Week 2 - Office Applications

Lecture Summary


This week in our lecture we considered the different Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point, Paint, Access and Games.


We discussed the different uses of each of the applications for example Microsoft Excel is used for creating spreadsheets.


We then examined Vista and the different ways to find programs. Two ways include going to the programs menu and clicking on applications, or going to the programs control panel end putting a search term into the search engine.


Helen then explained to us the difference between a portal (Google) and a browser (Explorer). We then came up with a list of browsers that we had heard of or used.


Finally we discussed some of the websites we had visited for the first time over the beginning of the semester. Some of these included: Blogspot.com Greenpeace.com Blackboard &, ECU Library.


Workshop Summary


To start off our workshop we reviewed our existing knowledge of Microsoft Word. Gary Chan then showed us a number of shortcuts that will help us when using MS Word. These Shortcuts include:


Control Arrow (left or right) - Jump cursor between words.


Control Arrow (up or down) - Jump cursor between paragraphs.


Control Home - Jumps cursor to beginning of document.


Control End - Jumps cursor to end of document.


Home - Jumps cursor to beginning of sentence.


End - Jumps cursor to end of sentence.


Control:


X - Cut


C - Copy


V - Paste


U - Underline


I - Italics


K - Insert hyper links


F - Find function


Z - Undo


Y - Re-do



After going through the various short cuts we learned some other functions of MS Word. The first function was page breaks. Page breaks can be inserted by going to insert and clicking on page break. The next thing we did was create headings for our table of contents (TOC). To create headings highlight the word you want as a heading then go to home and click heading 1. To enter more than one heading you repeat the procedure but click on heading 2, 3, 4 etc. We then learned how to insert a TOC. To do this go to insert and click on Table Of Contents. Their are also many ready made cover pages that can be used for assignments. To insert a cover page go to insert and click on cover page this will bring up a selection of cover pages. The cover page must be inserted after the rest of the document is finished. We also found out how to insert headers and footers. Headers are placed at the bottom of the page and can be used to display the document title, names, dates... Footers are placed at the bottom of the page and can be used to display page numbers.

We were also given a Word Activity to do. For this activity we were given some information which we had to copy into a blank word document. We then had to edit the information in the following way:


· Adjust the TYPEFACE

· Adjust the MARGINS AND ALIGNMENT

· Adjust LINE SPACING

· Create HEADINGS (using the ‘document map’ feature)

· KEEP HEADINGS WITH TEXT

· Include a HEADER/FOOTER

(Table of Contents and inserted image)

(Edited information)

(Alphabetized references)

Although many of the people in this course feel they know how to effectively use Microsoft Word, in this week we learnt many processes and short cuts that will help us use MS Word more efficiently. Many of the things we learnt will cause us to produce a higher standard of work in our other units and courses.

The next thing we were shown how to do in the tutorial was how to use MS Excel.

(Excel printscreen)

We spent the last 15 minutes of the workshop learning the basics of MS Excel. When you open excel you are given a page made up of cells. These cells make up rows and columns. MS Excel is used to put data into graphs and charts. The data gets placed into the cells. For example you might want to put monday to tuesday into column A. A shortcut for this is to put monday in the first cell then click on the cross in the bottom right corner and drag it down. This will put the days in sequence into the column for you (see print screen above). If the information is too wide for the cell double click the line between the column (between A & B). The next thing we did was use auto sum. If you enter some figures into a column and wish to add up the total, highlight the column and click on auto sum. This will give you the total.

Using Microsoft Word For APA Tasks:

We were given this information to read, it is all about using MS Word. It helped us with our Word excercises:

(Using Word for APA tasks)

Graphic File Formats:

These pages are about saving and formatting certain files or documents. It discusses .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .tiff, and photoshop documents.

(Graphic File Formats)