In
today's marketplace there are a variety of programs available for us to choose
from. However more often than not we land up using whatever programs were installed
on our machines when we purchased them.
One commonly used program is the word processor. Microsoft Word is one of the
more popular programs used here on the Central Coast. Microsoft Works is another
commonly used program that often comes installed on our machines.
Works is not as powerful as Word, but it is more than ample for most of us. Works
is what we call an "Integrated Program". It contains a word processor,
spreadsheet program and database. The spreadsheet portion is similar to Excel
- it calculates numbers. The database works along the same line as Microsoft Access
- it acts as an information warehouse. Keep in mind that each component of Works
contains only a portion of the features of its counterpart.
Microsoft Windows includes a partial version of Word called WordPad. This is not
a separate program, rather an often overlooked component of Windows. Although
it is limited in its features and does not include a spell checker it is an effective
word processing program. If you've never worked with a word processor before,
you may find it easier to start with Word Pad and work your way up to Works or
Word.
A common difficulty of Works and Word Pad is their inability to read or open a
Word Document. A user of Word must save a document in a format that can be understood
by these programs. You can change the File Type when saving a document to 'RTF'
(Rich Text Format) and others will open your document. Rich Text Format is the
universally accepted format that is opened by most word processors. Keep in mind
that you will sacrifice your formatting (font styles, pictures) to do this. If
you will be frequently sharing files, stick with Word.
Because of their market dominance, most of us are more familiar with the Microsoft
family. There are may other good word processing programs on the market. Word
Perfect, Corel, Lotus SmartSuite are among the leaders.
Just as there are a variety of word processors available, there are similar varieties
to all our programs. Take our drawing and art programs for example. Paint comes
installed with Windows and allows us to be as creative as we wish with the drawing
tools provided. However, programs such as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator or the
popular greeting card programs have many more features and tools included.
Look around
for the program that fits your needs. We all use our computers for different purposes.
Choose the software that best reflects your needs. And don't forget, training
and patience will be required!
