PC Word Processors
WORD PERFECT 5.1
Word Perfect 5.1 has been around for a considerable length of time. In our office, Jane is the primary user and she is a secretary of George in the Personnel Department. She uses Word Perfect 5.1 everyday. I remember how embarrassed she was when she first started using Word Perfect. Since Word Perfect 5.1 is a DOS-based word processor, it took her almost half an hour to figure out how to change the directories in DOS and get into Word Perfect. After she found out how to get into Word Perfect, it took her half day to find out how to use the program, get the setup ready and deal with the layout of the document with the functions. She tried to find out by herself at the very first time, but she failed. She found out that the documents and files had been accumulated to a big pile, and at the same time, her boss, George, had pushed her to finish the work within the day. So finally she had to look for Donna in order to get into Word Perfect and use it to finish her stuff. Let me introduce Jane briefly. She is a shy, quiet but hard working single young lady. She seldom speaks. Even if she speaks, her voice is so soft that you can hardly hear. When somebody makes fun of her, she will blush and say nothing. She will not even lose her temper and never complains.
Let us get back to Jane's first experience working on Word Perfect. After she found out that she failed to get into the Word Perfect directory and had a whole bunch of error messages coming out, she finally knew how to deal with DOS commands. After getting into the right track, she found out that she had difficulties in using the word processing capabilities. So she had to ask Donna again. Finally, she was in Word Perfect. She had a sheet of paper containing full list of steps of what was done before, how to get into Word Perfect and what the commands were.
Jane is very familiar with Word Perfect now and she uses it everyday. Although she finishes her work very fast with her good partner Word Perfect, she still remembers how she got stuck in it and struggled with it. What is the problem of Word Perfect? Why did Jane get stuck in it? Why does Jane consider it a good partner now? All these questions will be answered. Firstly, the on-line help of Word Perfect only tells you what functions are available. It does not tell you what they really mean or what they do. They are all technical terms with keystrokes. But you will not understand what steps should be taken to get a command done. When Jane tried to learn what these functions were, she did not know what most of them meant and what they do. When she used Word Perfect at the very first time, she did not have time or patience to read the whole manual. She tried to get help from the on-line help, but she failed. So the only thing she could do was to ask Donna about what the technical terms mean and having Donna show her how to work with the commands.
Although there is a template of the function keys on the keyboard, Jane still had to look for a particular function key each time she used it. Even though Word Perfect has a pull down menu, she still has to find out what function is in what menu. For example, when she tried to search for a particular word and replace it by another one, she has to press replace key to replace the word each time when the program finds it. When the document gets longer, she finds it time-consuming to do the replacement. She had another experience when trying to use the mail merge function. After she had a database with 1,000 customer information and had the standard letter typed, she found out that she could not get the customer database from Word Perfect. Indeed, Word Perfect 5.1 cannot import data from other applications. They are not compatible with each other. So Jane had to type all customer information into Word Perfect again. But before she typed all the information in, she had to read the manual of how to use the mail merge and how to enter field and data.
When Jane was just learning how to use Word Perfect but not as proficient as she is now, she thought that exiting Word Perfect was the only way of creating another new document. By accident, at one time she pressed "No" when she wanted to exist the program, the screen became blank and the previous document was gone. She suddenly noticed how stupid she was and how confusing Word Perfect sometimes is. Word Perfect does not have any command in the menu for creating a new document.
Sometimes Jane finds Word Perfect sort of clumsy. Word Perfect will ask you for confirmation each time when you use particular functions. You may get mad when it asks you again and again. When you are dealing with a document and keep saving your work, Word Perfect keeps asking you whether you want to replace the existing file. Even when you try to delete a block, Word Perfect will ask you whether you really want to delete it. Such clumsy confirmation will make you mad when you have whole bunch of work waiting for you.
Although Jane remembers so clearly how she got stuck in Word Perfect and how stupid sometimes it is, she still thinks that it is her good partner and helps her a lot. She finds out that Word Perfect has a lot of handy and wonderful functions and capabilities. Spell checker and reveal codes are one of her favorites. She does not need to worry about the accuracy of her typing. But sometimes she finds it quite annoying when there are two upper case letters in a work which the spell checker cannot check it for her. Reveal codes enable her to see what she does on the document and what functions she has used. Another favorite is file manipulation in Word Perfect. She can delete, rename or even move the files whenever she likes. She also finds print previewing is another excellent feature of Word Perfect. She can edit the document until she get satisfied with it and then prints it out. She can save lots of paper and the environment. Jane also like the protection offered by Word Perfect on the document. She can set a password for it and no one else can have access to it. She also finds making a document into columns, indentations and default paragraph number are pretty handy and neat. Actually there are lots of functions and features that Jane likes so much, like graphics, cut and paste etc.
Jane, indeed, said that Word Perfect is a good word processor. Once you know what is going on and what it does, you will like it. It allows you to have simple text entry but good word processing features.
Microsoft Word 6.0a for Window has been around for only a short period of time. In our office, Susan is one of the primary users and she is one of the secretaries helping the Sales and Marketing Department. She uses Words 6.0a everyday for handling her documents and files. It is still a fresh memory for me to remember how mad she was when she first tried to use Word. Since Word is a Windows-based word processor, it did not take her too long to get into Word. All icons are objects. It was easy for her to find out which icon is for Word. But Word did take her almost half day to figure out how to use the ruler and deal with the problem of font size. Finally she had to ask Donna how to deal with the problems that she had. Let us know something about Susan. She is a smart, efficient but bad tempered young girl. She will get mad when she gets stuck in a program and screams for help.
After telling her background, we have to get back to her first working experience with Word. After she noticed that she was playing with the ruler and the document became a mess, she screamed for help from Donna. Finally, she knew how to use Word proficiently and even teaches other people how to use it.
Susan is very familiar with Word now and she uses it everyday for her work. She finds out that Word really helps her a lot. But she still remembers how mad she was when she got stuck in Word ruler. What is the problem? Why Susan loves it so much now? These questions will be answered. Firstly, when Susan tried to set up indentations for her documents at the very first time, she did not notice that ruler was the most convenient way of tab and indentation settings. She thought the ruler was for viewing how large the document is on a paper. After she learned about it, she did not know how to use the markers on the rulers. Her documents used to be a mess after playing around with the ruler. Finally, she knew how to deal with it. She spent two hours figuring out how the markers work. The top ruler in Word is actually used to control the left and right margins of a document. When two markers are moved along the ruler, the whole paragraph or document will be indented. If the top marker is moved, the first sentence of the paragraph is indented. On the other hand, if the bottom marker is moved, the rest of the paragraph, except the first sentence, will be indented. When you want the paragraph to be indented on both left and right hand side, you have to move the left and right markers. The vertical ruler on the left hand side functions quite different from the top one. It merely serves as a ruler for a document showing how long it is. Susan also found out that there are default increasing and decreasing indentations. You simply highlight the desired paragraph and click the button on the toolbar. The paragraph will move either "inside" or "outside".
When she tried to change the font size when she first used Word, she found out her document was part of this size and part of the other size. The solution has finally come out. You should set up the desired font size before you type anything in. When you go too far below the document, font size may change to the default one. You can adjust it by pressing "delete" button. Although she used to get stuck in Word, she commented on Word as excellent. She finds out that Word functions and commands are handy and easy to use. All common functions are either put into buttons on the toolbar. You only need to press the button rather than getting into the menu. Function keys are discouraged in Word. So Word is much more user friendly than Word Perfect. She also thinks that the on-line help is good, although she may find it too boring or clumsy sometimes. But the on-line help really gives you a good start and full details on Word, especially if you are a beginner.
One of her favorites is mail merge and the compatibility of Word with other programs. She can type in all customers information into any database applications. Later, she can use mail merge to retrieve the information without any problem of compatibility that may happen in Word Perfect. She can also input Excel worksheet, graphs or chart into Word documents. Simple drawing and painting are also available.
Another feature that Susan likes is the bulleting and paragraph numbering. There are a number of selections on the symbol of bulleting and numbering. She also likes the grammar checker. She can ensure that there will not be any problem in her grammars.
However, she finds that file manipulation is a pain in Word. Unlike Word Perfect, she can delete, rename or copy files in Word. She has to do it in Window's File Manager. She cannot cancel printing in Word. She finds it maddening when she has to go back to the Window main screen. Overall speaking, Susan said it is a really excellent word processor. It is handy and neat. It offers a lot of functions that previous word processors do not have.
One day, our boss, Rob had a meeting with all the departmental heads. This included Donna and John, our Sales and Marketing Manager. Rob asked whether we should have all personal computers in our office or all workstations with UNIX system. Donna and John argued over this question for almost two hours. Donna said we should keep our office up-to-date, but John said we should keep using PCs. John argued that easy setup and cost are two important concerns. He said setup for personal computers is much easier and handy than the UNIX system. At least our computer department can setup the DOS system by themselves. Even they may have problems sometimes, but they can consult manuals and books. We do not need to employ any experts. But UNIX system is much more complicated because it usually involves networking. This complicates the system setup. An experienced system administrator is required to setup the system. Even though our computer department can read books and manuals, it may be difficult to understand and expert from other network companies may have to be employed.
John also emphasized that purchase price and maintenance cost of a personal computer is much cheaper than a workstation for UNIX system. A personal computer is usually around $2,500 and it is rarely over $6,000. But a workstation may cost around $10,000. Maintenance fee for a workstation may also be more expensive than a person computer. It needs an expert to maintain the system and it may cost $3,000 a year. Furthermore, he also said that personal computers are much more user friendly than UNIX system. UNIX system requires us to memorize all the commands and we have to spend a lot of time to learn how to use it.
The following sites are quite helpful in using Word Perfect 5.1 and Word 6.0a for Windows:
1.Word
Perfect5.1 Frequently Asked Questions
2.Word Processing
3.Word Perfect
5.1
4.Using Graphics Boxes
in Word Perfect 5.1
5.Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS
6.Using Word
Perfect Characters and Symbol Table
7.MS Word for
Windows version 6.0a
8.Download Microsoft Word 6.0a
9.Microsoft Word
6.0a