Chapter 6

Chapter 6

1. Characteristics of documents and how to use

   • Paragraphs
     • generally used when long doc. being created
     • defined by use of carriage return at end of text
     • may have pre-defined style through house style/ user
     • paragraph style defines features of text e.g. alignment, indentations, font size + style
   • Sections
     • portion of document in which page formatting options can be set
     • new section can be created when properties e.g. line numbering, no. of columns, headers/ footers
     • section breaks used to divide doc. into sections
     • each section can be formatted to meet needs of user
   • Frames
     • area of page that can contain text or graphics
     • Changes to content of one will not affect content of another
     • Used in DTP, but not as much in Word-processing
     • Easily moved/ resized
   • Header/ footer
     • header/ footer= text which appears on doc. in top/ bottom margin of page e.g. name, title, date
     • use same header + footer throughout doc. or change header + footer for part of doc.
   • Footnote
     • used to briefly explain rod/ phrase w/out explanation in body of text

2. Mail Merge

   • Advs: only one letter needed to be created (rest will be auto. done so faster to do mass mailing), less proofreading needed (less chance of mistakes), data source can be reused, template can be reused
   • Standard doc. in word processing/ DTP + info from spreadsheet/ database
   • allows to create + send personalized version of same doc. to many people/ organisations
   • Disadvs: data source must be updated, some errors may occur (damage reputation), complex mail merge requires training, can lack personalisation because only individual part od doc. is data merged from data source

3. Reformatting to suit needs of application

   • Page size
   • Page margin
   • Header/ footer
   • Orientation
   • Alignment
   • Font + style + size

4. Images

   • Clip art
     • supplied "free" with software package/ at cost from software manufacturer
     • Advs: readily available, can reduce cost of design process, no extra equipment (e.g. scanners, digital cameras)
     • Disadvs: choice limited, quality can range from very poor to good, not original, some images from internet sources may be subject to copyright
   • Thumbnail images
     • collections of small images generally based around topic showing preview/ representation of actual image
     • Advs: enables many images to be shown in one go, alike images grouped together, can enlarge required image, less processing needed for computer, can add description so it can be searched for, can compare images by selecting several images.
     • Disadvs: quality of images may be poor, thumbnail collection can take long to sift through, can take long time to download.