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Information and Communication Technology Applications

Word Star, the most common and popular DOS-based word processor, is developed by the MicroPro
Notes International Corporation, Inc. U.S.A.. There are different versions of Word Star like 1.x, 2.x, 3.x,
4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 but the releases 4.0 (also known as Word Star Professional) was most popular
among users during few years back. But now-a-days, after popularity of Windows-based software,
Word Star has become obsolete. Softword and Akshar are also DOS-based English and Hindi word
processors respectively developed by an Indian Company, Softech.
Among the windows-based word processors, MS Word, Word Perfect and AmiPro are the leaders
in the markets. MS Word, developed by Microsoft Inc. is a part of MS Office professional package.

Word 97 and Word 2000 are the most popular versions of Word. The latest version
of Word is MS Word 2002.
Word Perfect (latest version 6.0), developed by Word Perfect Corporation, which provides almost
same features as MS Word is also very popular among users. AmiPro (latest version 3.0)/ Word
Pro, developed by Lotus Corporation, is another full-fledged, multi-featured word processor for
windows. The important word processors are listed in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1: Important Word Processors
Software Feature

Word Star Simplest DOS-based word processor, which is out-dated now.
MS Word Popular Windows-based word processor from Microsoft.
Softword Similar to Word Star, developed by an Indian company.
Akshar Popular Hindi/English word processor developed by an Indian
company.
Amipro Full-fledged, multi-featured Windows-based word processor with DTP
features.
Word Perfect Windows-based word processor with DTP features.

Advantages of Word Processing
Word processing offers several advantages over typewriting. Using the word processing technique,
the user can :
• Edit the text as and when required.
• Move or copy any part of the text from one location/ file to another location/ file
• Insert or delete the spaces/text
• Wrap words to the next line (Word Wrapping) and justify text to the right margin (Justification)
• Select different types of fonts and size of characters
• Adjust the margins and page lengths for the desired output
• Find the required word/group of words and replace with another word/group of words
• Check the spelling of any word of the document
• Store (save) the document on disk and print single or multiple copies
• Print letters with same text and different names and addresses (mail-merging)
Besides the above advantages, there are many more benefits of word processing depending upon
the word processor used.

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