What to add to Java Word-processor

[Celegorm]

Well, as a school project i'm making a java application that is a word processor. I hope to make it something as universal as textpad to open any kinda textfile (dat, txt etc). It currently has basic font options like color, sizes (pre-set, and custom), a few fonts, and basic formatting options like bold and underline.

My question is what can i add to this? i'm working on getting word-wrapping to work. It should only be a line or two of code, but we shall see. I have a college friend who is doing a spell checker, so we plan on integrating when we are both done. I've thought about printing, but that might still be a little out of my leage. Any other suggestions for me? Please keep in mind that i'm not the greatest in Java so nothing too complex for now please.

 

[freestyler105]

I don't know Java, but would inserting images be hard??

 

[Daeva]

To make it really usefull, you could implement mail merging, and maybe even a voice recognition compoenent. Office 2007, I hear has voice recognition that isn't all that bad. Java has a few interfaces and classes that should allow for that sort of input, of course buffering the audio stream and translating it to plain text might prove to be a bit difficult, but it would be fun to do.

 

[Celegorm]

adding images wouldn't be too hard, the question turns to how to use them. Voice recognition would be way out of my leage at this point, but when i get more skilled, that would be a great thing to look into.

could you explain what you mean by mail-merging?

 

[J03]

Dude - Wouldnt that take month's of coding? I mean, Voice Recognition software can cost hundreds of pounds to buy! And they employ team's of coders!

 

[Celegorm]

yeah, it would take a while, but part of the reason it normally costs so much is that they do have teams of coders. Unfortuatly i won't get paid for taht program.

 

[freestyler105]

Well, I think adding support for images would be a good start. What do you mean by how to use them??

 

[Celegorm]

I mean like almost do kinda like word where you can move them where ever you want, or just allow users to copy and paste pictures into the text area?

 

[Daeva]

I think you should keep it simple. Make it powerful before you make it flashy. Include utilities, not bells and whistles, like a java compiler, syntax highlighting. Maybe add images for icon's.