Using Wordpad

Using Wordpad

Using WordPad: “WordPad” is an application used to create rich text documents. WordPad includes many features and can be used to create and format large and complex text documents. To start WordPad, click “Start” and select “All Programs → Accessories → WordPad”. A new blank document is displayed.

Toolbars: The buttons on the main “Toolbar” are shortcuts for common file management tasks, such as creating or saving a file.

The buttons on the “Format Bar” are used to change the format of text.

The “Ruler” is used to set tab stops by clicking on it where you want a tab stop to appear. A tab stop specifies the place that the cursor stops at when you press the “Tab” key. You can delete tab stops by dragging them off the ruler.

The “Status Bar” provides additional information about the buttons and commands in WordPad.

Menus: Let us have a brief look at the different menus available on the menu bar. Each menu has different menu items. The “File” menu is used to perform tasks related to your document as a whole. You may create, open, save and print your documents using this menu. The “Edit” menu is used to perform tasks related to the content of your document such as entering and modifying your data. The “View” menu is used to specify whether or not you want to display the toolbar, format bar, status bar and the ruler. The “Insert” menu is used to insert the date and time and other objects in your document. The “Format” menu is used to enhance the appearance of your document content. The “Help” menu contains items through which you can get assistance whenever you require.

Entering text: As you type, the text automatically moves to the next line when it reaches the right edge of the margin. This feature is called “Word Wrap”.

Editing text: After you have entered your text, you may need to make some modifications. This is called “Editing” text. The first change you want to make to this document is to add a title. Click at the beginning of your text. The insertion point is positioned at the top of the document, ready for you to begin entering text. Press “Enter” twice and then use the “Up Arrow” key to move the insertion point up. Now enter the title and press “Enter”.

After looking over the text, you may decide to remove a word. The two most common means to remove text are to use the “Backspace” key to delete unwanted characters to the left of the insertion point, or the “Delete” key to remove characters to the right.

You can also select the text you want to delete and then press “Delete” to remove it. To select text, drag from one end of the area of text to the other. A quicker way to select a word is to double-click on it.

Formatting Text: You decide you want to improve the appearance of the title by applying various formatting effects to the text. You want to center it between the margins, make the characters larger and display the characters in a color. Before you can apply the formatting effects, you first need to select the text you want to format. Since you want to select the entire title, you can click in the left margin of the line to select the entire line quickly. You may use the “Center” button on the Format Bar to center the title.

To further enhance the appearance of the title, you would like to increase the font size. “Font size” refers to the height and width of printed characters. Font size is measured in points, which refers to the height of the character, with a point equal to about 1/72 inch. Most documents use a font size of 10 or 12 point. Click the “Font Size” drop-down list button on the Format Bar and select the font size you wish.

Finally, you will make the title text bold and apply a color to it. Click the “Bold” button on the Format Bar to add a bold effect. Click the “Color” button and select a color of your choice. The title now appears in the selected color.

Saving a file to the Desktop: If you like how the document looks then you may save the document. If you plan to use this file again shortly, you can save the file on the desktop using a new file name for easy access.  To save the document, select “File → Save As…” from the menu. The “Save As” window appears on the screen. Type the desired file name and select “Desktop” as the location to save the file. Then click "Save" to save the file on the desktop. Your file is stored with the extension “.rtf”.

The document icon for the WordPad file appears on the desktop. Notice that this icon does not display the arrow symbol that appears in shortcut icons. This is because the file is actually stored in the desktop folder and the icon is not a shortcut to an object that is in another location.

To open this file, double-click on the file name on thLet us now see some additional features of WordPad.

Finding and Replacing Text: To find or replace specific characters, select “Edit → Find” or “Edit → Replace” from the menu and specify your search criteria in the “Find what” field. If you want to replace that text with other text enter it in the “Replace with” field. Click “Replace” to replace the original text with the new text.

You may click “Replace All” to replace all occurrences of the original text. You may refine your search by checking the boxes against “Match whole word only” to find whole words matching your search criteria and “Match case” to make your search specific to capital and small alphabets.e desktop. The associated program, WordPad in this case, is started, and the file is opened and displayed in the workspace. The file name is displayed in the title bar before the program name and the Windows taskbar displays a button for the open application.

 Moving, Copying and Deleting Text:

To cut text that you want to move to another location, select the text, and then select “Edit → Cut” from the menu. To copy text for writing to another location, select the text, and then select “Edit → Copy” from the menu. To paste text you have cut or copied, place the insertion point where you want to paste the text, and then select “Edit → Paste” from the menu.

You may undo your actions by selecting “Edit → Undo” from the menu.