Cambridge O Level ICT Practical Theory

Save – save the current file with the same filename.

Save As – save the current file with a new name, and/or new file type, and/or in a new
location.

Print – print the current file.

Export – export, save a copy in .pdf format, or to change the file type in some packages.

Common generic text files include:

Comma separated values: these files have a .csv file extension. This file type takes
data in the form of tables (that could be used with a spreadsheet or database) and saves
it in text format, separating data items with commas.

Text: these files have a .txt file extension. A text file is not formatted and can be
opened in any word processor.

Rich text format: these files have a .rtf file extension. This is a text file type that saves
some of the formatting within the text.

Common generic image files include:

Graphics interchange format: these files have a .gif file extension. This format stores
still or moving images and is an efficient method of storing images using a smaller file
size, particularly where there are large areas of solid colour. It is widely used in web
pages.

Joint photographic expert group: these files have a .jpg (or sometimes a .jpeg) file
extension. This format stores still images but does not store moving images. It is an
efficient method of storing images using a smaller file size and is widely used in web
pages.

Portable document format: these files have a .pdf file extension. This is a document
which has been converted into an image format. It allows documents to be seen as an
image so they can be read on most computers. The pages look just like they would when
they are printed, but can contain clickable links and buttons, form fields, video, and
audio. In PDF format you can protect a document to stop others from editing it.

Portable network graphics: these files have a .png file extension. It is a file format
that compresses graphics (image) files without any loss of image quality. It was created
to replace graphics interchange format and is now the most used lossless image
compression format on the internet.

Common generic video files include:

Moving pictures experts group layer 4: these files have a .mp4 file extension. It is
not a single file format, but is a multimedia container which is used for storing video
files, still images, audio files, subtitles, etc. This container is often used to transfer video
files on the internet.

Common generic audio files include:

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Moving pictures experts group layer 3: these files have a .mp3 file extension. It is a
compressed file format used for storing audio files. This format cannot store still or
moving images. The file sizes are relatively small, but with near-CD quality, which makes
it suitable for use on the internet.

Common generic files used for website authoring include:

Cascading Style Sheets: these files have a .css file extension. This is a style sheet
which is saved in cascading style sheet format and is attached to one or more web pages
(often written in HTML) to define the pages’ colour scheme, fonts, etc.

Hypertext Markup Language: these files have a .htm (or sometimes a .html) file
extension. This is a text-based language used to create content that a web browser can
display as a web page.

Common generic compressed files include:

Roshal archive: these files have a .rar file extension. This is a container which can hold
almost any file type in a compressed format. It is used to reduce the number of bytes
needed to save a file, either to save storage space or to reduce transmission time. It was
developed for Windows by a Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal and takes its
acronym from Roshal ARchive.

Zip: these files have a .zip file extension. This is a container which can hold almost any
file type in a compressed format. It is used to reduce the number of bytes needed to
save a file, either to save storage space or to reduce transmission time.

Wrap Text Options:

In Line with Text – this places the image as an in-line graphic which is treated as a text
character within a line of text. It will move with the surrounding text if new text is
inserted or deleted.

Square – this places the image on the page and the text wraps (flows) around it.

Tight – this places the image on the page and the text wraps (flows) around it, similar to
Square, but you cannot control the distance of the text from the image for the top and
bottom settings, although you can to the left and right, using More Layout Options.

Through – this is very similar to tight and places the image on the page so the text
wraps around the image with preset values.

Top and Bottom – this places the image with the text above and below the image but
not wrapped to the side.

Behind Text – this places the image behind the text. It can be used to set a background
image in a document.

In Front of Text – this places an image over the top of the text.

More Layout Options – this can be used to give more options to the selected layout
types above. For example, if a Square layout is selected you can specify where you wish
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to flow the text around the image and the distance of the text from the image on each
side. This option also allows you to control the positioning of the image on the page.

Editing methods:

Cut and paste - Click the right mouse button within the highlighted area to get the
drop-down menu, then select Cut. This removes the sentence and places it in the
windows clipboard. Move the cursor to the end of the first paragraph and right mouse
click to obtain the drop-down menu again. This time select Paste.

Copy, paste and delete - Click the right mouse button within the highlighted area to
get the drop-down menu, then select Copy. This copies the sentence to the clipboard but
does not remove it. Move the cursor to the end of the first paragraph and right mouse
click to obtain the drop-down menu and select Paste. Move back to the original sentence,
highlight it and press the <Delete> key on the keyboard. Although this method takes
longer than cut and paste, it does not remove the original sentence until the end of the
process, so if you accidentally lose the sentence from the clipboard the original is still
present.

Drag and drop - Click the left mouse button in the highlighted area and hold this down,
moving the cursor to the end of the first paragraph. Release the left mouse button at
that point and you will drop all of the highlighted text there.

A header is the area of a document between the top of the page and the top margin.

A footer is the area of a document between the bottom of the page and the bottom
margin.

Purpose of headers and footers:

Headers and footers are needed to make sure that each page have elements like the
page number, logo, titles, filename, etc. placed consistently within them. If these are
placed in the header or footer, they only have to be placed once but will repeat on every
page. This saves the author a great deal of time and effort, not having to duplicate their
work on
every page.
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What is the purpose of a house style?

A house style is used to make sure that all documents and other materials from an
organization have consistency. It is used to save time in planning, setting up, creating
and formatting documents and other materials. It is also designed to support brand
recognition and reduces the risk of mistakes in documents, such as typing errors in an
address or telephone number, or in missing an important element like a logo.

Serif font: Times New Roman

Sans Serif font: Sans Serif collection

What is spell check?

Spell check is a test carried out by the software, often a word processor on the text. As
you work, it checks each word and compares it to those held in its dictionary. If the words
match, then the software moves on and checks the next word. If the word does not
match one in the dictionary, then it uses a red wavy underline to highlight the word to
suggest it may be an error.

What is a grammar check?

A grammar check will check the text against a number of grammatical rules that help
you to improve the language structure of your work. You will not need to correct
grammar errors shown in text provided for you in source files. A grammar error is shown
with a blue wavy underline.

What is validation?

Validation is checking that data entered is reasonable. It is often a process where data is
checked to see if it satisfies certain criteria when input into a computer – for example, to
see if data falls within accepted boundaries.
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A widow is the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the top of a new page or
column.

An orphan is the first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page or
column.

What is verification?

Verification is a way of preventing errors when data is copied from one medium to
another (for example, from paper to disk/CD). Verification does not stop all errors but
helps to reduce the errors made when data is entered into the computer, by checking
the accuracy of data entry. There are two common ways that verification checks are
carried out. These are called ‘visual verification’ and ‘double data entry’.

Visual verification - Visual verification can also be called a visual check. Visual
verification is checking for data entry errors by comparing the original paper documents
with the data entered into the computer.

Double data entry - Data is entered into a system twice (often by two different
people). The two sets of data are then compared by the computer and if there is a
difference in the data it is flagged as an error. It can then be corrected by the user.

Chart Types:

pie charts - compare parts of a whole or fractions of a whole.

Bar charts - show the difference between different things.

Line graphs - used to plot trends between two variables.

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Documentation:

Gutter - This is where the printed publication will be bound.

Page break - This forces the text onto the start of a new page, leaving white space at
the end of the previous page. It is particularly useful for removing widows and orphans
from your document, although Word will often do this for you.

Column break - A column break is used to force the text into the top of the next
available column, which may be on the same page or may be on the next page. This is
also useful for removing widows and orphans.

Section break - A section break is used to split areas of a document with different
layouts. There are two types of section break: one forces a page break as well as the
change in layout and the other is a continuous break, which allows different layouts on
the same page.

Text can be aligned in four basic ways. It can be aligned:

» to the left margin with a ragged right margin which is called ‘left aligned’.

» to the centre of the page, which is called ‘centre aligned’.

» to the right margin, which is called ‘right aligned’.

» to both margins which is called ‘fully justified’.

Databases:

A database is an organized collection of data. A database program is software which

stores and retrieves data in a structured way.

A field is a single item of data, such as a forename or date of birth. Each field has a field
name that is used to identify it within the database. Each field contains one type of data,
for example numbers, text or a date.

A record is a collection of fields, for example, all the information about one person or
one item. These may contain different data types.
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A file (in database terms) is an organized collection of records, usually where all the
records are organized so that they can be stored together. A file can have one or more
tables within it.

A flat-file database stores its data in one table, which is organised by rows and
columns.

A relational database stores data in more than one linked table, stored in a file.
Relational databases are designed so that the same data is not stored many times. The
tables within a relational database are linked with relationships.

A primary key field that holds unique data.

A foreign key field in one data table stores values from a primary key field in another
table.

Advantages & Disadvantages of using flat-file and relational databases

Relational Database Flat-file Database
internal memory and external storage Lots of memory and storage space
space is saved. required.
Records/data can be added, edited or Records/data can be added, edited or
deleted. deleted.
easier for users to produce reports. Harder to produce reports.
Slow searching speed. quicker to search.
Data types and sub-types:

Alphanumeric data can store alpha characters (text) or numeric data (numbers) that
will not be used for calculations. In Access this is called a text field.

A numeric data type is used to store numeric values that may be used for calculations.
This does not include numeric data such as telephone numbers, which should be stored
in an alphanumeric data type. In Access this is called a number field. There are different
types of numeric field including:

– integer which stores whole numbers. In Access you can select an integer field or
a long integer field. It is wise to use a long integer field if it is going to contain
three or more digits.

– decimal which will allow a large number of decimal places, or a specified

restricted number if this is set in the field properties when the database is created.

– currency which will allow currency formatting to be added to the display. This
includes currency symbols and regional symbols. The database does not store
these symbols as this would use up valuable storage space.

– date and time which stores a date and/or time as a number.

A Boolean (or logical) data type stores data as 0/-1 but can display it as Yes/No (or
True/False, 0/1).
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