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Unit 9: Word Processing Software

Introduction
Notes
Word processors are application software, which are used for word processing. Word processing is
the most widely used technique for typing, editing, storing, formatting, manipulating and printing
documents with the assistance of computer and printer. It is the most efficient means of generating
documents electronically.

Features of Word Processors
Most of the word processing software provides the following useful features:
(i) Editing of Documents. Editing means modifying or making changes in your documents. It would
involve:
• Inserting new text
• Copying text from one part of the document to another
• Moving text from once part of the document to another
• Deleting unwanted text.
(ii) Formatting of documents. Each one of us has a hidden desire that the reader should feel interested
in whatever we are trying to convey. The formatting features like fonts, bullets and numbering, font
type, etc., can be used very intelligently to create the whole impact. A font is a set of letters that have
a common or the same type faces. You can apply different font types and sizes in various texts of
your document. You can make your text bold, italic and underlined as per your requirements. Your
text can be left, right, center aligned or it can be justified within the margins. You can also align the
paragraph by specifying left/and right indents along with the desired line spacing. Since adding
bullets and numbering to the text makes it easy to read and understand, most word processors
provides ‘bullets and numbering’ feature.
(iii) Page Setting. Page setting includes putting your text neatly between margins. You can provide
different margins for left, right, top and bottom as per your requirements in the document.
(iv) Tables. You can create tables in Windows-based word processors very easily.

Table is simply the arrangement of information in rows and tables.

(v) Find and replace text. In word processing, you can easily find a word of a phrase (group of
words) in your documents. Once your word/ phrase is located, you can easily replace it with another
word/phrase.
(vi) Graphics. Windows-based word processors (such as MS Word) provides enhanced graphic
capabilities, called clip gallery. Using clip gallery, you can insert a picture/ diagrammed add
multimedia effects such as sound and videos in your documents.
(Vii) Mail merging. One of the most useful features of a word processor is mail merging. It is efficient
and faster way of preparing mass mailing to a list of addresses. It is a tool for producing repetitive
documents. It gives the flexibility while sending better and then personalising each copy of it with
different names and addresses.

Examples of Word Processors
There is a wide range of word processors available for both DOS and Windows environment. Word
Star, Softword, Akshar, MS Word, Word Perfect and Amipro are some of the common examples of
word processors.

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