Creating Documents with WordPad revised 11/9/06

Windows WordPad is an easy-to-use word processing program. It contains basic features common to all word processing programs, such as the ability to create, save, and retrieve document files; move, copy, enhance, and edit text; set text margins and align text in various ways; and search for and replace words and phrases throughout the entire document.

Starting WordPad

Windows WordPad is an application found on the Accessories menu. To start WordPad, click the Start button, move the highlight to Programs, and then to Accessories. Finally, click the WordPad icon.

When you launch WordPad, you will see the opening window shown in Figure 3-1. Note the menu bar, toolbars, ruler, and status bar. The blank area is the workspace for inputting your document. Your window may also show a formatting toolbar, an optional tool that we’ll discuss a bit later.

WordPad’s Opening Window

Title Bar

Menu Bar

Standard Buttons Toolbar

Formatting Toolbar

Ruler

Workspace

Status Bar

Task Bar

WordPad’s File Menu

Look at the six options on WordPad’s familiar menu bar. Do you see that one letter of each word is underlined? Now look at the underlined letters in the File menu options shown in Figure 3-2. Underlining is a code for keyboard commands: As an alternative to using the mouse, you can use this letter in combination with the Alt key to select a menu. Thus you can press o to issue the Open command. Chances are you prefer using your mouse, but remember the meaning of the underlined letters just in case your mouse is ever disabled or you are working on a laptop computer that doesn’t have a mouse.

Keying Text

WordPad’s opening window offers you a blank workspace, clear and ready for your text. The cursor, a thin vertical blinking line, indicates the start position. As you key text, the cursor moves; you might say you push the cursor along as you key. Remember that the cursor’s location is called the insertion point, the point where the next character you key will be inserted.

Keying text in WordPad is exactly like keying text in Notepad, except for one feature: WordPad automatically wraps text to the next line. You do not have to choose this option, as you did in Notepad. Once you have keyed text in a new document, you can move around in the document using the same mouse and keyboard techniques as in Notepad.

Now, let’s begin using WordPad.

Step-by-Step 3.1

Start Windows if it is not already running.
Click the Start button, move the highlight to All Programs, and then Accessories, and finally click WordPad.
Click the Maximize button to maximize the WordPad window.
Key in the standard school header at the top left corner. Put the file name on the 4^th line of the school header. Read below to see what the file name will be.
In the workspace, key the following two paragraphs of text at the cursor position. Press Enter twice at the end of each paragraph, as indicated.

Computer technology has genuinely revolutionized the world of business. For most of us, the first image of this revolution is the office. [Enter][Enter]

Administrative assistants, managers, top executives—all have personal computers (PCs) on their desktops. Armed with PC power, office workers at all levels (and in all industries) rely on their computers to draft and revise their letters, memos, reports, and proposals; to develop spreadsheets and databases; to create object images; and to communicate with one another via e-mail.

[Enter][Enter]

But offices aren’t the only businesses benefiting from the computer revolution. Repair shops use PCs for billing. Auto parts dealers use PCs for inventory. Video rental stores rely on PCs to track customer returns. And take-out restaurants network two computers—one at the front counter, the other in the kitchen—to show cooks the orders as they are entered! In addition, many, many home businesses thrive only because a PC allows a sole entrepreneur to handle correspondence, invoicing, inventory, and more, all by herself or himself. [Enter][Enter]

Look over the document and correct any errors you made, using the Backspace or Delete key.
Keep this document open on your screen for the next Step-by-Step.

Saving a WordPad document

It is a good idea to save your work frequently—every 10 minutes or so—to avoid accidental loss. WordPad offers two File menu options for saving:

Use Save for documents that are already named as you want them named.
Use Save As for documents that are not yet named (or for documents that you want to rename or change location).

The Save As command can save you a lot of time by allowing you to use existing files and then give them new names. Imagine, for example, a short letter to Mary Linton already saved under the file name Linton Letter. A week later you want to send the same letter to Greg Chin—with a revised inside address and current date, of course. Once you make the copy changes, select Save As from the file menu and save your new file as Chin Letter. Perhaps nothing is more critical than saving your files for the future, so learn to master the Save As command.

The Save As dialog box gives you an important option for saving files. The Save as type drop-down list displays five options you can choose from when saving your file. These files types are discussed below.

§ Word for Windows 6.0. Choosing this option lets you save a WordPad document as a Word for Windows document. In WordPad, you can open documents created in any version of Word for Windows.

§ Rich text Format (RTF). RTF text files instruct the word processing software how the document’s text should look on-screen or appear when printed—that is, it shows text as bold, justified, centered and so on. Thus WordPad allows you to exchange RTF files between operating systems or word processors easily, without wasting time to convert documents.

§ Text document. Here, text does not mean “word” or “copy”. A text document is a file with no formatting, not even paragraph breaks—text only.

§ Text Document – MS-DOS Format. This option saves a file in ASCII format (ASCII, pronounced “ASKee,” refers to an international standard for exchanging files). Files saved in this format can be recognized by all PC word processing programs and most other applications as well.

§ Unicode Text Document. This is another text-only format in which all the formatting is removed.

You will usually want to accept the default, Rich text Format (RTF).

Step-by-Step 3.2

Select Save As from the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears.
From the Save in drop-down list, select the drive and/or folder to which you have been instructed to save course files.
Key the filename Practice lastnameinitial in the text box, From the Save as the drop-down list, select Rich Text Format, if necessary, and click the Save button. Leave the document on-screen for the next Step-by-Step.

Closing a WordPad Document

WordPad does not have a “close document” command that allows you to close a document while leaving WordPad open. You close a document using the same options as in Notepad:

Select New from the File menu to replace the current document with a new blank screen.
Select Open from the File menu to replace the current document with another WordPad document.
Select Exit from the File menu or click the Close button to quit the document and WordPad simultaneously.

If you select New before saving the current document, WordPad displays the warning message reminding you that your document hasn’t been saved. Select yes to save the document.

Opening a New WordPad Document

When you choose New from the File menu to begin a new document. WordPad displays the New dialog box as shown. From this dialog box you can select a type for the new document. These choices should look familiar to you – they are the same document types that appear in the Save as type drop-down list in the Save as dialog box. Usually, you will want to select the Word 6 Document choice. When you click the OK button in this dialog box, WordPad displays a blank screen for your new document.

Step-by-Step 3.3

Choose New from the File menu. The New dialog box appears.
Select Rich Text Format type, and then click OK button.
The current document is replaced by a new, blank screen. Leave this new document on-screen.

Opening an Existing WordPad Document

WordPad offers several ways to open existing documents

Select Open from the File menu to display the Open dialog box.
Display the File menu. Toward the bottom of the menu is a section showing the four most recently opened files. Click a file name from this list to open the file.
Click the Open button on the toolbar to display the Open dialog box.

The Open dialog box gives you further options for opening a file. You can key the filename in the File name text box. You can specify the type of files to display in the Files of type drop-down list. Use the Look in drop-down list to display the contents of the desired drive or folder, and then double-click the file you want to open.

Step-by-Step 3.4

Select Open from the File menu. The Open dialog box displays.
In the Open dialog box, select the drive and/or folder containing your course files.
Select Rich Text Format from the Files of type drop-down list. Double-click the Practice lastnameinitial file. The document opens.

Note: Do not open your WordPad documents by double-clicking on them because they will open in Microsoft Word.

Move the insertion point to the end of the Practice document, if it is not already there; the insertion point should be positioned to begin paragraph 3.
Key the following copy:

The power of computers is one obvious reason for their widespread use today. But would they be as popular if they were still as large and as cumbersome as the room size monsters of years ago? Would they be available to small businesses and homes if they cost as much today as they did years ago? Hardly! Over the years computer engineers have made computer chips smaller and smaller – and at the same time more and more powerful AND less expensive! One wit noted that if what happened to computers would happen to automobiles, then a Rolls Royce would soon cost about two dollars! [Enter] [Enter]

Save the revised document by clicking the Save button on the toolbar.
Key the following text as the fourth and final paragraph:

Computers . . . What would your world be without them?

Select Save As from the File menu.
If necessary, select the drive and/or folder to which you are saving course files.
Key New Stuff lastnameinitial in the Filename text box, and then click the Save button.
Save again to a second location.

Printing a WordPad Document

WordPad lets you print documents by using the Print option on the File menu. Before you print, however, you should always select the Print Preview option (also on the File menu). These options are discussed in detail below.

Print Preview

To see the way your document will look when printed, select the Print Preview option from the File menu, or click the Print Preview button on the toolbar. The “preview” is a miniature version of the document, an outline of the text area framed against the full page. The mouse pointer becomes a magnifying glass that you can click in any area of the document to see a closer view.

At the top of the Preview window, the buttons offer you the opportunity to Print the document, to advance to the Next Page or return to the Previous (Prev.) Page, to get a Two-Page view, to Zoom In (magnify the page view) or Zoom Out (reduce the page view), and, finally, to Close the Print Preview window. As usual, unavailable button options are grayed out; for example, when you preview a one-page document, Next Page is unavailable.

To print an open document in WordPad, select Print from the File menu. The Print dialog box appears. You have a number of options to choose from in this dialog box.

Select Printer. The top half of the Print dialog box sets the properties of your printer – information that you can change when you install a new printer or want to send the print job to a different printer. To send the print job to a different printer, simply click the icon of the new printer.
Print Range. Select All (the default) when you want to print all pages in the current fill. Otherwise, select Pages and key the page number separated by a hyphen in the text box. The Selection option lets you print selected text only. The Current Page option lets you print the page in which the insertion point is located.
Number of copies. The default is 1 copy. To print additional copies of each page, key a number in the Number of copies box. Below the Number of copies you can choose how you want the printed page to be collated.

You can also print a document by clicking the Print button on the toolbar. However, clicking this button causes your document to begin printing immediately. You will not see the Print dialog box.