Word Processing and Documentation
What the domain covers
Word Processing and Documentation tests document creation, formatting, page layout, tables, mail merge and review tools. The exam favours practical “which feature would you use” items and short cut-key questions.
Core rules
- Character formatting changes selected text (font, size, bold, italic, colour); paragraph formatting changes alignment, line spacing, indents, bullets and spacing before/after.
- Use styles (Heading 1, Normal) for consistent headings; they also build an automatic table of contents.
- Page setup controls margins, orientation, paper size and columns. Headers/footers repeat content such as page numbers on every page.
- Mail merge combines a main document with a data source (recipients) to produce personalised letters.
- Review tools: spelling/grammar check, comments, track changes, compare documents. Save as
.docx; export to PDF for fixed layout.
Worked example
To send the same result letter to 40 parents: create the main letter, choose Mailings → Start Mail Merge → Letters, select the recipient list (spreadsheet or table), insert merge fields such as «Name» and «Marks», preview results, then Finish & Merge. The main document is written once; the data source supplies each recipient’s values.
Traps
- Applying bold to one word and calling it paragraph formatting.
- Using repeated Enter presses instead of page breaks or paragraph spacing.
- Editing the data source but forgetting to refresh/preview the merge.
- Confusing Save (overwrite current file) with Save As (new name/location/format).