Digital Documentation Notes Important Points

Document: A document is a paper with written contents for example letters, report, thesis,
manuscripts, legal documents, books, etc.

Documentation: The process of preparing a document is called documentation. It is

required to preserve the contents for a longer period or to be used as a evidence.

Word Processing: Word Processing is the use of computer software to enter, edit, format,
store, retrieve and print the document.

Word Processor: A word processor is a computer application used for the production of
printable material. In the beginning WordStar was the most widely used word processor.

Web-based word processors are

● Google Docs
● Office 365 Word
● Microsoft OneDrive Word

Limitations of using Typewriter: There are several limitations of using a typewriter, which
are:
● In case of any typing error, the whole sheet is required to be typed again.
● Typewriter does not have all the required characters or symbols.
● We cannot prepare documents in desired format.
● To send same letter to two or more persons with different addresses requires multiple
typing efforts.

Differences between Manual typewriter and Electronic typewriter.

Electronic Typewriter Manual typewriter

It is possible to make changes in the It is not possible to make changes in the

content content.

It is faster. It is slower.

It has small size to display the contents. It has no screen.

Features of Word Processor:

● Create, edit, save,retrieve and print the document.
● Copy the text to other places within the document.
● Format paragraphs as well as pages.
● Change the font size, font style of the text in the document.
● Check spelling and grammar.
● Create table, modify the size of the selected rows, columns or cells
● Insert pictures or graphs within the document.
● Print the selected text or selected pages of the document.
Create a new document:
● Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+N
● Mouse option: File<New<Text Document
Save a document:
● Select File<Save
● Select the location on disk to save the file
● Type a suitable name for the document
● Click on Save button

Save a document using password:

● Select File<Save
● Select the location on disk to save the file
● Type a suitable name for the document
● Put a tick on the checkbox Save with a password
● Type the password to open the file in Set password dialog box
● Type the same password in the second box and click OK button

By default, the file is saved in .odt format.

Components of Writer window:

● Title Bar: It is located on the top of Writer window. It shows the name of the
document.
● Menu Bar: It appears below the Title Bar. It shows the menu items like File, Edit,
View, Insert, Format, etc. On selecting a menu item, a submenu will open.
● Toolbars: The tool bar appears below Menu Bar. By default, the Standard Tool Bar
and Formatting Tool Bar will appear. The other toolbars can be activated by clicking
on ‘View’ menu, and selecting the ‘Toolbars’ of submenu.
○ Standard toolbar contains commands in the form of icons.
○ Formatting toolbar contains the various options for formatting a document.
● Status Bar: It is located at the bottom of the workspace. It displays the number of
pages, words, the language used, zooming, etc
● Scroll button and scroll bar: It is used to scroll the document.
● Zoom: It allows to change the scale of the text and pictures in the document only for
view.

Text Cursor Movement : The Text Cursor is a flashing vertical line in the body of the text.
The 4 arrow keys (←↑↓→) on the keyboard are called as cursor control keys.
Key Pressed Action Done

Home Key Text Cursor jumps in the beginning of the line.

End Key Text Cursor jumps at the end of the line.

Ctrl + Home Key Text Cursor jumps in the beginning of the document.

Ctrl + End Key Text Cursor jumps in the beginning of the document.
Selection criteria :

To select a letter or letters Drag the Mouse across the letter(s)

To select a single word at a time Position the mouse pointer anywhere on

that word and
double click.

To select a complete sentence Position the mouse pointer anywhere in the

at a time sentence and
triple click.

To select a complete Position the mouse pointer anywhere in the

paragraph at a time paragraph and
quadruple click

To select a document Press Ctrl + A

Non-printing characters : To display the non-printing character(like Spacebar, tab, enter

etc.), press the toggle formatting mark (¶) or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F10. The tab
space is shown by → sign and spacebar is shown by dot (.)

Checking spelling and grammar : To check the spelling and grammar of the document (or
selected text), select Tools →Spelling and Grammar, or click the Spelling and Grammar
button on the Standard toolbar, or press the keyboard key F7. The Spelling and Grammar
dialog box opens.

Find and Replace : This feature is used to search for a text and replace it with other text.
● Select Edit → Find & Replace (or press Ctrl + F), the dialog box will open.
● Type the text to find in the Find box.
● To change the text with different text, enter the new text in the Replace box

Jumping to the page number : To jump to a particular page select the Edit Menu→ Go to
Page (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+G). Specify the page number in the dialog box. The cursor
will move to the first character of the specified page.

Formatting text:
Formatting text refers to the formatting of paragraphs and characters. To do the formatting,
first select the text and then apply the required text formatting features.
● Removing manual formatting: Select the text and choose Format → Clear Direct
Formatting from the Menu bar, or click the Clear Direct Formatting button on the
Formatting toolbar, or use Ctrl+M from the keyboard.
● Common text formatting : Some of the common text formatting features generally
used are
○ Changing font size – by selecting font size.
○ Changing font style – bold, italic, underline
○ Changing font type – by selecting font drop down.
 ○ Changing font colour – by selecting font colour icon.
The keyboard shortcuts for bold (Ctrl+B), for italic (Ctrl+I) and (Ctrl+U) for underline.
● Changing text case : It is possible to change the case of the text. There are 6
Change Case options in LibreOffice Writer which are :
○ Upper Case
○ Lower case
○ Cycle Case
○ Sentence Case
○ Capitalize Every Word
○ Toggle Case
● Superscript and Subscript :
○ To apply superscript: Select the text and select Format → Text → Superscript
○ To apply subscript: Select the text and select Format → Text → Subscript

Deleting rows and columns :

● Place the cursor in the row or column you want to delete and do one of the following:
○ Click on the Rows or Columns icons on the Table toolbar.
○ Right-click and choose Delete → Rows or Delete→ Columns.

To merge two tables :

● Delete the blank paragraph between the tables.
● Select any cell in one of the tables.
● Right-click and choose Merge Tables in the context menu. You can also use Table →
Merge Table from the Menu bar.

Deleting a table :
● Click anywhere in the table.
● Choose Table → Delete Table from the Menu bar.

To split a table :
● Place the cursor in a cell (the table splits immediately above the cursor).
● Choose Table → Split Table from the Menu bar.
● A Split Table dialog opens.
● Click OK.

Print Preview:
Print preview is useful to check the document before printing. A user can check that how the
document will look like after the printing. To print the document click File->Print or press
Ctrl+P from keyboard.

Printing all pages, single and multiple pages:

There are following options to print the number of pages in a document.
1. To print all the pages in sequence, choose the option All pages.
2. To print a single page, or number of nonconsecutive pages, choose the option
Pages, and give the page numbers separated by comma. (for example 3,5,8)
3. To print the pages that are consecutive, choose the option Pages, and give the range
of pages first and last page. (for example 3-8)
4. To print only the selected text, choose the option Selection.
Mail Merge:
Mail Merge is used to create a series of same documents with multiple addresses. Mail
merge is the process of merging the main document (letter or certificates) with the mailing
address of various persons. It is used too send invitations, letters or to print certificates for
several people.

● Main Document: Document which contain common contents is called main

document.
● Data Source: Data source contains values of the corresponding variables of the main
document.

Main Steps for Mail Merge are:

● Create main document.
● Create data source.
● Specify the variable fields in the main document
● Merging the data with the main document