Word Processing

What is word processing?

Ama has to write a letter to her cousin, a poster for the school harvest, and a story for English. She could write them all by hand. Or she could use a computer and a word processor.

A word processor is a program for writing. You type words on the keyboard and they appear on the screen. You can change them, move them, make them bigger or bolder, check the spelling, save the work and print it on paper.

The great thing is that nothing is final. If you make a mistake, you fix it without crossing out. If you want a word in a different place, you move it. If you want ten copies, you print ten.

Common word processors are Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer and WPS Writer. They all work in much the same way. Learn one and you can use any of them.

Try this: Name three things you have written by hand this week that you could have typed instead.

Before computers: the typewriter

Before computers, people typed on a typewriter. Each key pushed a metal arm with a letter on it against an inked ribbon and the paper. Clack, clack, clack.

A typewriter had big problems. If you made a mistake, it was already on the paper. You had to use a special white paint or start the page again. You could not move a sentence. You could not make a word bigger. You could not make a copy except by typing it again.

A word processor fixes all of that because the words live on the screen first, and only go onto paper when you are ready.

The keyboard you use today still has the same letter layout as the typewriter, starting QWERTY on the top row. That is why it is called the QWERTY keyboard.

Try this: Look at your keyboard. Find the letters Q, W, E, R, T, Y in a row.

A document

Everything you write in a word processor is kept in a document. A document is a file, like a photo or a song, but it holds words.

When you open a word processor, you see a white page on the screen. That is a new, empty document. A thin blinking line on the page is the cursor. It shows where the next letter you type will go.

Above the page is a row of menus (File, Edit, View and so on) and a toolbar of buttons for the things you do most: bold, italic, font size, save, print.

One document can be one page or a hundred pages. Ama's letter is one page. Her story might be three.

Try this: Open a word processor. Point to the page, the cursor, the menus and the toolbar.

The keyboard

The keyboard is how you put words into the document.

• Letter keys type small letters.
• Shift + a letter types a capital. Hold Shift, press a, get A.
• Caps Lock makes every letter a capital until you press it again. Careful: IT IS EASY TO LEAVE ON.
• Space bar, the long key at the bottom, puts a space between words.
• Enter starts a new line or paragraph.
• Backspace rubs out the letter to the left of the cursor.
• Delete rubs out the letter to the right.
• Arrow keys move the cursor without changing anything.
• Number keys along the top type numbers; with Shift they type symbols like ! and ?.

Try this: Type your full name with capitals in the right places. Then press Enter and type your school's name.

Typing your first sentence

Let us type: My name is Kofi and I live in Tamale.

1. Hold Shift and press m for the capital M.
2. Type y, then press the space bar.
3. Type name, space, is, space.
4. Shift + k, then ofi, space.
5. Type and, space.
6. Shift + i for the capital I, space.
7. Type live in, space.
8. Shift + t, then amale.
9. Press the full stop key, next to the comma, bottom right of the letters.

Now press Enter to start a new line.

Do not worry about speed. Look at the keys as much as you need. Speed comes later, with practice.

Try this: Type three sentences about your family. Use Shift for every capital letter and the full stop key at the end of each one.

The mouse and the cursor

The mouse moves a small arrow, the pointer, around the screen. When the pointer is over the page, it changes into a tall I shape.

• Click (press the left button once) to put the cursor exactly where you want to type next.
• Double-click a word to select the whole word.
• Triple-click to select a whole paragraph.
• Click and drag across text to select exactly what you want.
• Right-click to open a small menu of useful things, like spelling suggestions.
• Roll the scroll wheel to move up and down a long document.

On a laptop, the touchpad does the same job: slide one finger to move, tap to click.

Try this: Type a short paragraph. Then click in the middle of it, type a new word, and watch it appear exactly where the cursor was.

Fixing mistakes: backspace and delete

Everyone makes typing mistakes. Fixing them is the first skill of word processing.

Backspace removes the letter just before the cursor. If you type "Kumassi", press Backspace once to remove the extra s, giving "Kumasi".

Delete removes the letter just after the cursor. Click before a letter and press Delete to remove it.

To remove a whole word, double-click it to select it and press Delete or Backspace.

To remove a sentence, click and drag across it, then press Delete.

Undo is your best friend. If you delete something by mistake, press Ctrl + Z (hold Ctrl, press Z) and it comes back. Press it again to undo the step before that. Ctrl + Y redoes what you undid.

Try this: Type "Accra is the capital of Ghana." Delete the word "capital" and type "biggest city" in its place. Then undo it all.

Selecting text

Before you can change text, you must select it. Selected text is shown with a coloured background, like highlighter pen.

Ways to select:

• Drag with the mouse from the start to the end
• Double-click a word
• Triple-click a paragraph
• Click at the start, hold Shift, click at the end
• Shift + arrow keys to grow the selection one letter at a time
• Ctrl + A to select everything in the document

Once text is selected, anything you do applies to all of it: making it bold, changing its size, deleting it, or replacing it by just typing.

Worked example: Abena wants to make the title of her poster bigger. She triple-clicks the title to select the whole line, then changes the size. Only the title changes.

Try this: Select one word, one sentence, one paragraph, then everything. Click somewhere empty to unselect each time.

Cut, copy and paste

Word processors let you move text around without retyping it.

Copy (Ctrl + C) makes an invisible copy of the selected text. The original stays where it is.

Cut (Ctrl + X) removes the selected text and keeps an invisible copy.

Paste (Ctrl + V) puts the invisible copy wherever the cursor is.

Worked example: Kofi wrote his story with the ending at the top by mistake. He selects the ending paragraph, presses Ctrl + X, clicks at the bottom of the story, presses Ctrl + V. Done. No retyping.

Worked example: Ama needs her address on three letters. She types it once, selects it, presses Ctrl + C, then pastes it into each letter with Ctrl + V.

The invisible copy is called the clipboard. It holds only one thing at a time; the next copy replaces it.

Try this: Type two sentences. Swap their order using cut and paste.

Bold

Bold text is thicker and darker. Use it to make something stand out: a title, a name, a warning.

To make text bold:

1. Select the text.
2. Click the B button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl + B.

To turn bold off, select the text and click B or press Ctrl + B again.

Use bold for a few words, not whole pages. If everything is bold, nothing stands out.

Worked example: Abena's poster says "Harvest Festival Saturday 10 a.m. Bring a friend." She makes "Harvest Festival" bold so people see it first from across the room.

Worked example: In his letter, Kwame makes the date bold so his cousin cannot miss it. Then he decides it looks odd in a friendly letter and turns it off again with Ctrl + B.

Try this: Type a list of five fruits. Make the one you like best bold.

Italic and underline

Italic text leans to the right. Use it for the title of a book or song, for a word in another language, or for a word you want to stress a little.

To make text italic: select it, then click the I button or press Ctrl + I.

Underlined text has a line beneath it. It was used a lot on typewriters, which could not do bold or italic. Today it is used mostly for headings, or to show a link. Select, then click the U button or press Ctrl + U.

You can combine them. A word can be bold and italic at once.

Worked example: Ama writes, "My favourite book is The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka." The title is italic.

Worked example: Kofi writes, "We eat fufu on Sundays." The Twi word is italic to show it is not English.

Try this: Type one sentence with a book title in italic, one word underlined, and one bold word.

Fonts

A font is the shape of the letters. The same word can look formal, friendly, old-fashioned or modern depending on the font.

Common fonts:

• Arial or Calibri — plain and clear, good for most work
• Times New Roman — the classic font with little feet on the letters, used in books and newspapers
• Comic Sans — rounded and playful, for posters and young children
• Courier — looks like a typewriter

To change the font: select the text, click the font box on the toolbar (it shows the current font's name), and pick one from the list.

Use one or two fonts in a document. A letter with six fonts looks like a ransom note.

Worked example: For her English story, Ama uses Times New Roman for everything. For her festival poster, she uses Arial for the words and one fun font for the title.

Try this: Type your name five times. Give each one a different font. Which do you like best?

Font size

Font size is how big the letters are. It is measured in points. Most body text is 11 or 12 points. Headings are bigger, 16 to 24. A poster title might be 48 or 72.

To change the size: select the text, click the size box next to the font box, and type or choose a number. Or press Ctrl + ] to grow and Ctrl + [ to shrink.

Worked example: Abena's poster:

• Title "Harvest Festival": 48 points, bold
• Date and time: 24 points
• The details: 14 points

People across the hall can read the title, and people close up can read the details.

Worked example: Kwame's letter is all 12 points. A letter does not need big text, and the whole thing fits on one page.

Too many different sizes looks messy. Use two or three.

Try this: Type "Welcome to Basic 5". Make it 36 points. Then try 72. Then put it back to 12.

Lining up text

Text can be lined up in four ways. The buttons are on the toolbar, usually four little pictures of lines.

• Left aligned: every line starts at the left edge. This is normal for letters, stories and most writing.
• Centred: every line sits in the middle. Good for titles and posters.
• Right aligned: every line ends at the right edge. Used for the address and date at the top of a letter.
• Justified: lines are stretched so both edges are straight, like a newspaper column.

To change alignment, click anywhere in the paragraph and press the button. Or use Ctrl + L (left), Ctrl + E (centre), Ctrl + R (right).

Worked example: For her letter, Ama types her address and date, selects those lines and presses Ctrl + R. They jump to the right. Then she clicks on "Dear Akosua," and presses Ctrl + L.

Try this: Type a title and centre it. Type your address and right-align it.

Paragraphs and spacing

Press Enter once to end a paragraph and start a new one. Press it twice to leave an empty line between paragraphs. In most word processors you only need to press it once, because the program adds a gap for you.

Do not press the space bar many times to move text across the page. It looks right on your screen but goes wrong when printed. Use alignment buttons or the Tab key, which moves the cursor a set distance.

Do not press Enter at the end of every line inside a paragraph. The word processor wraps the text onto the next line by itself. Only press Enter when the paragraph ends.

Worked example: Kofi's story looked strange on the printout: lines broke in odd places. He had pressed Enter at the end of every line on screen. He deletes those Enters and the text flows properly.

Try this: Type a paragraph of four sentences without pressing Enter until the end. Watch the words wrap.

Lists

A list puts each item on its own line with a mark in front. Two kinds:

• Bulleted lists use dots. For things with no order, like a shopping list.
• Numbered lists use 1, 2, 3. For steps that must be done in order, like a recipe.

To make a list: type the items, each on its own line, select them, and click the bullet or numbering button on the toolbar. Or click the button first and type; each time you press Enter, a new bullet or number appears.

To end the list, press Enter twice.

Worked example: Ama types a numbered list for her science experiment:

1. Make a hole in each card.
2. Stand the cards in a row.
3. Shine the torch through the holes.

If she adds a step in the middle, the numbers update by themselves.

Try this: Type a bulleted list of five things in your schoolbag and a numbered list of how you get ready for school.

Spell check

Word processors check your spelling as you type. A word the program does not know gets a wavy red line underneath it.

To fix it, right-click the word. A short menu appears with suggestions. Click the correct one and it replaces your word.

Spell check is clever but not perfect:

• It does not know many Ghanaian names and words. "Kumasi", "fufu" and "Abena" may get a red line even though they are correct. You can click Add to dictionary so it stops complaining.
• It cannot tell if you used the wrong word that is spelled correctly. "Their going to the market" has no red line, but it should be "They're".
• It may be set to American spelling. "Colour" might get a red line. Set the language to English (UK) or English (Ghana) if you can.

Try this: Type "The childern went to scool in Acra." Fix each red word using the right-click menu.

Grammar check and proofreading

Some word processors also mark grammar problems with a blue or green wavy line: a missing capital, a doubled word, "a" where it should be "an".

Right-click to see the suggestion. Read it before accepting. Grammar checkers are often wrong, especially with names and with sentences that are correct but unusual.

The computer cannot read your work for you. Always proofread: read the whole document slowly, from start to finish, looking for:

• Words you missed out
• Full stops and capitals
• Sentences that do not make sense
• The right names and dates

Reading aloud helps. Your ears catch what your eyes skip.

Worked example: Kwame's letter says "I hope you are are well." The grammar checker catches "are are". It does not catch that he wrote "Monday" when he meant "Sunday". Only proofreading finds that.

Try this: Type a paragraph and leave three deliberate mistakes. Give it to a friend to find them.

Saving your work

A document on the screen is not safe. If the power goes off or the computer freezes, it is gone. Saving writes the document to the computer's storage so it stays.

To save: press Ctrl + S, or click File then Save, or click the little disk icon on the toolbar.

The first time, the program asks for a file name and a place to put it. Give it a sensible name: "Letter to Akosua" is better than "Document1". Choose a folder you will remember, such as a folder with your name.

After that, Ctrl + S saves silently. Press it every few minutes. Make it a habit: finish a paragraph, press Ctrl + S.

Many programs also save by themselves every few minutes, and Google Docs saves every change at once. Still press Ctrl + S. It costs nothing.

Try this: Save a document called "My first document" in a folder with your name. Close the program. Find the file and open it again.

Files and folders

Saved documents are files. Files live in folders, which are like the drawers of a cabinet. A folder can hold files and other folders.

A good way to organise school work:

Kofi
  Basic 5
    English
      Letter to Akosua
      Story about the market
    Science
      Light experiment
    Computing
      My first document

Every file has a name and a file type, shown by letters after a dot. Word documents end in .docx. LibreOffice documents end in .odt. A .pdf is a document that looks the same on every computer and cannot easily be changed.

If you cannot find a file, use the search box on the computer and type part of its name.

Try this: Make a folder with your name. Inside it, make folders for three subjects. Save one document in each.

Saving to a memory stick or the cloud

What if you want to take your work to another computer, say from school to the internet café, or to a cousin's laptop?

A USB memory stick (also called a flash drive or pen drive) plugs into the side of the computer. Save your file to it, or copy the file onto it, and carry it in your pocket. Before pulling it out, click "Eject" or "Safely remove", or the file might be damaged.

The cloud means storage on the internet. Google Docs and OneDrive keep your files on their computers, and you can open them from any computer or phone with your password. No stick to lose, but you need internet.

Try this: If you have a memory stick, copy a document onto it. If you have internet, open Google Docs and make a document.

Printing

When the document is finished, you can print it on paper.

1. Check the printer is on and has paper.
2. Press Ctrl + P, or click File then Print.
3. Look at the preview. It shows exactly what will come out. Is the layout right? Is anything cut off?
4. Choose how many copies and which pages.
5. Click Print.

Before printing, always save first, and proofread once more. Paper and ink cost money. A mistake found after printing means printing again.

Many schools in Ghana have one printer for everyone. Print only what you need, and collect it straight away.

Try this: Open Print preview for a document and look at it without printing. Does it fit on one page?

Page setup

Before printing, check how the page is set up. This is under File, then Page Setup or Layout.

• Paper size: In Ghana we use A4, the standard sheet. If it is set to "Letter" (the American size), the printout may be cut off.
• Orientation: Portrait is taller than wide, for letters and stories. Landscape is wider than tall, for posters and tables.
• Margins: the empty space around the edge. Normal margins are about 2.5 cm. Smaller margins fit more on the page; larger ones look neat for letters.

Worked example: Abena's harvest poster is wide, so she sets landscape. Kofi's letter is portrait with normal margins.

Worked example: Ama's story runs to a second page by one line. She reduces the margins slightly and it fits on one page.

Try this: Switch a document from portrait to landscape and watch the page turn.

Making a friendly letter

Let us use everything to type a letter. Ama's letter to her cousin Akosua in Kumasi:

1. Open a new document. Save it at once as "Letter to Akosua".
2. Type the address, one line each. Select it and press Ctrl + R to put it on the right.
3. Press Enter, type the date, keep it right aligned.
4. Press Enter twice, press Ctrl + L, type "Dear Akosua," and Enter.
5. Type the paragraphs. Press Enter at the end of each paragraph only.
6. Type "Your loving cousin," Enter, "Ama".
7. Select everything (Ctrl + A) and set the font to Times New Roman, size 12.
8. Proofread. Fix any red lines that are real mistakes. Add "Akosua" to the dictionary.
9. Ctrl + S. Then print preview, then print.

Try this: Type a letter to someone you know, following these nine steps. Sign your name by hand after printing.

Making a poster

A poster uses the same skills, but bigger.

Abena is making a poster for the school harvest festival.

1. New document, save as "Harvest poster". Set the page to landscape.
2. Type the title: HARVEST FESTIVAL. Select it. Centre it (Ctrl + E), make it bold, size 60.
3. Press Enter. Type "Saturday 25th October, 10 a.m." Size 28, centred.
4. Press Enter. Type "St Peter's Basic School, Dansoman". Size 20, centred.
5. Press Enter. Type a bulleted list: food, drumming, dancing, games. Size 18.
6. Last line: "Everyone welcome!" in italic, size 24.
7. Check the print preview. Does it fill the page? If not, make the title bigger.
8. Save. Print.

Two fonts at most, three or four sizes, one or two bold things. Clear beats fancy.

Try this: Make a poster for a school event. Show it to a friend from across the room. Can they read the title?

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts are key presses that do a job faster than reaching for the mouse. The ones you have met:

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + S	Save
Ctrl + Z	Undo
Ctrl + Y	Redo
Ctrl + C	Copy
Ctrl + X	Cut
Ctrl + V	Paste
Ctrl + A	Select all
Ctrl + B	Bold
Ctrl + I	Italic
Ctrl + U	Underline
Ctrl + L / E / R	Align left / centre / right
Ctrl + P	Print
Ctrl + N	New document
Ctrl + O	Open a document

On an Apple Mac, use the Cmd key instead of Ctrl.

You do not have to learn them all today. Start with Ctrl + S and Ctrl + Z. Add one more each week.

Try this: Type a sentence and format it using only the keyboard: bold a word, italic a word, centre the line, save.

Typing faster

At first you will type with one or two fingers, looking at the keys. That is fine. But you can learn to use all your fingers and look at the screen instead. This is called touch typing.

• Rest your fingers on the home row: left hand on A S D F, right hand on J K L ;. The F and J keys have small bumps so you can find them without looking.
• Each finger looks after the keys above and below it.
• Thumbs press the space bar.
• Sit up straight, with the screen at eye level and your wrists level.

Practise ten minutes a day. In a month you will be faster than you thought possible.

Worked example: Kofi starts at 8 words a minute with two fingers. After a term of practice he is at 25 with all ten. His homework takes a third of the time.

Try this: Type "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" without looking at the keyboard. It uses every letter.

Word processing at school in Ghana

Many schools in Ghana have a computer laboratory, often with more pupils than computers, so you may share.

Good habits in the lab:

• Take turns at the keyboard. One types while the other reads and checks.
• Save your work in a folder with your name, so it is there next week.
• Never delete other people's files.
• Log off or close your document when you finish.
• Do not eat or drink near the computers.
• Report a problem to the teacher instead of trying to fix it yourself.

If there is no computer at school, you can practise on a phone. Google Docs and WPS Office work on Android phones. The screen is small, but the ideas are the same.

Try this: Write three rules for your school's computer room and type them as a bulleted list.

Word processing on a phone

You may use a phone more often than a computer. Word processors work on phones too: Google Docs, Microsoft Word and WPS Office all have free apps.

On a phone:

• The keyboard appears on screen when you tap the page. Tap the up-arrow for capitals, tap it twice for Caps Lock.
• Select text by pressing and holding on a word, then dragging the blue handles.
• The toolbar with bold, italic and size is usually at the bottom, or appears when you select text.
• Documents save automatically to the cloud when you have internet.
• You can share a document by sending a link, instead of printing.

Typing a whole story with your thumbs is slow. Phones are good for short pieces and for fixing a document you started on a computer.

Try this: On a phone, make a document, type your name, make it bold, and share it with a family member.

Working together on one document

With Google Docs and some other programs, several people can work on the same document at the same time, from different computers or phones. Each person's cursor shows in a different colour, and you can watch the others typing.

This is useful for group projects. Ama, Kofi and Abena each write one section of a report on their school's history. They fix each other's spelling. Their teacher opens the document and adds a comment: "Add the date the school opened."

Rules for working together:

• Do not delete other people's work without asking.
• Use comments to suggest changes instead of changing them silently.
• Agree on the font and size before you start.
• One person checks the whole document at the end.

Try this: If you have internet, make a Google Doc and share it with a friend. Each of you type one sentence of a story, taking turns.

Common mistakes

Pressing Enter at the end of every line. Let the text wrap. Press Enter only at the end of a paragraph.

Using spaces to line things up. Use alignment buttons or Tab.

Caps Lock left on. IF THIS HAPPENS, select the text and use the "Change case" tool, or retype.

Not saving. The power goes off, the work is gone. Ctrl + S every few minutes.

Calling every file "Document1". Give files real names.

Six fonts and nine sizes. One or two fonts, two or three sizes.

Trusting spell check completely. It misses wrong words that are spelled right, and it does not know Ghanaian names.

Printing before proofreading. Read it on screen first. Paper costs money.

Pulling out the memory stick without ejecting. The file can be damaged.

Try this: Which of these mistakes have you made? Write down the one you will fix first.

Practice: quick questions

1. What key makes a capital letter when held down?
2. What is the difference between Backspace and Delete?
3. Which shortcut undoes your last action?
4. How do you move a sentence from the top of a page to the bottom without retyping?
5. What does a wavy red line under a word mean?
6. Which alignment do you use for the address in a letter?
7. What is a sensible font size for the body of a story?
8. Why should you press Ctrl + S often?
9. What paper size do we use in Ghana?

Answers:

1. Shift
2. Backspace removes the letter before the cursor; Delete removes the one after
3. Ctrl + Z
4. Select it, Ctrl + X, click at the bottom, Ctrl + V
5. The spell checker does not know the word
6. Right aligned
7. 11 or 12 points
8. So your work is not lost if the computer stops
9. A4

Practice: a typing task

Type this exactly, then format it as described.

Our School

Our school is called Nyame Bekyere Basic School. It is in Koforidua, in the Eastern Region. There are 420 pupils and 18 teachers. The headteacher is Mrs Owusu.

We have three favourite things:

• the football field
• the library
• the mango tree in the yard

Our motto is Knowledge is Light.

Format it:

1. The title centred, bold, size 20.
2. The body left aligned, size 12, Times New Roman.
3. The three favourite things as a bulleted list.
4. The motto in italic.
5. Run spell check. Add "Nyame Bekyere" and "Koforidua" to the dictionary.
6. Save as "Our school". Print preview.

Try this: Change the details to match your own school.

A project: the class magazine

Put everything together by making a class magazine.

1. Plan. Each pupil or pair writes one piece: a story, a poem, a report on a school event, a recipe, a joke page, an interview with a teacher.
2. Type. Each piece is a document, saved with a clear name in a shared folder.
3. Format. Agree the rules: Arial 12 for text, titles bold at 18, author's name in italic under the title.
4. Check. Swap documents with another pair and proofread. Fix spelling with the right-click menu and read aloud for the rest.
5. Combine. One group copies and pastes every piece into a single document, in order, with a contents list at the front.
6. Print. One copy to check, then enough for every class.

The magazine will take a few weeks. At the end, you will have used every skill in this book, and you will have something to keep.

Try this: Decide what your piece for the magazine would be. Type its title and first paragraph.

What you have learned

• A word processor is a program for writing; the work is a document
• The keyboard types; Shift makes capitals; Enter ends a paragraph
• Backspace, Delete and Ctrl + Z fix mistakes
• Select text before you change it; cut, copy and paste move it
• Bold, italic and underline make words stand out; use them sparingly
• Fonts change the shape of letters; font size changes how big they are
• Alignment puts text left, centre or right
• Spell check marks unknown words with a red line; proofread anyway
• Save often with Ctrl + S, with a real file name, in a sensible folder
• Print preview before you print on A4 paper
• The same skills work on a phone, and in shared documents with friends

Next time you have something to write, open a document. Type it. Fix it. Make the title bold. Save it. You are a word processor user now.

Learn more

• Word tutorial at GCFGlobal — free, step-by-step lessons on Microsoft Word with pictures and short videos
• LibreOffice Writer — a free word processor you can download and use on any computer
• Microsoft Word help and learning — the official help pages for Word
• Google Docs: how to use — how to make and edit documents in Google Docs on a computer or phone
• Word processor on Wikipedia — the history of word processing, from typewriters to today

Watch more

Think about it

1. What could you do with a word processor that you could never do with a typewriter?
2. Why is it a bad idea to trust the spell checker completely, especially in Ghana?
3. If you had only one keyboard shortcut to teach a friend, which would it be and why?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of saving your work in the cloud instead of on a memory stick?
5. How might working on one shared document change the way a group does a project?