• Program for improving printing. What is the name of the application where you can print. How to type text - the basics of working with text. Filling out standard documents

    Hello everyone, my dears! Just yesterday I realized this thing: many of my readers are very poorly versed in computers. That is, I’m talking here about how to make money using the Internet, about some cool services for saving money while traveling, but it’s all like crazy, because computers are a dark forest for some of my guests.

    So today I decided to correct this omission and start with a very detailed story about how to type text on a computer. So...

    In this article:

    1. Program for working with text

    There are special programs for creating a text electronic document. They allow you to print text, that is, create a layout of a document in electronic form, which can then be printed on a computer or transferred to a flash drive.

    There are a huge number of such programs, but there are only a few of the most popular.

    1 —Microsoft Office Word
    2 —WordPad
    3 - Writer (rarely used, needs to be installed separately).

    2. How to find the desired program on your computer

    I know from my family that the most difficult thing for a beginner at the first stage is to find and open these programs.

    To cope with this task, you must have an idea of ​​what program icons look like. Most often this is a document icon with the letter W, or as in the latter case - with the letter A(this is how the WordPad program is designated):

    Look closely at the desktop and the toolbar below, programs can be placed in a prominent place, like on my desktop (by the way, here it is, don’t be alarmed):


    If you don't find anything like that, then try the second method:

    1 - launch the panel Start or just click on the round icon in the lower left corner, a menu will open.

    In it you need to find a field to search for files, I call it Find programs and files:


    It is in this field that you enter the name of the program you are looking for. For example, I enter the word Word and get Microsoft Office Word programs:


    If I enter the word WordPad, it will find this program for me:

    After that, you simply click on the found program, and a working window opens in front of you in which you can create a document: print text, edit it and save it.

    3. Working with a document and editing text

    So, in front of you is a working area, the so-called blank sheet. This is where you can print text and edit it as you please.


    Usually, beginners, when they see this sheet and a huge number of buttons, get lost and don’t know what to do. The thing that causes my brain to explode the most is the keyboard: it’s not clear where and what to press.

    So, you don’t need to be afraid of this, you will definitely be able to figure it out. To do this, just watch this informative video; everything in it is very simple and explains in detail the main features of the program.

    Be sure to watch this informative video from beginning to end, not forgetting to repeat all the steps after the presenter. This will take you a giant step in learning text editors.

    Then all you have to do is practice, and then you will be able to navigate literally any text programs, since they are all designed approximately the same.

    4. How to save text

    Once you have created your document, you can save it. To do this, find the button in the upper left corner that calls up the menu, and from this menu select Save as and any suitable format, for example Word document:


    A window will appear in which you can select:

    1. where to save the file (I usually choose Desktop,
    2. what to name the file (enter any suitable name),
    3. and the file format (I don’t change it, I leave it as default).


    Ready! This file will now appear on your computer desktop.


    You can do whatever you want with this document. For example, put it on a flash drive, send it by email, open it for further editing, or delete it.

    By the way, if you are working on a large document, I recommend that you make intermediate saves. And the more often, the better.

    5. How to transfer a text file to a flash drive

    It's very simple.

    1. Insert the flash drive into the computer.

    2. On your desktop, find and open My computer(or just Computer).

    3. In the window that opens you should see Removable disk, click on it 2 times:


    An empty window will open, which we will leave for now:


    4. Now find our text file, we saved it in the previous paragraph on your desktop. Click on it with the RIGHT mouse button, and in the menu that appears, select Copy:

    5. Now go back to the removable drive that we just opened in step 3, click on the free field with the RIGHT mouse button and select Insert:


    The document will be copied and appear in this field:


    That's it, now the flash drive can be removed from the computer.

    6. How to print a document on a printer

    Let's say you have a printer, it is already connected to your computer and configured properly. I won’t talk about connecting the printer and settings now, as this is a topic for a separate article.

    But if you already have everything set up, you can print the document in literally 2 clicks. But first, make sure the printer is turned on and has the required amount of paper.

    1. Open the document you want to print:


    2 . Find and open the menu in the upper left corner and select from it Seal, and then again Seal:


    A window with a bunch of settings will open, but don’t be afraid of them, they are all quite simple.

    Here you can select a printer, if you have several of them, the number of copies of the document, sheet format, print color, etc.

    But if you don’t need any specific settings, you can leave everything as default and just click OK.


    The printer will start printing and you will receive the document. By the way, in this way you can print not only a text document, but also other files, the scheme will be the same.

    7. Become on “YOU” terms with your computer and improve your life

    Not having a common language with a computer today is a big problem. If 5 years ago it was excusable not to be able to work with technology, today this results in a huge obstacle for every beginner. This is because almost every profession today comes into contact with a computer in one way or another.

    When I worked at a large military enterprise, we were installed a new version of the design program. It didn't cause any problems for me, just a new shell.

    This can be compared to the updated packaging of my favorite candies: I didn’t stop buying them less, but was simply able to quickly adapt to the new wrapper.

    But for many employees this was literally a disaster, they were so dependent on the program interface, and their brains were so desperately resistant to anything new. As a result, they were even trained to work in the new interface.

    These are not the best times for Russian companies, and I don’t even need to guess who will be the first to be laid off...

    And a completely opposite example is also from real life.

    The engineer has more than 40 years of experience, is constantly developing and mastering not only the computer, but also all modern engineering programs. They don’t want to let such a specialist go; he is needed, in demand and speaks the same language with his young subordinates.

    This is just one example. Now think about how many opportunities the ability to use a computer opens up to make money remotely via the Internet. Even after learning how to use a text editor, you can write .

    Being familiar with a computer is a necessity today. It doesn’t matter where you study, today there is a huge amount of useful materials, courses, and schools on the Internet.

    I will end here. I hope that the article was useful to you and helped you understand the main points. Move forward, improve, be better. That's all for today, thank you for your attention and bye!

    Today it is simply impossible to imagine working with documents of any direction and level of complexity without the use of computer information processing tools. The era of typewriters is a thing of the past. In most cases, if you do not take specific information or calculations, it is texts that need to be processed. Let's look at the most popular and widespread free programs for working with certain types of documents. Let us pay special attention to the test files.

    Programs for working with documents: a general overview

    As you know, the majority of users of computer systems based on Windows OS prefer to work with the standard MS Office application package, which contains programs for almost all occasions.

    However, nowadays you can find a lot of alternative developments, which also provide programs for working with documents of any type, which in their functionality are not inferior to the MS Office package, and in some cases even surpass it.

    Any package, regardless of the developer, contains applications that allow you to create, view and edit text files, spreadsheets, databases, as well as process graphic objects or even multimedia.

    Office suite from Microsoft

    First, let's look at the well-known office suite from Microsoft. It is considered universal, since programs for processing documents used in business are most widely represented here.

    It is not surprising that many developers did not reinvent the wheel and simply copied most applications, including their analogues in their own packages. MS Office itself contains several main applications, among which Word, Excel and Access are most often used.

    If we talk specifically about text documents, Word is the progenitor of the DOC/DOCX format, which today is supported by almost all third-party packages. However, the developers of this also did not stand aside and over time introduced into their editor the ability to work with formats that differ from the standard ones, which other developers use by default.

    After all, if you look, for example, at the possibilities of opening or saving a text document, you can even find support for PDF files. But more on that later.

    In fact, Office itself can be downloaded and installed completely free of charge; the only thing you need is a product activation key. This doesn’t stop anyone, because it can be done using a small utility called KMS Activator. Other free packages do not have this mandatory activation or registration requirement.

    Alternative developments

    At the dawn of the development of office programs, MS Office occupied a leading position, since its creators were able to include in a single set programs for working with documents of completely different types, which made it possible to create a tool for working with them, as they say now, of the “all-in-one” standard "

    However, it turned out to be impossible to maintain leadership for too long, since quite serious competitors appeared on the market. First, the Lotus Pro package became such, and a little later another serious development called Open Office appeared. By the way, many experts call this package not only a direct competitor to Microsoft, but also draw users’ attention to the fact that it contains some additional tools that standard MS Office does not have.

    The simplest text editors

    But let’s focus on text files, which are the most common in document management today. For viewing and information, the most simple, as it seems to many, applications can be used, like Notepad, which is included in the standard Windows set. Yes, indeed, in Notepad you can work exclusively with text, similar to how it was in Norton Commander under DOS systems. Everything here is almost the same, only Notepad has a graphical shell. It goes without saying that there is no need to talk about any text formatting, design or insertion of additional objects.

    But few people know that it is Notepad and programs for working with text-type documents, similar to it, that support the syntax of most programming languages ​​known today, which is why programmers and application developers prefer to work with such editors.

    Standard programs for working with Word documents

    Now a few words about its analogues. Let's consider an example when the user has a “clean” system on his computer. If anyone doesn’t know, the original Windows package does not include the office suite; it must be installed separately. Therefore, many do not even realize that the system has a free program for working with Word documents (it is “built into” the system).

    We are talking about the WordPad (Viewer) application. It can open and view Word files, but there are no special options for editing the document. Inconvenient, of course, but better than nothing.

    However, if you don’t have Word, you can open such a text file in another way. Adobe Reader, Acrobat or Acrobat Reader will help with this. Any such program for working with text documents containing graphics allows you to open files of almost any text format or import their contents. Depending on the type of application, editing options vary, but even if there is no such tool, you can view the files in any case.

    Conclusion

    Of course, it is simply impossible to consider all office-type applications. However, even regarding Word documents or text files, it can be noted that working with them can be quite simple. If you really don’t have anything at hand, you can view these types of files even using the most common web browsers, not to mention saving them with the ability to edit them in cloud services. By the way, many of them make it possible to simultaneously make changes, which are automatically displayed for all users currently connected to the remote editor on the server.

    It may seem that printing documents is a simple process that does not require additional programs, because everything necessary for printing is available in any text editor. In fact, the possibilities of transferring text to paper can be significantly expanded with the help of additional software. This article will describe 10 such programs.

    FinePrint is a small program that is installed on your computer as a printer driver. You can use it to print a document in the form of a book, booklet, or brochure. Its settings allow you to slightly reduce ink consumption when printing and set a custom paper size. The only drawback is that FinePrint is distributed for a fee.

    pdfFactory Pro

    pdfFactory Pro is also integrated into the system under the guise of a printer driver, the main task of which is to quickly convert a text file into PDF format. It allows you to set a password for a document and protect it from copying or editing. pdfFactory Pro is distributed for a fee and to obtain a full list of features you will have to purchase a product key.

    Print Conductor

    Print Conductor is a separate program that solves the problem of simultaneously printing a large number of different documents. Its main function is the ability to create a print queue, while it is capable of transferring absolutely any text or graphic file to paper. This makes Print Conductor stand out from the rest because it supports 50 different formats. Another feature is that the version for personal use is completely free.

    GreenCloud Printer

    GreenCloud Printer is an ideal option for those who are trying their best to save on consumables. There is everything here to reduce the consumption of ink and paper when printing. In addition to this, the program keeps statistics of saved materials, provides the ability to save the document as PDF or export to Google Drive and Dropbox. The only drawback is the paid license.

    priPrinter

    priPrinter is an excellent program for those who need to print an image in color. It contains a huge number of tools for working with pictures and a built-in printer driver, with which the user can see what printing on paper will look like. priPrinter has one drawback that it has in common with the programs described above - it is a paid license, and the free version has significantly limited functionality.

    CanoScan Toolbox

    CanoScan Toolbox is a program that is specially designed for Canon CanoScan and CanoScan LiDE series scanners. With its help, the functionality of such devices is greatly increased. There are two templates for scanning documents, the ability to convert to PDF format, scanning with text recognition, quick copying and printing, and much more.

    PRINTING BY BOOK

    PRINT BY BOOK is an unofficial plugin that installs directly into Microsoft Word. It allows you to quickly create a book version from a document created in a text editor and print it. Compared to other programs of this type, PRINT BY BOOK is the most convenient to use. In addition, it has additional settings for headers and chapters. Distributed completely free of charge.

    Book Printer

    Book Printer is another program that allows you to print a book version of a text document. If we compare it with other similar programs, it is worth noting that it only prints on A5 sheets. She creates books that are convenient to take with you on trips.

    SSC Service Utility

    SSC Service Utility can be called one of the best programs that is designed exclusively for Epson inkjet printers. It is compatible with a huge list of such devices and allows you to constantly monitor the condition of cartridges, configure them, clean the PG, perform automatic actions to safely replace cartridges, and much more.

    WordPage

    WordPage is an easy-to-use utility that is designed to quickly calculate the print queue of sheets for the purpose of creating a book. She can also split one text into several books if necessary. If you compare it with other similar software, WordPage provides the least number of options for printing books.

    This article describes programs that can greatly expand the printing capabilities of text editors. Each of them is created for a specific purpose or for specific devices, so it would be useful to combine their work. This will make it possible to overcome the disadvantage of one program with the advantage of another, which will significantly improve print quality and save on consumables.

    Today it is impossible to imagine a user of a modern PC and the software installed on it without using a printer, because no one has yet canceled the use of paper documents and photographs. This is probably why it’s worth figuring out which program for printing documents and photos is best suited to each specific case. At the same time, you will be able to understand the main features offered by applications of this type.

    What capabilities should any program for printing documents and photos have?

    To begin with, we note that in software today you can find a large number of a wide variety of utilities that help optimize the process of printing documents, images or photographs. Naturally, you can find the simplest utilities for printing, say, a regular text document. And sometimes you need to use professional and semi-professional utilities to ensure print quality.

    Thus, it immediately becomes clear that a program for printing text documents, as a rule, should be limited to a standard primitive set of functions. Judge for yourself, because when printing text from Notepad using a regular laser printer, in general, nothing supernatural is required from the application. It all comes down to the correct display of text on paper, even with a poor printer.

    Situations when powerful printing utilities are required

    It’s a different matter when graphics are sent for printing, for example, a high-resolution photo created using a modern digital camera. In this case, the program for printing photos must have advanced capabilities. This concerns, by the way, not only improved color reproduction, but also some additional capabilities for editing and preliminary

    Naturally, many may immediately exclaim that the most versatile program is Adobe Photoshop. We beg to differ with this, since initially this software package was designed specifically for editing graphics, and certainly not for printing. In addition, among software products designed specifically for printing, there are also more powerful utilities that allow you to optimize the process so much that they are actively used on digital printing electronic equipment in modern photo studios.

    In addition, such applications are used to create and print posters, postcards or large format posters, which is impossible to do with the simplest means.

    The simplest programs for printing text

    Among the simplest programs we can highlight standard ones such as Notepad or simple office text editors such as WordPad.

    Such applications, although they are not specialized utilities, nevertheless access the printer installed in the system directly, allowing you to obtain, so to speak, a paper version of an electronic text document.

    Program for printing Word documents

    With office applications like Microsoft Word, the situation is much more interesting. In addition to the Word program itself, which, as in the case of primitive text editors, allows you to instantly print documents, you can find quite a lot of specialized utilities for improving quality.

    This is due to the fact that the word processor itself is capable of combining both text and graphics in documents. When graphics are present, third-party utilities perform much better than the standard Word application. Among other things, sometimes you may need utilities for printing specific documents with non-standard formatting.

    One of the most interesting is the WordPage program. It is very easy to use. The main purpose is to optimize the printing of books and brochures that were created in Word. The application allows you to print, for example, two A5 on one A6 sheet. In addition to everything, the application has support for double-sided printers, which, of course, not only optimizes the process itself, but also reduces the time spent on this.

    Utilities for printing photos on documents

    Some program for printing photographs for documents looks no less interesting. A striking example is the Studio Pro application, which allows you to prepare a photo for a document using a template in a matter of minutes.

    In the application itself, you can make image adjustments, adjust brightness and contrast, have full control over the position of pictures on the sheet, etc. In addition, this utility can be used as a means of managing modern cameras and even changing their basic settings programmatically.

    The most interesting thing is that this package provides two more powerful utilities. These are StudioUEC for automating the process of capturing and programmatically entering a universal signature on electronic bank cards, and StudioTW (the so-called Twain module), which is very often used to issue driver’s licenses by relevant government services. As you can see, each program for printing photo documents (or rather, preparing documents with ready-made photographs) is interesting and unique in its own way.

    The simplest applications for printing photos

    As for software packages for working with photographs, they can be divided into two broad categories: applications for home use and professional or semi-professional utilities for working in studios. Among the simplest products for the average user are programs such as Studio 2.0.0, Pics Print, Photo Print Pilot, PrintStation, MultiPrint, etc.

    Each utility of this type allows you to pre-edit and process photos, import them from a hard removable USB drive, etc. The same Studio 2.0.0 utility has the ability to place several photos on one sheet. Programs like Photo Print Pilot can add effects to selected photos. For example, it could be a beautiful border chosen from a list of templates or created from another photo. Here, as they say, all that is required from the user is a flight of imagination, and the programs themselves simply have plenty of resources.

    Studio applications for professional printing

    As for the most powerful applications, here, of course, we can mention such software packages as ACD Photo Sale, ArcSoft PhotoPrinter, etc.

    But, according to many professionals working in photo studios, the palm belongs to a unique software product called SILKYPIX Developer Studio Pro. Its capabilities are such that in some aspects related to editing and preparing photos for printing, this application can compete quite seriously with Adobe Photoshop, and sometimes even surpass it.

    Not to mention photos, let's also note the fact that this photo printing program is capable of even more. The fact is that with its help you can easily print even and this is already an impressive indicator. Naturally, this will require not some simple printer, but modern professional equipment.

    The only thing that upsets us is that, unfortunately, almost all applications of this type are paid and cost about 30-60 US dollars.

    Programs for working with PDF documents

    Now a few words about universal PDF documents. If anyone doesn’t know how a program for printing PDF documents can use the universal software package for scanners ABBYY Fine Reader, which is capable of converting scanned paper Talmuds into documents of this format, as they say, on the fly, and then printing them, while saving original formatting, color rendering, etc., then there are a lot of possibilities. This is interesting.

    Another interesting program for printing PDF documents (and not only) is the FinePrint application, which is a universal printer driver. The program can not only create PDF documents, but also manage absolutely all printing parameters, including printing multiple pages on one sheet, creating printed forms and forms, setting indents for binding, scaling large pages and images into standard paper formats, combining multiple print jobs into a single document, printing booklets and postcards, using watermarks and footers in printing indicating the time or date, changing a color image to black and white and much more. You can't list everything.

    One more feature is worth noting here. Not to mention the possibility of using duplex printing to save paper, you can enable a special ink cartridge saving system.

    Creating seals

    Separately, it is worth mentioning what the program is for creating stamps of standard samples, which will then be produced in a production manner. One of the simplest and most accessible to the average user is the Stamp 1.3 utility with a Russified interface.

    Although the application itself only has its own templates, to be honest, many users use them to successfully forge official stamps and seals. If you delve a little into the templates and perform some simple steps, you can achieve simply amazing results. The app even has a blur feature that makes your fake seal or stamp look more realistic. In addition, this program for creating seals and stamps is available in a portable version (Portable), which eliminates the need to install it on a hard drive. In other words, you can run it from a regular flash drive anytime, anywhere.

    In principle, you can also use so-called “cloud” programs, the essence of which is that the user needs to go to a certain website and, following the instructions step by step, create a print layout online. But this method has not gained much popularity.

    Bottom line

    Here, in fact, is a brief overview of the applications that may be needed to optimize printing. Which specific program will be used for printing documents or photographs depends on the specific case and the result you want to achieve.

    Along the way, it is worth recalling that the printer plays an important role here. So you'll have to pay attention to that too. It is clear that the simplest “old man” laser is only suitable for text documents. Even inkjet printers are not always suitable for printing photos. To obtain high-quality photographs, you will need a good photo printer, not to mention professional equipment that is used in photo studios.

    Working with documents takes a lot of time from users, especially office workers. But there are many programs that can significantly optimize manual labor when working with documents by automating some processes. Many of these solutions are easy to use, very convenient and inexpensive, and therefore available to a wide range of users. Such programs will be discussed in this article.

    Document organization

    Users who have to deal with a large number of electronic documents are well aware of the situation when, even despite a strict system of catalogs and subdirectories, it takes a lot of time to find the right document. One of the options for solving this problem is to use a special cataloging program, the main task of which is to organize and sort data, which ultimately ensures a quick search for the necessary information. There are a huge variety of such catalogers on the market, and all of them are focused on cataloging either disks, folders and files, or some highly specialized information (movies, coins, stamps, etc.). Any universal cataloger that allows you to catalog folders and files of different types is suitable for cataloging documents. The best among such solutions is the WhereIsIt package (http://www.whereisit-soft.com/), but it is quite expensive, and its capabilities are clearly redundant for many users. For most people, using the WinCatalog Standard package will be sufficient.

    Another way is to combine related documents into complex hierarchically structured documents stored inside data files corresponding to these structures. In such structured documents, it is much more convenient to navigate and find the information you need due to both structuring and advanced search capabilities within the document. In addition, such structuring allows you to perform external searches and search for documents based on fragments of the text included in them. For example, the Maple package is designed for creating hierarchically structured documents.

    WinCatalog Standard

    Developer: WinCatalog.com

    Distribution size: 1.62 MB

    Work under control: Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT 4.0/XP

    Distribution method: http://www.wincatalog.com/ru/download/wincatalogs10ru.exe)

    Price: 200 rub.

    WinCatalog Standard is an easy-to-use multifunctional cataloger with a clear Russian-language interface (Fig. 1). The package allows you to catalog data from any storage media that can be connected to a computer: floppy disks, hard and network drives, regular CDs and audio disks, Zip disks, etc. With its help, you can sort and organize any folders and files, regardless of their location. You can enter data into the catalog either manually (directly into virtual folders) or by scanning disks (including Zip archives located there) - in this case, for ease of orientation, folders and files extracted from disks are better then sorted into virtual folders, which, thanks to the support drag & drop operations will not take much time.

    Rice. 1. WinCatalog Standard interface

    General catalog management is easy and convenient. Dividing the data into thematic folders greatly simplifies orientation, and the placement of folders and their nested elements can be easily changed by simply dragging and dropping. Advanced search (by name, comment, size and modification date; Fig. 2), supporting Boolean operations and the ability to select a specific folder for search, and also taking into account keywords (they can be prudently added to individual directory elements), allows you to quickly find the desired document , and find duplicates - remove duplicate elements from the collection. Exporting all or part of the documentation catalog to a CVS file makes it possible to process the data in another application (for example, MS Excel), and exporting to an HTML file is convenient for printing the catalog.

    Rice. 2. Search documents in WinCatalog Standard

    Maple 6.25

    Developer: Crystal Office Systems

    Distribution size: Maple - 5.3 MB, Maple Professional - 5.89 MB

    Work under control: Windows (all versions)

    Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo version: Maple - http://www.crystaloffice.com/maple.exe, Maple Professional - http://www.crystaloffice.com/maplepro.exe)

    Price: Maple - $21.95, Maple Professional - $30.95

    Maple is an easy-to-use document manager that allows you to combine diverse materials into hierarchical structures and ultimately obtain structured documents: business plans, reports, analytical notes, brochures, etc. In such hierarchical document trees, diverse information is presented more clearly, and finding any document is much easier than with standard cataloging. To view documents created in Maple, you need a special viewer, Maple Reader, which can be downloaded for free at: http://www.crystaloffice.com/mreader.exe (2.51 MB). The package has a user-friendly interface (Fig. 3) and is so easy to learn that even the lack of Russian localization of the program will not be an obstacle for most users, and therefore this solution can be recommended to the widest audience.

    Rice. 3. Maple program interface

    The manager is available in two versions: basic Maple and extended Maple Professional. Among the fundamental differences of the extended version is the presence of additional functions such as document search, grammar checking, file encryption and backup of hierarchical structures.

    The basis of any document in Maple is a hierarchical tree of nodes, the level of nesting of subnodes in which, as well as their number, is unlimited. Each node is a separate document containing not only text (typed directly, pasted from the clipboard or imported from documents in RTF, DOC, WRI and HTML formats), but also tabular material, graphs, links to basic fragments of the final document or files, and etc. When preparing documents, it is possible to use a standard set of functions for working with text: changing the font type and size, creating lists, formatting paragraphs, using styles, etc. Integration with MS Word allows you to use the spell checker built into MS Word to check grammar and search for synonyms not only on English, but also in Russian. The built-in backup system provides the ability to create compressed backup copies of hierarchical documents (in ZIP and CAB formats). The built-in encryption wizard helps you encrypt sensitive documents using the Blowfish cryptographic algorithm. And the Finder search module allows you to quickly find the necessary documents by name fragment, author, comments, content (Fig. 4), etc.

    Rice. 4. Search documents by content
    in them the text in Maple

    Quick access to documents

    The technology of computer preparation of documents assumes that the created documents are subsequently used repeatedly. For example, when developing a new document, you may need one or two paragraphs from yesterday’s document, or the new document is generally a copy of the old one, but with changed variable information, etc.

    Unfortunately, the user cannot always remember the name of an important document created the day before yesterday, and sometimes does not have the slightest idea of ​​where to look for it. Of course, you need to give documents meaningful names and save them, adhering to clear cataloging, but, alas, it happens otherwise, due to haste, distracting calls, etc. As a result, searching for the required document can take a lot of precious time - after all, it is not at all a fact that you will be able to open it through the Windows list of links to the latest documents accessible through the Start menu. The fact is that this list:

    • limited to 15 documents - this means that the probability of including documents, for example, a week ago is practically zero;
    • does not allow you to locate a document if you remember part of the text, but forgot the file name;
    • does not include documents of the same name (but at the same time different) saved under the same name, but in different folders, which is important, for example, when working together on a document with the formation of several of its versions.

    There is one more problem - the list of recent documents provided in Windows is one of the channels for leaking confidential data, since any user (including an attacker) can use it to find out about the nature of the owner’s computer activity. Therefore, it is recommended to regularly clean this list, for example, using utilities for removing “junk” data from the disk. As a result, a seemingly paradoxical situation arises: if a user regularly destroys information about recently used documents for security purposes, then he is deprived of quick access to them, and otherwise he risks becoming a victim of attackers. However, there is a way out - you can use the specialized utility ActualDoc, which expands the capabilities of Windows in terms of working with the latest documents.

    If the desired document was created a long time ago and therefore cannot appear in the list of recently opened documents (both built into Windows and in the ActualDoc list), then you will have to resort to searching for it. Another problem arises here - as a rule, the user does not remember the name of the document (as well as the date of its creation), but he knows which keywords appear in the text. This means that you need to search for a document by fragments of the text included in it - alas, although this task can be solved using the built-in tools of Windows or, for example, Word, it is very mediocre. And the point is not only that such a search is not entirely obvious and is performed slowly - sometimes you can live with this. What is more important is that not all files will be found - the morphological features of the Russian language will not be taken into account during the search, so files in which the searched words have a different case ending will remain unfound. At the same time, specialized search utilities such as “Snoop” (http://www.isleuthhound.com/ru/), Superior Search (http://superiorsearch.ru/), “Archivarius 3000” and Phoenix Search (http ://indexlab.net/), can quickly find the necessary documents regardless of their location. The most attractive among the mentioned solutions in terms of price/quality ratio seems to us to be the Archivarius 3000 package.

    ActualDoc 3.5

    Developer: Flexigen Software

    Distribution size: Standard - 4.1 MB, Professional - 3.6 MB

    Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista

    Distribution method: Standard - freeware (http://www.flexigensoft.com/files/download/actualdoc-standard.exe), Professional - shareware (14-day demo version - http://www.flexigensoft.com/files/download/ actualdoc.exe)

    Price: Standard - free, Professional - $19.95

    ActualDoc is a recent document manager that remembers used documents and provides quick and secure access to them. The program is simple and intuitive, has a user-friendly interface with support for the Russian language (Fig. 5) and requires virtually no time to master, especially since it is accompanied by a comprehensive help system, and therefore can become an indispensable tool for both professionals and home users.

    Rice. 5. ActualDoc program interface

    ActualDoc keeps track of the download of an unlimited number of documents within a user-specified period (60 days by default), supports more than 40 file formats (text and graphic files, MS Office documents and HTML documents, PDF files, etc.) and allows you to quickly download any of them. Finding the required document in the program environment is not a problem. If the scroll of documents she has memorized is relatively small, then you can select the document directly from the list. Otherwise, it would be wiser to first limit the list of possible candidates by filtering it (filtering by time is possible). O interval, by extension and category) or search by document name (in general) or by a fragment of the text included in it (however, searching in Russian text is not always successful). There is another way to quickly open the desired document - through built-in bookmarks (the same as in Internet Explorer; Fig. 6), which can be assigned to individual frequently used documents and significantly speed up access to them, since the need for searching is eliminated. The selected document is available in the built-in viewer - for viewing, searching and copying, as well as in an external application - for editing and can be used for complete processing, selective copying of information from it, or for sending the document by e-mail. At the same time, the list of documents itself can be hidden from prying eyes and protected by a password - in this case, recently used files will not be displayed in the menu Start -> Documents.

    Rice. 6. Opening a document via a bookmark
    in ActualDoc

    The package comes in two versions: the free basic Standard and the paid Professional. The free version does not allow you to view documents in built-in viewers, use the search function (as a result, you can only search for documents visually, viewing the full or filtered list), create custom categories and edit bookmarks.

    Archivist 3000 (3.82)

    Developer: Likasoft

    Distribution size: 3 MB

    Work under control: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista

    Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo version - http://www.likasoft.com/download/arch3000-ru.exe)

    Price: student license - 195 rubles, personal license - 295 rubles, commercial license - 900 rubles.

    « Archivist 3000 is the optimal solution for quickly searching documents in 18 different languages ​​(including Russian, English, German and French), aimed at a wide range of users. The program provides instant access to documents located on your hard drive, network and removable drives (CD, DVD, ZIP, etc.), and can work with all popular types of documents (PDF files, MS Office documents, text files, etc. .). It can search in archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), in email messages (Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat!, etc.) and in files attached to them. In addition, searching in the Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino databases and in the ICQ, Odigo IM and Miranda IM message databases is supported.

    Along with regular search by keyword or set of keywords, the program supports an advanced search mode using logical functions and can search for documents not only by content, but also by file name, modification date, size, document type, encoding, etc. ( Fig. 7). Thanks to full Unicode support, searches are performed correctly not only in documents in one language, but also in multilingual ones (for example, with text in Russian and German simultaneously). It is possible to remotely search for documents via the Internet with subsequent access to the found documents through any Internet browser, for example, Internet Explorer. Search results can be presented in excerpt mode, when the most significant (relevant) fragments of selected documents are displayed with highlighting of the found words, and in table mode, when brief information about the documents is displayed (Fig. 8), by which they can be sorted.

    Rice. 7. Search for documents in the Archivist 3000 environment

    Rice. 8. Options for presenting search results
    in "Archivarius 3000"

    Filling out standard documents

    Preparation of standard documents takes up a significant part of the time of those users who, as part of their duties, are involved in the preparation of various documentation in insurance companies, banks, notary offices, companies providing various types of services, etc. As a rule, such documents are created in the Word text editor based on initially developed basic documents, in which some variable information is simply replaced. There is nothing complicated about this, but with large volumes of documentation, errors are inevitable - you can, for example, accidentally enter data in the wrong place where it is supposed to be, or erase several words of the document, etc. Therefore, it is desirable that only those fields in which data must be entered are open for input, and all other text is blocked. The developers have provided the ability to create such documents in Word. It is enough to develop a series of templates for all standard documents used in the organization, for each template to prohibit changing permanent data (command Tools -> Set protection -> Prohibit any changes except entering data into form fields) and train users to create documents using templates. For standard documents, where there is relatively little variable information, such templates will be quite sufficient to significantly speed up the process of preparing documents and reduce the risk of errors.

    However, in practice, many standard documents are used in which variable information takes up up to half the volume, and some of the variable data is repeated several times in one form or another (Fig. 9) - for example, full name. in different cases, words for entered dates or amounts, etc. In this case, using Word templates does not help much, since filling out documents even using templates will take a lot of time, because all variable data will have to be entered manually.

    Rice. 9. Example of a document with a large volume
    variable information

    There is one more feature of the preparation of standard documents - often it is necessary to prepare not one document, but several at once (for example, to draw up a bank agreement on opening a depositary, three or four types of agreements are needed for signature). Thus, the same information has to be entered into different documents, which also takes a lot of time, and the likelihood of making an error increases accordingly. You can prepare such documents much faster using specialized applications designed to automate the process of preparing standard documents, such as AutoDoc or Blitz Document. These applications are also based on the use of templates, which, unlike ordinary Word templates, not only allow you to enter data into the fields provided for this (for which the user needs to fill out a set of forms with data), but are also able to transform the entered data in a programmed way, for example can replace numbers in words, declension of words and phrases according to grammatical cases, etc. As a result, the necessary documents are filled out quickly, and the number of errors that can be made is an order of magnitude less than when preparing them traditionally in Word. In addition, creating standard documents through specialized solutions is also attractive because all created documents are automatically cataloged and finding any of them in the future is not a problem, and the user is not required to know the intricacies of document preparation, because all legal nuances are already taken into account in the templates.

    AutoDoc 1.2

    Developer: EleWise

    Distribution size: 6 MB

    Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003

    Distribution method: shareware (functionally limited demo version - http://www.auto-doc.ru/download/autodoc/AutoDoc_Demo.exe)

    Price:"AvtoDoc-Personal" - 1980 rubles, "AvtoDoc-Server" - 2980 rubles, "AvtoDoc-Client" - 1490 rubles.

    "AutoDoc" is a program that allows you to automate and speed up the process of filling out standard documents using templates created using MS Word and maintaining an archive of documents and records made using these templates. The process of generating new documents in it is extremely automated - just select the desired business scenario from the general list of scenarios (a business scenario means a customized template) and fill out the input form with the required data (Fig. 10). The created document can be viewed, saved, printed, or opened in Word for further editing.

    Rice. 10. Creating a document using the “AutoDoc” script

    The number of built-in scripts is small (Fig. 11), but can be expanded with custom scripts, the creation process of which is presented in detail and clearly in the help and is fully controlled by the wizard, and therefore is accessible to most users. Developing a new script involves performing five steps: entering the name of the script, creating a template, defining variables, setting up and testing the script and saving it for further editing (Fig. 12). At first glance, preparing a template may cause some difficulties, since it must be created manually in Word, and this requires knowledge of a scripting language. But in practice, everything is much simpler - it is enough to understand that variables are entered in curly brackets, and the $ sign is placed in front of them; all other text is printed in the usual way (Fig. 13). New templates can be created not only from scratch, but also based on existing templates or ready-made documents - in the first case, you just need to change the script settings and test it with the changed settings, and in the second, open a ready-made document, replace changing information with variables and specify it program as a template. Variables can be of several types, including those that allow:

    • enter data into several fields at once: full name, passport data, organization details, etc.;
    • select a variable value from a set of values;
    • perform various operations and transformations: calculate the percentage of a number or VAT of an amount, convert a number into a string, enter the current date, etc.;
    • indicate a word or phrase in a certain case, etc.

    Documents created according to AutoDoc business scenarios are saved in the form of clearly structured records, and therefore at any time you can find the desired document by filtering or searching, view it, print it, regenerate or delete it.

    Rice. 11. “AutoDoc” window with a list of built-in groups
    business scenarios

    Rice. 12. Development of a new script in AutoDoc

    Rice. 13. Example of template text in “AutoDoc”,
    in which four variables appear: “number”,
    “month”, “organization” and “full name”

    The program is supplied in two versions: single-user - "AvtoDoc-Personal" and multi-user (network), represented by two modules - "AvtoDoc-Server" and "AvtoDoc-Client". In the single-user version, all components of the system are located on the local computer, and in the multi-user version, the database of scripts, templates and records is installed on the server, and on user computers only the client part is installed, which allows the use of all AutoDoc materials stored on the server.

    Blitz Document 3.4.1

    Developer: BlitzSoft

    Distribution size: 991 KB

    Work under control: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista

    Distribution method: shareware (functionally limited demo version - http://blitz-doc.ru/insblitz.exe)

    Price: 500 rub.

    Blitz Document is a compact program for automatically creating standard documents using script templates. It allows you to quickly generate documents based on built-in templates, the number of which is more than 30 (Fig. 14), or custom scripts that can be developed based on built-in templates or empty layouts. Creating a document using a ready-made script is extremely simple - just select the type of script and follow the instructions of the wizard, who will conscientiously guide the user through all stages of document preparation (Fig. 15). The finished document can be viewed, printed, edited in the built-in text editor (both variable and constant data can be corrected) or opened for editing in Word.

    Rice. 14. List of built-in Blitz Document scripts

    Rice. 15. Creating a scripted document
    Blitz Document

    The development of created templates is somewhat more complicated, but will also be within the capabilities of most users. True, mastering this feature will take some time, since, unfortunately, the reference information included with the program is designed for sufficiently trained users (it is very sparse and does not contain any illustrations or examples). Technically, creating a new template consists of two stages: selecting a built-in template or layout on the basis of which a new template will be developed, and sequential adjustment of the constant and variable data included in it (Fig. 16). Constant data is entered in its real form, but not directly into the text, but through dialog boxes. Variable information is also adjusted during the dialogue and is no longer entered directly, but is replaced by variables with wildcard labels, designed taking into account the script description language used in the program. Scripts can not only display the text entered during document generation, but also change it using a system of data substitution or transformation commands. For example, it is provided:

    Rice. 16. Development of a new template based on the layout
    in Blitz Document

    • Declension of words and phrases according to grammatical cases;
    • converting numbers to strings;
    • converting calendar dates into strings;
    • carrying out any calculations used in legal and business documents;
    • changing the text depending on the value of the entered data, etc.

    Documents created using Blitz Document are saved in structured journals - this allows you to quickly navigate through the documentation and almost instantly gain access to the necessary materials, for example, in order to print them. In addition, documents can be grouped into virtual files, which is convenient for quick access to materials related to a specific subject or object appearing in the database.

    OCR text in scanned documents

    Users who often have to convert paper documents (pages of a book, newspaper, magazine or fax) into an electronic editable format cannot do without a character recognition system, or OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system, designed to automatically enter text from paper documents into a computer. Theoretically, you can use the FineReader program from ABBYY or CuneiForm from Cognitive Technologies - both are reliable in operation and have high recognition accuracy. But the FineReader package has a simplified and affordable version for home users, ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Home Edition, which makes it more attractive to a wider audience.

    ABBYY FineReader 8.0

    Developer: ABBYY Software

    Distribution size: 40.5 MB

    Work under control: Windows 98/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP

    Distribution method: shareware (there is no demo version of FineReader Home Edition, a functionally limited demo version of FineReader Professional Edition - http://www.abbyy.ru/download/?param=45793)

    Price: FineReader Home Edition - 990 RUR, FineReader Professional Edition - 3750 RUR.

    ABBYY FineReader is an ideal solution for recognizing documents in which not only the text, but also the design is recognized, which ensures accurate transmission of tables, pictures and text division into columns (Fig. 17). The program is easy to use, can recognize multilingual (179 languages ​​are supported) and multi-page documents. It is possible to recognize the entire document or its individual pages. The result can be saved in one of the common formats: RTF, DOC, XLS, HTML, TXT or PDF. It is possible to save recognition results step by step to eliminate errors. Export of recognition results directly to Microsoft Word, Excel, Lotus Word Pro, Corel WordPerect and Adobe Acrobat has been implemented. The built-in spell checker (for 36 languages) will help speed up checking the result, and integration with Microsoft Word allows you to call the program directly from Word, without being distracted from working with the text.

    Rice. 17. Result of document recognition
    in ABBYY FineReader Home Edition

    The program is presented in two versions: FineReader Home Edition, designed for beginners, and FineReader Professional Edition, aimed at professionals. The professional version allows you to manage recognition parameters (change the mode, perform recognition with training) and has a richer set of recognition functions (recognition of PDF files, texts captured with a digital camera, etc.). In addition, the Professional Edition provides more different saving formats, added the ability to recognize barcodes and quickly recognize screenshots using the Screenshot Reader utility.

    Converting documents from PDF format

    All technical documentation is supplied today in PDF format, in which the free Adobe Acrobat Reader utility is used to view documents. But quite often there is a need to use fragments of PDF files when preparing your own documents or editing materials in PDF format (for example, an article, a contract, a report, etc.). In the first case, you will need to extract fragments of text and/or images from PDF files (theoretically, this can be done using the built-in tools of Acrobat Reader, but with very mediocre results). In the second case, you will have to convert PDF documents into an editable format (for example, into Word format) while maintaining the design of the original document, which is not even provided for in Acrobat Reader. In such cases, special utilities will come to the rescue, of which the most attractive packages are ABBYY PDF Transformer and PDF2Word (http://www.toppdf.com/pdf2word/index.html). We will look at the first of them - although it is more expensive, it has a Russian-language interface and allows you to convert PDF files into several editable formats, and can correctly recognize not only English, but also Russian text.

    ABBYY PDF Transformer 2.0

    Developer: ABBYY Software

    Distribution size: 52 MB

    Work under control: Windows 2000 (SP2 or higher)/XP/Server 2003

    Distribution method: shareware (15-day demo version - http://www.abbyy.ru/pdftransformer/?param=35957)

    Price: 1490 rub.

    ABBYY PDF Transformer is a utility for converting PDF documents into Microsoft Word document formats (Fig. 18), Excel, as well as HTML and TXT files. The package has an intuitive interface and is very easy to use, so even novice users will be able to master it.

    ABBYY PDF Transformer can convert any PDF files, including files without a text layer (such files are most often obtained from scanned documents and represent an image of text), and correctly processes PDF files containing any combination of supported languages ​​(including Russian and English). The utility accurately preserves the design of the source document (pictures, tables, column layout, links) and allows you to manage conversion and saving options. For example, you can clearly define areas that should be perceived by the program as text or as an image (which is important for PDF files with complex design), save the finished document with the same design as in the original, or as a column of text (with or without pictures - optional) etc. If necessary, it is possible to selectively convert individual pages or even their fragments. In addition, ABBYY PDF Transformer can also perform reverse conversion, allowing you to create PDF files from Microsoft Word documents, Excel tables, PowerPoint presentations, Visio diagrams and HTML files, as well as from almost any application that supports printing a document (this is implemented via virtual printer PDF-XChange for ABBYY PDF Transformer 2.0).

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