Information Tools

1. B.b.D Information Tools Brendan Doss

2. Presentation Layout Using Microsoft Word to publish and edit written information. Using Microsoft FrontPage and simple HTML to create an efficient web presence. Using Microsoft Access to create a functional relational database. Using Microsoft Excel to enter and manipulate numerical data.

3. Markup HTML Spreadsheets Databases Markup • From type writers, to word processors, and now to inexpensive software package. • Tasks that used to take groups of people and special tools, can now be completed by a teenager in an afternoon. • Microsoft Word offers many tools that can be used for tasks ranging from birthday cards, to publishing magazines. To the left, the document map tool in Microsoft Word. This tool is basically an interactive table of contents, that allows the user to skip from section to section with a simple point and click. This tool would be essential to use when working with a long text, such as the text we used in Task 1.

4. My Resume Microsoft Front Page Markup HTML Spreadsheets Databases HTML Web authoring can be done a variety of levels. Experienced users might choose to hardcode their web pages by simply writing an html document from scratch. Users with less experience, like myself, will find that there are a variety of point-and-click web creation tools. I found that programs such as Microsoft Front Page and Dreamweaver offered more options than I could utilize, all without knowing a bit of actual HTML. Using my web space to present my resume saved me time when applying for summer jobs.

5. Microsoft Excel is a program that could be useful for anyone from a worker trying to keep track of his or her income to a large company keeping track of expenses. To the right is an example of how a small business could keep track of monthly expenses with Excel. Notice the cells that contain “totals”, because instead of entering an actual number, one can enter a function that will recalculate the total value each time that data related to it changes. Markup HTML Spreadsheets Databases Spreadsheets Excel Microsoft Excel can be used not only for entering and manipulating data, but also for representing data. To the right, we can see the information stored in the previous spreadsheet that is now represented by an automatically generated column chart.

6. Markup HTML Spreadsheets Databases Relational Databases Microsoft Access To the left is the “relationship” view in Microsoft Access. This is where users can create relationships between sets of data by dragging an icon from data in one table to data in the table that it will be related to. The “1” and the infinity sign represent what kind of relationship it is (one-to-many or one-to-one). Once relationships are setup correctly the user can “call” data that meets certain requirements with a function known as a query. For example: Books that cost more than $5 and are written by Tom Clancy. Microsoft Access is the program that we used to design our relational databases for Task 4. Access allows users to input data through tables, such as those seen to the left (Books, Authors, Publishers). Users can then create relationships between the various sets of data.

7. In Conclusion • In this class we used four separate tools to enter and represent different kinds of information. • Tools: • Microsoft Word • Microsoft Frontpage • Microsoft Excel • Microsoft Access • These four programs provide the average PC user a set of powerful tools for publishing documents, creating a functional web-presence, storing and manipulating numerical information, and for creating a relational database comprehensive enough to run and maintain a small business. Image found at: www.caddydaddy.com/cats.shtml Image found at: www.omnilinx.com/online/ commerce.cgi?product=microsoft Image found at: www.xo.com/xofferings/web/sites/ hosting/frontpage.html Image found at: www.gazib.com/mis/ access2000.asp Questions or Comments? Please send me an email at BDOSS@aol.com or visit my webpage here: E-Town