Can document production software improve my writing?

Because word processing software tends to focus on the writing process,

it offers several features that can improve the quality of your writing. These

features may not be available in desktop publishing software or Web authoring

software, which focus on the format of a document.

Your word processing software is likely to include a thesaurus, which can

help you find a synonym for a word so that you can make your writing more

varied and interesting. A grammar checker reads through your document

and points out potential grammatical trouble spots, such as incomplete sentences,

run-on sentences, and verbs that don’t agree with nouns.

Your word processing software might also be able to analyze the reading

level of your document using a standard readability formula, such as

the Flesch-Kincaid reading level. You can use this analysis to find out if

your writing matches your target audience, based on sentence length and

vocabulary.

Can document production software help me break bad writing

habits? Most word processing, DTP, and Web authoring software

includes a Search and Replace feature. You can use this feature to hunt

down mistakes that you typically make in your writing. For example, you

might know from experience that you tend to overuse the word typically.

You can use Search and Replace to find each occurrence of typically, and

then you can decide whether you should substitute a different word, such

as usually or ordinarily.

How do I get my documents to look good? The format for a document

refers to the way that all the elements of a document—text, pictures,

titles, and page numbers—are arranged on the page. The final format of

your document depends on how and where you intend to use it. A school

paper, for example, simply needs to be printed in standard paragraph

format—perhaps double spaced and with numbered pages. Your word processing

software has all the features you need for this formatting task.

A brochure, newsletter, or corporate report, on the other hand, might

require more ambitious formatting, such as columns that continue on noncontiguous

pages and text labels that overlay graphics. You might consider

transferring your document from your word processing software to your

desktop publishing software for access to more sophisticated formatting

tools. For documents that you plan to publish on the Web, Web authoring

software usually provides the most useful set of formatting tools.

The look of your final document depends on several formatting factors, such

as font style, paragraph style, and page layout. A font is a set of letters that

share a unified design. Font size is measured as point size, abbreviated pt.

(One point is about 1/72 of an inch.) Figure 3-9 illustrates several popular

fonts included with document production software.

FIGURE 3-9

You can vary the font style by

selecting character formatting

attributes, such as bold, italics,

underline, superscript, and

subscript. You can also select a

color and size for a font. The font

size for the text in a typical paragraph

is set at 8, 10, or 12 pt.

Titles might be as large as 72 pt.

Times New Roman Font 8 pt.

Times New Roman Font 10 pt.

Times New Roman Font 12 pt.

Times New Roman Font 16 pt.

Times New Roman Font 16 pt. Bold

Times New Roman Font 16 pt. Green

Arial Font 16 pt.

Comic Sans MS 16 pt.

Georgia Font 16 pt. Bold Gold

Dotto 24 pt. Orange

INFOWEBLINKS

You can add to your font collection

by downloading font files from the

Font InfoWeb.

Paragraph style includes the alignment of text within the margins and the

space between each line of text. Paragraph alignment refers to the horizontal

position of text—whether it is aligned at the left margin, aligned at

the right margin, or fully justified so that the text is aligned evenly on both

the right and left margins. Your document will look more formal if it is fully

justified, like the text in this paragraph, than if it has an uneven or ragged

right margin. Line spacing (also called leading, pronounced “LED ing”)

refers to the vertical spacing between lines. Documents are typically single

spaced or double spaced, but word processing and DTP software allow you

to adjust line spacing in 1 pt. increments.

Instead of individually selecting font and paragraph style elements, document

production software typically allows you to define a style that lets you

apply several font and paragraph characteristics with a single click. For

example, instead of applying bold to a title, changing its font to Times New

Roman, centering the text, and then adjusting the font size to 18 pt., you

can define a Document Title style as 18 pt., Times New Roman, centered,

bold. You can then apply all four style characteristics at once simply by

selecting the Document Title style (Figure 3-10).