PDF vs DOC

A PDF file can not be altered but a word document can be.  Also a PDF file can be opened by all operating systems while a word document has to be opened in word.

Compressing files

Compressing files into zip folders is a very useful tool for various reasons.  If the folder is needed to be moved or sent somewhere, compressing it into a zip file means that it is a smaller file to be moved.  It also allows you to keep any formatting that the folders and files already have.  For example if a folder has folders and files inside it, by compressing it into a zip file, the formatting will be the same when the folder is unzipped.  To zip a folder, you select it then right click.  You then select 'send to' then 'compressed 'zipped' folder'.  This will make the folder into a zip file.  To unzip, simply double click on the file.

Threats to data

It is very important to protect your data from threats because otherwise you could lose all your work and wont be able to get it back.  Some common threats and ways to protect your data from them are:

• Viruses - Install a virus protection to protect your computer from viruses.  You can get the viruses form anywhere such as e mails or websites.
• Theft - Keep backups for your server and personal data.  Putting it on an external hard drive in a different place such as work or a friends house could protect it from theft and natural disasters.
• Computer failure - Constantly save your work so if something goes wrong with your computer you can get most of your work back.
• Renaming files with names which aren't understood - Name your files properly so your computer doesn't have a problem with them.  No spaces or symbols is a good rule to keep.
• Hacking - Protect your password.  Don't have a password that is easy to guess and don't tell anyone what it is.  It is also good practice to change your password from time to time if you want to be extra careful.

At school, two hard drives were stolen, but because there were back ups stored somewhere else, the school were able to get back all the files they lost.  

In Photoshop, I didn't know how to name files properly and named the image with spaces.  The computer could not understand this and wouldn't open the file so I couldn't open the image again.  

Quite often the computer with freeze or shut down and if I haven't saved my work, I could lose everything I have been working on.  

File management

File management is when you create structure in your file using naming conventions, folders and sub folders to make it easier to locate a file when you need it.
Different file conventions are:

• Camel case - Every letter starts with a capitol and there are no capitols.
• Underscore - No capitol letters and an underscore is put between all the words.  

I use camel case for all of my file naming because that is what I have always use.  However you chose to name your files, you should always be consistent.  

You should also name your files with meaningful names so you can know what the file contains without having to open it.  This could contain the date, title or what the file is for.

I organise my file on the computer by having a folder for each year.  Inside that folder is the subjects I am taking.  Inside each of these is a folder for each topic we study with all the files I used for that topic.

OS

GUI

GUI, or graphical user interface allows to user to easily use the computer.  The GUI is what users see when using the computer and allows the user to easily access applications and personalise their computer.  Every operating system has a different GUI.  Using GUI allows me to change the wallpaper to a different photo and easily open the applications I want.

File management

File management allows the user to save, move, rename and easily access file from the directory.  Using file management allowed me to save files to a file so I could easily find it later.

Application execution

Application execution is when the OS opens and closes applications at the will of the user.  OS give the application and icon so the user can find it quickly and easy.  I use application execution whenever I use an application such as Microsoft word or internet explorer.

Input/Output management

The input and output management works out what inputs and outputs are being used and what is necessary for them to be used.  For example a keyboard, the OS works out what buttons are being pushed and what the computer should do when they are pushed.  When I type on the keyboard for a word document, it will add the letter pushed to the document.  The screen, the OS works out what should be displayed on the screen. 

Graphical User Interface for Operating Systems

The graphical user interface, or GUI, for operating systems is what the user sees and uses to interact with the computer.  The GUI allows the user to easily communicate with the computer using things like windows and buttons via the mouse instead of entering text on a command line.  Each operating system has its own user interface.

Microsoft Windows

OSX


Linux

Operating systems

An operating system is software which all computers must have to be used.  Computers communicate with binary code, so we can not use it unless we have an operating system.  The operating system is sort of the middle man or translator.  It allows us to be able to tell the computer what we want it to do.

Communications

To be able to communicate your idea visually, you need to be able to engage your reader and make them want to read your project and find out more.  To to do this you need to make it visually appearing.  A good way to help do this, the word CRAP helps when you are designing.
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

By following these guide lines, you should be able to create a visually appearing document.
Another way to keep a person reading your document is to create a hook which wants them to read more and find out what it is about.  It could be anything, such as a big title which doesn't tell you all the information, or a large image.

The last tip is to create a feature such as a 'wall' to keep the readers eye in the document.  This is usually a visual element in the right side at the bottom because readers eyes will start in the top left and follow the document down to the bottom right corner.  It can be anything from a picture to text, just anything which makes the readers eye stop instead of wandering off the page.
For example, this picture.  Images on the right keep your eye on the document for longer.

Copyright

When you are making a project which requires others peoples work, such as images, you need to be careful to make sure that whatever photo you use is not copyrighted.
In most places, such as google and flikr, which have photo's which you can use, if you look in 'advanced settings' you can change the settings so you are only looking up photos which you can use.  Depending on how you are going to use the photo, different photos will be at your disposal.  
Work will generally be put under these categories:

• Copyrighted - You can not use the work at all unless it is invalid because it has been over 50 years since it was made.
• Attribution - You are aloud to change, display, distribute, pretty much anything, but you must give the artist credit for their work.
• Noncommercial - This is the same as attribution, but you are not aloud to sell, or make money from it.
• No derivative works - You can use the photo for your intended purpose, but you can not change it in any way.
• Share alike - You can use their work, but it must have the same licence as they have on their work.   

So chose the category which best suits what you want to use it for.  

If you break a licence, the person who made the work will be able to sue you.

Indesign

Layers

One of InDesign features is it's layers.  On the right side panel you will see the layers (the red box).

Parts of the document (e.g. picture, text, everything!) can be put in layers.  These layers can then be arranged from on top of the document to the bottom.  It is also useful to help select the part of the document you want when you have a complicated page.  

Character and Paragraph Styles

Another feature in 'Indesign' is the character and paragraph styles(shown in red).  

These are used to create and save either a character style or paragraph style which can then be easily used somewhere else in your document.  Character styles can include things like font, size, colour and alignment.  A paragraph style will include things like line spacing and bullet points as well as the things in character styles.  They can be based on character styles.  

Naming

It is important that the styles are named appropriately so you can easily refer back to them and see where they were used.  This is also the same for things like swatches.  When you make your own swatch, you need to name it according to what it is being used for, not just the default setting.  

Colour Types

When making a document, the colour and image file types used depend on what the document is being made for.  CMYK should be used for printing because those are to colour that the printer will use to print it.  RGB should be used for things such as web pages because that will give you the best colour.  Refer to previous blog for colour types to be used.  

Shortcuts

Shift, W = Presentation view

Shift, + = Zoom in

Shift, - = Zoom out

Ctrl, R = Rulers on/off

Shift, F11 = Character styles

F11 = Paragraph styles

InDesign vs Word

Layers

One of InDesign features is it's layers.  On the right side panel you will see the layers (the red box).

The oparts of the document (e.g. picture, text, everything!) can be put in layers.  These layers can then be arranged from on top of the document to the bottom.  It is also useful to help select the part of the document you want when you have a complicated page.  Word does not have this feature.

User Friendly

Word is a more self explanatory and user friendly than InDesign.  At the top of the program in the tool bar, are lots of basic options.  These are alot easier to apply to the document than in InDesign. 

 

Copyright

Copyright is a concept which alows the person who created the work to have exclusive rights to it.  Copyright laws allow the holder to have the right to control who is alowed to use their work and what for.  The holder can sell and licence this right.  If you work for someone, then they have bought the right to your work in advance.  You do not need to register or give any notice, as soon as your work is in tangible form it will be copyrighted.  The copyright will last for 50 years after the work is made. 

A brief introduction to copyright can be found at: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html accessed 7/2/12

Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.

Creative Commons have different licences which people can use to protect their work. They are:

• Attribution - Anyone can use your work but they must give you credit for it.

• Noncommercial - Anyone can use your work but not for commercial purposes.

• No Derivative Works - Anyone can use your work but only verbatim copies, not copies they have altered.

• Share Alike - Others can distribute derivative works only under the same licence which licences your work.

More information about Creative Commons and their licences can be found at their website at:  http://creativecommons.org/ accessed 8/2/12

I hope this blog has been helpful and taught you a little about copyright.

Visual Basic

When working with numbers in Visual Basic, you can use the 'IsNumeric' function to check if something is numeric.  Such as 'IsNumeric(txtIncome.Text)', this is checking to see if the text in the txtIncome textbox is only numeric.  It can be used in an 'If' statement to carry on with your intended program if it is only numbers or stop the program and warn the user if they have entered wrong text.

The 'Val' function is used before a variable or text box to turn the information in the text box into and integer.  Such as 'Val(txtIncome.Text)'.  This is turning the information in txtIncome into numbers.


While using Visual basic, it is sometime useful to edit out some lines of code to find problems or mistakes.  You can do this by putting a ' before the line.  E.g. 'iIncome = Val(txtIncome.Text).  This line will then become green and will not be used in the code.  You can also use this to write yourself notes about what is happening in your code, for example, 'Declaring Variables.

Colours

It is good to reuse colour throughout your document.  You can do this by making colour from a picture you are using a 'swatch' so you can use it easily.  To do this you can use to dropper to select the colour you want then saveing it into your colour pallet.  You can also find more colours by making them yourself or selecting a group of colours from 'kuler'.  In Kuler you can search topics to find colours for that subject, e.g. beach, then download them into your colour pallet.


RGB and CMYK are two different colour schemes used.
When you download an image off the internet it will be a JPG and RGB.  RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue.  CMYK stands for Cyan (blue), Magenta (pink), Yellow and Key (black).  CMYK is best for printing and RGB is best for the internet. When you get colours from Kuler or photos from the internet, they will be in RGB so they will need to be changed to CMYK to get the best results if you are going to print them.

File Name Conventions

I organise my files by having a file for each school subject, then a file inside each one of those for the year.  I name all my documents with a name which will let me know what the document is.  I use camel case to name my files.  This is when the file names have no spaces in them but capitols at the start of each word.
 

Another way of naming your files is having underscores instead of spaces.
If you use spaces in the file name then if the file is used on the internet, the computer may change the name.  This is why you shouldn't use spaces in the file name.
Another thing you should try not to do is use special characters such as !#$%? except for underscores and dashes.

However you organise your file you should always be consistent.

Exel - Cell References and Copying to Word

Relative Reference - This means that when you reference a cell in a formula and you use the formula for different cells, the cells in the formula will move across and down depending on where the cell is that you chose to use.
 

Absolute Reference - This is used in a formula to set a cell so when the formula is used in different cells, the cell you have set will stay the same.  You do this by adding '$' before the letter or number reference for the cell, depending on what you want to stay the same.  eg  =B2+$A$8     A8 will stay in the formula even when you change the cell.   





Copying to Word - If you copy and paste information from excel to word you will have many different paste options.  One of them is 'linking'.  This means that if you change something on the original excel document, the information will also change on the word document.

Tools in Word

• Quick Styles - This is used when you are formatting your text and you have different formats such as font, size and spacing for different parts of your text (e.g. title, subheadings).  It is a lot easier to make the format you would like to use then save it as a quick style so you can reuse it later in the text.  It is easier to use this than to try remember spacing or font sizes each time when making a new heading.
• Paragraph and Line Spacing - You can use line spacing to spread out your text more so it is easier to read.  Paragraph spacing is used to separate paragraphs instead of using double 'enters'.  You can do this by right clicking the text style at the top of the page and going to 'modify'.  You can then go to 'paragraphs' and edit the size of the gap before or after the paragraph.  If you with to make a new line without getting a paragraph gap, use 'shift, enter' instead of just 'enter'.  
• Tables - Tables are a useful way to display information.  To make them, you go to 'insert', then to 'table'.  You can then pick how many columns and rows you want.  When using tables you should always adjust the cell margins so the text doesn't look too crammed up.  In the table you can merge cells and right, left and centre align text.
• Tabs - Tabs can be useful to show information.  To make a tab, simply turn the rulers on then click on the ruler where you would like a tab.  With a tab you can left, right and centre align text as well as aligning decimals.  

Document File Formats

• ·         docx – made in modern (e.g. 2010) Microsoft Word programs.  Old Microsoft word programs cannot read them without a convertor.
• ·         .doc – made in older Microsoft Word programs.  Can also be read in modern Word.
• ·         .pdf – Stands for ‘Portable Display File’.  Can be read on any computer.  Can not be edited.
• ·         .rtf – Stands for ‘Rich Text Format’.  Most Word processes are able to read them.
• ·         .odt – Made in Open Office. 

Test

Appropriate use in Context

When you produce some work, you need to be careful that the you use appropriate text and photos for the job.  For example, if you are doing a project in school you shouldn't include anything rude or graphic because it wouldn't be appropriate, but if you did the same project at university then it would be a more appropriate place to use graphic images.  At school there is a blocking system they use which is called watchdog.  Watchdog blocks websites which are not appropriate for schools.  In google settings you can turn on safe search which would block inappropriate images.  You can set your safe search to off, moderate or strict.

Below is a screenshot of what would come up if you tried to get on a website blocked by watchdog.

Security

When you are finished on a computer you must be careful to log out properly, particularly if you are not working on your own computer.  If you don't then anyone could go though your folders and delete your work.  You should also be careful not to let anyone know your password because then they could log on anytime.  If people do see your password then all you need to do is change it and not let anyone see your new password.  If you are at school you would need to talk to the appropriate teacher to get it changed. 

Working between school and home
If you are working on something at school, such as a project, and you want to take it home to work on it or vice versa, then you need a way of transporting it.  Some popular ways which people use are USB, e mailing it to yourself and other storage devices such as an i pod or hard drive.  E mailing it to yourself is a particularly good way because then you can access it from any computer and you don't need to remember to take any type of storage holder.  It also means that you have your project backed up in case something happens to the original.