Using Word Pad

If you really want and need formatting - and you're too cheap to buy Microsoft Word - Windows XP's WordPad will do. If you've been locked out of Word by Microsoft's nefarious Office (De)Activation Wizard, you'll no doubt rely on WordPad to keep limping along until Microsoft can reactivate you.

If you find yourself reading these words because Office has slipped into "reduced functionality mode," take heart, but be forewarned: If you aren't careful, you can really clobber your Word files by saving them with WordPad. If you have to edit a Word 97, 2000, 2002, or 2003 document with WordPad, always follow these steps:

1. Make a copy of the Word document, and open the copy in WordPad. Do not edit original Word documents with WordPad. You'll break them as soon as you save them. Do not open Word documents in WordPad, thinking that you'll do a Save As and save with a different name. You'll forget.

2. When you get Word back, open the original document, choose Tools --> Compare and Merge Documents. Pick the WordPad version of the document, and click Merge. The resulting merged document probably looks like a mess, but it's a start.

3. Use the Revisions Toolbar (which is showing) to march through your original document and apply the changes you made with WordPad. This is the only reliable way to ensure that WordPad doesn't accidentally swallow any of your formatting.

WordPad works much the same as any other word processor, only less so. Its feature set reflects its price - you can't expect much from a free word processor. That said, WordPad isn't encumbered with many of the confusing doodads that make Word so difficult for the first-time e-typist, and it may be a decent way to start learning how simple word processors work.

To get WordPad going, choose Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> WordPad

Technical Stuff
Like a Word document or a text file, Rich Text Format (RTF) is another type of file. RTF documents can have some simple formatting, but nothing nearly as complex as Word 97, for example. Many word-processing programs from many different manufacturers can read and write RTF files, so RTF is a good choice if you need to create a file that can be moved to a lot of places.

If you're just starting out with word processing, keep these facts in mind:

• To format text, select the text you want to format; then click the formatting you want from the toolbar, or choose Format --> Font.

• To format a paragraph, you can simply click once inside the paragraph and choose the formatting from the toolbar, or choose Format --> Paragraph. Alternatively, you can select all the text in the paragraph, or in multiple paragraphs, before applying the formatting.

• General page layout (such as margins, whether the page is printed vertically or horizontally, and so on) is controlled by settings in the Page Setup dialog box. To get to the Page Setup dialog box, choose File --> Page Setup.

• Tabs are complicated. Every paragraph starts out with tab stops set every half inch. You set additional tab stops by choosing Format --> Tab, but the tab stops you set up work only in individual paragraphs: Select one paragraph and set a tab stop, and it works only in the selected paragraph; select three paragraphs and set the stop, and it works in all three.

WordPad treats tabs like any other character: A tab can be copied, moved and/or deleted, sometimes with unexpected results. Keep your eyes peeled when using tabs and tab stops. If something goes wrong, choose Edit --> Undo immediately and try again.

Remember
WordPad lacks many of the features that you may have come to expect from other word processors: You can't even insert a page break, much less a table. If you spend any time at all writing anything but the most straightforward documents, you'll quickly outgrow WordPad.