Purpose and classification of word processing programs
Among the most common programs stand out programs word processing ... They are applications for creating, processing, storing and printing documents of varying complexity. The functionality of these programs ranges from the simplest word editors for creating texts with a simple structure, to complex publishing systems that allow you to create documents for typographic publication. Depending on the functionality word processing software products are usually divided into: text editors; document editors; publishing systems.
Text editors are designed for processing simple texts, including program texts written in programming languages. They are usually not standalone software products, but are embedded in the corresponding programming systems or operating systems and their shells, for example, the Notepad text editor built into the Windows operating system. The main functions of these editors include: typing and editing text, viewing text, printing text.
The advantages of program text editors are that they check the syntax of programs written in a specific programming language, making it easier for the user to find errors in the program. Sometimes they combine debugging functions. This group includes editors for the languages BASIC, Pascal, C, etc. These editors can be used not only when working with program texts, but also for preparing small, simple documents. For more complex and voluminous documents, document editors are used.
Document editors are designed to work with text that has a document structure, i.e. consisting of sections, paragraphs, paragraphs, sentences, words. There is a large class of document editors, for example: Word Perfect, LaTex, etc. The representative of this class is the word processor Microsoft Word.
Often, specialists are interested not only in preparing a text, but in preparing it in a form close to typographic. Such software is called publishing systems that serve for the final layout of the document, i.e. placing text on the page, inserting pictures, using different fonts. An example of such a system is the Page Marker desktop publishing system. These systems can wrap around figures, tables; layout the text (break the text into columns, etc.), i.e. arrange text and graphics on the page. These systems are used in large publishers, printing houses, significantly reducing costs and time of printed output. The software of such systems is composed of a powerful document editor, a variety of graphical auxiliary programs, as well as programs for page layout with page layout. Next, we will take a closer look at word processors using Microsoft Word as an example.
Creating a text document using the Word word processor (typing and editing text; working with fragments: selection, deletion, copying, moving; paragraph formatting; spell check).
The main functions of the processor are expressed in the main menu, in which the following sections can be distinguished:
Edit
Insert
Format
Service (Tools)
Table
Window
The section for working with text, as with a whole document (File), includes the following main functions:
Reading a file from disk
Create a new file
Saving a file
Setting page parameters
Viewing the finished document
Output to printer
The two sections of document presentation and tools for working on the monitor screen (VIEW and WINDOW) include the following main functions:
Setting the type of the working area, for example, "page layout", "ruler", etc.
Determination of the required panels ("standard", "formatting", etc.).
Choosing the size of the window and the scale of the text.
Setting headers and footers.
Working with multiple windows.
The text formatting section (Format) includes the following main functions:
Setting the type and size of the font.
Sets the typeface (bold, italic, underlined, etc.).
The location of paragraphs on the page (indents on the left, right, red line, text alignment on one or both sides, line spacing).
Arrange a paragraph as a numbered, tiered, or bulleted list.
Placing text in columns.
Formatting borders around a paragraph, etc.
List- This is a listing of any facts, actions, headings, etc., separated by numbers or letters (one or multilevel) or markers of different types.
The section for working with a fragment of text (Editing) includes the following main functions:
Cancellation of actions.
Cut, copy and paste a piece of text.
Paste special.
Move to a specified text element (page, footnote, table, or figure).
Contextual search and replace.
Select all text.
Clears the selected text fragment.
Paste special serves to embed or paste the contents of the clipboard into a document or create a link with another file, which is processed in another program.
Contextual search and replacement can be performed in "hard" mode (when a complete word match is required) and "soft" mode (when an approximate word match is required).
The section for inserting objects or service information (Insert) includes the following main functions:
Inserting objects (graphics, sound, diagrams, etc.).
Insert special characters and footnotes.
Insert breaks to create new sections.
Insert bookmarks and hyperlinks.
Page numbering, etc.
Adding new or inserting already prepared text (autotext).
The section for working with tables (Table) includes the following main functions:
Creating a table.
Insert or remove columns and rows of a table.
Merging and splitting cells.
Sorting table rows.
Calculating some simple functions on rows and columns.
The additional service section (Service) includes the following main functions:
Setting the grammar check language.
Checking grammar.
Using a thesaurus to find synonyms.
Auto-correct or autocorrect frequently encountered typos or abbreviations.
Building "macros", i.e. special programs in built-in language for complex and repetitive procedures for working with text.
Protection against unauthorized changes to the text.
The help section (?) Includes the following main functions:
Calling help-help for all sections.
Calls context-sensitive help.
Among structural elements the following can be distinguished:
Page - A portion of a document that contains all of the following elements.
Section - The part of the document in which general parameters such as columns, headers and footers, margin sizes and page numbering can be changed (by default, the document consists of one section).
Paragraph - Part of the document between two keystrokes "Enter".
Footer - Information that repeats at the top and bottom of the page.
Bookmark - Marker of selected text, graphics, etc., on which you can quickly navigate.
Style is a set of formats (font, size, style, alignment, etc.) that can be assigned to the selected fragment of the document.
A template is a stub file containing a sample of a typical document and tools specific to documents of this type (style family, text, settings for the type of document parameters, etc.).
For unification structures and the appearance of the document are used standards... The document is built from certain elements and tools for document standardization - templates of which are styles. V templates elements of the environment are also stored: the composition of toolbars and menus, a set of macros, a scaling factor, etc. The Word document itself can be its own template.
Document structure
Among the methods of work, two concepts should be distinguished:
formatting and editing.
Under formatting refers to the transformation of the appearance of the text and its location on the page. Formatting operations include font selection, size and character outline, the color of the symbol, as well as the position of the text on the page - left, right, center alignment, indent, distance between the lines, etc.
You can format paragraphs, selected fragments of text, individual words.
A text fragment is a structural unit of text selected by the mouse cursor.
Selection methods:
Moving the mouse from the beginning of the selection to its end while holding down the left button.
Double-clicking on a word selects the word and the space behind it.
Triple-clicking anywhere in the paragraph selects the entire paragraph.
Clicking on any word in the sentence while holding down the Ctrl key selects the entire sentence.
Under editing refers to operations such as deleting or pasting text, finding and replacing text, copying and moving fragments of text, etc.
Deleting the object or text fragment selected by the cursor is carried out by pressing the "Del" key.
Copying text or object - via clipboard, by clicking the icon for copying selected text or graphics, or by choosing Copy from the Edit menu. You can paste the selected object using the paste icon on the standard panel or from the "Edit" - "Paste" menu. Moving- carried out using the "Transfer and leave" method, by dragging the selected text or graphics with the mouse, or carving out an object or a piece of text to the clipboard, then paste in the desired place in the text.
Find and replace text are made in the "Edit" menu with the "Replace" option.
The use of computers has fundamentally changed the technology of writing and publishing. The desire to simplify the work with different texts has led to the creation of application software focused on solving these problems. There are two main groups of programs for preparing text documents: text editors and word processors.
Text editors are programs that create text files without formatting elements. Editors of this kind are indispensable when creating texts for computer programs; they are clear and easy to use. The whole variety of modern text editors can be conditionally divided into three main groups:
The first includes the simplest text editors that have a minimum of capabilities and are able to work with documents in the plain text format .txt, which, as you know, with all its simplicity and universal support, does not at all allow more or less decent formatting of text. This group of editors includes the WordPad editors and the very little-functional NotePad, as well as many similar products from other manufacturers (Atlantis, EditPad, Aditor Pro, Gedit, etc.).
The intermediate class of text editors includes quite broad possibilities in terms of document execution. They work with all standard text files (TXT, RTF, DOC). These programs include Microsoft Works, Lexicon.
The third group includes powerful word processors such as Microsoft Word or StarOffice Writer. They perform almost all operations with text. Most users use these editors in their daily work.
The main capabilities of word processors include the following operations, which form the basis of technology for working with texts:
document creation;
editing a document (moving through the text; inserting and replacing symbols; deleting, moving, copying, finding and replacing text fragments; canceling commands; exchanging fragments between different documents);
saving documents in external memory (on disks) and reading from external memory to RAM;
formatting documents, i.e. performing transformations that change the appearance of the document (design of individual characters, paragraphs, document pages as a whole - changing the line length, line spacing, text alignment, changing the type and size of the font, etc.);
printing of documents;
automatic compilation of tables of contents and indexes in the document;
creating and formatting tables;
introduction of drawings, formulas, etc into the document;
check punctuation and spelling.
The modern object-oriented approach makes it possible to implement mechanisms for embedding and embedding objects - OLE-technologies (Object Linking and Embedding). This technology allows you to copy and paste objects from one application to another. For example, in a text document created in MS Word, you can embed images, animation, sound and even video fragments and thus get a multimedia document from a regular document.
Editorial and publishing systems. This class of programs is intended for typing, design and full preparation for the typographic publication of books and magazines. Examples of such systems are: Microsoft Publisher, Corel Ventura, Adobe PageMaker, Quark XPress. Publishing systems are indispensable for computer layout and graphics, greatly facilitate the work with multi-page documents, since they provide the ability to automatically paginate text, arrange page numbers, create headings, etc. Creation of layouts for any publication by means of such systems is greatly facilitated.
When preparing text documents on a computer, three main groups of operations are used:
Input operations allow you to transfer the original text from its external form into electronic form, that is, into a file stored on a computer. Input can be carried out not only by typing using the keyboard, but also by scanning a paper original and then translating the document from a graphic format into a textual one (recognition).
Editing (editing) operations allow you to change an already existing electronic document by adding or deleting its fragments, rearranging parts of the document, merging several files, splitting a single document into several smaller ones, etc.
Typing and editing when working on text is often done in parallel. When entering and editing, the content of a text document is formed.
Document formatting is specified by formatting operations. Formatting commands allow you to determine exactly how text will look on the monitor screen or on paper after being printed to a printer.
Programs designed to process textual information are called text editors.
The whole variety of modern text editors can be conditionally divided into three main groups:
1. The first includes the simplest text editors with a minimum of capabilities and capable of working with documents in the plain text format.txt, which, as you know, with all its simplicity and universal support, does not allow more or less decent formatting of text. This group of editors can be classified as editors included in the delivery of Windows operating systems. WordPad and very little functional NotePad, and many similar products from other manufacturers (Atlantis, EditPad, Aditor Pro, Gedit, etc.).
2. The intermediate class of text editors includes quite wide possibilities in terms of document execution. They work with all standard text files (TXT, RTF, DOC). These programs include Microsoft Works, Lexicon.
3. The third group includes powerful word processors such as Microsoft Word or StarOffice Writer... They perform almost all operations with text. Most users use these editors in their daily work.
The main functions of text editors and processors are:
Entering and editing text characters;
Possibility to use different fonts of symbols;
Copying and transferring part of the text from one place to another or from one document to another;
Contextual search and replacement of parts of text;
Setting arbitrary parameters for paragraphs and fonts;
Automatic word wrapping to a new line;
Automatic page numbering;
Handling and numbering of footnotes;
Creation of tables and construction of diagrams;
Text processing facilities
Despite the wide possibilities of using computers to process a wide variety of information, programs designed to work with text are still the most popular. When preparing text documents on a computer, three main groups of operations are used:
Input operations allow you to transfer the original text from its external form into electronic form, that is, into a file stored on a computer. Input can be carried out not only by typing using the keyboard, but also by scanning a paper original and then translating the document from a graphic format into a textual one (recognition).
Editing (editing) operations allow you to change an already existing electronic document by adding or deleting its fragments, rearranging parts of the document, merging several files, splitting a single document into several smaller ones, etc.
Typing and editing when working on text is often done in parallel. When entering and editing, the content of a text document is formed.
Document formatting is specified by formatting operations. Formatting commands allow you to determine exactly how text will look on the monitor screen or on paper after being printed to a printer.
Programs designed to process textual information are called text editors.
The whole variety of modern text editors can be conditionally divided into three main groups:
1. The first includes the simplest text editors with a minimum of capabilities and capable of working with documents in the plain text format.txt, which, as you know, with all its simplicity and universal support, does not allow more or less decent formatting of text. This group of editors can be classified as editors included in the delivery of Windows operating systems. WordPad and very little functional NotePad, and many similar products from other manufacturers (Atlantis, EditPad, Aditor Pro, Gedit, etc.).
2. The intermediate class of text editors includes quite wide possibilities in terms of document execution. They work with all standard text files (TXT, RTF, DOC). These programs include Microsoft Works, Lexicon.
3. The third group includes powerful word processors such as Microsoft Word or StarOffice Writer... They perform almost all operations with text. Most users use these editors in their daily work.
The main functions of text editors and processors are:
Entering and editing text characters;
Possibility to use different fonts of symbols;
Copying and transferring part of the text from one place to another or from one document to another;
Contextual search and replacement of parts of text;
Setting arbitrary parameters for paragraphs and fonts;
Automatic word wrapping to a new line;
Automatic page numbering;
Handling and numbering of footnotes;
Creation of tables and construction of diagrams;
Spelling check of words and selection of synonyms;
Construction of tables of contents and subject indexes;
Printing prepared text on a printer, etc.
Also, almost all word processors have the following features:
Support for various document formats;
Multiple windows, i.e. the ability to work with several documents at the same time;
Insert and edit formulas;
Automatic saving of the edited document;
Working with multi-column text;
"[Exam in Computer Science] [Ticket # 18]
Software tools and technologies for processing textual information (text editor, word processor, editorial and publishing systems).
Text editors
To process textual information on a computer, general-purpose applications are used - text editors.
Text editors are programs for creating, editing, formatting, saving and printing documents. A modern document may contain, in addition to text, and other objects (tables, diagrams, figures, etc.).
Simple text editors (such as Notepad) allow you to edit text and do basic font formatting.
More advanced text editors, which have a whole range of document creation capabilities (for example, search and replace characters, spell checkers, insert tables, etc.), are sometimes called word processors. An example of such a program is Word from the Microsoft Office suite, or Writer from the StarOffice suite.
Powerful word processing programs - desktop publishing systems - are designed to prepare documents for publication. An example of such a system is Adobe PageMaker.
Web pages are prepared for publication on the Internet using specialized applications (for example, Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver).
Editing and formatting
Editing is a transformation that adds, deletes, moves or corrects the content of a document.
Editing of a document is usually done by adding, removing, or moving characters or pieces of text.
The object-oriented approach makes it possible to implement a mechanism for embedding and embedding objects (OLE - Object Linking Embedding). This mechanism allows you to copy and paste objects from one application to another. For example, working with a document in a text editor Word, you can embed images, animation, sound and even video fragments into it and thus get a multimedia document from a regular text document.
Formatting is a transformation that changes the presentation of a document.
Any document consists of pages, therefore, at the beginning of work on a document, you need to set the page parameters: format, orientation, margins, etc. The A4 page format (21x29.7 cm) is standard. There are two possible page orientations - portrait and landscape. For regular texts, the portrait orientation is more often used, and for tables with a large number of columns, landscape orientation.
Formatting paragraphs.
From a literary point of view, a paragraph is a part of the text, which is a complete fragment of a work, the end of which serves as a natural pause for the transition to a new thought.
In computer documents, a paragraph is any text that ends with an end-of-paragraph control character. The end of a paragraph is entered by pressing the ENTER key.
Formatting paragraphs allows you to prepare a properly and beautifully designed document.
In the process of formatting a paragraph, the parameters of its alignment are set (the alignment reflects the position of the text relative to the page margins), indents (the entire paragraph can have indents on the left and right) and spacing (the distance between the lines of the paragraph), the indentation of the red line, etc.
Formatting the font (characters).
Symbols are letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation marks, special characters. Symbols can be formatted (change their appearance). Among the main properties of symbols are the following: font, size, style and color.
A font is a complete set of characters in a specific style. Each font has its own name, for example Times New Roman, Arial, Comic Sans MS. The font unit is a point (1 pt = 0.367 mm). The font sizes can be changed within a wide range. In addition to the normal (normal) style of characters, bold, italic, and bold italic are usually used.
Bitmap and vector fonts are distinguished by the way they are presented in a computer. Bitmap methods are used to represent bitmap fonts, font characters are groups of pixels. Bitmap fonts can only be scaled by specific ratios.
In vector fonts, symbols are described by mathematical formulas and their arbitrary scaling is possible. Among vector fonts, TrueType fonts are the most widely used.
You can also set additional parameters for formatting characters: underlining characters with different types of lines, changing the appearance of characters (superscript and subscript, strikethrough), changing the distance between characters.
If you plan to print a document in color, you can set different colors for different groups of characters.
Spelling and syntax checking
To check spelling and syntax, special software modules are used, which are usually included in word processors and publishing systems. Such systems contain dictionaries and grammar rules for several languages, which allows you to correct errors in multilingual documents.
File format
The file format determines how text is stored in a file. The simplest text file format (TXT) contains only characters (numeric character codes), while other formats (DOC, RTF) contain additional control numeric codes that provide text formatting.
