Standard Grade Computing Studies · Text Word processing – you can use your other packages to...

General Purpose PackagesFrank Frame

Standard Grade Computing Studies

STANDARD GRADE COMPUTING STUDIESii

GENERAL PURPOSE PACKAGES

First published 2004

© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2004

This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes by schools andcolleges in Scotland provided that no profit accrues at any stage.

ISBN 1 84399 034 2

AcknowledgementThanks to Dorothy Tedman for her contribution to the review of the content.

© Learning and Teaching Scotland

iiiSTANDARD GRADE COMPUTING STUDIES


Contents

Introduction iv

What are General Purpose Packages, whydo we use them and what are they used for? 1

Storing Data in Your GPP 4

The Human-Computer Interface 8

Integrated Packages 13

What do you need to know about the Packages? 17

What do you need to know about Graphics? 25

What do you need to know about Spreadsheets? 29

What do you need to know about Databases? 35

Desktop Publishing 40

Presentation/Multimedia Packages 44

Creating a Web Page 50

What is an Expert System? 54

General Purposes Packages in the Workplace 56

The Law 59

GPP Questions 64

GPP Answers 74

Answers to Exercises 80


STANDARD GRADE COMPUTING STUDIESiv


IntroductionThis publication is part of a series of publications to support Standard GradeArrangements in Computing Studies (March 2004). The titles in the series are:

• General Purpose Packages• Communications and Networks• Computer Systems• Automated Systems• Commercial Data Processing.

The first two packs, General Purpose Packages and Communications andNetworks, provide complete coverage of the content as specified in the updatedarrangements for Standard Grade Computing Studies.

The other three packs, Computer Systems, Automated Systems, and CommercialData Processing have been produced to support the three programmes featuredon the DVD. The content of these materials has been written to relate directlyto the programmes on the DVD and may not cover all the content as specifiedin the course arrangements.

General Purpose PackagesThe materials contained in this pack support the section on general purposepackages. They contain student notes, exercises, questions and answers atFoundation, General and Credit level covering all aspects of the detailedcontent outlined in the arrangements.

Note: Credit level is marked in this document with shading.


1STANDARD GR ADE COMPUTING STUDIES


What are General Purpose Packages, whydo we use them and what are they used for?

What are General Purpose Packages?General Purpose Packages (GPPs) are commercially available, fully testedsoftware packages that are designed to allow the user to solve a range of problems.

The packages that you are going to learn about are:• word processing• graphics• spreadsheet• database• presentation and multimedia• web page creation• desktop publishing• expert systems.

Why do we use them?• Using General Purpose Packages is a very productive way to carry out

complex tasks such as performing calculations and searching forinformation, even producing a complex multimedia slide show. GeneralPurpose Packages enable us to complete our tasks quickly and efficiently.

• Keeping your documents and data accurate and up to date is made easierusing these applications because entering data and updating it isstraightforward.

• Changing or adapting your documents is made easy. You can easilychange the content, style or layout of a document any time you need to.

• Using these applications you can produce a whole range of differenttypes of documents that you can use to communicate ideas andinformation to people.

• Using the applications means that businesses can reduce their costs. Theapplications can be expensive but the increase in productivity they bringwill reduce costs in the long term.

Exercise 11. Which GPPs do you have access to on your computer system?2. List five reasons for using GPPs.3. How do GPPs make altering a document easy? Give an example of a

document you have entered and then altered in some way.


STANDARD GR ADE COMPUTING STUDIES2


What are they used for?The table below shows you the packages you have to know about and the sortof tasks they are designed to help you carry out.

Package Tasks

Word processing Producing text documents, such as letters, memos,essays, and books.

Database Storing, searching, and sorting data such as: namesand addresses, customers’ details, pupils’ test scores.

Spreadsheet Storing numbers and performing calculations usingformulae. Examples: bank account details,household expenditure, league tables.

Graphics Producing graphics, illustrations, drawings,cartoons, diagrams, processing digital photographs.

Web page creation Producing web pages and websites.

Multimedia and presentation Producing multimedia presentations.Desktop publishing Producing documents that enable you to

combine text and graphics with a high degree ofcontrol and precision.

Expert system Storing and processing the knowledge of anexpert. Used to help people make complexdecisions.

Combining functionsSome packages combine functions from other packages, for example:• word-processing packages have drawing tools available to let you

illustrate your text• spreadsheet packages allow you to sort data• database packages allow you to use formulae• graphics packages have text capabilities.




Exercise 21. Your teacher wants to store the names, registration class details and ages

as well as the exam marks of each pupil in your class. She needs to beable to calculate the class average as well as sort the class names intoalphabetical order and carry out searches for specific pieces of data.Which package would be the best to use?

2. Complete this table matching packages to the tasks.

Package Task

Producing an online catalogue for a website.

Producing a series of memos for an office.

Storing the results of the school sports competitions.

Storing the personal details of all pupils in a school.

Producing the school magazine.

Producing a poster advertising the school disco.




Storing Data in Your GPPWhat type of data can you enter and store using your GPP?

Type of data Main package

Numbers Spreadsheet – spreadsheets are designed for storing numbersand performing calculations on them using formulae. Otherpackages can store numbers: for example a database can storenumbers and use formulae; word-processing packages havepage-numbering features.

Text Word processing – you can use your other packages to storetext: databases can store text items like names and addresses,spreadsheets and graphics packages use text to label columns offigures and drawings.

Graphics Drawing and painting packages – you can, of course, findgraphics in the other packages: word processing, spreadsheetand database packages can all contain graphics.

Audio Multimedia and web page creation packages can handle sound files.

Photographic Graphics packages, multimedia and presentation packages.

Animation Word processing, presentation and multimedia, web pagecreation, graphics.

Video Multimedia and web page creation packages.

Audio dataMany packages can handle audio data. Audio data can be stored and processedin two distinct ways: as MIDI or as digital audio.

A MIDI audio file stores the instructions that tell the computer system how tocreate musical sounds, for example they hold data on the pitch and the lengthof musical notes.

A digital audio file stores samples of sound waves that have been turned intobinary numbers. Audio files are often compressed to make them smaller.




Photographic dataWhen you take a picture with a digitalcamera it stores a digital representation of theimage in its memory as a pattern of binarynumbers, ‘1’s and ‘0’s. You can then transferthis digital image to your computer andprocess it using a range of graphics softwareor it can be inserted into a multimediadocument or web page. For furtherinformation see the Computer Systemssupport notes pages.

A problem with graphics images is that the files can be very large indeed, and,like audio files, they are often compressed before being stored and used.

AnimationMany packages can handle animated graphics. The most common way ofproducing animations is for the computer to display a series of graphics veryquickly one after another. To get a fluent movement the system has to display24 images a second. This gives the impression of movement. It also meansthe animation files can be very large since the computer has to store andprocess information about every graphic that is displayed.

Video imagesComputer video works in a similar way to animations. The computer has todisplay images very quickly on the screen. It also has to store the data abouteach individual image on the screen. To get a smooth fluent video image it hasto process 40 frames a second. This could result in some very large file sizes.If you are recording at a speed of 30 frames per second and 1 colour frame= 1 megabyte, then the camera will have to store 30 megabytes per second or1.8 gigabytes per minute.

Need to compress video footageNeed to compress video footageNeed to compress video footageNeed to compress video footageNeed to compress video footageIt is obvious that there is a need to compress the video images. If you did notthen you would find it very difficult to store and process them.

Most video images are now compressed down to around one fiftieth of theoriginal size. You can then store them on a DVD.




Exercise 31. If you have any animated graphic files on your computer system, list

them and look at their file sizes.2. Describe how animations work.3. Why do animations demand so much storage space?

Making backupsComputers can break down, disks can develop faults and you can delete thingsby mistake. So you need to make backups on floppy disks, hard disks, tapes orwritable CDs and store them in a safe place. It is important to make a backupcopy of your data, otherwise you might lose it.

File formatsWe can save our text documents in different file formats. The most commonare American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), plain text,and rich text format (RTF).

AdvantageWhen you save a text document using a standard file format you can be surethat the files will be accepted by a wide range of software. The result is thatyour data files are very portable and can be transferred easily from onepackage to another.

ASCIIASCIIASCIIASCIIASCIIAn ASCII file stores information about the characters in a document. It doesnot store information about the styles, the fonts, the spacing, simply the baretext. It is such a simple file format it is accepted by virtually all computersystems. So ASCII files are very portable. Also, because they do not containadditional information they are smaller than the equivalent rich text formatfile. This means they will not take up as much space on your hard disk andwill take less time to transmit across a network.

Plain textThis format is virtually identical to ASCII. It encodes plain text with noformatting information. There is a text format that includes the RETURNcode, which allows it to divide text into paragraphs. Files saved as plain textare, like ASCII files, relatively small, take up less space on backing storageand take less time to transmit.




Rich text formatRich text format (RTF) files store the information about the text and theinformation about, paragraphing, indentation, styles, fonts and sizes.

Exercise 41. What is a standard file format?2. What is the advantage of using standard file formats?3. Why is a file saved in ASCII format smaller than the same file saved in RTF?




The Human–Computer InterfaceThe Human–Computer Interface (HCI) is the part of the computer system thatpeople use to interact and communicate with the computer. When you ask yourcomputer to load a file, save to disk or to open a file, you are using the HCI.

GUIThis is short for Graphical UserInterface. GUIs use graphics tocontrol the computer’s actions suchas ticking boxes, or selecting abutton.

ToolbarThe toolbar is a common part ofmost HCIs. A toolbar is a menumade up of a series of icons thatyou can select as you need them.Toolbars make communicatingwith the computer easy since theymake commonly used functionseasily available to the user.

Here is a toolbar for working with tablesand borders.

WIMPA common type of HCI is a WIMP,short for Windows, Icons, Menus,Pointers (or Windows, Icons, Mouseand Pull-down menus).

Windows display what is in a folderor a document.

Windows like this one display itemssuch as files.




These icons represent software and hardware.

Here is a tools menu.

The pointer is used to select icons and option fromthe menus.

Why do computers have WIMP-based HCIs?– Because they are user friendly. ‘User friendly’ means that it is easy to learnhow to use the software. Open a window, point at an icon and click on it.That’s how simple it is to open a file. What could be easier or more userfriendly?

Exercise 51. What does HCI stand for?2. What does WIMP stand for?3. Use the ‘print screen’ feature on your computer to take screenshots of:

• the icons on your desktop• a couple of open windows• two or three open menus.

Now paste the screenshots into a document, give them headings, save thedocument and print it out.4. Which toolbar do you use most often?5. How does the toolbar help you complete tasks quickly?




Getting your computer to help youOnline help is a help feature available within a package. Online help is veryeasy to use. Simply open the help window, type in the topic you need helpwith and the software will display the information. In the example below theuser has asked for help with changing page margins.

Another simpler version of online help simply explains what an icon doeswhen you rest your pointer on it.

If you want to learn how to use anapplication package you can also use anonline tutorial.

An online tutorial teaches you how tooperate a package; leads you thoughexamples and then sets you some exercises.




Exercise 61. Open up the online help in your spreadsheet package and ask it for

help with moving or copying a formula. Write out a summary of whatit tells you.

2. What is the difference between online help and an online tutorial?

TemplatesTemplates are very useful. They are theskeletons of a document with much of theformat of the document already laid out, forexample headings, colour, fonts, tables and textboxes already set up.

A range of templates available to the user

A template for a frequentlyasked questions (FAQ) page,already divided into sections,numbered lists included andeven text colour set

WizardA wizard is a feature in a package that guides you through a complicated task. Apopular use of wizards in general purpose packages is to take you, step by step,through the process ofsetting up a document.

This wizard guides youthrough the stagesinvolved in setting up adesktop publishingdocument.




Customising the HCIIf you customise something youchange it to suit your own needs. Youcan customise the HCI of yourcomputer by opening the controlpanel and changing features such as:

• the appearance of the icons• the speed or appearance of

the pointer• the colour of the desktop.

Keyboard shortcutsUsing menus is an easy way to get things doneespecially if you are learning how to use apackage. Experienced users often find it quickerto use the keyboard. Lots of menus show the keypresses that carry out the same action as a menuselection, for example you can save a documentby pressing the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘S’ key.

Exercise 71. What is a template?2. What is the advantage of using a template?3. Open up one of your GPPs and use the online help to find out about

templates.4. Use the online help to find out about the wizards that are part of your

packages. List them, and use a couple of them to create documents.5. What is the advantage of using a wizard?6. Use keyboard shortcuts to find and replace some text in your word-

processing package.7. If your system allows, use the control panel to customise your desktop.

Write out a list of the changes you make.




Integrated PackagesIntegrated packages have three or four GPPs in one package. They usuallyhave spreadsheet, graphics, database, and word-processing packages available.The advantages of an integrated package are as follows.

• Transferring data between packages is quite easy. It is usually a simplecut and paste.

• All the GPPs have a common HCI.• Integrated packages cost less than buying a series of individual GPPs.

They do have a disadvantage: each of the GPPs in the integrated package hasfewer features than an individual package would have, for example thedatabase part of an integrated package would have fewer features than, andwould not be as powerful as, an individual database package.

Common HCIsWhen we say that all the applications in an integrated package have a commonHCI it means their menus, icons and even keyboard shortcuts are similar.

These three similar ‘Edit’ menus are from different applications in anintegrated package.




Advantage of a common HCIBecause the HCI is so similar in each application, it makes it easier for theuser to move between the different parts of the integrated package withouthaving to learn about new menus, icons and keyboard shortcuts.

Producing a document combining data fromdifferent applicationsIntegrated packages are ideal for producing documents where you need tocombine data from different applications. If your teacher used an integratedpackage to produce a report on the progress of your class she would:

• enter the text for the report using a word processing application• copy and paste the data on your test results from the database into the

word processing report document• use the spreadsheet to produce charts of the results and then copy and

paste them into the report document• use the graphics package to produce a logo then copy and paste it into

the report.

You can see all of these in the report example below.

Class 4C progress reportClass 4C is making fairly sound progress through the standard gradecomputing course. They have taken quite a few class tests and have been fairlysuccessful as their records, taken from the class database file show.




Their overall performance as a class can be seenfrom these figures …

Grade 1 6Grade 2 9Grade 3 3Grade 4 2Grade 5 0Grade 6 0Grade 7 0 … and from this graph.

If the class keeps working as well as it has been in the past few months, I thinkwe can predict that its progress will continue to improve.

Integration using a suite of applicationsYou can use a suite of applications to support tasks that demand integration. Suites arecollections of applications usually produced by the same software company.

All the applications in the suite are designed to have a similar HCI and usecommon formats for their data files.

They allow the user to transfer data between applications easily and takeadvantage of the common HCI just like in an integrated package.

There are differences:

• the applications in an integrated suite of packages have many morefeatures than those in an integrated package

• a suite of applications will take up more space on your disk than anintegrated package

• a suite of applications will cost a lot more than an integrated package.




Linking files

Dynamic links between filesIf you set up a dynamic link between two files, when you change the data inone file the file linked to it is automatically updated.

In the report on the class above on page 14 the data on class results could belinked dynamically to the graph in the main report document. When theresults data is changed, the graph would change automatically.

Static links between filesYou can set up static links between files. If the link is static it means that,unlike a dynamic link, when you change the data in one file, the linked filewould not automatically update. The user would have to intervene and carryout the update.

Exercise 81. What are the advantages of using an integrated package?2. What is the main disadvantage of using an integrated package?3. If you have used an integrated package write down its name.4. What is a common HCI? Give examples in your answer.5. Describe how data is transferred between applications in an integrated package.6. What is a suite of integrated applications?7. What advantage does it have over an ordinary integrated package?8. Why does an integrated suite of applications cost more than an

ordinary integrated package?9. What is the advantage of using dynamic links between documents?




What do you need to know aboutthe Packages?The packages you need to get to know all about are:• Word processing• Database• Spreadsheets• Graphics• Multimedia/presentation packages• Desktop publishing packages• Web page authoring packages• Expert systems.

Common featuresLet us start with those features that occur in several of the packages.

Feature Description

Open/run an application Using the computer’s WIMP HCI you usually openan application by clicking on an icon or selecting froma menu.

Create, save, open/load Again we use our WIMP HCI to open a new file oror print a file one that is already on disk, save a file or get a printout

by selecting from a menu or clicking on an icon.Insert data This is easily done by moving the cursor to the point

where you want the data then clicking. Once you haveplaced the cursor where you want it you can type inyour data.

Amend data This simply means changing the data.Delete You can highlight data and delete it using the delete key

or a menu option. Or, on some systems, you can deletefiles by dragging them to the Recycle Bin/trash icon.

Change the appearance You can change the appearance of your textof text in many ways: change the size, make it bold, and put

it into italics.Move/copy data Moving data around a document is easy. You

simply highlight it and then cut and paste. In anintegrated package this is how you transfer databetween applications.

Headers and footers Headers and footers appear at the top and bottom ofevery page in a document. You use them to put pagenumbers in and other information such as the title orthe date or even the author’s name.




Print part of a document If you have a large document you might not want toprint it all out. This feature lets you choose whichpages you want to print out.

Exercise 91. Complete these sentences.

• ‘When you amend a paragraph of text you …’• ‘When you insert a word into a sentence you …’

2. What is a header/footer used for?3. Open up a word-processing file that has several pages. Use the printer

dialogue box like the one above to print out one copy of pages 3 and 4.




Word-processing packages

Feature What you need to know

Entering text Text is usually entered by typing at the keyboard.Word-wrap If you type a word at the end of a line of text and there is not

enough room, Word-wrap automatically moves it on to the nextline rather than leaving part on one line and part on the next.

Alter page size Your page size is usually set to A4, butyou can change it easily by a simpleclick of the mouse.

Alter page layout You can change the layout of a page by altering the margins,changing the positions of the headers and footers, by settingup columns on a page or by changing the layout fromportrait to landscape.

Page breaks You can make your documentbegin a new page at any point.All you have to do is insert thecursor and make a selectionfrom a menu.

Alter alignment Changing text alignment is changing the way text lines up onthe page. It can be:• left-aligned: lined-up with the left margin• right-aligned: lined-up with the right margin• centred• lined-up with both margins.

Changing alignment is a simple matterof selecting the correct icon.

Set margins You can set the margins by using the controls at the top ofyour page.

Alter the text style This lets you change the appearance of the text, for exampleby making it bold, italics or underlined.

Spellchecker We have all had to use this. It does help to find spellingerrors and correct them. Some things escape thespellchecker, for example correctly spelt but wrong wordssuch as ‘there’ instead of ‘their’.




Feature What you need to knowGrammar check It is a good idea to check the grammar to make sure your

text is sticking to the rules of the English language.

Search and replace This is a really useful feature. It looks for a word or phraseyou want changed and then changes it for you automatically.

Standard paragraph You can save paragraphs of text that are used frequently andthen insert them into documents as you need them. This cansave a lot of time.




TableA table is made up of rows and columns and is used to help organise the wayin which test is laid out on a page. It is very useful when you are typing uplists or columns of information, or placing graphics beside text.

Bakery Delights

Doughnuts

Apple pie

Meringue

Scones

Exercise 101. Give two examples of different text styles.2. Describe the advantage of using ‘Search and Replace’.3. What are standard paragraphs used for?4. Open up a word-processing document and insert a table with three

columns and six rows. Insert suitable headings then fill up the tablewith the first names, surnames and addresses of five of your friends.




Standard letterThis is a letter that is used time and time again and sent to lots of people.When it is typed in no details of names and addresses are entered. Thesedetails are inserted later automatically, usually from a database file using theprocess known as mail-merge.

Mail mergeThe process of mail merging takes data from a source file, usually a databasefile but it can be a spreadsheet or even a table in a word-processingdocument, and inserts it into the previously prepared standard letter and thensends it to the printer.

A mail merge is commonly used to produce sets of personalised standardletters. The procedure for setting up a mail merge can be divided up into thefollowing steps.

1. Compose a standard letter with no personal details such as names andaddresses on it, mark out the points in the document where the personaldata has to be inserted.

2. Save the standard letter to backing storage.3. Set up the link between the standard letter file and the file with the

personal data that has to be inserted, indicating which fields in the datafile are to be used and where they are to be inserted in the letter.

4. The system then takes the data from the data file and inserts it into thestandard letter. This is usually then sent to the printer straight away,though the user can choose to perform the merge and send the mergeddocument to the printer later.

Why use a mail merge?Mail merging saves time and effort. Once the mail merge has been set up thecomputer will automatically produce as many personalised standard letters asyou need.




Creating a templateUsing a template can save you lotsof time when you are producing adocument. The template has thestructure of the document alreadyin place. For example it mighthave text boxes, text sizes, fontsand styles already in place.

Most packages let you create yourown templates by following a fewsimple steps that set up a newdocument or altering an existingtemplate. This image shows a listof templates that have beencreated for a variety of purposes.

Once you have created a templateyou can use it to quickly reproduce documents with the same structure, styleand formatting.

Using optical character-recognition softwareOptical character-recognition (OCR) software enables you to edit text that hasbeen scanned directly from a page. Once it has a digital representation of thepage that has been scanned in, the OCR software compares the shapes on thepage with shapes of the characters it holds in its data files. When it gets amatch it stores the ASCII value of the character in memory.

The OCR software then enables you to load the file into a word-processingdocument and add to it or alter it as you need to.

Why use OCR?OCR is used because it means you can input text without having to spendtime at the keyboard. Time saved can be a big advantage to any user butespecially so to business users.




Exercise 11

1. Complete this bulleted set of instructions using the words below.

• Compose a standard letter with no_____________such as namesand addresses on it; mark out the points in the document where thepersonal data has to be ________.

• ________the standard letter to backing storage.• Set up the_________between the standard letter file and the file

with the personal data that has to be inserted, indicating which fieldsin the data file are to be used and where they are to be inserted inthe letter.

• The system then takes the data from the ______ ______, inserts itinto the standard letter then sends it to the printer. It is usually then sentto the printer straight away, though the user can choose to perform themerge and send the merged document to the printer later.

inserted, save, personal details, data file, link

2. The secretary in the school office has to send out the same letter to agroup of 50 parents. Why should he use a mail merge?

3. Many applications enable you to create your own templates and savethem for further use. Why is this feature useful?

4. Describe briefly how OCR operates.5. Explain how OCR can speed up the input of text into a document.


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