Abstract: A central processor holds a word-processing program and an entire document to be processed. A personal computer or intelligent terminal has an interactive display and holds code for some functions of the word processor, and stores individual pages of the document. As an operator performs editing tasks at the display, the personal computer performs locally those functions involving only the document page it holds. When additional document text is required to complete a function, the central processor performs the function on the full document. The central computer also performs all of certain other functions, regardless of where the data is stored.