Document practice: a pretend writing program to learn on

The parts of a writing program

• A writing program is often called a word processor. Many computers come with one, and some are used inside a browser. What it makes is called a document.
• The blinking line (the cursor) shows where the next letter will go. Clicking in the page moves it there.
• The Enter key begins a new line. In most writing programs a line that reaches the edge of the page goes on to the next line by itself, so Enter is usually kept for the end of a paragraph, not the end of every line.
• Picking words. A change such as bold goes to what is picked (programs say “selected”). In most writing programs, words are picked by pressing the mouse button at the first letter, holding it, and dragging to the last; picked words usually show on a colored background. A click somewhere else lets them go.
• Bold makes letters thick and dark. Its button is often a letter B. On many keyboards, holding the Ctrl key and pressing B does the same; on some computers it is the Command key.
• The size of the letters is often a number in a small list near the top: a larger number gives larger letters.
• Left, center, right. Lines usually begin at the left side. A heading often sits in the middle, and a date or a name is sometimes put on the right. The three buttons are often drawn as small stacks of lines.
• A list with dots is often called a bulleted list, and the dots “bullets”.
• “Undo” takes back the last change. Its button is often an arrow bent to the left, and on many keyboards it is Ctrl and Z. It can usually be pressed more than once, to go back several changes. “Redo” brings back what Undo took away.
• “Save” keeps the document as a file. Writing that has not been saved can be lost if the program closes or the computer turns off. The first Save usually asks for a name and a folder; after that, Save usually keeps the changes under the same name without asking. On many keyboards it is Ctrl and S.
• Some programs save by themselves, mostly the ones used inside a browser, and usually say so in small letters near the top. If nothing on the screen says so, saving is up to you.
• “Save as”, where a program has it, usually makes a second copy under another name and leaves the first as it was.
• Closing a document that has changes usually brings up a question about saving them. Reading that question before clicking is worth the moment it takes.
• Opening it again. Most programs have “Open” in a menu named File, and many show a list of the documents used last. The file itself sits in the folder it was saved in.
• On a shared computer, a saved document can stay there after you leave, where the next person can read it. The staff can usually say how saved files are cleared, and how to take a document with you.

How the lessons work

• The pretend writing program is the light-colored box. The strip at its top shows the name of the pretend document, the row under it holds ten buttons, and the white sheet is the pretend page.
• Typing goes in the box under the pretend page, named “Typing goes here”. The Enter key moves what is in the box onto the page and begins a new line. A real writing program has no such box: there, the letters go straight onto the page.
• A click on a line picks the whole line, and the picked line gets a blue edge. A real writing program picks words by dragging across them; this page does not ask for a drag.
• The ready-made document. Lessons 2 to 7 open with six lines already on the page: a heading, a sentence about a class that does not exist, three things to bring, and “The front desk”. Lessons 1 and 8 begin with a blank page.
• The line that begins “As it stands” says how many lines the document has, whether it is saved, and whether there are changes after the last Save. Reading it before “Close” is the habit the lessons are after.
• Only the step at hand answers. The step is written above the pretend program. If something else is clicked or typed, the page says what it was, and the pretend document stays as it was. Nothing can be broken.
• The box the step asks for has a blue edge, and what to type is written once more right under it. A box is done the moment it holds what the step asks for. Capital letters are forgiven, and the page writes the line the way the step spelled it.
• Lesson 6 saves, changes a line, and saves once more: the second Save opens no window, because the name is known. Lesson 7 closes the saved document and opens it again from “My pretend documents”.
• The page waits. There is no countdown, and taking a long time costs nothing. At the end it says how the pretend document stood and shows the page as the lesson left it, how long the lesson took, from the first time the pointer went into the pretend program, and how many times something else was clicked or typed.
• “Start this lesson again” picks other lines to type and another name.

Every time the page is built, a program makes 32,000 lessons, half in English and half in Spanish, and walks through their 160,000 steps on a pretend writing program of its own, written apart from this page’s: that the thing each step asks for is on the screen when it is asked for, that using it changes something, that the step is said in full, that nothing but the step’s own thing answers, and that the lines and the saved or not saved line come out the same in both.

What this page does not do

• It keeps nothing. No file is made, and nothing typed here can be opened later. It is not a place to write a real letter: Letters you can fill in and the Resume builder make real pages.
• It does not look like every writing program. Real ones differ: the buttons are often small pictures with no words, many sit inside menus or tabs, and their names and order change from one program to the next.
• It does not teach picking words by dragging, copy and paste, fonts, colors, spelling help, tables, pictures, page numbers, margins, or sharing a document with someone.
• It does not teach folders: where a saved file goes, and how to find it, is in Files practice. Putting a document on paper is in Print practice.
• It cannot say which writing program a real computer has, or whether it costs anything. In a library or a job center, the staff are the ones to ask.
• It is not practice for the hand: Mouse and trackpad practice and Typing practice are.
• It does not keep your times or which lessons you have done, gives no certificate and makes no promise about how fast anyone will learn.
• It can be worked by keyboard (Tab, Enter and the space bar), but it has not been tried with a screen reader, a switch or an eye tracker.