Ansal's Blog

Introduction to MS Word 2007

PowerPoint Capabilities

• Microsoft word is powerful word processor software used to create documents like letters, research papers, memos and other projects. Moreover, to communicate information or deliver reports into attractive, interesting and creative presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint is the program to use.
• PowerPoint is a complete presentation package. It produces a professional – looking presentation that has functions for test handling, drawing, layout, clipart and many more. It has built – in layout, templates, editing features, multi – media effects and video clips.

What can PowerPoint do?
• Since PowerPoint is mostly used in delivering presentations, it reduces the habit of time – consuming visual aids. One can have a better result in sharing information with the use of animations and colorful graphics.

PowerPoint Functions
• Presentation – a collection of slides, hand – outs, speaker’s notes and outline. It is the over – all design and format that is carried through from beginning to end.
• Slide – individual “pages” of your presentation. One slide consists of text, title, graphs, drawn objects, shapes, clip art, drawn art and visuals created using other applications. Slides can be printed or paper or even transparencies.
• Hand – out – consists of smaller printed version of slides. This supports the presentation. Additional information such as name of the presenter, the date and page numbers can also be added.
• Notes Page – this helps the speaker as he or she goes along when presenting the slides. The speaker or presenter to remember important words that he/she needs to say. Notes maybe written per slide.
• Outline – this serves as a text preview of your presentation. One way of starting your presentation is to construct the outline first.

Summary
PowerPoint is a complete presentation package. When used to deliver reports, it is better than using traditional visual aids. There are five PowerPoint views namely, presentations, slides, hand – outs, notes and outline.

In MS Pub, the workspace is where one lays out the text, graphics or pictures. It is important to set up the workspace first before designing the publication.

DESIGNING
The moment one gets an idea fir a publication; there are things to decide on before this is expressed as a design.

FIRST, decide whether to highlight or give emphasis to the text or to the picture or graphics. If the focus is on the text, the publication has to be designed in such a way that the pictures or graphics only serve as a support or added “glitters” to the publication. But if the focus is on the pictures, then the text should be smaller. Likewise, the pictures should be located where they were noticed first.

SECOND, decide on the tone of the publication. Will it be very formal and attractive or just simple and informal? Keep in mind who will read and view the publication. One needs to consider their levels as well as their background. In designing a publication, there is always a target group. One has to have in mind the kind of group of people who will read the articles.

THIRD, in designing, making sketches of the target design on a piece of paper will be a great help to visualize the idea. Drawing boxes as placeholders of the pictures and text proves to be a good guide.

LAYOUT DESIGN
With the pictures and text on the sketchpad, the next step is to put them on the page (layout) to make them ‘eye – catching’ and attractive to the would – be readers. One considers the size of the pictures and the text depending on which is to be emphasized.

The number of columns also have to be planned while lay outing. Another thing to keep in mind is the orientation of the page. Orientation can be either a landscape (horizontal position paper) or a portrait (vertical position of paper)

It is also important to set the size of the paper you will be using in your publication. If it is a letter size (short bond paper) or a legal size (long bond paper).

LAYOUT TOOLS
In MS publisher, there are several helpful tools for laying out the publication. These are the layout and ruler guides, the unit of measurement of which can be changed.

Guides are used to organize text, pictures and other objects into columns and rows so that the publication will have an orderly and consistent look. These are nonprinting lines that are use to position objects precisely.

Types of Guides

Baseline Guides – guides to which lines of text can be aligned to provide a uniform appearance between columns of text. These are represented by gold dotted guides.
Ruler Guides – are represented by green dotted lines.
To create ruler guides for a single page – you can create ruler guides on any page in your publication. Ruler guides that are created on a publication page are only visible on that page. Ruler guides that are created on a master page are visible on every page to which that master page is applied.
To remove all ruler guides – on the Arrange menu, point to the Ruler Guides, and then click Clear All Ruler Guides.
Row Guides – horizontal guides that are used to divide a page into two or more sections to help structure the layout of the page. These guides are represented by blue dotted lines.
Column Guides – vertical guides that are used to divide a publication page into tow or more columns. These guides are represented by blue dotted lines.
Margin Guides – guides in the top, bottom, left and right sides of a page that are used to define the margins. Most of the content of a page are within the margin guides.
Snap objects to guides, ruler marks or other objects
Another way of making the layout easier is to snap the objects to guides. Snap means aligning the text or object frame into the created ruler marks.

Changing the ruler unit of measurement
To change the ruler unit of measurement:
1. Click on the Tools, then Options.
2. From the Option dialog box, click down in the Measurement units drop – down list Box.
3. Choose the desired unit of measurement
4. Click on the OK button.
The zero points (ruler origin) of the ruler can also be changed to measure the objects on the page.

To move the ruler origin
1. Hold down CTRL + SHIFT, and then position the mouse pointer on any of the following until pointer change to a double – headed arrow.
• Over the vertical ruler
• Over the horizontal ruler
• Over the junction of the horizontal and vertical ruler
2. Drag the ruler to the desired location.

MS Publisher (MS Pub) – one of the most commonly used software in creating a publication. One can also make a lot of things like calendars, invitations or banners.

Parts of MS Publisher

Title Bar – located at the top of MS Pub where the name of the application and the filename appears.

Menu Bar – located below the title bar. It contains a group of choices that lets one do most Microsoft tasks.

Toolbar – shortcut to various commands that don’t require opening a menu or dialog box. There are two default toolbars: the standard and formatting toolbars.

Standard Toolbar – contains the most commonly used buttons that perform common tasks, such as saving, opening, printing, checking spelling, etc.

Formatting Toolbar – contains buttons that provide shortcuts for choosing fonts, font size, borders, alignments, etc. These are buttons that allow you to change the appearance of the words/characters in your document.

Toolbox – contains the basic tools need in a publication.

Ruler – serves as borders of the MS Pub workspace. They are on top and on the left side of the workspace.

Resize Handle – dragging this portion of the window will resize the active window equally on all sides.

Object Size Area – will show the size of the active or highlighted object in the work page in the unit of measurement, for example, 3.50 x 3.63 in.

Scroll Bar – allows one to view the hidden part of a work page. Sliders and arrows used to see the parts of the document that are not seen in the current window.

Object Position – displays the position of the object with respect to the horizontal and vertical distances of the objects.

Page Indicator – located at the lower left end of the horizontal scroll. It displays the page seen at the moment.

Work Page/ Workspace – this is where one lays out the text, graphics or pictures.

Ask a Question Box – shows the Help Topics that answer the question typed in the text box.

Task Pane – a window within an office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allows one to use these commands while still working on other files.

Control Buttons

Minimize – reduces the window and places it on the taskbar.

Maximize – displays the full screen view of the window.

Restore – puts the window back to its previous.

Close – automatically closes the application.

The Steps in publishing processes can be summed up in six steps, namely:

Designing – is the first step in the drawing board. Here, one thinks of what the end product will look like. It means drawing something first what is on one’s mind. It can be done by asking simple questions like the following:

• What do I want to include in my publication?
• What things will interest the readers?
• Will I put pictures or drawings?
• What kind of people will read my publications?
• Once these questions have been answered, design sketches can be created.

Layout Design – this means determining where to put pictures and drawings on the paper and where the text will appear. Some of the guide questions on layout design are the following:

• Does the text come before an object?
• Is the text SUPER IMPOSED?
• How big should the picture or object be?

Adding Text – this involves the information or the exact words that one would like to be written in the publication. It answers the questions:

• Are my sentences clear and understandable?
• Am I delivering messages?
• What should I emphasize?
• Am I using the right words or terms?
• Is it interesting?

Adding objects or pictures – this is where objects or pictures are to be inserted in the publication. Adding objects and pictures makes the publication eye – catching and attractive to the readers.

Finalizing the layout – here, one gives the final layout and decides whether one needs to add or make changes or leave it the way it is. Very seldom is a publication left unchanged or unedited at this stage for this is where other people look at the work and spot errors normally missed while working on the material.

Printing the Final Layout – having been satisfied with the layout and with all the necessary corrections, additions or changes in the publication, sample copies can now be produced. This is also where camera shots of the publication is done to make hundreds or more copies of it.

Editor – are the ones who generate the ideas for a publication. They also find authors or writers to write the content of the reading material or manuscript. The editor can change the content of the manuscript as he/she pleases but he should talk to the writer first as a sign of courtesy.

Designers – plans the size, style and number of lines per page and the arrangement of pictures and objects and other similar concerns. Usually the designer works with the artist and the typesetter.

Typesetter – sets the book in type with the use of a typesetting machine.

A brief history of PUBLISHING

• Imagine a world without communications. Even the blind, deaf and mute have special ways of making others understand them. They use symbols and signs to communicate not only through spoken language but through many different forms like gestures, signals, sketches, drawings and carvings.

Prehistoric Era

• It is known that our great forefathers used to write on walls of stone to record experiences and ideas. Many sketches were found in ancient caves where our great – great grandparents are believed to have lived long before anybody attempted writing history.

Assyrian and Babylonian Periods

• In these periods, people used symbols known as cuneiform symbols for writing. These symbols were chiseled or engraved on baked stone or clay. Excavated cities of long age revealed thousands of marble pillars and clay tablets with cuneiform characters inscribed on them.

Egypt’s Contribution

• The people of the Nile developed another kind of writing called hieroglyphics, which are found inside and outside of the great pyramids of Egypt. They also invented paper, which was made from the pith of the papyrus plant.

The Phoenician Alphabet

• At around 200 B.C., the Phoenician invented the alphabet that we use today. They used this in recording their everyday business activities in different areas around Asia.
• Alphabet – a sentence form of graphs or characters, used to present the phonemic structure of a language.

Chinese contribution

• The problem was the development of tools and technology to reproduce these characters (alphabet) as a raised surface on a suitable material. During the 2nd century A.D., the Chinese began carving religious texts on stone, inking the raised surfaces and taking impressions. The carved wooden block called the block printing, uses ink that spreads evenly on metal or wood ands transfers evenly on paper.
• The final necessity was paper. Ts’ ai Lun invented paper about 105 A.D.. He devised a way of floating in water the fivers from tree barks, old rags, and hemp waste allow the fibers to settle and then drying them ino a sheet.

Publishing Techniques through the years

• Publishing is the activity that involves a selection of preparation and marketing of printed matter.
• It also refers to the preparation and distribution of written material for public use, such as the information in textbooks and newspaper.
• As it is known today depends on a series of 3 major inventions – writing, paper and printing.
• Printing is the art and technology of reproducing words and pictures on paper, cloth, or other surfaces.

Gutenberg’s contribution

• Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz Germany emerged as the person who was able to put together all the works of his predecessors. He invented the first cast movable pieces of type called the Movable Type.
• Printing was done by aligning or setting individual pieces of lead with raised letters in a straight line to form words and lines of type. This is known as handsetting. These groups of arranged lead would be applied with ink and paper is pressed onto them to make a printed output.

Emergence of Modern Printing

• A series of inventions in the 18th century spurred. All these inventions combined to make printing cheap and abundant (plentiful) and to place books in the hands of virtually anyone who wanted them.
• About 1810, the first workable cylinder press was developed in England by Friedrich Konig. The Konig press offered a major innovation – it was the first to use a heavy rotating cylinder to apply pressure to type on a flat bed. The cylinder increased the speed of the printing process to about 1, 100 sheets per hour, four times greater than that of any previous press.
• Another major advance in printing technology came in 1846 with an American Richard Hoe, created the first operational rotary press. It was made of rotating cylinders of running paper surrounding the central one.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

• Printing is being revolutionized by advances in technology in the fields of automation, electronics and computers. The combination of computer technology and photocomposition (composing of printed matter by photographic means using a machine called photocomposer) has revolutionized typesetting machines.
• Typesetting means the assembly of letters into words and word s into lines, in a form suitable for multiple reproduction by one of the printing methods.