General Tips and Tricks for using the Wordprocessors.

What is the difference between Microsoft Word, Works, Wordpad; Corel WordPerfect, Lotus AmiPro, etc.? Well what is the difference between a Ford and a Chevy? The above programs are all wordprocessors and perform similar tasks, but the controls are in a different place.

There are 3 basic levels of wordprocessors. The bottom level has the fewest features. Wordpad falls in this category.

The middle level has more features, but is less powerful than the top line.

The top lines have the most features.

For example, Wordpad is supplied free in all versions of Windows. It will format text,including color, insert pictures & do cut and paste. It has no spell check, no columns, no tables,

Feature	WordPad	Works	Word/WordPerfect/WordPro
text format	yes	yes	yes
text color	yes	yes	yes
pictures	yes	yes	yes
cut & paste	yes	yes	yes
spell check	no	yes	yes, larger dictionary
grammar check	no	no	yes
columns	no	yes, limited	yes, any combination
tables	no	no	yes
mail merge	no	yes	yes
envelopes	no	yes	yes
autocorrect	no	no	yes
borders	no	no	yes
default font	fixed	fixed	changeable
templates	no	yes	yes
highlight text	no	no	yes
cost (Or value. May be supplied with a new computer.)	free	$50 -$100	$300-$500

These are only some of the available features, but should give you an idea of the differences.

Next, we will look at some ways to use them effectively. First, take a look at the shortcuts page. Most of these work in the wordprocessors as well.

Selecting text in a wordprocessor has some special features. After creating a document with a number of lines, try moving your mouse into the left margin until you can get the mouse arrow to change into an arrow pointing to the right. (The normal arrow points left) If you click the mouse, you will highlight the entire row all at once. If you click, hold and drag, you can select multiple rows.

You can control highlighting in many ways. Place your cursor within a word. Hold the Shift key down and use the left and right arrows to select characters one by one. Then try using Shift, Down arrow and Shift, Up arrow to select entire lines.

The next trick to try is placing the mouse arrow in a word and double click to select the whole word. Then try triple clicking and see what it does.

Also, since you are usually typing in a wordprocessor, using the keyboard to do things you normally do with the mouse increases your efficiency. Most operations can be done one of 3 ways. Keyboard, Icon and Menu. Both Icon and Menu require removing one hand from the keyboard, grabbing the mouse and clicking on something. As you open menus, look at the keyboard command and see if it won't save time. I use the keyboard for cut/copy and paste frequently to save time.

One other trick to try is to learn to turn on and off features in the menus and customize the menus. Each program has different levels of controls. Start by looking at the View menu to see what can be selected. Look through the icons in the toolbar(s) to see what is available. Hold the mouse still for a few seconds to see the pop up tooltip that tells what the icon does.

Click here for links to web sites with help for MSWord.

Click here for additional discussions of differences in the 3 levels of wordprocessors.