ALS 3203 - Lesson 9
Advanced Word Processing Techniques
Lesson 9 deals with advanced techniques used to enhance word processing documents. Before we proceed to the lesson itself, a brief review of some terms and concepts is warranted.
Review the following before you work on Lesson 9;
Font - refers to the combination of a typeface (eg. Times Roman, Arial, Century Schoolbook) and its attributes (bold, italics, size (12pts).
- Proportional typeface - size of space occupied by single letter or character is proportional to its shape (eg., an "l" takes up less horizontal space than a "w".)
- Monospace typeface - size of space occupied by single letter or character is the same, regardless of shape. Therefore, every letter in a monospace document occupies the same space. This typeface resembles typewriter type. A common typeface in this category is Courier.
- Points - measurement of vertical height of proportional font letters. Because proportional font letters vary in width, their size cannot be described in terms of horizontal space so the terms point size are used to describe them. There are 72 points to 1 inch. So which is larger, 12pts. or 20pts. The answer is 20pts., because a character 20pts. tall is taller than one that is 12pts. tall.
- CPI (characters per inch) - measurement of horizontal width of monospace letters. Since they are all of the same width their size may be described by their horizontal width. Examples would be 12cpi vs. 16cpi. Which is larger? The answer is 12cpi because there are fewer characters per inch.
Text File Formats
- Text only - (DOS or ASCII text)
- RTF - (Rich Text Format)
- Native file format - saved in the format of a full-featured word processing application.
Word Processing Applications
- Simple Text Editors - Notepad (PC), Simple Text (Mac)
- Slightly more text formatting - Wordpad (PC), Appleworks (Mac)
- Full featured - MS-Word, Corel WordPerfect
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| **Document Components
| Word Processor
| Web Pages
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Page Setup
- Margins, alignment
- Orientation
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Alignment only
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| Headers/Footers |
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N/A |
| Page numbering |
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N/A |
| Fonts - System dependent |
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Client-dependent |
Special Characters
Complete set
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Limited number |
| Tables |
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| Columns |
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N/A |
| Inserted Graphics - as long as import filter installed
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Bitmap only
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| Dot Leaders |
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N/A |
Paragraph format
- Variable line spacing
- Tabs
- Hanging indents
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N/A |
| **Some of these may be achieved in web pages with advanced programming techniques. For our comparison we are comparing basic HTML capabilities with full-featured word processing capabilities. |
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