Introduction to word processing and word processor window parts

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. How do schools make neat question papers, letters and certificates so quickly? They use a word processor. Today we will learn what word processing is, which word processors are popular, and the parts of the word processor window.

Let us begin with the meaning. Word processing means creating documents using a computer. You can type text, edit it, format it, save it and print it. A document can be a letter, a project report, a school notice or a resume.

Why not just write by hand or use an old typewriter? With a word processor, you can correct mistakes without retyping the whole page. You can change the font, size and colour of text in seconds. It checks spelling and grammar for you. You can save a document, share it by e-mail and print many copies.

There are many word processors. LibreOffice Writer is made by The Document Foundation, and it is free and open source. Microsoft Word is made by Microsoft, and it is paid software. Google Docs is made by Google, and it works free in a web browser. WordPad was a simple word processor that came with older versions of Windows.

Before we look at the window, let us learn three words. Edit means changing the text, like adding, deleting or moving words. Format means changing how the text looks, like making it bold or bigger. A file is the document saved on the computer with a name, so you can open it again.

Let us open a word processor. We will use LibreOffice Writer, and the parts are very similar in Microsoft Word. Click the Start menu, or the Applications menu on Linux. Open LibreOffice, and then choose Writer Document. A blank page opens, ready for typing.

Let us study the window from the top. The title bar is the top strip, and it shows the file name and the program name. The menu bar lists groups of commands, like File, Edit, View and Format. The standard toolbar has buttons for common jobs, like open, save and print. The formatting toolbar has buttons to change the font, make text bold, and align it.

At the right end of the title bar there are three buttons. Minimize hides the window down to the taskbar without closing it. Maximize makes the window fill the screen, and restore makes it smaller again. Close shuts the window, and the program asks you to save any unsaved work.

Now the middle of the window. The ruler shows the margins, which are the blank spaces at the edges of the page. The work area, or document area, is the white page where you type. The cursor is the blinking line that shows where the next letter will appear. The scroll bars on the right and bottom let you move up, down and across a long document.

Now look at the bottom of the window. At the bottom is the status bar, which shows information about your document. It shows the page number, like page one of three. It shows the word and character count. On the right, the zoom slider makes the page look bigger or smaller on screen, without changing the printed size.

Most parts are the same in Microsoft Word. There are only small differences. Let us compare them. Writer has a menu bar, while Word has ribbon tabs like Home and Insert. Writer's toolbars match the groups of buttons on Word's ribbon. Both have a status bar at the bottom. By default, Writer saves files as .odt, and Word saves files as .docx.

Pause and predict. You want to check how many pages you have typed. You also want to make a heading bold. Which parts of the window do you use? The page count is on the status bar. The bold button is on the formatting toolbar.

Let us revise what we learned today. Word processing means creating, editing, formatting and printing documents on a computer. Popular word processors are LibreOffice Writer, Microsoft Word and Google Docs. At the top of the window are the title bar, menu bar and toolbars. In the middle are the ruler, work area, cursor and scroll bars. At the bottom, the status bar shows page count and zoom. Open a word processor today and point to each part.