Introduction: Word Processor is a Software package that enables you to create, edit, print and save documents for

future retrieval and reference. Creating a document involves typing by using a keyboard and saving it. Editing a document involves correcting the spelling mistakes, if any, deleting or moving words sentences or paragraphs. The followings are examples of some popular word processor available Softword WordStar Word perfect Microsoft word

Word 2002 was bundled with Office XP and was released in 2001. It had many of the same features as Word 2000, but had a major new feature called the Task Panes, which gave quicker information and control to a lot of features that were before only available in modal dialog boxes. Ms-Word not only supports word processing features but also DTP features. Some of the important features of Ms-Word are listed below: Findings Font formatting We can change style, size, color, effect, scale, positioning and spacing and also add effects/animations to texts in a word document. This is commonly known as font formatting. Security Microsoft word 2002 (XP), 2003 and 2007 enables us to use password encryption. This is standard functionality; no additional file encryption software is needed. We can access by right clicking on the file then going to security tab. The Security tab shows different file security settings: Open password This password is used for document encryption. This security feature is discussed in the next paragraph. Using word we can create the document and edit them later, as and when required, by adding more text, modifying the existing text, deleting/moving some part of it. Font size and type of fonts can also be changed. Page numbers and Header and Footer can be included. Spelling can be checked and correction can be made automatically in the entire document. Word count and other statistics can be generated. Text can be formatted in columnar style. Text boxes can be made. Tables can be made and included in the text. Word also allows the user to mix the graphical pictures with the text. Graphical pictures can either be created in word itself or can be imported from outside like from Clip Art Gallery. Word also provides the mail-merge facility. Word also has the facility of macros. Macros can be either attached to some function/special keys or to a tool bar or to a menu. It also provides online help of any option.

Modify password This password is used for convenience when sharing files. This password does *not* encrypt the document and therefore does not add security. This modify password opens the word document in an editable modus but prevents the original file from being overwritten. The modify password is stored within the Word document. There are tools available that can extract and remove this modify password. Read-only recommended This is a recommendation to the person opening the document. On opening, MS-word asks the user to choose read-only unless the user thinks that changes to the document are necessary. Its just a recommendation, no security. Protect document password This property is like the modify password, but this time its not possible to make changes to the document while viewing it. This protect document password is extractable and removable as well. Mail merge Mail Merge is the term given to the process where we start with a main document, and a set of details (the data source) about customers, suppliers, members etc. We merge the two together to produce a set of documents individualized for each customer, supplier etc. This process is more efficient than individualizing each document with details, one at a time. Another advantage is that the data source can be used repeatedly for various documents. This is another feature available in Microsoft word. Conclusion Apart from the features included above we can also represent our data and information in pictorial form by using graphs and pie charts. New features like online support and many more are being introduced as Microsoft brings out a new version Microsoft office package every year. Along with MS-Word, freeware word processors like Openoffice.org, AbiWord, Bean, Document.Editor, EZ Word and star office are also famous as they are free of cost and some open source editors can be modified according to the need of the user.