The Word Processor

When you write to the word processor you will need to follow a few steps:

1. Write the page as you would any other document.

2. When you go to save the document (Here's the trick), ALWAYS chooseSAVE AS.

3. When the SAVE AS box pops up, you will need to save the page in a specific format. Look at the SAVE AS dialogue box when it pops up: Usually at the bottom, you find where you will be able to change the file format.

4. If you have a PC, save your document as ASCII TEXT DOS or just TEXT. Either one will work.

5. If you have a MAC, save your document as TEXT.

6. When I started writing HTML, I saved pages by assigning every Web page its own floppy disc. It just helped me keep it all straight, but if you want to save right to your hard drive, do it. I only offer the floppy disc premise as a suggestion.

Please remember: It is very important to choose SAVE AS EVERY time you save your document. If you don't, the program won't save as TEXT, but rather in its default format. In layman's terms -- use SAVE AS or screw up your document.

You see, when you save your document in WORD, or some other word processor format other than text, you are saving much more than just the letters on the page. You're saving the margin settings, the tab settings, specific fonts, and a whole lot of other settings the page needs to be displayed correctly. You don't want all of that. You just want the text.

NotePad, WordPad, and SimpleText already save in text-only format so if you use one of them as your word processor, you'll get the correct format simply by saving your document.