Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major Professor

Betty J. Brown

Committee Members

Bill J. Radcliff, Robert K. Roney, George Wiegers

Abstract

This study was conducted to aid decision makers in one important aspect of the word processing software acquisition decision, the evaluation and comparison of features. A list of sixty-seven features was compiled and summarized from the word processing literature and vendor publications. Three leading vendors of dedicated word processing equipment were chosen, IBM, Lanier, and Wang. A common word processing software package from each company was chosen for standardization. Thirty-three word processing operators representing a variety of business, service, and nonprofit organizations were selected as users of these three chosen packages. These operators were asked to rate the sixty-seven features as to usefulness in their work. These responses were used to rank the features in order of usefulness.

The top-ranked word processing features, such as automatic word wraparound and automatic centering, were those that were common to most word processing software and configurations. Factors other than the existence of these highly ranked features may be more important in the acquisition decision because these features are found on virtually all word processing software including that intended for general purpose microcomputers. The more specialized and perhaps heavily advertised features such as graphics and floating footnotes were among the lowest rated features, but may be needed in specific work environments.

Significant differences were found in the ranking of specific features by the three vendor groups. These were generally explained by differences in the quantity and type of work done by the three groups. The difference in vendor group feature rankings highlights the need for a potential purchaser of word processing software and equipment to be aware of the mix of typical applications before deciding what features would be most useful.

There was a degree of uncertainty about the existence of some features on a user's particular word processing system. Some nonthreatening method should be established for determining the extent of user knowledge regarding the specifics of the word processing package after about six months of use.

Factor analysis was used as a data reduction technique to prepare a shorter, summarized checklist of features.

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