ZICA T7 - Information Technology & Business Communication

CHAPTER 1.0 Introduction to using a computer Definition of a computer, this is an electronic device that is made up of input devices such as the keyboard and is used to capture data and instructions, with the help of sets of instructions it will be able to produce results or output through devices such as printers or screens. 1.

Classes of computers

Computers can be classified as follows: • • • •

Supercomputers Mainframe computers Minicomputers Microcomputers, commonly called PCs

1.1

A supercomputer is used to process very large amounts of data very quickly. They are particularly useful for occasions where high volumes of calculations need to be performed, for example in meteorological or astronomical applications.

1.2

A mainframe computer system uses a powerful central computer, linked by cable or telecommunications to terminals. A mainframe has many times more processing power than a PC and offers extensive data storage facilities. Mainframes are used by organisations such as banks that have very large volumes of processing to perform and have special security needs. Many organizations have now replaced their old mainframes with networked ‘client server systems of mid-range computers and PCs because this approach is thought to be the cheaper and offer more flexibility

1.3

A minicomputer is a computer whose size, speed and capabilities lie somewhere between those of a mainframe and a PC. The term was originally used before PCs were developed, to describe computers which were cheaper but less wellequipped than mainframe computers. With the advent of PCs and of mainframes that are much smaller than in the past, the definition of a minicomputer has become rather vague. There is really no definition which distinguishes adequately between a PC and a minicomputer.

1.4

PCs are now the norm for small to medium-sized business computing and for home computing, and most larger businesses now use them for day-to-day needs such as word processing. Often they are linked together in a network to enable sharing of information between users.

Portables 1.5

The original portable computers were heavy, weighing around five kilograms, and could only be run from the mains electricity supply line. Subsequent developments allow true portability. a) A laptop or notebook is powered either from electricity supply or using a rechargeable battery and can include all the features and functionality of desktop PCs. b) The palmtop or handheld is increasingly compatible with true PCs. Devices range from basic models which are little more than electronic organizers to relatively powerful processors running ‘cut-down’ versions of Windows and Microsoft Office, and including communications features.

1.6

Many computers have been designed to achieve faster computational speeds, using different architectures.

1.7

Maths co-processor and Graphics co-processor. Most processors may include specialized and faster processors (a maths co-processor/graphics co-processor) can be used for applications requiring high-speed mathematical or graphics computations. Such applications could be spreadsheet calculations or complex computer-aided design (CAD) work. The maths co-processor supports the main processor by performing the required calculations more rapidly than the main processor. In the same way, the graphics co-processor is designed to perform graphical functions, such as the construction and maintenance of images much faster than the main processor. The co-processors are under the control of the main processor.

1.8

Pipeline machines. In the pipeline machine architecture each stage in the fetchexecutive cycle is handled by a separate machine hardware unit. The first unit fetches an instruction from memory. At any one time there may be four or five instructions within the processor each at different stages of execution in different units.

1.9

Array processor. In the array processor there is one control unit but multiple ALUs, which are able to work in parallel with one another. They are particularly suited to applications in which sets of values require the same operation to be performed on each value, e.g., converting every value in a table to a percentage of the total. 2

2.

Functions of the information processing cycle

2.1

Data happens to be raw facts and figures that are meaningless until when processed, for example meter readings collected for a water company, hours worked by employees in a factory, in a banking system, bank charges, commission etc.

2.2

Information is data that has been processed into something meaningful or raw data that has been transformed into processed data. Examples of information based on the above data are; water bills, a pay slip and a bank statement.

2.3

In information processing a logical data file is a collection of records with similar characteristics. Examples of data files include the sales ledger, purchases ledger etc

2.4

A record in a file consists of data relating to one logically definable unit of business information. A collection of similar records makes up a file. For example, the records for a sales ledger file consists of customer reference number, balance owing and credit limit field

2.5

Records in files consist of fields of information, for example, a customers record on the sales ledger file will include name, address, balance owing.

2.6

Records on a file should contain one key field. This is an item of data within the record by which it can be uniquely identified, for example man number, account number, NRC number and examination number

2.7

Files are conveniently classified into transaction files, and master files

2.8

A transaction file contains latest activities of a business, and it’s the one that is used to update the master file. Once updating has taken place the file is discarded. In batch systems, transactions can be bundled up manually or kept in an electronic form but would only be used on a certain date to update the electronic master file. Transaction files are at times called by different names such as, changes file, movements file and amendments files

2.9

A master file is a semi permanent file that is periodically updated by a transaction file in order for it to show its current status, for example a payroll master file and customers master file. The updating times vary depending on the application, say weekly, fortnightly or monthly. In the case of the cinema, this will happen immediately a transaction occurs.

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2.10

Reference file, is also known as standing data file or table file. This contains data that is “permanent” in nature because it usually changes after along periods of time such as a year, for example tax table, price list and tariff tables. This file is usually referred to when a transaction file is updating a master file.

2.11

Sort file, these are temporal files that are used as an intermediary during file updating

2.12

Both manual and computer information processing can be divided into two broad types; namely batch and real time processing. Batch processing are becoming less common, periodically if the process concerned have an impact on customers.

2.13

Batch processing system, this is a system where data is collected, accumulated for a certain interval period of time such as weekly or month, and then these transactions are captured as a unit in order to update the master file. Examples of systems that use batch are payroll, water billing, and final accounts preparation and examination results production. Because data is not input as soon as it is received the system will not always be up-to-date.

2.14

Real time processing occurs when data is collected and captured right away so that the results of the processing are known right away. This type of processing is commonly used in banks, cinema system and student registration.

2.15

Online processing involves transactions being input and processed immediately, in ‘real time’. On-line refers to a machine which is under the direct control of the main processor for that system. The term ‘on-line’ is also used to describe an active Internet connection.

2.16

On-line, real-time processing is appropriate when immediate processing is required and the delay implicit in batch processing would not be acceptable

2.17

On-line systems are practically the norm in modern business. Examples include the following a) As a sale is made in a department store or a supermarket, the barcode on the merchandise is scanned on the Point-of-sale-systems/ terminal that is directly connected to a central machine in the supermarket or at head office in order to facilitate on-line real time processing. b) In banking and credit card systems whereby customer details are often maintained in a real-time environment. There can be immediate access to customer balances, credit position etc and authorization for withdrawals c) Travel agents, airlines and theatre ticket agencies all use real-time systems. Once a hotel room, plane seat or theatre seat is booked up everybody on the

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system must know about it immediately so that they do not sell the same holiday or seat to two or more different customers.

3.

Hardware components and their functions

3.1

A computer is made up of four components, namely: a) b) c) d)

Input devices to facilitate data capture Output devices to produce the processed data The central processing unit or processor External storage device or backing store

The processor 3.2

The processor is the brain of the computer. The processor may be defined as follows; it’s the nerve centre of the entire computer system as it is in charge of all the operations of the machine. It is divided into three elements namely: • • •

Arithmetic and logic unit Control unit Main store or memory

3.3

The processing unit may have all its elements – arithmetic and logic unit, control unit, and the input/ output interface on a single “chip”. A chip is a small piece of silicon upon which is etched an integrated circuit, on an extremely small scale

3.4

The chip is mounted on a carrier unit which in turn is ‘plugged’ onto a circuit board – called the motherboard – with other chips, each with their own functions.

3.5

The most common chips are those made by Intel Company. Each generation of Intel CPU chip has been able to perform operations in fewer clock cycles than the previous generation, and therefore works more quickly.

3.6

Microprocessor. A microprocessor is a component of the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and contains circuitry for controlling the entire computer system, for performing arithmetic and logic operations, for controlling input and output and also memory circuitry. Usually, the microprocessor circuitry is contained on a single silicon chip. The microprocessor interprets and executes all the instructions in the computer system.

3.7

All chips containing circuitry that controls the computer and also the computer memory chips are found on the system board. The motherboard, also called the main board, is a circuit board whose task is to link all the other chips of the 5

computer. Any expansion boards that should be installed in the computer are fitted into expansion slots which hold the boards in place. The slots also give the boards an electronic link to the motherboard 3.8

A chip is a small piece of silicon material which contains microcircuit elements. An integrated circuit (IC) is combination of circuit elements that are interconnected and placed on a small chip of silicon. The IC chip is then mounted on to a carrier unit that is itself plugged on a circuit board with other chips. Although put together on one circuit board, each IC chip performs its own functions.

MHz and clock speed 3.9

The processor receives program instructions and sends signals to peripheral devices. The signals are co-ordinated by a clock which sends out a “pulse’ – a sort of tick-tock sequence called a cycle – at regular intervals

3.10

The number of cycles produced per second is usually in MegaHertz (MHz) or GigaHertz (GHz) • •

1 MHz = one million cycles per second 1 GHz = one billion cycles per second

A typical modern business PC might run on 2 GHz. Memory 3.11

The computers memory is also known as main store or internal store. The memory will hold the following. • • •

Program instructions The input data that will be processed next The data that is ready for output to an output device

Memory address 3.12

Memory address. Memory address refers to storage locations that are found in memory. Each computer memory has several memory locations which are used to store data. Since the data needs to be retrieved at a later time so that it can be processed, a way of finding it uniquely and quickly is needed. For this reason, each memory location is allocated an identification number by which the memory location is uniquely identified. This identification number is the address of the memory location. This concept can be compared to that of our postal addresses.

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Core store 3.13

Core store is the type of main memory that was used in computers in the early days of computing. The core itself was a small ring of iron. A wire passed through the core. Current should be passed in this wire in such a way that the core was magnetized, either north or south. To represent data, for example, a core magnetized to be North Pole would be holding a one (1) and the core magnetized as South Pole would be holding a zero (0). An extra wire was made to go through the core. This wire was meant to sense the magnetism of the core and so read the stored values from the core

Bits and bytes 3.14

Each individual storage element in the computers memory consists of a simple circuit which can be switched on or off. These two states can be conveniently expressed by the numbers 1 and 0 respectively

3.15

Each 1 or 0 is a bit. Bits are grouped together in groups of eight to form bytes. A byte may be used to represent a character, for example a letter, a number or another symbol

3.16

Business PCs now make use of 2 bit processors. But simply, this means that data travels around from one place to another in groups of 16 or 32 bits, and so modern PCs operate considerably faster than the original old 8 bit models

3.17

The processing capacity of a computer is in part dictated by the capacity of its memory. Capacity is calculated in kilobytes (1 kilobyte = 210 (1,024) bytes and megabytes (1 megabyte = 220 bytes) and gigabytes (230). These are abbreviated to Kb, Mb and Gb.

RAM 3.18

Random Access Memory is memory that is directly available to the processing unit. It holds the data and programs in current use. RAM in microcomputers is ‘volatile’ which means that the contents of the memory are erased when the computers power is switched off.

3.19

RAM on a typical business PC is likely to have a capacity of 1 Gigabyte. The size of the RAM is extremely important. A computer with 1 GHz clock speed and 512 megabytes of RAM will not be as efficient as a 2 GHz PC with 1 Gigabyte of RAM

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3.20

Most of the computer’s immediate access storage (IAS) is RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM holds the data, information and instructions that the computer needs in performing particular tasks. During the execution of any program (instructions), that particular program or part of it has to reside in the RAM memory. The data which the program is supposed to manipulate and transform into information is also stored in the RAM memory during processing. The information and also the intermediate results of processing will also be kept in the RAM before they are finally stored on disk, displayed on screen or printed. A part of the operating system is also stored in RAM during the time the computer is in operation. When your computer reads information from a disk, it stores that information in RAM. In other words, RAM is that storage (memory) which holds all data and instructions that the computer needs to carry out its current work. A disadvantage of RAM is that it is temporary storage and when you turn the computer off all the contents of RAM is lost (unless you have saved the contents to an external, permanent storage medium). For this reason, RAM is referred to as being volatile storage.

Cache 3.21

The cache is a small capacity but extremely fast part of the memory which saves a second copy of the pieces of data most recently read from or written to main memory. When the cache is full, older entries are flushed to make room for new ones. Mostly, cache memory is used to hold data such as variables of executing programs and also the parts of a program code that may be required too often for execution. The main purpose of the cache memory is to bridge the speed imbalance between the processor and the main memory. The data or program parts that will be required next in the processing cycle are fetched well in advance from the main memory and placed in the cache for the processor to find them quickly. In this way, data and program parts are swapped back and forth between the main memory and cache memory. Although expensive, the use of cache memory improves the performance of the computer tremendously because access to cache memory is much faster than to main memory.

ROM 3.22

Read Only Memory is a memory chip into which fixed data is written permanently at the time of its manufacture. When you turn on a PC you may see a reference to BIOS (Basic Input/ Output System). This is part of the ROM chip

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containing all the programs needed to control the keyboard, screen, disk and so on. 3.23

Read Only Memory (ROM) makes a smaller part of your computer’s immediate access storage (IAS). ROM storage is permanent. As such, ROM holds that kind of data and instructions that the computer needs regardless of the task it performs. The computer’s basic instructions that tell a microprocessor chip how to perform its functional operations are stored in ROM. Since ROM storage is permanent, its contents are also not lost even when power is switched off. Consequently, you can not alter the contents of ROM in any way other than destroying the ROM chip. ROM is therefore non-volatile. Since ROM holds the basic instructions that the computer needs in order for it to operate, it is important that ROM is nonvolatile and its contents are non-alterable. This is a vital safeguard to keep your computer operating properly.

3.24

ROM has got other variations. These are the PROM, EPROM and the EEPROM. PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) is a type of memory which can be programmed only once. PROMs are bought without programs (empty). They are programmed by the user special equipment but once they are programmed, the contents cannot be changed. PROMs can only be programmed once. Of course, users would require chips that can be erased and reprogrammed. This demand led to the development of erasable PROMs. The erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) is usually not programmed by the manufacturer. Once they are programmed, EPROMs require ultra-violet light and some special equipment in order for their contents to be erased. This is a vital safeguard against accidental erasure. An EEPROM is an electrically erasable PROM.

Vitual memory 3.25

Virtual memory is a technique employed to enable computers to run very large programs in relatively smaller main memories. Using this technique, the large program that is to be run is split into smaller parts called pages. In this way, only the smaller part of the program (page) which is currently executing will be loaded into the main memory, while the rest of the program is on some direct access secondary storage (e.g., disk). When the next part of the program is needed for execution, it will be loaded into memory and it will overwrite the previous part and continue being executed. This technique gives the impression that the main memory is very large, when in actual fact it is small. Hence he term virtual memory. Virtual memory makes efficient use of the main memory.

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3.26

The notable differences between the main memory and backing storage are shown below:

Topic 1 Speed

Main memory Main memory provides higher access speeds than backing storage because its part and parcel of the CPU 2 Volatility Main memory is volatile; it can not be stored for ever. It loses its contents when power is switched off 3 Capacity They have smaller capacities since it’s not possible to predict in advance how much space will be needed to store all the data that will be processed by a particular computer in its life time. 4 Representation In memory data is represented as 0s and 1s. 1 represents the fact that current is flowing in a particular circuit while 0 represents the case that no current is flowing in the circuit.

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Backing storage Data on backing storage devices are electromechanical, its access at lower speeds than that of the main memory Backing storage provides permanent storage and data stored can stay there for many years to come even if power is withdrawn. Backing storage has larger storage capacity than memory. Any extra data or programs will be held in the backing storage, it would be costly to build very large memories.

On backing storage data is represented by the presence of small magnets and their polarity. Backing storage are magnetic, a plastic paper or metal platter coated with magnetic substances that can easily be magnetized

CHAPTER 2.0 Classes of software associated with information systems The most popular computer operating system, particularly for PCs is Microsoft Windows. An operating system is executive software that provides the bridge between applications software and the hardware. It facilitates communication between the user and the computer and automatic loading of programs into RAM in order to provide a continuous flow of operations

• Initial set-up of the computer, when it is switched on •

Communication between the user and hardware • Calling up of files from storage into memory • File management The most popular computer operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Linux and UNIX. Microsoft Windows includes the following features.

i)

A desktop from which everything in the system branches out. Disk drives, folders(directories), applications and files can all be placed on the desktop

ii)

A taskbar which includes a start button and buttons representing every open application

iii)

Long file names are supported (up to 256 characters)

iv)

There is a Recycle Bin for easy deletion and recovery of files

v)

Easy integration with widely used networking software is possible

vi)

Multitasking is available, allowing more than one program to be active at one time.

vii)

The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser is included to facilitate Internet access

viii) User-friendly, user interface enhancements include easier navigation, such as single-click launching of applications, icon highlighting, forward buttons, and an easy to customize Start Menu

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ix)

Web integration, there are a variety of features designed to enhance Internet access and use of Internet facilities and technologies and integrate them with the users system

x)

Reliability

• Windows can be set up to regularly test the users hard disk, system files, •

and configuration information to increase the system reliability, and in many cases fix problems automatically Enhanced backup and restore functions

xi)

Graphics. Windows has graphics and video capabilities and support for games hardware such as joysticks, it supports digital video disks (DVD)

xii)

More manageable for businesses, tools such as Dr. Watson and System Information utility make it easier for IT support staff to diagnose and correct problems a) Windows has graphics and video capabilities and support for games hardware such as joysticks. It supports digital video disks (DVD)

User Interface characteristics

i)

GUI, this stands for Graphical User Interface. GUIs were designed to make computers more user-friendly. A GUI involves the use of two design ideas and two operating methods which can be remembered by the abbreviations WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pull-down menu. Most dialogue between the user and software that uses WIMP features is conducted through the mouse and onscreen images rather than typed text.

ii)

The desktop, in Microsoft Windows, the initial screen is called the desktop. The desktop screen typically contains icons that provide easy access to a range of software programs. Programs may be started from the desktop using either an icon or shortcut or by navigating through the menus that branch out from the START button. Each active program or activity is launched in a separate window

iii)

Task bar, as with many Microsoft Windows operations, there is more than one way to switch between open applications. The popular method of switching between applications is to simply click on the icon of the relevant open application displayed on the Windows Taskbar. The Taskbar usually shows at the bottom of the screen, although some systems are set-up to ‘hide’ the Taskbar

iv)

Title bar, it’s shown in a strip at the top of the window. It comprises the default menu items which when selected pulls down another menu that pertains to that

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particular choice. The main menu items are File, Edit, View, Insert etc. This is sometimes called a title.

v)

Recycle bin, this is a folder or directory that keeps all files that are deleted from the hard disk or fixed disk. Logically the files are deemed to have been deleted but physically they are usually still on the disk. When the user selects an option called empty the recycle bin that’s when the bin is emptied and the files are no longer accessible

Directory or folder This is a sub division of a disk. Users can create a folder or a directory so that files that pertain to a common subject are stored in there for easy reference or location. Folders such as My Pictures, My Documents etc are typical examples.

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CHAPTER 3.0 Future of Information Technology In this unit we shall discuss some of the most significant developments in communications, and the impact these developments have had on the way organisations operate. Technological advances in society has had the following effects on society and businesses a) The type of products or services that are made and sold. For example, consumer markets have seen the emergence of home computers, compact discs and satellite dishes for receiving satellite TV; industrial markets have seen the emergence of custom-built microchips, robots and local area networks for office information systems. b) The way in which products are made. There is continuing trend towards the use of modern labour-saving production equipment, such as robots. The manufacturing environment is undergoing rapid changes with the growth of advanced manufacturing technology. These are changes in both apparatus and technique. c) The way in which services are provided. High-street banks encourage customers to use ’hole-in-the-wall’ cash dispensers, or telephone or PC banking. Most large shops now use computerised Point of Sale terminals as cash desks. Many organisations are starting to use e-commerce: selling products and services over the Internet. d) The way in which employees are identified. Database systems make it much easier to analyse the market place. e) The way in which employees are mobilized. Computerisation encourages delayering of organisational hierarchies, and greater workforce empowerment and skills. Using technology frequently requires changes in working methods. This is a change in organisation. f) Homeworking. Advances in communications technology have, for some tasks reduced the need for the actual presence of an individual in the office. This leads to cost savings on office space, if homeworkers are freelance, then the organisation avoids the need to pay them when there is insufficient work, when they are sick, or on holiday etc

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g) The paperless office. There might be less paper in the office (but not necessarily so) with more data-processing done by keyboard. Data handling is likely to shift from the traditional movement of paper to the storing of data electronically. h) Routine processing, the processing of routine data can be done in bigger volumes, at greater speed and with greater accuracy than with non-automated, manual systems. i) Customer service, office automation, in some organisations results in better customer service. When an organisation receives large numbers of telephone enquiries from customers, the staffs who take the calls should be able to provide a prompt and helpful service if they have on-line access to the organisation’s data files. j) Organisation structure, the structure might change. PC networks give local office managers a means of setting up a good local management information system and localized data processing while retaining access to centrally held databases and programs. Office automation can therefore encourage a tendency towards decentralization of authority within an organisation On the other hand, such systems help head office to keep in touch with what is going on in local offices. k) Management information, the nature and quality of management information will change. • Managers are likely to have access to more information. The range of reports are likely to be wider and their content more comprehensive • Planning activities should be more thorough, with the use of models such as spreadsheets for budgeting and sensitivity analysis • Information for control should be more readily available • Decision making by managers can be helped by decision support systems l) EDI, is a form of computer-to-computer data interchange. Instead of sending each other reams of paper in the form of invoices, statements and so on, details of inter-company transactions are sent via telecommunication links, avoiding the need for output and paper at the sending end, and for re-keying of data at the receiving end. The way accounts personnel deal with invoices would affect the way they work in an organisation. Instead of sending each other transactions in the form of invoices and statements, details of inter-company transactions are sent via telecoms links avoiding the need for output and paper at the sending end. m) Video conferencing, this is the use of computer and communications technology to conduct meetings. Video conferencing has become increasingly common as the Internet and webcams have brought the service to desktop PCs at reasonable cost.

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n) The Internet, the introduction of the Internet has allowed workers to search for information as well as use email facilities in communicating with customers at a faster and efficient rate. Attachments can be emailed. o) Voice messaging systems, these systems answer and route telephone calls. Typically, when a call is answered a recorded message tells the caller to dial the extension required, or to hold if they want to speak to the operator. Sometimes other options are offered, such as press 2 if you want to know about X service and 3 if you want to know about Y. p) Computer bulletin boards, this consists of a central mailbox or area on a computer server where people can deposit messages for everyone to see and in turn read what other people have left in the system. They are appropriate for a team of individuals at different locations to compare notes and keep track of progress on a project.

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CHAPTER 4.0 Types of storage devices Hard disk Disks offer direct access to data. A modern business PC invariably has an internal hard disk. At the time of writing the average new PC has a hard disk size of around 40 Gigabytes. Features of hard disk/ fixed disk • Recording surfaces are made of metal platters and coated with magnetisable material • The metal platters are piled together on a spindle and so forming a disk pack. The pack can be sealed in a case to protect recording surfaces against dust and other damage • The metal platters are not flexible since they are made of metal • Tracks can be placed closer together leading to higher storage capacities • Each track on each disk surface has its own read/ write head. Read/write/ heads are fixed • The outer-most surfaces of the disk pack are usually meant for protecting the disk and are not used for recording. Floppy disks The floppy disk provides a cost-effective means of on-line storage for small amounts of information. A 3½ disk can hold up to 1.44 Mb of data. Features of Floppy disks • • • • • • •

Usually the disk surfaces are made of plastic material that is coated with magetisable material The recording surfaces are divided into concentric circles which are further subdivided into sectors The disks are covered in a jacket for protection. A small opening is left to alow the read/write heads access to the data on disk There is one read/write head for each disk surface Read/ write heads are movable Data is read or written by rotating the disk past read/write heads, which can write data from the CPU onto disk, or can read data the disk for input to the CPU Floppy disks exist mainly as 3.5”.

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ZIP disk A Zip disk is a different type of removable disk, with much larger capacity (100 Mb) that requires a special ZIP drive. A Zip disk is suitable for back-ups or for moving files between computers. Files are zipped so that they are compressed into a logically smaller file. Some users ‘Zip’ the contents of multiple file attachments into one Zip file to send via e-mail (some e-mail programmes do this automatically). To open the Zipped files, you must first unzip (extract) the zip file using software such as WinZip or PKZip. The extracted files will then show their file extensions, and may be opened using the appropriate software. Features of Zip disk • • • •

It’s a different type of a removable disk Has much lager storage capacity than floppy’s, about 100Mb It requires a special zip drive when used It is suitable for back-up storage or for moving files between computers

Flash disks This has been a recent breakthrough in ICT regarding the storage of large volume data onto a stick that can be slotted into a USB port Features of Flash sticks/ disks • • • • •

They are portable They are enclosed in protective casings Contain high storage capacity, for example 256Mb, 512Mb, 1GB, 2GB etc It is suitable for back-up storage or for moving files between computers Are slotted into a USB port when used

CD-ROM (Compact Disc – Read Only Memory) • • •

A CD-ROM can store 650 megabytes of data The speed of a CD-ROM drive is relevant to how fast data can be retrieved: an eight speed drive is quicker than a four speed drive CD recorders are now available for general business use with blank CDs (CD-R) and rewritable disks (CD-RW) are now available

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) •

The CD format has started to be superseded by DVD. DVD development was encouraged by the advent of multimedia files with video graphics and sound – requiring greater disk capacity

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•

DVD technology can store almost 5 gigabytes of data on one disk. Access speeds are improved as is sound and video quality. Many commentators believe DVD will not only replace CD ROMs, but also VHS cassettes, audio CDs and laser discs and sound – requiring greater disk capacity.

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CHAPTER 5.0 Input devices Input devices are hardware components that facilitate the capture of data into the computer systems through standard input ports. These ports can either be serial or USB. A keyboard is derived from a standard keyboard; it’s used for the manual capture of data into the computer system i)

The advantages of using a keyboard for the input of data. • The person keying in the data can be in a remote location, away from the computer itself. Data can be transmitted via a communications link • The person keying in the data can check for keying errors on-screen. • Keyboard input is convenient for small volumes of data when the time taken up by data input is relatively short.

ii)

The disadvantages of a keyboard for data capture • It is unsuitable for large volumes of transaction data. Keying data manually takes time, so is not appropriate in some situations. • Keyboard input is likely to be error-prone • There might be security problems. Keyboard input may be overlooked, and there is the risk that unauthorised people could access a terminal or PC

Originally a workstation was a computer used by one person, particularly for graphics and design applications, and was used primarily in engineering. It had a fast and powerful central processor, a high resolution monitor, and a large memory. This enabled complex designs to be easily manipulated. Similarly it meant a terminal with limited processing power that was connected to a mainframe computer and used by a user in a remote place for purposes of keyboard-console data capture. These characteristics, however, are no longer unique to workstations. High performance personal computers can offer very similar services; so the distribution is a historical one. The term ‘workstation’ is often used to describe a person’s desk, chair and computertheir immediate working environment. In most cases Electronic Point of Sale systems (EPOS) take advantage of bar codes.

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Data can be recorded in binary on documents, paper or plastic, using a code of alternating lines and spaces. A special reading device might have a wand and by passing the wand over the lines, the data stored in the bar codes can be extracted and used for input to a computer. These bar codes which are normally contained on the packets or wrappers of goods are commonly used in supermarkets and other shops, When a customer buys some bar coded items and takes them to the checkout to pay, the shop assistant will use a bar code reader (such as a wand or laser scanner), which is capable of sensing the bar coded data and transmitting it to the central computer in the shop. The computer then provides the price of the item being purchased (from the price on the price file) and this is then output to the cashier’s check-out point. The total cost of all the purchases is similarly calculated, and the customer sees what he or she must pay on a small display screen, and receives a printed receipt for the goods purchased. Bar codes are often used in electronic point of sale devices. In this case the data relating to the transaction would be captured by the device and recorded on sales file or stock file as it occurred. Hence data is captured at the source, that is, where the data is generated (the point of sale). Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPOS) means that at the point of sale, when the customer has brought up his goods to the checkout and the electronic point of sale has calculated how much the customer has to pay for the transaction, no cash will be handled physically. Instead, all the cash involved will be handled electronically. This may require the shop or store to have a computer system that is linked to the customer’s bank. When the amount to be paid by the customer is shown on the screen, the customer inserts his bank card into a machine that will identify his account number and other details. The computer at the shop will then inquire (electronically) from the bank’s account of the customer as to whether the customer has enough money in his bank account to be able to pay for the goods. If the money in the account is enough then the customer’s account will be debited by the amount required to purchase the goods. The shop’s account will be credited by the same amount that the goods bought by the customer cost. In this way the goods will be bought without any hard cash being handled. All the cash that is required has been transferred to the right accounts electronically. All this occurred at the point where the goods were being sold (point of sale) as such this is called Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPOS). At the time the shop’s computer inquired about the availability of funds in the customer’s account from the bank’s computer, the transaction would have been stopped if the customer did not have enough money in his account to pay for the goods. No transfer of funds would have taken place and the customer would not have been allowed to carry the goods. Instead the goods would have been returned to the shelves of the shop.

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To avoid such inconveniences, banks do issue credit cards to their trusted customers. The credit card contains identification details and necessary bank details of the holder. With this card, the customer can pay for goods and services on credit. When making payment the credit card will be passed in a card reader that will extract the identification information from it and record it on computer storage. The amount to be paid will be extracted from the card in the same way. The store or shop can then send such data to the bank, where the funds will be transferred from the customer’s account to the shop account. Some credit cards are so smart that they can be used like electronic wallets. These are called smart cards. The following are the advantages (i)

Stationery is saved. The paper and ink that was to be used for printing the price tags would be saved. The money that was to be used for such stationery can then be used for other ventures that will help to boost business.

(ii)

Reduction on labour force with a consequent saving of money. The pricing of items individually would attract a large manual labour force. This labour force would need to be paid money. With the use of bar codes such a large labour force wouldn’t be needed. This would be a saving for the store on funds that could then be channeled back into business.

(iii)

Quick service to customers. When a new consignment of goods comes to the store then the consignment would wait until the individual items have been stuck with price tags before customers could buy these items. This might lead to dissatisfaction of customers who in turn might decide to go to another store where services are offered quickly. With the use of bar codes, as long as the total number of items is known, the items can straight away go to the shelves and customers can buy as soon as the items come.

(iv)

Price changes are catered for. In countries where prices are continually adjusted due to inflation, this could lead to enormous loss of stationery needed to print new price tags. This would also mean employing extra casual labour to cope up with the job of re-pricing the individual commodities. The end result is that the store will spend a lot of money on stationery and on this extra labour force.

Mark sensing. Mark sensing is a method used for data input into computer systems. This method utilizes pre-printed forms or cards normally for selecting choices in appropriate boxes on the forms. The selection is made by marking the choice with a line or a cross using a pencil or pen. When the choices have been marked, the form is then fed into a reading device. The reading device will then sense the boxes which have a

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mark on them and then translate these into machine codes. These codes, in form of electrical signals, are then sent to the computer for evaluation. This method of input is called mark sensing because only the marks in the boxes are sensed. It does not matter what character is in the box, but only the mark matters. This is the type of system currently used for marking the Grade VII (Seven) examinations. Candidates mark their answers with a pencil on the answer sheets. The answer sheets are then fed into a scanner that senses the marks in the appropriate boxes and sends the appropriate signals to the computer which then evaluates the answer. Mark sensing documents are an example of turn-around documents. It is clear that at Grade VII level, children are still at such an academic level that they cannot write essays in good and readable handwriting. Therefore, the answer sheets of the Grade VIIs are really appropriate for their level. Reading an essay written by a Grade VII candidate under examination conditions might be quite difficult. Besides the largest number of candidates at any examination level is at Grade VII. So it would be very taxing to have human beings mark their examinations. As far as the current technology stands, mark sensing is the most appropriate method for marking these exams. Optical Character Recognition. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a method used for data input into computer systems. This method utilizes pre-printed forms or cards. The user types in the characters in particular positions on the form. The characters need to be in a particular format or style. Such formats are normally used, for example, in big universities where new students are required to fill in their details on pre-printed forms. These forms are then fed directly into a computer peripheral (e.g. OCR reader) which then extracts the details of the students and sends them to the computer for processing or for storage into a database. As can be seen from this example, these methods of input reduce the involvement of the human being in the process of data preparation and input. By so doing, errors are greatly reduced. OCR documents are an example of turn-around documents. If such computer readable forms like the OCR forms given to university students at registration were not used, it would mean that the student would type his details on to a form (not computer readable), and then a data preparation operator would extract the details from the form into the computer. In this way, there are too many people involved in the data preparation process. Clearly, there will be multiple errors. So the OCR forms help in reducing errors in the data capture process. The function of an optical character reader is to recognize characters encoded on OCR forms. Optical Character Readers (OCR) use optical sensing methods to recognize characters, which are normally written in stylized form. OCR can recognize characters that are printed by a computer’s printer. They can also recognize characters that are block hand written. Optical Character Readers are therefore used for the preparation of

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data for input to the computer. Data prepared by Optical Character Readers can be entered on-line to the computer or saved on storage media for off-line data entry later. Advantages of OCR (a)

(b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h)

Computers can produce pre-printed OCR documents which can later be read by computers (turn-around documents). This is cheaper since no special equipment is involved. Data preparation errors are eliminated. OCR documents are visible records. A considerable range of OCR document size is catered for. OCR equipment can be on-line to the computer (but often data is written to magnetic tape off-line for faster computer input, especially to mainframe). Source data entry can be automated. OCR contains data that can be read by human beings and so enabling visual inspection of data. OCR has wide applicability

Disadvantages of OCR a) b) c) d)

OCR document must be treated with care so that characters still remain readable. Special measures are required to replace spoilt or lost OCR documents. OCR equipment can be expensive Print quality may be crucial since unclear documents may distort the data

Advantages of MICR a) The data can be read by human beings and so enabling visual inspection of documents. b) MICR documents are relatively easy to sort. c) MICR documents make forgery difficult Disadvantages of MICR a) Printing MICR documents requires special equipment b) The quality of print is important and the amount of ink in a character is critical. c) MICR has a limited character set in E13B

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d) MICR is not fully automatic as the amount of the cheque (in the case of banking) or other data, must be added manually. Turn-around document. A turn around document is a document that is initially produced by a computer (printed by a computer’s printer). The document is then sent out to customers to record data on it through the inclusion of marks or characters on special places of the document. Such a document is then returned to the computer and is then input to the computer using an Optical Character Reader (OCR) or an Optical Mark Reader (OMR). The Grade VII examination answer sheets used in Zambia currently provide a good example of turn-around documents using OMR. Computer terminal For each branch, each employee signs on (logs on) to the computer every morning when reporting for work. The computer takes note of the time that the employee logs on. When he/she knocks off, he/she logs off. Once again the computer takes note of the logoff time and calculates the total number of hours each particular employee worked for the day. This process is done locally and every day at each branch for the whole week. The details are kept on file by the local computer in every branch. At the end of each week, the hours each employee worked for each day in the week are added up together by the local computer and sent to the central computer at headquarters. At the central computer, all employee details from all the branches are consolidated into one file which then used as the input file for the payroll system. This means that each branch should have a log on computer (terminal) and that the date and time on this computer can only be changed by the system administrator who has a super password. This will ensure that employees do not manipulate the time and date any how. Further, this solution requires that the main office headquarters be networked with each of the branches. Since human beings easily make errors, this system should be set up in such a way that the employee does not actually type in the time of logging in or logging off. Instead, the employee just types, for example the user name and the words log on when signing on and again user name and the words log off when signing off. The computer will automatically record the times when the employee logs on and off.

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CHAPTER 6.0 Output devices These hardware devices produce processed data or information in printed form or in softcopy. Printers are devices that produce printed images on paper. The image to be produced by the printer is received in form of signals from the controlling device, usually, the central processing unit. In the case of impact printers these signals activate print elements which are pressed against the paper through the printer ribbon, to produce the required image. Non-impact printers, on the other hand, do not require any impact on paper. The ink-jet printer for instance, simply injects some ink onto the paper to produce the required image. Using the bus system, the electronic components of the CPU exchange all their signals in parallel. Peripheral devices like the printer are connected to the computer through ports. Some ports are parallel, that means, all the 8 bits that make up a character, for example, are sent at once from the CPU to the parallel port. On the other hand, other ports are serial, that means, the 8 bits that make up a character, for example, are sent one after the other from the CPU to the serial port. A printer that is connected to a parallel port and hence receives its data from the CPU in parallel is a parallel printer. A printer that is connected to a serial port and hence receives its data from the CPU in a serial manner, is a serial printer. Parallel printers are faster than serial printers. Advantages of non-impact printers (a) (b) (c) (d)

Since they are not electromechanical, non-impact printers are generally much faster than impact printers and they also print quietly. Non-impact printers offer a wide variety of type faces. Non-impact printers offer high and good quality resolutions (print images). Since they have fewer moving parts, non-impact printers are more reliable.

Disadvantages of non-impact printers a) Non-impact printers may be expensive (although prices are slowly coming down due to technological advancements). b) Due to lack of impact on paper, non-impact printers can not produce carbon copies (multi-part output). c) Some non-impact printers may require special printing paper which might be expensive to acquire. 26

Advantages of impact printers a) Impact printers offer the advantage of producing carbon copies (multi-part output). b) Impact printers are cheaper. c) Impact printers may not require special printing paper but just ordinary paper. Disadvantages of impact printers a) Due to the fact that they are electromechanical, impact printers may be slow in operation. b) Impact printers may not offer the high resolution (good quality print) offered by nonimpact printers. c) Owing to the many moving parts (electromechanical), impact printers may not be as reliable as non-impact printers. Visual display terminals are well suited for applications that involve inquiry and response without the need for permanent hard-copy records being stored. The terminals are also well suited for use as graphic display devices in applications that use graphics, e.g., computer aided design (CAD). Types of Printers Dot matrix printer. A dot matrix printer has a head containing a series of pins or needles held up in form of a matrix. Some dot matrix printers have print heads with a matrix of 9x9, 9x7 or 7x5 pins. To have a character printed, the pins that are required to form the character are pushed forward out of the matrix slightly and then pressed against the print ribbon, which also presses against the paper. Thus an impact has to be made on the paper making this printer an impact printer. The characters appear as consisting of small dots. Each character will depend on a particular combination of pins. Some dot matrix printers are line printers while others are character printers. Matrix printers are relatively cheap although they are slowly becoming outdated. Figure 6 shows a 7x5 matrix print-head whose pins are ready to print the capital letter A.

OOOOO OOOOO

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OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO Dot matrix print head to print the letter A An ancillary machine is a machine that is off-line and is not in any way controlled by the computer, yet it plays quite a role in the overall work done by the data processing department. Such machines include the guillotine and the shredder, among others. Plotter. Although certain printers are now available that can produce good quality drawings, plotters are still very suitable for computer aided design (CAD) jobs since they are designed specifically to handle sophisticated graphical output. A plotter produces high quality drawn, rather than printed output. Plotters work on a co-ordinate principle, whereby drawing movements are executed by pen. All movements are under software control. There are two types of plotters, the drum plotter and the flatbed plotter. A drum plotter plots on paper that is fixed to a drum. While the drum revolves back and forth, a bar suspended above the drum and containing a drawing pen moves from side to side and so plotting the drawing. On the other hand, the paper on a flatbed plotter is stationary so that only the pen moves up and down the paper, thus plotting the drawing. While the flatbed plotter can plot larger drawings, the drum plotter can plot longer drawings because it uses continuous paper. The flatbed plotter, due to the wider sizes of paper it is capable of taking, would be more suitable for producing the computer aided design (CAD) drawing on an A3 paper in our question. Plotters may be operated on-line. If operated off-line, the drawings may be saved on to a tape. The tape will then be mounted on an off-line drive that will read instructions from the tape and then drive the plotter to draw the required work. Specialized devices can also be used that enable designs to be etched and so form master plates for creating manufactured goods.

Due to the ever advancing technology, the distinction between plotters and printers is becoming more and more blurred. There now exists low cost, high resolution laser

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printers which are capable of processing the quality output needed for computer aided design (CAD) applications. A laser printer does not make an impact on the print paper, hence it is a single-part output device. Therefore, a laser printer would be unsuitable for this sort of job. Also computer output on microform (COM) could be used for the archive of pay slips details to enhance transparency and save storage space.

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CHAPTER 7 Using the Internet & E-mail facilities The Internet is the name given to the technology that allows any autonomous computers within a building or outside the country with a telecommunications link to send, receive and access information from any other suitably equipped computer via Internet Service Providers. Internet Service Providers, these are organizations that allow several autonomous computers to be connected to them as part of the Internet, for example in Zambia there is Zamtel, Zamnet, Coppernet and Microlink. Clients have to initially pay for the connection fees and then monthly charges based on 40 hours per week access and an extra charge for hours above 40 hours. ISPs provide the following services: • • • •

Connecting users to the International network Developing websites on behalf of clients Web hosting, that is storing information on behalf of clients for other Internet users to access Allows clients to have e-mail addresses on the ISPs machine

An extranet is an intranet that is accessible to authorized outsiders, using a valid username and password. Private intranets that are extended to users outside the company are called extranets. For example, authorized buyers could link to a portion of a company’s intranet from the public Internet to obtain information about the cost and features of its products. The company can use firewalls to ensure that access to its internal data is limited, and remains secure; and to authenticate users, making sure that only those who are authorised to access the site can be identified. Extranets are especially useful for linking organizations with customers or business partners. They are often used for providing product-availability, pricing and shipment data and electronic data interchange (EDI), or for collaborating with other companies on joint development or training efforts. An Intranet is like a mini version of the Internet. Organisation members use networked computers to access information held on a server. The user interface is a browser that is similar to those used on the Internet. The intranet offers access to information on a wide variety of topics, and often includes access to the Internet i)

Users access the Internet through interface programs called browsers. The most popular and best known is Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and 30

Netscape Navigator. Browser software packages provide facility to store Internet addresses so that users can access frequently-visited sites without having to go through long search process. Thus in business use, workers who regularly need up-to-date information, say, on stock market movements, or new government legislation, or the activities of a competitor, can simply click on the appropriate entry in a personal ‘favorites directory and be taken straight to the relevant site. Searching the net is done using a search engine. Popular search engines include Google, Lycos, AskJeeves, WebCrawler, Yahoo! and AllTheWeb. These guide users to destinations throughout the web: the user simply types in a word or phrase. ii) The problems that are brought about by the introduction of the Internet in an accounting department are: • • •

• • • • •

Since the Internet has too much information it leaves much to be desired because the quality of the information the accounts people will be producing will be compromised Speed is a major issue. Data only downloads onto the user’s PC at the speed of the slowest telecommunications link – downloading data can be a painful slow procedure especially if there are deadlines to be met The Internet has so much information and entertainment available such that employers worry that their staff will spend too much time browsing through non-work related sites, this does happen and it affects the company’s productivity Connecting an information system to the Internet exposes the system to numerous security issues such as hackers, eaves droppers and spam mail. Pornographic materials can be accessed by accounting staff, by so doing cases of sexual harassments at work places may increase Job searches, since some organizations advertise on the Internet, employees will spend and waste a lot of valuable company time searching for better jobs on the net The organization accounting information is venerable to Internet viruses during downloads of attachments from emails. Spy ware, when accounting staff visit unauthorized sites, the site visited will store the computers address, and then send a program to the server so that it can copy important information which will be sent back to that site that was earlier visited. This program is called spy ware.

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iii)

Computer users may know the precise address of an Internet site that is to be visited, perhaps because you have seen or heard it on TV or radio or read it in a newspaper or magazine. Typically the format is something like ‘http://www.bbc.co.uk’ The address is called a URL or Uniform Resource Locator as Uniform Resource Location

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8 Application packages Microsoft Word

ord is currently the world’s leading word processing application. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, word processing is “the creation, input, editing, and production of documents and texts by means of computer systems.” In other words, if you have used a computer to write essays, research papers, lab reports, letters, or even your résumé, you have used word processing. Many people have learned the bare necessities for using Word without any outside training. However, there are many benefits to becoming more familiar with Word, whether for school, for business, or for fun. Word’s features make it easy to organize complex documents containing vast amounts of textual and visual information into an application type material. PowerPoint and Access, is easier to learn once one knows Word because their interfaces are highly similar to the Word interface. This manual aims to provide people of any experience level with clear, detailed instruction in the fundamental aspects of Word, as well as in many of its lesserknown but highly useful capabilities. It is by far the most widely used computer application. It allows the user to key in text and to manipulate the text until it is exactly as required before printing. The text can be stored for later re-use. Word Processing is of significant value to an organisation where the typing requirement consists of a high volume of work such as quotations, estimates, minutes or standard letters where much of the document remains unchanged or can be constructed from standard paragraphs. Some advantages of Word processing include: 1.

The ability to make corrections to a document without the need to re-key the entire document.

2.

The facility to store standard paragraphs on disk for later use.

3.

Documents need never have another spelling error! Spellcheckers are provided for several languages as well as built-in-thesaurus for improving writing style.

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4.

Professional letters can be easily and quickly generated for mailshots.

5.

Presentation of written material is greatly enhanced by the use of special fonts, character sizes and graphics as well as underlining, boldfacing and italics.

The word wrap facility In MS-Word, when a line is filled with text, the cursor automatically moves to the start of the next line. This means that there is no need to press Enter at the end of each line. There are three cases where Enter is used: 1.

To insert a blank line.

2.

When you reach the end of a paragraph.

3.

When you are typing short lines.

The Shift Key To enter a capital letter, hold Shift down with one finger while the letter to be entered is typed. Release Shift.

Starting MS-Word There are two ways of staring MS-Word Either Click the Start button, and select Programs / Microsoft Word. Click Microsoft Word Or and preferably, from the desktop menu Double Click on the WORD Icon, pointed to below:

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MS-Word screen is then started.

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The following screen will appear. In some cases, the Tip of The Day is displayed. Title Bar Menu Bar Standard Tool Formatting Tool Ruler

Document Window

Status Bar

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The MS Word work environment The Word Start Up screen is made up as follows: 1.

The Title Bar displays the Application name and the current document name

2.

The menu Bar displays the main Menu Options

3.

The Standard Toolbar provides shortcut icons from frequently used tasks

4.

The Formatting Toolbar provides shortcut icons for formatting text

5.

The Ruler Bar provides icons for indenting text and setting tabs

6.

The Document Window where you type your text

7.

The view Selector provides icons to view the document in different ways

8.

The Status Bar displays the current page number, cursor position, current time and keyboard status

Using the mouse The mouse is a hand-held device which is used for pointing to and selecting text in the document. It is important that you understand the difference between the mouse pointer and the insertion point Mouse Pointer: An icon that moves as you move the mouse. The shape of the mouse depends on its location. For example, it appears as an outline arrow when you are selecting commands from a menu, and hourglass ( ) when Word is processing a command, and an I-beam (I) when you are entering text. Insertion Point: An icon that shows where you are currently positioned on the page. The insertion point is always a blinking vertical bar and works in the same way as a cursor in a text based environment. Positioning the insertion point Using the mouse point to the required location Click the Left Mouse Button to position the insertion point

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Scrolling through a document Scrolling means moving through the document window to bring different parts (i.e. pages) of the document into view. It does not move the I-beam. At the far right side of the screen you will see the vertical scroll bar with two arrows inside it. At the bottom of the screen you will see the horizontal scroll bar.

To: 1.

Scroll one line up or down: Click the up or down scroll arrows on the vertical scroll bar.

2.

Scroll left or right: Click on the left or right scroll arrow on the horizontal scroll bar.

3.

Scroll a percentage of the document length: Drag the scroll box.

4.

Scroll a percentage of the document length: Drag the scroll box up or down the scroll bar.

Some scroll bars are horizontal, e.g.

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Moving the insertion point To move the insertion point: 1.

A word right:

Ctrl Right Arrow

2.

A word left:

Ctrl Left Arrow

3.

Beginning of Document:

Ctrl Home

4.

End of Document:

Ctrl End

5.

Paragraph Up/Down:

Ctrl Up Arrow/Down Arrow

6.

Beginning of a line:

Home

7.

End of a line:

End

8.

Previous Page:

Ctrl Page Up

9.

Next Page:

Ctrl Page Down

10.

Go to a particular page:

Ctrl G or F5 (Go to key) type page No and click Go To

Using the Menu The Word Menu Option can be activated in two ways: a)

Using the Mouse Point to the Menu option, Click the Left mouse button to display the menu choices Point and click on the required command

b)

Using the keyboard Hold down ALT and press the underlined letter of the required menu option Press the underlined letter of the required command

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If the command is followed by an ellipses (three dots) this indicates that a further list of options will be displayed. An arrow indicates further options available. Typical menus are: 1. File menu:

2.

Edit Menu

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3.

View Menu:

41

4.

Insert Menu

5.

Format Menu:

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6.

Tools Menu:

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7.

Table Menu:

Two other menu commands are available, the Window Menu and Help Menu commands. These will be accessed in the same way, click the menu and a pull down menu appears. For example a Print Dialog box will Using a Dialog Box A Dialog box is a window that displays all the available options for a selected command. A dialog box usually has an OK and Cancel button

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For example a print dialog Box will look as follows:

The box may or may not have other tabs which can be activated by clicking them. Activating a Shortcut Menu The Shortcut menu is an abbreviated version of the main Menu where the most frequently used commands are combined on one menu option. Shortcut menus are context sensitive and contain commands related to the item you are currently working with To activate the Shortcut Menu click the Right mouse button or press [Shift + F10] A typical Shortcut menu as the one below appears:

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Working with the Toolbar MS-Word provides a Standard toolbar with icons to represent frequently used tasks. To invoke a task, point the required icon and click the Left mouse button To display more information about the toolbar icon point to the icon. The name of the icon appears on the screen, and additional information about the function of the icon appears in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen. To display additional Toolbars 1.

Point to the Toolbar area of the screen

2.

Click the Right mouse button once

3.

Point and Click the Toolbar you want to activate

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CREATING / SAVING / OPENING / CLOSING / DOCUMENTS Creating a document Each time you load MS-Word you will be presented with a new document. The window title bar will be documented as Document 1. At this point you are ready to start typing your document. Saving a document As Document 1 is not a legitimate name for the document, the first time you save the document you need to give it a name with SAVE AS command. 1.

Choose Save As from the File Menu

2.

Enter the filename in the File Name box. Unless you select or type another directory, the document will be saved in the current directory.

3.

Click on OK

The document stays on the screen after you save it so you can continue working on it. Notice the title bar now displays the new document name. Note: A typical and good filename can consist of up to 8 characters. MS-Word however can take long file names. It will assign a further three character extension of DOC to all data files and DOT to all template files. The filename and extension are separated by a full stop and should only contain characters A-Z or 0-9. Even spaces are now allowed unlike in earlier versions. MSWord does not distinguish between UPPER and lower case characters in a filename. e.g. filename.doc MS-WORD Intro Saving an existing document If the document has already been saved, but you want to update the disk with any changes which may have been made, you use the Save command. 1.

Choose the Save command from the File Menu.

By using the above command, the dialog box will not be displayed. Each time a document is saved, the on-screen information replaces the previously saved document on disk. Alternatively you can use the Save Icon on the toolbar.

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Closing a document This option is used when you are finished working on your document, have saved it and want to remove it from your screen and create a new file. 1.

Choose Close from the File Menu

If you try to close a document without first saving all the changes, the system will prompt you that you have not saved the changes and give you the option now to save them. 2.

Click Yes to save changes, No to discard changes, or Cancel to cancel the command.

Opening an existing document 1.

Choose the Open command from the File Menu, or click the File Open Icon on the Standard Toolbar

2.

Ensure that correct drive and directory is currently selected. (If not, point to the required drive name (e.g. A: drive in the Open dialog, then the directory name and double-click).

3.

Locate the required file, you may have to use the vertical scroll bar on the right of the list box 48

4.

Click on the require file, and click OK

Note: When you open a file, MS-Word will always create an new window for the selected file, this means that several file windows can be open simultaneously. Creating a new file 1.

Choose New from the File Menu

2.

Click on the required template and click OK Or Choose the File New Icon from the Standard Toolbar

3.

Word for Windows will open a new window for the document and assign the new sequential document number to the window. If there are other documents open, they will not be lost. MS-Word can hold up to 9 Document Windows.

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TEXT ENHANCEMENT Selecting text Selecting text is a process of highlighting text that needs to be worked with. In Word for windows you must always select text before applying any changes to it. Text can be selected with a mouse or with the Shift and arrow keys To select by dragging the mouse: 1.

Position the insertion point at the beginning of the text to be selected

2.

Click and hold the left mouse button, drag the mouse over the required text

3.

Release the left mouse button

To cancel a selection, click the left mouse button Quick ways of selecting text Selection Method Double Click Ctrl Click With the pointer in the selection bar Double-Click With the pointer in the selection bar Ctrl Click

Effect Selects the current word Selects the current sentence Selects the current paragraph. (The selection bar is the white space to the left of the left margin Selects the whole document

Selecting text with the keyboard Selection Method Shift Right Arrow Ctrl Shift Right Arrow Ctrl Shift Down Arrow Ctrl 5 (numeric keypad)

Effect Selects the next character Selects the current word Selects the current paragraph Selects entire document

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Applying text enhancements Text attributes are enhancements such as Bold, Underline, Italics, SMALL CAPS etc. Using the formatting toolbar to apply enhancements The Formatting Toolbar is displayed on screen each time you load MS-Word. This Toolbar is designed to make formatting features more accessible when using a mouse. 1.

Point and click on the Icon on the Formatting bar i.e. B for bold I for italics U for underline

2.

Type the text

3.

Point and click on the Icon on the Formatting bar to turn it off

Applying the enhancement to existing text 1.

Select the text you wish to apply the enhancement to

2.

Point and click on the enhancement on the Formatting bar

Note: Many enhancements can be applied to the text once it is selected, just point and click on the required enhancement. Applying the enhancement using the menu Enhancements can be applied using the Menu Bar also. Select the text in the usual manner and when selected move the Pointer to the Menu bar and click on FORMAT. Next, click on FONT. Make sure that the FONT Sheet Tab is chosen. Click on the various enhancements you require and then click on OK. Using this method you will be able to apply a large amount of enhancements including Bold, Underline, Italics, Small Capitals, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript, Fonts, Point Sizes and Color. Removing enhancements If you wish to de-select any of these functions simply go through the same procedure one again.

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TEXT ALIGNMENT Text alignment refers to the positioning of the text between the left and right margins. Again, alignment selections can be made from the Formatting toolbar or the Format menu. Aligning text from the formatting toolbar The following icons are displayed on the Formatting Toolbar This text is Centre Aligned This text is Left Aligned This text is Right Aligned 1.

Point and click on the icon representing he required alignment

2.

Type the text and press

3.

Point and click the icon to turn off the alignment and return to the left margin

Changing the alignment of existing text 1.

Select the text you wish to change

2.

Point and click the icon representing the required alignment

Applying the alignment using the menu Text alignment can be applied using the Menu Bar also. Select the text in the usual manner and when selected move the Pointer to the Menu bar and click on FORMAT. Next click on PARAGRAPH. Make sure that the INDENTS AND SPACING Sheet Tab is chosen. Click on the ALIGNMENT and choose the required alignment and then click on OK. Font Attributes Fonts A font is made up of three elements i.e. Typeface Weight Size

(Times, Roman, Helvetica, Courier) (Bold, Italic) (10 point, 12 point, 8 point)

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The fonts you have available for working with will be controlled by the version of Windows and the type of printer you have currently selected. Font Examples: This is an example of Times New Roman This is an example of CG Times This is an example of Courier This is an example of Arial This is an example of Lucida Handwriting Font sizes: This is size 12

This is size 14

This is size 16

This is size 18

This size 20

This is size 24 Selecting a font using the toolbar 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Point to the Font box in the Formatting Toolbar Click on the Down Arrow (to the right of the Box) Scroll through the available fonts using the vertical scroll bar, click on the required font Point and click on the Down arrow in the Font Size Box on the Formatting Toolbar Click on the required Font Size for the current font

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Note: Font selections can also be made from the Font option in the Format Menu

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PRINTING Printing a document on screen 1.

Choose PRINT from the File Menu

2.

The Print dialog box will be displayed

3.

At the top of the dialog box the current printer is displayed, if you wish to change this click on Printer

4.

In the Page Range section you can specify which part of the document you wish to print.

5.

In the Copies section you can specify the number of copies for printing

6.

Once all the selections have been made, Click OK to print

The printer icon on the toolbar can also be selected for printing text Printing from the toolbar Point to the Printer Icon and click, the default print selections will be used for the printed text Print Preview It is always a good idea to view a document before you print it. Choose Print Preview for the File Menu or Click the Print Preview Icon on the Standard Toolbar The Print Preview screen will appear showing you the page on which your cursor is located. The mouse pointer will now take the shape of a magnifying glass with a little + sign in it. Click once with the left mouse button and a magnified view of the page will appear on your screen. If you click once again you will zoom out to a full page view again. You will only see one page in Print Preview. With the Multiple Pages button you can see up to six pages at one time. When you click on the Multiple Pages button a menu will appear. Click on the second page and this will display two pages of the document. When you click on the Print button you will send the document to the Printer. The Printing message box will appear. You can stop the printing by clicking on the Cancel

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Button. You must wait until the Printing message box disappears before you can continue printing. Click on Close Print Preview. You will return to the Normal View screen.

Multiple pages can also be view by clicking the multiple pages icon of the Print Preview toolbars. The appearance of the multiple pages can be selected from the given option. Up to six pages can be viewed at once and the result may appear as follows:

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DELETING AND INSERTING TEXT Inserting text 1.

Move the insertion point to where the text is to be inserted.

2.

Type the text to be inserted. Word for Windows is automatically in insert mode, which means that wherever you place your I-Beam and type the new text will be inserted within the existing text without typing over anything.

Deleting Text Text can be deleted using the following selections Type of deletion Character before the insertion point Character after the insertion point Word before the insertion point Word after the insertion point

Keystroke Backspace Delete Ctrl Backspace Ctrl Delete

Note: Larger amounts of text can be deleted using the selection process 1. Select (highlight) the text to be deleted 2. Press Delete Overwriting existing text 1.

Position the insertion point at the beginning of the text to be overwritten

2.

Press INSERT (the OVR flag will be displayed in the Status Bar)

3.

Type the new text

4.

Press INSERT to turn off overwrite mode

You can also overtype text by first highlighting the text you wish to overwrite and just type the new text. Word for Windows will automatically delete the old text and insert the new text.

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To restore deleted text 1.

Choose Undo from the Edit Menu or press the Undo Icon on the Toolbar.

Note: The Undo command from the Standard Toolbar stores the last One Hundred commands and any of those commands can be undone by choosing the command from the list box. However because several changes in sequence often depend on preceding changes, you cannot select an individual action without undoing all the actions that appear above it in the list.

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TABS AND INDENTS MS-Word has pre-set tabs at every .5" between the left and right margin. The default tabs can be changed or individual tabs may be set. Tab alignments The following is a sample of the different tab alignment options available in Word for Windows: Left Tab Decimal Text Aligns Left 12,234.95 Left 25.24

Center Tab

Right Tab

Text Centred at tab stop Centre

175 123,789

Note: When you set an individual tab in MS-Word, all the default tabs up to that point are cleared. Setting tabs using the ruler You can use your mouse to set tabs directly on the Ruler. 1.

Point and Click on the required tab type on the extreme left of the ruler (L). (If you click on this symbol it will change to different symbols representing the different kinds of Tabs)

2.

Point and Click on the required position in the Ruler area where you wish to set the tab

3.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each tab you want to set

Setting tabs using the menu 1.

Choose Tabs for the Format Menu

2.

In the Tabs Stop Position Box enter the Tab position as a numeric value

3.

Choose the Alignment option you require

4.

Click on the SET button which will now enter this position on the Ruler Line.

5.

After entering all the Tabs you click on the OK BUTTON.

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Clearing tabs with the mouse 1.

Point to the Tab icon that you wish to clear

2.

Click and drag the icon into the document area of the window

3.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each tab to be cleared

Clearing tabs with the menu 1.

Choose Tabs from the Format Menu

2.

To clear all of the current tabs point and click on the Clear All button

3.

To clear individual tabs point and click on the tab you wish to clear

4.

Click on Clear

5.

Click OK when done

Repositioning tabs after the text has been typed 1.

Select the text which is currently being controlled by the tab settings.

2.

Point to the Ruler area of the screen

3.

Click and drag the tab stops around until you are happy with the layout of the text.

Note: It is very important to select all of the text being effect by the existing tabs otherwise you may just change the text position of just a line in the group of lines of text. Indenting text There are two type of indentation which can be applied to text (1)

Full Left Indent:left margin.

Where all of the text in the paragraph is indented from the

This is an example of a full left indent because all of the text in this paragraph is indented by .5"

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(2)

Hanging Indent:Where the first line of text in the paragraph remains at the left margin and the rest of the text in the paragraph is indented.

a)

This is an example of a hanging indent where the first line of text starts at the left margin (the letter a) and the rest of the text is indented by .5" Hanging indents are usually associated with paragraph numbering

Creating a left indent using the menu 1.

Choose Paragraph from the Format Menu Make sure the Indents and Spacing Tab Sheet is displayed.

2.

Type in the numeric value in the Left Indentation box.

3.

Click on OK.

Creating a left indent using the ruler 1.

Click the paragraph indent marker to the required position on the ruler line. The paragraph indent marker is the little square under the triangles on the ruler line. Both the bottom and the top triangles should move when you drag the square. If only one triangle moves, it means the mouse pointer dragged a triangle instead of the square.

Creating a left indent using the quick function keys 1.

Position the insertion point where you want to create the indented paragraph

2.

Press CTRL + M

3.

Type the text for the paragraph

4.

Press CTRL + SHIFT + M to turn off the left indent

Creating a hanging indent using the menu 1.

Choose Paragraph from the Format Menu. Make sure the Indents and Spacing Tab Sheet is displayed.

2.

Click on the down arrow underneath the heading Special and click on Hanging.

3.

Type in the numeric value in the By box

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4.

Click on IL.

Creating a hanging indent using the ruler 1.

Click the bottom triangle and drag it to the required position on the ruler line.

Creating a hanging indent using the quick function keys 1.

Position the insertion point where you want to create the hanging indent

2.

Press CTRL + T (Notice that the bottom triangle on the ruler line moves in).

3.

Type the first piece of text at the left margin (usually a paragraph number)

4.

Press TAB

5.

Type the remainder of the text for the paragraph. When you press Enter you will be taken back to the left margin to type in your next point.

6.

Repeat the above steps for the remainder of the points and paragraphs.

7.

Press CTRL + SHIFT + T to turn off a hanging indent.

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COPY AND CUT TEXT Copy text Note: The Clipboard is a temporary storage area for text which is being copied or moved. When you use Copy or Cut, the selected text will replace anything currently in the Clipboard, and will remain there until something else is copied or cut The copy text command enables you to repeat selected text within the document or paste it in another document. 1.

Select the text you wish to copy

2.

Click on the Copy Icon to copy the selected text to the Clipboard

3.

Position the insertion point where you wish to copy the text to

4.

Click on the Paste Icon to paste the text at the new location

Cut The cut command enables you to move text from one location to another within a document or to another document. However, it is not advisable to move text from one document to another, text should always be copied between documents. 1.

Select the text to be cut

2.

Click on the Cut Icon to cut the selected text to the clipboard

3.

Position the insertion point where the text is to be pasted

4.

Click on the Paste icon to paste the text at the new location

Cut and Paste are available in the Edit Menu. Using drag & drop Drag & Drop enables you to move and copy text using mouse actions. Using Drag & Drop to Move 1.

Select the text you wish to move

2.

With the mouse, point into the selected text

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3.

Click and drag the mouse to the new location for the text (you should see an rectangular symbol attached to the mouse pointer)

4.

Release the mouse at the required location, the selected text should now be moved to the mouse pointer location.

Note: To copy text using Drag & Drop, at step 3 above hold down the Ctrl key. before Clicking and Dragging the mouse Coping text between documents 1.

Open the document you want to copy the text from

2.

Open the document you want to copy the text to

3.

Choose the Window menu option

4.

Click on the document you are copying from in the list of open documents

5.

Select the text to be copied and Click on the Copy Icon

6.

Choose the Window menu option

7.

Click n the document you are copying to in the list of open documents

8.

Position the insertion point where you want the copied text

9.

Click on the Paste Icon to paste the copied text

10.

Close down any unused documents

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FIND AND REPLACE MS-Word allows you to search within a document for any combination of characters. It also allows you to replace this word with another word. It allows you to decide whether the replace should be carried out automatically or by pausing for confirmation at each potential replacement to allow the user to confirm whether it should be replaced or not. Find 1.

Position the insertion point at the top of the document

2.

Choose FIND from the Edit Menu

3.

Type the text you wish to find in the Find What Text box

4.

Click Find Next

5.

To repeat the Find click Find Next

Replace 1.

Position the insertion point at the top of the document.

2.

Choose REPLACE FOR THE Edit Menu

3.

Type the text to be replaced in the Find What box

4.

Type the replacement text in the Replace With box

5.

Choose Find Next

6.

Choose Replace - By choosing this option Word for Windows asks for confirmation before replacing each occurrence of the text. Choose Replace All - By choosing this option Word for Windows automatically replaces all occurrences of the text.

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SPELLER AND AUTOCORRECT Speller The Word for Windows Speller checks through the document for miss-spelt words. Word for Windows will consider any word which it does not have in its dictionary to be a miss-spelt word. It will also check for double words. Words can be added to the Word for Windows dictionary 1.

Choose Spelling from the Tools Menu or choose the Speller Icon from the toolbar.

2.

Word for Windows will start spell checking the document, if it finds a miss-spelt word the Spelling dialog box will appear

3.

If Word for Windows suggests the correct spelling for the word, click on the correct word and click on Change All

4.

To add a new word to the dictionary click on Add

5.

To ignore every occurrence of a word click on Ignore All

6.

To cancel the spell check click on Cancel

Using autocorrect AutoCorrect is another way of capturing frequently used text or it can be used to preempt typing mistakes that occur regularly. If you are in a habit of typing teh instead of the you can store teh to be replaced with the in AutoCorrect, this means that every time you type the followed by a space Word will automatically replace it with the. You should used AutoText if you do not want text to be replaced automatically. Creating an autocorrect entry 1.

Choose AutoCorrect from the Tools Menu

2.

Type the incorrect entry in the Replace Box

3.

In the With box, type the entry itself

4.

Choose Add

5.

Choose Close

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Activating autocorrect The AutoCorrect option is activated each time you type and AutoCorrect Entry Name followed by a space or a punctuation mark.

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PAGE FEATURES Inserting a hard page break A page break can be inserted manually if you wish to end one page and begin another. The page break is represented by a dotted line across the document window with the description Page Break centred 1.

Press to break a page

Converting upper/lower case 1.

Select the text you wish to convert

2.

Press to convert the selected text

Note: Shift F3 is a toggle key and will rotate between Upper / Lower and Combination case each time you use it. Line spacing The default line spacing is single, to change the line spacing make one of the following selections: Selection Ctrl + 1 Ctrl + 2 Ctrl + 5

Effect Single line spacing Double line spacing Line and a half spacing

1.

Position the insertion point where you want to change the line spacing

2.

Press for double spacing or for 1.5 spacing

Changing existing text If the text has already been typed, first select the text and repeat step 2 above Note: You can have different line spacing in different parts of the document, if the text has already been typed, just select the section and apply the new line spacing, or select the line spacing before you start typing, and change it when ever you require to do so.

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Changing the margins 1.

Choose Page Setup from the File Menu

2.

The Page Setup dialog box will be displayed

3.

To change the Left or Right Margins, point and click or relevant margin box and type the new margin setting in inches

4.

To change Top or Bottom Margins, point and click on the relevant margin box and type the new margin setting in inches

5.

If you want the new margin setting to be the default setting for every document you create, point and click on Default

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HEADERS AND FOOTERS Headers and footers A Header is text that is repeated at the top of every page in a document. A Footer is text that is repeated at the bottom of every page in a document. Adding a header to a document 1.

Choose Header/Footer from the View Menu

2.

Choose Header and Click OK

3.

The Insertion point is then positioned in the Header Window

4.

Type the MS OFFICE > MICROSOFT EXCEL. You should see a screen that looks similar to this:

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The Excel Environment At the top of the window is a blue bar called the title bar. The title bar contains the name of the application, Microsoft Excel, and the name of the workbook you are working in, which Excel automatically calls Book1 until you name it otherwise. A workbook is the file in which you work and store your data. The title bar also contains the minimize button, the maximize/restore button, and the close button. The largest portion of the screen is taken up by a view of the worksheet area. Worksheets are used to list and analyze data. At the bottom left of the screen are worksheet tabs that indicate the active worksheet. By default, new workbooks contain At the bottom and right of the screen are scrollbars, which can be used to view parts of the worksheet that are off screen. Along the left and top of the worksheet area are row headings and column headings. Rows are denoted by numbers and columns are denoted by letters.

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The thick black rectangle indicates the selected cell. A cell is the intersection of a row and a column. The selected cell’s reference, A1, appears in the name box. The cell reference is composed of the column letter followed by the row number. To the right of the name box is the formula bar, which is where text and formulas are entered and edited for each cell. Below the title bar is the menu bar, containing lists of commands you use to give Excel instructions. The standard toolbar resides below the menu bar, and contains buttons with images that correspond to some frequently-used menu commands. The formatting toolbar is usually located below or next to the standard toolbar. It contains buttons that correspond to several commands for formatting cells. Managing Workbooks The most effective menu for managing your workbooks is the FILE menu, under which you will find the following useful commands: NEW – asks what type of new workbook you want to create OPEN – brings up a dialog box so you can select an already-existing workbook to work with CLOSE – closes the workbook you are currently working in SAVE – saves current workbook under the name it has already been given SAVE AS – brings up a dialog box so you can enter a name and location for the workbook PAGE SETUP – allows you to adjust page settings, margins, the header and footer, titles, and other print options PRINT AREA – sets the selected cells as the only area to be printed PRINT PREVIEW – displays the workbook as it will appear on paper PRINT – brings up a dialog box asking which printer to send workbook to EXIT – closes all workbooks and exits Excel Although there are additional options under the FILE menu, the ones discussed in this manual are those which you will probably find yourself using the most.

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Toolbars may be moved by clicking on their “handles” (located in their uppermost left corner) and dragging them to other locations. If a toolbar is in its own window, it can be relocated by clicking and dragging its title bar. If the workbook has not been saved before, Excel automatically brings up the Save As dialog box. Entering Data Cells can contain text, numerical values, formulas, or functions. To enter data into a cell, select the cell by clicking on it, and begin typing. The text will appear in the formula bar. When the entry is complete, press Enter. If the text does not fit in the cell, it will overlap if the adjacent cells are empty. If the adjacent cells are not empty, part of the entry remains covered, and the complete entry must be viewed from the formula bar. This can be resolved by resizing the column width (see Cell Manipulation below). Text is automatically left aligned, whereas numerical values are right aligned.

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The EDIT menu contains commands that you may find helpful when changing information in cells. UNDO – reverses your last command or deletes typing REPEAT – repeats your last command, if possible CUT – removes selected text and temporarily saves it on the clipboard COPY – places a copy of selected text on the clipboard PASTE – inserts contents of clipboard at insertion point PASTE SPECIAL – pastes the contents of clipboard in format you specify FILL – see AutoFill, below CLEAR – removes the specified data without placing it on the clipboard DELETE – removes selected data DELETE SHEET – removes entire spreadsheet from the workbook MOVE OR COPY SHEET – moves/copies an entire spreadsheet within a workbook FIND – searches for text/formatting you specify REPLACE – finds and replaces specified text/formatting

AutoFill: Excel can use initial values in a few cells to create a logical list of entries, like numbers following a pattern, words (such as the days of the week), or alpha-numeric entries. For example, if you wanted to create a list of even numbers, enter “2” in one cell, “4” in the next cell, then select both cells. Click on the lower right-hand corner of the selection rectangle. The pointer will become a black cross. Drag for as long as you want your list. Excel will fill in the data it assumes you want. Another feature that may be helpful when working with data is Sort. Cells can have their values specifically sorted by selecting the group of cells to sort then choosing DATA >

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SORT. This feature can be used to put lists into alphabetical, chronological, or numerical order. Modifying Workbooks Excel allows you to alter the sizes and locations of rows, columns, and cells in a spreadsheet. You can also add, remove, and reorganize worksheets in your workbook to create an accommodating workbook. Cell Manipulation •

• •

•

Adding/Removing: A cell may be added or removed by using: o The mouse by right-clicking on the desired cell then choosing: . Insert: An additional cell, row or column will be added before the corresponding selection. If a cell is inserted an additional options will appear asking in which direction to shift the existing cells. . Delete: The selected cell, column or row will be removed along with all values and formulas existing in it. o The INSERT menu option and choosing Cells/Rows/Columns: An additional cell, row or column will be added before the corresponding selection. If a cell is inserted an additional options will appear asking in which direction to shift the existing cells. Merging: Two or more adjacent cells may be merged by selecting the desired cells then clicking the Merge and Center button on the formatting toolbar. Resizing: A cell may be resized by adjusting the width of the column or the height of the row using: o The mouse to left-click on the appropriate divider in the row or column label and then dragging it to the desired size. o The FORMAT menu option and choosing: .S ize: A manual setting for the desired height or width. . AutoFit: An automatic adjustment to fit the largest item in the selected row or column.

Freeze Pane/Split Screen: Creates a portion of the worksheet that remains on the screen while the rest of the worksheet scrolls. This is useful when you have a long list and want to simultaneously view the headings and the values that are

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toward the end of the list. To use Freeze Pane/Split Screen select the desired row, column or cell(s) and then choose WINDOW > FREEZE PANE or WINDOW > SPLIT. The difference between Freeze Pane and Split Screen is that Freeze Pane keeps all the data in one window whereas Split Screen creates smaller separate windows for each split data. Worksheet Manipulation Renaming: A worksheet may be renamed by: o Right-clicking on the desired worksheet tab and selecting Rename, or o Double-clicking on the worksheet name and typing in a new one. Adding: Additional worksheets may be added by: o Choosing INSERT > WORKSHEET, or o Right-clicking on the worksheet tabs and selecting Insert. Removing: A worksheet may be removed by: o Choosing EDIT > DELETE SHEET, or o Right-clicking on the worksheet tabs and selecting Delete. Reorganizing: The order in which the worksheets are arranged can be changed by: o Left-clicking on the desired worksheet tab and dragging it to the new location in the worksheet order, or o Right-clicking on the worksheet tab and selecting Move or Copy…, then choose a location Copying: A worksheet may be copied by: o Choosing EDIT > MOVE OR COPY SHEET and checking “Create a copy” in the dialog box o Right-clicking the worksheet tab, selecting Move or Copy…, and checking “Create a copy”

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Formatting Cells The appearance of cells can be formatted to create an attractive workbook. Cells may be formatted using various pre-defined options that Excel provides. To format cells, first select the desired cells, then either: • right-click on the selection and choose Format Cells… or • choose FORMAT > CELLS from the menu bar. 0 The Format Cells dialog box contains options Excel provides for cell formatting are: • Number: displays numerical values in a specific format using symbols, decimal places or other commonly used formats. • Alignment: controls the vertical and horizontal positioning of the text, as well as the way text appears in cells • Font: controls the font sizes, colors and styles cell(s). • Borders: controls if borders will exist around the selected cell(s) and how the borders will be displayed. • Patterns: controls the background colors or for giving a background pattern to the selected cell(s).

The formatting toolbar provides an easy way to apply some of the same formatting:

Font Size BoldItalicsUnderline Left AlignCenter Align Right Align Merge and Center Currency Style Percent StyleComma Style Increase DecimalDecrease DecimalDecrease IndentIncrease IndentBorders Fill Color Font Color

Formulas

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A formula can be used to calculate a value for a specific cell based on the values of any other number of cells. All formulas begin with the equal sign (=). Formulas appear in the formula bar, but their results are displayed in the cell. Formulas often refer to other cells. For example, if the formula =A1+A2+A3 were entered into cell A4, then the value “16” would be displayed in A4.

Cell References A reference identifies a cell or a range of cells on a worksheet, for use in a formula. Excel refers to columns with letters and to rows with numbers. To refer to a cell, enter the column letter followed by the row number. For example, D5 refers to the cell at the intersection of column D and row 5. To refer to a range of cells, enter the reference for the cell in the upper-left corner of the range, a colon (:), and then the reference to the cell in the lower-right corner of the range. In the diagram, the selected range can be referred to as B3:D5. When copying and pasting cell references, it is helpful to recognize the difference between relative and absolute references. If you were to paste the formula =A1+A2+A3 into cell B4, the formula would be pasted as =B1+B2+B3 because the cell references are relative, meaning Excel changes the cell references depending on their location. Because the formula was pasted in column B, Excel changed the A’s in the formula to B’s.

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The dollar sign ($) is used to indicate absolute references. The formula =$A$1+$A$2+ $A$3 would return the same value as =A1+A2+A3. The difference is that it could be pasted anywhere in the worksheet and it would still be pasted as =$A$1+$A$2+$A$3, because the dollar signs indicate that the row and column references are absolute – they will not be changed by Excel. To enter cell references in a formula, you can type them in manually or click on the cells you want in the formula. That is, type an equals sign, then click on a cell and Excel will enter the cell reference into the formula. You can even refer to cells in other worksheets and other workbooks this way.

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When creating formulas keep in mind: • Excel performs the operations from left to right according to the order of operator precedence. • Use parentheses to control the order of operations by grouping operations you want performed first. • You may use arithmetic and logic operators from the “Calculation operators in formulas” handout. Functions Functions are predefined formulas. The SUM function could be used to return the same value as the formula =A1+A2+A3 by entering =SUM(A1,A2,A3). An abbreviated way would be to use a range. So, =SUM(A1:A3) would also return “16” in the cell that the function was entered into. Excel already has a wide variety of functions. See if one of those will accomplish your task before creating your own formula. Choose INSERT > FUNCTION or click the function button on the standard toolbar, and select the function you want to use. Excel will then ask you to fill in information that you want used in its calculations. You can either enter cell references or click on the cells you want to use, or type in additional information manually.

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Here is a list of some common functions that you may find useful: AVERAGE displays the arithmetic mean of the cells referred to in parentheses. COUNT displays the number of numerical values in the cells referred to in parentheses. COUNTA displays the number of non-empty cells among those referred to in parentheses. MAX displays the highest value among the cells referred to in parentheses. MIN displays the lowest value among the cells referred to in parentheses. RAND displays a random value that is at least zero but less than 1. ROUND displays the value in cell D7 rounded to the number of decimal places after the comma in the parentheses (4). SUM displays the sum of the values in the cells referred to in parentheses. TODAY displays the current date. Remember that functions, like formulas, must begin with an equals sign (=) and must be followed by parentheses, even if no reference is required between the parentheses (as in the RAND and TODAY functions). If you enter a function without a preceding equals sign, Excel treats it as text and will not perform any calculations. There are hundreds of other functions in Excel which may help you accomplish your purpose, but if all else fails, you can just create your own formula from scratch. Microsoft Excel 2000 Manual

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Chart Wizard A graphical depiction of a worksheet can be created using the Chart Wizard. To use the chart wizard choose INSERT > CHART or left-click on the Chart Wizard button on the toolbar.

Menu Item Step 1 of 4

Option Chart Type Chart Sub-Type Custom Types View Sample Next >

Step 2 of 4 < Back Data Range Series in: Rows Columns Add Remove Name Category (X) axis labels: Next > Step 3 of 4 < Back Titles, Axes, Gridlines, Legend, Data Labels, Data Table Next > Step 4 of 4 < Back Place chart:

Description “Chart Type” Select which type of chart to use Select variations of the Chart Type Select from more Chart types Used to preview Chart Type using values from the selected cells Move on to the next step “Chart Source Data” Go back to the previous step Specify or modify the source of the data in the chart Use selected cells for series in rows Use selected cells for series in columns Add another row or column of values to the chart Remove the selected series from the chart Enter the name to use for the series Enter a label to use for each value in the X-axis Go to the next step “Chart Options” Go back to the previous step Add titles, labels, choose whether gridlines, legends, labels, data table should appear Go to the next step “Chart Location” Go back to the previous step

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As a new sheet: As object in: Finish

Place the chart into an its own separate sheet Place the chart into the selected sheet Inserts chart

Pictures • Inserting: An image may be imported into a spreadsheet for display. Choose INSERT > PICTURE > CLIP ART – to select a picture from clip art gallery > FROM FILE – to select a picture saved on your computer > AUTOSHAPES – to bring up the AutoShapes toolbar and insert shapes which can contain text > ORGANIZATION CHART – to chart an organizational hierarchy > WORDART – to create text effects using the WordArt toolbar on words you enter. • • •

Resizing: Once an image is inserted into a spreadsheet it may be resized by: o Left-clicking on the border of the image and dragging it to change the size. o Right-clicking on the image and selecting Format Picture. Floating: When an image is inserted into a spreadsheet it “floats” above the data instead of occupying a cell. To move the image simply click on it then drag it around. Format Picture: Format Picture provides a few simple options for editing the appearance of an inserted image. o Colors and Lines allow you to change the picture’s fill color and the appearance of borders o Size alters the size and angle of the picture o Picture crops picture and alters brightness/contrast o Protection locks picture from being altered if the spreadsheet is protected (see Tools) o Properties controls how the position is changed o Web displays alternative text while picture loads

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91

Headers and Footers To add headers and footers (information that repeats at the top and bottom of every page), choose either VIEW > HEADERS AND FOOTERS or FILE > PAGE SETUP and choose the Header/Footer tab. You can select a preset one or customize your own. When customizing your own headers and footers, text can be positioned on the left, center, and right of the page. Some of the fields you can insert include page number, date, time, Tools There are a few options under the TOOLS menu which you may find useful under certain circumstances. They include: • Protection: Restricts others from changing values and formulas of selected cell(s) or spreadsheet. •

Goal Seek: Determines what value a cell must be changed to in order to produce a desired result in another cell. For example, if you spend $50 per week, your Excel chart indicates that you will spend $300 before you go home for the semester. If you only have $250 available for spending, you can use Goal Seek to figure out how much you should spend per week before going into debt. It turns out you need to spend $42 per week rather than $50.

•

Scenarios: Allows you to change the values of several cells and save the results as a scenario within the same workbook. Excel will ask you to enter the new values for the changing cells. You can view other scenarios by selecting one and clicking Show.

Microsoft Access

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The Open dialogue box appears In the Open dialogue box, under File Name, type the location of your PFM Microsoft Access tables. In order to find the location of your Access tables, go to the PFM Main Menu, click on the User Settings button and then the Paths tab. Write down your Database location. The Access tables are located on the root of the PFM data directory, something like this: \\ntserver\apps\pfmdata\access\pfm97.mdb. Call PFM (610-668-1655) if you

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have trouble finding your Access tables. The Microsoft Access database contains Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, Macros, and Modules. You will be using Tables, Queries, and Reports.

IMPORTANT: All the data in the PFM Tables is LIVE data. It comes from and is directly linked to PFM. DO NOT MAKE These are the standard data tables contained in PFM. Double-click the table name to open it. •

AirplaneInfo=Aircraft database

Tables tab • Airport2=Airport database • AirportInfo=Primary airport database info • Authorizers=Record keeping auth per leg • ChargeAcctInfo=Pax database • CrewData=Record keeping: crew per leg • CrewRatings=Ratings from crew database • Crewsched=Crew from scheduling • Dispatch=Scheduling module • FBO=Airport database • Flightlog=Record keeping, front page, mostly • Flitelog2=More record keeping • Hotel=Airport database/hotels • paxData=Pax data from record keeping (per leg) • PaxInfo=Pax database • PaxSched=Pax from scheduling

ANY CHANGE TO THE DATA IN THE TABLES.

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Pilot=Crew database XtraPax=More pax database XtraPax2=Even more pax database Tables. The table is the basic data container in Microsoft Access. All data contained in the PFM Access Interface is contained in tables. Each table contains information from a specific section of PFM, such as FlightLog. However, as PFM has grown, we have created additional tables to accommodate the extra data. Thus you will see not only a FlightLog table, but also Flitelog2. Even so, each table contains unique data, with no overlap between tables. It will most likely be necessary to consult with PFM about which table contains the information you are looking for until you get more familiar with the table structure. Fields. A field is a category of information such as tail number, trip number, or date. Please note that the field names are generic and refer to specific parts of the internal PFM code. Sometimes, you will find field names that are confusing, however, you can usually determine what the field represents by just looking at the data in that field. If you need further assistance, please call PFM. Record. A record is the set of fields for a specific item. Thus, reading from left to right across the first record will tell you that the aircraft number is 3 (the PFM physical aircraft number), the PFM pointer is 8 (the internal number PFM tracks unique records by), the tail number is N46MW, the trip number is 8 (the eighth flight log of the year, for that aircraft), the date is 1/14/2000 which is the first month (1), fourteenth day (14), etc. In order to see all the data contained in the record, use the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.

Field caption Records Fields Total number of records Selected record

Queries: Creating Queries Using a Single Table Queries are created by combining fields in single or multiple tables and then filtering (or limiting) the output in order to achieve the desired results. •

The first step is to decide what information you want to see. Next, you determine what table or tables that data are stored in. In some instances, only a single table will be necessary for the query. When two or more tables are necessary, the tables must be related. The only requirement for relating two tables in a query is that they share unique common data in fields with the same data type and size. In other words, a Tail number would not be considered as unique data because you might have reused the same tail number when you purchased a new aircraft. However, in PFM the physical aircraft number is unique because as you enter a new aircraft into PFM, the system assigns it a new physical aircraft number and that number is never reused by a different aircraft. Refer to page 12 for a table of unique fields.

You have been asked to determine: How many times each aircraft has flown to a city pair over a date range. •

On the Queries tab, click the New button. The New Query dialog box appears. Double-click Design view. New query dialog box • A New Query window and the Show Table dialog box appear. The Show Table box contains a list of all the PFM Access tables. Double-click Flightlog then close the Show Table dialogue box. • The Flightlog table (list of fields) is added to the table pane (top of the screen) of the query window. • In the Flightlog table, double-click the 0 Tail# field. The Tail # field is added to the QBE (query by example) grid. • Double-click the ORG field and the DES field. (You will have to scroll down in the Flightlog table to locate these fields.) As you double-click each field, it is added to the QBE grid. • Double-click the TRP# field. This field is necessary in order to have the query display a count of each unique city pair. Otherwise, the query would show that 151AE went from DAL to BDL, but not how many times. • Double-click the Date field to add it to the QBE grid. • These are all the data fields you need for your query. Now we need to fine-tune the query to display exactly what you want to see. • The TRP# field has to be told that it has to actually COUNT the number of unique city pairs, not just display the TRP# for each pair. • Go to View and double-click on Totals. The Totals line is added to the QBE grid. • Click in the Totals line, under TRP# (it probably says Group By). You will get a drop-down box. Select Count by single-clicking.

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The final part of the query is to establish the required Date Parameters. (See p.14 for a discussion of Parameters.) • Click in the Totals line, under the Date field. From the drop-down box, select Where. (As in “Where the desired date is between this year/month/day and that year/month/day.) ← • In the Criteria line, type the following exactly: Between [start date] And [end date].

Your query design is now complete. • To run your query, click the ! on the toolbar. Run query a start date. Type in the desired Start date using mm/dd/yyyy format. Then click the OK button. • You will be prompted to type in • You will now be prompted to enter the desired end date. Proceed as above and click OK. • Your query will now run. Depending on the size of the date range you have chosen (and thus the amount of data Access has to sort through) your query make take a few minutes to run.

The completed query Your query will appear in Datasheet view, similar to a table, except that the Title Bar says Select Query. • The records are displayed in the order in which they were entered into the table. • In order to sort by Tail Number, put the cursor Tail Number field and click the AZ button on the toolbar. • In order to sort by Origin or Destination, follow the same procedure. • In order to sort by the most frequently visited city pair, put the cursor in the Trip# field and click the ZA button on the toolbar. • Save your query by clicking File/Save and typing in the desired name for the query, City-Pairs.

Reports

Reports are based on queries. The query contains only the details you want to show in the report and the resulting report loads faster. • Select the Reports tab, then click the New button. The New Report dialog box will be displayed. Double-click Report Wizard. The Report Wizard starts and the first step appears. • In the Tables/Queries combo box, click the down arrow. Then, select Query: CityPairs. • The field names in the CityPairs query appear in the Available Fields list. • Click the right double arrow to move all four fields into the Selected Fields list.

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Click the Next button. The second Report Wizard step appears. The CityPairs report will be grouped by Tail number. This makes the Tail number display only once, with the corresponding City Pairs grouped under it. Otherwise, the Tail number would be repeated for each city pair displayed on the report.. Double-click Tail number to move it into the Grouping box at the right. Click Next. The third Report Wizard step appears. In this step, you’re setting the sorting protocol for the list: you will sort alphabetically by Origin. In box 1, click the down arrow. Click ORG. The sort button next to ORG shows an ascending icon (A-Z) because that’s the default sort order. If you click the button, the sort order is set to descending (Z-A). Click the Next button The fourth Report Wizard appears and shows the report layout. The default layout (stepped and portrait) is good for this report. Click the Next button. The fifth Report Wizard appears and gives you six styles to choose from. Click to display the various layout styles. Then click to select the one you like and click the Next button. The sixth Report Wizard step asks you for a name for your report. It is best to rename it CityPairs Report so that it has a name which differentiates it from the query “CityPairs.” Click Finish The Wizard creates your report. See page 11 for the finished report. You may want to Modify the Layout of the report. Choose Modify the Reports Design Then click Finish. The report is displayed in Layout view. In order to add an additional label to the reports title, for instance a printed date range, click the Aa button. Then move your mouse to where you want the new label and click and drag to draw a box. You can then type the desired information into the box, i.e., Jan 1, 2000March 1, 2000. When you are satisfied with the layout of your report, click the Datasheet view button. You will be prompted to specify the Start date, as we set up in the Query. Type in the Start date using mm/dd/yyyy format. Click the OK button. Type in the End date using mm/dd/yyyy format. Click the OK button. The finished report will be displayed. Click File/print to get a printed copy of the report.

PFM Access Tables and Unique Field Identifiers Table Name

Location of Data

Unique Field

AirplaneInfo

Aircraft Database

ACNumber

AirportInfo

Airport Database

Air ident

Airport2

Airport Database

Airport ID

Authorizors

Record Keeping Auth Tab

YR+AC#+PFMprt+Authpos

Charge AcctInfo

Pax Database

Rec ID

CrewData

Recordkeeping

YR+AC#+Ptr+POS

CrewRatings

Crew Database

Crew_Number+Aircraft_Type

Crewsched

Crew from Scheduling

Pilot+Date+Aircraft

Dispatch

Scheduling Module

Aircraft+Phystrpdate+Thisleg

FBO

Aircraft Database

FBOID

Flightlog

Record Keeping

Yr+AC#+PFMptr

Flitelog2

Record Keeping

Yr+AC#+PFMptr

Hotel

Airport database/Hotels

Unique_ID

PaxData

Record Keeping

Yr+AC#+Ptr+POS

PaxInfo

Passenger Database

PFMAcct

PaxSched

Passengers in Scheduling

Tripdate+Leg+Index+Aircraft

Pilot

Crew Database

Crew#

XtraPax

Passenger Database

Acct

XtraPax2

Passenger Database

Acct+Company

A unique Field Identifier, also known as a Primary Key, is the field that uniquely identifies each record. • Sometimes, there is only one Unique Field Identifier. An example of this would be the PaxInfo table which stores the passenger database information. The only Primary Key needed for this table is the PFM Account number (the PFM “S” code.) As each “S” Code is used only once for each passenger in PFM, that is all that is necessary to identify a passenger in the passenger database. • HOWEVER, in the PaxSched table, which contains the data from the Scheduling module, you need to use four Primary Keys to identify a unique record: Aircraft, Tripdate, Leg, and Index. Aircraft is the physical aircraft number, Tripdate represents the date of the trip, Leg is the leg number for that day, and Index is the PFM S-code for the passenger. These four data fields will uniquely tell Access that Mr. Smith (S-code SEQFQ) flew on aircraft #4 (N123CF), on November 10, 2000, leg #3.

Adding Criteria to a Query A criteria is a rule or filter that tells Access which records you want to see. (See the table on p. 15 for more information on criteria.) For example, you can set a criteria in your query to display only records from specific destination airport identifiers. This would answer the question: “How many times did we fly into Philadelphia (PHL) and Wings airport (N67) over a specified date range. • •

On the Queries Tab, single click the CityPairs query to select it. Click the Design button.

The CityPairs query opens in design view. You’ll set the criteria for Philadelphia (PHL) and Wings (N67) in the DES (destination) field. • In the Criteria row of the DES column, type PHL or N67. • Click in a different cell. When you click in a different cell, the criteria you type is surrounded by quotation marks. "PHL" Or "N67"

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On the Toolbar click the View button The query switches to Datasheet view. Enter the Start and End dates as prompted, then click OK The records for N67 and PHL are displayed in the query datasheet. You can sort the DES field by clicking in it and then clicking the AZ button from the toolbar. The records will be sorted, with N67 displayed first. Close the query by clicking the X at the top right of the screen and save the query when prompted.

Setting Parameters It’s great to be able to set criteria to get specific records you want, but each time you change your criteria, you have to open the query in Design view and set new criteria. If you change criteria often (for example, if you want to see a new date range each time or a specific tail number) you can set up Parameters which asks you for the criteria each time you run the query. Using parameters is a more “user-friendly” way of displaying the desired information rather than redesigning the query in Design view. You already have seen an example of parameters when we inserted a date field in the City-Pairs query on pp. 5-6. We will set up a parameter that allows you to select the desired tail number for the query.

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Open the CityPairs query in Design view. In the Criteria cell in the Tail# column, type

[What tail number do you want?] Be sure that you type the square brackets. • • • •

Now every time you run the query, a dialog box will ask you which tail number you want, as well as the date range you want. On the toolbar, click the View button or the! In the Enter Parameter Value box, enter the desired dates and then the tail number and click OK. The query will run and return the records you want. Click the X to close the query and save your changes when prompted.

Table of Common Criteria used by Queries Criteria

And

Location (in Design View) Criteria:

Or

Criteria:

Purpose

Example

Records having one characteristic AND another characteristic

Using the Hotel Database, create a query finding all records containing BOTH the words Courtyard and Marriott. Like "*COURTYARD*" And Like "*MARRIOTT*" The word Like means that Courtyard and Marriott are only a part of the text in the record. The * before and after Courtyard and Marriott means that there might be more text before or after Courtyard and Marriott. (Note: Access 97 is case sensitive, while Access 2000 is not.)

Records having one characteristic OR another characteristic

Find only records containing PHL or N67 (as in the example on p. 12). "PHL" Or "N67"

Not

Criteria:

Records that DO NOT have a specified characteristic

Finds all records WITHOUT the words Courtyard and Marriott. Not like “*COURTYARD*” and not like “*MARRIOTT*” See And, above.

&

Field:

Concatenates fields. (Concatenate: To join together two or more fields or lists to form one big one. Definition courtesy of www.foldoc.org (Free Online Dictionary of Com-puting.ORG.) Check it out!!

Using the Hotel Database, create a query which concatenates the fields Address, City, and Zip into one field, labeled Location, with the correct punctuation.

Like

Between.. And

Criteria

Criteria

Records having the criteria as part of the field.

Records having a value between the two values you specify.

Location: [address] & ", " & [city] & " " & [zip]Location: is the new name of the concatenated field. [address] is the name of the first field to be concatenated. (Note the [ ] indicates that this word is a field name.) [city] is the name of the second field to be concatenated. [zip] is the name of the last field to be concatenated. (Note: the field names must match EXACTLY the way the field names are spelled, including punctuation and spaces, if any, however, they are not casesensitive.) & joins the fields. ", " " " The quotes enclose the punctuation: comma+space in the first instance, space (only) in the second.

Find all records that start with the letter A. Like "A*" Find all records that end with LTON Like "*ILTON" Find all records that start with the letters C-F Like "[C-F]*" Find all records that contain the letter sequence RRIOTT. Like "*RRIOTT*" Find all records with Zip Codes between 11434 and 22202 Between "11434" And "22202"

Is Null

Criteria

Is Not

Criteria

Null =

Criteria

Records having no entry in the field Records having an entry in the field.

Find all records without an address. Is Null Find all records with an address Is Not Null

Equal to



Not equal to

Find all Zip Codes equal to 61701 ="61701" Find all Zip Codes except 61701 "61701"

>

Greater than

Find all Zip Codes greater that 61701 >"61701"

<

Less than

Find all Zip Codes less that 61701