For many people, word processing is the computer application with which they are most familiar; it is also the main reason for the explosion in popularity of PCs in the 1980s. The descendant of typing, words are written on a "virtual" page which allows the user to make corrections, insert or delete text and reformat it without having to retype the whole. As a data file, the word-processed text can also be copied an infinite number of times if so desired; equally an infinite number of printed copies can be made from one file.

Word-processing programmes (for example Microsoft Word, MacWrite) also contain thesauruses and dictionaries and offer users the ability to check the spelling of words they are uncertain of; this has been of particular benefit to people with problems such as dyslexia and non-native language speakers. Text can also be dictated using voice recognition software, although development is still in its infancy.

These latter aspects of word processing were foretold in Angela Brazil's A Popular Schoolgirl (1920, pp35, 76-7):

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