(You are only required to have a brief outline awareness of the following material at GCSE level. Much of the detailed content provided here is to help you piece together computer terms you may have picked up but have little understanding of.)

'Software' is the term used to describe any kind of computer program or data stored in the computer's memory or as files on some form of storage media. A 'software package' is a collection of programs and supporting data or control files which all work together to perform a specific task, such as a word processor package.

For example - on a CD, the music or the computer files are the software, the disk itself is the hardware.

Note spelling: program (USA), programme (UK), you can use either but you must be consistent.

Software packages can be divided into five main types:

System Software
Programming Languages
Application Packages
Expert Systems
Communication Software

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