OCR AS ICT Unit 1 Chapter 6

Characteristics of Documents:

• Characters - Any letter, number or symbol used in a document.
• Paragraphs - Portions of text, usually in a larger document.
  • Have a pre-defined style to it.
  • Use of a carriage return at the end of the text.
• Sections - A portion of a document in which page-formatting options can be set.
• Frames - An area of a page containing text or graphics.
• Headers - Text that appears on a document in the top margin of every page.
  • May include the creator's name, title and date.
• Footers - Text that appears on a document in the bottom margin of every page.
  • May include page numbering and date.
• Footnotes - A note commenting on a point in a document, printed in the body of text.
  • Reference numbers
• Pages - Side(s) of a document.
  • Includes text, graphics etc.

Process of Mail Merge:

• 1) Data source created.
• 2) Standard document created with merge fields.
• 3) Data source and standard document links and merged.
• 4) Personalised document printed/sent

Disadvantages & Advantages of Mail Merge:

• Documents can be produced quickly.
• Only one copy needs to be proofread to ensure that all are correct.
• Data source can be used for many different mail merges.
• Standard template can be reused.
• Letter can sound generic.
• Can be used to create vast amount of junk mail
• Data source must be kept up to date for it to be useful.

Users can format the attributes of documents including:

• Page size, settings and orientation
• Text position, size and style.

Page size, settings and orientation:

• Page size and paper to be printed.
• Page margins, headers/footers
• Landscape or Portrait

Text position, size and style:

• Text alignment.
• Font type/size
• Text styles (e.g. bold/italic/underline)

Clip Art Images:

• Readily and Immediately Available.
• Usually free or cheap to obtain.
• No extra hardware needed (e.g. camera)
• Limited choice of images.
• Quality is variable (can be poor to good)
• May not be original or unique.
• May be subject to copyright.

Thumbnail Images:

• Many images can be viewed at the same time
• Images that are alike can be grouped together
• Descriptions can be added to images so they can be searched for
• The quality of images may be poor
• If the library has lots of images, it can take a long time to load one

Bitmap Graphics - Are made up of pixels, each with a position on the image grid and a colour value.

• Stored as pixels.
• Quality is reduced when resizing
• Each pixel is saved individually > larger file size than vector graphics
• Screen resolution can affect the image quality.
• Can be compressed
• Can deal well with highly detailed images (e.g. photographs)

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• Bitmap graphics are produced when a scnaner or camera is used.
• Can be saved in different formats - BMP, GIF, JPEG and TIFF

Vector Graphics - Contain mathematical data that defines the key properties of every element in the graphic.

• Can be resized with no loss of definition.
• Smaller file size than bitmap graphics.
• Can't be compressed.
• High processing power to display.
• Can't be grouped.

 - Used for design purposes and in CAD programs. It's used by architects and designers, where it allows users to change sizes, perspectives and proportions of components in their drawings.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Graphics Libraries:

• Industry-standard symbols are available.
• Symbols will be internationally recognised.
• Images required will all be stored in one place.
• May be difficult to keep up to date.
• New components may not be immediately available.
• Componenets may be added that aren't used or available.

Applications:

• Kitchen Design: include standard symbols for cupboards and kitchen appliances
• Cartography: include symbols used by the Ordnance Survey so maps created for specific purposed will use the symbols on standard maps
• Network Design: include industry-standard symbols for the main components in a network e.g. servers, routers and cabling

Features of Presentation Software:

• Text:
  • Text must meet the needs of the audience. 
  • Style/size and amount must be considered
• Images:
  • Helps convey a message relating to the presentation.
  • Copyright must be considered
  • No. of images should be kept to a minimum and at a suitable size.
• Sound:
  • Sound effects can be set with animation effects.
  • Help emphasise pieces of information, but can distract the audience.
• Video:
  • Can be played automatically.
  • Too many videos can distract audience.

• Animation:
  • Visual effects can be added to emphasise important points.
  • Helps controls the flow of the slide in the presentation.
  • Order and timing can be changed.
• Slide Transition:
  • Transition effects can be applied to make the presentation more interesting.
  • Speed of transitions can be set.
• Hyperlinks:
  • Coloured and underlined text or a graphic which, when clicked, takes the user to a file, location in a file, or a website.
• Hotspots:
  • An area on a screen which responds to a mouse click.
  • This could be text/graphic that takes users to another page.
• Buttons:
  • Used to move from one slide to the next.
  • Makes the presentation interactive due to user interactions.

Computer and Projector Presentations:

• Wide range of features to use (e.g. hyperlinks/video)
• Presentation can be saved and easily edited
• Doesn't have to followed in slide sequence
• The quality of slides does not worsen with use
• Features can be overused e.g. sounds, animations
• Large initial cost (e.g. buyiing computer and projector)
• Software needed to edit slides in real time
• Power cut will stop the use

Printed acetate and overhead porjector (OHP)

• Slides can be annotated to explain/highlight points
• Relatively cheap and rarelt goes wrong
• If there's a power cut, presenter can still read slides
• Special features can't be used
• Difficult to jump to an out of sequence slide
• To edit a slide, a new one must be printed
• Quality deteriorates with use

Manual Transition:

• Involves action from the viewer to move on to the next slide.
• Allows the viewer to run the presentation at their chosen speed.
• Can navigate to other areas in the presentation.

Automatic Transition:

• Involves setting up a presentation to run automatically with no intervention required.
• Timings can be set up to change slides after a pre-specified time period.
• Suitable for presentations where no presenter is required.
• Not suitable for verbal presenations as the presenter has to keep up with the pace of the slides.

Linear - Slides are shown in a pre-determined order through a consecutive manner. Slides frollow in a line from start to finish.

• Predicatable - Every audience will see exactly the same presentation.
• Easy to present - presentation runs in the same order.
• Simple to prepare handouts - due to it being in the same order
• Not very interactive with the audience - since order can't be changed.
• Can be boring - audience have to view slides that may be irrelevant to them

Non-Linear - Slides can be accessed in any order.

• Slides can be accessed in any order.
• Can be tailored to meet the needs of the audience.
• Can be customised for different audiences
• Structure can be complicated to create.
• Need to incorporate navigation method into the slides (e.g. action buttons).

Hiearchical - Allows different but pre-determined slides to be jumped to from a slide depending on an option already selected.

• Options can be selected to meet the needs of the audience.
• Cannot jump to slides that are out of sequence
• May not find the information required if it's out of sequence.