Getting Text into your Computer
Preparation of text for use in Digital Philatelic Studies is a must. With prepared text as your building blocks, the assembly of your work will go a lot smoother and result in a much more presentable DPS.
Word Entry
Most text is put into digital format by typing it into a computer using a word processing program like Microsoft (MS) Word. There are two additional ways to get your text into digital format: scanning typewritten or printed pages and subsequently using optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert the scan into text or by dictation using voice recognition software.
We’ll stick with a word processing program, ‘MS Word’ for this exercise, as that’s what most people will be using. Three major reasons for using word processors are their spelling, thesaurus and grammar checking functions. Once you have your text entered into your word processor, use these tools to ensure your text is as correct as you can manage.
Word Tools
If your word processing program doesn’t know a specific word, look it up in a dictionary before pressing the ‘add to dictionary’ button. Once you’ve added a misspelled word, it will continue to accept the misspelling until you edit the ‘user dictionary’ of your program.
In addition to spell check, the thesaurus can be a very effective tool in your arsenal of word processing functions. Ever get stuck for just the right word? Enter a word you might use and see what turns up – it’s often the word you had on the tip of your tongue but couldn’t remember.
Grammar checking is another standard function that may prove valuable. Leaving grammar check active during your text input will point out things the computer believes may be wrong word usage. You can ignore it of course, but it often makes suggestions you should think about.
Text should be double-checked for spelling or grammar mistakes and saved in the proper format – before being inserted into the study.
Using some of the other word processing tools such as grade level analysis, word count, etc. could be interesting, but in the short term, we’ll stick with the big three.
Invisible Formatting Code
Each program uses ‘formatting code’ embedded in the document to make your text display the way you want it to – that’s formatting. The information you enter is not simply text, but rather text with invisible ‘formatting code’ attached that you normally don’t see or think about. You’ll only see some of it if the ‘Show Code’ function is turned on in your word processor.
MS Word is notorious for including formatting information when text is cut from a Word document and pasted into a document generated by another application such as PowerPoint. The invisible formatting code is to blame.
Saving the file in text only format
To prevent this aggravation, save the document in a ‘Text Only’ format (.txt). This action will strip all the invisible formatting code from the text and leave only the words. Cutting and pasting sections of text from a .txt file allows it to be formatted by the other program, PowerPoint in this instance, and introduces no surprises to figure out or frustrate us.
Enter all your text, spell and grammar check it, and then save it as a ‘Text Only’ file. Formatting the text will take place in the PowerPoint template and the final document. 
