Guide Notes for Teachers and Student Worksheets

Compiled during Information Technology mentoring provided by B.Shaw,

funded by Quality Teacher Program, September – November, 2001.

1

INDEX

Guide Notes for Teachers

Page

1Dealing with files and folders

Desktop icons

2Email

3Multiple applications

Moving applications or Toolbars

Customising Your Desktop

4Excel – creating a spreadsheet for student names

5Keyboard shortcuts

6Publisher

7Projector

Research using the Internet

8Use of Scanner

9Word

10Tips on Using Tables in Word

Student Worksheets

11Internet Research Task, Year 4 - saving image to file; editing image

12Report, Year 4 - inserting image from file; adding sentences

13Constructing a Graph, Years 4 and 5 - Excel

14Internet Research Task, Year 5 - saving image and/or text to file; editing image

15Writing a Report, Year 5- inserting image from file; adding sentences

16Brochure, Year 6- Publisher

19Designing School Badge, Year 6- Drawing tools in Word; insert into Publisher

20Graduation Profiles, Year 7- Using Word Art and Tables in Word

Guide Notes for Teachers

Deleting or moving files shown in Emails or Windows Explorer or Word …

Click on the file to highlight  Delete buttonOR highlight  Shift + Delete buttonOR right click  Delete

To move, click on the files to highlight  right click  Cut  put cursor on new position/document right click  Paste

To delete or move multiple files, use Shift + arrow keys to highlight first and then last file. This will highlight also all the files in between and you can then delete or move them together. If you do the same holding down Control + arrow keys, you can select individual files and delete or move them together.

Creating/deleting folders

My Computer  F Drive  File  New  Folder

New Folder will go to end of folders in class list.

Right click on words New Folder, select Rename , then type name you want

To delete Folder, highlight  Delete buttonOR highlight  Shift + Delete buttonOR right click  Delete

Deleting files, folders

Highlight file  DeleteSends file to Recycle Bin – may (?) be recovered if desperate! You will have to empty Bin at some time. Right click on Properties of Recycle Bin to ensure that nothing ever stays there.

Highlight file Shift + DeleteUnlikely to be recovered under any circumstances, but useful for freeing up space on drive

DESKTOP ICONS

To add icon for favoured program, click Program find file and click on icon 

hold down left mouse button and drag to Desktop.

To move icons on Desktop, click and drag.

Right click on Desktop to explore other options.

To delete icons, highlight  Delete buttonOR highlight  Shift + Delete buttonOR right click  Delete

NOTE: Deleting an icon does not delete the program.

email

When you click on Netscape Messenger, you will be presented with a page showing the state of your Inbox. You need to click on Get Msg to see new messages sent to you. If, instead, you click on New Msg, a new window, Netscape Composer, will appear for use in writing a new message to someone else.

Organising files

You can organise your Inbox to suit yourself. Try clicking on Subject to see subjects listed in alphabetical order. Click again to see reverse alphabetical order. Do the same with Sender. Click on Date and you will see chronological order. Click again to see reverse chronological order.

Look at the folders listed down the left side under Name. Most people will find some of them useful as is.

  • Sent folder - all the emails you send will automatically go here. This folder will need cleaning out at some time.
  • Trash folder - all the emails you have deleted automatically go here. Ignore it.
  • Unsent Messages folder - if you compose emails at home, do so offline to save money, but click Send and your email will go here until the next time someone goes online.
  • Draft and Templates folders - if you don’t finish an email at the time, Netscape Composer allows you to click File  Save As  Draft or Template (if you want to reuse the same format).
  • You can keep the folder Samples if you wish, or get rid of it by clicking to highlight, then press Delete.

To create a new folder to suit yourself, on the Inbox window click File  New Folder. Give it a name (Sport, Excursions …), click OK and it will appear under the Local Mail list. Now you can drag any Inbox or Sent emails into it.

Address Book

Make sure that any email addresses you expect to use more than once are entered in your Address Book. On the Inbox window, click Communicator  Address Book  New Card. You don’t need to fill in any more than the top 4 boxes if you wish.

When you go to compose in Netscape Composer, the cursor will stop on To: until you add one or more addresses. Click on Address Book to select the one(s) you want or just type in the address.

Replying to emails

When you read an email, you may choose immediately to hit the Reply icon on Inbox window. This will result in an email which is automatically addressed to the sender and has the subject entered.

You can annoy people by not deleting their message to you if it’s a long one. Highlight what they sent and delete unless you think they want to see their own message again. If they sent the same email to heaps of addresses (as librarians and govts do) and then you reply without deleting these, the email gets so long they may not read to the end to find your message!

Dealing with email in the school environment

You will find your email on every computer in the school if you log into them. Deleting, adding folders, etc, will only be seen on the exact computer you used to do it.

One suggestion to manage this, if it bothers you, is:

  • use only two computers, the staff one and the one that suits you in your ‘pod’;
  • on each of these computers perform these actions -

Inbox window  Edit  Preferences  Mail Servers  Edit  POP tick 2 boxes

(Leave messages on server & When deleting a message locally leave it on the server)

This should allow you to use either computer for email.

MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

Click —at top right of window to minimise application (program, file) while you work in someother file or program. Put pointer to bottom of window to find Task Bar or use Alt + Tab to return to other file/program. You may instead use the  icon at top right of window to have 2 applications showing at once.

MOVING APPLICATIONS or TOOLBARS

If you have more than one application showing, click and drag on the blue line at the top of the window to move one out of the way. That blue line will go grey when you activate another application, until you click on it again.

Often the Office toolbar is in the way. Click on lefthand end to find Minimise or Hide option, OR drag it to another location.

CUSTOMISING YOUR DESKTOP

On the computer you use most often, it is worthwhile looking at the buttons or commands showing on the Desktop to delete those you rarely use and add others you need. To do this, click Tools  Customise. Be curious and look at the possibilities.

To remove any button have the Tools  Customise Commands dialog box open, then click and drag the offending button to it. You do not need to find the spot it came from.

To add buttons, find them, click and drag onto top toolbars, anywhere you want. As long as the Tools  Customise Commands dialog box is open, you can move any button, new or pre-existing, to any spot on the top Toolbars.

Hint: One button I always add is that for Page Break (find it under Insert). People who use Tables a lot will probably put many buttons, especially Merge Cells and Split Cells.EXCEL – CREATING A SPREADSHEET FOR STUDENT NAMES

  1. The box at row 1, column A will have a dark bordertype Names
  1. Click on row 2, column A type first name

click on the line between A and B

click on  to change width of column A to fit name*

  1. To move from row to another, click on the new row OR press Enter OR use arrow keys.
  1. When all names are entered, go to Page Setup. Check that Page is set for Paper Size A4 and Portrait.

Go to Sheet and tick Print  Gridlines.

  1. Click and drag to highlight the area you want to print on one page (probably to Row 40 and Column H if working in Times New Roman 12). Then File  Print Area  Set Print Area.
  1. Print Preview (magnifying glass button) to check, then Print.

*If in column B, you simply want to put a number, you can click between B and C to narrow the column. You may instead get the cursor on the dividing line between columns or rows, then click and drag to get the width you want.

Extra touches

At the bottom of each window, you see Sheet 1, Sheet 2, … If you RIGHT click on the tab, you can rename it whatever you like. E.g., Alpha, RE, House, Sex - whatever way you wish to reorder the name list. Then copy the first sheet (do Control + A to Select All  Control + C to Copy  Control + V to Paste). Then cut/copy/paste to order as you wish.

OR

HINT: If you enter each child’s name in order of surname first, you can then highlight page, go to Data  Sort and get an alphabetical listing. If you then enter religion, sex, house … in other columns, when you copy the list to another sheet, you can Data  Sort on a different column to reader the list. You can click on the letter of a column or the number of a row to select the whole row or column for changing, moving or deleting.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR MOST MICROSOFT PROGRAMS

Adults familiar with computers may not wish to use these, but may find them useful when on a window which does not have cut/copy/paste icons showing. For students at school, the computer environment and individual mouse may cause problems when “mousing” instead of using the keyboard.

Ctrl + S  save

(Note: If students use this when they have not yet accessed their own folder, the work will appear wherever they are – hence, the number of “odd” files in a class or school directory. If this occurs with your class, drag the “odd” files into the student’s folder)

Ctrl + A  select all (useful for copying files and changing font or size of font for the whole document)

Ctrl + C  copy

Ctrl + X  cut

Ctrl + V  paste

ARROW KEYS allow you to move in any direction you wish, one step at a time OR by holding down the arrow key, scroll to your destination. (NB: In a Table – see page 10 – the arrow key will move you from one empty cell to another).

To block part of a file, hold down Shift key and use arrow keys to define part you want.

Ctrl + Home start of file

Ctrl + End  end of file

Home  start of line

End  end of line

Shift + Home  blocks (=highlights) back to start of line (useful for deleting part).

Shift + End blocks (=highlights) to end of line (useful for deleting part).

Tab indents your work a preset length. It also moves cursor from one box to the next.

(NB: In a Table – see page 10 – the Tab key moves you from one cell to another and at the end of the table, it adds a new row. To indent work, use Control + Tab).

Alt + Tab  Tab (continue to press Tab while holding down Alt until you see repeats)allows you to see all programs the user has open and move from one program to another.

Try exiting from programs by clicking  at top right OR press Alt + F4.

If things go wrong, try Ctrl + Alt + Delete and follow instructions. If all else fails and your computer is ‘hung’, write down what you were doing at the time (if you have time to notice and do it!!) to help the tech. fix things, then turn the computer off and then on (= reboot). Sometimes you need to do this several times before Windows decides to behave properly.

USING MICROSOFT PUBLISHER to create greeting cards, invitations, brochures …

  • Publisher icon (P on Office Toolbar)  choose from Catalog.
  • Whether you “do it yourself” or follow the Wizard steps, you will have to alter much of the document.

HINT: Go to Tools  Options  Edit and click if necessary to turn off Hyphenation. Go to Tools  AutoCorrect and click if necessary to turn off Capitalize first letter of sentences.

  • . If you click on any part of the page, small black squares will show the area which “belongs” together. Also words “TEXT FRAME” or “PICTURE FRAME” will appear below one of the little icons.

  • To get rid of box, or change frame to text/ picture, click to see black squares  Shift+Delete.
  • To insert Text Frame A (Text Frame Tool) drag pointer

(You will see + and if you click on + , a new box will appear for moving and/or sizing.)

  • To insert Picture Frame, click on yellow picture frame icon (Picture Frame Tool)drag pointer

(You will see + and if you click on the + , a new box will appear for moving and/or sizing.)

  • To insert a picture Insert  Picture

To add border to frame or box, click on box  Format  Line/Border Style  Line Border  Box

  • To enlarge window image for typing in text, press F9 (or use Zoom at foot of window or magnifiers at top of window)

USE OF PROIECTOR

Place projector on overhead shelf, securing it with Velcro straps.

Ignore cord with mouse options on one end.

Plug projector into power point.

Attach other cord to Comp 1 port on projector and to computer's monitor port (=blue connection on staff library computer).

Adjust position of shelf., focus by twisting ring at front of projector.

Turn off power switch on top of projector but D0 NOT DISCONNECT from power point for at least 5 minutes.

RESEARCH USING THE INTERNET

One way of assisting students with research using the Internet is to create a list of Bookmarks (useful sites), put them all in one folder with a suitable title (e.g. Sport) and then place them on the Personal Toolbar (Netscape) or in Favourites (Internet Explorer). This year, all computers at Durack use Netscape. Next year they will change to Internet Explorer.

Steps in creating a folder:

Bookmarks  Edit  New Folder type name for folder  OK

Find suitable web sites using any search engine (try using Alta Vista – type www. altavista. com) or addresses you know. As you find each one, click:

Bookmarks  File Bookmark click folder where you want to put that address

To place that folder on the front “desktop” of Netscape Navigator, click:

Bookmarks  Edit Bookmark. Find yourfolder and drag it to the folder called Personal Toolbar.

Note: You can drag any bookmark to any place you like in the Edit Bookmark drop-down Menu. Be careful that you release the mouse when it is pointing at the actual folder or position on a line where you want it to be. Files will automatically appear under the Folder in alphabetical order.

If you have clicked on Add Bookmark, that bookmark will go to the end of the Bookmark list until you drag it somewhere else.

USE OF SCANNER

Insert page (or object) face down, right way up. Close lid.

Click on icon

If you don’t want whole page, or the book being scanned may cause unwanted extra bits on the side, then

Select parts of page or View page first.

If you wish, Scan in colour

I suggest you leave Scan Speed at Normal setting.

Press Scan.

Wait and then you will see an image of the page. It may have a blue line all around the edge. If so, you can accept the whole page OR click on top lefthand corner of section(s) you want, then drag to enclose them.

If the page is already in blue sections, click on each one you want to choose it (click again to change your mind.

Use Help if unsure.

Click Accept in top righthand corner when you are ready.

The scanned image will then appear on paper if you choose Printer (check which printer is selected – you need Canon BJC-7100 for colour printing).

If you selected Image File, you will need to choose a destination for saving your work. I suggest you choose F Drive  Data  Staff Your name and create an Images folder if you don’t already have one. Remember to save it as a JPG, not BMP file.

For WordPad selection, your image will pop up in WordPad. Save it as Word for Window 6.0, remember to give it a file name, selectchoose F Drive  Data  Staff Your name and save in a Documents folder.

MICROSOFT WORD - SOME HINTS FOR USE

Students in Year 4+ (and younger) will use this program for text. It also has useful drawing tools. They need to learn how to insert pictures and add their own graphics.

Encourage students to:

  • choose View Print Layout . This avoids problems which can arise if they are working in columns. They should also make frequent use of the magnifier icon (or File  Print Preview ) to do a Print Preview to check on size and layout of work. (This is a useful habit when they use the Internet and should check before printing to save useless page printing).
  • click File  Save As when they do ANYTHING in a document, to enable future quick saves using Ctrl + S.

learn about File  Page Setup - choose Portrait or Landscape. Check that Paper Size is A4 (if previous user was printing directly from Internet, chances are that Paper Size will be something else).