Class #2: Word!

Oh great projector eye! Defy me not this class,
let my class see the wonders of the Web and beyond! ;-)

So I looked over all of your feedback about what you'd like to learn in this class (soon to be only six classes...), and the common threads I pulled out were as follows:

1. PowerPoint – basic and animation techniques
2. Excel – mastering spreadsheet skills
3. Additional Internet skills (virus detection, e-commerce, etc.)
   

There is typing software available on these computers (see ___). Unfortunately, we will not have time to look at Outlook, Publisher, or Java. I will try to at least show examples of web-based applications, but no full lessons on these subjects. Sorry!

So this week we'll look at Word, next week PowerPoint, and the following Excel. If any of you have specific questions about these softwares, post a comment to this blog, so I can focus the lesson to your needs accordingly.

Let's look at what we've done so far ...

We're well on our way to making a great community wiki! From the Williamsburg Preschool across the street, a pool in the neighborhood and art on the BQE (of course in Queens...), so much to learn about our neighborhood. Sweet memories of Harry Van Arsdale Jr.'s Local 3 beats rusty red paint any day. Let's barc for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel!

I can't wait to learn about Metropolitan Pool, Spoonbill & Sugartown, and Bedford Cheese Shop...

Please make sure to include actual links to specific webpages (google.com isn't very helpful) and also write a one or two paragraph summary about what you learned through your research.

So let's see what's on tap tonite...

Using Word to make nice looking documents:

---

How to avoid looking like all you're doing is cutting and pasting off the Internet

Let's start by seeing how well you can recreate a page in Word. After I hand out what the page should look like, format the following text and graphic, making the layout look exactly the way it looks on the handout page. "Exactly" means same font formatting, page margins, and paragraph formatting. Copy and paste the following text and graphic into a blank Word document, and see how closely you can make your Word page look like the one I handed out:

This is a Pre-Test! It's only a Pretest...
In the Event of a Real Test, You will be Provided Additional information...

Brooklyn's Northside Williamsburg Community will soon appreciate the efforts we are making to create an online archive of our collective memories of our neighborhood. By working with the Natural Science Lab's walking tours, we will memorialize their experiences online, making a reference for people in the future to look upon and remember how quickly our places are changing, even disappearing.

If all you do is "cut and paste" Internet text into a Word document, it's going to be real obvious what you're doing. At the very least, you should make the text look uniform, that is, have the same font formatting, and use your page margins to make the information look more like an academic research paper. Let's see how we can do that...

If you don't know anything about Word, the odds are you're going to treat it like a typewriter, which is a very bad thing. So let's get right to our first rule:

Rule #1: If you're hitting a key more than once, you're doing it wrong.

Hitting the space bar, the enter key, or any other button on the keyboard repeatedly so that you can get the words on the page where you want them (like horizontal or vertical centering) works on a typewriter, but it's the wrong way to go when using Word. So if you used the space bar or Enter key to try to get the words and graphics to line up like my page, you need to learn a new skill. Let's look at a couple of the basic techniques.

1. Page Margins. Use a ruler to figure out what your white space measurements are for the top, bottom, left and right sides of the page. Then use the following command, File | Page Setup. The 'Margins' tab will allow you set the white space margins to the fraction of an inch. You can choose 'Portrait' or 'Landscape' layout, depending on how you want the information to fall on the page. The 'Layout' tab is also help in defining page borders and Header and Footer margins.
   
2. Header and Footer. Did you notice how the top lines of text and the bottom line of text don't line up with the rest of the text, called the body text? This is because these lines are placed in the Header and Footer sections of the page. To access these parts, use the command, View | Header and Footer. Now you can cut and paste the first lines of information into the Header.
3. Ruler. If you know how to use a typewriter, you know how to use a ruler. Use the command, View | Ruler to make it appear. You can change the length of the lines in a paragraph by 'clicking and dragging' the margin marks left and right. You never have to hit the space bar again if you know how to use the ruler.
4. Field Codes. The footer line is made up of text that the Word document, not you, figure out. Use the command, Insert | Field to access the dialog box, and select whichever automated piece of information you what to include in the footer. I always include the FileName, Page Number, and Date and Time at the bottom of every Word page I create. It makes it easier for me to figure out where the document is saved on my computer if this information is printed out in the footer space.

Okay, let's step back from the page structure and figure out how to look at the page.

Rule #2: If you're squinting at the screen, you're doing it wrong.

Viewing a Page can be done in several ways. Clicking on the buttons on the lower left corner of the Word window allow you to jump quickly between the views. The most popular view are

1. Normal. View the document this is best when you are typing, or working only with the body of the document – no footers, headers or page margin consideration. The text will look biggest in this view.
2. Page Layout. If you're playing with the margins, headers or footers, this is the view you need to be in. So this view is where you should be if you're trying to make the page "look pretty."
3. Print Preview. Save trees! Use the command File | Print Preview to get a look at how the page will actually look when it's printed out before you print it out.
   

Rule #3: The more you click the mouse, the stupider you become.

Using Word means formatting text. To format text, you first need to select text. Most people use the "click and drag" technique to highlight text. But you don't have to, and once you become mouse-free, you'll never go back! So let's see how we can use the keyboard to view and format text.

1. The arrow keys. Instead of using the mouse to drag the "elevator" on the right side of a window up and down, you can use the arrow keys on the bottom right side of the computer to do exactly the same thing. The 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' buttons, above the arrow keys, do, surprisingly, exactly what they say.
2. Selecting text. Using the arrow keys, place the cursor to the left of the first character you want to select, then hold down the 'Shift' key, and use the arrow keys to select the text you want to grab.
3. Accelerator key. Holding the 'Ctrl' button while using the arrow keys allows you to move and select through a document twice as fast. Most important! Ctrl-Home takes you all the way to the beginning of the document, and Ctrl-End takes you all the way to the bottom of the document.
   
4. The Hotkeys. You need to memorize these key combinations, so get them into your notebook:

Ctrl-z Ctrl-x Ctrl-c Ctrl-v
Ctrl-a Ctrl-s Ctrl-d Ctrl-f
Ctrl-q Ctrl-w Ctrl-o Ctrl-p
F1 F2 F4 F8 F9


Example of Tree Identification Dichotomous Key

NYC Leaf Key Official Report USDA Forest Service Report

• About.com
• Wisconsin Department of Environmental Resources
• Virginia Tech
• MSU Dept of Forestry