Text Documents

=Text Documents= Text documents are a vital part of day-to-day life for staff and students alike. The programs below are some of the more commonly used ones at VUW.

&#8226; Microsoft Word
This is one of the most common programs for preparing text documents. It comes as part of the Microsoft Office bundle of programs, and is a "What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)" editor. This means that what you see on the screen is what you get in the final document. Word is installed on all VUW computers, and with Office365, staff can download and install copies on their personal computers from here.

Who uses Word?
Word is widely used by both staff and students. It is particularly good for creating documents quickly.

File Types
The most common file types produced by MS Word are .doc and .docx. It is also possible to make other file types such as .pdf and .txt.

Getting Started and Support
It is easy to get started with MS Word – all you need to do is open up the program and type. If you need help with more complex usage, check out the Microsoft IT Academy. Alternatively, you can contact a LTTS (Learning and Teaching Technology Specialist).

&#8226; Google Docs
Google Docs is a cloud-based document editor which can be found at docs.google.com. It is a WYSIWYG editor, similar to Microsoft Word.

==&#8226; LA TE X==

LaTeX (pronounced either "lay-tech" or "lah-tech") is a word processor which is particularly good for creating large documents that look professional. It uses a "write-format-preview" approach, rather then a WYSIWYG one. The writing of the text is done separately from the process of formatting and placing it on a page (similar to how HTML works). When making a document, the words are written as plain text, and various commands are used to add formatting and document structure. This is then run through a process called 'typesetting', where it is turned into a .pdf containing the formatted text.

LaTeX enables the author to focus on the creation of the content without getting caught up in the detail of formatting. The typesetting process means that things like text positioning and paragraph layout can be done according what works best for the document as a whole, rather than piece by piece as with WYSIWYG editors. This approach also means that numbering of sections and figures etc. is done automatically.

===Who uses LA TE X?=== LaTeX is widely used in maths, science and engineering. This is because it is particularly good for equations and formulas. It is also used by thesis students as it deals with large documents very well.

File Types
Because of the way LaTeX works, you will have multiple related files for the same document. The text is written in a .tex file, and the finished product is produced as a .pdf.

Getting Started
LaTeX is not a stand-alone typesetting program in itself, but document preparation software that runs on top of the TeX typesetting system. To install LaTeX onto your computer, you need to get a TeX "distribution", which bundles together all of the parts you need. These are freely available, and are cross-platform, so that the same file can be easily worked with on any operating system. There are LaTeX 'distributions' available for Windows, Mac, and Linux (usually already available). There are also online editors such as ShareLaTeX.

Support
Contact a LTTS (Learning and Teaching Technology Specialist) for support and training. Support resources are also available here.

TXT (Text)
Text files (.txt) typically only contain the actual text, with no font or formatting information. These can be opened by pretty much any text editor – Word, Notepad, Text Edit to name just a few.

PDF (Portable Document Format)
PDF is a file format (.pdf) that looks the same no matter what operating system, program or hardware is used to open it. The files contain all of the information necessary to display the content, unlike other file types such as .doc. Because the appearance is consistent, PDF files are widely used for distributing text documents. Most text editors will be able to produce .pdf files.

DOC/DOCX (Document)
The document file format (.doc and .docx) is used by Microsoft Word, and is also used with most word processing software. A .doc file can contain formatted text, images, tables, graphs, charts, page formatting, and print settings. With each version of Microsoft Word, the standards for the DOC format change slightly which can cause some compatibility issues. In particular, .docx files can't be opened by Office 2003 and earlier.