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WordPad

WordPad (Figure 8-37) is a basic word processor: More powerful than
Notepad, but not quite as full-blown as Microsoft Word. Among other
blessings, WordPad has a toolbar ribbon for quick access to formatting

commands, and it can open and create Microsoft Word files. Yes, you can
get away with not buying Microsoft Office, and none of your email
business partners will ever know the difference.

And it’s not just Word files. WordPad also can open and create plain text
files, Rich Text Format (RTF) documents, and OpenOffice.org files.

Using WordPad

When WordPad first opens, you see an empty sheet of electronic typing

paper. Just above the ruler, the Ribbon offers menus and buttons that affect
your document. The Font formatting buttons let you change the look of
selected text: font, size, color, subscript, and so on. The Paragraph

formatting buttons affect entire paragraphs.

WordPad doesn’t offer big-gun features like spell-checking, style sheets, or
tables. But it does offer a surprisingly long list of core word-processing

features. For example:

Find, Replace. Using the Find button (right end of the Home tab

on the Ribbon), you can locate a particular word or phrase
instantly, even in a long document. The Replace command takes

that a step further, replacing that found phrase with another one (a
great way to change the name of your main character throughout
your novel, for example).

Indents and Tab stops. As shown in Figure 8-37, you click on the
ruler to place tab stops there. Each time you press the Tab key,
your insertion point cursor jumps in line with the next tab stop.