Summary of Grade 11 Computers, Part of Your Life - Computer Applications Technology (PRACTICAL ONLY)

CAT Practical
Word
Working with files
 Metadata: Data that tells you about data
 Share button in word saves the current file and creates and email with the file as an
attachment
 File -> info gives you options to protect or revise the document, as well as properties
 Options that increase efficiency
o Use Print Preview
o Print more than one copy at a time
o Collation options
o Page setup dialog box to set doc settings
 Options that save paper
o Save paper by selecting just the pages you need
o Print on both sides of the paper
o Print more than one page on sheet
 Print quality -> Printer Properties -> Economode/draft to save ink/toner
 Export menu:
o Portable Document Format - Retains layout and formatting
o Word 97-2003 – allows older versions of word to open the file
o Plain Text - Lose all formatting, allows almost any program to read file
o Rich Text Format - Retains most formatting, opens on most word processors
 F1 – Help pane
 F4 – repeat key

Page Formatting
 Sections – used to vary the page layout on one or more pages of the same document
 NB: Header and footer -> quick parts -> field
 Link to Previous keeps header and footer from previous sections (including page number –
must break link to have different page numbers)
 Horizontal spacing – space between text in same line or margins and text
 Vertical spacing – space between lines in a paragraph or between paragraphs
 Style: combination of formatting attributes saved as a collection under 1 name

Word Forms
 Data capturing: entering data into a computer
 Text form field – field where text can be typed in
 Check box filed – field where an item can be selected or marked
 Drop down form field – field where on item can be selected
 Memo – document that is used for less formal internal communication & that covers only 1
topic (to whom it is address, from whom, date, topic, body)

,  Agenda – formal document that is used to give focus to a meeting by indicating the points to
be discussed (purpose, date, time, place, points to be discussed – welcome, matters arising,
new matter)
 CV – formal comment where you introduce yourself & indicate your qualification, skills, work
experience & other relevant personal information

Mail Merge
 Mail merge: process whereby a main document with merge fields is created & combined
with data from a data source to create a merged document
 Data source: file or component that contains records that can be used in a mail merge (table
or query)
 Main document: document that contains portions that will be exactly the same for all the
versions of the merged document – contains fields that will receive data from source
 Decide what information must be changed, replace with placeholders that refer to source
 Merge fields: data fields linked to the data source that will be used to insert data from the
data source into the main document

References:
 Footnotes: additional information placed at the bottom of the page in a document & is
linked by a number or symbol to the relevant text in the body of the page (endnote same
but appears at end)
 Footnotes (or endnotes) used to:
o Give more detailed explanation of certain text
o Make comments on certain statements
o Supply the name of the quoted person
 Caption: numbered description added to a graphic object (consist of label, number & custom
text)
 Enable you to:
o Refer to specific diagrams, photos in text
o Create tables of contents for figures, tables
 Need to acknowledge sources to avoid plagiarism & enable people to check sources
 Citation: reference to the source used in a specific instance and found in text immediately
after piece of information being referred to
 Bibliography: list of cited sources found at the end of a document and formatted according
to a chosen style (doesn’t include book page numbers – only in citations)
 Index: alphabetical list of words together with the page number showing where they occur
(found at end of book)

, Excel
 Spreadsheet: application program that’s mainly used for doing calculations & analyzing data
 Worksheets are logical way to organise data
 Ways to make spreadsheet more readable:
o Conditional formatting – automatically applied to cells depending on where the cell
fulfils special criteria
o Character formatting (font style, type, colour)
o Borders and shading
 Relative cell referencing: cell reference format where the column letter and/or row number
of a cell reference in a formula or function is adjusted appropriately it is copied to another
cell
 Absolute cell referencing: cell reference format that prevents the column letter and/or row
number in a formula or function from changing when it is copied to another cell
 POWER & ^ operator used for exponential expressions
 Ctrl + ~ -> show formulae

Errors
 #VALUE!
 #DIV/0!
 #NAME?
 #REF!
 #NUM!
 #NULL! – operator, comma or colon has been left out
 Circular reference – when function/formula that contains a cell reference that is the same as
the current cell

Making charts readable
 Chart: visual representation of data & results (used to recognize patterns & forecasts)
 Descriptive title & naming axes
 Legends - shows which what data series represents (colors)
 Each column is called data series
 Data labels - indicate values at each data point – supply more concrete details as actual
values are displayed
 Useful for making critical decisions based on data
 Gridlines - horizontal & vertical lines behind chart that help improve readability (on charts
with axes)

Worksheets
 Formulas – pastes contents and not formatting
 Values – pastes results of formula or function
 Formats – pastes formatting of cells
 Transpose – exchanges rows and columns
 Whole worksheet can be protected against change or just specific cells can be unlocked to
allow user to edit them