. These images should appear on the screen as they will appear in the final text. It should also be possible to create new graphics without leaving the word processing package.
It should be possible to direct output to a printer or to a disk file for future hard copy display. WYSIWYG displays of text as it will appear in hard copy is highly desirable. Users should be able to select output of single pages or groups of pages as well as the entire document.
It should be possible to create footnotes, annotating the text and providing options to place the footnotes either on the same page or at the end of the text.
Bibliographic references should be available, with several different formats for the references. Citations in the text should be maintained current with the bibliography as it expands (e.g., insertion of a new reference between two others should automatically update the numbers of the references to coincide with the new sequence of their appearance.
It should be possible to index a document, locating an item only once and having the program then identify each occurrence of that item and keep track of its position in terms of page number (also a dynamic item).
The document should have available outline headings and subheadings (I, II, III, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, etc. or some other hierarchical notation system). The user should only have to indicate the level of the hierarchy, not the sequence number, for a new item.
Spelling checking and even grammar checking are also desirable features. Whereas spelling checkers are common in word processors, grammar checking is still relatively new and not yet very refined.
It should be possible to save text to files on auxiliary storage, retrieve files from multiple directories, merge files, view two files simultaneously, compare text in two files, retrieve "data" from one file for inclusion in another ("personalized form letters"). Ideally, it would also be nice to have alternate forms of text (e.g., letters) chosen by the program depending on user- specified criteria (e.g., payment reminders of increasingly stern tone depending on the length of time the bill has not been paid).
This list is not complete, but it illustrates the kind of items that an advanced level Word Processor package should provide. You should think about this list, adding new items that you consider important or desirable. You should then compare your list with the items available in the word processor you are using. For example, Microsoft Word and Word Perfect have many, but by no means all of possible features. You may want to think about how important the missing items are to you.
What features listed above are available in Microsoft Word and/or Word Perfect? Which are not? You may find it interesting to make two lists of these features as a guide to deciding whether this is the right system for you.
Word Perfect now has a newer versions of its package. The new version is called Word Perfect for Windows, and it has some features listed above that are not in the version you are using in labs. On the other hand, there may also be some drawbacks to the new version (requirements for the Windows package, for example) that make it less attractive.
One important message from this exercise is that you should not accept a package simply because it is widely advertised. Instead, you should think about what you want from such a package, then match your list of criteria against the features offered by different word processing packages, and then decide which is for you. ECS15 is traditionally taught with Wordperfect for DOS (v. 5.1), and now is offered using Microsoft Word for Windows in some sections. We seriously considered using Word Perfect for Windows as the Word Processing Package for this class. You may want to look at that system (or others available) and see if any of them are more suited to your needs.
If you learn to think independently and critically about elements such as the ones listed above when evaluating computer uses in different situations, you will have achieved one of the principal goals of this course.
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