A display word processor (11) has the capability of emulating a data processing terminal for a host data processor (10) in an information processing system. With such a capability, the display word processor may be switched between data processing and word or text processing sessions. In this information processing system, the interactive display (17) is operable during data processing sessions to display a word processing message when a word processing task is being carried out as a background task during the data processing session. The word processing message may be displayed on a message line which may be shared with a data processing message. Alternatively, if the interactive display terminal (17) is large enough, the word processing message line may be displayed in an area dedicated to the word processing message.