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Word Processing
What is Word Processing Software?
Word processing programs allow you to produce professional looking documents, and they have many features that makes creating these documents simple and easy.
When creating a new document, the default settingspre-selected options control features like the:
- margins – how much empty white space is shown around the borders or edges of the document; most default margins are set to 1"
- line spacing – the vertical distance between the lines of text; most documents are either double-spaced (each vertical line of text has an equal-sized blank space) or single-spaced (no additional space between each vertical line of text)
- character font – the style of the words on the page; fonts can be:
- serif like Times New Roman or Cambria, or
- sans-serif like Arial or Calibri
- font size – how large or small the words are on the page
These default settings can be easily adjusted to meet the requirements for the document you are creating.
Take a look at this sample document to see examples of some of these features.
Microsoft Word
There are numerous types of word processing programs, but one of the most commonly used word processing programs is Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is a software application that must be loaded onto your computer.
There are many different versions of this word processing software, and you should always check which version of Microsoft Word you are using. The version is important to know, in case you need to open the document on another computer than the one you used to create the document originally. The other computer may have a different version of the software. To be compatible meaning that you can open the document and edit it , the computer must have the same version or a newer version of Microsoft Word loaded onto it.
Google Docs
Because of this compatibility issue between Microsoft Word versions, another commonly used word processing software is Google Docs. Anyone who has connection to the Internet and who has a Google account through Gmail and/or YouTube has access to Google Docs.
This application is very similar to Microsoft Word with many of the same features and functions. The Google Docs app does not have different versions so you shouldn't have the same compatibility issues as with Microsoft Word.
Tutorials
The best means for learning to use one or both of these word processing programs is to complete a tutorial a self-study activity where you learn a specific skill for the version and type of program you will be using. Below are links to tutorials for word processing applications:
- Word 2007 (GCF Global)
- Word 2010 (GCF Global)
- Word 2013 (GCF Global)
- Word 2016 (GCF Global)
- Google Docs (G Suite Learning Center)