Integrate commercial computing packages

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Integrate commercial computing packages
ICAITU013C
Introduction
The Integrate commercial computing packages unit is designed to help you integrate the skills gained during the Level II Information Technology course. The unit concentrates on producing workplace documents with at least three commercial software application packages.
On completion of this unit, you should be able to apply appropriate conversion formats and manipulate data between commercial application software.
Elements of competency for the unit are as follows:
Produce required organisational documents
1. Appropriate packages and conversion techniques are used to achieve an integrated outcome
2. Data is imported/exported to produce required outcome
3. Data is saved and re-accessed without loss of data
Determine and use self help
1. Help is accessed through online help and manuals
2. Internal organisation client documentation is obtained and used
3. Glossary

The NSW HSC Online© site is bound by the responsibilities outlined in the disclaimer.

Produce required organisational documents
Appropriate packages and conversion techniques are used to achieve an integrated outcome.
1. File extensions
2. Saving documents in different file formats
3. File compression
4. Extracting files from an archive
5. Creating an archive
6. File formats
The Windows operating system has made it simpler to share data among computer program applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases, graphic packages and so on. A user can create data in one application and then very easily share that data by importing or exporting it to another application by using the windows ‘clipboard’ facilities or by saving the file in a format that another application can open.
Please note that the activities and exercises are mostly based around using the Microsoft® family of products, including Windows XP and Office XP. However the ideas and concepts can be used in most other current computer applications.
Tip: For the following activity, if you cannot see the file extension in Windows Explorer, use the menu, look for and remove the tick that states ‘Hide Extensions for Known File Types’.
File extensions
Each Windows application has a file extension associated with it that is used when saving a document (sometimes referred to as a file). An extension simply describes the document to Windows and also the programs on your computer. You may have noticed that when you view files with Windows Explorer, most have a certain icon attached to them. This icon is derived from the file extension. The figure at right shows an example image from Windows Explorer that has the icons associated with the file names.
Notice how the file called solver_examp.doc has the Microsoft Word icon attached to it, the file called ASSESS3.MDB has the Microsoft Access icon attached to it and the file called Orders_filterex.xls has the Microsoft Excel icon attached to it. When you save a document, the applications program gives it a default file extension. Therefore, when you double click a document within Windows Explorer or My Computer, this action will open the program and also the associated document.
Activity 1 – Saving a file and then opening it from Windows Explorer
• Open the Microsoft Word program on your computer. This should load the program and also create an empty Word document.
• For this exercise, simply type your first and last name into the document.
• Select and from the menu and save the document into the ‘My Documents’ folder on your computer. For the exercise simply call it ‘ex_open’. Notice how the default file extension is .doc.

• Close the Microsoft Word program.
• Open the Windows Explorer program and navigate to the ‘My Documents’ folder on your computer. The ex_open.doc document should have the Microsoft Word Icon attached to it.
• Double click the document and notice how it opens the Microsoft Word program and also ex_open.doc at the same time.
Tip: You can create a shortcut on the Windows Desktop to any document on your computer. Simply right click on the document and select the option to ‘Create Shortcut’. If you then double click the document from the desktop it will open the associated program and also the document at the same time.
Exercise 1
• Create some documents in other applications on your computer. Use the techniques described in the previous activity and save and open the various documents.
Please note that there is no suggested answer for this exercise.

Saving documents in a different file format
When you save a document, you have the option of saving it in a different format other than the one associated with the program you are using. For example, you could save a Word document as an HTML document, WordPerfect® document or a Microsoft Word document. You could also save a Microsoft Excel document as an HTML document or as a Lotus123® document. When a document is saved in another format, the file extension name changes, (in most cases), and that file can then be opened in the other application program. Generally, any formatting or special features created in the original document are maintained.
Most application programs keep the same file extension names through different versions of their products. For example, Microsoft Word has kept the .doc extension through all versions of its program. Excel has also kept the .xls extension through all its versions, as Access has kept the .mdb extension. When you save a file in a different format, you have the option of saving to an earlier version of the same program. In this case, the extension will still be the same but the document can be opened in earlier versions of the program. This feature can be useful if you create a document at school on one version of the program and then take it home for further use, but you have a different version of the application at home.
Activity 2 – Saving documents with different extensions
This activity will give you practice in saving documents in different formats. You will also find out what type of file formats your computer supports.
Microsoft Word 1 - Save as a Works document
• Create a new Microsoft Word Document and type your name in it.
• Select the option from the menu. (Note that you could also click the icon of the disk on the toolbar to do this).
• Name the document ‘change1.doc’.
• Click the small down area beside the input box for ‘Save File as Type’.
• Note the different formats available. The number of formats and the types will be dependent on the version of Word that you are using and the filters installed on your computer.
• Find and select the file type .wps.

• This will save the file as a Microsoft Works document. Note in the figure above how there are two entries for *.wps. These are both Microsoft Works documents but they are different versions.
• Once you have saved the document, open Windows Explorer and navigate to where you saved the ‘change1’ document. If you have Microsoft Works installed on your computer, then the document will have the Works icon attached to it. If you do not have the program the icon will be a generic one.
• If you now double click the icon it will open the document within Works (if you have it installed).
• OR if Microsoft Works is not installed, you will be asked what application you would like to open the file with. See the figure at right. (The exact message and shape of the box may differ depending on your version of Windows.) Click the button as you need to install Microsoft Works on your computer if you want to open the file within that application.

Microsoft Word 2 – Save as a Text document
Within most applications you will generally have the option of saving a document as plain text. If the document is saved in this format, it will lose any formatting features that have been applied to it. However, saving documents as text can be very useful. Most application programs can open a text document. Therefore, if the application you use, (Word, Excel etc) cannot save in a format that is suitable for another application program that you want to use, you can at least save the text content and then open it in the other program and reapply the formatting.
• Open the ‘change1.doc’ file you created in the previous activity.
• Add some formatting to your name. (For example, make it bold and coloured.)
• Select the , option from the menu.
• Change the to ‘Plain Text *.txt.’ Leave the file name the same (change1) and click .

• After you have saved it, use Windows Explorer and navigate to where you saved your document. Note that if you saved it in the same folder as the last exercise, you will have two files in the folder with the same name. This is allowable in this instance because the two files have different extensions.
• Double click the text document. (Identify it by its icon). It should open your default text editor, (probably Windows Notepad) and also the document. Note that the formatting you applied within Word, (making your name bold etc), has been removed by saving as text.
Microsoft Excel – Save as a text document
• When you save a spreadsheet document, you can easily save the spreadsheet into another application's format if Excel has a save filter for that particular application. For example, you can save an Excel document as a Lotus123 file, a Microsoft Works file or an earlier Excel version.
• However, if the application type that you want to save to is not in the small down area beside the input box for ‘Save as Type’, then you can only save the file as a delimited text file. A delimited file is a pure text file that has an extra character, (a space, a comma, a tab etc) between the different entries in the file to distinguish each entry from the next. Once the file is saved in this format, there would generally be an import routine in the other application, to import a text delimited file.
• Download the home_budget.xls (Excel document) file.
• Save the file to your computer and open it with Microsoft Excel.
• Select , .
• Change the 'Files of Type' to ‘Text (Tab Delimited) (*.txt)’. Leave the same name (home_budget).
• When saving the file you may get a warning message about formatting problems. Click OK (or yes) if this happens. This simply warns you that if you save as a text document you will lose some formatting features in the document.Use Windows Notepad and open the home_budget.txt file.
• Note how the data is the same as the spreadsheet, with each cell and column entry delimited (separated) by extra spaces. The extra spaces are the tab entries, (the same as typing and pressing the TAB key on the keyboard).

Tip: This technique is very useful for importing/exporting data from very old versions of different databases. Most application programs can read delimited files, so once the text is imported, it is only a matter of reapplying the lost formatting.
Exercise 2
• Try creating various documents in different application programs that are installed on your computer. Then save these documents in different formats. Try to reopen the document. If you can then you have the associated program installed on your computer. If not, then the associated program is not installed. Note that there is no formal answer to this exercise.
Exercise 3
Go to activity

File compression
When a file/document is saved on a computer, it is saved in a native format relative to the type of file it is. i.e. word, excel, text etc. However, by using certain compression programs, you can take a file, or a number of files, and reduce the size of those files or roll them up into one file. This can be useful when you want to transfer files between computers or across the Internet. Compression programs extract certain characters out of the contents of a file to reduce the size of the file. Unfortunately, once you extract the characters, you cannot open the document/file again, until you put the characters back in.

There are various programs that can do this, but the industry standard at the moment is a program called WinZip®. (There are others that do just as good a job such as WinRar.) WinZip is a compression program that creates a file called an archive. Within this archive there can be one or more files. Many files that are available for download on the Internet are compressed. The reason for this is that they are smaller, allow quicker download and thereby reduce the amount of traffic on the Internet.
• Archives created with WinZip have an extension of .zip. In Windows the default icon for an archive is the figure on the right.
Activity 3 – Using WinZip
• Ensure that you have WinZip installed on your computer. If you need the program you can download it from http://www.winzip.com/ . Please note that WinZip is not freeware. If you intend to keep using the program, you are expected to pay for it.

Extracting files from an archive
• There are various ways that you can add or extract files from an archive. This activity will walk you through the most common method.
• Before you begin, download the zip_activity.zip (Zip file) file to your computer and store it in the My Documents folder. Note that the size of the zip file is approximately 3Kb (3000 bytes).
Open the WinZip program from the start menu.
• A program screen similar to the image at right should appear.
• Depending on the task, some icons will be greyed out.
• Click the ‘Open’ icon and navigate to where you saved the zip_activity.zip file. (My Documents)
• Select the .zip file and click open.

• In this archive, there are two compressed files - a text Document and a Word Document.
• Note the Microsoft Word Document. If you view the right of the Winzip Screen, you will notice that the original document size was 19968 bytes. The compressed size is just 1767 bytes.

• To extract the files from the archive, click the ‘Extract’ icon. You will be prompted by a screen that asks you where you want to extract the files to. Ensure that the ‘Extract to’ input box shows the My Documents folder. You can either type in the location or use the ‘Folders/Drives’ box and navigate to where you want to extract them to.

• Ensure that the ‘All files’ Radio box is selected. If you select a file/s within the archive window, the ‘Selected Files’ button will be activated and only those files selected will be extracted. (Note that there are some other options available in here). For our purposes we can leave these at the default. You should, however, read the Help files and explore the other options as well.
• Click the button and the files will be extracted from the archive to the My Documents folder.
• Check to see if the two documents are in the My Documents folder. To open them, simply double click on them.
• Close the WinZip program.

Creating an archive
• To Create an archive, open the WinZip Program.
• Click the ‘New’ Icon.
• You will be asked for a name for your archive. For this exercise, call it ‘My_Zip’. Type this into the ‘File Name’ box, ensure that the ‘Save In’ option shows the My Documents folders and click OK.
• You will then be prompted to select the files that you want to add to your archive.
• Navigate to the My Documents folder and select the two files extracted from the last exercise.

• Tip: To select multiple files, hold down the key while clicking on the files. There are other options in here, including the ability to protect the archive with a Password. Please read the Help file for an explanation of the options.
• Once the files are selected, click the ‘Add’ button. The archive will be created.
• Close the WinZip program and check the contents of the My Documents folder for the zip file called My_zip.zip. In this archive will be the two files you selected in the activity.
Hints & tips for WinZip
There are various ways of using the WinZip program.
• To open an existing archive, simply click on the archive from within Windows Explorer. This will start the WinZip program using the archived file.
• To add files to an existing archive, simply drag and drop them onto the archive. If you have set a password on the archive, the added files are not password protected.
• To extract files from an archive, you can drag and drop them from the archive into any folder.
• If you double click on a file/document within an existing archive, the file will open with the associated program.
• By default, WinZip adds a shortcut to the right click menu in Windows Explorer. If you select a file(s) and right click the mouse within Windows Explorer, you can create, add, or create and email a zip file.
• Normally, to be able to extract files from an archive, a user must have a copy of WinZip on their computer. However, you can create an ‘executable’ archive. The files of an executable archive can be extracted in Windows, without WinZip.

• WinZip also allows you to span an archive across multiple floppy disks, which is useful if you have an archive that is bigger than 1.44 MB. When you create an archive, specify that you want to save it on the A: drive (floppy disk) and an option to span disks becomes available.

Exercise 3
• Practise adding/extracting files to/from archives using the following activity. Also, have a look at some of the options within the program and try to work out what they do. Tick each item as you complete each activity. You may need to read the help file and also the previous notes to complete some of the items.

Activity Completed
Create an archive with one file. ?
Create an archive with multiple files. ?
Extract one file from an archive. ?
Extract multiple files from an archive. ?
Use ‘Drag and drop’ to add a file to an archive. ?
Use ‘Drag and drop’ to add multiple files to an archive. ?
Use ‘Drag and drop’ to extract a file from an archive. ?
Use ‘Drag and drop’ to extract multiple files from an archive. ?
Password protect an archive. ?
Extract files from a ‘Password Protected’ Archive. ?
Use a right mouse click within Windows Explorer to create an archive. ?
Use the WinZip wizard. ?
Create a self extracting archive. Hint: Use the ‘Actions – Make.Exe’ menu option). ?
Create an archive that will recreate the folder structure when being extracted. ?

Note, there is no answer to this exercise. Complete each task within the exercise and remember to use the Help file if needed.

File formats
Various types of file formats have been mentioned as you have been reading the previous notes and doing the activities and exercises. Here is a table that explains these types of file and graphic formats.
Graphics formats
Type Explanation
.bmp Bitmap File – A standard graphics format for Windows applications, (Paintbrush). Large Size. Comprised of small dots or squares called pixels.
.gif Graphic Interchange File – A compressed format. Commonly used for web pages because of its size. Creates images in 8 bit colour and is used for animation and transparency.
.jpg or .jpeg Joint Photographic Experts Group – Also used extensively on web pages. It is a compressed format mainly used for photographs because at a high compression rate, very little colour is lost. Uses 24 bit colour.
.png Portable Network Graphic – A newer file format for use on web pages. It is of better quality than .jpg and uses a better compression technique. Its main drawback is that older web browsers do not support and cannot display the format.
.tif or .tiff Tagged Image File Format – Used for scanning pictures. Also compatible on both the Windows and Macintosh computer platforms.
File formats
Type Explanation
.txt Text - A file that consists of only text characters (numbers, letters, special characters), that has no formatting set on the characters. It is also known as an ASCII file. Text files can be read by any word processor, most spreadsheet programs and most database applications, as well as any text editor program on any operating system platform.
.pdf Portable Document Format – A file format for documents that can be read and created on different operating system platforms. Can contain text, images, formatting, colour etc. It is very popular for document distribution across the world wide web, where users download documents to their computers on different operating system platforms such as Apple, Unix, and Windows. The contents are read using the free Adobe® Acrobat program. They are highly compressed during creation but are still generally very large.
.csv Comma Separated Values – A text file in which entries in the value are separated by a comma. When exporting data from a table in a database, the individual field values can be saved in a CSV text file, with each value separated by a comma. This text file can then be exported into a spreadsheet with each entry going into a separate cell within the spreadsheet. You could also use the same technique to export data from a spreadsheet to a database table.
.dif Data Interchange File – A file similar to a CSV file in that the data is oriented towards being stored in columns and rows for import/export to spreadsheets and databases. It also contains extra information to allow easy import and export.
.rtf Rich Text Format – This is a file format where the contents of a document can be saved with formatting, (bold, underline, colour etc) and be reopened by just about any word processor and the formatting in the document will be retained. For example, a document saved with WordPerfect as an .rtf file can be opened by the Word program on an Apple Macintosh and the original formatting of the document will be retained.
Exercise
Go to activity


The NSW HSC Online© site is bound by the responsibilities outlined in the disclaimer.
Produce required organisational documents
Data is imported/exported to produce required outcome.
1. Using the clipboard
2. Cutting and pasting data between applications
3. OLE – Object linking and embedding
4. Linked objects
5. Embedded objects
In the readings, activities and exercises in Topic 1, you explored different ways of exchanging data by creating files that can be saved and used on operating system platforms such as Windows, Unix, and Apple. You can also import and export some work in other ways if you are using the Windows operating system.
Using the clipboard
Data can be moved or copied between programs by using the Windows ‘clipboard’. The clipboard is a temporary storage area in the computer’s memory where data, such as text and images, can be stored for later retrieval. The Windows clipboard is accessed by using the cut/copy/paste commands available in the menu in all Windows applications.
Activity 1 – Copy and paste data via the clipboard
• Open the Windows Notepad program. This program is generally available by selecting the menu, , and then clicking the shortcut.


• Once Notepad is open, type your name into the untitled document.
• Highlight your name by dragging the mouse pointer across it while holding down the right mouse button. Your name will be highlighted and have a dark grey background around it.
• From the Menu, select the option to . You could also hold down the + keys at the same time to copy the text.


• Either way, the text can now be copied to the Windows clipboard and pasted into other applications. A word of warning: anything that you copy to the clipboard will replace any previous data copied there.
• Close the Notepad program. For this activity, do not save the document.
• Open the Microsoft Word Program.
• Once the Program is open, select the menu and then . Your name should now be pasted into the Word Document. You could also paste the clipboard contents by holding down the + keys at the same time.

The above activity was a simple exercise in copying data from one application to another using the clipboard. You can also copy data from a spreadsheet to a word processor document and retain the table features of the data.
Activity 2 – Copy and paste a table between applications.
• Download the home_budget.xls (Excel document) spreadsheet and save it to your hard drive.
• Open the spreadsheet in Excel. The document is a simple home budget that has some figures and uses spreadsheet formulas to calculate various figures.
• Highlight the range of cells from A1:E17. To do this click in cell A1, hold down the Left Mouse Button and drag down to cell E17.


• From the Menu, select the option to . Remember, you could also hold down the + keys at the same time to copy the text.
• Leave Excel open.
• Open the Microsoft Word program.
• Select the menu and then . The data should now be pasted into the Word document and the table formatting retained. Remember, you could also paste the clipboard contents by holding down the + keys at the same time.
• If you cannot see the gridlines for the rows and columns, select the menu and the option.
• Note that when the data has been pasted, the formatting has been pasted as well. For example, you should see the green background colour of the heading, the bold attributes, and that the total figure for February is in red.
• Also notice that the total figures are now actual figures and not formulas as they were in the spreadsheet.

Exercise 1
Download the widgets.xls (Excel document) file and use the techniques just learned to copy and paste the data from Excel to Word.
The exercise and activity completed above can also be completed in reverse - you can copy and paste a table from Word to Excel. When the data is pasted, the values in the table columns and rows are kept the same as in the cells within Excel.
Activity 3 – Copy and Paste data from Word into Excel
• Download the Rabbits.doc (Word document) file and save it to your hard disk.
• Open the document and click anywhere inside the ‘Rabbit’ data table. This should select the table that holds the data. Depending on the version of Word you are using, there will be a box with a cross in the top left of the table area. Click on the cross or drag across the table while holding the right mouse button. This will select the data within the table.


• Use the techniques learned before and copy the table to the Windows clipboard.
• Open the Excel program and create a new spreadsheet, (if one isn’t automatically created).
• Select cell A1 and then use the techniques learnt before and paste the data into cell A1.
• You will notice that Excel will copy and place the individual items into cells as per the table in the Word Document. You could now use the functions of the spreadsheet to calculate the totals, widen columns and so on.


• As an exercise, enter formulas into row 14 to add the total number of rabbits for each year.
• Save the Excel spreadsheet as Rabbits.xls on your hard drive.

Exercise 2
• Download the Depreciation.doc (Word document) file and save it to your hard drive.
• Open the document and copy and paste the table from Word to Excel. Once you have pasted the data, enter formulas to calculate the closing value.

Exercise 3
• As a further exercise copy and paste parts of table from Word to Excel or Excel to Word.
• Using the Rabbits.doc file downloaded earlier, select the entries for the states and the 1996 figures (the first two columns).
• Copy and paste these into Excel.

Cutting and pasting data between applications
You can cut and paste data between applications, as well as copy and paste. However, ‘cutting’ will delete the data from the source document.
The procedure for cut and paste is exactly the same as copy and paste. Instead of selecting from the Edit menu, you select .
You could also hold down the + keys at the same time to cut the text.


Exercise 4
• Redo exercises 1, 2 and 3. However, instead of copying the data, cut the data from the source documents.
Note that the activities and exercise above can be completed using any Windows application. You can copy/cut/paste data between documents and programs using the clipboard. You could copy/cut an image from your favourite graphics program and paste it into Word or Excel for example, or you could cut/copy files from various folders by using Windows Explorer.

OLE (Object linking and embedding)
I felt there should be content under the OLE heading. This paragraph is more of an introduction to the concept so I’ve pasted it up.
You have probably copied data between various application programs such as Excel and Word. If the source data changes, then you may need to copy and paste the data again to the destination document to keep the information up to date and correct. Unfortunately, if you change the source data many times, the copy and paste tasks also need to be completed many times. To overcome this problem, Windows applications such as Excel and Word allow data to be pasted as an OLE object (linked and embedded).

Linked objects
When you paste an OLE object, the data is linked so that a change in the source data will automatically update the destination document with the changes. The only change in the copy and paste procedure is using an option to ‘Paste Special’ when pasting the data into the destination document and enabling the link between the documents.
Activity 4 – Copy and ‘Paste Special’ data between applications
• Download the Rabbits.xls (Excel document) spreadsheet and save it on your hard disk.
• Open the document. There are two sheets in the workbook. One holds the data on the Rabbits and the other is a chart that graphs the rabbit populations for the years 1996 and 1997.
• Select the chart sheet by clicking the ‘Rabbit_Chart’ tab on the bottom left on the Spreadsheet screen. This should display the chart.
• Click the ‘chart area’. The chart area is the white area around the chart.
• When this is clicked you should notice small black squares (called handles) around the chart area. These indicate that you have selected the chart.
• Use the techniques learned before and copy the chart to the clipboard.
• Open Microsoft Word and check that you have an empty document.
• From the menu select the option.
• A dialog box will appear on the screen. Your computer system knows that the object in the clipboard is a chart object and presents this option to you. The other important point in here is the radio button to ‘Paste Link’.



• Ensure that you have selected both the ‘Paste Link’ option and also ‘Microsoft Excel Chart Object’ and click the button.
• This will paste the chart into the Word document. A link has been created back to the source document (Rabbits.xls).
Note that the chart shows NSW as having the most rabbits for the two years.
You will now prove that the link works.
• Return to Excel and select the workbook.
• Change the figure for the NSW rabbits for 1996 from 9 700 000 to 5 000 000. (Note that this will change other figures in the spreadsheet).
• Click on the tab in the Spreadsheet. Notice that the chart has now changed. The vertical graphic bars for NSW are now lower than the bars for the other states.
• Return to your Word document and check the chart within that document. It should now reflect the fact that the data has changed in the source document, the spreadsheet. If the chart within Word has not changed, right mouse click on the chart and select the option to ‘Update Now’.


Embedded objects
When an object such as a spreadsheet or chart is pasted into another program and the object is linked, the object becomes embedded within the destination document. This means that you can open the destination document, double click on the object and it will open the associated object in the source program.
Activity 5 – Embedding objects
• Open the Rabbits.xls spreadsheet downloaded in the earlier exercises.
• Select the area of the spreadsheet from A3:F15, the area that holds the rabbit data.
• Use the techniques learned earlier to copy and paste the data into a new Word document. Ensure that you use ‘Paste Special’ and maintain a link between the two documents.
• Once the data has been pasted into the Word document, save it as rabbit.doc on your hard drive.
• Close both the rabbit spreadsheet and the Word document.
• Now re-open the rabbit document. The rabbit table should be inside the document.
• Double click the table in the Word document. This should open Excel and also open the Rabbits.xls spreadsheet.
• You could now make changes to the spreadsheet as required and the changes would be reflected back in the chart in the Word document.
This shows how an object can be linked and embedded within other program applications. The exact definition for OLE is having code from one program running inside another program.
Exercise 5
• Download the home_budget.xls (Excel document) file.
• Create a chart based on the surplus/deficit figures for the three months.
• Export the chart to a Word document as a linked and embedded object.
• Save your Word document (you can think of a name).
• Close the spreadsheet and Word program.
• Open the Word program and double click on the chart to open the Excel program.
• If Excel doesn’t open, review the activities from this document to ensure that you can get OLE to work.


The NSW HSC Online© site is bound by the responsibilities outlined in the disclaimer.
Produce required organisational documents
Data is saved and re-accessed without loss of data
1. Storage media
2. Using images in documents
3. Creating documents for use on web pages
If you need to refresh your memory of these procedures please click on this link: Appropriate packages and conversion techniques are used to achieve an integrated outcome.
Storage media
When data, files or documents are saved on your computer there are various storage media that can be used. Each of these storage media has different characteristics, benefits and drawbacks. The table below shows the characteristics of some of the more popular storage media.
Medium Picture Characteristics
Floppy Disk
• Portable and relatively cheap.
• Most computers have the ability to read and save to a floppy disk.
• Standard floppy disks have limited storage capacity – generally 1.44Mb, although there are some disks that can store 100Mb. Note that these require a special type of floppy disk drive.
• Slow to access and read/save data.
• High possibility of viral infection.
• High probability of losing stored data.
Hard Disks
• Generally not portable but you can purchase removable hard drives.
• Not cheap, although the price of hard disk drives is continually falling.
• Capable of storing large amounts of data - tens of Gigabytes (Gb).
• Faster than other media for storage and retrieval of data.
• Prone to virus infection.
• Low to moderate probability of losing the data stored on the medium.
CDs
• Portable storage medium. Most computers sold these days have a CD-ROM (Compact Disk- Read Only Memory) capable of reading the CD disks.
• Come in various formats.
• Disks and the CD drives are relatively inexpensive.
• Some CDs can be used many times for storage of data. These are Compact Disk re-writable (CD-RW) disks.
• Some CDs can only be used once for storage of data but used many times for accessing the data. These were called recordable (CD-R) disks.
• Hold a limited amount of data, generally 800Mb - not as much as hard disks but considerably more than floppy disks.
• Popular in multimedia applications for storing music, video, and images.
• Low probability of losing stored data in the short term.
DVDs (Digital Video Disk)
• Come in various formats.
• Currently capable of storing 4.7Gb of data
• Some DVDs used for Hollywood type movies are double layered. This allows the DVD to store the data twice.
• Quality of output of DVD movies is more than twice the quality of standard VHS tapes.
• Looks like a normal CD but a little more expensive as are the DVD reader/writers, although this may soon change.
• High speed access but not as quick as a hard disk drive.
• DVD medium is portable but your computer needs a DVD reader to access the data.
• Extremely popular for multimedia applications. Movies and sophisticated presentations can be created on a computer and played on a standard DVD desk top player on your television.
• Will last a long time, as there is no contact between the disk heads and the actual medium.
• Low probability of losing stored data in the short term.
USB drives
• A newer popular type of portable storage media.
• Currently capable of storing up to 2Gb.
• Reasonably expensive, although this may soon change.
• Small and light. Can be carried in your pocket or on your keychain.
• Reasonably fast access.
• Computers need a USB port to access the drive, so they cannot be used on earlier computers without installing a USB peripheral card.
• Low to medium probability of losing stored data in the short term.
Exercise 1
Go to activity

Using images in documents
The popularity of computers, scanners and digital cameras has given the average business and home user the possibility of producing eye-catching documents. The use of carefully placed images in documents can help a reader understand a concept or attract their eye to a particular part of a document. For example, when you started reading this section, the first thing that you probably would have noticed was the image on the right.

Images can be obtained from various sources. Images may be:
• scanned in using a digital scanner
• downloaded from a digital camera
• purchased on CD from various vendors
• downloaded from the Internet from sites that offer free images
• drawn in various drawing programs on a computer.
Whatever source you obtain your images from, consider the following points when using the image within documents.
• Some documents only support limited types of images. For example a web document (displayed in a web browser) only supports a .jpeg, .gif or .png image. Early browsers do not support the .png image type.
• Some applications will only save images as a certain type. Early versions of Windows Paint, would only save as a bitmap (.bmp), for example.
• The size of the image can vary considerably depending on how the image has been saved.
• Placement of the image within the document needs to be carefully considered and also how the text can flow with the image. Ask yourself if text should flow around the image, or stay only on the left or right of the image.

Activity 1 - Comparing image files
The two images below are exactly the same image created in the Windows XP version of Paint. The XP version of Paint has the ability to save your drawing masterpieces in a format other than a bitmap. The difference in quality between the two is not significant (unless you load them into an image viewer and zoom in on each image), but notice the size of each image and the number of colours. Although only small, the size of the .gif file is around 60-70% larger.


This is a 256 colour .gif image of approximately 14k.


This is a 16.7 million colour .jpeg image of approximately 9k.

Activity 2 - Inserting images into a word document
In the following activity you will insert an image created in another application into a word processed document and manipulate placement of the image within Microsoft Word.
• Right click on each smiley image above and save them to your hard disk. Do not change the name and file type.
• Download the image_exercise.doc (word document) and save it on your hard disk.
• Once you have downloaded the document, open it in Microsoft Word.
• The document has some information in it and also two tables. The tables will be used to place the graphics within the document.
• The second table also has some text in it so we can place the image amongst text to practice wrapping text around images and also resizing the images. (The text in the second box is actually two verses of our National Anthem!).
• Click behind the text ‘The gif image will be placed behind here’. This text is in the first table. See the image on the right.


• Select the menu and then select .
• Navigate to where you saved the two smiley face images.
• Select the Smiley_gif.gif image and click the button.

• The gif image will be inserted into the first table.
• Click on the image. The ‘handles’ (small boxes) will be placed around the image.
• Note that there is a small problem in that the text is pushed to the left and top and bottom of the document. It needs to be tidied up.


• Move the mouse cursor over the bottom right handle of the image. The shape of the cursor will change to an angled, two headed arrow.
• Once you have this shape, click and hold the left mouse button and drag up. This will allow you to resize and reduce the image.
• Reduce it down to around 50% of its original size.
• Click on the smiley image and hold down the left mouse button. You can now move the image left or right within the table.
• Drag the image across to the right of the existing text and let the mouse button go. The image will be placed at the end of the text.



In the above activity you learnt how to insert an image into your document and move it around the table to make placing the text easy. In the next part of the activity, you will learn how to place the image among existing text, and to get text to flow around the image.
• Ensure that the image_exercise.doc is open and click behind the red text in the second table.
• Select the menu and then select .
• Navigate to where you saved the two smiley face images.
• Select the Smiley_jpeg.jpg image and click the button.
• This will place the image in the table. Because of the size of the image, the document will probably now extend over two pages.
• Use the techniques you learned in the previous activity and resize the image to a more manageable size, so the table and the image fit on one page.


• Delete the red text in the second table. The image will move to the left, although there is still a gap between the first and second verse of the anthem. It would be better if the text flowed around the image, as shown in the graphic on the right.
• To do this we need to format the picture within Microsoft Word.


• Double click the image.
• This will open the ‘Format Picture’ dialog box.
• Select the Layout tab. This shows the various layouts the text can form around the image.


• Click the button at the bottom of the layout box.
• Ensure the ‘Text Wrapping’ tab is selected and click the picture named ‘Square’. This setting will allow you to move the image anywhere around your document without affecting the text.
• The images in this area show you how your text will flow around the image once selected.
• Click the button twice.


• You will notice that the handles (the small black boxes) around the image have changed to circles.
• You can now drag the image around the table amongst the text.
• When you place the image, the text will flow around it.
• Place the image in the top right of the table and notice how the text flows to the edge and underneath.
• Practice moving the image around the table and placing it in various positions.


Hints:
• The activities above can be done with any type of image that can be imported into a word processed document. We could have completed the second exercise using the bitmap file or the jpeg.
• The Microsoft Office program includes a set of images in the .wmf (Windows Metafile Format) format that can be used within your Word or Excel documents.
• When you are creating your images, ensure that the size of the files are not too large. When saving your documents it may make the files too large and they cannot be saved on floppy disks or used on web sites.

Exercise 2
• Create an image using Windows Paint (Simply draw a picture - any picture).
• Try not to put too much in the picture because the file size may get too large.
• Save the image on your hard disk as a bitmap. If possible, use the option to save as a 24 bit colour bitmap to keep to a smaller size. This will depend on your version of Windows.
• Use the techniques learned above and import the image into a new Word document.
• Type some text in your document and manipulate the image so that the text flows around it.
As additional exercises do the following.
Exercise 3
• Draw your image in Microsoft Paint.
• Use the