Word Processing and Desktop Publishing

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Word Processing and Desktop Publishing

• ITGS

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Most common applications

• Word processors
• Spreadsheets
• Desktop Publishers
• Databases
• Painting and Drawing
• Presentations
• Sound processing
• Games

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Word processors

• Word processingA program for creating documents
  for printing or display.
• Features include formatting, typeface and font
  selections.
• Most word processors include spell checking.

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White Space

• Space in documents without images or text. White
  space can make printed or displayed documents
  easier to read and more attractive.

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ASCII

• American Standard Code for Information
  Interchange. The primary encoding character set
  used in computers. The current version has 7 bits
  per character. 8-bit words or character codes
  provide a bit that can be used as a check bit to
  help verify that the remaining 7 bits are
  correct.

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ASCII Table
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Plain text files

• Plain text files have no formatting
• The number of characters equates to the number of
  bytes.
• You can create them using notepad.
• Readme files are often plain text files
• They are completely compatible among different
  systems.

01000001 01000010 01000010 01000001
A B B A
The file occupies 4 bytes
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Format

• text format The placement of text in printed or
  displayed documents. Text formatting includes the
  setting of margins, typefaces, font sizes, text
  alignments (left, centre, right, or justified),
  style, (bold, italic, underline, outline,
  shadowed), table construction, and the flow of
  text around images.
• In documents with format (ie word) the bytes do
  not equate to the number of characters because
  some bytes are used to store the format itself.
• Template A pre-formated document with no content
  for you to fill in a fast way.

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Ethical considerations of spell checkers

• Substituting teachers?
• Does it help children learn to spell correctly?
• Does it impose a standard language, eliminating
  cultural slangs?
• Over confidence?

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OCR

• Stands for Optical Character Recognition
• Refers to the use of devices and software to
• read characters and translate them into ASCII
  characters for later processing. Applications of
  OCR include the scanning of printed documents to
  convert the text into digital ASCII text that can
  then be edited in word processors.

Essay My Cow My cow is very beautiful. It like
to do moo.. My cow is very beautiful. It like to
do moo.. My cow is very beautiful. It like to do
moo.. My cow is very beautiful. It like to do
moo.. My cow is very beautiful. It like to do
moo..
OCR software
scanner
Editable word processing document
Phisical media (book)
Scanned Image
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Paperless society

• It was first thought that computers were to
  substitute paper but reality shows that more
  paper is used day by day.
• Conditions for a paperless society
• Standard document formats
• Portable document viewers
• Confortable document viewers
• Storage media must be fast and portable.
• Compressed document formats
• Social Conditions (discuss)

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DTP (Desktop Publishing)

• The use of computers to prepare text and graphics
  for printing. The best desktop publishing
  programs support the fitting of text into
  irregular shapes, and the use of a variety of
  typefaces, font sizes and styles (bold, italic,
  underline, outline, superscripts, subscripts,
  etc.).
• Examples Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Pagemaker.

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DTP Hardware

• High resolution screen with high refresh
  frequency.
• High resoultion printers (if not, all work is in
  vane)
• Scanner
• Digital Cameras
• Confortable mouse

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DTP Software

• Design Program (Pagemaker)
• OCR software (Textbridge)
• Electronic Dictation (IBM Via Voice)
• Digital Camera Software
• Fonts and Images banks

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Comparing DTP with word processors
WP
DTP

• Takes less time to create a documents
• Standard fonts
• Text fitted in regular shapes (rectangles)
• Design and formatting options are limited.
• It may print in unexpected ways
• Final document is standard

• It ussualy takes longer to design.
• Variety of fonts
• Text may fit into irregular shapes
• Plenty of design and formatting options.
• WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)
• Final document is original

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Historical Development of DTP

• Started as word processors that handled graphics.
  GUI interfaces are essential.
• Accelerated with the appearence of laser
  printers.
• DTP saves money and allows any one who has some
  hardware and software to publish whatever he
  likes freedom of press. Read Computer
  Confluence pages 116-117