Class 8
(RE)introduction to Word Processing
Up to this point, we have been helping you learn how to edit text in several forms, but have not bothered defining it.
(Word Processing Video) Not on line yet!
In our digital world, edit and editor are now applied to many different kinds of material for publication. Before movies and sound went digital, specially trained people edited film by cutting film into strips, rearranging them, and gluing them back together. Similarly, sound was painstakingly edited using magnetic tape sound clips and re-recording them as continuous segments.
Now anyone can edit digital versions (files) of movies (videos), sound, documents, etc.
In this class, we want to consider a word processor. In its simplest form, a word processor is little more than a large expensive typewriter that makes correcting mistakes easy. In todays digital world, a word processor is an electric or electronic device, or computer software application, that, as directed by the user, performs word processing: the composition, editing, formatting, and sometimes printing of any sort of written material.
Word processing software is often combined or bundled with other software that can be use to organize data in tables or other easy to read and understand forms (spreadsheets), draw illustrations for documents (graphics), edit text and other information like photographs or drawings, and assemble data into a presentation. The resulting collection of several applications is usually called an office software suite.
Synopsis
While editing of text using a word processor is the target of today’s class, be aware that many of the editing techniques used (keyboard shortcuts, select techniques, etc.) are exactly the same for editing videos, sound and documents. Only the application is different!
The following list only makes sense if you work through the class at least once from the beginning. Each item is NOT complete in itself, it depends on what came before it.
Popular text editing functions:
- Select text to edit
- Keyboard navigation with the insertion point
- Copy to clipboard
- Paste from clipboard
- Cut to clipboard
- Delete
- Find specific text
- Find the next occurrence of the text
- Find and replace specific text with new text
- Undo
- Redo
- Insert new item
- Spell check
Advanced Applications
Minimalist Word Processor
Nearly every occasion you will find to edit text, will respond to most if not all of the keyboard shortcuts considered in this section. Consider ANY text box you find in Operating system dialog boxes, application dialog boxes, email, account applications on the Internet, comment text boxes when reporting problems on the Internet, etc.; they ALL work the same way! Furthermore, ANY more advanced word processor (and any application) will use ALL of these techniques. The only thing you need to learn, when using more advanced applications, are what additional features are available!
We will begin our editing (word processor) exploration with the Windows 10 Notepad application. Open Notepad now.
Notepad is, to the best of my knowledge, as minimalist as Windows 10 word processors get. You may notice the Notepad window is quite plain. Notice also, that the menu bar is the traditional menu bar, not the newer tabbed menu and ribbon tool bar. This paragraph applies through Windows 10, version 1803, and probably more.
1) Select Text to Edit
Selecting text has a few quirks you may not be aware of. Now is when we discuss them.
First, however, we need some text to work with. By now you probably remember a few text selection tricks. Your cursor shape changes to a Text Select shape when you are in a text box. That shape looks a bit like the cross section of a steel ‘I’ beam (or a capital I). You cannot select a single text character by clicking on it. When you position the cursor and click, you actually place an insertion point, a flashing vertical bar, where anything you type, insert or paste will begin.
You can select one or more characters by doing a drag and drop action with the cursor over the characters you wish to select. This is called a swipe to select. You probably also remember a double click in a single word will select the whole word. Also, a triple click will select a whole paragraph. Move your cursor into THIS paragraph now, and triple click to select the entire paragraph.
Now return to the Notepad window, select the edit menu, then select the Paste option. You now have some text to edit. If the text is still selected, click anywhere off of the selection to clear it.
There is a chance, if you have not used Notepad before, that your paragraph looks like a single line. If this happens, go up to the Format menu and select Word Wrap. This will instruct Notepad to wrap long lines to the width of the Notepad window.
2) Keyboard Navigation with the Insertion Point
Place your insertion point anywhere in the paragraph. You already know you can use the arrow keys to move the insertion point in any direction.
The first ‘helper’ key I would like you to learn is the CTRL key. If you press and hold the CTRL key before you poke an arrow key, the arrow key no longer moves a single character left or right and a single line up or down; with the CTRL key pressed, the insertion point moves a whole word left or right. (? Do I need to tell you to try it?)
The second ‘helper’ key is the SHIFT key. If you press and hold the SHIFT key before you poke an arrow key, the arrow keys will highlight characters as you move the insertion point.
You may also hold down BOTH the SHIFT and the CTRL key when using the arrow keys to both move and highlight a word at a time.
3) Copy to Clipboard
Anytime you perform a keyboard copy (CTRL-C) or cut (CTRL-X), or a menu copy or cut, you are putting a copy of your selection on the computers’ clipboard. Except in the case of cut, you will NOT see anything happen!
Select some text. Move your cursor into the selected area, and menu click. In the context menu, select Copy to copy the selected text to the computers' clipboard.
4) Paste from Clipboard
Clear a space in the Notepad window by poking enter a few times. Move your cursor into the space and click to place your text insertion point (flashing vertical bar).
The plan is to paste the content of the clipboard to the paper starting where the insertion point is. You may use the paste keyboard shortcut (CTRL+V), or on the menu bar, select the Edit menu, then the paste choice. Either way you tell Notepad to paste the clipboard content to the paper, at the location specified by the insertion point.
5) Cut to Clipboard
If you have some text you want to move to a different position in the document you are editing, use the Cut (to clipboard) shortcut. You must first select the text you wish to move (for this example, select any text in the sample paragraph), then either use the keyboard shortcut for cut (CTRL+X), or on the menu bar, select the Edit menu, then the Cut choice.
Once you have cut the text out of the paragraph, place your insertion point in the location you would like to insert the text. Now you may use the paste keyboard shortcut (CTRL+V), or the paste choice in the Edit menu as above. Again, this will paste the clipboard content to the paper, at the location specified by the insertion point.
6) Delete
When you have text you wish to delete, there are several easy methods. First, remember to select the text you wish to delete, then poke a Delete key on your keyboard, or use the cut text method and simply not paste it anywhere. A context menu click on the selection will also give you the option to delete.
7) Find (text)
When editing a document, you may wish to find a specific bit of text. As an example, position your insertion point in the first sentence of the example paragraph. You may use the keyboard shortcut for find (CTRL+F), or the Find choice in the Edit menu as above. Either choice will open a find dialog box. In the dialog box, type doub into the text box, then select Find. (Come on! Did you forget to put your insertion point in the text box before you started typing?).
8) Find Next (text)
Start by repeating the above paragraph (Find (text)), but in the dialog box, use you for the text to find. Once you have found the first you, poke the F3 key on your keyboard. Notice: F3 causes the editor to find the NEXT occurrence of you.
9) Find and Replace
Now let’s give it a twist. In my case, I frequently find I have misspelled a word throughout the document. If I found a misspelled word once, I probably did it again. Using the example paragraph again, first place your insertion point at the beginning, then on the menu bar, select Edit, then the Replace choice.
The replace dialog box opens, probably with the you text still in the find text box (if not, type you in the find text box). In the replace text box, type an I. Click on the find button, then on the replace button. Each time you do this, you will replace the word you with the word I.
10) Undo
Undo (CTRL+Z) is the last popular keyboard shortcut we can use with Notepad. Place your insertion point somewhere in the middle of the sample paragraph. Type a simple word such as word. Pretend this was a mistake, say “Oops!”, then type a CTRL+Z. That should have removed the word word.
11) Redo
For serious editing, there is a redo! Notepad, however, doesn’t respond to it. The keyboard shortcut is CTRL+Y. Try it! In more advanced editors, it would have restored the word word. Let’s go on to the next section and try it with a better editor.
Basic Word Processor
EVERYTHING you learned in the last section works in EVERY word processor! All you need to learn is what ADDITIONAL functions are available in the new word processor.
If you have been doing the editing exercise from the last section, you have the Notepad editor (word processor) open. Close it! (Do NOT close the browser window, we need the text again!).
For this exercise we need a more capable editor. Open the application WordPad. You will notice right away, this application has the newer tabbed menu system with a ribbon for tools.
We have been using the clipboard for text other than the paragraph we once copied from the Internet (the clipboard only holds one item at a time!). Now we need to restore that text. Switch to the browser window. If the paragraph is still highlighted, simply menu click it and choose copy. Then, as before, click in the editor window (WordPad) to make it the active window, and if the insertion point (blinking vertical bar) is not present, click on the ‘paper’ to place your insertion point. To paste the paragraph to the paper, this time look at the left end of the ribbon. You should see a group of ‘clipboard’ operations. Select paste. The paragraph from the Internet should be pasted to your local editor (WordPad).
WordPad has all the features we covered in the last section, and then some. The one we know Notepad will NOT do is redo (CTRL+Y).
To test WordPad, once again position your insertion point in the middle of the paragraph. Type a word such as word. Pretend you didn’t intend to do it and poke undo (CTRL+Z). The word should have disappeared. Now for the redo. Poke redo (CTRL+Y). This time, the word should return.
12) Insert
WordPad has many interesting features, such as the Insert group in the Home tab ribbon: Picture, Paint drawing, Date and Time, Insert Object. I will leave it to you to explore these and many of the other features of WordPad. There is, however, one more feature I want you to know for sure. That is: copying of an Internet graphic.
Copy and Paste an Internet Graphic
In many cases, graphics found on the Internet can be copied and/or saved as an image on your computer. There is no visible button to do that, but your menu click will do more than you may imagine.
In the above sections of this class we have been copying text from the Internet to use as a sample for editing. Now we are going to copy a graphic. Generally, a graphic is a non-text item, like a photo or drawing.
Make your browser window the active window. It should still be displaying a page of BillsComputerKindergarten.com. This time we want it to display the Computer world switches section of Class 1.
At the top of the web page, in the left column: find the button labeled “Class Information” or “Classes” and click it. This should display the class outline page. Scroll down to Class 1, then select the computer world switches item. You should now see both a photo of a industrial toggle switch, and the power icon; the world wide, universal icon for a power switch. This is the icon that marks the power button on your computers' case, as well as the power icon on the computer screen you need to find in order to tell the computer to sleep, hibernate or shut down.
Choose the toggle switch graphic to work with. Move your cursor to the item and menu click! Among the choices presented to you will be copy and/or save as an image.
Select copy, to copy the graphic to your computers’ clipboard. (If you choose save as an image, which usually works even when copy does not, the computer will present you with the save as dialog box so you can tell the file manager WHAT to call the file, and WHERE to put the file). Then go back to the WordPad window.
WordPad can handle graphics, but is limited in what you can do with one. A more advanced word processor, such as those mentioned in the next section, can handle graphics with much more finesse.
Remember that this is just an exercise to get you familiar with the process. Choose where you want the graphic to appear in your document (move your cursor to the spot on the WordPad page you are editing), and click to position your insertion point. Paste the contents of the clipboard to your document.
Most likely, the graphic is NOT the size you expected! That’s ok! Now we will learn how to adjust a graphic to our taste.
I suggest you click on and off of your graphic a couple of times to see if you can detect WHEN the graphic is selected. It is different than either a file/icon select, or a text select.
When a graphic item is selected, it will appear with a rectangular box surrounding the item. The corners of the box will have a small square handle, as will the center of each side. That is a total of eight handles that can be moved to change the size and shape of your graphic. When you position your cursor on a handle, you will see the cursor change shape to one of the resize shapes. This is your signal to drag and drop the handle where you wish. Try it now.
After you have changed the graphic’s size and shape, its time to move the graphic, at least as much as WordPad will allow. With your graphic selected, move your cursor into the selected area and observe another cursor shape change. This time the shape is the move shape. When you see the four headed arrow, a drag and drop action will move the entire graphic with your cursor.
Please NOTE: The graphic select with the handles works in ALL graphic applications! This is more Kindergarten stuff!
As I mentioned before, WordPad will allow graphics in a document, but it takes a word processor with more control to handle the graphic with finesse.
13) Spell Check
By now you may also have noticed that neither Notepad nor WordPad have a spelling checker built in. For that, you need a more advanced word processor.
Advanced Applications
ANY advanced word processor will use ALL of the editing techniques you have learned so far! You only need to learn the additional features. The best feature most will add to what you already know, is a spell checker!
There are MANY advanced word processors available: paid for industrial versions that may be way too advanced for the home user (and way too expensive!), paid for home (and student) versions that may still be too expensive for the average Kindergarten user, and free versions that may be the perfect beginners advanced word processor.
The free office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation maker, etc.) I use can be downloaded from the Internet (like a number of others) and is called Apache Open Office. Enter that name into a search engine search text box to find more information.
When you graduate to any application that could be considered advanced, you will find there are so many additional controls, that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there is help available.
14) Manuals and Tutorials
As a general rule, applications either come with manuals and tutorials, or they can be found on the Internet. I find it interesting that when you pay a good sum for an office suite, there is no manual. You must buy a book to help you learn the applications. But with a free office suite, such as Apache Open Office*, you can download hundreds of pages of instructions for using the suite.
Start with the Help menu in one of the included applications, then, if it is not the kind of help you were looking for, use an Internet search engine to find what you want. When you are searching, don’t forget to check the applications’ web site for documentation.
*The “open source movement” (look it up on an Internet search engine) allows for public sharing of certain computer software. Even though you may download and use the software for no charge, there is usually a way you can contribute to the ‘cause’. Consider it a tip, such as the American habit of tipping a waiter or waitress for good service. When you find out the quality of the software you get with no fee attached, you can show your appreciation by tipping the producer, in order to keep up the good work!
15) Templates
One of the best helpers you can get when using a new application, is a template. A template is a fill in the blanks kind of example. Someone with plenty of experience using the application has provided a template for a specific example of the kind of thing you may want to do.
For example: you join a diet movement that requires you keep a log of the food you eat, and keep track of the calories you eat each day. You have a good word processor, but you have no clue how to design a page you can use to record your data. Enter the “food calorie journal” template. Using this pre-designed form, you can instantly have a form to print and try, then modify it as you go to better suit your needs.
The window that opens when you start Apache Open Office has an icon to click for finding templates, or you can search the Internet.
16) Extensions
Extensions are add-ons to an application that give the application added functionality. In the specific case of Open Office, there are extensions that provide spell check capability in several different languages, templates for typical business forms and various letter formats such as formal or informal, documents or stationary with colored logos and backgrounds, and so forth.
The window that opens when you start Apache Open Office has an icon to click for finding extensions, or you can search the Internet.
17) Projects
For us old-timers, (and I’m talking about people like me, who have grown up using computers that didn’t have applications that were of a project nature!) thinking of an application that is project oriented, is a new concept!
On the other hand, I keep small electronic projects in individual boxs. My wife keeps sewing, quilting and embroidery projects in separate boxes. I guess we ARE a project society!
Some applications require more types of data than just plain text. As this kind of application gets more complex, it is more convenient to let the application gather multiple forms of data into a localized collection of files/folders called a project.
An example: you want to make a video to focus people's attention on a subject (such as videos in this class). You have collected numerous types of files you plan on using; audio files of a commentators voice, video files of actions on a computer screen, photos and other images to illustrate points, and background music.
You need an application that can organize all this stuff into a video with titles, the means to fade the videos and images in and out of the final video, etc. For you to keep track of all that is going on would be a nightmare without computer help.
A movie making package that is project oriented allows you to import each different type of file into a library of media types. When you first open such an application, you must choose to begin a new project. The application keeps track of everything you import, how you arrange the items into a video, the exact timing of everything, the bells and whistles that make the video interesting, and let you modify EVERYTHING until the video is just perfect. Then it will convert the whole thing into a video to suit nearly any purpose you have in mind. AND...it keeps track of everything in a single project file that you save and re-open just like you would a single document or photograph.
18) Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are not really a Kindergarten subject. However, because of these classes, you already know a LOT about text editing. One of the major uses for a spreadsheet is just text editing, but in the form of a table. You may want to try making tables of information, which is basically what a spreadsheet does. Once a table is made, a spreadsheet can sort your table into numeric or alphanumeric order. Another relatively simple feature is to sum a column of numbers. If you choose to learn a spreadsheet application, and have downloaded the Apache Open Office suite or a similar suite, it includes a spreadsheet application! All you need is to start the application to begin learning.
If you have a one step at a time mindset, the following video may give you an idea of what tables can do for you.
(Spreadsheet Video) Not on line yet!