Desktop-Publishing Software

Desktop-Publishing Software

1. Spell Checker

   • Automatically checks the spelling the spelling in the document.

2. Grammar Checker

   • A grammar checker suggests problems with the way sentences are structured, or they can find repeated words or punctuations.

3. Thesaurus

   • Suggests alternative words e.g. Nice could be PLEASANT, DELIGHTFUL.

4. Mail Merge

   • Method of producing personalised letters by merging a standard letter with details of names and addresses.
   • Stages of Mail Merge
     • 1. Create a standard letter
       • 2. Place markers to show where details (names and addresses) should be insterted
         • 3. Open a database of the data to be used.
           • 4. The mail merge facility places the data from the database in top each individual letter in the appropriate place.
             • 5. Print the personalised letter.

5. Facilities in word processing

   • Style sheets - Description of the way a document is to be presented. Used to make sure consistency in appearance.
     • e.g. Font style, colour, font size etc.
   • Headers - appear at top of document
     • Footers- appear at bottom of document.
       • They can include: Title of document Page numbers automatically produced The date and time of printing
   • Automatic contents production - Once a document has been written, the contents page can be produced automatically by the word processer software.

6. Benefits of word processing and DTP!

   • High quality professional publications can be created.
   • Templates are available for many types of documents such as letters and business cards.
   • It is very easy to edit the layout of a publication
   • The display is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
   • Consistency of style can be given to publications, including house style for business'
   • It is possible to create more complex layouts with DTP than with a word processor.