Ex1+Question+2

When a document is typed using a word processor, it is possible to insert a wide variety of symbols from many different languages. The resulting document can be saved in various file formats such as RTF, txt or PDF.

A passage was typed in Greek and save as an RTF file. When viewed in a word proessor, it appeared as bellow: When saved as a text file, and re-opened, everything appeared like this (example of the first 3 lines):

E???? ?????????, ?o? o????o? ?????? ???E? ?????O? ?E???? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??????, ????? ? ???????v ??O???, ?EO?? ? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?E????E?? ????E?.


 * Identify **two** coding systems used to store characters in computer files.

1. ASCII code 2. Unicode


 * Describe **three** ways that a Rich Text Format (RTF) file differs from a text file.
 * 1. It can render both images and text into a final document
 * 2. In RTF you can make graphics and the text file is plain text format.
 * 3. RTF contains tags to mark formats, you can have text bolded, can insert bullet points and paragraphs. The text file doesn't.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a format designed to exchange and store files through different hardwares and operating systems. This means that it is compatible with different companies such as mac, linux or windows. (This does not happen with other formats such as .docx) When using PDF format you can be sure that your file cannot be changed/edited easily and that it stays with the format that you saved it with, keeping the original document intact. In matters of intellectual property (like publishing books ...), you get the same file no matter where you open it, the author can ensure that his original document has not been altered. PDF files support functions that other formats do not, such as music, movies, attachments and hyperlinks. Finally, this format allows data compression, so it is very useful when saving huge files and sending it to other users, with any change in the quality of the file.
 * Explain why the PDF format is often chosen to send documents between computer.


 * To what extent does the use of Word Processors has changed the life of students in modern times.

Thanks to the use of Word Processors, files can now be stored, without the risk of being lost. (As long as they have a backup if something happens to the computer). They can be organized, and easily accesed by the users. This allows students in modern times to have a comfortable tool to process documents, share them with other users and modify them whenever they want without having to re-write the whole document. Word processors allow students to move their information from one computer to another, and print it if they want to. Students can easily copy or save important information(e.g. news, articles, reviews) to the word processors and store the information on their computers.Also, it has helped in the sense that the whole education process has changed: years ago teachers had to write absolutely everything down, either in the blackboard, notes, documents etc.. for their students to have access to that information, but with Word Processors now most of teachers can share with their students information that comes in a word-processor-format, which makes information easier to handle. Other advantages are that word-processed documents are always legible, they can be easily corrected without having to write the whole document again, and they can use features such as hyperlinks and spell check. However, three issues worth considering are that if the students' computers have done a file using a format which is not compatible with the one they need to download from the teacher's computer (e.g docx in mac), they would not be able to access it. The second problem is that if a file doesn't have a backup and suddenly the computer crashes, they could lose all the information they've done. The other issue is that maybe some students have no opportunity to buy a computer and they would not be able to see information transferred by using word processor, both of the issues create a problem of equality of access. Also, as word processing has made documents easy to share, sometimes lazy students share a same file and pass them off as theirs by copying or making tiny modifications, this can create a problen regarding honesty and intellectual property. We can conclude that students and teachers can now be constantly improving documents, sharing them and receiving feedback when using word processor formats.Although this can be good for modern times, it could also be a problem for users (both teachers and students), due to the reliability of the documents and the source where they are originated from and finally we must remember that word-processing tools and word-processed documents can only be opened by computer, which not everyone can have access to.