03 presenting information - sphcs.co.uk to study/chapter 3 presenting...54 unit 1 ocr ict for gcse...

What you will learn in this section

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What you will learn in this chapter ● How ICT tools are used to present information ● The features and facilities of software applications and how these can be used to present information

● How information can be shared between software applications and why this is useful

Presenting Information

An audience will understand any data and information if it is presented properly. Using software to present information properly and sensibly is quite easy to do once the features and facilities offered by the different applications is known. It is important to try and use the most suitable application for the presentation you require. For example, normally a letter is written in a word-processor and not a spreadsheet. The word-processor will offer all the facilities needed to present the text of the letter so that it is easily read by the recipient – who, in this case, is the audience. If a newsletter was being written with multiple columns and pictures, a desktop publishing application might be more suitable. Animations and video require facilities not usually found in word-processing or desktop publishing software, and while it is possible to create web pages and whole websites in word-processing or desktop publishing software, specialised web authoring software is a better choice.

Word-processing and desktop publishing applicationsIf you want to write a report or a letter, the most appropriate software to use is a word-processing or a desktop publishing application. These are designed to allow text and images to be combined easily and for you to be able to see how the final product will appear when printed on to paper. Today, many documents are never printed but sent to others by, e.g. email but we still need to set out the document so that it is easy to read. Word-processing (WP) software and desktop publishing (DTP) software have many features in common. Both allow text to be entered from the keyboard and displayed on screen in various ways ready for printing or saving for later use.

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KEY WORD

AudienceAn audience is the person, or group of people, at which the work is aimed. Different age groups or people with different interests or backgrounds should be considered when producing a piece of work such as a report or presentation.

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3: Presenting Information 51

Text can appear in different styles or typefaces which is a set of characters such as letters, numerals and punctuation marks. A particular typeface can be made up of a number of fonts with different characteristics such as italic, bold and weight, all of which are used to make text appear differently on screen or paper.

Fonts and typefacesThis is italic text which is sloped and can be slightly rounded as well in some typefaces.

This is bold text

This is heavy bold text

This is narrow text

This sentence is printed in various type faces.

This sentence is printed in various sizes of font.The size of a font is measured in units that originate from eighteenth-century French printers when all printing was done using hot metal and a printing press. The unit of font size is a ‘point’ or ‘pt’ and originally

KEY WORD

FontA font is a set of characters that make up a typeface.

A well-designed poster

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52 Unit 1 OCR ICT FOR GCSE

depended upon the length of a foot (a real foot was once used!) and was 0.2 to 0.4mm. This is not accurate enough for use today or when using computers and is now set at 0.353mm – this is not an easy size to remember so we refer to font by their size in ‘points’. The most common point sizes used in documents are 11 and 12 as these appear to be ‘just right’ to the eye but remember that what looks good on screen does not always look good when printed on paper, e.g. a large point size may be easy to read on screen but when printed will take up most of the page and look dreadful! Also, as you can see from the examples, using too many different typefaces and fonts in one sentence makes the sentence quite difficult to read so it is advisable not to use more than one or two fonts in your work. You should always think about the audience, i.e. who is going to read your work, and make sure they are not distracted or put off reading your work by using too many features. However, the careful use of typefaces and their fonts can make a document look appealing and will catch the attention of a reader.

When choosing a font to use, you should consider:its proportions – fonts can have their width fixed or be monospaced like this:

Monospaced

Proportional

Monospaced

Proportional

where each letter takes up the same width. Proportional text looks like this

where each letter’s width is different. Fixed-width text is easier to align properly and is best for, e.g. tables of letters or figures as all the letters will line up neatly in columns. It is often used in, e.g. spreadsheets and for computer programming so that all the code can be easily studied on screen or paper. Manuscripts for new books are sent to publishers printed in fixed width text as it is easier to edit and count the words. Proportioned text is becoming more accepted for documents and most modern reports, letters and books use this type of font as it is easier to read large amounts of text in a proportional font.

ACTIVITY 1Use a word-processing or desktop publishing package and type your name. Enlarge the font to a size that fills the whole line.Now choose at least four different font types and look at the differences in how your name is displayed. Make sure you look at serif and san serif fonts. Why are some fonts not suitable for documents when they are printed out?

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Bullets and tablesWhen displaying lists, indentation and bullets are used, sometimes with numbers. Text can be indented so that it is placed away from the edge of the page. This is an example of indented text using various bullet styles:

● this is a bulleted indent ● with a further indent here.

and this is a bulleted indent using numbers to pick out the items:

a font can have a different shape depending on its:

1 size2 weight3 proportion

Sensible use of bullets and numbering can make lists very easy to read – and to learn. There are other ways of displaying text on screen and on a page. Word-processing and desktop publishing offer the use of tabs. These should be used to avoid repeated use of spaces to place text across a page a set distances and are useful, quickly indenting the start of a new paragraph for lining up lists, e.g. This is a list of features that can be used to display text in different ways:

font can be different shaped letters

bullets can be spots or numbers

italic the letters are sloped

indent spacing the word over the page

Here each of the columns has been ‘tabbed’ across the page so that it lines up neatly. A better way of making lists with multiple columns is by using tables. Putting lists in tables and using lines with no colour for the tables means that, when printed, the table doesn’t show on paper. This is a table with no lines showing. The words are in neat columns:

City Country Places to see

London United Kingdom The Tower of London

Paris France La Tour Eiffel

Madrid Spain Royal Palace of Madrid

Brussels Belgium Cathédrale de St-Michel

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Being able to change the colour of table lines is very useful as different parts of tables can be made to stand out or be used as headings. The cells in the table can be changed as well. This is the same table as previously but lines and colour have been added:






Tables can be a useful way of displaying information but care must be taken to make them look pleasing so beware of using too much colour. A better way to display this table is:






Text can be made to stand out or be highlighted by using the different borders supplied by the software:

and borders can be placed around whole pages too. Text can be placed on the left or right of a page so that the left edges of the words are aligned:

This is an example of LEFT justificationThis is called left alignment or left justification and is the usual way of placing text and is most easy to read. It is the default setting and often there is no need to change it.If the text is lined up by the right edge it is said to be right aligned or right justified.

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE

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This is an example of RIGHT justificationThis is often used on posters or advertisements for artistic effect but large

amounts of text aligned in this way are not so easy to read.

It is possible to place the text in the exact centre.

this is an example of CENTRE justificationText can be centred in between the edges of a page or column

and this is useful for headings or items in advertisementsthat need to stand out.

Again, using too many changes of alignment in a document can be very distracting but careful use can make text stand out and be eye-catching. Text can also be displayed in different colours and can be underlined to make it stand out. This is useful for headings and subheadings but again should not be overused. Both word-processing and desktop publishing packages, along with many software applications, offer the facility to check your spelling and grammar but these are not perfect and should be used as aids rather than a cure and with some caution – there’s no real substitute for knowing the correct spelling and grammar so you can choose the correct ones from the options offered.

Word-processor with spell-check window

ACTIVITY 2Open up your word-processing software and find out what these tools are. For each, write down what you would use them for.

Word count Spelling and grammar Track changes Mail merge Autocorrect Customise

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While you can put pictures into your documents with modern WP, the facil-ities for adding and displaying images are really quite limited. Although you can do all this in word-processing, the latter is better suited for documents that do not contain many pages, have only a few images and do not use multiple columns such as letters, memos, business cards and simple posters. For more complicated documents such as brochures, newsletters, reports, magazines and booklets, DTP is used because it can reliably provide multiple columns and pages, and images and text can be combined more easily. Further, DTP offers more accurate placement of images and can output the document in formats that printers can use. Complex reports which include images, graphs and text with tables and columns are usually produced in DTP software. Today, the differences between the features of WP and DTP are not so obvious to most users as they once were but a careful choice of software application means that the end product is properly produced without difficulty.

ACTIVITY 3Open word-processing and find out how to make a page with three columns of text such as that found in a newspaper. Do the same with a desktop publishing package.

DTP package

Slideshow softwarePresentations to audiences can be made more interesting if the presenter can show animations and have sound effects. Slideshow software allows a user to put text, images, video and animations along with sounds together and display the information as a series of slides, usually on a large screen. Features of slideshow software include:

● inserting text ● inserting images

KEY WORDS

SlideThis refers to a single page of information in a slideshow.

Slide transitionThe way one slide changes to another can be changed so that the slide may change abruptly, dissolve into the next or use some other method of showing the next slide.

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● choosing an animation style for the text or images ● adding sound effects ● linking or adding video ● grouping text or images together ● layering the text and images.

Multimedia softwareThis is used to combine text, images, video, animations and sounds into a presentation that usually allows the user or viewer to interact with it by, for instance, choosing which route to go through it, answer questions, receive feedback or even interact with the presenter.

Web authoring softwareYou can make a web page in any text editor because web pages are written in markup language and you can just write the code needed to make a page. This code will make a simple web page:

<html><head><meta content5‘text/html; charset5ISO–8859–1’http-equiv5‘content-type’><title></title></head><body>This is my page on the World Wide Web</body></html>

and can easily be typed but it doesn’t make a very interesting page:

ACTIVITY 4Open a slideshow package and make a presentation with at least four slides on how to send an email. Make sure that you include some text and images, and at least two different slide transitions.

Browser with simple web page

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To create interesting pages and whole websites, web-authoring software is used. This has many features, much like a word-processor and will generate all the codes for you.

Web pages and sites are used in many ways to give information to people; schools use websites to provide information for students and parents; businesses use websites to display and offer their goods for sale; and the government uses websites to provide information on, for instance, laws and taxes.

Graphics manipulation and photo-editing softwareGraphics manipulation software is used to create and manipulate images. Photo-editing software is used to edit digital photographs. The features of these graphics packages include being able to:

● select part of an image to work on ● create and use layers which are rather like making parts of the image on different transparent sheets and putting them on top of each other in layers

● change the size of the image making them smaller or larger; this is scaling

● crop an image by removing rectangular sections from the top, bottom or sides

ACTIVITY 5Start up a web-authoring application and look on the toolbars to see what features it includes. Look for these features and find out how to use them by creating some new pages:

● text formatting ● creating tables ● inserting images ● linking to other pages.

Web-authoring software should include features that make creating web pages and websites easy but the user has to make sure that all the pages are accessible to everyone. Different users will use different web browsers so your websites with all their pages have to work in all of them – even when the user is viewing the pages on the small screen of a smart phone.Also, some people have disabilities so cannot see or hear very well, so good web pages and sites must allow these people access. Good web design will include the ability to make the text on the pages larger, have text in different colours, have images replaced by descriptions or have the text read out to them by their computer.

ACTIVITY 6Look up the ‘rules’ for good web design and write them down. Explain how website owners have to make sure that people with disabilities can access their web pages.

ACTIVITY 7Look at four different websites and write down who the information is aimed at and what it shows. For instance, a school website shows information for parents about term dates and parents’ evenings.

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● cut parts of an image; this is different from crop as the piece can be any shape and from anywhere in the image; unwanted parts of an image can be cut and replaced so that it looks as if they were never there; this can often be done automatically in modern graphics software

● paste a part or whole of an image into another image ● zoom into parts of image to see them or work on them easily; this is not the same as resizing

● change the image orientation so that it is tilted, upside down, sideways or otherwise re-orientated; this can be done by rotating the image

● mirror the image so that it looks like a reflection in a mirror ● correct or changing the perspective of an image ● make selective colour changes to a parts of an image ● sharpen or soften images; this can correct poor photographs or be used for artistic effect

● reduce red-eye: this is used to remove the red spots in the eyes of people in pictures taken by flash photography.

Because modern graphics packages can change the content of a digital image, it is sometimes difficult to tell what is original and what is enhanced or changed. Celebrities often look much better in a digital photograph than in real life; people or objects can be added to or removed from photographs, parts of images can be put together to create photographs that mislead people or make people believe things that are not true.

KEY WORDS

PixelDigital images are made of dots or squares called pixels arranged in a grid. Each pixel has information giving its intensity and colour.

Colour balanceThe overall intensity of the different colours in an image or video.

ResolutionThe number of pixels across the image and down the image is used to measure the resolution of an image.

ACTIVITY 8Choose a package and produce an example of the use of each of these features:

● crop ● copy and paste part of an image into a new image ● cut part of an image ● use a layer to add a new object to the image.

Input your examples into a presentation and add some notes to explain how you made your examples.

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Video-editing softwareMany people now own a digital video camera or can create video sequences on a mobile phone and want to edit them. Video-editing software can be used on most modern PCs. The video is imported or transferred from the camera to the computer and opened in the software which allows the user to:

● alter the amount of video by cutting, joining, cropping and pasting sections of video

● add or alter the soundtracks ● insert still images if needed ● change the colour balance ● add some special effects to the video or sound ● export the video and sound to, e.g. DVD or back to the camera.

Gaming softwarePlaying games on a computer system can be great fun. Computer games are made in many different ways but most include objects, sounds, backgrounds, rooms or levels. Objects can be characters or objects that the player interacts with such as wall, weapons, vehicles or tools and these are created by the game-maker and combined to make a playable game.

Communications softwareOften social networking software, such as chat and instant messaging software, web browsers, file transfer and email clients, can be used to arrange information in different ways for others to view.

Spreadsheets and database management softwareThe main features of these are described in another chapter but one of the most important uses of spreadsheets and databases is to manipulate and display data in different ways so that users and viewers can get as much information from it as possible, or to convey the information that is there in ways that can be understood. The mass of numbers shown is not displayed clearly. It is not easy to understand and use the numbers to compare the rainfall of 1998 and 2008 in Cambridge, UK.

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Rainfall in mm

Month 1998 2008

January 48 58

February 5 13

March 45 69

April 120 51

May 6 63

June 102 35

July 26 52

August 16 65

September 104 60

October 77 56

November 55 69

December 60 21

The information about whether or not the summer months of 2008 had more rainfall than those of 1998 can be seen but it takes some time to work it out. The comparison can be made easier if the data is manipulated and displayed differently as in this chart:

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Mill

imet

res

of

rain

January February March April May June July August September October November December

Month

19982008

Monthly rainfall chart

ACTIVITY 9Look up the rainfall for 2009 and produce a chart to show whether or not it had a wetter or drier summer than 2008.

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It is easy to see from the chart that in Cambridge, UK there was a lot more rainfall in some months but a lot less in others in 1998 compared to 2008, April, June and September being much wetter but May, July and August were drier.

Moving data between software applicationsSometimes data has to be moved from one software application to another. This may be because it can be manipulated or displayed better or because it is needed to add to, say, a report or presentation.

Copy and pasteNearly all software applications allow users to select and copy all or part of a document, image or data ready for moving to another application. The data is stored temporarily in an area of the computer’s memory set aside for this purpose. This area is often called a ‘clipboard’ but is just a temporary storage area. The user can then go to the other application and paste the data into the place in the document where it should go. Cut and paste removes the original data while copy and paste leaves it in the original document. Sometimes the data can be saved to a new file and then imported into another document. Most applications that can use images, text, video and animations allow users to import data from files that they have already stored.

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)This is a very useful way of exporting and re-importing data. Software that supports OLE will allow a user working on a document with text and images to click on, for instance, an image and export it to a graphics package, do some editing to change the image and then re-import back into the original document. The user does not have to choose a graphics package or select from options as the software takes care of all the details automatically.

WEBLINK

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/stationdata/cambridgedata.txtThis gives rainfall data from the UK Meteorological Office.

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EXAM TYPE QUESTIONS

1 Explain why the creator of a presentation should consider the requirements of the audience.

2 For each of the tasks shown choose the most suitable software package, and give a reason for your choice.(a) creating a text-only letter(b) creating an advertising poster with images and text(c) creating a web page(d) creating a presentation with many slides

3 Explain why a book publisher may prefer to have the text of a book sent to it in monospaced typeface.

4 Explain the difference between ‘copy and paste’ and ‘cut and paste’.

5 An original shape is shown on the left. The original image is then manipulated in a graphics package to produce the image on the right.

(a) For each of the areas A, B, C, D and E, state which graphics tool would have been used to make the change.

(b) Further changes have been made to this new version of the image. Explain how the changes may have been made.

A

B

C

D

E

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03 presenting information - sphcs.co.uk to study/chapter 3 presenting...54 unit 1 ocr ict for gcse...

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