Word processors

    This is my first article on the hub, and please do not scold me if I find myself biased or naive somewhere ...

    Introduction


    The first drafts of this article appeared when MSOffice 2007 came out - seeing that instead of expanding functionality, eliminating the imperfections, MS undertook to decorate the program. Having looked at it ... I decided to completely get rid of MSOffice and switch to an alternative package. I was the first to get OpenOffice, and while it’s not in everything, it suits me much more than MS. However, I decided to reflect on the ideal word processor.
    First, find out what kind of work a word processor is usually used for:
    1. Articles , abstracts, reports up to the book. This kind of work is written by: students, journalists, writers. They are distinguished by a large amount of text and a small weight of design.
    2. Web pages - the design is important here, which is filled with content later.
    3. Documents - usually have a not too large amount of text (in the general case ...) and must strictly comply with the standards.

    Based on this division, we will try to describe the methods of work for each kind.

    Article.


    As I have already noted, writing an article is characterized by a large amount of text necessary for the work. Working with text in this case is usually divided into 3 stages: typing , editing and layout .
    • The first and most important stage when writing articles - is a set of text.
      The output is a draft article. At this stage, it is advisable to immediately take care of the structure of the text. This will help to save time at the editing stage and not to miss the details that can be forgotten at the end of this stage. When typing, usually only the keyboard is used. Mouse calls at this stage should be minimized. Frequent use of the mouse slows down and can cause irritation. Therefore, it is necessary that the word processor has a convenient system of keyboard shortcuts. You need to hang on keyboard shortcuts and work with the structure of the document, with files and bookmarks. Of course, tips on combinations are needed, but they should be unobtrusive and always out of place. A well-designed autocorrect system, the ability to insert pre-prepared graphics without using a mouse, will also be a good helper here.
    • When editing, the mouse and keyboard are usually used with almost the same intensity, and by the end of the editing process, the mouse is used more often. At this stage, a good clipboard manager is important (by the way, there is no normal BO manager in Win or in Lin, but the one that is in MSOffice only works when MSOffice is running, and also slows it down), as well as notes in the text. Need a good navigation system for previously left notes. All the basic actions performed at this stage are best placed on the toolbar and context menus.
    • At the final layout , functionality is not so much more important than functionality. Both the keyboard and the clipboard are used infrequently. All basic operations are carried out with the mouse. The clarity and unambiguity of the result is important here (the latter is clearly lacking MSOffice: often it takes a very long time to mess around to put the picture in the right place, because it constantly jumps in different directions from the cursor.). Many tools for this stage can be hidden in the application menu and context menus, as well as in separate windows.

    Webpage.


    The process of creating this kind of text is different in a different order of actions: first there is a layout, in which the structure of the future work is laid down, and only then the resulting form is filled in with the content. This is due to the fact that the form in this case is still more important. Often it is better to make the form in another program, and use the word processor in order to create marked-up text, which the other program will then absorb.

    Document.


    When creating documents, as already noted, compliance of the form with standards is of great importance. Therefore, the creation of a document usually begins by opening a template, which is then filled with the necessary content. Thus, the third stage is excluded in most cases, performed even before the creation of the document. And the first and second are already inseparable from each other. In this case, the functionality of the word processor may be minimal. Therefore, IMHO in the office at the workplace of a secretary or a small
    leader, a lite version of a word processor will be enough.

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