The Advantages And Benefits Of Word Processing

Introduction to word Processing

What is word processing?

For those of us that use computers, whether at school, work or home, the word ‘word processing’ has become part of our everyday modern language. We tend to know automatically that a word processor is an electronic device often found built into our computer systems or that we can use it to write neatly presented page documents, produce layouts or to design a marvellous CV for our present employers. Expertise in this field has vastly developed within the last 20 years and we are now at a stage where we can purchase and install the latest word processing software package on line with advisors to help us. There are now a number of different word processing packages available on the

One of the major benefits is that corrections can be made easily. This is highly valuable to the writer or typist as it means that mistakes can be cleanly and easily erased; a type writer on the other hand can be a messy affair trying to remove a word, letter or sentence. Unlike the typewriter, you can correct your work as many times as you like, work made can be saved onto your computer or removable disk for storage so you can return to it whenever you need to.

Advancements of word processing allows you to work around all the useful tools that are available. You can create borders, which can be changed into colour or extended into thicker or thinner lines or even arty designs, you can produce text layouts for any documents you want, you can change the colour, font and size, and you can insert margins, tables, columns. You can design templates and letter heads by using the header and footer tool, also useful here is the ability to add page numbers which are normally placed in the footer or you can write page references which makes a document look neat, tidy and

Figure 1 below illustrates a mistake made by the typewriter.

Fig 1: An example of a text written on a typewriter. You can clearly see the mistake.

When mistakes were made using a type writer, typists had to use special typewriting erasers.

Business letters where typed on heavy weight, high – rag- content paper, not merely to provide luxurious appearance, but also to stand up to erasure. (unknown, n.d.)

Word processors have made it easier for typist and writers to work and store important files and documents. The internal and removable devices that you save your work on have reduced paper wastage. This is definitely important for saving the trees and the eco system.

When using a word processor, the documents produced are always eligible. This is certainly an advantage over the poor and untidy hand writers out there, although handwritten letters do add a personal touch, a personal touch can be very annoying when you can’t understand a word it is