WordPad is a word processing program included with Windows 2000.  You can use it to create simple documents like letters and memos. 

You can save a document  created in Wordpad as a Microsoft Word file, a Wordpad file, or a text file. (For more about text files, see the Notepad tutorial in this series).

To start WordPad, Click Start.

Choose Programs.

Choose Accessories.

Click WordPad.

WordPad opens.

In the new blank screen, where the text cursor (small vertical line) is blinking, type your document.

You need not press the Enter key at the end of a line. The text will wrap (go to the next line) automatically. Press the Enter key only when starting a new paragraph.

You can change or modify text after entering it.

To insert new text, simply place the text cursor at the location where you want to insert the text (click once with the left mouse button).  Text you enter from your computer keyboard will now be inserted in the location you have chosen.

 Most other text modification operations will require that you first select the text to be modified. To select a single word, double-click on it. The word will be selected (it will be highlighted in dark blue).

To deselect it, click outside the selected area.

Likewise, you can select any amount of text.  Position the mouse at the first word you want to select and drag the mouse (hold down the left mouse key and move the mouse) until the text you want is highlighted.

To insert new text, place the text cursor at the location where you want to insert the text (by clicking once with the left mouse button).  Text you enter from your computer keyboard will now be inserted in the location you have chosen.

To delete text, do one of the following:

• Select some text and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.
• Press the Delete or Backspace keys without selecting text. One character will be deleted at a time.

You can also move text to a new location in the documents. Select the text to be moved.

Drag the text to a new location and release the mouse. The text moves to the new location.

Moving text leaves no copy of the text moved.  If you want to place a second copy of  some text into the document you can Copy and Paste the text. First select the text to be copied.

Click Edit on the menu.

From the edit menu, Choose Copy.

Click on the location that you want the text to be copied to and choose Paste from the Edit menu.

The text is copied to the new location.

For a more detailed tutorial on Copy and Paste, see the Clipboard tutorial in this series under Working with Programs.

After you have finished with your document, you can save it so that it is given a name and written to your hard disk. If you do not write your work to your hard disk, it will be erased when the machine is turned off.

To save a file, click File on the menu.

Click Save or Save As in the file menu.

The Save dialog box appears.

Type a name for the file to be saved.

Choose the type of file format for the file to be saved in. If you aren't sure which one to choose, you can leave this selected to Word for Windows .

Click Save and the file is saved.

For a more detailed tutorial about saving files in Windows, see the Working with Programs section in this series.