• Is there a hot line you can call for answers to your questions?
   
• How much does it cost? Cost is a factor in choosing applications, but it's the last thing on this list because you won't save money by getting a cheap application that takes four months to learn or has bugs that destroy a document it took you three hours to type.

Word processing applications are for writing things—from short things like memos to long things like books. They don't do the writing for you, or even the typing—they just make it very, very easy to add, move, delete, and change your text and correct mistakes.

Besides improving your writing by making it easy to rewrite, a word processing application can improve the way your writing looks.

Using the formatting features of your word processing application, you can change the width of margins, underline and center headings, put words in bold for special emphasis, and much more.

Not all editing and formatting features are available in every word processing application. Think about what's important to you, and make sure the application you get meets your needs.

Here are some of the things you can do with word processing applications:

Figure 5-2
Computer as word processor

• Insert characters, words, and paragraphs (and the application rearranges surrounding text to make room for your additions).
   
• Wrap words automatically. (When the insertion point reaches the end of the line, it and any word that won't fit on the current line go to the start of the next line automatically; you don't have to press Return.)
   
• Delete characters or whole sentences with a few keystrokes.
   
• Replace one word or phrase with another. (Type the old word, type the new word, and the application will replace the old with the new throughout the document; this is called search and replace.)
   
• Move text from one part of the document to another (also called cut and paste).

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Chapter 5: Application Programs