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iiiSTANDARD GRADE COMPUTING STUDIES

GENERAL PURPOSE PACKAGES

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

© Learning and Teaching Scotland

25STANDARD GR ADE COMPUTING STUDIES


What do you need to knowabout Graphics?Feature What you need to know

Enter text Entering text in a graphics package is very useful. It lets youlabel graphics!

Draw graphic You can use the drawing tools to create your own graphic.

Common tools Most graphics packages have a similar set of tools fordrawing lines, circles and rectangles for pouring colour into agraphic and for drawing freehand.

Alter tool attributes Changing the attributes of a tool such as theLine tool means changing, for example thecolour or the thickness of the line.

Scale graphic Scaling means changing the dimensions of a graphic byincreasing or decreasing the height/width of the graphic.

Rotate graphic This lets you spin your graphic round. You can control therotation either by dragging the graphic round using handlesor by specifying the number of degrees.


STANDARD GR ADE COMPUTING STUDIES26


Scanning a graphicOnce you load up your scanning software it will give you a series of choicesthat give you controlover exactly how thescan is processed.

You can choose:• the number of

colours in the scan• the resolution of

the scan: thenumber of pixelsper square inch

• the type of filethat your scannedimage is saved as.

All of these can affect the quality of the scanned image and the size of the filein which it is stored.

Cropping a graphicWhen you crop a graphic you cut out the part of the graphic that you do notwant, usually by selecting the cropping tool and dragging the handles at theedge of the graphic.

This graphic has white lines down This one has been cropped to getthe side. rid of the white lines.




Editing the scanned graphic

Now that the graphic has been scanned you can load it into a graphicspackage and begin to edit it. Most graphics packages have features such as:‘Crop’, ‘Change colours’, ‘Layer graphic objects one on top of another’ and‘Zoom’, as well as enabling you to add effects such as ‘Soften’, ‘Sharpen’ andothers that you can see in the menu above.

Exercise 12This graphic image on the left is being editedbelow using the ‘Zoom’ feature then acombination of the editing tools in a paintpackage. Briefly describe the functioning offour of the graphic editing tools you have used.




Exercise 131. Use a selection of the tools available to produce a suitable images, for

example the shape of a dancer, a band, a CD-player, or spotlights.2. Use the infill tools and colour menus to make your graphic attractive.3. Scale and rotate your images until they look eye catching.4. Save the file as ‘discographics’ and then print it out.

Use your graphics package to produce illustrations to be used to advertisethe school disco.5. Produce a template for a handbill advertising the school discos. Set out

the styles, text sizes and fonts as well as margins and text alignment.Save the template as ‘handbill’.

6. Scan in a suitable graphic, edit it by, for example, cropping it, scaling itor changing the colours, then save it.

7. Open up the template and use it to create a handbill to advertise thesenior school disco. Enter suitable text about the location, timing andcost then insert the scanned graphic.

8. Save the file.9. Print out the finished handbill.




What do you need to knowabout Spreadsheets?

Spreadsheet software lets you enter and store numeric data and performcalculations on it using formulae.

Spreadsheets are organised into rows and columns.

Column

Formula

Row

Spreadsheet terms

Feature What you need to knowCell Each location in a spreadsheet is called a cell. Each cell

has its own address made up of a column letter and a rownumber: C7, B8, D24.

Row Rows are numbered from 1 upwards.Column Columns have their own letter: A, B, C, D, E, F, etc.Value A value is a number or a formula.Text Text is entered to label cells, rows and columns or even to give

lengthy explanations of what is going on in the spreadsheet.Insert row or column This feature lets you put rows or columns into your

spreadsheet to make room for more data or formulae.

Alter the width If you have a lot of data to put into a column, thisof a column feature lets you widen it to make enough room.




Feature What you need to know

Alter cell When you set up the attributes of a cell you are definingformat/attributes the properties of that cell, the format of the data it will

hold. Common cell attributes are: time, scientific,percentage, date, currency. This graphic shows examples ofthe various data formats that can be set up.

Formula A formula sets out the calculation that has to be carried outon data. You should be able to recognise and use simpleformulae such as:

A4 + A5

B6 –B7

C6/C8

D6 * D9

You should also know these simple functions.

= sum(A1:A6) This calculates the total of the values incells A1 to A6.

= average(B3:B12). This calculates the average of thevalues in cells B3 to B12.

= max(A4:A10) This finds the largest value in the rangeA4 to A10.

= min(B8:B16) This finds the smallest value in the rangeA4 to A10.





Replication This simply means copying a formula down a column oracross a row, usually by entering a simple key press, forexample to copy down a column simply highlight thecolumn and enter a key press such as Ctrl D.

Charting You can turn numbers in a spreadsheet into a chart. Thismakes it easy to see what they mean at a glance.

Automatic and Automatic calculation is usually the default setting on amanual calculation spreadsheet. That means that your spreadsheet will carry

out its calculations just as soon as you have entered thedata and the formulae. You can switch off automaticcalculation. This means you have to intervene andmanually give the spreadsheet the instruction to performthe calculation.

Cell protection By switching on cell protection you make sure that thedata or formula in that cell is not changed by accident.Before it can be changed, cell protection needs to beswitched off.





Relative referencing When a formula is replicated across a row using relativereferencing the formula will change according to the cells itis copied into. For example the formula: sum(B6:B9) whenreplicated across a row into columns C and D will changeto sum(C6:C9) and sum(D6:D9).

Absolute referencing Using absolute referencing the formula remains the sameno matter where in the spreadsheet you replicate it to.Most spreadsheets use $ to mark an absolute reference. Forexample: The formula: average($B$6:$B$9) will remainthe same even if you replicated it to column C andcolumn D.

Formula using The structure of an if function is as follows.conditions

if(condition, true, false).This means: ‘If the condition is met, the first action is carriedout. If it is not met, the second action is carried out.’Let us take the example of an ‘If ’ formula that is beingused to calculate a bonus for a salesman. The cellcontaining the bonus has this formula entered.if(D20>=50, 100, ‘no bonus’)If cell D20 has a value greater than or equal to 50, then thecell containing the formula is given the value 100.If the value is less than 50, ‘no bonus’ is entered into the cell.Let us look at a spreadsheet and check out some of thesefeatures we have just been looking at.

This formula uses both:• absolute referencing to refer to

cell B18 that holds the VAT rate• relative referencing to refer to

the costs held in cells C6, C7,C8, C9 and C10.

This cell has cell protectionactivated to protect theimportant data it holds onthe VAT rate.




Fully labelled chartingHere are the highlighted gradesCharts can have series of labels each giving its own piece of informationabout the chart. If you develop a series of charts for example for all the classresults in fourth year then:

• you can have a label to identify the series• you can insert a label for each individual chart• you can have a title for each chart• both X and Y axis can have labels• you can even label points on the chart.

This window lets you set up labels showing values and percentages.

Exercise 141. List the labels a fully labelled chart should have.2. Your teacher will supply you with a spreadsheet file. Open it up and

chart the data, labelling it as fully as your package will allow.3. If your application has a ‘Label Wizard’, use that to help you.




Exercise 15: Spreadsheet practical exerciseCreate a spreadsheet to hold the results of class 4A.

1. In cell B13 enter the word ‘Total’. 2. In cell C13 enter the formula to

calculate the total number of passes. 3. In cell C15, enter the formula to

calculate the percentage of grade1s. (Your teacher will help youwith this.)

4. Do the same for cell C16 to calculatethe percentage of grade 3s.

5. Change the attributes of the cellsC15 and C16 so that they holdnumbers up to two decimal places.

6. Insert a row to hold thepercentage of grade 2s.

7. Use the charting features to chartthe number of passes in eachgrade 1–7.

8. Ask your teacher to check yourformulae and your chart. Your teacher may ask you to print out yourspreadsheet and chart.

9. Label rows to hold the percentage of grades 4, 5, 6 and 7 and use acombination of relative and absolute reference to replicate theformula down column C.

10. Fully label your chart.11. Ask your teacher to check your formulae and your fully labelled chart.




What do you need to knowabout Databases?A database is a collection of related information made up of Records that inturn are made up of Fields.

A File is a collection of Records such as a file of names, addresses and phone numbers.

Records hold the data on one person or object in the file. For example youcould have a record for each pupil in a school.

A Field stores one piece of data such as the name field, the address field, thephone number field.

File

Field 1

Field 2

Field 3

Record 1 Record 2 Record 3 Record 4




Features What you need to know

Add/create records When you set up a database you create new records and fillthe data into the fields. If you need to, you can always addanother record.

Edit records Once you have created your records you can go back andchange the data held there.

Create fields When the database isbeing set up you cancreate different types offields to match thedifferent types of datayou are going to storein the database.

You can create thefollowing types of field:• Numeric• Text• Graphic• Date• Time.

Search on one field This is a simple search, for example search on the namefield for ‘MacIntosh’. Note: some packages use the term‘Query’ or ‘Find’ for a search.

Sort on one field This puts therecords intoorder usingthe contentsof one field,for examplesort intoorder usingthe date field.

Alter a You can alter the format of a record in several ways:record format change a field type so that it can hold different type of data,

delete a field altogether.





Alter input format Change the input screen. The two most common inputscreens are column/table and card layouts.

Column Card

Alter output format You can change the way data is output by changing thelayout from column to a card layout. You can even decidewhich fields are output and where on the screen they appear,what colour they have, etc.

Simple searches on Finding information on the internet or a CD-ROM isa CD-ROM or straightforward. All you have to do is to enter your searchthe internet and press ‘Return’ or click ‘Go’. The search engine does

the rest.Search on more Sometimes searching on one field gives you too manythan one field results. Searching on the name field for ‘McKenzie’ might

produce a dozen records. To narrow down the number ofresults you can search on more than one field, for examplesearching on the Name field for ‘McKenzie’, the Addressfield for ‘Dowanhill Rd’ and the Date field for ‘12/11/2003’.

Sort on more than You can use more than one field to sort your records intoone field order. Sorting on the name field and the address field means

that if two people have the same name then they will besorted into order according to their address. So McKenzie inDowanhill St. will be placed before McKenzie in Hillhead St.





Computed field You use computed fields to store a formula that carries outcalculations on data held in your database file.

Keyword Keywords are used to identify records in a file. Each recordis given a unique keyword, stored in a key field. This makessearching for records much simpler. If you know thekeyword, such as an account number, it saves you carryingout complex searches on several fields. A search using thekeyword will take you straight to the record you want.

Simple search on A simple search is a simple straightforward searcha CD-ROM or for an item that is easily found.the internet

As anexample youcould searchfor ‘Australia’on a CD-ROM or theinternet. Theproblemwould bethat youwould findlots ofentries. Infact a searchfor Australia on the internet will return hundreds ofthousands of results; too many to look through. So, whatyou really need to do is carry out a complex search.

Complex search on Complex searches are searches where there are two or morea CD-ROM or conditions in the search, for example a search for all citiesthe internet in Australia with a

population >1,000,000. CD-ROMs help you puttogether complexsearches withseveral parts orconditions in yoursearch. Because thesearch has severalconditions, it willreturn fewer results.




Exercise 161. What is the main reason for using complex searches?2. Why should you include as many conditions as you can in your search?3. Write out the combination of conditions you would use to find out

about Scottish islands in the Inner Hebrides except Mull or Coll. Carryout the search either using a CD-ROM or on the internet.

Exercise 17: Database practical exerciseCreate a database to hold the details about five patients in a dentist’s surgery.Each record in the file should contain the following fields: ‘Surname’,‘Firstname’, ‘Address’, ‘Date of birth’, ‘Extractions’, ‘Fillings’, ‘Crowns fitted’.

Here is an example of the first two records.

Carry out the following tasks.

1. Add another three records for the following new patients: ‘Jean McKenzie’,‘Alec Wallace’, ‘Margaret McFarrell’. You can make up your own data forthe rest of the fields.

2. Sort the file on the Surname field.3. Add a field to hold data on the number of checkups.4. Sort the file on the Surname and the Firstname fields.5. Search for the record for ‘Eric McKenzie’ in ‘Ullapool Rd’.6. (a) Add a new field to contain a patient number. (b) Enter the following

patient numbers: 6701, 6702, 6703, 6704, 6705.7. If your database software has the facility to do so, alter the database by

adding a computed field to hold the total number of fillings and extractionseach patient has had.




Desktop PublishingA desktop publishing (DTP) package is a package designed to set upprofessional looking pages that contain text and graphics. DTP packages areused to set up pages for magazines, books, leaflets, newsletters. They havefeatures that help the user control the position of the text and graphics, such as:• onscreen rulers• frames• text boxes.

WizardUsing a wizardis a great way tostart producing aDTP document.A wizard willoften offer theuser a choice oftemplates thathave thestructure, styleand even colourof the pagealready in place.

It will then stepthe user throughthe process ofcompleting thepage by enteringthe text orinsertinggraphics from aclip art file.




Importing and scaling graphicsYou can scan in graphics, download them from the internet or transfer them fromyour digital camera. They can then be stored in folders on your hard disk or ona CD. You can then import the graphics easily into your document and scalethem to any size you want. For a definition of scaling graphics see page 25.

This file is being importedsimply by selecting ittandthen choosing insert.

This example shows how easyit is to scale a graphic byadjusting the height andwidth percentage.




Importing textSetting up a text box is easily done. You can use the rulers at the side of thepage to enable you to position the text box exactly where you want it thenimport the text using the menus and the pointer.

Once you have all the objects on your page you can change the page layoutby changing the position of the objects on the page, or by altering thestructure of the page layout itself.

These graphics give a good example of how the layout of a page can bealtered and the position of objects changed.




Wrapping text around your graphicsThis is a useful feature. It enables you to wrap your text around a graphic.This is a very effective way of relating the text to the graphic and describingwhat is going on in thegraphic. Here we can seeseveral different ways you canwrap text around a graphic.

Exercise 181. Using a desktop publishing package choose a template for a document.2. Use this template to produce a document and, using your jotter or your

word processor, write down how the template helps you.3. Import some graphics into your document. What does ‘importing a

graphic’ mean?4. Change the dimensions of your graphics by scaling them.5. Crop some of your graphics and explain how this improves the document.6. Use the text wrap feature to wrap text around your graphics.7. Use your online help to find out about the features of your desktop

publishing package that can help you:(a) position your text and graphics with precision(b) alter the layout. Use your online help.

8. Use these features to alter your document.


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