Become a word processor

How to become a Word Processor Operator in 5 steps:

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Learn all about Word Processor duties, skills and much more. Get expert advice on how to become a Word Processor.

Published October 28, 20224 min read

A word processor is a computer program used for the production of any sort of text document.

Word Processor job duties include:

• Answer telephones and give information to callers, take messages, or transfer calls to appropriate individuals.
• Open, read, and route incoming mail, answer correspondence, and prepare outgoing mail.
• Maintain scheduling and event calendars.
• Make travel arrangements for staff.
• Order office supplies and maintain inventory of stock.
• Greet visitors and direct them to the appropriate persons or offices.
• Operate office equipment such as fax machines, copiers, and phone systems, and use computers for spreadsheet, word processing, database management, and other applications.
• Transcribe dictated reports and correspondence.
• Prepare statistical tables, charts, budgets, schedules, financial reports, manuals, and other documents.

Word Processor Job Requirements

There are no formal education requirements for word processors, although most have at least a high school diploma. Certification is not required, but many word processors choose to become certified through organizations such as the International Association of Administrative Professionals or the National Association of Legal Secretaries. Experience is also not required, but many word processors have several years of experience working in an office environment before becoming a word processor.

Word Processor Skills

• Open and close documents
• Create new documents
• Save documents
• Save documents as a different file type
• Print documents
• Edit documents
• Cut, copy, and paste text
• Find and replace text
• Check spelling and grammar
• Add or remove headers and footers
• Insert page numbers
• Add or remove watermarks

Related: Top Word Processor Skills: Definition and Examples

How to become a Word Processor

A word processor is a computer program that allows you to create, edit, and save documents. There are many different word processors available, and each has its own set of features. When choosing a word processor, it is important to consider your needs and the features that are most important to you.

If you want to become a word processor, there are a few things you need to do. First, you need to choose the right word processor for your needs. There are many different options available, so take some time to research the different options and find the one that best suits your needs.

Next, you need to learn how to use the features of your chosen word processor. This may take some time and practice, but it will be worth it in the end. Once you know how to use the features of your word processor, you will be able to create documents quickly and easily.

Finally, you need to make sure you save your documents regularly. This will help ensure that you do not lose any important work if something happens to your computer. Saving often will also help you keep track of your work and make it easier to find if you need to reference it later.

Becoming a word processor is a great way to improve your productivity and efficiency when working on computers. By taking the time to choose the right word processor and learn how to use its features, you can make working on computers much easier and more enjoyable.

Related: Word Processor Resume Example

Related: Word Processor Interview Questions (With Example Answers)

Education and Training: High School

Salary: Median—$28,030 per year

Employment Outlook: Poor

Definition and Nature of the Work

Word processors set up and prepare reports, letters, mailing labels, and other materials on a computer using a keyboard and word processing software. The word processor uses word processing commands to format the material and instruct the machine to correct spelling or grammar errors, number pages automatically, adjust the margins or line length, or perform a host of other functions. After inspecting the completed document, the word processor can print out and arrange copies of the document for presentation or for filing. Word processors also often perform other clerical duties around an office such as copying documents and answering telephones.

Word processing has become an everyday part of office technology in private industry and government. In addition to the job of word processor, this new technology has given rise to a number of related positions. Word processing trainers train terminal operators and instruct users in machine capabilities and formatting options. Proofreader/format designers, in addition to proofreading hard copy, set standards for the word processor’s automated grammar and spelling correction and formatting processes. Word processing managers and supervisors coordinate and oversee other word processors and may be involved in the evaluation, design, and implementation of future word processing systems.

Education and Training Requirements

To become a word processor, a person generally needs a high school education. Employers look for applicants with all-around clerical skills, including a good command of the English language, fast and accurate typing, experience with basic word processing programs, and some secretarial experience. The actual technology of word processing—the use of computers and the software—is often acquired on the job or through employer-sponsored training programs. Many two-year colleges and business schools certify word processors who have completed a program in business and word processing. Some temporary placement services offer preliminary word processing training to clerical workers.

Word processing has become an everyday part of office technology in private industry and government. (Photograph by Kelly A. Quin. Thomson Gale. Reproduced by permission.)

Getting the Job

A high school or business school placement office may be able to help a student find a job as a word processor. Interested individuals can check Internet job banks and classified ads of local newspapers for job openings. State and private employment agencies may be able to lead a person to openings in word processing. For a government job, arrange to take the necessary civil service examination.

Advancement Possibilities and Employment Outlook

Word processors who work quickly and accurately can advance to positions as supervisors or to specialized clerical or administrative assistant jobs within their companies after gaining additional training in programming applications.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 194,000 people held word processing jobs in 2004.

Employment of word processors was expected to decline through the year 2014. In more and more companies professionals and other office personnel are doing their own word processing. Some experienced word processors will be needed because the occupation is a large one.

Working Conditions

Some word processors work independently at separate terminals. Others are clustered in a clerical pool. Word processors generally must sit at their machines for hours at a time. Their work can be tedious and can cause backaches, eyestrain, and repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Word processors usually work forty hours per week, although rotating or swing shifts and flexible time (for example, four ten-hour days a week) are options at some companies. Overtime may be expected during peak periods.

Earnings and Benefits

The median salary in 2004 for word processors and typists was $28,030 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $43,190 per year. Most word processors receive benefits such as health insurance and paid vacations.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A word processor (WP)^[1][2] is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.

Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word processors are word processor programs running on general purpose computers.

The functions of a word processor program fall somewhere between those of a simple text editor and a fully functioned desktop publishing program. However, the distinctions between these three have changed over time and were unclear after 2010.^[3][4]

Background[edit]

Word processors did not develop out of computer technology. Rather, they evolved from mechanical machines and only later did they merge with the computer field.^[5] The history of word processing is the story of the gradual automation of the physical aspects of writing and editing, and then to the refinement of the technology to make it available to corporations and Individuals.

The term word processing appeared in American offices in early 1970s centered on the idea of streamlining the work to typists, but the meaning soon shifted toward the automation of the whole editing cycle.

At first, the designers of word processing systems combined existing technologies with emerging ones to develop stand-alone equipment, creating a new business distinct from the emerging world of the personal computer. The concept of word processing arose from the more general data processing, which since the 1950s had been the application of computers to business administration.^[6]

Through history, there have been three types of word processors: mechanical, electronic and software.

Mechanical word processing[edit]

The first word processing device (a «Machine for Transcribing Letters» that appears to have been similar to a typewriter) was patented by Henry Mill for a machine that was capable of «writing so clearly and accurately you could not distinguish it from a printing press».^[7] More than a century later, another patent appeared in the name of William Austin Burt for the typographer. In the late 19th century, Christopher Latham Sholes^[8] created the first recognizable typewriter although it was a large size, which was described as a «literary piano».^[9]

The only «word processing» these mechanical systems could perform was to change where letters appeared on the page, to fill in spaces that were previously left on the page, or to skip over lines. It was not until decades later that the introduction of electricity and electronics into typewriters began to help the writer with the mechanical part. The term “word processing” (translated from the German word Textverarbeitung) itself was created in the 1950s by Ulrich Steinhilper, a German IBM typewriter sales executive. However, it did not make its appearance in 1960s office management or computing literature (an example of grey literature), though many of the ideas, products, and technologies to which it would later be applied were already well known. Nonetheless, by 1971 the term was recognized by the New York Times^[10] as a business «buzz word». Word processing paralleled the more general «data processing», or the application of computers to business administration.

Thus by 1972 discussion of word processing was common in publications devoted to business office management and technology, and by the mid-1970s the term would have been familiar to any office manager who consulted business periodicals.

Electromechanical and electronic word processing[edit]

By the late 1960s, IBM had developed the IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter). This was a model of the IBM Selectric typewriter from the earlier part of this decade, but it came built into its own desk, integrated with magnetic tape recording and playback facilities along with controls and a bank of electrical relays. The MT/ST automated word wrap, but it had no screen. This device allowed a user to rewrite text that had been written on another tape, and it also allowed limited collaboration in the sense that a user could send the tape to another person to let them edit the document or make a copy. It was a revolution for the word processing industry. In 1969, the tapes were replaced by magnetic cards. These memory cards were inserted into an extra device that accompanied the MT/ST, able to read and record users’ work.

In the early 1970s, word processing began to slowly shift from glorified typewriters augmented with electronic features to become fully computer-based (although only with single-purpose hardware) with the development of several innovations. Just before the arrival of the personal computer (PC), IBM developed the floppy disk. In the early 1970s, the first word-processing systems appeared which allowed display and editing of documents on CRT screens.

During this era, these early stand-alone word processing systems were designed, built, and marketed by several pioneering companies. Linolex Systems was founded in 1970 by James Lincoln and Robert Oleksiak. Linolex based its technology on microprocessors, floppy drives and software. It was a computer-based system for application in the word processing businesses and it sold systems through its own sales force. With a base of installed systems in over 500 sites, Linolex Systems sold 3 million units in 1975 — a year before the Apple computer was released.^[11]

At that time, the Lexitron Corporation also produced a series of dedicated word-processing microcomputers. Lexitron was the first to use a full-sized video display screen (CRT) in its models by 1978. Lexitron also used 51⁄4 inch floppy diskettes, which became the standard in the personal computer field. The program disk was inserted in one drive, and the system booted up. The data diskette was then put in the second drive. The operating system and the word processing program were combined in one file.^[12]

Another of the early word processing adopters was Vydec, which created in 1973 the first modern text processor, the «Vydec Word Processing System». It had built-in multiple functions like the ability to share content by diskette and print it.^{[further explanation needed]} The Vydec Word Processing System sold for $12,000 at the time, (about $60,000 adjusted for inflation).^[13]

The Redactron Corporation (organized by Evelyn Berezin in 1969) designed and manufactured editing systems, including correcting/editing typewriters, cassette and card units, and eventually a word processor called the Data Secretary. The Burroughs Corporation acquired Redactron in 1976.^[14]

A CRT-based system by Wang Laboratories became one of the most popular systems of the 1970s and early 1980s. The Wang system displayed text on a CRT screen, and incorporated virtually every fundamental characteristic of word processors as they are known today. While early computerized word processor system were often expensive and hard to use (that is, like the computer mainframes of the 1960s), the Wang system was a true office machine, affordable to organizations such as medium-sized law firms, and easily mastered and operated by secretarial staff.

The phrase «word processor» rapidly came to refer to CRT-based machines similar to Wang’s. Numerous machines of this kind emerged, typically marketed by traditional office-equipment companies such as IBM, Lanier (AES Data machines — re-badged), CPT, and NBI. All were specialized, dedicated, proprietary systems, with prices in the $10,000 range. Cheap general-purpose personal computers were still the domain of hobbyists.

Japanese word processor devices[edit]

In Japan, even though typewriters with Japanese writing system had widely been used for businesses and governments, they were limited to specialists who required special skills due to the wide variety of letters, until computer-based devices came onto the market. In 1977, Sharp showcased a prototype of a computer-based word processing dedicated device with Japanese writing system in Business Show in Tokyo.^[15][16]

Toshiba released the first Japanese word processor JW-10 in February 1979.^[17] The price was 6,300,000 JPY, equivalent to US$45,000. This is selected as one of the milestones of IEEE.^[18]

The Japanese writing system uses a large number of kanji (logographic Chinese characters) which require 2 bytes to store, so having one key per each symbol is infeasible. Japanese word processing became possible with the development of the Japanese input method (a sequence of keypresses, with visual feedback, which selects a character) — now widely used in personal computers. Oki launched OKI WORD EDITOR-200 in March 1979 with this kana-based keyboard input system. In 1980 several electronics and office equipment brands entered this rapidly growing market with more compact and affordable devices. While the average unit price in 1980 was 2,000,000 JPY (US$14,300), it was dropped to 164,000 JPY (US$1,200) in 1985.^[19] Even after personal computers became widely available, Japanese word processors remained popular as they tended to be more portable (an «office computer» was initially too large to carry around), and become necessities in business and academics, even for private individuals in the second half of the 1980s.^[20] The phrase «word processor» has been abbreviated as «Wa-pro» or «wapuro» in Japanese.

Word processing software[edit]

The final step in word processing came with the advent of the personal computer in the late 1970s and 1980s and with the subsequent creation of word processing software. Word processing software that would create much more complex and capable output was developed and prices began to fall, making them more accessible to the public. By the late 1970s, computerized word processors were still primarily used by employees composing documents for large and midsized businesses (e.g., law firms and newspapers). Within a few years, the falling prices of PCs made word processing available for the first time to all writers in the convenience of their homes.

The first word processing program for personal computers (microcomputers) was Electric Pencil, from Michael Shrayer Software, which went on sale in December 1976. In 1978 WordStar appeared and because of its many new features soon dominated the market. However, WordStar was written for the early CP/M (Control Program–Micro) operating system, and by the time it was rewritten for the newer MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), it was obsolete. Suddenly, WordPerfect dominated the word processing programs during the DOS era, while there was a large variety of less successful programs.

Early word processing software was not as intuitive as word processor devices. Most early word processing software required users to memorize semi-mnemonic key combinations rather than pressing keys such as «copy» or «bold». Moreover, CP/M lacked cursor keys; for example WordStar used the E-S-D-X-centered «diamond» for cursor navigation. However, the price differences between dedicated word processors and general-purpose PCs, and the value added to the latter by software such as “killer app” spreadsheet applications, e.g. VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3, were so compelling that personal computers and word processing software became serious competition for the dedicated machines and soon dominated the market.

Then in the late 1980s innovations such as the advent of laser printers, a «typographic» approach to word processing (WYSIWYG — What You See Is What You Get), using bitmap displays with multiple fonts (pioneered by the Xerox Alto computer and Bravo word processing program), and graphical user interfaces such as “copy and paste” (another Xerox PARC innovation, with the Gypsy word processor). These were popularized by MacWrite on the Apple Macintosh in 1983, and Microsoft Word on the IBM PC in 1984. These were probably the first true WYSIWYG word processors to become known to many people.
Of particular interest also is the standardization of TrueType fonts used in both Macintosh and Windows PCs. While the publishers of the operating systems provide TrueType typefaces, they are largely gathered from traditional typefaces converted by smaller font publishing houses to replicate standard fonts. Demand for new and interesting fonts, which can be found free of copyright restrictions, or commissioned from font designers, occurred.

The growing popularity of the Windows operating system in the 1990s later took Microsoft Word along with it. Originally called «Microsoft Multi-Tool Word», this program quickly became a synonym for “word processor”.

From early in the 21st century Google Docs popularized the transition to online or offline web browser based word processing, this was enabled by the widespread adoption of suitable internet connectivity in businesses and domestic households and later the popularity of smartphones. Google Docs enabled word processing from within any vendor’s web browser, which could run on any vendor’s operating system on any physical device type including tablets and smartphones, although offline editing is limited to a few Chromium based web browsers. Google Docs also enabled the significant growth of use of information technology such as remote access to files and collaborative real-time editing, both becoming simple to do with little or no need for costly software and specialist IT support.

See also[edit]

• List of word processors
• Formatted text

References[edit]